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.

COMC order #9 - Another variety pack [FIN]

To stretch things out, one final post for the COMC cards I had gotten in-hand last December - where I've conscripted odds and ends to my collections.

2025 Topps Finest Drake Baldwin RC #21 - my interest in keeping up with aspects of Major League Baseball has probably waned through the past decade, where I might plead ignorance as far as knowing the top prospects coming up.

Entering the 2025 season, maybe Baldwin was a bit of an unknown commodity anyway - I wasn't paying any particular attention as he played well enough to displace Sean Murphy as the Atlanta Braves' starting catcher and won the 2025 National League Rookie of the Year.

As it goes, I probably needed any Baldwin card to fill a spot in my award winners collection - which ends up kind of being in mothballs, where the only time I might worry about the project is when I can add more cards of the year-to-year award winners [MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year].

2002 Donruss Originals On the Record /800 Jimmie Foxx #OR-2 - I thought up a random insert set to search for back in 2023 and this one came up in my memory banks, where it's something that came out 25 years ago and counting.

The card is jazzed up with a serial number on the back and looks almost inspired of a USA Today newspaper like design - Babe Ruth makes a cameo, so it ends up being a star on star card.

1975 NST Mr. Baseball Stamps Shigeo Nagashima #204 and 2001 BBM Shigeo Nagashima #530 - to broaden my collecting interests, I might have been looking to build up a micro-mini collection of his cards a couple of years ago.

It might not actually be a traditional card, but I like the candid street clothes moment captured - where Nagashima is signing autographs for a couple of boys.

2022 BBM Fusion Roki Sasaki #16 - maybe I wished I would have grabbed some Japanese era Sasaki cards while in Japan last November, but was worried I was overpaying for single cards that were not rookies anyway.

2022 BBM Roki Sasaki Perfect Game Roki Sasaki #11 - I think I made up for a little bit of regret, picking out a couple of Sasaki cards, where they at least showed some unique, cutesy images, even if they were no better than the other Japanese era Sasaki cards.

2022 Bowman NPB Nippon Professional Baseball Yoshinobu Yamamoto #9 - maybe I wanted to squirrel away a Japan era card of the Japanese import after his rookie year back in 2024, even if the card I ended up with here was a pretty basic card.

2023 Topps Now Off-Season Yoshinobu Yamamoto #/34,496 #OS-25 - this wasn't worth much at all, but maybe his earliest MLB era card, even if it's a oddball Topps Now thing as opposed to a card that would be inserted in packs.

1974-75 Calbee Bobby Marcano #836 - to fill out my purchase before having things shipped, I grabbed this old-school Japanese card of a Gaijin player who was from Venezuela and flourished in Japan as a second baseman.

COMC order #9 - Sportscasters

1977-79 Sportscasters Series 03 Lausanne Printed in Japan Hank Aaron #03-16 - I picked up this old-school Hank Aaron oddball item for around $6 three years ago and was part of what I had delivered from my COMC account late in December.

The larger format card ends up sort of a misfit, but a case where I didn't mind a more substantial card in-hand - rather than some ratty regular sized card.

1977-79 Sportscasters Series 27 Geneva A Dave Kingman #27-21 - I decided to pick this up for around $3, because it's been sitting somewhere in my memory banks as a scratch the itch card to take ownership of.

Rather than another regular size card I can file away like the others in my inking it up theme - this ends ends up being a bigger, oddball item, where the image of Kingman signing autographs pops a little bit more.

COMC order #8 - Minor league cards

Maybe going down the COMC rabbit hole has just not been a thing for me - but maybe a few times I have done so with store credit added, I've end up with some odd cards I didn't realize I needed, but impulsively had to make keepers of.

1987 ProCards Minor League Jim Morris #261 - maybe it was the same night in 1999 [nearly 30 years ago] where I got Morris to sign an index card [?] after a Tampa Bay [Devil] Rays @ Anaheim Angels game and then also a bigger deal, was getting Jose Canseco to literally scribble on some things [for the first time ever] when he left the stadium.

That 1999 Tampa Bay team also had Julio Franco towards the end of the season, so that was at least three cult favorites types - though I didn't see Franco then and would not quite realize his 'greatness' until he popped back up in the major leagues in his mid 40s.

A couple of minor league cards of a Tom Nicholson - who went to my high school and played professionally, before ending up in the college coaching ranks.

Maybe the lingering sentiment of keeping up with a local guy has faded - but years ago, it was cool to find a college card of Nicholson posted [on another card blog], when he played college baseball at Texas, so it was nice to find two more cards.

Finally, a couple of early minor league cards picked up of Erik Kratz, a journeyman catcher who played in parts of 11 seasons in the big leagues - I occasionally see clips of Foul Territory Podcasts posted on social media, where Kratz gives his takes on current baseball happenings, along with fellow former big league catcher A.J. Pierzynski and sports broadcaster Scott Braun.