Card shop rummage for bulk odds and ends

I had a chance to spend about an hour at the card shop - this was during a card show date where the shop hosts a show twice a week, but not surprisingly, the card show seller tables end up mostly being whatever is popular as far as non-sports / pop culture cards go.

I stick mostly browsing around with the storefront, which still manages to feel like a baseball card shop from 25 years ago - yet with more of that modern non-sports / pop culture influence.

Charged $8.00 total 53 cards from the storefront’s quarter / as price as marked bins [which has consideraably shrunk over the past two or three years] and two packs of Fanatics branded penny sleeves [$1.50 x2]

Miscellaneous - $0.25 each [53] 

1978 Topps Greg Minton #312 - it’s a common, one of those goofy cards I’ve wanted in recent years; finally saw and claimed one online and wondered if I could find another from rummaging from the old-school box on the counter.

1987 Fleer Wade Boggs #29

1987 Fleer Tony Gwynn #416

1987 Fleer Eddie Murray #476

1987 Fleer Update Steve Carlton #U-17 

1991 SilverStar Holograms AuthenTicket Rickey Henderson #'d 107676 - maybe these were supposed to go with a hologram card

1991 SilverStar Holograms AuthenTicket David Justice #'d 00923

1991 SilverStar Holograms AuthenTicket Nolan Ryan #'d 149789

1993 Donruss Triple Play Nicknames Wizard Ozzie Smith #9 of 10

1995 Star Cal Ripken Jr. Trading Card Series #48 - The Drafting of Cal

1995 Star Cal Ripken Jr. Trading Card Series #73  - According to Cal

1996 Score Randy Johnson #34

1999 Fleer Ultra Trevor Hoffman #47

2000 Pacific Prism Billy Wagner #66

2001 Topps Stars Juan Marichal #150

2001 Upper Deck Ovation Tony Gwynn #51

2001 Upper Deck Ovation Scott Rolen #53

2001 Upper Deck Ovation Barry Larkin #56

2002 Fleer Headliners Todd Helton #3HL

2002 Fleer Tradition Curtain Call Todd Helton #U381

2003 Fleer Authentix Todd Helton #85

2003 Fleer Tradition Update Vladimir Guerrero #U172

2003 Fleer Tradition Update Interleague Play Carlos Delgado / Vladimir Guerrero #U263

2003 Upper Deck Standing O! Vladimir Guerrero #44

2005 Fleer Platinum Vladimir Guerrero #17

2005 Fleer Tradition Trevor Hoffman #88

2022 Bowman Draft Chrome Refractor Nacho Alvarez Jr. #BDC-125 

2022 Topps Chrome Refractor Evan Longoria #54

2023 Panini Donruss Holo Carolina Blue Robin Yount #162

2024 Topps Series 1 Sal Frelick RC #76 

2024 Topps Chrome Sal Frelick RC #39 

2025 Topps All-Star Game Classic Swings Evan Longoria #CS10

2025 Topps All-Star Game Classic Swings Joe Mauer #CS24

2025 Topps All Star Game MLB All-Star Game Greats Pedro Martinez #ASGG-24

2025 Topps All Star Game MLB All-Star Game Greats Julio Franco #ASGG-24

2025 Topps Chrome Prism Refractor Nolan Arenado #14 

2025 Topps Chrome Update Series Fortune 15 Rafael Devers #F15-12

2026 Topps Allen & Ginter Yadier Molina #287

2026 Bowman Sal Stewart RC #6 

2026 Bowman Roman Anthony RC #18

2026 Topps Series 1 Nolan McLean RC #214

2026 Topps Series 1 Chase Burns RC #312

2026 Topps Series 2 Chase DeLauter RC #458

2025 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition Grant McCray #116

2026 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition Jose Ramirez #127 

2026 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition Denzel Clarke #246

2025 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition Sean Manaea #267

2025 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition Adolis Garcia #293

2026 Topps Heritage Samuel Basallo RC #175

2026 Topps Heritage Chase Burns RC #212

2026 Topps Heritage Chrome Moises Ballesteros #247

2026 Topps Chrome Refractor Andrew McCutchen #214

2026 Topps Heritage Junior Caminero #380

The self-existential collecting crisis

I am thinking some thoughts like collecting pieces of cardboard do not dictate the narrative of my life - it' means less and less and it hits me that it's a solitary thing that migh literallyt cave down on me, with no real exit plan [to profit], quit cold turkey if I wanted to or pass on.

