Dealing with my bulk binder material pickups

Through the past year, I've done some damage picking up bulk cards at random card show dates and while it's fun just to rummage - my hauls end up staying in unsorted bricks like this where I haven't funneled the cards into their decade stars boxes and/or towards loose card projects as intended.

Maybe I feel self conscious about hoarding all these loose cards and it might be a case where NOW I'm trying to do something familiar in vain to hold me over - before going through a gap where I won't be able to play with my cards for at least a month.

What I'm doing is trying to update my decade stars boxes so I feel like I'm able to clean things up - even though it's going to be harder to account for everything in one shot and time has just about run out for now.

For my decade stars material, the cards start off in loose boxes, where I know I have some semi-temporary spot to dump cards off - the cards should be displayed in pages as their final destination, rather than sitting in random boxes, but I haven't gone out of my way to pick up a box of 9-pocket sheets.

It might be more work worrying about where loose cards are going, but I've also made a separate semi-temporary spot to store players' cards of at least seven or more - where I have enough to make at least a page [even if I don't have nine cards to make one page outright, I can play around with cards I've stored back to back from previous pages made and fill some loose pockets].

I have a cheat sheet leaderboards where I list the player and the total if they end up being part of the 'seven or more' club - maybe focusing on the players featured on the cheat sheet leaderboards adds an extra element to tallying up loose binder material for my decade stars collection

In the 'ready to be paged' stashes I've made, I'm trying to see where cards for certain players are as I try to update my cheat sheet leaderboards - before seeing if can make the new adds to the bricks, while moving random players' cards around according to the new totals.

I feel like there is more of a sense of accomplishment to be able to be more engaged in funneling cards according to players listed my cheat sheet leaderboards - where I have to pay attention to new additions so I can see how many cards I have for different players.

Maybe something peculiar is the push to add more cards for the guys I already have numbers for - maybe I should be taking a more passive approach where I know I already have enough cards to make one, two or three pages where maybe I should back off, but I just end up picking up more loose cards that I can count as certain players I like more than others.

The numbers in my cheat sheet leaderboards may the only reflect the popular players in my memory banks, so your mileage may vary - it maybe interesting to see if my small sample size totals jibe with who were the 'hot' players of a decade and/or an era, notably from the past 35 years or so.

Numbers game

It feels like the loose binder material that do not quite make up at least seven or more cards in my primary boxes doesn’t resonate with the same importance - until I have seven or more cards and can add a player to my cheat sheet leaderboards, the binder material I have for different players might be deemed as stragglers.

It might be a case where I'm kind of starting over, where I've created a page for a particular player and used up cards from my decade boxes - yet I might not bother adding one or two more new pick ups and/or finds to a page.

Maybe I can just forget overlook guys not on my cheat sheet leaderboards for a little bit and there is no real rush to add to them - though I get some cheap thrills when I see a micro-mini collection of players’ cards adding up into the seven or more category.

Hunting for various binder material Pt. 2

These were from a card show, where it's more of testament to the types odds and ends cards I can find off a seller that has become a show lifeline - even if it strictly more a transaction at the end of my rummage, maybe it's just nice to go through all these cards with the idea I can take a number of them home.

Stuff maybe perpetually be picked over but I'm bound to find something or a run of things - because there is just too many cards.

A trio of guys who made their debut in the 1980s, these guys are rubber stamped as decade stars in my book - though Tony Gwynn is probably a personal favorite here, while Craig Biggio and Mark Grace are a little more 'meh' in my eyes.

The 1985 Topps Gwynn is the Tiffany version, though it has a crease that maybe more obvious in-hand, on the back of the card - I don't expect these loose cards to be 'gem mint,' but if at all possible, I hope to avoid picking up anything with blemishes like creases, centering and soft corners.

The 1992 Donruss Studio Gwynn is a preview card, so that's a little more unique - over his base card from the actual set.

While probably 'junk wax' just the same, the rookie year Biggios seemed like nice 'oddball' finds - while the only cards I have of Grace are his assorted big league issues, so a minor league issue adds a little 'pre rookie' card to the mix.

An assortment of cards featuring guys who made their debuts in the 1990s - I've never had the Pacific Net Fusion inserts in-hand [featuring Jeff Bagwell], but I'm disappointment knowing that the material was not likely from an actual foul pole netting from a stadium [if that was possible in the first place], but from a simulated material.

