My experiences with some junk boxes of doom - box 4.1

This was the last of the 4 boxes I bought for $3 each off a bargain table at a card show.

This maybe dumpster diving at its finest - not everything is going to be salvageable, but I'll see what I can rummage through for the curiosity factor.

To this day I love digging through cards and sorting them out, though with these boxes - it was more about hoping I wouldn't have to toss certain cards that are too dingy to make keepers otherwise.

In this box, the oddball panels of cards are definitely what caught my eye - I'm not really an oddball collector, though perhaps I want to see if I can pick up types of overlooked, non-mainstream issues I still don't really see as 'real cards.'

Because I don't trust my hand cutting skills and may just give up trying to separate these cards individually - I'm probably going to leave these cards 'as is.'

Just a couple of the cards are damaged [too bad one is the Wally Joyner], but rather than cut things up where the suspect cards will mostly likely end up in the circular file - I'm keeping the panels together where the cards in their entirety are still presentable.

My experiences with some junk boxes of doom - box 3.1

These are mostly the highlights of my third junk box I picked up for $3 each - there was a good number of cards in the last two boxes that were in semi-rigid holders, which may or may not have reflected the 'better' cards, but may have been the most interesting to go through.

Literal junk wax to sort through and toss for the most part - in some twisted way, maybe I need to pick up these boxes when I see them once in a while, just to get back to my roots.

Not worth much, but I like the Steve Garvey and Mike Schmidt in particular - a pair of old school 1980s cards of longtime stars through that era.

Some 1989 Topps Jim Abbott rookies - to bring me back to my beginnings as a collector perhaps.

Two of the same Tony Gwynn insert cards and a small stash of Will clark cards - including a 1987 Donruss rookie that I'd probably pay a few bucks for outright, if I didn't have it already.

More Will Clarks - he was big league star for just about the entirety of his big league career, but may have been a considered a superstar for a 2-3 year period with the San Francisco Giants through the late 1980s.

A small stash of Bo Jacksons - one of the brightest stars of the junk wax era, even though a 'what if' in most fans' minds in both football and baseball.

Some 1987 Donruss Ruben Sierra rookies - how much were these going for at his late 1980s peak?

These cards brings me back to getting into collecting and through browsing actual hobby publications - reading about the crop of junk wax rookies that were going to be stars for years to come.

This stash of First Topps Cards could have been a penny stock investment for an adolescent collector - looking to see whether the value and gone up or down in his latest Beckett.

My experiences with some junk boxes of doom - box 2

These are mostly the highlights of my second junk box I picked up for $3 each - these UV era cards from 1994 Fleer Ultra may not be worth anything to anyone in 2021, but the star power [featuring guys from the 1980s and 1990s] can't be denied, regardless.

I paid a whole dollar for a copy of the Tim Salmon insert in one of the previous card show trips a few months ago - but go figure I'd find another in this box.

My experiences with some junk boxes of doom

Things were slow at card show I went to, so I ended up meandering around the card shop's [they host the show at their storefront] bargain tables and was digging through these boxes with these ratty old junk wax era cards - I know better, but I'm one of those guys who would seek out what may have been someone else's trash and actually pay someone to take it off their hands.

I waited until the store owner walked by and asked him how much the boxes were - I think he said they were priced as marked [for everything in the box] and I could go through them as well.

I get jealous of those who can buy bulk collections for $20-$30 and while this isn't one of those deals - I guess it can't be worse than picking up four Fairfield repacks.

There was a partial 1984 San Diego Padres Smokey set [15 of 29 cards] - maybe that is where the Tony Gwynn and the San Diego Chicken I saw in one of the shop's showcases came from, but a card of general manager Jack McKeon was among the cards and I able to send it off and get it signed TTM.

I think I'm the only one crazy enough to sort through and try to make sense of these cards - this box had a good run of 1992 Fleer which may have been a 'meh' set after the fact, but anything would have been an improvement over the previous year's set where the base cards were a little bit nicer and at first felt like a premium release.

To sort the cards out, what I did was try to look for obvious or not so obvious 'mini-collection' hits, maybe binder material for my decade stars collection, cards I can dump as team box material and the rest - even if we are talking about kindling for the fire, I want some generally 'clean' cards, so I set aside most cards with blemishes or had succumbed to the natural circumstances and just tossed them.

This doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I found this old New Orleans Saints sticker - probably something I would have thrown away.

In the back of the card you can put in scores according the schedule - I guess someone did that through a certain date and maybe this card is a reminder that these cards were actually a part of someone else's collection.

I remember buying a complete set of 1992 Score just 5-6 years ago - I don't know why it matters, but a card that seems to have disappeared was a Frank Tanana.

Maybe my 'original' copy will show up somewhere, but I was happy to find another one - why does it matter again why I have it in my head, I lost a 1992 Score Frank Tanana?

I don't know if I really found that deep run of odder cards, but this 1994 Upper Deck SP Eric Karros was one.

It's actually a wrong back card and when I turned it over, the card back was for pitcher Steve Karsay.

What am I supposed to do from here [?]

Things may end up a little fuzzy as far as spelling out what I maybe doing with my cards at the moment - if nothing else, this is basically a post where I change up the purpose [and change the title] as far as an ongoing collection of cards that goes on and on.

1. I've seen myself as an in-person autograph collector over the past decade - now that fan interaction is officially done, I have to do something with my blocks of cards I've made for big league teams.

2. I think my setup came about from trying to build a semi-comprehensive 'team set' of cards through each year - seeing how some acquaintances have these stashes of cards to try and get inked up.

3. It may be a force of habit to go through loose cards, pulls and finds and separate them like I've done - to make like there is still a mission to jump into as far as seeing big league teams [or at least the closest affiliates] with hopes I get cards off my own stashes signed.

4. Regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic, it hasn't really been the case for the past 5 or 6 years where I've been able to go autograph hunting on a regular basis - while I don't want to admit it, I probably aged out of the chasing aspect real hard and my blocks of cards have been sitting in mothballs.

5. To nerd out a bit and play with my cards in the 'here and now,' I'm going through a 'trip' through my cards for the 30 big league organizations to see what can be weeded out and added into in the here and now - I feel stupid referring to my block of cards as something 'for autographs' or as 'ammo' for an in-person outings.

6. Going forward, I will refer to my collection as a 'active team boxes' that sort of mirrors my collection of 'team boxes' I funnel random cards into for fun and games - the difference is I might be more invested in what goes in and out of my 'active team boxes,' as an old-school way of keeping up with MLB team transactions as a fan and the players pictured on the cardboard as a collector.