All-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers VII - (70-53)

70. 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection David Hulse #162 - at times, a regular card probably illustrates the action [a seemingly odd exchange where a baserunner hand a ball to a fielder to say “here you do something with this”] better than a parallel, but obviously a parallel is a little jazzier, even one over 30 years old.

69. 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Curtis Granderson #241 - maybe a stationary image of Granderson posing, but the Bartolo Colon cameo on the Jumbotron amuses me.

68. 2000 Upper Deck David Wells #256 - I like the random cards with players making odd expressions, where Wells might rolling his eyes, calling BS.

67. 1994 Leaf Manny Manny Lee #372 - a more dated common than timeless classic from the UV era, it looks like Lee loses the handle and maybe it’s a fun card.

66. 1993 Upper Deck Mark Leiter #95 - I like to say I feel the way Leiter looks on this card more often than not.

How unique is it for a pair of brothers who pitched in the big leagues as the case for Mark and Al - to have their own sons [Mark Jr. and Jack] who have followed their footsteps.

65. 2012 Leaf Pete Rose #22 - I like the image used of The Hit King in a suit, probably at a banquet somewhere trying to show what he does best.

64. 1995 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Curt Leskanic #442 - Name tag 371426300, maybe a more dated common than timeless classic from the UV era, I wonder what it says when I make such a card a part of an all-time set.

63. 1992 Pinnacle Dwight Smith #293 - a classic junk wax era favorite, Smith is pictured singing the National Anthem, R.I.P.

62. 2003 Fleer Platinum Ryan Klesko #76 - a unique shot of Klesko looking over broken bat, didn’t realize I have this here already, when I saved another copy for a future all-time set build.

Come to think of it, Klesko was probably one of my favorite junk wax era prospects - didn’t quite turn into superstar slugger for the 1990s era Atlanta Braves teams, he had a fine career.

61. 2002 Fleer Ultra Luis Gonzalez #167 - cards with a kid pictured are undeniably unique.

60. 2004 Upper Deck Shigetoshi Hasegawa #447 - cards with a kid pictured are undeniably unique.

59. 1990 Upper Deck Rob Murphy #461 - a classic junk wax era favorite, now that I am working on one ore more JWE themed curated set (s), I might be on the look out for another copy.

58. 1994 Topps Stadium Club Orel Hershiser #400 - trying to find context for this card, I assume maybe a farm themed cow milking contest at the ballpark.

57. 1995 Pinnacle Bo Jackson #208 - one of the countless perks of being a notable pro athlete is getting to hang out and presumably fly with The Blue Angels.

56. 2014 Topps Stadium Club Roy Halladay #21 - he passed away under tragic circumstances and reading about the supposed behind the scenes of his addictions made this metronomic ace pitcher's life story a little more real.

55. 2001 BBM Prime Time Player Hideki Matsui #PT13 - on a short list of Japanese big leaguers who was an impact big league bat, it was a novelty to pick up a Japanese era card during a card show rummage.

54. 2022 Topps Chrome Heart of the City Miguel Cabrera #HOC-2 - I cannot be bothered to keep up with the countless inserts that end up more filler material, but may cling onto a few that catches my eye through a particular year.

53. 1998 Fleer Tradition Jermaine Allensworth #424 - I liked when card pictures of rank-and-file guys actually had personality, rather than your normal hitting, pitching, fielding, baserunning cards.

All-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers VII - (88-71)

I haven't been trying, but I am looking on continuing my all-time posts - where I have something to look at that amuses me, takes my mind to different places dwelling on, but also hopefully get me some engagement in the form a comment or two.

88. 1999 Fleer Greats of the Game David Clyde #76 - maybe Clyde is a curiosity I have to go look up, wnere I decided on adding his card as a keeper, but not familiar with how he got to the big leagues at 18 in 1973.

87. 1996 Topps John Smoltz #189 - pitcher on deck makes for an interesting card, as well as the signage in the background for an old-time TV Network in the mid 1990s.

86. 1997 Bowman Chrome Jose Cruz Jr. - what was even the big deal with this guy? Late 1990s collectors probably though he was the next to fall in line behind Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez in the Seattle Mariners superstar hierarchy, but that idea was short lived, where he traded off the same year his rookies were hot commodities in 1997.

