A random card buy - Kyren Williams

I saw this 2022 Score Rookies #332 card earlier in the year and squirreled an image of it away - that protective head gear made me do a double take.

It may not be such a big deal, but for a moment I thought it was the goofiest card - I wanted a copy for an oddities collection I have or maybe even for a collection of all-time Top 100 cheap 'zz' keepers project that never quite got off the ground.

I think I saw an expired auction listing from a seller on social media who runs these low end card auctions - I asked about the card since no one bid on it, but I don't think the seller understood or cared I wanted the card outright.

I started claiming 'quarters' off another social media seller just because he teased this card in a sales post - I probably would not have bought the 200 odds and ends if not for the copy of the card.

Go figure it wasn't actually tallied up in the final order and while I wasn't charged - I had to make it a micro mini mission to secure a copy, where it was still on my mind.

I went looking for the card on eBay and while it's probably a dollar card shipped on eBay all day long - I bought it off a listing for about twice as much but the card is now secured in-hand.

FWIW I did not know who the player on the card was and for all I cared, he might have been a practice squad guy - however, it looks like the second year NFL pro has had a breakout season as a running back, rushing for over 1,000 yards.

TTM autographs received: Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer

I was rummaging through my lone plastic box with my other sports cards - I found some loose football cards to send out TTM and maybe it was a challenge to send to at least a couple of non-baseball subjects.

I'd probably picked up this pair of unsigned 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game at least 20 years ago but just forgot about them - however, after all this time, there was still an opportunity to get the cards inked up as intended.

The 88-year old Jurgensen signed my card in about three weeks - I enclosed $10 with my request to the Pro Football Hall of Famer.

The 83-year old Kilmer signed my card in about three weeks - maybe I wanted something a little different and these cards didn't turn out so bad.

Five for $5 from a bitter beer face seller

Off a card show trip, I don't know what I was thinking but I had to go back to a random table I stopped earlier and look for a 2020 Donruss Retro 2000 Football Tom Brady #R2K-TB - I’d also seen the card in the $0.50 boxes from the previous post, but maybe that copy had a soft corner I couldn’t live with.

One of the guys out of the seller duo at the table seemed like he was a little off where he seemed like a miserable, glum person - where maybe he didn't want to get out of bed or someone ran over his dog.

I think the guy at the table was the same guy that told me this at show date in late June - maybe it was a nothing remark, but maybe in my head I'm thinking this guy's tone was a little passive aggressive for no reason.

"[Chief], there are lots of good cards in there," the guy sitting at the table said. "You just gotta dig, the cards are not going to pop out in front of your face."

I eventually found the said Brady and spent $4 more to pick up some other dollar cards - including a 2022 Panini Father's Day Bryce Harper #28, the only baseball card I was able to fish out of a two-row shoebox.

2020 Panini Select Concourse Brady #1

2021 Panini Mosaic Tom Brady #135

2020-21 Panini Select Concourse Luka Doncic #15

As far as the Panini Donruss Brady, I remember the 2000 Donruss design [and a 1999 Donruss design] used as ‘never has been throwback’ inserts in 2001 Donruss baseball - where it was the first Donruss product that came out after Donruss Leaf Playoff went bankrupt in 1998.

Maybe after time things start to look old school and I was more nostalgic about the design - I might have thought it was only created to see what cards from a 2000 Donruss [and 1999 Donruss] baseball set would look like, but they were were actually used in the Donruss football sets for those years, which DLP had the licenses to make.

Looking things up, Brady does have a harder to pull, short printed [serial #'d] rookie from the 2000 Donruss football set - if there was one 'stud' quarterback from Michigan I was thinking about 25 years ago, it was definitely Drew Henson.

A rummage through the $0.50 wasteland of doom

I ended up casually digging through three or four monster boxes I may normally pass over at a show I go to - they belong to a seller who is the one of the promoters and the boxes show up more often than not.

It's not like the seller is an old school guy where he buys collections that leads to odds and ends that I may get into - the bulk is the least important of what he has for sale at the table, probably leftover cards from different unopened box / case breaks, notably from other sports.

