COMC order #9 - Sportscasters

1977-79 Sportscasters Series 03 Lausanne Printed in Japan Hank Aaron #03-16 - I picked up this old-school Hank Aaron oddball item for around $6 three years ago and was part of what I had delivered from my COMC account late in December.

The larger format card ends up sort of a misfit, but a case where I didn't mind a more substantial card in-hand - rather than some ratty regular sized card.

1977-79 Sportscasters Series 27 Geneva A Dave Kingman #27-21 - I decided to pick this up for around $3, because it's been sitting somewhere in my memory banks as a scratch the itch card to take ownership of.

Rather than another regular size card I can file away like the others in my inking it up theme - this ends ends up being a bigger, oddball item, where the image of Kingman signing autographs pops a little bit more.

Some junk wax era finds at the card show

When I go to a card show, maybe I have delusions that I'm going to come away with an important card in either value and/or sentiment - but the reality is I haven't been about that collecting life where I do any sort of homework on targeting a bigger card.

More often that not, I get sidetracked and stick digging around more bulk / value box material - where I just like picking through cards I can actually thumb through.

At a card show date, I was digging through a dollar or '6 for $5' box off one seller - I ended up grabbing about 18 cards, none probably older than 1995, but fun to take ownership of like the following cards.

1986 Utah Sports Card Co. The Wonderful World of Wally Joyner at BYU - maybe not particularly hard to find as a set on eBay, but I ended up grabbing the ones I could find from the 14-card set since they were unfamiliar to me.

I thought I had picked up a Joyner card from the set a couple of years ago - but it turned out to be from another BYU themed set put out by the same company.

1986 Sportflics cards of Rod Carew, Don Mattingly, Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson - besides vaguely remembering buying a box of 1989 Sportlics at a toy store at an outlet 25 years ago, I've never given Sportflics cards much thought other than dated relics from the junk wax years.

However, there might renewed interest in the loose cards I find in the wild - where the illusion of motion kind of amuse me.

Teasing some low end finds from a show

At the recent card show date I was at, I stumbled upon a seller who had quarter bins set out from a bigger card show I went to over the summer - I had to stop digging around then, since I didn’t have loose dollar bills in-hand to pay for smaller, rinky-dink purchases.

I remembering leaving a copy of a 1991 Topps Archives The Ultimate 1953 Set Eleanor Engle #332 - a card I could have instantly made a keeper for curiosity sake, where it pictured a woman who once signed a pro contract in baseball.

Go figure I did find a copy of the Engle card somewhere, so I wasn't about to look for now - though the seller had some newer, current year material this time around, thumbing through the junk wax era material time forgot ends up being an exercise in futility.

As is, finding a 1992 Allan Kaye's Sports Cards News Magazine Multi-Sport Jim Abbott #23 oddball was an excuse - to see if I could find enough cards to make at least a $5.00 purchase.

Maybe it's about trying to fill idle time while at a card show, but despite the relative quality of any particular box or price point - I'll be digging and digging, where after finding that one card, it's like a challenge to put together a 'lil keeper stack.

1990 Eclipse Stars of the Negro Leagues Oliver Marcelle #17 - it may not be a comprehensive thing that really gets off the ground, but I might be looking to build a loose card project dedicated to Negro League players.

1990 Eclipse Stars of the Negro Leagues Sammy Hughes #35 - I'll pat myself on the back for making a couple of oddball box set cards dedicated to the Negro Leagues keepers.

1995-96 Skybox Premium Dell Curry #12 - x2; Michael Jordan (in Background)

I don't know what compelled me to move over to the other sport portion of the quarter boxes put out - but it paid off when I found a copy of this card.

Regardless of value and the idea I could go into eBay or other online source to pick up one lousy copy - this became one of those scratch the itch cards in recent years.

I ended up finding one more copy and made both keepers since I could not believe I found it like I did - it's fun when a card in my memory banks somewhere as a 'want' could be found just sitting in some quarter box at a card show.