85.1998 Skybox Metal Universe Diamond Heroes Jose Cruz Jr. #5DH - two Cruz Jr. cards on my all-time keepers, one kept for lingering sentiment over hot rookie cards that ended up busts, this one for my appreciation for something that looks different, where it has comic book, fantasy themed graphics.

84. 1992 Leaf Studio Jose Lind #86 - a junk wax era classic, Lind posing with a Katana knife cameo makes for an all-time card.

83. 2000 Upper Deck SP Authentic Future Watch Xavier Nady #140 - Serial #’d 0420/1700 - there was a time I thought Nady was going to be a star hitter after being drafted by the San Diego Padres and was obsessed about getting his rookies; I don’t think I was able to get one rookie card where he was included in 2000 sets.

I guess this takes me back and while Nady had a decent career with some moments - but never turned into perennial all-star type.

82. 2013 Bowman Chrome David Wright #173 - a micro-mini 'Los Mets' tribute to the MLB career of a star third baseman, where it’s kind of fascinating how fleeting a big league career can be.

81. 1997 Skybox Metal Universe Fred McGriff #34 - I don’t know what this card is all about, but for a little bit through the late 1990s, the Metal universe cards were silly fun.

80. 2011 Topps Heritage Minor League Edition Blue Tint Nick Castellanos #80 - was sort of a fan favorite where I thought it was something to add a pre-rookie parallel, but he wore out his welcome in the Philadelphia and probably known as much in baseball as part of an unfortunate meme.

79. 2019 Panini Leather and Lumber Die Cut Carlos Carrasco #20 - maybe not entirely a micro-mini tribute to the MLB career of a solid starting pitcher, but I want the means to tease the ‘card tech’ used that attempt to be different, where this one is thick, die cut and has a ridged surface.

78. 2023 Topps Big League 8-Bit Ballers Derek Jeter #8B-19 - maybe this was a cheap insert off the bat, but also a tribute to the video games of the mid through late 1980s.

77. 1997 Bowman Chrome Jayson Werth #293 - I like the dated rookie cards of notable MLB players when they looked markedly different, presumably at the beginning of their pro careers.

76. 2023 Panini Prizm Future Supers Jackson Merrill #FS5 - maybe there was a time when putting my all-time set together, where Merrill was just cracking the big league scene and any card of his was worth taking a flyer on.

75. 1996 Upper Deck Roberto Alomar #275 - I was going for a bloodlines angle where I put to use some of the mini-collections cards I've compiled, to tease cards of family in pro ball.

74. 1995 Topps Sandy Alomar Jr. #308 - I was going for a bloodlines angle where I tease cards of family in pro ball, Sandy has been a longtime coach with the Cleveland Indians to this day.

73. 1970 Topps Sandy Alomar #29 - I was going for a bloodlines angle where I tease cards of family in pro ball, the patriarch of the Alomar baseball family.

72. 1992 Bowman Kevin Young RC #155 - even it ends up a common after four decades, it's still pretty cool seeing cards with a little personality, where you have a player posing with a giant bat.

71. 2003 Fleer Ultra Matt Morris #16 - I like silly cards where Morris looks like he is having fun with a medicine ball of sorts.

All-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers VII

Maybe a couple of years ago, I was really into making an all-time Top 100 cheap-azz keepers collection - where it's chaos pages, bastardized Frankenstein pages [without the numbering obligations] and every else I might have been able to gather that was random and good in my mind.

I was able to making it through eight different personalized compilations of cards - the plan was to get everything in pages but maybe I quietly forgot about the project through the middle of 2025.

Feeling like I needed to check back on things through the current year, I was able to correct course and get the cards from sets [VII and VIII] into pages and into a binder - I was even able to make another version [IX], where I want to get back into a routine to flag certain loose cards.

Originally these home brewed sets contained exactly 100 cards within 11 pages - but since I didn't want the last card [#100] for my all-time to be stored behind another card or be the lone card in one last page, I ended up making allowances for my home brewed sets to have 108 cards to fit 12 pages exactly.

A distinction is being able to group some cards together where I might have 108 cards total per each set - but may not list out exactly 1-108, where it might be 104 cards, 106 cards, etc.