On the downlow, any Adrian Beltre issues are now keepers in my eyes [except cards from his Seattle years] - especially if it's more of a parallel and/or insert that kind of pops.

Edmonds is a 'top guy' for me, more as an Angel - but I do realize he had his peak years after leaving the team for St. Louis.

Aramis Ramirez and Moises Alou aren't necessarily 'my guys' by any stretch of the imagination, but their random relic cards - maybe added as binder material to whatever cards I have for each player.

Garret Anderson is rubber stamped as one of the top guys as far as Angels go - it's nice to find a serial numbered card of his to make as a keeper.

I don't heavily collect Trevor Hoffman, but he is a Hall of Fame closer, so I'll show some love - I think the card I picked up is serial #'d on the back, though it's only worth what I paid.

I don't heavily collect Bernie Williams either, but he was a great player for the New York Yankees, so I'll show some love - with a minor league card that's more of an oddball, even though it was released a couple of years after his big league cards came out already.

Finally, some rookie cards of guys I might not be too high on to collect outright - but if they are there for the taking, might as well be keepers.

Hunting for various binder material Pt. 1

More from a card show, where I ended up grabbing a bunch of cards and maybe there was some buyer's remorse just as far as quantity goes - while no one card is worth much, these cards were probably what I built my finds upon and I may have had a time figuring out how to make it where I took what I wanted.

Whether or not Derek Jeter was someone I seriously could collect over the past 25 years, he was a national superstar to gravitate to - it's fun to go back and grab assorted cards dating back to 20 years and older, notably when the newly minted Hall of Famer was still a top prospect through his early big league years.

I think about this 'Torren Up Cards post every time I find a Ken Griffey Jr. card - but despite how self-conscious I may get about aging where my heroes creep closer to 60 than to 20, it's still about trying to objectify these larger than life players, trying to squirrel away a run of Griffey Jr. cards for ownership sake.

It's awkward coveting Barry Bonds cards in 2021, but despite the media making him the face of The Steroids Era where he is more of a pariah than celebrated legend - during his late career peak, he lived rent free inside my head where all the controversy was must see TV somewhere.

The bulk of George Brett's career was played before I was even aware of what baseball was but he played through the junk wax era and his last active playing cards were made through the early UV era - there might be this random thing in my book, where there is a little faux nostalgia in elevating him above some of his peers.

After the fact, it's probably due to the Pine Tar incident and the story about having the runs in Las Vegas due to bad crab legs - but Brett still comes off smelling like a rose because he was a hard nosed, prime time player who helped elevate his Kansas City Royals teams to contention from the mid 1970s through the mid 1980s.

Card show pickups - binder material

What I call my decade stars collection is the loose cards I've pulled or found for notable players who made their debut during a particular decade - I don't keep up with going through the cards on a regular basis so maybe adding onto these collections isn't quite a priority other than as a 'catch all' spot.

On the other hand, I like being able to put pages of random cards together featuring the same subject - as part of binders serving as a register or an encyclopedia of sorts I have in-hand, rather than something digital.

Past the guys who made their debuts in the late 1970s and played through the junk wax era and even beyond - I'd ideally like to 'beef up' my collection of cards for old-school / vintage players, even if that means only making their retro, post-playing career issues keepers.

I grabbed the 1983 Fleer Rickey Henderson Super Star Special subset #646 card and was glad the other card [featuring Reggie Jackson #645] paired up with it was actually in the same penny sleeve - rather than a case where I have one card, but not the other.

I associate Ken Griffey Jr. as a 1990s guy, but he made his big league debut in 1989 - so the 1980s binders is where I have his cards situated.

These are legends who made their debut in the 1980s - besides the junk wax era cards, I'm probably still looking to make keepers out of cards from products I never got to heavily collect.

The 1988 Topps All-Star Roger Clemens #394 is actually a Tiffany card - so that adds a little something to what would be just enother junk wax card.

As far as 1990s debut guys go, I've got to grab Derek Jeter cards as I find them in the wild - where they add depth as more 'rank and file' binder material to the Jeter cards I have already.

