Because I don't pay attention to baseball card products year-to-year, where I scan checklists to see which team related guys I can look for - I might see a card like this as the newest, coolest 'must have' card, even if there have been other pack pulled Salmon autograph cards over the past 10 years that may as well be out of sight, out of mind.
Nonetheless, this post is more about another card show recap where I need my fix - I get joy out of rummaging for cards, especially at the so called value boxes level.
At the twice a month card shows I've attended, the seller (s) with the main dollar boxes of doom I linger around the most have been on a hiatus - I've sort of made those tables larger than life, but perhaps I need to figure how to change things up with different characters.
I think I found myself rummaging through a new table with different $5, $10, $20 value boxes with kind of the loose cards I might be interested in - go figure I might have bought off this seller before, but I don't think I've actually seen him set up since last summer.
After trying to look through the other boxes on one side of the table, I saw his dollar box and started digging around - I worry about blowing my wad at one table, especially towards the beginning of my time at a card show, but I also tell myself, this table could be 'it' where this was where I was going to get the most bang for the buck.
Maybe I start feeling like a goof, putting back and pulling more cards to choose from - where I actually indulge in seeing all these cards to pick from, even if it leaves me a little confused and indecisive.
If nothing else over the years, since he has been published in Beckett publications - he has evolved into an expert, an authority figure posting about baseball cards, the Dodgers, Ron Cey, 1975 Topps, old school, vintage, oddballs and the various life issues that may occasionally take priority over cardboard.
I might not always be interested in the things he has posted about, but if he has a new post up - it's probably worth taking a moment to check it out.
Someday they might be household names in the big leagues - with some likely being 'never has beens' where their pro careers might stall out after reaching a certain level.
#41 Spencer Strider RC
#68 Shohei Ohtani
#26 J.D. Martinez
#47 Francisco Lindor
#8 Joey Gallo
#35 Jose Altuve
#VV-2 Spencer Torkleson - Virtuosic Vibrations insert
#BP-128 Felix Valerio - FY
#BP-103 Diego Cartaya
#BP-143 Heriberto Hernandez
#BCP-104 Orelvis Martinez - Chrome
#BCP-34 Llover Peguero - Chrome
Pack two
#17 Jake Burger RC
#97 Jesse Winker
#99 Javier Baez
#55 Nick Madrigal
#77 Matt Chapman
#14 Dylan Carlson
#BTP-54 Luis Matos - Bowman Top 100 insert
#BP-22 George Valera - FY - dinged corner
#BP-18 Alvin Guzman - FY - dinged corner
#BP-116 Jeter Downs - dinged corner
#BCP-112 Joshua Baez - Chrome FY
#BCP-51 Robert Dominguez - Chrome FY
Pack three
#75 Charlie Blackmon
#29 Bobby Dalbec
#65 Otto Lopez RC
#44 Reid Detmers RC
#51 O'Neil Cruz RC
#70 Ronald Acuna Jr.
#94 Christian Yelich - Blue Pattern parallel serial #'d 099/125
#BP-17 Oswaldo Cabrera - FY
#BP-32 Euribiel Angeles - FY
#BP-127 Victor Lizarraga - Neon Green parallel serial #'d 355/399
#BCP-90 Yhoswar Garcia - Chrome FY
#BCP-94 Pedro Pineda - Chrome
Pack four
#69 Paul Goldschmidt
#31 Alec Bohm
#20 Ryan Mountcastle
#2 Aaron Judge
#21 Aaron Ashby RC
#11 Luke Williams RC
#HIFI-16 Blaze Jordan - HI-FI Futures insert
#BP-96 Ian Lewis - FY
#BP-26 Anthony Rodriguez - FY
#BP-68 Niko Kavadas - FY
#BCP-14 Roberto Campos - Chrome FY
#BCP-11 Dauri Lorenzo - Chrome FY
Pack five
#61 Giancarlo Stanton
#45 Nolan Arenado
#57 Cody Bellinger
#1 Joey Votto
#43 Bo Bichette
#B3D-2 Henry Davis - Bowman in 3D insert
#BTP-71 Noelvi Marte - Bowman Top 100 insert
#BP-146 Bobby Witt Jr.
#BP-102 Pete Crow Armstrong
#BP-38 Alexander Ramirez
#BCP-70 Andry Lara - Chrome FY
#BCP-145 Shalin Polanco - Chrome
Pack six
#100 Ryan Vilade RC
#72 Luis Gil RC
#78 Edward Cabrera RC
#37 Jose Abreu
#25 Mookie Betts
#5 Ha-Seong Kim
#ROYF-6 Jake Burger - Rookie of the Year Favorites insert
#BP-93 Braylin Minier - FY
#BP-80 Junior Sanquintin - FY
#BP-63 Noelvi Marte
#BCP-82 Aeverson Arteaga - Chrome FY
#BCP-83 Roismar Quintana - Chrome FY
Someday they might be household names in the big leagues - with some likely being 'never has beens' where their pro careers might stall out after reaching a certain level.
