Card show pickups - The rest of the mess

I've ended up intermittently posting about what I got [like the Miguel Tejada card] - these aren't the better cards or anything, just kind of odds and ends I ended up making keepers from the particular purchase.

Off a seller that has become my outlet for whatever miscellaneous cards things I dig for - maybe I really didn't find a card or two that grabbed my attention from the stacked singles piles, maybe to bundle along the cheaper stuff I may find.

Another collector was plugging away through the seller's two-row dollar shoebox and at the tail end of this other guy's dig, I started going through the dollar bin myself - though maybe the box wasn’t refreshed from the last time I saw the seller.

It didn't seem that long ago when I went through the seller's dollar boxes, but that was already back several months ago - after some time has passed, could I expect the seller to fresher dollar material?

Maybe the seller has a cache of material he just sitting on or not knowing his M.O. - does make it where he has ways to regularly buy up new hauls of assorted cards, he can put out for a dollar each.

Card show pickups - Matt Holliday

I picked up a couple of [dollar] rookies of the former big league slugger and while a non-geographic player for me - I don't think I ever had these cards and could squirrel them away, where Holliday was notable player who is part of the 'he's signed an autograph for me in-person before' alumni.

Holliday might be most relevant in the 'here and now' as the father of 2022 No. 1 overall pick Jackson Holliday - where picking up pop's cards triggers me to watch for the younger, looking to play his first full season in pro baseball.

The elder Holliday had very good big league career mostly between the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals - he also had some odd stints with the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees and a late-career return with the Rockies.

Card show pick ups - more randomness?

On a card show trip, maybe I was not really enthused about the vibe in the room where there were not as many sellers and things seemed slower - I stumbled upon a random seller with at least several monster boxes of assorted singles individually priced [at least $5 or more].

I tried to dig around and see what may catch my attention, maybe I wonder whether the material is passable or not - the seller said something about making offers to consider, so there was an opportunity to pick something up where this table might be it as far where I was going to spend most of what I had in-hand.

I found these three cards first and offered $10 for them - an old school rookie card of Keith Hernandez, a short print variation of Babe Ruth and a bat card of Tony Oliva.

After trying to go around the room, I came back to the seller's tables where maybe I'd find more cards - I found a little mix of cards I tried offering $20 for, though the seller expected more and I ended up paying $30.

Among the odds and ends included a second-year Gary Carter - I want to follow the mature collectors who have tried to make something about collecting old-school and/or vintage cards, even in bits and pieces.

A rookie year certified autograph of Michael Young - he was a second baseman who last played 10-15 years ago and was underrated as a longtime hitting star.

A certified autograph of Andrew Velasquez - even though the autograph on the sticker hologram looks sloppy, I picked it up for my all-time Angels collection.

While completion isn't realistic - it's cool knowing I have the most random players' autographs that played for my home team.

A Roberto Clemente insert that was too shiny to ignored - I'm not sure if this was numbered, but I like how it pops.

A Mike Trout / Shohei Ohtani insert I thought might have been worth something - but looked too neat to leave behind regardless.

A 1993 Donruss Dominator Greg Maddux - I guess it's not a pack pulled insert set, more like a 'box topper' bonus, but still a cool card.

Though it's a piece of plastic that I would have tossed a long time ago, I really like the branded top loader - which I assume was how the cards were originally shipped in.

Maybe the highlights were the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson #482 rookie card and the 1982 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. #21 rookie card - on first glance, I had second thoughts about picking the cards up [maybe the sticker price $15 each] because they were more 'well loved' and 'off-condition,' rather than cleaner copies with better eye appeal.

On the other hand, I've never really had these cards in my collection and at the very least, end up as binder material centerpieces to the collection of cards I have for each player - with these rookies in my possession, I'd have some bragging rights if I took a time machine to the junk wax era of the early 1990s.

Showing off some card show stuff #2

To bide my time, I was rummaging through this couple’s table where the I'd overheard the husband say at previous shows he's looking get rid of his cards- the table might have some interesting loose singles to dig for and the person usually offers a discount if at least a couple of cards are purchased.

I might have finally bit on a $5 [off-grade, off-centered vintage card of an all-time fan favorite] but was just kind of idle and looking closer - realized the card has a crease down the middle where the eye appeal wasn't there.

I had second thoughts where I really wanted the card - but had to pivot towards finding others.

2005 Upper Deck Justin Verlander RC #430 [$5] - it depends on what I may actually find, but I maybe on the hunt for loose, low end rookies of star players with significant playing careers.