106. 2024 Topps Update Series Jesse Chavez #301 - this common represents my micro-mini tribute to the MLB career of a journeyman reliever who has been through the fire and who might finally retired for good.

105. 1992 Score Dream Team Craig Biggio #888 - I have a junk wax era themed curated set that might be a perpetual work in progress, so it might be easier to add a unique card from the [1986-1992 era] in my all-time set instead and challenge myself to find something else [or maybe even look a dupe].

104. 2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary Scott Hatteberg auto #A65-AH - this was a cheap auto find and I'm not above putting [autograph or relic cards] in my all-time sets; Hatteberg is shown with the Cincinnati Reds, but obviously is most known for being featured in Moneyball [I guess in the book and portrayed in the movie] with the Oakland Athletics of the early 2000s.

103. 1999 Upper Deck SP Top Prospects Ricky Williams #22 - this brings back a little bit of faux-nostalgia where Williams was one of the biggest all-time NFL draft prospects in the late 1990s and while he had a stint playing pro baseball, was included in a major company's minor league product as a gimmick.

102. 2024 Topps Update Series Blake Treinen #US196 - this common represents my micro-mini tribute to the MLB career of a longtime reliever, where at least on the field, there is something admirable about an individual who continues to pitch through his mid 30s.

101. 1988 Little Sun Black Sox Buck Weaver #5 - I may have mapped things out where the bottom part of an all-time 100 has what I consider wild cards and in this instance, have an oddball card of an early 20th century player I have to go look up.

100. 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken #616 - Black Box - through the past 30 years, I wish I had gotten a raw copy of the original FF error card, where it was easier to afford for like $20 or something.

The only copy I had was bought graded, so I do have the error - but not where I can added it to a home brewed, all-time set like this.

99. 1992 Confex The Baseball Enquirer Billy Ripken #4 - at the very least, I was able to pair up the black box version of the 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken with a parody version.

98. 1991 SmithKline Beecham MDA They're All-Stars Harmon Killebrew #19 - I probably didn't like oddballs as much as other collectors, but they end up nice fillers like this one featuring a Hall of Famer.

97. 2014 Topps Justin Maxwell #594 - a postgame Gatorade shower [or shaving cream pie to the face] always makes for a unique card, where it turns a common into a keeper.

96. 2023 Topps Series 2 1988 Topps Baseball Julio Rodriguez #2T88-32 - I like the retro design used for this insert and image shown, where player is pointing to the sky, presumably after completion of a gaame.

95. 1993 Donruss McDonald's Toronto Blue Jays Great Moments Sudden Impact Pat Borders #95 - imagine being Borders and having a juiced up Mark McGwire looking to barrel you over during a playoff game.

94. 2020 Topps Stadium Club Xander Bogaerts #21 - maybe when I started putting together this set, this card was already an 'old team' card, but it's a unique horizontal shot of Bogaerts warming up before the game.

93. 2021 Panini Prizm Rookie Autographs Isaac Paredes #RA-IP - this was a cheap auto pull of a player who has had some decent years with the bat and is still his mid 20s.

92. 2002 Upper Deck Authentics Al Leiter #144 - post 9/11, this card shows Leiter wearing an NYPD cap as his tribute, where it's a unique thing to point out.

91. 1987 T&J Madison Muskies Ozzie Canseco #3 - maybe having an all-time set is being able to flesh out my mini-collection interests and in this case, my bloodlines collection, where I have this odd card of a big league brother who considerably made less impact than his twin.

90. 1986 Donn Jennings Southern League All-Stars Jose Canseco #14 - I want to make it a thing where I can pair up cards of subjects, like two brothers who played in the big leagues and have cards.

89. 2022 Topps Chrome Heart of the City Jose Ramirez #HOC-7 - Ramirez has turned into a franchise great for the Cleveland Guardians, so it doesn't hurt for me to add a shiny card that emphasize the idea that he is an all-timer.

2024 Bowman Draft set purchase

Bowman paper are the most basic cards out of Bowman products, but when 2025 Bowman Draft came out in January, maybe I got some FOMO and started browsing for hand collated set for a cheap - I don't know why it triggered me, but I probably heard or saw something online where smart breakers making extra profit by selling off the hand collated sets.

