Well, I'm back from my vacation. My friend got married to a wonderful girl on the beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and all I have to show from my trip is a really bad sore throat, one week less in my PTO account at work and a decent tan. It was fun though, and good to get a break from everything.

I was surprised to find that Mexican pharmacies are able to sell over-the-counter medication, from Viagra to Anabolic Steroids. I couldn't pass up the chance to take a snap shot of the steroids sign for the blog.

I guess this is how some ballplayers probably got the goods back in the day before BALCO and the more scientific HGH stuff.

While I was away some pretty interesting news happened with Robert Edward Auctions website. Here is an email that was sent to the auction house's database:

The REA auction is back up!  Our auction system has been down for the
past 24 hours. When we went down, we thought it was a natural hardware
issue. All mechanical systems (including cars, computers, etc) have the
potential eventually to break down due to natural causes and require
repair or replacement. While the hosting company was working on
replacing the servers in the middle of the night, we were surprised to
learn from the managing hosting service company responsible for our web
site (and thousands of others) that this was not a natural occurrence.
It was an intentional, malicious, sophisticated, and extremely
deliberate criminal attack on our servers with the intention of
destroying them. This is a 100% certainty. The emergency security team
of the managing hosting company is taking this very seriously. All
proper reports are being filed. They are also addressing the problem for
us so that this will not happen again. If we understand what we have
been told correctly, it may be that the hardware destroying event that
we experienced was intended to occur at a slightly later date.
Fortunately, this has been addressed now, at this early date. There will
be no further statement about this matter at this time because this is a
serious criminal issue, and one that is in the process of being
investigated and pursued in every possible manner.

As a related aside, REA is always ready to make decisions instantly to
deal with any unusual events or situations relating to the auction that
might arise in what we think is the most reasonable and intelligent
manner possible. If our computer system had been attacked and brought
down on the closing day, or the day before, for example, we would have
simply moved the closing date of the auction to a few days or a week
later. Similarly, if there was a major catastrophic event like 9-11 that
occurred on these days, we would also reschedule the final auction
closing date. We are always able to respond at a moment's notice to any
event that should occur in what we think is the most reasonable and
intelligent manner possible to ensure the integrity and success of the
auction.

We put the auction up early this year, so we will actually be up and
taking bids for a much longer period of time in 2008 than ever before.
We're sorry that we were down for a day and we appreciate your
understanding!


I talked with owner Rob Lifson today and he said he has no clue who did this, but there is an investigation underway. Thankfully for Rob, the auction was in its early stages and really wasn't affected much. Also, I received my REA catalog in the mail while I was gone and it is a monster... By far the biggest I have ever received and it is not just quantity. Very quality stuff in there.

I wonder why (if) someone would target a sports memorabilia auction house. Very odd and the first time I have ever heard of something like this in the hobby.