2003 Fleer E-X X-Tra Innings Ichiro 1 of 10XI [$5] - this might be a type of insert I might have pulled back in the day and say, ‘meh’ where it’s not really a hit in my book, especially out a $6 pack, but the die-cut design and the use of black color scheme makes this card stand out.

I was going to get those two [for $8], but just make it an even $10 - the seller had me grab a 2019 Topps Chrome 1984 Ichiro 84TC-14, which was fine by me.

Showing off some card show stuff #1

These were there results of pick ups from a couple of trips to a table with dollar boxes - last year, I picked up $20 worth of cards from the same table [different location at the show], but the last few times I was at this show towards the end of October, I didn't see the seller setup.

The lure was finding the occasional loose old-school [early 1980s and before] and vintage [1973 and before] cards - where the boxes ended up being sort of a treasure hunt for notable names on cards at least 40 years old.

I ended up spending $21 on the cards pictured above and while it's not high brow material - I can make believe my finds are better than picking up a $20 blaster or comparable to the results, of one of those specialty, collector repacks I've seen online.

I'd moved on in my day, but still trying to see if I can rummage around cards at various tables when I was ready to leave - I ended up back at the dollar boxes, wondering if I can fish out at least 4-5 other cards I might have overlooked.

I grabbed the Russell Martin pack pulled autograph because I remember him being among a core of rising stars for the Los Angeles Dodgers through the late 2000s - at some point, while still trying to get autographs in-person, I felt he had gotten stingier about signing, so this random card ends up being a winning find in my book after Martin's career was over and done with.

I don't ever need a Troy Glaus memorabilia card again but 20 years ago, he was the Angels' young superstar slugger - where for at least a couple of years, the sky was the limit.

I'm not sure if I've ever had a 1987 Fleer Bo Jackson RC, which may have actually been his most popular rookie issue at his peak - to the naked eye, maybe it's a little off-center, but clean enough for me to overlook anything else.

Maybe I wasn't finding anymore 'cool' old-school and vintage cards, but grabbed this Topps insert game card of Orlando Cepeda - thought it has creases running along the card, where I wasn't paying much attention.

Finally I grabbed a really shiny Topps Finest parallel of Trevor Hoffman from the late 1990s - he was a notable relief star through the time he played, but maybe only years after the fact he's gets into the Hall of Fame, might I consider the occasional card I find as a keeper.

Some card show material to dwell on

Through last year, the promoters of the monthly show I attend have tried to branch out into a hotel venue - the first couple of 'new' shows were held at a hotel about 10-15 minutes away from my house compared to the 'flagship location' each month, which takes about 35-45 minutes through traffic.

However the promoters may have had to change things up to a different hotel location [same chain though] - not as close to my house but only really a couple of cities over. 

I ended going to the first hotel show of the year, which is just a little different than being in a gym - though it's still about finding that accessible table where I can dig around for some stuff rather than be idle.

I ended up at a table with a younger guy [maybe at least 25-30] who partners up with an older, guy whose booth at another card show was actually a go-to outlet for me through the late 2000s - I know it's the same person, but I don't know how he is still around and still looks virtually the same.

I was setting aside random dollar cards, because I saw a 2021 Bowman Blaze Jordan #BP71 and found at least four in the table's dollar bin - I'm not a serious prospector, but I've been really out of the loop the last couple of years.

I haven’t really harvested as many loose prospect cards of the younger guys where it's almost 'out of sight, out of mind' - until guys break through to the big leagues for the most part. 

I was going through a row of cards that had some rookie year Shohei Ohtanis and I found a 2018 Topps Gallery #116 and a 2018 Topps RC #700 for $10 each - there were other Ohtanis from Panini branded products, but I wanted to dig for some licensed singles.

I might have the Topps Ohtani since it’s fairly common, but if I didn’t, it might be worth picking up [along with the Topps Gallery] - where I’m would be trying to some squirrel away cheap rookie cards for my regional PC.  

I grabbed those cards and built up a miscellaneous stash of dollar cards - as long as I had a couple of Jordans in-hand, then I was good. 

I spent $15 on dollar cards [and a $3 Nolan Ryan insert], which were from the younger guy’s portion of the table - while the pair of Ohtani’s cost me $15 and were actually from the older guy’s boxes. 

The top row features 2019 Bowman Heritage, which I assume was an on-demand product that wasn't too popular - the second year cards of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Juan Soto off the set are kind of 'oddballs' in my book.

Even though numbered prospect parallels are a dime a dozen it seems and end up cards no one really wants - I bit on cards of Triston McKenzie and Ethan Hankins because I don't know any better.

At least McKenzie has reached the big leagues with some promise - while Hankins is a Tommy John case who looks to be on a mound pitching in some games again.