Any baseball only exists in scattered pockets in the rows of basic, basic parallel and insert cards - so the dearth of baseball may be the biggest thing that turns me away more often than not.

I couldn’t decide on whether to make keepers out of at least 20-25 baseball cards I found, so go figure I threw in some football to the mix - to put together a grouping of 30 'mix mix' cards for exactly $15.

Even though he was out for most of the year, maybe I was inclined to make loose Tatis Jr. cards keepers as cheap-o binder material - since he was a young superstar and certainly he'd come back at some point.

I didn't think he'd be suspended 80-games for PEDs and be out until 2023, where his big league legacy has been torpedoed - it's kind of depressing seeing Tatis Jr. mess up and endure the extra scrutiny where his faults have been magnified by people who might have never liked his antics anyway.

While he might always be seens as a tainted player - maybe he just needs the next 12-13 years to focus on just playing baseball, rather than trying to be marketed as the face of the entire sport.

Some basic inserts from flagship Topps that often feels redundant where they all jumble together from year-to-year - maybe the Welcome to the Show inserts try to show players at the very start of their careers, so I guess that could be a novelty.

For the 1987 themed cards, maybe I can go hunt down and pair them up with the originals [for at least McGwire and Ripken Jr.] - they are not bad looking, though I feel like the paper inserts get stale a couple of weeks into the flagship release.

Some shiny odds and ends - Rainbow foils and die-cut inserts.

A pair of 2022 Topps Home Run Challenge cards - I had fun with this promotion in 2021, though I haven't found many loose code cards in the wild this year.

Among the four I entered, counting these two - I have selected all losing dates.

Some cheap-o binder material for my decade stars collection featuring players who made their debuts at the tail end of the 2010s - focusing on Juan Soto specifically, maybe it hasn't sunk in that Soto is now in San Diego, so I made a pair of his Washington Nationals cards keepers anyway.

I don't know if it really works out, but while I pick up loose cards of guys knowing they might move onto other teams - I lose interest in their old team cards, the moment they end up being traded or signing with other teams.

In a game I play while rummaging around, I might wait a year before considering making old team cards of players [involved in current year transactions] potential keepers again - maybe the older cards are easier to put back and maybe end up less appealing [unless it's a rookie issue or something more notable than a base card].

Some NFL cards I ended up grabbing featuring Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen and T.J. Watt - if it were all just fun and games, I'd be amazed at all the different varieties of cards I can pick up to start a football collection for less than a dollar.

I think it would be fun to curate a collection of odds and ends, though I can kind of see where certain cards [regardless of who is pictured on them] end up being only worth so much - because they end up being bottom of the barrel types as fillers to bigger cards in once unopened product.

I really thought I found something here

Digging through dollar boxes, there might be a ongoing sense of wishcasting something that isn't there, where I'm going to find a card or two that may be worth something more - I don't care enough about NFL cards but finding a 2009 Topps Chrome Matthew Stafford #TC210 might be worth a dollar gamble, so I put in my pile.

Of course after getting the lousy card in-hand, I wanted to look it up to figure out what card it exactly is - I typed in was what I thought the card was, followed by 'reprint' and go figure there was such inserts where I probably didn't have the original rookie in-hand.

I think I waited overnight to dig the card out and confirmed my dollar gamble landed me a nice looking card of the most recent Super Bowl champion quarterback - but only worth what I paid for it.

For what it's worth, it was actually the original Topps rookie card of Stafford [#430] that was reprinted in 2012 Topps chrome - as opposed to the 2009 Topps Chrome version [#TC210], so it would have been obvious clue if I knew better.

Stragglers from the dollar boxes of doom

I was at a new card show earlier this past month, trying to traverse the circuit of tables, but didn't feel like I had the patience where maybe I get a little self-conscious about what I collected - besides the showcase tables, heavy concentration on more NBA, NFL, soccer and nonsport cards, what I'd consider the baseball first, weekend warrior, swap meet, tables I can really get into were just about non-existent.

Go figure, I was just kind of idle digging through the dollar boxes from the table I've always bought from at the monthly show - maybe the value boxes were relatively thinned out, where I was going to impose a hard limit on what I may pick up.

