Card show pickups - The rest of the mess

I've ended up intermittently posting about what I got [like the Miguel Tejada card] - these aren't the better cards or anything, just kind of odds and ends I ended up making keepers from the particular purchase.

Off a seller that has become my outlet for whatever miscellaneous cards things I dig for - maybe I really didn't find a card or two that grabbed my attention from the stacked singles piles, maybe to bundle along the cheaper stuff I may find.

Another collector was plugging away through the seller's two-row dollar shoebox and at the tail end of this other guy's dig, I started going through the dollar bin myself - though maybe the box wasn’t refreshed from the last time I saw the seller.

It didn't seem that long ago when I went through the seller's dollar boxes, but that was already back several months ago - after some time has passed, could I expect the seller to fresher dollar material?

Maybe the seller has a cache of material he just sitting on or not knowing his M.O. - does make it where he has ways to regularly buy up new hauls of assorted cards, he can put out for a dollar each.

The state of adding new mini-collection cards

I like rummaging through loose cards in-person, where I like to lean on my esoteric mini-collection interests and at the very least, look for cards with unique images - at the moment, I don't really have a card shop or card show or even a swap meet / antique store to be able to actually dig through the fool's gold, where I find my 'gems' to build around my collecting topics subset narrative.

I miss stumbling upon boxes of cards at a show, finding out how much the cards are generally are [usually I'm looking for the quarter boxes] and figuring out where to start digging - there isn't the process of impulsively building a stash of cards and then sort of making decision on which cards are going to be taken off and which cards I going to be left off a vendor or dealer's common boxes.

I end up doing some 'research and development' online, where I read up on blogs or do random searches on eBay or COMC to see which cards I'd like to add to my collections - there isn't the instant gratification of having a card in hand, but I save the image of the card and/or list it on my wantlist.

Doing things on online might be easier and/or convenient, especially the hunt in-person might not be so fruitful and when I'm so far removed from picking up cards from places other than a big box store - I can take all the time in the world and treat online sources as my virtual card closet, where I have all these cards that I can look at and actually have shipped to me when I decide I want them.

After doing some ground work in discovering the following cards, I had them on a micro-mini wantlist and wanted to see if I can pick them up outright - the four cards cost me about $0.50 each with s/h added in and while I might pick up more cards at one time, I don’t want any one particular common card to be creeping up towards the dollar mark.

1988 Classic Eric Davis #213 - maybe the best ‘gum card’ I’ve seen.

When I can go through my mini-collection cards, I like seeing the different varieties of cards, how many different players are represented and if how many cards I end up of a player - I think I've mostly collected cards from Topps and the other major brands from the past 30 years, but at times there might be stragglers that may seem unfamiliar.

For a moment, seeing a card that is a different is neat - even if it is just a base card I shouldn't really dwell on.

1993 Bowman Edgar Martinez #515 - a Hall of Famer at work image, I presume this was during Mariners spring training in Peoria, Arizona.

1996 Donruss Glenallen Hill #75 - I saw this on a mail day blog post and had to add to my wantlist.

1996 Score Bip Roberts #38 - is this card of Roberts donning a sombrero sort of a cult classic? I felt like a big deal was made about this card at some point, but maybe it's just random card blog posts / Twitter posts of that drew my attention to this peculiar card.

Maybe 10 years ago, Bipping was a thing among notable card bloggers - where dupes of a particular card would be sent in trade packages as a friendly prank of sorts.

Featured autographs - Edgar Martinez and 2001 Seattle Mariners All-Stars

I sent in a 2001 Seattle Mariners All-Star 8x10 and paid $35 to have it signed by longtime Mariners star Edgar Martinez - I bought the photo in 2002 since the Mariners were coming off a 116 win season and they were one of the top teams to chase for autographs [at the very least for Ichiro], though I didn't realize it would take 12-13 years to complete.

I even brought the photo to a Seattle trip I took earlier this year, hoping I'd random see Martinez at the lone Mariners game I was able to go to - no dice on that, but I eventually saw a post through the SCN message boards where someone was taking items for Martinez to be signed.

I thought it might be a good opportunity to get the photo signed and not have to worry about carrying it around - though it seemed pretty ballsy to send the photo in to a random person who was going to get it signed for a fee.

I assume the person taking items has some sort of agreement to get at least a certain number of items signed - from what I stumbled upon, I assume the signing was at Sun Times show - Martinez was scheduled to appear on Sunday [Nov. 24], so that was when my item was probably inked up.

My biggest fear about this whole deal was something catastrophic happening - maybe my Priority SASE gets lost or banged up, the autograph was signed on the toploader [not likely, but who knows] or the autograph is imperfect and/or comes back wrecked.

I sent my photo, money order and SASE out early in November and got my package at the end of the month - upon closer inspection, the autograph was just a little imperfect, so I let out a faint groan, but it doesn't look bad at all and I can finally put it away, knowing it's finished.

The toughest autograph to get was Kaz Sasaki - he wasn't fond of signing or being mobbed, but I managed to get the 8x10 infront of him, where he relented to scribble on it.

Ichiro was running with black when I got him to sign - that kind of messed things up, but can't worry about when he maybe one of the toughest.

Featured autograph - Edgar Martinez

Edgar Martinez - I got this autograph in the mail four or five years ago.

I have my issues with him being inducted in the Hall of Fame any time soon, but he probably became Seattle's Tony Gwynn - there were bigger superstars who may have overshadowed Martinez' playing career, but he was also the one All-Star who stayed with the Mariners from start to finish, building up a lot of goodwill in the community.

Considering the Hall candidates - Edgar Martinez

Hall of Fame

I don't have a vote, but just like every other baseball fan - I'd like to think my 'simple man' opinion counts for something and I'd like to go through candidates eligible and worthy of consideration.

Edgar Martinez

Pro - healthy on-base percentage/power numbers, won a couple of batting titles and finished with a .312 lifetime batting average. He also spent his entire professional career with one organization, never gotten in any sort of trouble and was an otherwise model pro athlete.

Con - he shouldn't be knocked by being a designated hitter, but identifying him with the DH makes him seem one-dimensional and hinders perception of his overall career.

Once it became apparent Martinez wasn't going to take the field as a position player - it served to his advantage, all he could focus is on was hitting the ball, getting stronger in the weight room, hitting the ball, studying the mechanics of hitting, getting stronger in the weight room, hitting the ball.

He didn't have to worry about whether or not he was to bulky to play the field - all he had to worry about was watching the game from the bench and waiting for his four or five at-bats in a game.

Besides his inability to take the field, what really hurts him is somehow he found himself floundering in the minors through his mid 20s before getting an extending opportunity to stick with the Seattle Mariners - it hurts his overall numbers, especially when in his hitting prime, he wasn't considered a position player.

Yes/No - I'd lean towards 'no.' 

Martinez was a very good player for a long time and a particularly great hitter - but he falls short this time around.