1993-94 Topps Stadium Club Frequent Flyers Dan Majerle #353 - Michael Jordan (in Background)

This find wasn't on the same level as finding the Curry - but it was also a card I was aware of where Jordan makes a cameo.

I do not not want the countless basic Michael Jordan cards printed over the decades - I just want the ones where he is making cameos on other players' cards.

1992 Allan Kaye's Sports Cards News Magazine Multi-Sport Fred McGriff #54 - I made this a keeper since this was the other star baseball player card I found from the same oddball set as the Abbott.

1988 Donruss Baseball's Best Jose Canseco #22 - as it was once intended to capitalize on collector's interests, I find myself gravitating towards cards from junk wax era releases that ended up being a little different than your flagship Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score and eventually Upper Deck products.

1993 Cartwrights Magazine Aces Kirby Puckett #10 - if I can find them in the wild, I maybe more open to making oddballs like this one keepers, to supplant the other cards of players in my decade / binder stars collections.

Fleshing out some card projects with my loose card finds

I've got piles of cards from purchases I've sat on after giving them a quick look and/or trying to list them out somewhere so at least there is a record I can look at - one of the things I'm trying to do at the moment is sort my decade stars / binder material cards.

I have a cheat sheet [a quick reference guide] leaderboard collection to tally up the most cards I have for players through a single decade - rather than just trying to sort out loose cards 'as is,' by decade and by player, it's a game to see which guys I've ended up overcollecting or undercollecting.

It's hard to keep track of exact cards from my random purchases - but I've been weeding out my decade stars / binder material from the 1980s / 1990s debut guys like from this pile of card show finds [25 dollar cards I was charged $15 for].

For the 1980s debut players whose cards I've shown, it looks like I have the following totals tallied up before further updates - Tony Gwynn - 44 cards, Barry Bonds - 38 cards, Wade Boggs - 21 cards and Sammy Sosa - eight cards.

When think about it, the totals for each player end up changing as I constantly find more scattered cards - at the moment, the leader for my 1980s leaderboards ends up being Will Clark at 68 cards and counting, while Ken Griffey Jr. clocks in at second place with 59 cards and counting.

These are pick ups for 1990s debut guys and before any further updates, it looks like I have the following totals tallied up - Vladimir Guerrero Sr. - 69 cards [current leader for the '90s], Derek Jeter - 45 cards, Manny Ramirez - 29 cards, Ivan Rodriguez - 16 cards and Trevor Hoffman - 11 cards.

At the moment Carlos Beltran is the only player whose card is pictured as one of my finds, but isn't currently on my leaderboards collection - a case where I don't have enough cards piled up to make a page.

At some point, the plan at some point is to take action and put the cards into plastic pages - even when there are more cards out there in the wild.

As it goes, my trigger number for a players' cards to be added for my leaderboards is about seven cards - where I can make a page of nine using the loose cards I've gathered and probably a few more miscellaneous cards stored double sided in a plastic sheet.

I don't know if it is going to take a few more days, a week or even a couple before I move off sorting cards for the 1980s/1990s - I have a leaderboard collection for the 2000s debuts guys and it's going to be more of the same, where there is a race to figure the most or the least cards I might have for certain players.

My last tally was listed as April 2022 and before any further updates, it looks like I have the following totals tallied up - Ichiro [Suzuki] - 23 cards, Albert Pujols - 22 cards and Joe Mauer - 13 cards.

I picked up rookie cards of Kazuhiro Sasaki and Mark Buehrle - Sasaki isn't a decade stars guy for me, so the card might in my nations collection or random team box collection.

Buehrle might be a decade stars guy in my book - but I don't think I've gone out of my way to make his cards keepers.

I'll tease the project here and there, but something I want to do through this year is compile an all-time Top 100 cheap-zz keepers collection - inspired by other collectors who have showcased similar projects, my current collection consists of certain quirky, funny, ironic or personal cards, but I might be on the hunt for unique cards worthy of consideration.

An off-shoot idea would be to have a regional / Angels collection of an all-time Top 100 cheap-zz keepers collection - where I might be looking out of random cards that flesh out this collection; maybe the Pujols refractor doesn't quite make the cut, but I might be able to use a 1993 Topps Gold Jim Edmonds rookie year card.

