2019 Donruss football value pack recap

I do not remember the last time I bought unopened football cards - it may have literally been 10 years ago.

While the big box store football cards are pretty much entry level product - it gives me cards to go through featuring a professional sport in season; maybe find some NFL cards with unique images, find some ‘hot’ NFL rookies [even at the most cheapest, low-end level] or find cards of NFL players for my mini-collections [even though I’ve always been a baseball first and only kind of guy].

Go figure, I tend to think football cards lends itself to more unique images - but I guess basic Donruss is the wrong place to look for such NFL cards.

The cards look fine but there were just about no ‘awesome action’ cards, which left me a little underwhelmed - I thought this was going to be a party in a pack, but every card I pulled showed players in seemingly stationary, frozen positions, whether it’s running with the football, guys set in their positions or quarterbacks about to throw the ball.

#330 Tyler Lockett
#100 Aaron Jones
#211 Le’Veon Bell 
#104 Jaire Alexander
#42 Christian McCaffrey

#161 Randy Moss

#8 Tony Gonzalez
#207 Michael Bennett

#48 Wesley Walls - pulling cards of Moss, Gonzalez and Moss, I wonder if I’m busting a pack from this year or from 1999?
#108 Jadeveon Clowney
#38 Jordan Poyer
#99 Clay Matthews
#26 Gus Edwards
#9 Josh Rosen
#60 Tyler Boyd

#114 Andrew Luck - another card picturing a retired star, though I suppose Luck didn't count as part of the old-timers part of the checklist.

#137 LaDainian Tomlinson - another card picturing a retired star, I wonder if Dick Butkus or Bob Griese is on the checklist.
#124 Myles Jack
#20 Tevin Coleman
#94 Kenny Golladay

#25 Lamar Jackson

#184 John Riggins - my NFL fanhood probably only goes back from the mid 1990s onward, but I may have heard of this legend, through some old-timey hobby magazine where his rookie card is mentioned. 
#147 Kenyan Drake - Blue parallel
#62 Shawn Williams - Blue parallel

#292 Gardner Minshew II - Blue parallel
#41V Cam Newton - Blue parallel / variation; apparently variations featuring the more unique images for the guys on the checklist.

#ES-18 Jared Goff - Elite Series parallel
#262 Jerry Tillery
#282 Chandler Cox
#257 Dexter Lawrence

The state of adding new mini-collection cards

I like rummaging through loose cards in-person, where I like to lean on my esoteric mini-collection interests and at the very least, look for cards with unique images - at the moment, I don't really have a card shop or card show or even a swap meet / antique store to be able to actually dig through the fool's gold, where I find my 'gems' to build around my collecting topics subset narrative.

I miss stumbling upon boxes of cards at a show, finding out how much the cards are generally are [usually I'm looking for the quarter boxes] and figuring out where to start digging - there isn't the process of impulsively building a stash of cards and then sort of making decision on which cards are going to be taken off and which cards I going to be left off a vendor or dealer's common boxes.

I end up doing some 'research and development' online, where I read up on blogs or do random searches on eBay or COMC to see which cards I'd like to add to my collections - there isn't the instant gratification of having a card in hand, but I save the image of the card and/or list it on my wantlist.

Doing things on online might be easier and/or convenient, especially the hunt in-person might not be so fruitful and when I'm so far removed from picking up cards from places other than a big box store - I can take all the time in the world and treat online sources as my virtual card closet, where I have all these cards that I can look at and actually have shipped to me when I decide I want them.

After doing some ground work in discovering the following cards, I had them on a micro-mini wantlist and wanted to see if I can pick them up outright - the four cards cost me about $0.50 each with s/h added in and while I might pick up more cards at one time, I don’t want any one particular common card to be creeping up towards the dollar mark.

1988 Classic Eric Davis #213 - maybe the best ‘gum card’ I’ve seen.

When I can go through my mini-collection cards, I like seeing the different varieties of cards, how many different players are represented and if how many cards I end up of a player - I think I've mostly collected cards from Topps and the other major brands from the past 30 years, but at times there might be stragglers that may seem unfamiliar.

