At the recent card show date I was at, I stumbled upon a seller who had quarter bins set out from a bigger card show I went to over the summer - I had to stop digging around then, since I didn’t have loose dollar bills in-hand to pay for smaller, rinky-dink purchases. I remembering leaving a copy of a 1991 Topps Archives The Ultimate 1953 Set Eleanor Engle #332 - a card I could have instantly made a keeper for curiosity sake, where it pictured a woman who once signed a pro contract in baseball. Go figure I did find a copy of the Engle card somewhere, so I wasn't about to look for now - though ..read more

Pack one #US35 Jonatan Clase RC #US40 Nate Pearson #US205 Seiya Suzuki / Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs - Veteran Combos subset #US104 David Peterson #US144 Tyler Black RC #US200 Luis Arraez #US195 Carson Kelly #US86 Heston Kjerstad - Rookie Debut subset #US123 Shohei Ohtani - Season Highlights subset #US152 Alex Verdugo #US4 Jorge Alcala #SMLB-69 Royce Lewis - Stars of MLB insert Pack two #US328 Ramón Urías - Holiday parallel #US72 Colton Cowser - Rookie Debut subset #US215 Adam Frazier #US7 Alan Trejo #US3 Tyler Nevin #US256 Alec Burleson #US15 Reynaldo López #US84 Graham Pauley RC #US179 Ma ..read more

Maybe I have not dwelled too much on doing a round up for a bigger order of cards that comes from online purchase - but it's kind of a thought exercise and maybe I don't get the same joy if I do not pore over my assorted claims. 2007 Upper Deck 1989 Reprints Roy Campanella #89UD-RC - I'll make keepers of cards I find loose in the wild since there is lingering sentiment over the 1989 Upper Deck set design. 2003 Topps Postseason Highlights Gold Troy Glaus #721 - Serial #’d 1128/2003 - Angels Top 100 fuel; now I might need the regular card to pair this with. 1998 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr's Hot ..read more

He's not a ride-or-die guy for me anymore, but I had to get a copy [on eBay] of Shohei Ohtani's Topps Now card commemorating his 50 home runs / 50 stolen bases feat - understanding he just wasn't going to end up anywhere with his old team, a little part of me will be real excited in a couple of weeks when he is playing in the postseason for the first time in his MLB career. I was passing through the duty free shops at an airport earlier in the year - here is some 'signage' of Ohtani being a face for a skincare product in Japan ..read more

For card shows I have to pay some type of entrance fee / premium for upfront, before even spending money at actual seller tables - is it a failure to dig around for smaller types of purchases? I get self-conscious about having to think a little more 'big time' in order to justify a card show day - maybe it's just a case where I still have do my thing, even if I might not have clearly defined goals other than being loosey-goosey wandering and rummaging around. The following were a results of a rummage in mostly a dollar box except for one card - in a case where I have to pay to gain admittance ..read more

I'm not so well versed in vintage cards, where it is sort of a 'no-context' collecting theme for me - but to follow in other collector's footsteps, I want to dabble in picking up random cards, so it's not always the new stuff I end up with in card show hauls. Even if I'm never getting close to possessing particularly valuable and/or the coveted vintage that are slabbed up and rest in serious collectors' hands - I want to able to say that I can tease some old school / vintage baseball cards that adds some character to my collections. Doing some blind digs in a vintage bin at a card show booth ..read more

I have been hearing updates about the 20-year old pitching prospect on social media / X through this past year - so for future considerations, where I expected to add this card to my Angels all-time autograph collection, I picked up an on-card prospect auto back in May. He made his Major League Debut on 9/1 against the Seattle Mariners and got the win - going 6 IP, 2 ER, 2H, 4K and 4BB ..read more

I was browsing around a booth with binned singles at various price points - there were some early 1960s Fleer and also 1959 Fleer Ted Williams that might be of interest. I decided to another table in the meantime, but overheard another collector looking for 1959 Fleer Ted Williams cards - so I wondered if he saw the binned cards from the one booth I was looking through. I went back to the booth just to see if the cards were still there and it looks like they were - maybe the plan was to pick up four cards for around $5 each, so I tried to thumb through cards and see if there were probable keep ..read more

I was on a self-imposed hiatus through the summer to go to any card show or even visit a card shop - but I missed the in-person the card show rummage grind and wanted to see if I could still do what I do at a card show date. I really didn't think I’d find anything I'd need out of the '2 for $5' bins at one table - but was setting aside the odd non-Angels cards of Angels all-time autograph subjects among others as potential keepers. There might be something about thumbing through junk autos I would not have cared for before, but end up being a quick fixes when I see them out in the wild - if th ..read more

I got a straggler SASE back in the mailbox and since I have not mailed out much in recent years - there was some mystery who the return was from. The small initials I usually scribble on the corner of my SASEs didn't clue me in off the bat - so I was really curious to see what I got. There were two The Autograph Card blanks signed in black ink inside - that threw me for a loop, where it was not even actual baseball cards that might have been obvious identifiers. I looked it up on my TTM log, hoping I listed the request before sending it off - this returned happened to be from former MLB gener ..read more