Through 2023, maybe there has been a nudge towards picking up random cards of more miscellaneous, notable subjects as I come across their cards - despite wanting it where it's mostly baseball cards I'm curating for a collection, maybe the plan is to fill out my Top 100 collection with a select number of non-baseball guys, just to mix things up and add some odd depth to a compilation of cards.

More small things at the card show

I was digging through some '6 for $5' boxes from a random seller table and these were my keepers - added another 18 cards from the seller's '5 for $1' box and maybe it was kind of odd thing I couldn't push the total to 20 outright.

Maybe my favorite card is the 1986 Donruss Rookies Jose Canseco #22 - it was a card I remember a childhood friend possessing and seeing regularly [along with an autographed 1989 Upper Deck Dante Bichette rookie] whenever I would visit his house.

I really wanted to take a better picture of this 2000 Topps Finest Moments 3000 Hits Tony Gwynn #FM3, where it's hard to see on the first image - but it's usually hard to take photo ops of shinier, chromium cards, so what you see is what you get.

Another quickie card show pit stop #2

I stumbled upon a real high brow monster box of cards and went to work for about the 10 minutes I had left at a card show - I was kind of on the clock where I had to wrap things up sooner than never, so I was trying to make the most out of my rummage.

I've ended up with two or three of these Bowman Jordan Walker prospect cards over the past few years, but was in a hurry to pile up cards - so I just threw one new copy found into my pile.

I made keepers out of mini collection material such as - Greg Maddux hitting on the back of one of his cards, an awesome outfield action card picturing Kevin Pillar, a Tampa Bay Rays mascot card, a Benito Santiago catcher card and a random Dave Righetti oddball, I made a keeper because of the bald guy in sunglasses making a cameo.

Team USA cards - I tried to look for the guys that were kind of familiar now [even though they were either on college or even on U-18 teams when depicted on the cards].

I was able to find a couple of cards of Reid Detmers - I think I sent similar copies and got them back signed TTM during the pandemic season.

Even though I ended up grabbing at least a few guys who might not be in the big leagues yet or may not get there - I found cards of Anthony Volpe, Bryson Stott, Riley Greene and Corbin Carroll.

Finally some random cheap-o Hall of Famer cards - even though they didn't start their careers in the junk wax era, I might be content to ignore cards of guys Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter and Alan Trammell because they had their glut of cards printed during those 1986-92 years.

Depending on what I may find at the bulk level, I might be compelled to pick up two or three cards of the HOFers whose cards from the junk wax era I'll usually skip over - if the cards end up being a little different like oddballs or cards with a unique image used that stand out.

Another quickie card show pit stop #1

I stumbled upon a real high brow monster box of caards and went to work for about the 10 minutes I had left at a card show - I was kind of on the clock where I had to wrap things up sooner than never, so I was trying to make the most out of my rummage.

I found a pair of Will Clark boxed set oddball and vowed to be committed to this dig - I've rubber stamped Clark as one of the guys from the junk wax era onward as a collecting fan favorite, even though I've found 'The Thrill' to be a little too grating these days when he does his podcasts with Eric Byrnes.

Random current guys - I think I've made Brandon Marsh's Angels rookies keepers, even though he is obviously no longer an Angel.

Through his rookie year, maybe his development as a young big leaguer had stalled with the Angels - he gets traded to the Philadelphia Phillies finish out the 2022 season, but after a solid year in 2023, there might be some potential left for Marsh to be an even better player that he could have ever have been with the Angels.

He has become a fan favorite, where he is fun to watch with all his fair flying around - in the highlights I've seen of him with the Phillies, he's always fired up, gesturing to his dugout after hits and seems like a real 'rah-rah' guy.

I pass on most Gerrit Cole cards just because he seems too 'corporate,' even for MLB players who get millions to play a game - however I want to make it where most Panini Donruss Pink Fireworks parallels are keepers.

More Pink Fireworks parallels teasing a pair of questionable guys - I hesitated to make these keepers because of the players shown, but it's like a reward finding the parallels themselves, so into my pile they went.

