Showing off a random stack purchase

Maybe there is a little existential crisis where I wonder what I can really do with my cards and whether I can go on moving forward - I like going through assorted cardboard, whether they are new cards or stuff that is a little more dated.

I do feel it's sham on my end if I cannot talk about my pick ups, take some card pictures and finally be able to put cards away for some closure - I need to catch myself at times and flesh out the card-by-card narrative when possible, but it's hard to make stuff up that means something.

As it goes, I need to avoid invalidating my experiences - where I'm not down and out and there is always a part of me always enthused, especially when getting something in the mail like this haul of odds and ends.

Taylor Ward was not having a great season, but his bat had heated up in July before he got beaned with an Alek Manoah pitch - effectively ending his 2023 season.I grabbed a dual bat or jersey card that looks to be player worn and/or used - I'm not sure there is much demand for Los Angeles [Angels] cards besides Shohei Ohtani and maybe Mike Trout, but it's kind of a reward to find a more random 'hit.'

To front load things with more Los Angeles [Angels] content, here is a Trout card from a couple of years ago - it's an unlicensed Panini issue and the boring picture looks as if Trout is watching a fly ball out, but the see-through acetate makes the card almost worth the $3 and change I paid.

Out in the wild, I'll make bulk, common cards of visiting players for my stadium project instant keepers when that might not have been originally the case - but it's fun to really focus on snatching up cards featuring star players and better.

I do not really get nostalgic about MLB teams that don't exist anymore like the Montreal Expos - but the pair of HOFer cards look good paired up.

The fandom over Ken Griffey Jr. is a little dated when he is closer to 60 than he is to 20 - but I'll chase his random cardboard because he is an all-time great.

This might be one lousy card, but maybe I've been tempted to build on little runs of four to five cards for any number of players from 30-40 years ago - that I have some lingering sentiment or nostalgia over, even when it's a disgraced PED slugger Mark McGwire.

I've dismissed relic cards are not being 'real enough' with no real historicity, but this post features a micro-mini flood of four or five memorablia cards - I'll take a flyer where they still have some novelty, even if the swatches used have iffy provenance more often than not.

I didn't know what this Trot Nixon jersey card was and thought it could have been from the 2001 Fleer 100th Anniversary set - looking closer, it looks like it was a specially made card for the Boston Red Sox kids club back in 2005.

Usually all MLB teams have this fan club package you can purchase for kids that comes with some game tickets and other team branded knick knacks - I'm not sure if this cards was distributed randomly with those packages or it came with each one.

With a PED suspension through 2022 and generally immaturity issues in past seasons, Fernando Tatis Jr. ends up being an iffy player, where I might not consider collecting him - on the other hand, he's played relatively well [for an underachieving San Diego Padres team], where it may be fun to go against the grain and look for cards of unpopular baseball players.

I'll claim the occasional non-playing era cards of retired players, where it gives my stack some star power - when other collectors may not be focused on the retro player content in here and now product, maybe I am able to swoop in and snatch some neat looking cards, notably the occasional inserts and parallels.

Finally, I ended up seeing this packed pulled signed rookie card and made an offer to pick it up for $10 - maybe this card ends up being a little no-context now, but I wouldn't have minded adding this card to my collection when McCann as a star catcher in his prime, 15-20 years ago.