When it comes to that loose card hunt however, the fun is having no real plan because YMMV with each row of a value box - where it's kind of like going down a rabbit hole hunting for odds and ends.

Maybe I'd settle on 10 cards, then the numbers crept up to a little more and then I found other cards - if I'd put all the cards back and just walked away, then no harm, no foul, but go figure, I was really loitering around and for better or for worse, ended up with 20 keepers.

These cards may not be dollar material, but even if I'd only pay $0.50 or less for each of them - I feel like having them in hand for basically $0.50 more probably justifies cards that end up being mini-collection adds.

1997 Denny's 3-D Holograms Jackie Robinson #29 - awesome action; baserunning; plays at the plate; 'H'
1991 Star Nolan Ryan Promo Red - blank back; awesome action; unique perspectives; interviews
1996 Pinnacle Summit Foil Barry Bonds #107 - inking it up; there is another card I picked up previously featuring an image shot at the same time, but is cropped where it may not be obvious Bonds was signing anything.
2002 Upper Deck National Convention Sammy Sosa #N-2 - inking it up; I thought this was regular Sosa card and didn't think much of it but came around on making it a keeper because he is signing autographs and it's a little odder issue.

I'm not sure about picking up blank back cards I'm unfamiliar with where I worry it's not a 'real' card - but I'll take my chances with the Ryan.

Basketball
1996/97 Upper Deck UD3 Hardwood Prospects Ray Allen #5 - even though the card maybe only worth what I paid, what I believe is a rookie of a certified all-time great should be a keeper, right?
2019-20 Panini Chronicles Donruss Rated Rookie Nicolo Melli RC #197 - I would have skipped passed this card but my eagle eye spotted LeBron making a cameo along the side, so I had to make this a reluctant keeper.
2021 NBA Panini Hoops Lebron James #146 - an actual card of 'Bron, I'm not sure if I really have any of his cards, so I'll grab it.

Football
2020 Panini Donruss Optic Tom Brady #92
2020 Panini Select Concourse Patrick Mahomes #2

Baseball
2021 Donruss Diamond Kings Blue Holo Fernando Tatis #27
2021 Donruss Blue Holo Fernando Tatis #71
2021 Donruss Rated Rookie Blue Holo Dylan Carlson #37 - maybe 'Mr. Irrelevant' here where this might have been the last card I grabbed to make my little stash an even $20.
1969 Topps Dick Allen #350 - Allen doesn't register much for me like it would for others perhaps, but I maybe thirsty for the occasional old-school and/or vintage card when I see them for a buck in the wild.
2019 Topps Heritage High Numbers Hot Box Purple Andrew McCutchen #THC-702
2020 Topps Gallery Heritage Freddie Freeman #HT-3

More baseball
2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships Mickey Mantle 1951 Topps #YC14
2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps #YC15 - the '52 Mantle is such an iconic card, so even if it's to be reprinted in perpetuity [who knows what happens when Fanatics steps in], any Topps branded replications are keepers.
2010 Yankees Topps 27 World Championships Mickey Mantle 1953 Topps #YC16
1986 Donruss Fred McGriff RC #28
1999 Revolution Tripleheader Craig Biggio #24 - it's not that I've intentionally sought them out, but Pacific branded inserts and parallels maybe low-key keepers if and when I find them.

A card show and tell conundrum

It is harder for me to do any in-depth recaps because purchases have added up and I can't conjure up these nice and neat stories about how certain cards were chosen over others - maybe what I really want to say is look at my hauls, pore over my finds, but maybe I'm just reading the room wrong or there is no real audience to cater to.

I'm a glutton for punishment however, where I need an outlet where there is a routine to get the word out once in a while - so here goes another bunch of purchases [at what has been the monthly show, though there might be 1 or 2 more dates added in a given month] to literally amuse myself with.

I found what maybe a complete 'stand alone' set of Bryce Harper minor league cards - I assume these are official issues, though a case where the cards were printed to capitalize on his hype as a prospect.

They seem more like customs than anything else - however, enough time has passed where the cards are 'old enough' to have some pre-rookie novelty.

