Show off your B5 collectibles

[Springer]

Sooooooooo as I believe I have shared with you all in the past, Looney has an online shopping problem. The key issue is I buy a LOT of stuff and I don't have the means to do so, aka I don't have the funds to support the problem. No I am not talking about piling up debt. That isn't the issue. This is just money I should be saving instead.

Okay so there is the lead in. A primary culprit in my problem is physical media, chiefly movies. A secondary, but equally deadly culprit is random Babylon 5 stuff that takes my fancy. I just made one such purchase Friday that should arrive tomorrow, but that is not the focus of this tale. Being who I am I often buy these things and when they arrive (I receive many packages) I don't always immediately open them. Today happens to be a very rare Monday I did not have to go to work. So in my rambling around the house trying to get things done I came across the oddest of odd taped together pieces of cardboard that formed the shape of a box. This is literal. The Seller took the base of what appears five out of six sides of a box and then taped together various sized and shaped pieces of carboard to form the sixth side. I guess it got the job done. So I have a mystery box in both appearance and memory. Mercifully the Postal label is still on the box and it says 09.04.2025. So this is something I bought a little over a year ago - apologies to the Seller because I probably never left Feedback.

On to the show - SORRY THERE WILL BE NO PICS . . . oh wait, but no. After a lot of effort and tape removal I'm ready to see what Babylon 5 item I purchased. I know you are asking, "How does he know it is Babylon 5 related if he gets many packages and this one is from more than a year ago?" It is a good and completely fair question, but the fact that you don't know yet is that collectable items are usually the ones I don't immediately open because I'm not sure of their condition and 98% of collectable items I buy are Babylon 5 related. I often procrastinate opening them because I don't know what I will need to do once they are opened, i.e. what case, frame, protector, or what I will need to store them and keep them safe. Okay long story WAY LONGER than it needed to be for the purposes of hopefully entertaining at least one of you, I open the box and inside are about thirty or forty Babylon 5 promotional photos - AND a good portion of them look like legit originals. It is fantastic!!!!!

Now I'm not saying this is the rarest of treasures or anything. Most of these pictures we've all seen dozens of times before and probably own several. Many look like similar images to what was used on many promotional items and even Trading Cards. BUT some of them I personally have never seen before. I believe most of them came through the Fan Club, at least the ones that look like actual originals. It is great. Really made my day. If I get up the gumption I might share some pics of the pics eventually. Thanks for reading this far. I rarely have the time or energy to write this much.

Fantastic story! If you ever do take photos of them I'd be interested in seeing them. I've been eyeing up some of the official promotional stills on eBay, I assume they are official as they have the Babylon 5 logo on them. I've got a few of the unofficial ones I think, nice cast photos. Back in the 1990s there was a video shop chain called Our Price and you used to be able to order prints of promotional photos through them, I got two giant A3 prints, one of the starfuries in the asteroid belt in Midnight on the Firing Line, and one of the station from The Gathering (you can tell it is the original version of The Gathering as Epsilon III looks different). They're in my parent's attic but one day I'll retrieve them and get them framed.

I do have the same problem you have Looney, in regards to spending money I shouldn't. Although it hasn't been a problem lately as I have no money to even spend when I shouldn't! I have got a few new things related to the VHS releases and various special editions and free gifts, at some point I'll add them to the VHS thread.