Mini collection confessions through my card show rummage

Maybe it's been for a couple of years, but I've been at a crossroads with my mini-collection cards - I love making them keepers out in the wild, but I've gotten overwhelmed with just thow many I've gone out and brought home.

I haven't actually listed out the past couple of year's worth of cards somewhere like a spreadsheet - where I've counted them up as a year-to-year achievement where I can see how many cards I've picked up and how many towards specific collecting topics.

Maybe the worst part is having the actual cards sitting in loose bricks or in boxes - where I can't dig them up on a whim, be able to look at them where the cards maybe displayed in a binder to flip through or have it where I only have 'so many.'

I'm not really shying away from more loose cards, it's just I need to find ways back to accounting for them - as well as finding the motivation to get back into managing bloats and backlogs with these loose cards.

Awesome action cards - I do not know whether I've ever had the card, but grabbed the 2003 Topps Jim Thome #71 with the Mountain Dew signage in the background.

Awesome action cards - I'm not sure if it's an 'odd thing,' but find the 1998 Skybox Dugout Axcess Greg Maddux #6 funny because he is pitching with sunglasses on; I assume he is pitching either live BP or an intrasquad game, rather than at an actual MLB game.

There is a lot of signage in the 1998 Upper Deck John Smoltz #32 - so it's a kind of fun to identify them.

I've tried to collect what I call 'good job, game over' cards like 1998 Upper Deck Luis Gonzalez Houston Astros #103 - where a player is shown congratulating one or more teammates at the end of a win.

I can imagine myself being a big leaguer with a sense of accomplishment and/or relief to be able to go out onto the field and celebrate a victory - even if it is only one game out a 162-game schedule.

It looks like Gonzalez is congratulating Craig Biggio here - so a HOFer cameo is pretty cool too.

Awesome outfield action and inking it up cards - because I was able to get him to sign something once in-person, I find it fun to find images of the perpetually grumpy Albert Belle doing any sort of 'fan service.'

Tools of ignorance - I always waffle on whether cards of star players or better should go into my mini-collections or my decade stars collections.

When I can pick up old loose cards of Ivan Rodriguez or Mike Piazza at the bulk level, where the cards do not matter - I maybe content to add them into my mini-collections where I can have some star power.

I'm not not sure whether I had the Russell Martin card before, but it looks like Carlos Beltran is shown walking back to the dugout - I might have tabbed it as a 'bonus baby' card where a better player is shown on a lesser player's card, but a case can be made where Martin was a low-key star at points of his big league career.