More cards of stars who made their debut and had their breakout years in the 1990s - at one point Frank Thomas was neck-and-neck with Griffey Jr. as far as the most popular player in the baseball.

In the 'here and now,' maybe 'The Big Hurt' is a little forgotten [though not entirely out of sight with his baseball analyst work on Fox and various endorsements for questionable supplements] - where Griffey Jr. is still held in high regard as almost a mythical figure [as far as a baseball player goes].

There is a Chipper Jones card I picked up that I thought might have slipped through the cracks as a parallel - however, it is looks like it is one of four base card types released in 1998 Fleer Showcase.

These are cards of stars who made their debuts during the 2000s - with Albert Pujols no longer with the Angels, maybe there is a now a sudden nostalgia for when he was really in his prime with the St. Louis Cardinals, rather than trying to go back to his albatross years with the Angels.

Some cheap binder material for guys who made their debut from the 2010s - maybe I've had a small pile of Brendan Rodgers cards when he was a top prospect in the minor leagues, so I made him a decade stars guy this past year, just to be able to put the cards away somewhere.

Even though Rodgers has been hit with some injuries, maybe he's finally healthy for the Colorado Rockies to see if he can be a viable every day player in the infield - where he probably takes over for Trevor Story at shortstop in 2022 if that is what the Rockies want.

The process behind my bargain bin digs

These were my $0.50 hauls from the card show trip I made a couple of weeks ago - maybe I've been on a bit of a loop where this seller has been a priority stop.

If nothing else interested me, I could say I spent my time trying finding cards to give me some cheap thrills - even if it’s dated material from 10, 15, 20 years ago or older, time has passed where I can show some love for what I've generally overlooked.

It’s just hard not to skip over cards but I did try to go through all the rows from this seller's bins - maybe when I see someone else doing what I do, there might be a little competition.

I’m trying to stay in my lane and dare I say a little territorial, but maybe I need to calm down - I was making a mess and maybe there was diminishing returns as far as cards I was actually finding, yet this is kind of my jam.

I probably spent a good hour or so trying to grab stack after stack to see if there was any cards of interest to pull out - it’s a weird feeling when I'm in my own world, while someone else might give some the cards a brief look and walk away like there isn’t anything there worth their time or someone else might actually be pulling cards, just to put them back and walk away.

I was such a shark, it’s like I’m stuffing my face with all this food at a buffet - yet I’m clamoring to get up and serve myself another plate of goodies.

I was actually trying to have a look at a binder of certified autographs / relic cards I thought the seller was handing over to another guy for him to have a look - where in reality the book had already been sold to that other person.

This 1997 Fleer Ultra Season Crowns Mark McGwire #6 doesn't photograph well and is only worth a dollar - but it's a binder card all day long.

The process to weed out cards is a pain because I want it all, I can’t have it all - but I want to be able to walk away with as many cards with no regrets left behind.

I settled on a plan was to split my keepers into two distinct stacks of 40 cards - it wasn’t easy at all where I am overwhelmed, but I have rein things in where I've got to commit to picking up the cards that have piqued my interest.

Maybe a priority is finding stuff to squirrel away, where there might not be upside in the cards I find - but some overlooked [if admittedly low end] parallels, inserts and maybe rookie material may end up in my mini-collections, my decade / binder star collections or other loose card projects stewing in my mind.

In my head, I definitely try to get on a run where I try to look for more of a certain player, card type, brand or era - but maybe I'd rather have a mix of cards where I'm looking to be surprised by the next cards I might be tempted to set aside.

Maybe it's sweet relief to be able to pay for the stuff I found and be able to move on - at this show date, there may have 20-30 tables that were kind of spaced out and foot traffic wasn’t as dead as I’d anticipated, though I didn’t necessarily find another table to buy more stuff after I was done with my 'treasure hunt.'

Card show results - the miscellaneous

I was worried the seller with the $0.50 bins wasn’t there like it was a couple of Saturdays ago - I like digging through and pulling out the most random cards, but prepared myself, if that wasn't going to be the case this time around.

When I got to the show, I started to go through a random seller’s dollar boxes - this was the box I kind of looked with some 2020 Topps Advanced Stats parallels that caught my attention.

The last time, I thought these belonged to the seller with the $0.50 boxes because it was left out loose - where it may have actually been forgotten after the other seller packed up for the day.

