Digging through an MIA card show pile

This might be a 'I'm still here' post for whoever is reading - where I want to churn out blog posts on the regular and think about cards on a day-to-day basis, but maybe content to let things be, where collecting has become really a personal and solitary deal.

I've let this $30 card show pile sit around loose for the past four years and maybe my intent was to list the cards out in a Google Docs file - where I would have listed my purchases over the course of a couple of months at a time.

I am trying to be a little bit more proactive in picking up for myself, so these cards have to be sorted further - I took some photo ops in order to tie certain cards to a this stack purchase.

Maybe one of the hot cards then was a 2023 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani #17 - he was the presumptive MVP and Topps was buying base cards [and corresponding parallels] back from participating card shops, where you could get $20 store credit for the base card.

I wasn't clued into any of that buypack business, but may have wanted Ohtani's card anyway - now the card might be just another $5 and a whatever reminder of a guy that was once an Angel.

I also found what I assume is a 2018 Topps Opening Day Stadium Signatures Mike Trout Angels SS-MT - on social media, I occasionally see collector accounts who post a value box find, with the tag line / cliche, “this is why you dig.”

I’m pretty sure this Trout find falls under that category - but I thought it was just a cool Trout card with him signing autographs.

Sadly, as far as durability and production goes, the Trout of the mid 2010s is long gone - I didn't think he would have ever had a decline, but each year he gets hurt again is a reminder of the fragility of a playing career, notably for an all-timer.

Maybe the idea of trying to round up bulk cards of star players [like a Mookie Betts] ends up silly past a certain collection age - but maybe tied to idea I'm obligated to be on the perpetual bandwagon of anyone remotely good and hoard their cards for cheap.

Through 2026, maybe Betts isn't the same superstar player four or five years ago - but he's had an excellent [probable Hall of Fame] career and instrumental in World Series winning teams, notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Maybe the idea of trying to round up bulk cards of star players [like a Bobby Witt Jr.] at some point ends up being a way to cover my bases - where I want to be aware of the good young players, even if it just means grabbing their random cards to have them.

Through 2026, maybe Witt Jr. has just been a very good player at shortstop, not quite that step above superstar - now it looks like he got hurt and is going to miss some time.

I didn’t realize there was a 2021 Topps NPB Roki Sasaki #112 in the pile - I know I once bought a copy for $20 online at some point when he was really hyped up, but with his share of MLB cards out, and batting some growing pains, the card might be a $5 curiosity.

The Topps Silver Pack cards like the Mike Piazza end up pretty common coming out of bonus packs in Topps hobby and jumbo boxes - but I've made it a mission to make any 'decent' ones in the wild keepers if they end up being like a dollar or less.

When I was building up a pile at the card show, I didn't know how much it might cost per card - I usually stay away from unmarked boxes or bins, but I literally get lured in by the cheap stuff I assume isn't going to cost me much to start with.

Most of the time, the cards are not going to mean much - but they are more cards I make keepers, to sort them towards my hierarchy of interests, whether it's for my mini-collections, decade / binder stars material or for miscellaneous themes.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 1

I saw this 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge floating around on other card blogs' feeds - I figure I'd do the challenge to see if I can allow myself focus as far as what I have invested into collecting cards after all these years.

My main tweak to the challenge is probably posting 'when I choose to do so' as opposed to trying to post every single day until I've gone through the list - I don't want to take three months to finish the challenge, but I'm not in a hurry and there might be some meandering going on.

Also, it maybe something I need to do beforehand, but I've scratched out a rough draft of the cards are going to be featured - so I guess I can formulate my thoughts and kind of just add to it, as needed.

Day 1: "A card from the current year with a photo you like."

I figure I could go into my mini-collection additions for the year and find a card fitting the description - Mookie Betts' 2017 Topps card [#161] was probably the first to come to mind, though at first, I kind of thought it was a 'meh' card with Betts' body facing away, where his face is kind of obscured.

What makes the card great is that it literally captures the moment - modern professional photographers may have all sorts of gimmicks at their disposal, but it still takes experience to anticipate when a great play is being made.

Considering the situation, I wonder if this card qualifies to make another blogger's favorites list - if this was the Betts card he'd actually pulled first.

2016 Topps Holiday Walmart Box break

I had to make a pit stop at a random Walmart to see if any of these were on the shelves - I'd been thinking about these for the past few weeks, so I picked up a couple of boxes to see what these holiday themed cards were all about.

The 200-card base set mirrors selected cards from the Topps flagship set as well as from the Update Series - I don't know if Topps needed another release that parallels their flagship set, but these boxes were probably designed to be a relatively inexpensive [$20] holiday themed trading card product.

I busted one of the boxes I bought and it seemed pretty straightforward - I pulled 94 different base set cards with five Metallic Snowflake parallels and one hit [each box comes with either a relic or an autograph].