In the pecking order of sporting GOATS over the past 20 years, Jeter might be the token baseball guy - still have to put aside some Jeters, where maybe I'm looking for some mainstream, if dated oddballs [Upper Deck Collectors Club, Upper Deck FanFest, Upper Deck National] just to have something different.

This Willie Mays caught my eye because it just stood out as a little larger, even though I like my cards standard size - it looks like it's a Topps branded card rather than some custom, so my best guess it was from a National VIP package, since I've seen them put out similar, vintage themed card sets as part of their National Convention promotions.

Miscellaneous baseball isn't where it's at at a 'here and now' card show, but I'm digging away to see what odds and ends I can pull - including an old Joe Mauer minor league card from his pro debut season, a 2018 Topps Archives Aaron Judge card I thought was some parallel [it's just a base] because of the cardboard stain design element [on the back] and a real old 1963 Fleer card of Bob Aspromonte.

I remember when I thought Xavier Nady was going to be the next hot prospect just over 20 years ago - I wanted his rookie cards so bad when they first came out and while it wasn't the one I had in mind, grabbed one of the serial #'d rookies that came out his pro debut season where he might have been guaranteed to get a big league call up in 2000.

While Nady was a very good player in spurts - he never did turn into that perennial all-star talent I assumed most guys with a little bit of prospect pedigree turned out to be back in the day.

I grabbed basic rookie cards of Ke'Bryan Hayes and Jo Adell just because maybe there is a desperation to think about future considerations - even if talking about putting away lowest end rookies of a couple of potential future stars.

I didn't think I'd end up with a pair of serial #'d Ryan Freel rookie cards but maybe there is some sentimentality there - where the cards go towards my beyond the glory collection.

It's only a checklist card, but the old school Catfish Hunter / Nolan Ryan card maybe a nice add to Ryan collection in my Angels binder - I may keep an eye out for old-school / vintage stragglers when available where there is a little novelty in something now over 45 years old.

More baseball odds and ends, including an Albert Belle inside printed on simulated wood material and a Chipper Jones insert printed on simulated base material- it has been said somewhere else but those types of cards are always fun to pick up.

I ended up with a couple of Reggie Jackson cards that may fall into the oddball territory - I've seen the card where he is promoting soccer on other blogs, so I had to make it a keeper [the only thing weirder than seeing Reggie promoting the World Cup back in 1993 is realizing that he is a special assistant to the owner of the Houston Astros] along with his 1982 O-Pee-Chee In Action subset card.

I don't know if Giancarlo Stanton is relevant as far as who I may collect but seeing a couple of cards from his minor league days [included a mini] - triggered me to pick them up where enough time has passed to make them a little 'old school' novelties rather than just finding another big league issued card of the 12-year veteran.

I don't think Nick Castellanos is any sort of baseball card superstar, but he has put up some numbers where is considered an actual baseball star - I make make his 2011 Topps Heritage Minor League blue tint card a keeper, even if it's worth only what I paid.

I didn't anticipate finding these prospect cards and while they are strictly base [and not even first year cards], maybe I haven't had much exposure to prospect products in recent years - so if I see cards of notable guys, maybe I should squirrel them away as far as guys who are likely going to be decade stars through the 2020s.

These are kind of my 'junk' GU / auto finds - I didn't really want to spend a dollar on a J.C. Romero card, but want to pick up certified autographs of one-time Angels outright and add them [to the non-Angels card portion] of my Angels all-time autograph collection without worrying about digging up an TTM/IP of the same player that I may or may not actually have.

Cesar Hernandez is nothing special at all, but he is an active big leaguer who I didn't have an autograph of - I think he is wearing a retro uniform, so maybe I can add his Topps Stadium Club autograph to that mini-collection.

The Fred McGriff bat card may have come out during a time where maybe memorabilia cards were still a novelty - maybe not the late 1990s, but in the early 2000s where game used cards were featured highlights in baseball card products rather just another insert type that would lose its collectibility.

I don't think I'll ever be collecting other sports but I'll add a few stragglers to the mix - where it's cards of some other sport GOATS [Michael Jordan, Tom Brady], an interesting, fun card [Jake The Snake Plummer posing with an actual snake] or a card featuring an individual [Colin Kaepernick] that has transcended past just being another pro athlete.

