Showing off a random stack purchase

Maybe there is a little existential crisis where I wonder what I can really do with my cards and whether I can go on moving forward - I like going through assorted cardboard, whether they are new cards or stuff that is a little more dated.

I do feel it's sham on my end if I cannot talk about my pick ups, take some card pictures and finally be able to put cards away for some closure - I need to catch myself at times and flesh out the card-by-card narrative when possible, but it's hard to make stuff up that means something.

As it goes, I need to avoid invalidating my experiences - where I'm not down and out and there is always a part of me always enthused, especially when getting something in the mail like this haul of odds and ends.

Taylor Ward was not having a great season, but his bat had heated up in July before he got beaned with an Alek Manoah pitch - effectively ending his 2023 season.I grabbed a dual bat or jersey card that looks to be player worn and/or used - I'm not sure there is much demand for Los Angeles [Angels] cards besides Shohei Ohtani and maybe Mike Trout, but it's kind of a reward to find a more random 'hit.'

To front load things with more Los Angeles [Angels] content, here is a Trout card from a couple of years ago - it's an unlicensed Panini issue and the boring picture looks as if Trout is watching a fly ball out, but the see-through acetate makes the card almost worth the $3 and change I paid.

Out in the wild, I'll make bulk, common cards of visiting players for my stadium project instant keepers when that might not have been originally the case - but it's fun to really focus on snatching up cards featuring star players and better.

I do not really get nostalgic about MLB teams that don't exist anymore like the Montreal Expos - but the pair of HOFer cards look good paired up.

The fandom over Ken Griffey Jr. is a little dated when he is closer to 60 than he is to 20 - but I'll chase his random cardboard because he is an all-time great.

This might be one lousy card, but maybe I've been tempted to build on little runs of four to five cards for any number of players from 30-40 years ago - that I have some lingering sentiment or nostalgia over, even when it's a disgraced PED slugger Mark McGwire.

I've dismissed relic cards are not being 'real enough' with no real historicity, but this post features a micro-mini flood of four or five memorablia cards - I'll take a flyer where they still have some novelty, even if the swatches used have iffy provenance more often than not.

I didn't know what this Trot Nixon jersey card was and thought it could have been from the 2001 Fleer 100th Anniversary set - looking closer, it looks like it was a specially made card for the Boston Red Sox kids club back in 2005.

Usually all MLB teams have this fan club package you can purchase for kids that comes with some game tickets and other team branded knick knacks - I'm not sure if this cards was distributed randomly with those packages or it came with each one.

With a PED suspension through 2022 and generally immaturity issues in past seasons, Fernando Tatis Jr. ends up being an iffy player, where I might not consider collecting him - on the other hand, he's played relatively well [for an underachieving San Diego Padres team], where it may be fun to go against the grain and look for cards of unpopular baseball players.

I'll claim the occasional non-playing era cards of retired players, where it gives my stack some star power - when other collectors may not be focused on the retro player content in here and now product, maybe I am able to swoop in and snatch some neat looking cards, notably the occasional inserts and parallels.

Finally, I ended up seeing this packed pulled signed rookie card and made an offer to pick it up for $10 - maybe this card ends up being a little no-context now, but I wouldn't have minded adding this card to my collection when McCann as a star catcher in his prime, 15-20 years ago.

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.

Picking up some Star Company player sets

I was hoping to see the card show seller that had a monster box row of bagged Star Company players sets among his inventory of dollar boxes - I tried to cherry pick some of the better names last time, but I wanted to grab the Tom Gordon set because I looked up the checklist / gallery on Trading Card Database and there is one lousy card that shows him swinging a bat.

I went ahead and tried to pick up at least one bagged set of other players who might have relevant in the hobby for a hot moment, then faded into oblivion - the Kevin Maas and Jerome Walton sets look to have a card of them signing autographs, so that made picking up their sets worth it.

I'll try to funnel the other cards from the sets into my team boxes - though maybe I'm tempted to do something 'crazy' and make pages for some of these players as part of an ironic collection [Walton, Todd Van Poppel, Maas] of hobby busts.

Several weeks ago, I found what looked to be sealed Star Co. players sets from the junk wax era - I am vaguely aware these were produced to capitalize on the hot players during the day, though they were licensed by Major League Baseball at the time, so that made them a little more appealing for someone who wanted something a little different.

I picked out the more notable names [for some star power] and without looking up each of the sets - hoped for some mini-collection material that might otherwise be obscured.

