All-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers VII

Maybe a couple of years ago, I was really into making an all-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers collection - where it's chaos pages, bastardized Frankenstein pages [without the numbering obligations] and every else I might have been able to gather that was random and good in my mind.

I was able to making it through eight different personalized compilations of cards - the plan was to get everything in pages but maybe I quietly forgot about the project through the middle of 2025.

Feeling like I needed to check back on things through the current year, I was able to correct course and get the cards from sets [VII and VIII] into pages and into a binder - I was even able to make another version [IX], where I want to get back into a routine to flag certain loose cards.

Originally these home brewed sets contained exactly 100 cards within 11 pages - but since I didn't want the last card [#100] for my all-time to be stored behind another card or be the lone card in one last page, I ended up making allowances for my home brewed sets to have 108 cards to fit 12 pages exactly.

A distinction is being able to group some cards together where I might have 108 cards total per each set - but may not list out exactly 1-108, where it might be 104 cards, 106 cards, etc.

106. 2024 Topps Update Series Jesse Chavez #301 - this common represents my micro-mini tribute to the MLB career of a journeyman reliever who has been through the fire and who might finally retired for good.

105. 1992 Score Dream Team Craig Biggio #888 - I have a junk wax era themed curated set that might be a perpetual work in progress, so it might be easier to add a unique card from the [1986-1992 era] in my all-time set instead and challenge myself to find something else [or maybe even look a dupe].

104. 2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary Scott Hatteberg auto #A65-AH - this was a cheap auto find and I'm not above putting [autograph or relic cards] in my all-time sets; Hatteberg is shown with the Cincinnati Reds, but obviously is most known for being featured in Moneyball [I guess in the book and portrayed in the movie] with the Oakland Athletics of the early 2000s.

103. 1999 Upper Deck SP Top Prospects Ricky Williams #22 - this brings back a little bit of faux-nostalgia where Williams was one of the biggest all-time NFL draft prospects in the late 1990s and while he had a stint playing pro baseball, was included in a major company's minor league product as a gimmick.

102. 2024 Topps Update Series Blake Treinen #US196 - this common represents my micro-mini tribute to the MLB career of a longtime reliever, where at least on the field, there is something admirable about an individual who continues to pitch through his mid 30s.

101. 1988 Little Sun Black Sox Buck Weaver #5 - I may have mapped things out where the bottom part of an all-time 100 has what I consider wild cards and in this instance, have an oddball card of an early 20th century player I have to go look up.

100. 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken #616 - Black Box - through the past 30 years, I wish I had gotten a raw copy of the original FF error card, where it was easier to afford for like $20 or something.

The only copy I had was bought graded, so I do have the error - but not where I can added it to a home brewed, all-time set like this.

99. 1992 Confex The Baseball Enquirer Billy Ripken #4 - at the very least, I was able to pair up the black box version of the 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken with a parody version.

98. 1991 SmithKline Beecham MDA They're All-Stars Harmon Killebrew #19 - I probably didn't like oddballs as much as other collectors, but they end up nice fillers like this one featuring a Hall of Famer.

97. 2014 Topps Justin Maxwell #594 - a postgame Gatorade shower [or shaving cream pie to the face] always makes for a unique card, where it turns a common into a keeper.

96. 2023 Topps Series 2 1988 Topps Baseball Julio Rodriguez #2T88-32 - I like the retro design used for this insert and image shown, where player is pointing to the sky, presumably after completion of a gaame.

95. 1993 Donruss McDonald's Toronto Blue Jays Great Moments Sudden Impact Pat Borders #95 - imagine being Borders and having a juiced up Mark McGwire looking to barrel you over during a playoff game.

94. 2020 Topps Stadium Club Xander Bogaerts #21 - maybe when I started putting together this set, this card was already an 'old team' card, but it's a unique horizontal shot of Bogaerts warming up before the game.

93. 2021 Panini Prizm Rookie Autographs Isaac Paredes #RA-IP - this was a cheap auto pull of a player who has had some decent years with the bat and is still his mid 20s.

92. 2002 Upper Deck Authentics Al Leiter #144 - post 9/11, this card shows Leiter wearing an NYPD cap as his tribute, where it's a unique thing to point out.