There is no line I can type out that makes me feel particularly excited up about collecting at the moment - I'm perpetually going through the motions and maybe I'm just bored with it; the summer did a number on me and maybe collecting ends up seasonal where I do not want to play with my cards if it is too humid and the air is stale.

I think I have to work myself back to being enthused about something - but I am just hanging on at this point, to what purpose, who really knows?

I do like playing with my cards where I sort of make sense of them as a collecting obligation - where I continue to harp on the themes in my hierarchy of interests and specifically within my mini-collections to give me a little sense of collecting purpose.

I am still claiming cards one-by-one, building up running tabs from those who sell cards on social media - in my own little world, by sorting the bulk cards I get in-hand accordingly, I am doing a thing as a true collector.

I do not want to be mindless about just hoarding endless cards - but going through a new pile from a purchase made has to get me animated at some level.

Cheat sheet leaderboards updates - 1990s debuts players

A summer project was to get control of the bulk cards I hoard by notable players for a decade - through the end of September, maybe the only thing I've put time into is tallying up new additions to my decade stars collections, where I consider it a catch-all collection for any cards I end up with.

I want to curate tthe player piles in sort of an informal way, but also in a pattern, where I have the unique, random highlights at the top [rookies, parallels, inserts of just unique cards regardless of valuu] - followed by most of my cards for a player, with 'odd team' cards, unlicensed no logo cards and a separate horizontal pile towards the end.

I have been trying to think of a '500 card' club for a selected number of players, where I think I might be doing something if I can chase down 500 unique cards - but that might be too ambitious and I don't want to fall into trap of trying to list everything, then just deciding it isn't worth it to do so.

1990s [9/9/26] - Updated

3,200-count box

The following piles might have been stuffed in a shoe box, but I had a 3,200-count box that was bought but sat empty for at least several months - maybe the original plan was to have my decade stars cards displayed in pages / binders, but I don't think that is going happen anytime soon, so boxes end up being where I store my cheat sheet leaderboards cards 'semi-permanently.

1st row

Todd Helton - 357 cards with five dupes

2nd row

Vladimir Guerrero Sr. - 296 cards  + one Vladimir Jr. + one Wilton + two Angels pocket skeds + two dupes

3rd row

Alex Rodriguez - 215 cards + one dupe

Derek Jeter - 214 cards + one Phil Nevin + one Hal Newhouser + one dupe

4th row

Jim Thome - 161 cards with 14 1998 Upper Deck UD Choice #25 and one other dupe

Frank Thomas - 126 cards

Mike Piazza - 125 cards

Nike Pegasus box

1st row

Jeff Bagwell - 93 cards + a Larry Andersen card

Chipper Jones - 93 cards

Manny Ramirez - 86 cards + one dupe

Scott Rolen - 83 cards + one certified autograph + one dupe + odd size

Pedro Martinez - 79 cards + one dupe

2nd row

Nomar Garciaparra - 75 cards

David Ortiz - 69 cards with five 1999 Upper Deck UD Choice #106 + one dupe

Mariano Rivera - 51 cards

Ivan Rodriguez - 47 cards + one dupe

Adrian Beltre - 43 cards + one dupe

Kenny Lofton - 43 cards + one certified autograph

Kerry Wood - 43 cards

Andruw Jones - 39 cards

Trevor Hoffman - 35 cards + one dupe

3rd row

Hideo Nomo - 35 cards

Carlos Delgado - 34 cards + one dupe

Mike Mussina - 32 cards + one dupe?

Magglio Ordonez - 30 cards

Bartolo Colon - 29 cards

Andy Pettitte - 28 cards

Roy Halladay - 27 cards

Tony Clark - 25 cards with 17 1999 Upper Deck UD Choice #85

Bernie Williams - 25 cards + one certified autograph

Moises Alou - 24 cards

Paul Konerko - 24 cards + one dupe

Billy Wagner - 24 cards + three dupes

Bobby Abreu - 20 cards

Mo Vaughn - 20 cards + one certified auto

OG box for 1990s decade stars

Lance Berkman - 19 cards

Orlando Hernandez - 18 cards

Carlos Beltran - 17 cards

Eric Chavez - 17 cards

Jim Edmonds - 17 cards + one Angels card

Luis Gonzalez - 17 cards

Tim Wakefield - 17 cards

Miguel Tejada - 16 cards + one dupe

Jason Giambi - 15 cards

Jeff Kent - 14 cards + one dupe

Johnny Damon - 13 cards + three 

dupes with three odd cards in one penny sleeve

Derrek Lee - 12 cards + one dupe

Shawn Green - 11 cards

Alfonso Soriano - 11 cards

Tim Hudson - 10 cards

Torii Hunter - seven cards

Aramis Ramirez - seven cards

Card show trip - picking through odds and ends

These card find were from the big summer card show on the West Coast - for better or for worse, paying $35 to get into the door for an afternoon of mostly rummaging around poverty bins is the closest I'll get to a major show experience.