The second row features some serial #'d Topps Heritage Chrome parallels - maybe the values don't reflect it at all, but for me, it maybe a case where contemporary cards [from the last 10-15 years] turn into old school material where enough time has passed to make them novelties depending on player and card type.

I might have left a Josh Hamilton behind and would have left the Felix Hernandez - the last part of big league career stalled, but King Felix was a pitching superstar at his peak and deserves some post career love.

The last row featured a 2021 Topps Archives 1989 Big Foil Ryan #89BF-6 - it might be a case where I'd be getting one card for $3 instead of three more random dollar cards, but I had to put a newer shiny card of an Angels legend in my pile.

I've lost track of the Topps Stadium Club releases since 2014 where they don't have that same impact for me - but any loose TSC cards I think I might not have are nice finds, like this 2019 Topps Stadium Club Jackie Robinson #70 where he is inking it up over the dugout.

Finally, I don't know if it's a personal vow or anything, but any loose Satchel Paige cards should be made keepers - like a 2021 Panini Diamond Kings Gallery of Stars insert #GS3.

So it begins for '22 - some card show stuff

I headed to my first card show trip of the year and when I got to the place, maybe things were a little low key outside and I wondered if I was at the right place - when I walked into the gym, maybe the foot traffic seemed lighter and maybe there were more empty spaces where seller tables could be.

There were still the same core of tables such as the higher end showcase guys, the card doctor / card cleaner dude and more of the ‘card bro’ tables where they won't look at you unless you are in their crew - but perhaps the gym just wasn't as packed with commerce and I was just kind of ambivalent about the vibe where it was a little sleepy.

I was aiming for the table with what I call the dollar boxes of doom, though perhaps I've been more interested in the $5-$20 singles - however, it seemed like a smaller set up and people were already planted there, so I decided to wander around to see where I can find myself.

I decided I’d switch things up and start with good ‘ole Mr. Dependable, a seller with a 3,200 count box of cards for a dime each - I was worried about missing out on the better material at the dollar boxes of doom, but I needed to plant myself somewhere where I’d made up my mind I wasn’t going to be missing out on much regardless.

Building up my stashes where it’s about plundering what I can out of the baseball rows - I’m trying to keep things straight even as loose cards are spilling all over the place and I'm not exactly sure how to corral them into piles that make sense.

I need some ‘table management’ where set my stacks of cards where after about 45 minutes, I'm just about done - I need to figure out what I have and start to wrap things up.

I dutifully count things out and end up with 375 cards [maybe I went one over where I suspect I counted a dupe as one card] - after calculating the totals, I was charged $20 and my first bulk haul of the year is in the books.

These may represent players I'm iffy about or cards I don't think I'd ever consider picking up in there here and now - but I'm looking for keepers, whether it's on a whim or perhaps cards that are mini-collection material, loose / random cards for my team boxes project on the side and just other loose card projects.

Some Florida Marlins curiosities showcased for some reason - maybe I'm putting myself through a bad 'repack' trip, but my game plan has never been that serious, where no one is going to stop me from setting aside cards left and right.

I've already given myself license to 'freelance' with these rummages - do I start to shift focus on grabbing cards of fan favorites like a Raul Mondesi, Jason Varitek or even a Brad Radke to squirrel away as team boxes material?

Maybe Mondesi was the only one I thought was collectible at some point and my interest in him peaked over 20 years ago - just going through all these cards, I wonder if faux nostalgia is setting in, where time has passed to make what was once 'common' and 'meh' old school cool all these years later.

How about Fernando Tatis Sr., who had a solid big league career - but it's probably 50/50 now whether fans remember him for hitting two grand slams in an inning an/dor being the father of a big league superstar.

Misc - nice 'gum card' score on the reverse image of a 1997 Pinnacle Certified Raul Casanova #122.

Misc - I think whenever I'd have acquaintances who discover I had an interest in cards, their first thought was to mention Chan Ho Park, which was annoying.

After 25 years, I'm still messing with cardboard and on the down low, have decided to make a few of Park's cards keepers as I find them - including a couple of rookies and an insert from his dreadful Texas Rangers years.

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.

Some miscellaneous Keston Hiura finds

The Milwaukee Brewer was my pick to click as a breakthrough star in 2020 after a good rookie season in 2019 - I thought it would be fun picking up a few low end Hiura cards including four rookie cards and a couple of other prospect cards.

Unfortunately, he only hit .212 this past year, though I’m inclined to give players who struggled through a 60-game MLB season a pass - the 24-year old has the talent and presumably the aptitude to bounce back, though contact issues [16 walks / 85 strikeouts] may prevent him to be a hitting star outright.

