Card shop finds - the most random nine

Most of my 'pocket change' has been spent towards picking up magnetic card holders to upgrade storage for many of the individual cards in my PCs - I can only use top loaders and semi-rigids from 1999 for so long.

As is, I haven't really bothered to rummage through the cards in the quarter bins of my LCS - I have this ritual with these loose cards where I may grab a brick of them to start off with, but have to sort them out to where I only get so many cards.

2017 Topps Alex Reyes #103 - he’s had his share of prospect cards, but this is his Topps flagship MLB RC logo card.

2017 Topps Matt Strahm #274 - there are only so many players I end up hearing about, if they are more under the radar guys, than prospects hyped up by all sorts of experts.

2017 Topps Brandon Guyer #312 - Gold parallel serial #’d 0788/2017

2017 Topps Seth Lugo #319 - vaguely heard of him; he was brutal in AAA Las Vegas in 2016, but then gave the New York Mets a shot in the arm after he first got called up.

2015-16 Upper Deck SP Authentic hockey Doug Gilmour #137 - I’m not a hockey card collector but I like cards with these types of images.

1991 Upper Deck football Esera Tuaolo #635 - I found this in some random Green Bay Packers box in the store and thought wasn’t this guy a packer of a different sort?

I knew I was vaguely aware of him as a guy who did come out - so for a time his story was interesting post NFL career.

2016 Topps Heritage High Tim Lincecum #631 - he’s signing autographs here, though the image is cropped so that act is obscured...probably goes into my 'players wearing shades' mini-collection.

It's not like Lincecum lost his mojo overnight, but his comeback attempt with the Angels in 2016 was an absolute failure - after being such a dazzling pitcher in his prime, it's hard to imagine the reality of Lincecum being a has-been, relative to all his big league accomplishments.

2016 Topps Update Series Junior Guerra #US124 - I found this card on a stack in one of the back counter of the LCS; I feel like it's my duty to pick up at least one card of a player I've never heard of before, even if I may not hear from them ever again.

Guerra was a journeyman minor leaguer who finally made his big league debut at 30 in 2015 - however he started 20 games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016 and struck out 100 batters in 121.2 innings pitched while allowing only 94 hits.

2012 Topps football Nick Barnett #174 - this maybe the last card that I may have ever thought about picking up, but isn't that something where it looks like he is wearing some fangs.

Featured autograph - Jerome Bettis

Bettis has a unique autograph where it looks like he writes out the 'Rome' in Jerome and then draws out a caricature of a football - maybe it was because I was getting him on a trading card and it wasn't a paid signing, but I didn't get any of those unique qualities.

Though Bettis' autograph is a little messy, the scribble I got on a 1994 Fleer Flair Hot Numbers insert was definitely rushed - the autograph wasn't completely clean with just a bit of streaking and a blemish on the white part of his jersey in-between his number and his shoulder pads.

The slabbed PSA/DNA card ends up being a keeper in my autograph collection somewhere because I'm not into football collecting as much - where I'd try and find an actual certified autograph card [or non-card item].

Featured autograph - Jerry West

The only non football autograph in my PSA/DNA submission was a TTM signed card of NBA legend Jerry West - it may only be a card I randomly sent at some point within the past 15 years, but I'm amazed it came back to me signed, because I've always associated The Logo as a sporting great who may not have signed autograph requests.

2017 Topps Series I hobby jumbo pack

I picked up a jumbo pack of 2017 Topps Series I for my yearly breaking ritual of at least one jumbo pack of Series I, Series II and Update - with a nameplate eating up the lower portion of the front of the card and bright colored card backs, these flagship cards may take a little getting used to, but are otherwise passable.

#74 Brett Lawrie
#93 Matt Joyce
#9 Chris Sale
#12 Jerad Eickhoff
#286 Drew Pomeranz
#296 Tyler Clippard
#139 JaCoby Jones
#282 Tyler Flowers
#155 Jacob DeGrom
#274 Matt Strahm
#51 Jake Barrett
#151 Jonathan Villar

#20 Mike Trout
#221 Adam Wainwright
#331 Jake Lamb
#315 Carlos Beltran
#260 Stephen Piscotty
#158 Tommy Pham
#55 Mark Trumbo
#81 D.J. LeMahieu
#270 Jake Arrieta
#159 Justin Verlander
#S-61 Jackie Bradley Jr. - Topps Salute insert

#5T-16 Wil Myers - Five Tool insert; I like these cards and while maybe too radical, wouldn't mind seeing the multiple picture in a collage element be used as a Topps flagship design instead of the more pedestrian looking base cards issued like usual.