Being priced out to bust a hobby box, super jumbo, breakers delight and even mega boxes, I'll be one of those impulsively looking for a paper set - if just for the love of hoarding new cards [maybe some Angels cards, like of No. 2 overall pick Tyler Bremner], even though I haven’t really focused on prospects and prospect cards have have jumbled together over the past decade.

On eBay I thought I hit the BIN on a 2025 set, but after sending payment, I realized I had actually gotten a 2024 set - I wonder what I’m really doing here, where for all the build up to get some 2025 Bowman Draft cards in-hand, I ended up with the Bowman Draft from the year before.

Do I bother looking for a 2025 set as intended [?] - I didn't want to pay to get more than one set in-hand, so I still haven't come back to grabbing a 2025 set.

I didn't know who Nick Kurtz was when the 2025 MLB season started - I still don't have many of his cards, so this first year paper ends up a keeper for the 2025 American League Rookie of the Year.

I didn't know much about Travis Bazzana, except he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 and is also an Australian - maybe he has had a slower start to his pro career, but after playing in the WBC, will be looking to see if he can get to the big leagues sooner than never at 23.

Trey Yesavage had a taste of the big leagues in 2025 and even though the Blue Jays lost to the Dodgers in the World Series - he emerged as a postseason hero, especially in the World Series.

I didn't know who Konnor Griffin was, but apparently he is the second coming of either Mike Trout or Bobby Witt Jr. - where the current value of this card is equivalent to what I'd paid for the entire set.

My mini collections - updated storage setups

Despite being seemingly set with the storage options I had in the meantime - maybe I wanted a more orderly way to funnel my awesome action collection towards a 3,200 count box, rather than in separate boxes.

It's been something that has been in front of me and I finally took a 3,200 count box I had bought at a card shop three weeks ago - to add on top of my other 3,200 count boxes and rejigger how I stored certain awesome action classifications towards one catch-all storage option.

I was expecting to fit everything from my awesome action collections into the box and maybe even some other mini-collections - but while I left gaps to add more cards to the collections in the box, there might not have been the space to add a bigger collection of cards [my fun cards] and one smaller collection of cards [my personality shots].

I made a simplified list of how I store my awesome action cards - there are subsets for each classification / groupings that are not listed in detail.

Making the throws – 1B – Row 1
Making the throws – 2B – Row 1
Making the throws – Double play throws 2B – Row 1
Making the throws – 3B – Row 1
Making the throws – SS – Row 1
Making the throws – Double play throws SS – Row 2
Pitching – Row 2

My dirt fetish cards - took up parts of three rows.

Dirt fetish – A – B – Row 2
Dirt fetish – C – P – Row 3
Dirt fetish – R – Z – Row 4

I added my game face cards to the 3,200 count box - to finish of the cards from my awesome action collections that was going into this one catch-all space.

Game face cards – Row 4

A snapshot of my tower of 3,200 count boxes - to keep things relatively manageable, I don't want to end up being obligated to buy more storage boxes, where it feels overwhelming seeing other collections [people end up trying to sell collections or whatever], where it's just these monolithic boxes that end up a chore to dig through if you need to pull or add more cards.

On the other hand, a 3,200 count box ends up an appropriate storage option [still relatively cheap at under $10, but price might have ticked up] for bulk cards - where I do want to herd a good portion of cards into one sturdy place where I am not losing track where they are in multiple, loose boxes.

My mini collections - current storage setups

My last post was about trying to herd my mini-collections together - after typing up an essay, I don't want to skip forwards towards an entirely different topic.

I want to share a snapshot of how cards are put away for my awesome action collections - which something I kind of made up to make me feel smarter as the main mini-collection themes I focus on.

In an ideal collecting world, maybe I can display my awesome action cards in plastic pages and binders to flip through on a whim - admittedly I tend to hoard more and collect less, where a priority is having a collection of themed bulk cards, without feeling like they are all over the place [at least for my mini-collections].