For a moment, seeing a card that is a different is neat - even if it is just a base card I shouldn't really dwell on.

1993 Bowman Edgar Martinez #515 - a Hall of Famer at work image, I presume this was during Mariners spring training in Peoria, Arizona.

1996 Donruss Glenallen Hill #75 - I saw this on a mail day blog post and had to add to my wantlist.

1996 Score Bip Roberts #38 - is this card of Roberts donning a sombrero sort of a cult classic? I felt like a big deal was made about this card at some point, but maybe it's just random card blog posts / Twitter posts of that drew my attention to this peculiar card.

Maybe 10 years ago, Bipping was a thing among notable card bloggers - where dupes of a particular card would be sent in trade packages as a friendly prank of sorts.

1993 Bowman Andy Pettitte RC #103

I'm trying to pick and choose to add certain scratch the itch rookie cards - many of the rookies I'd like to add to my PC come from the junk wax era years through the UV coated era years of the mid 1990s, so while I want to add a card here and there, I don't want to go 'all-in' on a big shopping spree outright.

I picked up Pettitte's rookie, because the lefthander is considered one of the Yankees' all-time greats as part of the Core Four [Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Pettitte and Jorge Posada] - there might be a case to be made for Pettitte to get into the Hall of Fame, even if was a PED guy with one-time pal Roger Clemens.

I've always thought Pettitte was a No. 3 or No. 4 starter who was ultimately more serviceable than dominant for a New York Yankees dynasty through the late 1990s - he was an innings eater, who pitched in important games during the Yankees' postseason runs through October.

On the other hand, while things weren't always in Pettitte's control - he gave up too many hits and his ERA always seemed inflated.

Featured autograph - Mike Trout

I thought Houston Astros star Alex Bregman might have done enough to secure the 2019 American League MVP - but Trout was the choice all along despite playing for a non-contending Angels team and missing much of the last month of the year.

Trout now has 3 American League MVP awards and counting - he's always a contender and tend to feel like it has been a disservice to see he doesn't have more MVP awards on his mantle.

It seems the MVP award is narrative driven at times and open to personal interpretation by the voters - but with the emphasis on the supposed cold, hard numbers, as long as Trout maintains his status as the best player in the game, the baseball writers aren't going to whiff on making him a perennial MVP winner.

Featured autograph - Ryan Zimmerman

I remember being high on Zimmerman as a potential franchise star and when he was a rookie all the way back in 2006 - I made a trade for this ball in exchange for a Ron Cey baseball I got signed during one of the preview days at the National 14 years ago.

It is hard to believe that all these years, the original National was still with the team and was part of a World Series Championship team - I suppose a number of people didn't like his appearance at the White House along with Kurt Suzuki in particular, but it is what it is.

Featured autograph - Patrick Sandoval

For my one or two dedicated readers, October was a hiatus month since I spent it out of the country and while I could catch up with blog reading - it's not as fun collecting without actually having cards in-hand to play with.

I've been feeling 'meh' about collecting anyway because it's been a solitary thing when sometimes I tend to crave feedback from outside sources - the last month has made me wonder if I can see where I can pull the plug because I'm clearly not getting what I may want from either collecting the cards themselves or trying to come up with some blog posts that mean something.

As far as the autograph pictured, Sandoval got called up for the first time this past year to see if he has a little potential to contribute in 2020 - I haven't been living under a rock, so with Angels old friend Joe Maddon coming back to manage, the Angels are expected to be in the hunt for more established arms for the rotation.

Who knows if Sandoval gets a serious opportunity to pitch for the Angels - maybe he impresses to find a spot in the rotation, though he might be fighting with guys like Griffin Canning [a probably lock, but he still has something to prove], José Suárez or Jaime Barría to be the No. 4 or No. 5 guy.

Maybe a possibility is Sandoval makes the team - but starts the season pitching out of the bullpen, to control his innings perhaps but also see where the lefty can match up strategically, especially with relievers having to face a minimum of three batters.

Featured autograph - Jaime Barría

After a solid rookie season in 2018, maybe Angels manager Brad Ausmus and/or pitching coach Doug White didn't like what they saw from this guy in spring training this past year - so in his sophomore season, Barría was never able to get into any sort of groove, bouncing back and forth between AAA and the big leagues.

