A six pack Alex Rodriguez card lot buy

I don't know if anyone is actively looking for any A-Rod cards these days, but maybe for a moment, I can look back with fondness at his wunderkind years when he was considered the best young talent in the game - I still really think about all the seedy, shady stuff he's been involved in over the course of his professional baseball career, but can kind of marvel at his post-playing redemption as an affable baseball analyst / media personality.

2000 Pacific Baseball Ornaments #20 - a unique, Christmas themed die-cut insert.

1997 Metal Universe Titanium #9 - some die-cut action.

2000 Topps Gallery of Heroes #GH1 - some stained glass die-cut action.

2003 Diamond Kings DK Evolution #DK8 - some 3D action.

2004 Fleer Genuine Insider Article Jersey #AR - I don't know if the 'pull out' tab with the swatch of memorabilia really worked, but not a bad looking card.

1997 Donruss Dominators #5 - the snoozer out of this group.

Something familiar - a card show trip?

I feel like I've been mostly out of collecting, but the idea of going through the most random of cards still hits the spot - I like cards and I'll continue to engage in picking up 'new' ones here and there.

I watch videos on YouTube occasionally and influenced by a YouTube card collector, I might as well see if his LCS [which is actually a card show] is viable as my LCS as well - as far as I'm concerned, my shop has been closed when the original owner retired and I've got to get my fix somewhere else.

1994 Leaf Limited Gold Ken Griffey Jr. #11 of 18, serial #’d 09132 out of 10,000 - this might have caught my eye, where I was going to see if I could pick up a few more cards from a seller who showcases mainly vintage cards

I would never mistake this person's booth as having anything 'here and now,' though there maybe some surprises in this person's 'poverty' boxes - the newest of these dollar cards is just about 25 years old, but my current interests be damned, I find myself going back through the years for certain players and cards that catch my attention.

1988 Upper Deck Wally Joyner promo #700

1994 Score Select Crown Contenders Greg Maddux #CC2 - regardless of the idea this card is worth a dollar and not any more, this card should add a certain shine to my random binder collection of his cards.

1997 Fleer Tiffany Cal Ripken Jr. #13

1996 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken Collection #7 - inking it up find for my mini-collections.

1992 Upper Deck Ted Williams hologram #HH2 - not pictured

2019 Topps Gallery Preview Mike Trout #GP-MT

Through this past summer, I was overseas for three weeks, came home for about 5 days and tagged along on an East Coast tour with a group for 8 days - I wanted to set things up where I'd buy miscellaneous cards online so I'd have something to look forward to coming back home.

Though my focus might have been getting away from the routine, like thinking about my cards and graphs - I can't stay away completely, especially when I'm holed up with some down time in a hotel somewhere.

I picked up Trout and Shohei Ohtani singles from this year's Topps Gallery preview set from what I understand - preview packs were inserted in specially marked Bowman Platinum blasters as part of National Baseball Card Day.

Not earth shattering pickups by any means, but the Trout [which came in the mail at some point before I got home] - is a nice looking card that cost me a couple of bucks, unlike something harder to find like a non-auto variation and/or short print.

1983 Fleer Joel Youngblood #641

Credit goes out to this blog for remembering Youngblood's odd feat - the fantasy card posted is nicer, but I settled for picking up a copy of the original issue card after I read the post.

Despite not knowing much about the player at all, Youngblood has been the inspiration for one of my personal offbeat terms [Youngblooding] - I use to describe sort of a long 'dual duty' day of any nature with the idea that not every day is straightforward and relatively speaking, sometimes I'm going to be stretched out to do a number of things.

The wallet card idea seems ancient history now but I might just put my Youngblood in a top loader of sorts, bag it in a team set bag and keep it - where I can grab it out of my pocket most of the time.

2019 Topps Allen and Ginter blaster box recap

I feel I've been more apt to do retail blaster breaks after I’d tried to wean myself off them in recent years - a casual retail break here and there is reasonable, right? I think 2019 Topps Heritage High Number is coming out within the next week, so that maybe one or two more impulse blaster box purchases to make.

As far as Topps Allen and Ginter, I try to pick up a hand collated set at some point - just to have a flagship brand of cards to get autographed in-person or TTM, if there are opportunities available.

Otherwise, I guess I fall towards one of the collectors who just doesn't get all the 'odd' nonsport, non-baseball player content - maybe if I busted more than a loose blaster or so per year, maybe the novelty of this product would mean more.

Pack one
#6 Luis Gonzalez
#196 Cedric Mullins - mini
#166 1st Tiger Mask - Professional Wrestler
#GG-19 Chipper Jones - Ginter Greats insert
#14 Chipper Jones
#114 Jose Berrios

Pack two
#110 Salvador Perez
#264 Yonder Alonso
#385 Gil Hodges - SP
#161 Sister Mary Jo Sobieck - mini; First Pitch Celebrity
#MS-9 Andalusian Horse - Mares and Stallions insert
#213 Egg

Pack three
#209 Ryan O’Hearn
#32 Sandy Koufax
#96 Andrew Benintendi - mini
#39 Jesus Aguilar
#BSS-1 Ronald Acuna Jr. - Baseball Star Signs insert
#7 Albert Pujols

Pack four
#103 Johnny Bench
#139 Harold Baines
#361 Victor Robles - SP
#GG-21 Clayton Kershaw - Ginter Greats insert
#LL-3 Martha’s Vineyard Sign - mini; Lost Languages insert
#107 Nolan Arenado

Pack five
#202 Luke Voit
#238 Trevor Bauer
#30 George Springer
#NTTZ-12 Gorilla Infant - mini; New to the Zoo insert
#HOF-14 Space Shuttle Discovery - History of Flight insert
#206 Corbin Burnes

Pack six
#48 Dennis Eckersley
#130 Torii Hunter
#367 Masahiro Tanaka - SP
#IE-13 Heracle’s Club - Incredible Equipment insert
#CC-3 Vizla - mini; Collectible Canines insert
#41 Robinson Cano

Pack seven
#148 Corey Kluber
#220 Josh James - mini
#MS-4 Tennessee Walking Horse - Mares & Stallions insert
#FSRA-TP Travis Pastrana - relic; Motocross Competitor & Stunt Performer
#141 Miles Mikolas

Pack eight
#247 Maikel Franco
#229 Orlando Arcia
#400 Randy Johnson
#BSS-20 Aaron Judge - Baseball Star Signs insert
#388 Casey Stengel - mini
#240 Dee Gordon

2019 Topps Series 2 Gold parallel David Fletcher #520

I was out of the country for three weeks and maybe I wanted to set things up where I'd buy miscellaneous cards online so I'd have something to look forward to coming back home - go figure, I didn't follow through on that plan, though I did make this one low-end purchase while overseas.

From the Series 2 flagship of Topps, I could try and hunt down a Fernando Tatis Jr. Gold parallel for the going rate or pay $2 for the rookie parallel of the guy on my local team - it's an apples to oranges comparison where Tatis Jr. is one of the hot rookies this year with superstar potential.

There is still a collector in me who kind of wants to chase some of the rookie-year issues of rookie stars like Tatis Jr. - but for now, the Fletcher card works as a ‘have not’ placeholder.