I was able to dig out the parallels and while they might not generate too much interest - they are maybe low key binder or A-Z insert material.

I found ones of Hyun-Jin Ryu, Jose Altuve, Dallas Keuchel and Matt Beaty - maybe Ryu was the headliner for me, but I didn't find 'better' players.

I made it a point to grab the others to have a small loose quartet of similar parallels together - the Beatty variation missed being a rookie card issue by one year and I might have hesitated on grabbing the card.

In my head, it just would have been better if it was an rookie year parallel - even if talking more about a rank-and-file big leaguer who is the least accomplished of the four.

Even if they maybe less of a chase out in the wild, where it’s a little tricky to look the cards up - the parallels are a little easier to identify outright because they are serial #’d.

The dollar box cards were seemingly odds and ends from the past couple of years, rather than a deep mix from past the 5-10 years - I grabbed a 2020 Topps Update Target Exclusive Ronald Acuña Jr. Highlights #TRA-13 card just because he's in the middle of blowing a bubble during a home run trot.

The person at the table was kind of amazed I was sort of on mission at his table - I get self conscious, but even if I’m wasting time, I like to do some digging for cards.

“You have a lot of patience to go through those cards,” he said. “I only care [to keep track] of the cards in the showcases.”

I hope the guy wasn’t telling me to bug off and while he was just sharing some real talk - maybe it reinforces the idea I maybe the only one who cares about this stuff and I’m just a little out of touch.

I wanted make up a little mix of cards and at least spend something to get my feet wet - money is money and I wanted to show I didn’t waste my time re-sorting the guy’s boxes just for the heck of it.

Out of the $2 / $5 boxes I grabbed some other cards - though I had to look closer at the backs to see which price individual cards fell under.

“I haven’t gone through those cards in a [while],” he said. “I just mark off the ones according to color for my son and the money goes to him.”

I grabbed a 2020 Topps Update 1985 Topps Fernando Tatis Jr. #85TB-37 for $2 - might be a basic insert card I expect to pull, but the dirt fetish aspect made the card a keeper.

I grabbed a 2020 Topps Vintage Stock Jack Mayfield #485 for $2 - he’s bounced around as a utility guy, but is currently employed by the Angels; a rookie year parallel of the one-time Houston Astro and likely an obscure Angel who is going to come and go.

I grabbed a 1963 Topps Roy McMillan #156 beater for $2 just because it was too odd out of a box of cards from the past couple of years - it has a Topps sticker over the toploader, but don’t know if it came that way.

Finally I grabbed a 2019 Topps Update Johnny Bench #US182 for $5 as an impulse purchase - even though it’s not a keeper, notably for what I paid, it may have had the most interesting image of the catching legend at the golf course.

My finds in the dollar boxes of doom

At the last monthly show I attended, I was wandering around, to see if I can scope out the table with the dollar card monster boxes - it was in the same place as the last time, but a little congested for me to squeeze into.

A mother and her boys were planted at the table, another guy was browsing around, while I was idle on the other 'far end' where other things were displayed - a couple of guys were chatting next to the table, just about bumping into me.

The table wasn’t that busy the last time around - but maybe I was resigned to look somewhere else in the meantime.

There was a little bit of a dead period, where there wasn't as many tables for me to really get lost at - it might have been it for me, even though I still really wanted to linger around the show to see if I can get my dollar bin fix.

Finally space at the table opened up, so I had to jump in somewhere before my time was up - I was watching to see what the guy would say when someone tried to get a deal.

I guess the person works for someone else and heard the ‘guy really wants a dollar for his dollar cards’ spiel again - though he let that other random person digging around pull top loaders from other cards, to use for the sleeved cards purchased.

There might have been only two or three monster boxes this time around as opposed to 6 or 7 - I was sandwiched between two others doing the same thing I’m doing and while YMMV, maybe it was hard not to look over for a moment and wonder the cards they had pulled should have been in my pile.

I was probably trying to get back the 30-40 minutes I was idle, while finally getting into these cards - while seeing too many 1988 Topps Tom Glavine RCs #779 I wasn’t taking for any price, I'm still bent on seeing if I could find cards of interest.