#72 Chicago Cubs team card - Negative Back and White parallel
#FP-21 Jon Lovitz - First Pitch insert
#87-53 Yu Darvish - 1987 Topps Baseball insert
#1984 Topps Don Mattingly - reprint / Topps info card
#251 Justin Turner
#253 Tucker Barnhart
#133 Jace Peterson
#272 Pat Neshek
#332 Huston Street
#173 Chicago White Sox team card
#230 Northern Highlights / Toronto Blue Jays - feat. Tulowitzki / Saunders?
#39 Aroldis Chapman
#125 Yangervis Solarte
#227 Byron Buxton
#183 Wade Miley
#150 Miguel Cabrera
#187 Sean Manaea
#126 Miguel Sano
#121 Carlos Santana
#239 Rajai Davis
#241 Chris Young

#135 Jered Weaver
#41 Paolo Orlando
#75 Carlos Correa
#115 Joaquin Benoit
#311 Tyler Chatwood

Featured autograph - Jerry Rice

I got this 1987 Topps second year card signed in-person by the Hall of Fame wide receiver at some public appearance - the card might have been a card show pick-up 15-20 years ago when I was more open into at least dabbling in collecting other sports.

Though it was probably not worth much to begin with, I've always liked how the card looked and now that it has been slabbed - I'm pairing it with a PSA graded 1986 Topps rookie card I have in my PC.

Featured autograph - Terrell Owens

Owens was perhaps the biggest NFL 'personality / diva / me first' athlete in the past 20 years, but with all the drama, he forged a legendary NFL career as a wide receiver - the details are fuzzy, but I must have found this nice looking card of Owens and sent a request to him randomly TTM.

I got my card back signed, though he used a black pen and on a card that was just too dark for any autograph to really stand out - for some peace of mind, I wanted to see if the card would be authenticated and slabbed.

Second PSA DNA submission results

There was a package I picked up from the post office and I assumed it was my PSA/DNA order - since it’s really the only thing I’m waiting for in the mail.

Inspired by at least several YouTube videos, I wanted to follow suit to see if I could put together a PSA/DNA submission of my own - PSA/DNA’s January / February special is 50% off football/basketball players and while primarily a baseball guy, I put together 10 applicable cards / items for authentication.

I made a previous PSA/DNA order in 2013, though I'm still iffy about about throwing real money into something - that may be more of a subjective, arbitrary exercise.

Perhaps it’s just that Tommy Boy guarantee, but there is definitely the lure of having something you got signed at some point slabbed - making those loose autographed cards in my collection a little nicer in general, knowing someone deemed an authority has passed my inked up cards as good.

I’ve dreaded counting out the days left [I assume about 20 business days] before I realistically could look forward to receiving my order - so it was a relief it probably took only 10-11 days to go through.

However I was a little anxious about the results - there was some excitement as it was fairly bigger box, though it was probably because I’d sent a signed 4x6 index card of Peyton Manning [TTM circa 1998] and either way, PSA/DNA needed to ship it back to me.

I started working on opening the box - it was kind of hard to figure out where to cut through and open the box with scissors.

I just hope it wasn’t for nothing where I’d see my Manning autograph tagged with an ‘N4’ sticker - when I finally opened the box and dug out the contents [in bubble wrap], it looked pretty good otherwise with the Manning kind of crooked in a big honking slab.

I'll see if I can get at least a post out of the other items that were slabbbed - there was one unslabbed card sandwiched between two pieces of cardboard with a rubber band, so that obviously was an ‘N4’ card, which is not good.

N4s are something I may almost come to expect and reading going through posted results of logged in orders on the PSA forums - I think the ‘N4s’ are more interesting than the stuff that passes authentication.