The National doesn't travel out west anymore and while it should be a bucket list item in an ideal world - I have not been a collector who makes plans to go across the country for a card show, like I have seen veteran collectors do it on YouTube.

I guess one of my goals for the show date I went to was to find a so-called personal collection card I didn't know I needed - reality hit as that might be such a random card in a showcase tht was going to cost around $1000 and that might not be much to others, but out of my league if I was just looking for something that caught my eye on impulse.

At one seller table, maybe the signage had the cards marked as '10 for $5.00' - so I maybe it was implied that you couldn't just buy one or two cards [though you figure, you might be building a stack anyway that may end up $15, %20 or $25 anyway.

I had to maneuver around the bulk monster boxes where another collector was planted digging and digging to make keeper piles - maybe I tried to pick up a pile to thumb through, even as the 'spacing' was a little awkward, even as it looked like the other guy was only focused on football cards.

I was kind of idly digging, maybe not really into the rummage - but after finding a Justin Verlander rookie, maybe it was worth building a little keeper pile for myself.

There was really a lot of cards but was this going to be where I blew my wad [?] - I found a couple of retro Mickey Mantle cards from the early 2000s; $0.50 material all day long, but one had the Triple Crown image that was once highlighted on the Dime Boxes blog and the other may be the image just about replicated as a painting on the iconic 1952 Topps Mantle.

I found a Juan Marichal card and while my intent is to focus on here and now guys - I may end up making keepers out of retired players retro cards as a fallback.

Finally, I found a couple of Rickey Henderson cards to salvage - where I make keepers out of a short list of all-around guys in my book.

At another seller's table, I was doing more idle digging where a good portion of the table was binned vintage / old school singles - I am acutely aware that rummaging through vintage / old-school cards causes me to glitch out at times, where these [msotly common] cards of rank and file players are just not from my time [or a time I might conjure up some faux nostalgia over either in 1996 or 2026].

I may have overpaid for the following compared to just grabbing the cards on eBay - but deemed a Dick Allen card and a Steve Garvey rookie as filling my vintage quota of the day, where it's an obligation to make some old-timey cards keepers.

Maybe Allen is still a 'newer' Hall of Fame legend for me to collect when I find cards of his in the wild - where I had not considered him before his induction into the HOF.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Garvey might have been a superstar as far as fan sentiment goes [even if he turned out not to be so perfect] - I have been able to get his autograph in-person a few times over the past 25 years, so he's good in my book as a non-HOF retired player.

Some Angels content from a random table - I think the seller may have double charged me for a pile '2 for $1.00' cards at another show somewhere, but maybe it was a one-time deal where I would give the seller one more chance [rather than completely avoiding the table for good].

I ended up bipping myself on a Jim Edmonds insert from 1996 - I found one copy of the Edmonds with the Kenny Lofton back; I thought it might have been a wrongback error and so I made it a keeper.

I also made a keeper of another copy - so I have an error and a regular / correct version of the card.

Going through my the cards after the fact - it ended up a case where a separate Lofton from the same insert set was stored in the same penny sleeve; I had to pry one card from the other since they were basically stuck together good.

The other copy of the EDmonds insert had two more of the same card in the same penny sleeve - it amused me to end up with four of the same card.

One last idle rummage through a #0.50 box at a seller table - I got a unique die-cut insert of Jeff Bagwell, which may not be a former player whose cards I am ever going to look to make keepers out of, but this was my second Bagwell of the day.

He ends up being rubber stamped as a 1990s debut guy for me - so there is a little lingering sentiment there I guess.

I know I have another copy of the Salmon in-hand but maybe I make keepers out of extra copies of cards I deem 'cool' or whatever - where I might have one card in my player collection and can use another card for a regional, Angels themed curated set perhaps.

This promo card might have cost me the $35 I paid to get into the show - where you got a little slip of paper to redeem at the Upper Deck booth at the show.

I know nothing about hockey where the sports is simply out of sight, out of mind - at least this card is of an actual professional athlete that might just be the young star [I looked him up for a moment] for the local NHL team, rather some odd non-sport subject pictured on a random card.