I didn't know if there was space in my pile for a 1987 Topps Domingo Ramos #641 or a 1991 Fleer Brady Anderson #466 - but I added them on with others I assume are stadium project cards.

I would term these guys as 'fan favorite' types - Gooden and Murphy had runs of superstar greatness, while the ageless Franco was always an all-star talent, even though may have been considered a notch below a true superstar.

I could never get into the junk wax era Conlon card sets because the images were black and white and pictured old timers before my time - but made a keeper out of a card of Johnny Vander Meer, who threw two consecutive no-hitters as a big league pitcher.

I made this Mark Gubicza card a keeper after not claiming a copy I'd seen in a sale online recently - I classify his cards as mostly junk wax commons, but he's had ties with the Angels as a broadcaster for at least the past 15 years, so maybe his oddballs are worth a second look.

Another Brady Anderson card makes the pile and it is a 1988 Topps Traded 'XRC,' so it is more unique card - I remember him as a junk wax guy who barely had any pop and was a fringe big leaguer through his mid 20s.

At the age of 28 however, he broke out as a late bloomer for the Baltimore Orioles - where he became a solid top of the lineup presence for the bulk of his career through the 1990s, with a peculiar 1996 season where hit 50 home runs.

2023 Topps International Trading Card Day Angels SGA

My niece got some of the team specific, stadium giveaway cards from the 2023 Topps International Card Day promotion on Aug. 5 - she was showing them off to me the following day, but insisted on keeping them and was planning to give one Shohei Ohtani dupe to her friend.

Before a recent visit for some babysitting duties, I wondered if I should bother bringing along the random Disney cards I bought from a card show months ago - I felt like my cards was going to be no brainer trade ammo for the ones she had.

When I got to her house, I told her about having my own cards to show off and as we leafed through cards with images of different Disney characters, she really liked them - I was now certain I was getting my SGA Angels cards, though we still had to get some breakfast.

After getting back to her house, she brought down the cards and while I didn't know if they were a complete set where counted out eight - there was still an Ohtani, Mike Trout and Logan O’Hoppe rookie.

Better than a blaster [?] - some vintage and old school cards

At a card show I went to, I started rummaging through some old-school and vintage cards at a table - I don't think I've seen this seller before and he might have been real happy to be there, where people might be interested in what he was selling.

From the bits and pieces I was overhearing, the seller was a longtime collector - but maybe starting to sell off some odds and ends to his collection.

The seller had scattered $2, $3, $5, $7, $10, $15 and up cards in his boxes - maybe I wanted to get started somewhere else at the show where I didn't want to get stuck in one table at the beginning of my journey, but I started finding some oddball Hostess cards for $2 each and was resigned to see if I can find some other cards to build a stack with.

Maybe the $2 portions had some of the 'newer' cards from the junk wax / UV era - I wanted to focus on finding the occasional off-condition vintage / old school star cards in the $5 rows, though maybe I don't want to blow my wad of cash outright.

Then seller told me the cards priced $5 and up where buy 2, get 1 free - I think what caught my eye was a 1970 Topps Bud Harrelson #634, which in a vintage card of a player inking it up.

Even though it's either miscut or even trimmed up, anything I pick up would have to start and end with that card - it was going home with me

I picked up some other cards, just to have some vintage card 'relics' in-hand - including some fairly loved, off-condition at best star cards.

The seller said if he knew someone was going to look for the Hostess cards, he would have brought more - he said they were mostly common, but unique [because they were not packed out like normal baseball cards].

Along with the old-school, oddball Hostess cards, I was charged $22 for my stack, which seemed reasonable - rather than settling for a shiny, new blaster box for at least several dollars more.

Remnants of the most random dollar bins

At the card show I go to, there is a father and son duo that buys collections and has boxes of cheap-o material - at one of the other shows, I saw them at, a person who might not have known any better asked the father if there were "any good cards" in the boxes.

The father basically said something like [they've gone through the boxes] where there probably won't be anything of value - maybe these finds symbolize that, but I still like rummaging through where it's not just the most random cards from the most recent years or drivel from the junk wax era.