The ‘N4’ turned out be a Troy Aikman card, which I definitely got signed in-person and not something I got TTM or purchased - I realize regardless of whether it's signed by the subject in-person, if it doesn’t look ‘good’ or if it looks ‘irregular,’ then it will not be passed otherwise.

Featured autograph - Jeff D. Robinson

Robinson spent 9 seasons in the big leagues and was a moderately successful relief pitcher - he signed some cards for me recently and while his signature is apparently just one lazy stroke, it's another for my Angels all-time autograph collection.

Through flipping through their junk wax era cards, I was vaguely aware there were two Jeff Robinsons that pitched from the 1980s through the early 1990s - Jeff M. Robinson, passed away in 2014.

TTM autographs received: Jed Lowrie

The Oakland Athletics infielder signed my two cards in blue Sharpie and kept the third card I sent - I saw he was pretty good about signing TTM, so I wrote to him c/o the Athletics [spring training] last year and eventually got a response back in January.

Demon got me with another eBay promo

I grabbed this 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt / Ron Cey #615 rookie card because eBay had a January $15 off promo code with purchases of $75 or more - I'm a sucker for those promo codes because it gives me an excuse to look for cards to add, even if the apparent discount isn't all that much for what I need to spend.

As a more substantial long-term project, I've tried to focus into finding PC cards that I hope will make my overall collections a bit more well-rounded - even if the cards feature more of the old-timers, rather than the latest and greatest players from the past five years.

The idea of owning the particular card was probably kind of foreign and strange to me - I assumed a raw, ungraded card was worth at least $200 at one point and it just wasn't realistic to grab one.

Obviously a Schmidt rookie card would be much more significant if he was the only one pictured on a 'stand alone' card - as is, maybe I just don't appreciate the quaintness of the centerpiece player [John David Hilton], who played in a full season of MLB games [161] spread over parts of 4 years and hit .213 with an OPS of .564.

I want to say I mainly remember Cey roughly 25 years ago because he was pictured on ads posted in the sports page of my local paper - touting / endorsing some kind of get rich quick investment scheme with baseball cards.

Schmidt is probably considered the best third baseman of all time though Cey was a fine player to be sharing this card with John David Hilton and Schmidt - I'm not sure if he was ever considered a national star back in his day, but Cey was a Dodgers slugging third baseman who finished his 17-year career with 316 home runs.

Angels all-time autograph collection

It's a thing where I want at least one autograph of players who've played for the Angels - as is, I've been content to collect loose autograph cards / items [TTM/in-person, certified and purchased] while not really putting them together in a tangible way.

Just to get organized, I want to see if I can count out about 200 different autographs in-hand and list them out in a Google Sheets file I created - to straighten things out as far as knowing which players' autographs I already have, what kind of card, how it was picked up, etc.

I'm not a completist when completion may not be realistic, though I wanted to settle on a numerical goal [of 200] - so at the very least there is something I can point to as far as a collection to build on.

I read it somewhere that trading cards are the easiest to find and store in any sort of quantity - so baseball cards are usually what I've gotten for this collection.

I'd like all the autographs on cards / non-card items for this collection to picture subjects as Angels, though that may not always be the case - as a way to make distinction, I've split the physical collection of signed cards between Angels cards and non-Angels cards.

I still need to scrounge around for random autographs I might have - to account for various autographs still out in the wild.

Featured autograph - Torey Lovullo

Over the years, there have been an endless archive of major league games posted on YouTube and for now, MLB has been sort of liberal as far as not flagging down the games not posted through their actual account - while the concept of watching archived games isn't new to me, maybe my attention span is much shorter than it was 25 years ago.

I could probably sit through a minute MLB highlight at best, rather than get lost watching significant parts of game - that has already happened and is otherwise ancient history.

At the very least, I'm thankful for what the streaming video era has brought over the past 10-15 years - to help form a better idea of players I might have only read about and/or remind me how just good certain players were, besides just glancing at Baseball Reference and checking to see who had the biggest WAR.

There is a ESPN Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of a game posted where Lovullo, a journeyman who played in parts of 8 seasons in the majors - hit a home run off Roger Clemens as an early season highlight in what would be a 91 loss season for the Halos.