Card show pickups - mini-collections

Mini collections are probably the foundation of my loose card finds - maybe it just gets to be a little silly and I worry about not catching them all, but it's all fun and games.

I'm good about making keepers out of the ones I do learn about and / or stumble on - rather than be on this impossible mission to make every collecting topics subset card mine.

During a dig out of the quarter boxes, I was able to find a 1999 Upper Deck Vladimir Guerrero card which I may have picked up anyway - but a closer look shows an extra element where he is breaking his bat.

I was able to a football card of Shane Buechele, the son of former MLB player Steve - it maybe a nothingburger card of an undrafted quarterback already waived, but the bloodlines aspect is always fun to tie together.

I was happy to find base cards for Kyler Murray - another bloodlines guy [nephew of former MLB player Calvin] and also a multi-sport athlete who has literally shown flashes of stardom as a quarterback.

Just about all Bowman cards have no real personality - but I found a 'hats-off' card of Bo Bichette showing off his flow.

A facial hair card of Eddie Murray is a nice find - I default to making cards of notable players primarily binder material, but it's not like I'm playing with anything but a card I paid a quarter for.

Maybe it's not in your face, but I found a card of Yu Darvish, pictured with a pitching grip visible - that's a keeper though probably based on name value than card type.

It's not ideal but images on the reverse are keepers just the same - have to make sure to check images on the back of cards that have them, where at times there is a image like on the 1998 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. card where he is doing some fan service.

A sweet Grant Hill basketball card featuring a Shaq cameo is something I want more of for my mini-collections - where this particular card goes into my 'star on star' cameo collection.

My mini-collections are designed to repurpose rank and file commons into something besides my A-Z archives - but maybe it's a stretch to make certain cards keepers out of cards like the Jurickson Profar [because he has shades on] or a most random Pittsburgh Pirate named Jacob Stallings [it's a bit more obvious where the Stallings is a catching card].

The 2020 Topps Update Silver Pack Rhys Hoskins wearing a Philadelphia Phillies retro uniform pops with a refractor finish - so the card made it into the final take home pile.

I'm not the expert in collecting them - but gum cards are certainly fun to find for myself.

I grabbed a pair of Mark McGwire cards where he is presumably making a nice diving stab at the ball and taking a curtain call - because of all the PEDs and how his career unfolded, I don't want to salvage any more McGwire cards than I have to, but have done so, might continue to do so and two more cards were needs for my mini-collections.

I don't think about manager cards all that much, but the 1992 Topps Tommy Lasorda is a classic - it probably ends up in my 'men at work' collection.

I don't know if I like the circumstances of the image used on the 2008 Upper Deck Manny Ramirez [another PED guy] card all that much - but I guess it's a great image regardless.

I grabbed the Alex Rodriguez [one more PED guy] because it's kind of a nice, horizontal image - where he goes up in the air to try and complete the double play.

Sammy Sosa is a PED pariah, even more so than a McGwire, Manny or A-Rod - but I like the card of Sosa diving back to the bag on a pickoff attempt, so that goes into my baserunning collection.

The Sam Hilliard [no it wasn't $5] probably ends up as a 'dirt fetish' card in my collection, while the Tony Gwynn ends up as a baserunning card - the David Ortiz [okay, so one more PED guy] ends up being a celebration card, so that's a keeper.

Maybe Mr. Irrelevant here is a 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces card of Y.A. Tittle - the image used is one of the most iconic in NFL history, something I had to look up.

Card show pickups - the other sports GOATS

This could have been part of the last post, but these guys are stand alone figures as far as their sports go - maybe not anything but cheap cards of Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Phil Jackson and a couple of Michael Jordans [on the Washington Wizards...], but they are keepers as I found them.

Card show pickups - the other sports

Through my collecting life, there have actually been efforts to be a multi-sport collector - however long term interest hasn't really lingered, where focusing on collecting one sport gets complicated as it is.

At times, I think it would be a nice change of pace to get away from baseball, though digging around bins jumbled around as opposed to being separated by sport - it maybe a sign of desperation, where I'm not finding what I'm looking for when I add non-baseball cards to my probable keeper pile.