Old school / vintage cards - maybe there is a little thirst to make keepers out old cardboard, even if they end up being stragglers rather something that end up being notable finds to build on in my collections.

Fan favorites types - there are former players I don't get really nostalgic about 24/7, but may get a second look through my eyes, where maybe I relent to pick up a random card of theirs.

I remember Eric Chavez as a rising star third baseman, before injuries wrecked havoc to his prime years - he kind of had a late career revival, but more of a semi-regular who was good in spurts.

I tried to collect Ryan Klesko when he was one of the top prospects in the Atlanta Braves system in the early 1990s - which was at least 30 years ago and counting.

Finding a shiny and numbered card of a Hall of Famer is kind of a reward - even though Edgar Martinez was considered more as a baseball card minor star than someone who was a superstar outright.

Cheap-o rookies of fan favorite types - for the most part these types of cards are baseball card 'has beens,' but cards to make keepers of when I stumble upon them.

Andrew McCutchen has bounced around the past four or five years after his peak seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates - the batting numbers are not as dynamic, but is still hanging onto a MLB playing career.

Yu Darvish fits in with the other Japanese imports - who've established notable big league careers and have had runs of good years, as opposed to some their other peers, who may have been more disappointments than outright successes.

I don't really collect other sports, but picking up this random NBA card might be a no brainer as a casual sports fan - I think I've seen signed versions of this card and it's fun to see two iconic players featured on one card.

I think these two cards ended up in my keeper stash by accident - I don't know how they couldn't have gotten in there, but did a double take when I was combing over my finds afterwards.

More SLASHED finds at the dollar bins of doom

I usually go to the card show that is held twice in a month to see the seller I've annointed as having the dollar bins of doom - in my very last visit, I was expecting the cards to being back to a dollar each, but the cards were still marked down to $0.50 with good reason.

Instead of a 'fleet' of 5-7 monster boxes, there might be have been one three row box of $0.50 cards - cards I expect to stay away from once the seller reloads and mixes things up with fresher dollar box material.

Maybe it was like pulling teeth to come up with cards to set aside as keeper material - I felt like I could walk away buying only so many random odds and ends this time around.

I don't know if old school football cards really do something for me - but I like the old-school colors and how the cards look where they are a little different from their baseball counterparts.

A young, vibrant Sammy Sosa as a young pro, still looking to reach the big leagues - he is a different 'what could have been' story, a long since retired MLB great, turned into irrelevant pariah whom no one ever talks about except to occasionally mock his skin condition.

A pair of parallels that featuring a baserunning action and also a tools of ignorance, catcher card - maybe I make these mini-collection cards keepers out of principle, but I've been worried about my collecting topics subsets being a bloat that has overwhelmed me.

Maybe I picked up this rookie card of Peja Stojaković, because I kind of remember him part of some very good Sacramento Kings teams back in the early 2000s - led by Chris Webber and Mike Bibby, squads that ultimately couldn't get past the Shaq [see above] / Kobe led Los Angeles Lakers.

Even though I left it once before, I made sure to make a keeper out of a Hideki Matsui rookie card - maybe there is still a reverence for the certain Japanese players who have made a big league impact, the top guys that have stood out, even as their MLB time has only represented a portion of their pro baseball careers.

I left this 'XRC' before and I don't know why I made it a keeper this time around - maybe Franco tends to be overlooked where the role of the closer has sometimes been painted to be overvalued.

Franco had a fantastic MLB career and maybe if he had some sort of gimmick on the mound, threw 95 MPH or was associated with a run of World Series championship teams - he'd probably be in the Hall of Fame.

A basic, not autographed rookie card has been devalued as bulk fodder - but I just stumbled upon this one and made it a keeper, where Lux may look to be reaching his offensive potential.

It would probably be more ideal if he can stick at one position - but maybe his ability to play in the infield and the outfield may make him more valuable for a perennial World Series contender or perhaps a perennial World Series contender looking to make a player like Lux a potential centerpiece to a trade.