Some low-end finds from the card shop

I ended up at a random card stop and the plan was to find some loose 2018 Topps Stadium Club and perhaps make a supply run for some magnetic card holders and penny sleeves - unfortunately there was no loose 2018 Topps Stadium Club thrown into the quarter boxes just yet.

While leafing through the same random cards I usually go through in order to shop around - I found some assorted cards to take home.

2018 Topps Ben Gamel #558 - I always tell myself to be picky when it comes to digging through a current year's flagship cards because the ones I'll end up with, I'll probably pull at some point.

Still, the picture on this card is way too nice for me to leave behind - maybe I've gotten away from loose pack or blaster breaks anyway, so I'd rather have this card now than forget about it entirely.

2018 Topps Guillermo Heredia #522 - another flagship card I couldn't leave behind.

2013 Topps Manny Machado #270 x2 - factory set inserts; Machado is the most intriguing trade bait candidate and the next couple of weeks will probably decide the Baltimore Orioles' future prospects [as in direction of the franchise as well as guys the maybe getting back in a potential trade].

2004 Topps Yadier Molina #324 - Molina doesn't inspire warm and fuzzies, but he's a borderline HOF guy just because his reputation as a catcher was that much better than everyone else.

2013 Topps Update Series Christian Yelich #US290 - a card like this is barely worth anything, but I've decided any 'Dollar Tree' rookie cards of MLB stars are keepers, especially when I don't have them.

2016 Donruss hobby pack breaks x2

Pack one

#68 Jose Altuve

#59 Carlos Correa

#136 Alex Rodriguez

#128 Cole Hamels

#170 David Wright

#166 Michael Taylor

#9 Carlos Gonzalez - Diamond Kings insert

#D82-30 Manny Machado - Base 1982

Pack two

#76 A.J. Pollock

#55 Jose Bautista

#145 Matt Duffy

#178 Kirby Puckett

#174 Justin Upton

#SGS-TJ Travis Jankowski - Signature Series auto insert serial #’d 107/199

#USA-1 Buddy Reed - USA Baseball insert

#D82-1 Mike Trout - Base 1982

Ranking the 30 MLB teams on my watch - Baltimore Orioles #15 of 30

Chris Davis, Manny Machado and Adam Jones make this team go round and round - though it remains to be seen whether Davis can duplicate his monster season, whether Machado can recover from the leg injury he suffered and whether Adam Jones can continue to be a center fielder with the ability to hit with some pop.

I do wonder what happened to Nick Markakis - he bounced back to play 160 games this past season but isn't the rising star he once was in his mid 20's, especially when he had a .356 slugging percentage.

Is the corpse of Brian Roberts still haunting the team ?] - it's been suspect that he hasn't been able to play a full season since 2009.

I'm sure he is still a fan favorite with the Orioles, even though he has only gotten to play on a sporadic basis - but I wonder if he was doing something in his mid 20's that caught up with him in his 30's.

Has Matt Wieters' star dimmed [?] - once annointed a future superstar at catcher, he's been a decent player who hasn't quite lived up to the massive hype and had a down season with the bat in 2013.

My purchase - a 2010 Bowman Draft set

I picked up a hand-collated set [around $25 shipped] of 2010 Bowman Draft and while there are Mike Stanton, Stephen Strasburg, Jason Heyward and Buster Posey cards in the set - Topps has already rolled the presses on releasing various basic, non-autograph MLBPA rookie cards of these guys and the basic cards from the set are only worth a couple of bucks each.

Maybe the most redeeming if not exactly noteworthy feature to the set - is Topps decided to include non-auto base cards of the guys who do have Bowman Draft Chrome autographs in the set, like Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles, Zach Lee of the Los Angeles Dodgers or Zack Cox of the St. Louis Cardinals.

For an in-person or through the mail autograph collector, Topps almost gets a thumbs up - except for the foil stamped facsimile signatures [not like Peter Tago's card, which doesn't have the facsimile signature] on the cards .

A signed 2010 Bowman Draft card with a foil stamped fascimile signature is probably not going to look as good autographed in-person / through the mail - particularly when the facsimile is stamped across the card.

I realize Bowman Draft is a prospector's product where gripes about aesthetics aren't always valued as long as there is a good crop of signed Bowman Draft Chrome cards and corresponding parallels - however some of the Photoshop work is off in trying to show the draft picks wearing Major League uniforms, particularly the doctored 'in-action' shots of particular players in high school or college.