There were 1991 Topps Desert Shield baseball commons sprinkled in, but the cards still look like junk wax 1991 Topps to me - more importantly, I’ve never seen the rare Desert Shield cards in-hand, to figure out what to make of them and consider whether they were the real deal.

I was really on the clock and it was just about time to book it out of there - I'm trying to see if I can make my last minute finds count while trying to put together a grouping if cards that made sense to me.

It was hard to say if the cards I picked up gave me the same joy as last time - I was looking to spend $20, but relented to spend another $10, just to feel like out of the stash of cards I dug out, I was able to take home more cards.

Rookie stuff - I get a kick out finding rookie cards I've never had, featuring contemporary players who starred in the past 20 years or so.

1990s stuff - these cards might only be worth what I paid, but maybe that is good enough sometimes.

Out of my rummages, maybe I want to make the 1990s the foundation of the players [Frank Thomas, Tony Gwynn, Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux, etc] and card types [UV coated, foil stamped, shiny] I primarily latch onto - while I might be saying the same thing if I found a run of cards from the mid 1980s or mid 2000s, there is something to get familiar and nostalgic about through the 1990s.

Just on shine alone, I like the John Smoltz the best even if the effect isn't captured so clear - I might have ignored it at first because it came from 1998 Score, which was a little too low end for me.

The Jim Thome parallel has some nice, shiny effects as well and maybe it was serendipity - I actually picked up the Thome parallel card and also a pack pulled minor league card I thought was 'old school.'

A couple of cards paired up randomly, featuring pitching greats Mike Mussina and Johan Santana - I was kind of familiar with the 1991 Gold Leaf Rookies Mussina insert, but that 2000 Pacific Invincible Santana RC draws a blank for me.

I think the player image part of the Santana card is acetate - so that's a unique element used for what is presumably a base card.

Baseball legends and icons - retro cards give me an opportunity to give a nod to the greats of the game.

Oddballs - I'm not really an 'oddball guy,' but just had to get the Foster because the card caught my eye last time, while I just like the batting pose image of Rose with his shaggy hair.

Football - a couple more basic Tom Brady keepers just to be like everyone else hunting at the lowest end of the card spectrum.

I grabbed a rookie card [?] of Marshawn Lynch, a former NFL running back who has made headlines on the football field over the past decade - I can squirrel it away for either my beyond the glory collection, my cult players / feats collection or my infamous collection.

Maybe the last card I'd ever think of picking up was a 1999 Topps NFL rookie card of Edgerrin James - but there is something decidedly cool about how he is posed on the card.

It doesn't hurt that from college to the NFL, James is a legend in his own right - part of the Indianapolis Colts triplets with Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison that would end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Some newer card show recaps #2

I spent the longest time going through a table with seemingly never ending boxes of dollar cards, where I kept finding more cards to add to a stack I’m building up - the table wasn't getting too much traffic, where a few others may have passed by and spent a couple of minutes doing a quick check of things, but I'm the one fiending out, trying to flag some probable keepers.

There is a time element involved where I may give myself an hour or a couple of hours at most - I haven’t even circled back and forth to browse through the entire room yet, so maybe I'm getting self conscious about planting myself in one spot before my time is up.

I was finding baseball from at least the past 25 years, maybe mid 1990s UV-coated inserts, but also a lot of other sports mixed in from a bunch of different years like base cards stars and rookie cards of minor stars - there may have been handfuls of early 1980s stuff sprinkled in.

I'd never seen Perma-Graphics cards in-hand before and was almost tempted to pick up one or two [there was a Davey Lopes, Jack Morris, George Foster] - because they looked so different from your typical flagship Topps, Donruss, Fleer cards from the era.

I was worried about spending so much for cards [where I had 70-80 cards to worry about whittling down] that are kind of just ‘there’ and in the end - I had to let my imagination settle down and settle to pick up so-called priorities.

I feel like I have to quietly put back stuff I’m going through on a whim, where it's out of sight, out of mind - where a next time to pick something I’ve left behind might not happen, but I had to save my bullets.

I was disappointed there no deals for these dollar cards in quantity, just straight up a dollar each - which was fair enough I guess and maybe as I was leaving the show, I could have swallowed my pride and broke down to pick up 5-10 more cards.

Rookie card stuff - I probably wouldn't seek out any of these cards outright, but I get some satisfaction in picking up a little run of XRCs/RCs featuring pretty good players, fan favorites types and a trio of Hall of Famers.