91. 1987 T&J Madison Muskies Ozzie Canseco #3 - maybe having an all-time set is being able to flesh out my mini-collection interests and in this case, my bloodlines collection, where I have this odd card of a big league brother who considerably made less impact than his twin.

90. 1986 Donn Jennings Southern League All-Stars Jose Canseco #14 - I want to make it a thing where I can pair up cards of subjects, like two brothers who played in the big leagues and have cards.

89. 2022 Topps Chrome Heart of the City Jose Ramirez #HOC-7 - Ramirez has turned into a franchise great for the Cleveland Guardians, so it doesn't hurt for me to add a shiny card that emphasize the idea that he is an all-timer.

2024 Bowman Draft set purchase

Bowman paper are the most basic cards out of Bowman products, but when 2025 Bowman Draft came out in January, maybe I got some FOMO and started browsing for hand collated set for a cheap - I don't know why it triggered me, but I probably heard or saw something online where smart breakers making extra profit by selling off the hand collated sets.

Being priced out to bust a hobby box, super jumbo, breakers delight and even mega boxes, I'll be one of those impulsively looking for a paper set - if just for the love of hoarding new cards [maybe some Angels cards, like of No. 2 overall pick Tyler Bremner], even though I haven’t really focused on prospects and prospect cards have have jumbled together over the past decade.

On eBay I thought I hit the BIN on a 2025 set, but after sending payment, I realized I had actually gotten a 2024 set - I wonder what I’m really doing here, where for all the build up to get some 2025 Bowman Draft cards in-hand, I ended up with the Bowman Draft from the year before.

Do I bother looking for a 2025 set as intended [?] - I didn't want to pay to get more than one set in-hand, so I still haven't come back to grabbing a 2025 set.

I didn't know who Nick Kurtz was when the 2025 MLB season started - I still don't have many of his cards, so this first year paper ends up a keeper for the 2025 American League Rookie of the Year.

I didn't know much about Travis Bazzana, except he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 and is also an Australian - maybe he has had a slower start to his pro career, but after playing in the WBC, will be looking to see if he can get to the big leagues sooner than never at 23.

Trey Yesavage had a taste of the big leagues in 2025 and even though the Blue Jays lost to the Dodgers in the World Series - he emerged as a postseason hero, especially in the World Series.

I didn't know who Konnor Griffin was, but apparently he is the second coming of either Mike Trout or Bobby Witt Jr. - where the current value of this card is equivalent to what I'd paid for the entire set.

My mini collections - updated storage setups

Despite being seemingly set with the storage options I had in the meantime - maybe I wanted a more orderly way to funnel my awesome action collection towards a 3,200 count box, rather than in separate boxes.

It's been something that has been in front of me and I finally took a 3,200 count box I had bought at a card shop three weeks ago - to add on top of my other 3,200 count boxes and rejigger how I stored certain awesome action classifications towards one catch-all storage option.

I was expecting to fit everything from my awesome action collections into the box and maybe even some other mini-collections - but while I left gaps to add more cards to the collections in the box, there might not have been the space to add a bigger collection of cards [my fun cards] and one smaller collection of cards [my personality shots].

I made a simplified list of how I store my awesome action cards - there are subsets for each classification / groupings that are not listed in detail.

Making the throws – 1B – Row 1
Making the throws – 2B – Row 1
Making the throws – Double play throws 2B – Row 1
Making the throws – 3B – Row 1
Making the throws – SS – Row 1
Making the throws – Double play throws SS – Row 2
Pitching – Row 2

My dirt fetish cards - took up parts of three rows.

Dirt fetish – A – B – Row 2
Dirt fetish – C – P – Row 3
Dirt fetish – R – Z – Row 4

I added my game face cards to the 3,200 count box - to finish of the cards from my awesome action collections that was going into this one catch-all space.

Game face cards – Row 4

A snapshot of my tower of 3,200 count boxes - to keep things relatively manageable, I don't want to end up being obligated to buy more storage boxes, where it feels overwhelming seeing other collections [people end up trying to sell collections or whatever], where it's just these monolithic boxes that end up a chore to dig through if you need to pull or add more cards.

On the other hand, a 3,200 count box ends up an appropriate storage option [still relatively cheap at under $10, but price might have ticked up] for bulk cards - where I do want to herd a good portion of cards into one sturdy place where I am not losing track where they are in multiple, loose boxes.