1989 Kevin Mitchell / Will Clark Black
1989 Gary Sheffield Purple
1990 Jose Canseco Yellow
1990 Will Clark Orange
1990 Cecil Fielder Orange
1990 David Justice Blue
1990 David Justice / Kevin Maas Red
1990 Nolan Ryan Blue

I opened the Sheffield to see if there were any unique cards and I don't think there was any out of the 11 card set - checking on eBay and maybe COMC for set images, none of these sets actually have cards that tease personality shots, where the pictures mainly focused on the player or what the player was doing on the field.

Maybe it wasn't really 'Star' quality to use 'fun images,' though it seemed there maybe scattered cards through the mid 1980s - showing players signing autographs or a more unique action shot perhaps.

If nothing else, I'll seed these as decade stars material for my player collections - where these cards represent some oddball flavor.

Out of the depths of the dollar boxes - odds and ends

This $10 purchase was far from the worst purchase I made at the last card show I went to [I don't know if I'll leave things hanging with just that tease] - but I stumbled upon a random dollar box [or '6 for $5'] and while mostly idle, going through dated cards no one wants, my brain is thinking about putting together a small stack of cards anyway.

I fished out some rookie material, including a 1986 Sportsflics Jose Canseco rookie year subset card that features six other players, an oddball rookie year Gary Sheffield, a Curtis Granderson rookie and Cliff Lee rookie - the seller went through my stack just to see what I'd actually gotten out of junk box and didn't know who Nick Markakis [draft pick, factory set insert] was.

That was peculiar, but I can see where despite having a substantial big league career - a Markakis type ends up being quite random and/or forgotten.

I relented to make these two sample / promo cards inserts because of the oddball factor - Albert Belle might be a guy I'll collect in an ironic sort of way as a guy who was universally disliked, but put up monster numbers through the decade of the 1990s.

Presumably the image used for the Nolan Ryan was from the same timeframe as his 1991 Topps Stadium Club picture - but I think the card company [Bleachers] took an image from that photo shoot and then slapped on their 'logo' when the card was being put together.

Through the junk wax era, I can see a 1987 Fleer Kirby Puckett as being a little bit better looking than the usual 1987 Topps - even if the distinctions doesn't end mattering, where one 'star card' was valued over the other.

A trio of 1990s era hitting stars, I'm not sure if I've ever had the 1990 Leaf John Olerud RC signed, so I grabbed it for TTM - maybe the Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell inserts [Circa '97 Boss] have no real value anymore, but the embossed surfaces make them fun keepers at just under a dollar.

The 1996 Pinnacle Summit Ballparks Bagwell card is serial #'d to 8,000 - which ends up still being a lot of cards and doesn't make them seem all that rare.

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 - maybe it was posted that the seller [or at least his partner] would have the dollar cards marked down to $0.50 with other higher priced material [$5-$10, etc] would also be discounted.

Maybe at other times, I would have pounced on the tables when I got the show, but this time I just took my time trying to look at other tables - where the discounted dollar bins of doom wasn't a priority since I don't think the seller would seed fresher runs of cards, especially during his 'rare,' maybe once in a year sale where he might quip about needing to blow things out for gas money or to eat out with his wife.

The 1993 Score Select Derek Jeter rookie was marked from $5 to $3 - it's a pretty basic rookie but I might have lost the one I had 20 years ago, so maybe it's nice to have another copy to squirrel away.

The 1987 Fleer George Brett, 1988 Score Brett and 1988 Score Robin Yount are glossy, while the 1993 Topps Yount is a pre-production sample - sort of later career cards for these Hall of Famers I might just skip over as junk wax era material, but end up as keepers once I realized they were a little different.

I don't know if I ever attach any sentimentality to non-rookie, early through mid 2000s cards of Albert Pujols and Ichiro because there was a glut of them and they were never worth much - but maybe the passage of time makes these cards cool regardless, where I salvaged them as cheap binder material.

Except for the Michael Jordan baseball inserts, these might be the types of cards that have resided in the dollar bins of doom for the longest time - I might have skipped through these odds and ends even at the $0.50 mark, but there are a pair of autographs [one-time Angel Dustin Moseley and softball star Jennie Finch's husband Casey Daigle], some relics [Edgardo Alfonso, Mike Sweeney, Ryan Freel] and some parallels [Vinny Castilla, Ryan Zimmerman, Jedd Gyorko] I'll relent to make keepers out of.

Other sports are never a big emphasis, but it's too hard not to stumble upon portions of the dollar bins of doom where it's all jumbled up - where I catch myself adding non-baseball cards into my keeper stack.

Out of the depths of the quarter boxes - oddballs

Off a card show brick or two I piled together, I wanted to build a micro-mini run of so-called oddball cards - I don't really think I've actively collected these types of cards, but mostly inspired by other card blogs, maybe I want to add a wrinkle where I look for something that seems a little different than the usual.