Who knows if Barría will get a serious opportunity to pitch for the Angels in 2020 - but for my all-time Angels autograph collection, I was able to add this certified autograph.

2018 Choice Trenton Thunder Chace Numata #18

I didn't know anything about this minor league catcher, but grabbed a card of his when I saw a Tweet where his organs were donated to save five lives - as it goes, despite the fatal circumstances of his passing, he's been immortalized in my collection as someone who was able to help those in need.

2019 Topps Clear Travel Mike Trout #CP-1

I didn’t know what this set was but after reading the Baseball Cards Come to Life! blog and doing some quick searches on eBay, I picked up a copy of the Trout - there maybe a number of oddball and/or regional Topps issues each year that maybe distributed as promos through different brand tie-ins.

To get suckered into paying a premium to pick up any one particular card is a little silly, especially when the oddball mirrors the flagship card of the player except for some cosmetic changes - still, maybe a little FOMO was in play as I missed out on picking up a couple of current year specialty issues outright, like the 2019 Topps Utz and 2019 Topps Walgreens yellow Trouts.

Cards from this set have different numbering as part a promo tie-in for the company that does expedited security screenings at the airport - I was hoping these cards were only released through airports, making the distribution a little bit more peculiar, thus making the cards seemingly harder to find under normal circumstances.

After the fact, it looks like the cards were more likely [but not outright] stadium giveaways at MLB games - since the Clear screenings have expanded to big league ballparks as well.

2009 Topps Updates Ichiro sketch card

I was digging around some monster boxes at a dealer's card show booth when I found this card - I had to pick it up based on the idea this would be a cool find if it was an actual sketch card, rather than some sort of preprinted copy.

After the fact, I did some research about this 10-year old insert - from what I assume, the cards from the set didn't have a more common version and this particular card was probably the real deal as far as an artist working on depicting the athlete shown.

2019 Topps Series 2 hanger box recap

Flagship Topps is fairly common, but with a chance to pull rookies and rookie-year parallels - there might be a chance to buy something unopened at a big box store on a whim and find a card that might be worth something.

I bought this along with the Topps Heritage High hanger box featured in an earlier post - maybe due to the 'better than a blaster' type posts on other card blogs, maybe I'm looking to spend a random $20 and tax on something than a lone blaster box of any baseball card product.

I prefer a little more variety and maybe a workable compromise I came with to get my fix - was picking up hanger boxes of two different Topps branded cards, rather than a single blaster.

#504 Stephen Tarpley
#506 Ben Gamel
#655 Tyler O’Neill
#656 Jacob Faria
#681 Jeff Mathis
#474 Carson Kelly
#413 Mike Fiers
#576 Jake Cave
#606 Johnny Field
#471 Kevin Newman
#356 Stephen Strasburg
#686 Brandon Drury
#562 Willy Adames
#478 Alen Hanson
#652 Rosell Herrera
#594 Austin Slater
#440 Dustin Pedroia
#497 New York Mets team card
#447 Up High, Down Low - feat. Springer and Altuve
#625 Milwaukee Menaces - feat. Yelich and Arcia
#491 Detroit Tigers team card
#584 Josh James
#517 Shawn Armstrong
#380 Chris Archer
#645 Steve Cishek
#542 Chris Davis
#509 Texas Rangers team card
#406 Jason Castro - gold serial #’d 0461/2019
#FF-9 Bob Feller - Franchise Feats insert
#FF-4 Cal Ripken Jr. - Franchise Feats insert
#519 Julio Urias - 150th Anniversary parallel
#ES-3 Houston Astros - Ballpark Evolution insert
#AJ-25 Aaron Judge
#AJ-13 Aaron Judge
#NNO Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
#84AS-DMA Don Mattingly - 1984 Topps Baseball
#590 Jose Peraza
#378 Brandon Workman
#505 Dellin Betances
#518 Steven Wright
#513 Brett Gardner
#467 A.J. Minter
#381 Juan Lagares
#375 Cody Reed
#358 Leonys Martin
#472 Scott Kingery
#586 Drew VerHagen
#423 Ji-Man Choi
#434 Roberto Osuna
#361 Taylor Davis
#515 Hyun-Jin Ryu
#570 Eduardo Escobar
#695 Eric Thames
#579 Andrew Benintendi
#364 Kenta Maeda
#550 Adam Cimber
#507 Cody Bellinger
#391 Jung-Ho Kang
#397 Lance McCullers
#635 Adam Frazier
#534 Aaron Altherr
#407 Eduardo Nunez
#670 Eloy Jimenez
#487 San Diego Sluggers - feat. Hosmer and Renfroe
#363 Max Stassi - I want to say something about not be able to tell what team he’s currently playing for, but he's was picked up by the Angels and looks to get hip surgery sooner than not.
#502 Mike Montgomery
#386 Ryan Pressly

