Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Remnants of the most random dollar bins

At the card show I go to, there is a father and son duo that buys collections and has boxes of cheap-o material - at one of the other shows, I saw them at, a person who might not have known any better asked the father if there were "any good cards" in the boxes.

The father basically said something like [they've gone through the boxes] where there probably won't be anything of value - maybe these finds symbolize that, but I still like rummaging through where it's not just the most random cards from the most recent years or drivel from the junk wax era.

Old school / vintage cards - maybe there is a little thirst to make keepers out old cardboard, even if they end up being stragglers rather something that end up being notable finds to build on in my collections.
Fan favorites types - there are former players I don't get really nostalgic about 24/7, but may get a second look through my eyes, where maybe I relent to pick up a random card of theirs.

I remember Eric Chavez as a rising star third baseman, before injuries wrecked havoc to his prime years - he kind of had a late career revival, but more of a semi-regular who was good in spurts.

I tried to collect Ryan Klesko when he was one of the top prospects in the Atlanta Braves system in the early 1990s - which was at least 30 years ago and counting.

Finding a shiny and numbered card of a Hall of Famer is kind of a reward - even though Edgar Martinez was considered more as a baseball card minor star than someone who was a superstar outright.
Cheap-o rookies of fan favorite types - for the most part these types of cards are baseball card 'has beens,' but cards to make keepers of when I stumble upon them.

Andrew McCutchen has bounced around the past four or five years after his peak seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates - the batting numbers are not as dynamic, but is still hanging onto a MLB playing career.

Yu Darvish fits in with the other Japanese imports - who've established notable big league careers and have had runs of good years, as opposed to some their other peers, who may have been more disappointments than outright successes.

I don't really collect other sports, but picking up this random NBA card might be a no brainer as a casual sports fan - I think I've seen signed versions of this card and it's fun to see two iconic players featured on one card.
I think these two cards ended up in my keeper stash by accident - I don't know how they couldn't have gotten in there, but did a double take when I was combing over my finds afterwards.

1 comment:

Jon said...

Yeah, the old "I have no idea where these came from, honey. I swear!" routine :)

Joking aside, the numbered Edgar is really great. I don't get jealous of cards on blogs very often, but I am a little envious of that one. Good selection of vintage too. I think I paid a dollar for my copy of that Zimmer a few years ago as well. Good to know that the price hasn't been inflated by the boom.