In the grand scheme of things, that home run means nothing except to Lovullo and perhaps his family - however, seeing the clip as a fan it helps me picture at least one neat thing this otherwise anonymous guy did as an Angels player.

Featured autograph - Luis Valbuena

I'm not really excited about his signing, because I see Valbuena as a flawed player with an up-and-down big league career - if he hits around .250 instead of .220 with 15-20 home runs, then he's probably a useful piece.

Once he plays in a regular season game for the Angels, I can add this signed card to my Angels all-time autograph collection - I probably got this autograph in-person when Valbuena played for the Cleveland Indians.

2017 Hall of Fame inductees

Jeff Bagwell - regardless of the era Bagwell played in and the innuendo and actual drugs [Andro] he might have taken to be a dominant player or just to be able to play through a MLB season, Bagwell's election to the Hall of Fame validates his accomplishments as a major leaguer.

I still have the key cards from the 1991 Fleer Ultra Update boxed set I bought when it was first released - featuring a rookie card of Bagwell, a rookie card of pitching phenom Juan Guzman, a key second-year card of Juan Gonzalez, a Mike Mussina rookie card and a rookie card of 19-year old catcher who came up with the Texas Rangers and possessed a rocket arm.

Ivan Rodriguez - of course the rocket armed kid from the 1991 Fleer Ultra Update set was Pudge and while there was always novelty in his ability to throw out runners, it was when he started to mature with the bat, did he really emerge as an impact player.

Maybe Mike Piazza was the better catcher from the 1990s through the 2000s because of his gaudy hitting totals - but Rodriguez was a force behind the plate as a catcher and also when he stepped up to the plate.

Tim Raines - I picked this 1981 Topps multi-player rookie card up for about $0.23 at a card show last year and with news he is going to Cooperstown, I'm glad to have it now.

It seems like a lot has changed with the number crunchers since the last time I mentioned Raines - the re-evaluation of his numbers pushed him into the Hall in his last year of eligibility.

Featured autograph - Dean Chance

I was doing a random search on eBay and spotted an autographed 1962 Topps PSA/DNA blue flip 1962 Topps rookie card [sold by Baseball Card Exchange] - Chance’s autographs may not be hard to find but I wasn’t able to secure his autograph before he passed away in 2015.

I was thinking of getting the RC as an impulsive, ‘scratch the itch’ purchase - so I don’t have to worry about not having an autograph of the former Angel who won the 1964 American League Cy Young Award.

It looks like BBCE had at least several slabbed autographs of Chance in their eBay store and decided I’d rather have the autograph on a larger 1964 Topps Giants card - which looks a little prettier and where Chance’s shaky but still readable autograph doesn’t look as crammed in like the one on the regular sized card.

There is another eBay seller with 1964 Giants Chance auto cards [selling for $14.99 each] - but the ones sold by BBCE come already slabbed, so there is a little peace of mind as far as far as authentication goes.

The Chance autograph will probably be triple counted as a signed card for my Angels all-time collection, for my award winners collection and finally for the regional component of my Top 50 common PC - as a side note, I’d like to really start putting TTM/IP autographs in my PCs, with the caveat they have to be PSA/DNA certified first.

A couple of vintage Angels finds for my PC

I'm trying to build up my regional personal collection bit-by-bit, so picked up a 1964 Topps Bobby Knoop / Bob Lee rookie card #502 - Knoop was a three-time Gold Glove Award winner as the Angels primary second baseman of the 1960s and was named to the Halos' Hall of Fame in 2013.

Maybe I didn't really pay as much attention to the bottom portion of the dual player card - but Lee pitched pretty well for three seasons [1964-1966] with the Angels from and was named to the 1965 All-Star team.

In addition to the Knoop/Lee, I also picked up a 1961 Topps Tom Morgan #272 - this card isn't particularly notable, but will be part of a sampler run of Angels Topps old-school / vintage cards [1961-1980] I'm trying to put together, even if it is just adding a few cards here and there.

Random pick-up - Rocky Perone

Back when the team was still kicking, I might have casually followed the Fullerton / Orange County Flyers baseball team [of the independent Golden Baseball League] - I tried looking up one of the standout players [Rich Pohle] on the team to see if he'd had any history with a MLB organization [Pohle played in half a season with Ryan Howard on a Philadelphia Phillies short season A ball team in 2001].