2019 Topps Heritage High recap

Did I need some retail therapy [?] - I don't want to go add more redundant cards to whatever claptrap I have that I consider a collection, particularly when I'm not as emotionally attached to either MLB or its players towards the end of the season.

On the other hand, cards are familiar to me and there might be a little bit of FOMO - as far as getting an chance to buy a retail blaster or hanger box right now to possibly pull a rookie card or rookie-year parallel of a rookie star like Pete Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jimenez, etc.

#634 Asdrubal Cabrera
#615 Skye Bolt
#527 Jorge Alfaro
#544 Daniel Murphy
#645 Tanner Roark
#559 Jeurys Familia
#657 Matt Moore

#562 Wade Miley - the last two seasons have been bounce back years for the veteran lefty, but busting a big league baseball card product, the run of retread players never ceases to bore me.
#668 Leury Garcia
#586 Daniel Descalso
#685 Anthony DeSclafani
#600 Jeff Samardzija
#524 Griffin Canning - I’ve had different kinds of Canning prospect cards, but this is one with the MLB/MLBPA rookie card logo, so that means something right?

#612 Trevor Richards

#699 Caleb Smith - the last two guys [Richards and Smith] are not quite retread veterans, but seem pretty anonymous for me to care about.
#606 Domingo Santana

#20 of 30 Pete Alonso - Candy Lid insert; I think I would have preferred a regular card or parallel, but I can't complain.
#716 Alen Hanson - SP
#THC-541 Yasiel Puig - Chrome parallel serial #’d 206/569

#AW-8 Alex Bregman - Award Winners insert; maybe he gets some narrative votes for the American League MVP, but the writers are intent on making sure the sheer excellence of Mike Trout's year-to-year numbers never gets taken for granted.

#574 Craig Kimbrel - he seems like a probable Hall of Famer, but the past couple of years have been a mixed bag, whether pitching in the postseason in 2018 or starting this past season in the middle of the year.

#673 Hansel Robles - he’s been lights out for a bad Angels team and presumably with a bump in salary in 2020, hope he doesn't turn back into the reliever his old team ended up throwing away.
#583 John Brebbia
#682 Charlie Culberson
#591 Christian Walker
#690 Scott Alexander
#601 Drew Pomeranz
#700 Nick Kingham
#608 Braden Bishop
#515 Sam Gaviglio

#512 Keston Hiura - he might be the rookie whose card I wanted to pull, besides the obvious guys mentioned.

The first time I was ever aware of Hiura, was when he played for Team USA in 2016 - I literally thought of him as just another guy and didn't bother getting his autograph.

I didn't anticipate him being a first round pick in 2017 - while emerging as a future hitting star in the middle of a big league lineup two or three seasons later.

#613 Cal Quantrill
#580 Brandon Woodruff
#679 Aaron Sanchez
#55 Jurickson Profar

Featured autograph - Ichiro Suzuki

As an in-person autograph collector at one time, Ichiro was the scribble to get back in 2001, along with some other rookie who was doing some things in the Senior Circuit - looking back, I might remember outlasting some of the other yahoos who came by, expecting Ichiro's Seattle Mariners to arrive after traveling from other city.

Ichiro might have been going out to dinner when the prominent 'all-star' grapher back in the day begged, "there's only four of us" and Ichiro came over, grabbed the guy's pen and quickly signed our items - it was such a satisfying get, since it was the most random 'never gonna happen' thing.