I ended up picking up a '21 Topps Big League blaster and maybe there was three boxes with Mike Trout as the box panel card, so that wasn't too hard to find - I was thinking about picking up a couple of boxes to save an intact Trout box panel and cut up the other, though Topps Big League has never been that serious for me.
Maybe I like the idea of a Topps flagship alternative though I feel products like Topps Big League and Topps Opening Days are simply lesser versions of regular Topps - where it might be a trap to have any sort of emotional investments in these cards.
Reading through a forum thread, I knew this product was held back for the longest time - so for all I knew, it was never going to come out.
The best images came from the Highlights subset with more opportunities to see cards with more emotion and action - the Brett Phillips is a classic.
Grudzielanek could hit for average and collected over 2040 base hits in his big league career - looking at his Baseball Reference page, maybe his numbers come off as more modest [.289 batting / .332 on-base / .393 slugging / 90 OPS+].
However, it might be a fun thing for me to break things down and see where Grudzielanek had a run of good, serviceable big league seasons - especially when he seemed more like a grinder from day one, rather than a guy who came into big leagues with any sort of pedigree as a top prospect.
Even after all these years however, I have to give him credit - where he has always been an accomodating signer either responding TTM or in-person where he has dutifully signed autographs and taken pictures.
On the mound, Gossage had a distinguished career, where in his prime, he was a multiple innings fireman out of the bullpen - compared to the modern one-inning closers, who get maligned at times for dictating their usage rather than being on call as needed.
Sometimes it is relatively stocked, but most times my card section ends up being wiped out - I still believe unopened retail baseball won't be the No. 1 trading card type to hoard and flip from big box stores, but it doesn't mean I can count on coming back to blasters or loose packs of something, where hoarders take it all.
Who really knows if it is a recipe for success as far as actually getting new cards in-hand or simply an impulsive, on a whim directive to keep me buying retail in-person - but the past three years have taught me to grab anything remotely interesting when available, even when it seems like the stock maybe down to that last hanger or blasters on the shelves.
I was inspired to do some Wander Franco hunting here - where I might end up pulling a base or even a parallel.
Maybe I'll try to conjure up thoughts about a Shohei Ohtani or Mike Trout pack pulled autograph - then see if something happens the next time I cave into bust random products where it's possible to pull their autographs.
This doesn't mean there isn't satisfaction in my keepers - but perhaps I wonder if my purchases mean anything after the fact or any of number of cards jumbled together end of being misfit toys in my collection?
I kind of feel like I'm in my own little world when it comes to standing at a table and seeing what cards may have enough eye appeal - so I feel like there is plan and I'm just seeing what may compel me to flag cards I entertain taking home.
Harold Baines gets unfairly panned as an undeserving Hall of Famer, but I wanted his 1981 Topps rookie card as a centerpiece to the loose cards I plan to display in a binder - it maybe a case where I actually still have to give him his proper due and make page for him.
I found a 1992 Donruss The Rookies Phenoms Tim Salmon insert card I'm sort of familiar with, but never really had in-hand - go figure it's been at least 30 years, but it's still fun finding the occasional prospect / rookie era cards for the Angels franchise Hall of Famer.
A rookie year parallel of Roy Halladay and another minor league card of Orel Hershiser are keepers as a little more different than the typical cards I'd end up with - while neither might be top tier guys in my book, they are decade stars, so I do collect them to a certain extent.
I presented my cards to the seller without the Canseco and after getting a half off discount [for at least the loose cards] and $5 off the sticker price on the graded Kent rookie - I figured why not add the Canseco as well, where it was a totally junk wax era thing to covet that card at one point.
Even if the era is ancient history, there maybe something about coming back from a card show - knowing I brought back the rookie card of one of the brightest, controversial superstars of the times.
I don't know if a Jeff Kent rookie is particular unique, but I may have seen an ungraded copy in a random box and passed over it during a card show trip last year - it sort of became a scratch the itch card and I wanted to pick up one just because it's from a seemingly mythical junk wax era release.
Even if it's not really the case after the fact, I associate the Fleer Update set as being harder to find - a set I never got to see ever, though I was able to pick up a copy of the key rookie [Mike Piazza] years ago after Piazza retired but before the Hall of Fame called.
Kent has a Hall of Fame case but he wasn't the friendliest guy and is probably seen as strictly an accumulator who hit all these home runs as a second baseman - rather than be seen as generally this all-around talent who was a star from day one.
Go figure Cepeda also signed the penny sleeve the card was placed in - when they were alive and signed TTM 20 years ago, I think the same thing happened with Tommy Heinrich and Hoyt Wilhelm.