I don't think I have a hierarchy to collect other sports, like I do with my baseball cards - these cards may end up as misfits, though I'll see if I can funnel them into my mini-collections and make something up, so random cards have a purpose somewhere in my head.

For football, I gravitate towards cards of quarterbacks, wide receivers or running backs, notably the top tier guys from the past 25-30 years - if nothing else, I might also consider cards of 'personalities' such as former players working as analysts and/or have crossed over into pop culture.

For basketball, I've mostly tuned out keeping up with NBA players, so I'm just not familiar with most players that aren't on that national superstar level - however, I pounced on what look to be a quartet of Rui Hachimura's most basic [yet still NBA branded] rookie issues just because I might have heard of him briefly somewhere.

I found base cards of Giannis Antetokounmpo, which may not be a big deal - but he is coming off a NBA championship run this past summer and also purchased a share of the Milwaukee Brewers, so there is a MLB tie in there.

More NBA cards of guys fans have heard about over the past 25 years - Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis, a pair of Shaqs and a completely random Karl Malone card.

The 1992-93 Topps Stadium Club Members Choice Malone #205 probably replaces the other one I picked up under dubious circumstances as wee young lad - I want to say the original may still be lurking somewhere in my collections of loose cards for other sports, but I wanted another outright just to keep handy.

These cards may represent the 'other other' sports though a 1981 Fleer Steve Garvey #110 makes a cameo - it's not a big deal where it's all fun and games, but the Garvey card has a crease running just above his batting helmet.

Rummaging through cards quickly, maybe I just don't pay close enough to see if any particular card has blemishes or imperfections - however I do try to be picky about anything obvious.

Hockey is out of sight out of mind but dare me to name two NHL players off the top of my head and it would probably be Alexei Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby - why not splurge on some cards for the duo just to say I have them.

I found a mini card of Alexandra O'Laughlin - who maybe best described as more of a 'personality' rather than an an athlete, but in this circumstance I'll give her a pass.

To round things out, I ended up finding a couple of cards [same ones] of race car driver Hailie Deegan - I ended up grabbing one for $2 just because I've heard her name mentioned in some card show videos I've watched on YouTube and maybe she's the next big thing.

Maybe I shouldn't mess with the bargain bins

At my local card show for the past 3 or 4 weekends, the temptation to stop at the table with the $0.50 bins of cards is too much - the cost of being in the 'here and now' as far as collecting or speculating on cards is something I feel is a bit out of whack.

A part of me wants to be in my own little world as a bargain bin hunter, because I want to go through cards I can flag as keepers - I'm not smarter than the guys in the same room might be scheming to selling or trading for cards worth hundreds or thousands of dollar at minimum, but I'm content to make something of my finds.

In the back of my head, I'm trying to salvage 'good cards' for cheap, even if reality dictates the cards I'm trying to set aside - are irrelevant to the 'show me the money' mentality.

I do wonder if I'm going a little overboard with my digs, where I want it all as a hoarder rather than a collector - maybe there has to be a bigger ambition to look for ideally better cards, even if better cards cost money and I'm not going to pay any sort of 'premium' to land cards that maybe cost as much as I'd spend on 40-80 [$0.50] cards.

A couple of weeks ago it was almost a relief not to see the seller setup at the show, where I didn't see the table with the siren song of loose cards - the seller was back this past weekend however and I was planted at this bins once again.

Maybe I was aiming to take only so many cards since things do add up, but go figure - the seller said the cards I was going through were all a quarter each, so that may not be a nickel or dime per card, but any sort of resistance to avoid rummaging through has been rendered hopeless.

This was my haul of cards from several weeks ago, when the seller still had them for $0.50 each - I don't know if the seller even bothers to refresh the cards, but I'm still pulling stuff out, so it's just a crapshoot.

Binder material for my decade stars collection from the 1950s through the 1980s - there might a new focus towards the vintage / old-school guys, though the cards I'll end up with will be either retro cards and/or cards that just aren't as old.

Binder material for my decade stars collection from the 1990s through the 2000s - Hideki Matsui [2003 Upper Deck rookie card] and Alfonso Soriano [fold out 'ticket' insert] ends up being the pair of 'iffy' guys in this grouping, but they are still decade stars for me.