Digging around through COMC in the winter of 2019, I sought out the Hiuras while passing over some similar types of cards - featuring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. [he was okay, but probably underwhelming] and Fernando Tatis Jr. [do’h, he was the second year big leaguer who actually broke out as a superstar].

A card shop find - a 1983 Topps set

During an out of town card shop trip , I was lurking in the junk wax / junk set corner, maybe looking for a junk wax box / junk era set to rip  - I guess I see myself as a hoarder or at the very least willing to rummage through a pile of crap to try and find 'something' to take home.

The last time I was at this card shop was in fall of 2017 and think I saw a 1995 Upper Deck Minors box for $15 last fall which was intriguing because regardless of how bad the content has aged - those mid 90s UD sets still look good.

However, there is probably lots of turnover - even if any particular box / set is just squirreled away somewhere else as opposed to someone actually buying it.

I saw some hand collated sets [junk wax era] on the counter closest to where all the junk boxes / junk sets are - this isn’t what I’m really looking for because the brown card boxes look ancient and taped shut, so who knows if there are just repacked garbage in there.

One of the store employees was explaining to an older collector that he just got those sets in and they did have the key cards - the older collector was looking for a run of old-school Topps sets.

I was lingering by, but the older collector was coming along looking for this and that - it felt like I kind of snatched the box with the 1983 Topps set [marked at $20] from just under his grasp.

Maybe the value has bottomed out, but old-school, pre junk wax era cards printed through the mid 1980s are still intriguing - it would be an impulse buy, but could I beat the price?

I really wasn’t about to mess with the set because who knows where it came from - even if the rookie cards of Ryne Sandberg [#83], Tony Gwynn [#482] and Wade Boggs [#498] would make the set seem like a no brainer purchase.

I have a PSA graded Sandberg and do prefer PSA graded rookies of Gwynn and Boggs - since there is some assurance someone looked at the cards to deem them authentic and assign a numerical grade.

For a price of a blaster, I could at least mimic the experience of going through the 35-year old cards like they came from unopened rips - maybe I could try to finish off my Topps team runs for 1983 with cards leftover for various, miscellaneous interests.

I actually took the time to put the set in plastic pages to see what a full set of 792 cards would look like in a book - during a few different times, I emptied out just about 90 plastic pages filled with assorted inserts and added the 1983 Topps cards.

To the naked eye the Sandberg, Gwynn and Boggs are presentable - maybe kind of examples I'd find in a more common showcase of cards at a card show or card shop.

The rest of the cards are probably in 'ex-mt' condition, with examples of cards - being off-center, miscut or otherwise having some sort of noticeable blemish.

I'll probably leave the misfit condition cards as fillers since I'm not a set guy - it's not really worth it to me to track down countless 1983 Topps so I can upgrade a random common here, a random star card here, etc.

A pair of Angels rookie buyback purchases

I don’t think stamped buybacks are remotely collectible as ‘stand alone’ cards unless they are part of some autograph insert - but even if they are low-end gimmicks, with the original copies being worthless otherwise, I actually picked these cards up for a couple of bucks and change [each].

I had my eye on these cards because they are actually rookie cards unlike many buybacks I've seen - featuring a couple of retired Angels stars who made their MLB debuts in the 1990s.

Featured cards: rookie cards of three 1980s minor stars

1984 Fleer Kevin McReynolds #307 - when I started following baseball through baseball cards in the early 1990s, McReynolds always struck me as a very pedestrian, mediocre player. He was winding down his career and there was nothing impressive about his numbers. I guess he was supposed to be a 'future star' with the San Diego Padres [an outfield of McReynolds, Carmelo Martinez and a young batting star named Tony Gwynn was going to be the Padres' outfield for years to come] but a player who blossomed for several years in New York instead.

1983 Fleer Howard Johnson #332 - I have memories of owning this card for about two or three weeks, dating back to my very formative years of collecting 20 years ago. The memory isn't something to revisit and however ironic, I'll quote great Mark McGwire and say, "I'm not here to talk about the past." Johnson was one of those 'late bloomers' who was a platoon player early in his career, but he became a slugging star for the New York Mets through the late 1980s. This was probably his key card at one time and it took a year or two more before Donruss and Topps printed up their first HoJo cards.

1983 Fleer Gary Gaetti #613 - he was star third baseman for the Minnesota Twins during the mid 1990s and California Angels' veteran free agent signing 'bust' in the early 1990s. Somehow he found the juice to re-energize his lagging career after leaving the Halos. He is in the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame.