They Say Legends Never Die. I Hope Legendary Collectors Don't Really Retire

Aloha, everybody, 

Maybe you heard, the man who built a collecting and trading empire under the moniker of JBF has retired from the game. It's the end of an era. 

It's the flaming out of a torch the blogosphere thought would burn bright, like a thousand Willinghams, forever. 

Mi hermano is stepping down from brutal trading wars and year-long contests to savor the fruits of his many past victories and to complete some personal collecting chases that remain. 

Before stepping out of the spotlight, good ol' Wes dropped a few "Retirement Packages" into the mail. Of course he did, because that's the man's M.O. - generosity at all times. 

I mentioned this in the upcoming video, but in case you don't watch, I'll mention now that I'm the trader I am today because of Wes. He never knew it, but my Alabama brother was a cardboard mentor to me. He showed me that generosity is the life blood of trading FUN. 

My offerings are always humble, just what I can scrape together on a modest (and more often than not) nonexistent cardboard budget for trades. He never made me feel our trades were dependent on equal monetary values, and he never stopped sending things to me because my return packages didn't meet the heft of what he sent to me. 

Wes taught me that it was the act of sharing what someone else wanted, and not counting nickles, that mattered. My Cardboard Santa and Operation PWE campaigns can be directly traced to how Wes rolled. They are a cardboard legacy, if you will. 

Presentation speech completed, let's open the package Wes sent me, and review Azacca IPA, a beer from Founders Brewing, out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Aloah!