As is, I became vaguely aware of the story of his father, a ‘Rocky Perone,’ who was actually a one-time minor leaguer named Rich Pohle Sr. - the elder Pohle had a short, cursory stint as a professional ballplayer with an affiliated big league organization in the 1960s, but actually tried to make it back to the pros as a 36-year old disguised as a 21-year old Australian in the 1970s.

Pohle Sr.'s story got him some notoriety and if taken at face value, Pohle Sr.'s story wasn't an entirely unsavory tale - I’ve never heard of these Broder like, custom ‘home brewed style’ Monarch Corona cards, but I caved in and picked this one up.

What I've tried to in 2016 - loose card projects

In addition to what I've started in previous years, I've tried to tend to the loose card projects that have sprouted up in 2016 - maybe these were the fun little, card related projects I could work on without having to worry about any apparent value.

However, that lack of a value component may have made me feel like something wasn't quite there - as far as chasing any number of miscellaneous cards down.

Collecting topics / mini-collections - I wanted to make this my centerpiece card project in 2016, but when it's all about having to scrutinize all sorts of cards, it kind of just mushroomed into busy work for me as opposed to being able taking the time to enjoy the actual cards under whatever mini-collection I listed them.

I'd like to put away any cards I have into their permanent storage boxes as opposed to letting cards sit in what has become semi-permanent storage spots - I'm probably looking for that one or two mini-collection to store in a binder, so I can go through the cards.

Award winners - I'm not worried about this project at all, though it would be nice to have this finished up through the current year.

Angels frankenset - I started this in 2015, but seemed to put the project on hold in 2016, so I'm still looking to finish my first run [1-500] of cards.

Angels Opening Day set - I started this in 2016 and looking to fill holes to complete more years.

Hall of Famers - I impulsively started this project in 2016, though I may quietly put on hold or on hiatus, until I get a chance to add to the collection randomly.

Milestone numbers [500 home runs/3000 hits/300 wins] - I'm going to see what I can add, but it really is just base cards and/or a basic insert.

1978-present Topps run - this may have been the project where I said, 'this really isn't going anywhere.'

I want to pick things up 'organically' as opposed to having a checklist and seeking out cards I want for this project - this project is kind of out of sight, out of mind, though I'll probably come back to it at some undetermined point.

What I’ve tried to do in 2016 - decade stars

Late in November, I went on a decade stars 'bender' where I sought to put cards of established players away in binders - since it's already been six years into this decade, I originally wanted to showcase cards featuring players who made their MLB debuts in the 2010s.

However, I actually started with several players who made their debuts in 2000s - because I found a forgotten stash of 2000s debut guys' cards already in plastic pages.

I ended up adding loose cards of the players already represented and then used up my remaining plastic sheets to house 5-10 more players’ cards - to showcase some of the basic star cards that have been boxed up.

For my collection, there should be a push to showcase decade stars cards in plastic pages for some sort of ‘long term’ storage in binders since it's fun to see all the cards I've hoarded for any number of players - the ideal breakdown should be as followed:

Pre-war players - a ‘catch all’ of players who made their debut before WWII; this is typically a collection for the retro cards I've found over the past 10 years, featuring the occasional Hall of Fame legends / icons.

I don't really seek these cards out so I probably haven't hoarded enough cards for any one player - to be able to have a stand alone binder for each of the decades [players who made their debuts in the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s and 1940s].

Postwar players - another ‘catch all’ binder of players who made their debut before 1980; maybe separated by 1950s-60s and 1970s.

1980s - strictly players who made their debut before 1990.

1990s - strictly players who made their debut before 2000.

2000s - strictly players who made their debut before 2010.

2010s - strictly players who made their debut before 2020.

Regional - a wrinkle to my decade stars arrangement is having a book for a selected of prominent players from my team.

I want to be proactive in adding selected players, especially if they are the younger, 'future stars,' though it may take awhile for me recognize veteran players who have flown under the radar like a Ben Zobrist - but maybe not all players are going to make it to a binder in my collection, though I'm going to leave them in a box that serves as the other part of a split storage of sorts for various notable players.