Looking back, the Mariners were supposed to play the Angels - but the MLB games were postponed because of 9/11.

A monster box rummage - yields a pair of 1990s inserts

1995 Select Gold Team Will Clark #9 of 12 - to juice up my notable player binders by decade, it should be a no brainer to pick up loose inserts, particularly if they were the UV coated inserts from the mid through late 1990s.

1997 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle John Smoltz / Andy Pettitte #9 of 10 - I tend to think dual sided cards are a little odd, a little irregular, but it's a shiny insert with a Dufex finish [at least the 'front' with Smoltz pictured].

Featured autograph - Bo Jackson

This card caught my eye because it actually pictures Jackson as an Angel and I’ve wanted a Jackson autograph for my all-time Angels collection - I got a reluctant Jackson to scribble on a golf tournament program 10 years ago, but the booklet with celebrity participant bios and sponsors was a throw away item for me, meant to be lost somewhere.

I’d probably have to make the autograph a cut, then send it to PSA/DNA to be slabbed - so it would be harder to fit into my collection of all-time Angels autographs outright, with my collection mostly being trading cards.

FWIW, I don’t know if a trading card booklet would fit into my all-time Angels autograph collection either - but it is still otherwise a card I can add to my regional PC as well, even though a Bo Jackson Angels booklet card seems simply odd in general.

I remember 'Bo' being a two-sport superstar, who was probably as popular was Michael Jordan in the short period of time when he was playing for the Kansas City Royals in baseball and the Los Angeles Raiders in football - but of course his professional career as a baseball / football player was derailed by a hip injury suffered during an NFL game.

Jackson was simply a shell of himself by the time he spent one final season in Major League Baseball, playing for the Angels - still, with the help of eBay Bucks that came in handy, the decision was made to splurge on this pick up.

A six pack Alex Rodriguez card lot buy

I don't know if anyone is actively looking for any A-Rod cards these days, but maybe for a moment, I can look back with fondness at his wunderkind years when he was considered the best young talent in the game - I still really think about all the seedy, shady stuff he's been involved in over the course of his professional baseball career, but can kind of marvel at his post-playing redemption as an affable baseball analyst / media personality.

2000 Pacific Baseball Ornaments #20 - a unique, Christmas themed die-cut insert.

1997 Metal Universe Titanium #9 - some die-cut action.

2000 Topps Gallery of Heroes #GH1 - some stained glass die-cut action.

2003 Diamond Kings DK Evolution #DK8 - some 3D action.

2004 Fleer Genuine Insider Article Jersey #AR - I don't know if the 'pull out' tab with the swatch of memorabilia really worked, but not a bad looking card.

1997 Donruss Dominators #5 - the snoozer out of this group.

Something familiar - a card show trip?

I feel like I've been mostly out of collecting, but the idea of going through the most random of cards still hits the spot - I like cards and I'll continue to engage in picking up 'new' ones here and there.

I watch videos on YouTube occasionally and influenced by a YouTube card collector, I might as well see if his LCS [which is actually a card show] is viable as my LCS as well - as far as I'm concerned, my shop has been closed when the original owner retired and I've got to get my fix somewhere else.

1994 Leaf Limited Gold Ken Griffey Jr. #11 of 18, serial #’d 09132 out of 10,000 - this might have caught my eye, where I was going to see if I could pick up a few more cards from a seller who showcases mainly vintage cards

I would never mistake this person's booth as having anything 'here and now,' though there maybe some surprises in this person's 'poverty' boxes - the newest of these dollar cards is just about 25 years old, but my current interests be damned, I find myself going back through the years for certain players and cards that catch my attention.

1988 Upper Deck Wally Joyner promo #700

1994 Score Select Crown Contenders Greg Maddux #CC2 - regardless of the idea this card is worth a dollar and not any more, this card should add a certain shine to my random binder collection of his cards.

1997 Fleer Tiffany Cal Ripken Jr. #13

1996 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. Ripken Collection #7 - inking it up find for my mini-collections.

1992 Upper Deck Ted Williams hologram #HH2 - not pictured