While these cards represent the 'fun and games' aspect of collecting - maybe I'm trying to be pickier, where I'll try to stick to what I consider 'mainstream oddballs,' where it's cards usually printed by a major card company and/or issues that feature full licensing, rather than a case where team logos are scrubbed off.

1992 Sportflics Kellogg's Corn Flakes All Stars Tony Perez #2 - I picked this up sealed and even if it's one visible card, there is nothing like ripping into a baseball card pack.

2002 Topps Post Mike Piazza #4 - this one-card pack had already been opened, but it looks like the card is still in decent shape, so it was a keeper.

Like a fat kid in a candy store with these finds

Part of what keeps me at someone's table digging through their cheap-o boxes for at least 30-40 minutes is finding cards that pop with eye appeal - the cards could be the cheapest late 1990s base cards or inserts of guys I don't claim to collect or have muted interest for [Mo Vaughn, Kenny Lofton and Manny Ramirez], but there is something else to have these shiny, trippy cards in-hand.

Other finds feature guys rubber stamped as card greats in my book [Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Derek Jeter and Kirby Puckett] - sometimes some old-school rookies pop up [Bo Jackson and Clemens] that I'm compelled to toss into my stack.

The 1985 Topps Clemens RC has a soft corner and isn't quite a 'pack fresh' card - but as a junk wax era guy, making a rookie card of a junk wax era superstar a keeper just has to be done.

2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary finds

I stumbled upon a table with monster boxes of assorted cards and I started digging through the baseball portion because I started to find cards from the 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary set - reading up, the product might have just been released [despite being dated to 2021] as a 700-card set with active and retired players, using the 1952 Topps design.

I tried grabbing all the better players as much as I could [notably any retired legends / Hall of Famers and/or even a few non-HOF fan favorites] - while trying to leave the cards of some of the 'iffier' players in my book.

It might not be a coup, but ending up with just a little over 70 cards from this newish set has me feeling like I really did something - where I can use the fresh cards for binder material, even if it's the basic cards as opposed to parallels.

1991 Classic Best Minor League pack

I was rummaging hard through the quarter bin at a card show and found this clear plastic pack of junk wax era minor league cards - I grabbed it because I saw it was still sealed and rather than one card, I get two [even if the back showed Todd Van Poppel] where I can count the pack as 'one' towards my bulk keepers.

I don't think the actual cards are part of a promo issue, but I guess the packs might have been designed for promotional uses as giveaways and whatnot - when I finally did a micro-mini pack break of what I thought was a two-card pack, I also found a card of Pedro Martinez sandwiched in the middle.

Featured autograph - Rhys Hoskins

This certified autograph card was the centerpiece in a small stack of cards I picked up at a card show - Hoskins doesn't quite register as a perennial all-star type, but he's more of a real solid power hitter who ends up having his share of hitting highlights over the course of a season.

I ended up picking up Hoskins and a Vladimir Guerrero [serial #'d to 99] card [$5] and a few more odds and ends - nothing mind shattering but more cards to squirrel away.

Better than a blaster [?] - some dollar box mining

At a card show I go to, I found these cards off a seller I've never bought from or at least noticed before - at times, it's the different faces that may offer something a little different, rather than the same old type of cards [off my go-to sellers] I've already passed over in my head.

What I found may not be the fun, odd or old material, but they are a change of pace where these are newer cards and sometimes - I want something a little more recent than out of time.

I did some damage at one seller's table and was just wandering around the card show room, wondering if I was really done for the day - I started going through a box at a table and maybe I was starting to flag 10, 15, 20 cards where I was tempted to spend a little more.

In the end, I round up 30 cards and the seller charged me $20 - which was a little relief from what I'd expected to pay.

2022 582 Montgomery Club Kris Bryant - this just caught my eye where, 'neat, this might be one of Bryant's first 2022 cards in a Colorado Rockies uniform.'

Despite signing a long-term deal with the Rockies, I kind of feel like he's at a crossroads in his playing career - where he might not ever reach superstar heights again.

2022 582 Montgomery Club singles - I don't know how common these cards have been, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to seek them out otherwise, so I'll load up on some of stars as I found, just as something different to squirrel away as binder material.

I like the Topps Silver Pack cards but I don't buy any flagship hobby or jumbo boxes to get any of the packs - after the fact, maybe most of the basic cards are forgotten as just another part of an insert set issued, but I do like the way they pop and may hunt for loose cards as probable keepers.

Some Topps 3D issues, a Gypsy Queen numbered insert of Jacob deGrom and a Jose Ramirez Bowman card - from a higher end Topps product that is basically a glorified parallel, mirroring another set.