1988 Fleer Update John Smoltz XRC #U-74
1988 Fleer Update Craig Biggio XRC #U-89
1991 Topps Stadium Club Jeff Bagwell RC #338
1995 Bowman Bartolo Colon RC #22
1995 Bowman’s Best Bartolo Colon RC #73
1998 Bowman Jimmy Rollins RC #181
1998 Leaf Rookies & Stars J.D. Drew #332
1999 Bowman C.C. Sabathia RC #344
2001 Upper Deck Prospects Premieres David Wright XRC #52
2008 Topps Stadium Club Joey Votto RC #112 - x2
2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History Joey Votto RC #112

Inking it up adds - I can probably get any particular cards online, if I know what I'm looking for, but it's an accomplishment to find cards in-hand featuring a specific, collecting topics subset theme.

1993 Upper Deck On Deck Nolan Ryan #D20
1995 Megacards Ken Griffey Jr. Wishlist ...A Lot to Live For #10 - this one actually talks about his suicide attempt early in his pro career.
1995 SkyBox E-Motion - Cal Ripken Jr. Timeless Literacy Work #9
1996 Pinnacle Summit retail foil board parallel Chipper Jones #126
1996 Upper Deck Derek Jeter #156
1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Blue Jim Thome #47 - on the reverse image, serial #’d 0986/1999; I could have probably left this card, but I collect cards for the images on the back sometimes and it's going to be harder to track any one specific card showing a mini-collection 'hit.'
1997 Upper Deck Michael Jordan Rare Air box set #54

Miscellaneous - maybe this gives me an opportunity to do some free style commentary on cards I picked up, even if what I type out gets a bit too long-winded and/or may devolve into something harder to understand.

1990 Topps Glossy Send-Ins Ken Griffey Jr. #20 - I find myself an old head, where Junior was my original Mike Trout from a past generation over 30 years ago.
1991 Pro Set Bill Belichick #126 - in my collecting life, what was worse than junk wax era baseball cards were junk wax era football [or basketball or hockey] cards.

What I do have here is a card features a coaching GOAT - so I grabbed it, even as a probable 'infamous' mini-collection add for all the chicanery 'The Hoodie' has orchestrated during his time in New England.

1992-93 Stadium Club Members Choice subset Michael Jordan #210 - maybe I'm leaning towards making a PC official, featuring all the cheap Jordans I find.
1993 Topps Finest Kirby Puckett #112 - this could be my first 1993 Finest card, maybe a landmark set I had no real idea about back in the day.
1993 Topps Stadium Club First Day Issue Vince Coleman #195 - this was the last card out I picked out and while I wonder why I subjected myself to picking up a random card of Vince Coleman, whose early high octane base stealing years with the St. Louis Cardinals was drowned out through the 1990s by firecrackers and generally bouncing around as a journeyman.

However there is some 'dirt fetish action' on the card and the little First Day Issue stamp makes the parallel a keeper - even if I don't have the original base card in-hand, at times I'd rather have parallels for my mini-collections.

1994 Topps SS Prospects Derek Jeter #158 - I don't like multiplayer cards of prominent players who end up with one or more random guys, but this second-year big league card of Jeter, chronicles his rise, where he was still plying his trade in the minors.
1994 Topps Archives ‘54 Roberto Clemente #251 - out of all the retro cards I found featuring Hall of Fame legends and icons, maybe this is the one I wanted to put away in my pocket because it chronicles the time Clemente spent with another big league organization's minor league squad.
1996 Fleer Update Smooth Leather Cal Ripken Jr. #9 - this ends up being a binder material card to put away.
1997 Upper Deck Derek Jeter #440 - I funnel my 'star cards' towards my decade / binder stars collection by default, where my player accumulations supercedes any mini-collection priorities.

In some cases, I'll relent to make a card like the Jeter a mini-collection add - with a little dirt fetish showing or even a bit of signage going on, where you can make out a certain brand of beer.

2000 Upper Deck MVP Game Used Souvenirs Manny Ramirez bat #MRB - I was excited to find a bat card out of the dollar box, even if relic cards haven't been a thing for the past 10-15 years and while I probably collected it just the same, UD MVP was more a budget collector brand.