Awesome action – Actual on field action

Batting / Baserunning / Celebrations / Good job / Confrontations / Curtain Calls / Fielding – 3,200 count box

Batting – Row 1
Baserunning – Row 1 – A–G, Row 2 – H-Z
Celebrations – Row 3
Good job – Row 3
Confrontations – Row 3
Curtain calls – Row 3
Fielding 1B – Row 3
Fielding 2B – Row 4
Fielding 3B – Row 4
Fielding SS – Row 4

I had the following collections in loose boxes I've tried to make use of as card boxes - I am not above reusing shoeboxes, blaster boxes and other miscellaneous boxes, but it's probably the case where I want my themed cards in a catch-all storage setup.

I ended up buying another 3,200 count box - to see if I can jam everything together and still have space for more adds.

Making the throws – Target branded shoebox

Awesome action – Actual on field action – Pitching – Card Saver I box

Dirt fetish – a Costco / Kirkland ice cream bars box

Fun cards – a Costco / Kirkland ice cream bars box

Game face cards – a Costco / Kirkland ice cream bars box with my fun cards

Personality shots – Target branded shoebox

If all my themed cards don't fit into one 3,200 count box and the space ends up too tight - I may keep one or more collections as is, where anything goes as long as I have an idea where certain collections are.

Through 2026 - my mini collections

I've been bringing home card show piles over the past decade, after the world was opening up and card shows were up in full swing - I may have discovered a seller whose bulk boxes I might feed on about once a month to the tune 200-300 cards for a nickel each.

In my own little world I wanted to look high and low for mini-collection cards - where I wanted them to be the focus of my day-to-day collecting.

As it happened however, maybe my filing system in a Google Sheets file got corrupted [columns and headers, as well as the cards I had dutifully entered the past 15 years were in wrong places] or bloated - where even as I was took in more cards, there wasn't the familiar files to list and tally up my new finds as part of an archive.

Maybe I got so ingrained to typing into the same files over and over - that it was going to take time to start over with all the old data.

Maybe even the backup file [on a program called Calc] I may have started listing cards into was lost - due to a memory card crash.

For the past four or five years, actual cards in-hand may or may not have been added towards piles that have just sat around loose in what I may call my morgue - where it was a sad state where I had all these cards that were supposed to be part of certain themes, but I wasn't ever doing anything to enjoy them further.

I really needed to do something about my mini-collection cards where I wanted to have some peace of mind again - maybe the work to get things together hasn't been perfect, but maybe I have finally tried to correct things through the early part of the year, where I want to tend to my cards as much as much possible, especially when the weather is a little more forgiving.

Maybe related to my Google Sheets file wonking out on me is having what I called my 'awesome action' collection as a mini-collection themes - I had to get cards in order and classify how I wanted them sorted.

Awesome action – Actual on field action - simplified outline

Batting / Baserunning / Celebrations / Good job / Confrontations / Curtain Calls / Fielding

Batting
Baserunning
Celebrations
Good job
Confrontations
Curtain calls
Fielding 1B
Fielding 2B
Fielding 3B
Fielding SS

Making the throws – Mirrors my fielding cards; 2B and SS have double play subsets

Awesome action – Actual on field action – Pitching

Dirt fetish

Fun cards

Game face cards

Personality shots

I have what I call my archived collections that I may leave as is - this was when most, if not all cards were listed out.

I have what I have I call my main feeder collections - these are the themed collections from the past four or five years that may not have been formally listed, but I might be looking to change things up, where I might rather have 100 or so cards at a time as part of a personal themed curated set, rather then cards as part of a monolithic archive in a 3,200 count box or some other storage arrangement.

If I have the cards part of a personal themed curated set - maybe I can get back to listing a number of cards in a file where I have something to look at as far as a collection goes and also to check if I already have cards in-hand as opposed to buying more that end up dupes.

As the case maybe I want to work closer with thumbing through and playing with my cards - part of what I do is trying to herd cards from purchases online and maybe in-person, through finds and pulls.

This means smaller piles respawn into what I call satellite piles, where they have to be sorted in bigger update piles - when things get impacted within my temporary satellite / update files, I feel like I am freeing things up by updating my main feeder piles.

I have tried to keep my main feeder piles as the last [nearly semi-permanent] outpost to add cards into - without pulling cards outright, I might need to occasionally move things around and explore new storage options.