Binder material for my decade stars collection from the 2010s through the 2020s - besides Rafael Devers and Juan Soto, maybe there is a 'wait and see' approach to see if these guys have some lasting power.

I want to believe Brandon Lowe will end up being the next Chase Utley of the decade - a second baseman who might be a little underrated but who has good pop and might string together a solid peak as a hitter.

Other sports - can I really go wrong with any cards of these guys? Stephen Curry? Aaron Rodgers? Peyton Manning? Brett Favre? Charles Barkley? I threw in a Ricky Williams in the mix because the shine was too much to ignore.

Randomness - cards of Eddie Murray and Reggie Jackson I can use for my Topps year-to-year run, a project I've neglected seriously hunting down cards for, a couple of Rod Carew cards I can use for my Angels Opening Day starters projects, a random retro Joe DiMaggio insert and a Pedro Guerrero rookie card for my team boxes 'dump,' a shiny Taylor Hearn Texas [Rangers] parallel from 2019, a 1984 Donruss Murray and Nick Maton [Philadelphia Phillies] prospect card.

Mini-collection material - baserunning [Sammy Sosa], baserunning; plays at the plate [Yordan Alvarez, George Springer], batting; horizontal [Sosa], making the throws; shortstop; horizontal [Miguel Rojas], fun cards; having fun [Favre], fun cards; oddities [Larry Bird], game face; focused [Mike Piazza] and personality shots; fired up [Rickey Henderson].

Mini-collection material - facial hair [Nolan Arenado and Murray], grips [Kevin Gausman and Pedro Martinez], hats-off [Joe Morgan and Jim Palmer], infamous [O.J. Simpson], local / bloodlines [Austin Pettis], retro uniforms [Ken Griffey Jr. and Greg Maddux], shades [Keston Hiura] and tools of ignorance [Piazza - I found a dupe in a penny sleeve].

The process behind my bargain bin digs - the last cuts

When it's 'last call' as far as my mind is concered, I'm trying rein in a good number of cards to take home [from a $0.50 bin] - where I've made up my mind as to how much I'll have to pay [where at times, it's going to be a strict card per card tally from a seller's POV].

These might be the 10 'other cards' that I might have just put back [where I wasn't going to spend $5 more on 10 more lousy cards] - but go figure ended up in my stash anyway.

The die-cut Chipper Jones insert, the shiny Tom Glavine parallel and the boxed set Jim Abbott are likely binder material - the Sammy Sosa goes into my batting [horizontal] collection, where I try to round up cards of unique images of batters at the plate.

I don't know if the Chipper insert does anything for me, since it's a little loud, but doesn't 'pop' like a refractor - but Jones ends up being one of my guys on the down low.

The Glavine was just too shiny to ignore - even though I probably underrate his HOF career as far as sentiment goes.

Abbott remains a larger than life figure because of what the one-time big league pitcher was able to do without a right hand - but maybe I'm lukewarm on picking up a run of his cards up because through the junk wax era, he had his share of cards.

Maybe the period of time where cards were getting a little fancy, Abbott had moved on from the Angels for a bit - maybe his second stint with the team through the mid 1990s, was really the beginning of the end.

McKenzie might end up being a decade stars / binder guy so I ended up grabbing the 2021 Panini Diamond Kings insert - he had flashes of success in his rookie year in 2020 but maybe the results are a little uneven this past season, especially with his walk totals.

I don't know how to classify Kyle Hendricks where at the moment he doesn't get into my binders as a decade stars guy - even though he's been consistently great, he doesn't have flashy stuff and just isn't that in your face kind of big leaguer.

There was probably a 4-5 year stretch from the mid 1990s onward where Brett Favre was the biggest thing in the NFL - the back of the card I picked up has him having a little bit of 'photo op' fun where there is someone taking his picture while he's playfully spinning a football like a basketball.

I like the Steve Francis card because it shows him 'hoopin over a bewildered Tim Duncan - which reminds me of this tweet.

These are a pair of Ted Williams inserts from the mid 1990s - I grabbed them because it looks like they have a lenticular, 3D surface that make them a little more unique.