1998 Topps Interleague Match-Ups Mystery Finest Jim Edmonds #ILM14

I tried to microwave a UV era Topps insert card from the 1990s with a mystery peel for 10 seconds - I wanted to see if I could loosen the adhesive from the peel, so I can reveal the player shown on the card, but ended up with this catastrophe.

Maybe I should have left it as is, but I remember pulling a similar type of insert over 25 years ago that revealed Mike Piazza - after figuring out what the card was back then, the adhesive was still fresh unlike the Edmonds card I picked up recently.

Rummaging for some old school material

Card shows are a mixed bag where you can a have a good number of tables in a seemingly nice [hotel] venue - yet it's not 20 or 30 years ago where you might see more tables to pick through dedicated to sports cards and/or strictly to baseball cards of all sorts [though that might be too narrow of a scope anyway, if you are trying to sell things at a modern era card show].

As is I thought I was just warming up digging through the value boxes [$1 each] at one table with more old-school and vintage material at a card show date - but I guess this particular dig ended up my highlight of the day.

Newly minted Hall of Famers - Richie Allen and Dave Parker give me a couple of new legends to sort of collect in a 'catch all' sorts of way, even if I wasn't doing so before.

Cult favorites and/or cult favorite cards - in my collection, I had at least one copy of the 1975 Topps Herb Washington RC #407 and 1975 Topps Oscar Gamble #213, but picking up one more of each should be no brainers.

Odds and ends cards - a 1972 Topps In Action Darrell Evans #172 and a 1975 Topps 1974 NL Championships Steve Garvey/Frank Taveras #460 are just random cards that have ended up as scratch the itch oddities, with Evans caught in the air on his card and the all the dirt kicked up on the Garvey / Taveras card.

Maybe the 'star power' is too much to ignore on the 1975 Topps MVP subset cards - though I don't know if I like the idea of cards pictured within cards, rather than using an original image.

I would have thought to do so before, but I picked up a 1974 Topps Garry Maddox #178 - to go into one nickname themed 'curated sets' [of 100 cards], where I've already built up around three versions.

I wanted a card for the 'Secretary of Defense' that teases some mid 1970s flair - rather than trying to dig up the 1 of 2 I may have squirreled away.

Finally some scattered star power - I was finding the occasional low valued star cards from the mid 1970s onward, so I tried to fish out the ones that didn't seem to have obvious blemishes [off-center, miscut, dog-eared, etc] at first glance.

2024 Topps Stadium Club Lawrence Butler RC #265

I picked this card up because it pictures the Oakland Athletics star rookie attempting to track a fly ball down by the wall - I love the signage pictured of Rickey Henderson Field, where the playing surface at Oakland Coliseum is dedicated to one of the all-time great players in MLB history.

For a moment, I think about the idea of the Oakland Athletics not existing anymore - where a team destined for Las Vegas for 2028, will be playing their games in Sacramento for the next three seasons.

With Henderson just passing [R.I.P.] at the age of 65, maybe it makes it hurt so much more where a fan base in Oakland has not only lost a team at the end of 2024 - but also an all-around guy lionized as a larger than life figure both on the field and as a character of the game.

TTM autographs received: Sid Fernandez

I have not kept up with TTMs through the past year, but occasionally see a success posted [on social media] that intrigues me - especially when I do not have either TTM or in-person history with getting a former player's autograph, like the former MLB pitcher from the 1980s through the mid 1990s.

I realized that Fernandez had 1984 Donruss #44 RC and 1990 Leaf #66 cards that I did not have in-hand - I needed to hold off sending out to him until I was able to get the two particular cards.

I ended up picking up the cards online and once received, sent them off along with an oddball Dodgers issue I pulled apart from a perforated sheet and a 1991 Upper Deck #242 - it looked like the responses from 'El Sid' were quick and I got my cards back signed in a week.

Some junk wax era finds at the card show

When I go to a card show, maybe I have delusions that I'm going to come away with an important card in either value and/or sentiment - but the reality is I haven't been about that collecting life where I do any sort of homework on targeting a bigger card.

More often that not, I get sidetracked and stick digging around more bulk / value box material - where I just like picking through cards I can actually thumb through.

At a card show date, I was digging through a dollar or '6 for $5' box off one seller - I ended up grabbing about 18 cards, none probably older than 1995, but fun to take ownership of like the following cards.

1986 Utah Sports Card Co. The Wonderful World of Wally Joyner at BYU - maybe not particularly hard to find as a set on eBay, but I ended up grabbing the ones I could find from the 14-card set since they were unfamiliar to me.

I thought I had picked up a Joyner card from the set a couple of years ago - but it turned out to be from another BYU themed set put out by the same company.

1986 Sportflics cards of Rod Carew, Don Mattingly, Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson - besides vaguely remembering buying a box of 1989 Sportlics at a toy store at an outlet 25 years ago, I've never given Sportflics cards much thought other than dated relics from the junk wax years.

However, there might renewed interest in the loose cards I find in the wild - where the illusion of motion kind of amuse me.