For what I try and hunt for, I'm still paying 'retail' where I'm not finding all these cards in quantities for a dime or a nickel - but anything under a dollar is in my wheelhouse as far as a reasonable price to pay as far as a collector at a card show, looking for some cheap thrills.
At a card show date, I found a table with a quaint, no frills set-up, though the seller looked like he was closing on selling a bigger, graded card lot to another collector or seller - I was mindlessly plugging through a $0.50 monster box at the table, going through the cards, where I feel it helps pass the time rather than feeling out of place with the bigger wheeling and dealing going on.
I was in my own little world and didn’t even realize the seller offered me a chair, which I appreciate - though I think what happens is I'm kind of marking my space and feel like I can hover over a box of cards and see which row or which brick of cards my hands gravitate to next, rather than being in a passive position where maybe it's just a little harder to see if certain peeks at cards pique my interest.
"If you're going to go through all my cards,’ he said. "You should have grabbed yourself a chair to sit on."
At some point, the seller actually offered the entire 3,000 count box and I might have considered it for a moment, but after guestimating the number of cards in the box, the seller came up with a $400 price, but the box wasn't entirely filled and I don't buy cards that way - with the bulk slab deal the seller made when I was at the table, I feel like he'd rather sell off his inventory in-hand in bigger lots, rather than through smaller purchases.
I might have put the Robinson Cano card back because in some respects his playing career with the New York Mets represent a death crawl ending in his release from the team - I'll give him some love for his distinguished career, aside from the two PED suspensions and the occasionally whining by fans about him dogging it on the field.
Adam Jones and Hunter Pence are part of my decade stars collection so I guess I do collect them by default - though maybe both players end up on being more on that obscured, semistar tier especially when they aren't playing anymore.
Jones played in Japan in 2021, which maybe the same as not playing anywhere besides but the big leagues - he maybe one of those guys who I wanted to collect on the side and his draft pick card from 2003 maybe a nice add to whatever cards I have displayed of his.
Pence is one of those fan favorite personality guys who may have a second career as a color commentator - I left that numbered insert once before and decided to just grab it, rather than have second thoughts over not making a dollar card a keeper.
It's not such a 'big deal' card where even for a dollar or less, I'd rather end up with it, than pick it up outright - I relented because it maybe a scratch the itch card for my loose collection of Finley cards, but this copy may actually be the glossy version, which makes it a little nicer.
I left the Boggs insert in a previous dollar boxes of doom raid but decided to just grab it to scratch the itch - it is a dual sided card like the Ripken Jr., featuring Scott Rolen on the reverse.
Junk wax era MLB cards of Ellis Burks, Mike Greenwell, Girardi or Greg Vaughn might be filed away in my A-Z commons archives - but seeing their junk wax era minor league cards may take my mind to different places.
Though it might literally be worth what I paid - I also like the David Robinson card with a Michael Jordan cameo.
I know better where most low end Jordans from the 1990s aren't the ones really sought after like his real harder to find inserts / parallels from the same era - but I'll throw in the occasional base card with a nice action shot.
It might be another parallel card, but I made the Tony Romo a keeper just because past a successful career as an NFL quarterback - he has carved out as a second career as basically the best TV analyst in pro football.
I wouldn't normally pay attention to women's soccer cards, but I may have a few of them dumped into the boxes and when I came across it, I relented to add a card of Dennis Rodman's daughter Trinity - there might be some novelty factor as a bloodlines tie there.
At times, I'm content to be pickier, but maybe this time I bit on some of the hits that others probably pass over most of the time - Kenta Maeda parallel, Eric Chavez bat card, first year Bowman Chrome auto of a rank-and-file big leaguer, Kevin Gross autograph [a one-time Angel who was utterly forgettable in his only year with the team] and a David Dahl autograph.
When he was coming through the minor leagues, I had Dahl tabbed as a future hitting star for the Colorado Rockies - I wouldn't have thought I could land a certified autograph for one, lousy dollar.
Maybe making a pair of George Bretts keepers are par for the course - I like the old-school, pre junk wax era mid 1980s cards like from 1985 Fleer.
I find Robin Yount and by extension, his cards boring for a baseball legend - but his 1979 Topps is a keeper just because it's a nice looking card of a guy who was already a veteran of 6 MLB seasons when this card was printed.
I want to say I already did a 'book report' on Yount once - he was really at his best in the 1980s where he really had a prime of 5 great offensive years as a shortstop and then another 5 great offenisve years as a center fielder, before his hitting numbers started to really wind down when I might have first really been aware of him in the early 1990s.
I've ended up with a number of Mike Scott junk wax era cards from the Houston Astros - he was basically a guy who took a while to develop in the big leagues, may have been at the top of his game for a five years stretch then was otherwise done through his 30s.
Maybe with his rookie card in hand, I quietly sneak him into my binder stars collection to flesh out my 1980s books just a little bit - even if I end up featuring more of a 'fan favorite' type than true star with some lasting power.