Pack one
#HMW143 Adam Wainwright
#HMW166 Roberto Osuna
#HMW6 Starling Marte
#HMW189 Brandon Belt
#HMW105 Dellin Betances

#HMW141 Mookie Betts - Metallic Snowflake parallel
#HMW67 Mallex Smith
#HMW177 Chris Sale
#HMW147 Michael Wacha
#HMW14 Andrelton Simmons

Pack two
#HMW181 Nolan Arenado
#HMW63 Ryan Howard
#HMW133 Michael Brantley
#HMW37 Raisel Iglesias
#HMW103 Jason Hammel
#HMW91 Prince Fielder
#HMW104 Xander Bogaerts
#HMW80 Josh Donaldson
#HMW5 C.C. Sabathia
#HMW125 Gregory Polanco

Pack three
#HMW146 Addison Russell
#HMW109 Russell Martin
#HMW41 Jake Odorizzi
#HMW69 Zack Greinke

#HMW150 Yasiel Puig - Metallic Snowflake parallel
#HMW142 Michael Pineda
#HMW188 Robinson Cano
#HMW31 Corey Kluber
#HMW167 Craig Kimbrel
#HMW2 Jose Berrios

Pack four
#HMW178 Matt Duffy
#HMW117 Trayce Thompson
#HMW101 Eric Hosmer    
#HMW57 Michael Conforto
#HMW99 Miguel Cabrera
#HMW184 Javier Baez
#HMW108 R.A. Dickey
#HMW45 Aaron Nola
#HMW21 Matt Andriese
#HMW32 Adeiny Hechavarria

Pack five
#HMW34 Michael Fulmer
#HMW17 Jacoby Ellsbury
#HMW94 Albert Almora
#HMW112 Bartolo Colon

#HMW62 Aledmys Diaz - Metallic Snowflake parallel
#HMW15 Adam Jones
#HMW92 Elvis Andrus
#HMW196 Kenley Jansen
#HMW19 Joe Panik
#HMW199 Yoenis Cespedes

Pack six
#HMW48 Andrew McCutchen
#HMW122 Joc Pederson
#HMW39 Anthony Rizzo
#HMW148 Francisco Lindor
#HMW54 Melvin Upton Jr. 

#A-MD Matt Duffy - autograph serial #’d 047/200; even if it's just a more common player, finding an autograph was nice since they seem to be harder pulls than the relics.
#HMW28 Jackie Bradley Jr. 
#HMW86 Matt Harvey
#HMW51 Luis Severino
#HMW155 Nomar Mazara

Pack seven
#HMW61 Brandon Crawford
#HMW43 Masahiro Tanaka
#HMW24 Manny Machado
#HMW174 Martin Prado
#HMW29 Nelson Cruz

#HMW192 Joey Votto - Metallic Snowflake parallel
#HMW9 Justin Upton
#HMW3 Paul Goldschmidt
#HMW85 Neil Walker
#HMW98 Jason Kipnis

Pack eight
#HMW153 Adrian Gonzalez
#HMW87 Steven Matz
#HMW84 Ian Desmond
#HMW111 Daniel Murphy
#HMW172 Blake Snell
#HMW66 Marco Estrada
#HMW176 Ryan Braun
#HMW118 Adrian Beltre
#HMW13 Aroldis Chapman
#HMW65 Mark Teixeira

Pack nine
#HMW10 Brett Gardner
#HMW22 Byung-Ho Park
#HMW82 Justin Verlander
#HMW129 Corey Seager

#HMW107 Joe Mauer - Metallic Snowflake parallel
#HMW145 Odubel Herrera
#HMW169 Jed Lowrie
#HMW114 Yu Darvish
#HMW136 Trevor Story
#HMW119 Yunel Escobar

Pack 10
#HMW116 Sonny Gray
#HMW183 Yadier Molina
#HMW25 Noah Syndergaard
#HMW198 David Wright
#HMW100 Carlos Martinez
#HMW140 Yovani Gallardo
#HMW47 Johnny Cueto
#HMW182 Starlin Castro
#HMW76 David Ortiz
#HMW7 George Springer

2014 Topps Heritage Minors two pack break

Pack one

#41 Josh Bell

#35 Chris Stratton

#27 Mike Foltynewicz

#11 Trevor Story

#FB-MF Maikel Franco - Baseball Flashbacks insert

#187 Tanner Rahier

#196 Justin Nicolino

#42 Brian Goodwin

#158 Jake Westbrook

Pack two

#18 Max Fried

#65 Richie Shaffer

#78 Patrick Wisdom

#81 Jose Rondon

#217 Mookie Betts - short print

#165 Wyatt Mathisen

#188 Dilson Herrera

#199 Arismendy Alcantara

#164 Rangel Ravelo