Card show pickups - mini-collections

Mini collections are probably the foundation of my loose card finds - maybe it just gets to be a little silly and I worry about not catching them all, but it's all fun and games.

I'm good about making keepers out of the ones I do learn about and / or stumble on - rather than be on this impossible mission to make every collecting topics subset card mine.

During a dig out of the quarter boxes, I was able to find a 1999 Upper Deck Vladimir Guerrero card which I may have picked up anyway - but a closer look shows an extra element where he is breaking his bat.

I was able to a football card of Shane Buechele, the son of former MLB player Steve - it maybe a nothingburger card of an undrafted quarterback already waived, but the bloodlines aspect is always fun to tie together.

I was happy to find base cards for Kyler Murray - another bloodlines guy [nephew of former MLB player Calvin] and also a multi-sport athlete who has literally shown flashes of stardom as a quarterback.

Just about all Bowman cards have no real personality - but I found a 'hats-off' card of Bo Bichette showing off his flow.

A facial hair card of Eddie Murray is a nice find - I default to making cards of notable players primarily binder material, but it's not like I'm playing with anything but a card I paid a quarter for.

Maybe it's not in your face, but I found a card of Yu Darvish, pictured with a pitching grip visible - that's a keeper though probably based on name value than card type.

It's not ideal but images on the reverse are keepers just the same - have to make sure to check images on the back of cards that have them, where at times there is a image like on the 1998 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. card where he is doing some fan service.

A sweet Grant Hill basketball card featuring a Shaq cameo is something I want more of for my mini-collections - where this particular card goes into my 'star on star' cameo collection.

My mini-collections are designed to repurpose rank and file commons into something besides my A-Z archives - but maybe it's a stretch to make certain cards keepers out of cards like the Jurickson Profar [because he has shades on] or a most random Pittsburgh Pirate named Jacob Stallings [it's a bit more obvious where the Stallings is a catching card].

The 2020 Topps Update Silver Pack Rhys Hoskins wearing a Philadelphia Phillies retro uniform pops with a refractor finish - so the card made it into the final take home pile.

I'm not the expert in collecting them - but gum cards are certainly fun to find for myself.

I grabbed a pair of Mark McGwire cards where he is presumably making a nice diving stab at the ball and taking a curtain call - because of all the PEDs and how his career unfolded, I don't want to salvage any more McGwire cards than I have to, but have done so, might continue to do so and two more cards were needs for my mini-collections.

I don't think about manager cards all that much, but the 1992 Topps Tommy Lasorda is a classic - it probably ends up in my 'men at work' collection.

I don't know if I like the circumstances of the image used on the 2008 Upper Deck Manny Ramirez [another PED guy] card all that much - but I guess it's a great image regardless.

I grabbed the Alex Rodriguez [one more PED guy] because it's kind of a nice, horizontal image - where he goes up in the air to try and complete the double play.

Sammy Sosa is a PED pariah, even more so than a McGwire, Manny or A-Rod - but I like the card of Sosa diving back to the bag on a pickoff attempt, so that goes into my baserunning collection.

The Sam Hilliard [no it wasn't $5] probably ends up as a 'dirt fetish' card in my collection, while the Tony Gwynn ends up as a baserunning card - the David Ortiz [okay, so one more PED guy] ends up being a celebration card, so that's a keeper.

Maybe Mr. Irrelevant here is a 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces card of Y.A. Tittle - the image used is one of the most iconic in NFL history, something I had to look up.