10 Cards from the Dollar Box #14

A new year, a new collection, as in one all nicely charged up with random new Baseball Cards assembled ... not randomly. The incoming stream, though, is random, when I start out by looking through the 100¢ box down at the Friendly Local Card Store, though the actual out-the-door price is something like 9 to 19 pennies less than that. I don't keep track; I just enjoy "the Loot" -

Why I selected it: I collect Honus Wagner cards - previously not-deliberately, but rather as they randomly appear in packs. Lately though I have started picking up a card here or there. I am definitely past 9 Wagner cards now, but I haven't started picking out favorites.

I am always glad to find a Wagner card, but I think this is going to be a slow project, ultimately, because to binder up his first page of cards, I want to find photos assuredly from his playing days, and that is not easy to do. That seems to be because he worked for the Pirates as a Hitting Coach for a few decades after his retirement from the field of play, and that seems to supply a lot of the images used for cards created for him today. That makes complete sense in terms of basic availability of photographs of him.

Which is fine, to a point. I am at a point in my little on-the-cheap Wagner collecting that I think I have more cards showing him post-retirement than while still playing. Some day (the day of oh so many card collecting projects) I will finally start deliberately shopping for cards with specifically still-playing images - if such exist.

Why I selected it: I can't say I am enthralled with the name of these 2024 Topps Baseball inserts. I do like the image frame quite a bit though.

But I bought this card because I collect Christy Mathewson cards, and despite my reservations about the grandGAMERS, I really bought this card because I expect this image will help supply 1 of 9 cards using it, eventually. Which is an amusing, sometimes sad, but also somewhat understandable Baseball Card deal, most particularly for "Pre-War" players.

Why I selected it: Some further "collecting" of 2023 Topps Heritage seems likely in my future. So I figgered it would be best to just add this card when I could. I don't expect to build out the Complete Set, but I would like to find a couple discounted blasters or something, rather than just shopping for singles, digitally. Here's to hoping I can still scrounge a few up while traveling some the next several months.

Why I selected it: I quite like Randy Arozarena, probably mostly due to pleasant memories of seeing him suddenly enter national Baseball consciousness one fine October day when I had a few hours to kill in a fine little crossroads in far northern Wisconsin. I can't really follow his career much aside from Baseball Cards, which will only become more true as he plays in Seattle, which might as well be Siberia in terms of my usual Baseball experience with West Coast teams. 

But you can probably guess I bought this card for the Powder Blue collection, which looks like it will need 9 unlicensed cards just, because. I don't know why, I just collect Baseball Cards.

I think I am sub-consciously working through / buying one each of all the old Donruss designs that Panini now re-uses. Why ask why? Try Panini? Randy seems a little dubious on this.

Why I selected it: What's the deal with this blogger, he says he's uncertain about liking some card and then he turns around and buys another one just like it?

Maybe these will grow on me more quickly than other cards. The yellow-on-Powder-Blue does come off well here, nom sayn' ?

Why I selected it: I am still disappointed that I did not watch the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which these inserts celebrate. It would have been the perfect thing to do in the middle of Spring Training - watch some Baseball games, that count. I am looking forward to the next one and anticipate owning a brand new mega sized TV to watch it on by that (Coming Soon) point.

This card, though - has there ever been a set of Catcher's gear more colorful than this one? I collect Salvador Perez cards in my usual casual style, but I would snag this card if it featured some young gun from Venezuela serving as his back-up and not otherwise part of Pro Baseball and never heard from again.

Also - is this the most colors ever, on a card? Try and count them all. Good luck.

Why I selected it: Although I definitely like this 1989 Topps card design a bunch, I don't think I really want page(s) of it; neither this brand new 2024 version nor a bunch of the originals. It will, however, eventually somehow look nice all by itself, with some other Miggy cards for company.

Why I selected it: Although this is another one with a, kinda-what? as in, ever, name to the run of inserts, I like these goofy colored Baseballs for some goofy reason. And the perfect player to have on a goofy Baseball Card has to be Jazz Chisholm, Jr. Though of course no one will ever understand why it's Jazz Chisholm on some cards, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. on other cards.

Why I selected it: I do like a good Oneil Cruz card, particularly those with the Pirates' great Home Alternate uni and a clear view of the Pirate Patch.

Recently I learned a couple things that pertain to this card. One is that a pretty high % of successful Major Leaguers were Shortstops at one time in their career. As it is the most physically challenging position requiring the most athleticism, it not uncommonly reveals an actually great Baseball player who however may not be quite the best available Shortstop in the mix of players around him. This could be becoming the case with Oneil Cruz as the Pirates are moving him to the Outfield now; when I read that I also read that he is unhappy about that. This also sorta happened in Jazz Chisholm's career; so-far, so-good there. Another long year near the 3 Rivers? I hope not, for Bob Walk's sake.

This is a Rookie Card card of course but I have plenty of Rookie Card cards - who doesn't? I never have any idea what year a Bowman card comes from and I would have purchased this card automatically because of the player, anyway.

I have long figured that I should check out Bowman cards of actual MLB players more often, and would find enjoyable cards if I did, but so many Baseball Cards, so little time. Thanks, $ Box.

Why I selected it: I definitely bought this card for one of my usual one page looks at some various permutations of the Braves tomahawk uniform.

However this card is sneaky good in that it is the first All-Star card for a sneaky good player. Contreras is such a good hitter he routinely serves as Milwaukee's Designated Hitter on his days off from Catching. That's a bit unusual, but then Contreras is a bit unusually better than many people realize, I think, aside from the All-Star voters, whoever they may be these days (I forget). 

The complex trade that brought Contreras to my 2nd-most closely followed team, the Brewers, disappointed me as more evidence of "tear-down" in Oakland, and just yet more goodies being fed to the richer teams by the poorer teams. But I bet Atlanta misses Contreras now, and Esteury Ruiz has had a few moments (just, a few) for the A's, who I expect will surprise even more teams in 2026.

Upshot of all these Baseball thoughts? This card may not end up on a Braves collection page. After all, it would also look sweet on a Chavez Ravine page.

Bonus Round

Why I selected it: Hey look, another excellent young Braves Catcher.

It is far too easy to forget Joe Torre's achievements on the field of play, after his long equally successful career in the dugout and then the League offices. So it is always nice to see new 21st Century Baseball Cards address this. 

I can never remember which set these Topps-celebrates-Topps cards come from, but I don't care. I just buy cheap Rookie Cup cards when I see them. 

There was a whole product of Topps braggin' on the Rookie Cup again just recently; it was one of those online-only deals where you essentially pay $50 or so for a randomly selected on-card autograph (2/box, maybe?) of some famous player and then a bunch of base cards no one really wants. Except me, it often seems. So I hope to see some of those cards in LCS or dealer boxes in my future.

Overtime Bonus Round

Why I selected it: I instantly added this one to the pile as soon as I saw it. I had that same reaction when I first saw a Tigers card from this set (2022 Finest), and a Dodgers card. That's because these cards use a stone cold simple design choice that always works on a Baseball Card: Team Color. So when I finally found one from this set for a Powder Blue card, well, if I had had only $1 with me that day, this is the card I would have purchased.

And this is another Rookie Card card so I guess I should make a quick discount double-check-in on Josh Lowe's career; I haven't seen his most recent base card. 

Or, maybe not. It is impossible to ever remember the players named Lowe in Tampa Bay. They come, they go, not even Baseball Cards can help me here.

The Wrong Way to Baseball Card Bonus Round

Why I selected it: Uhhh, well, I always like Satchel Paige cards. But, it seems, I like them so much, I already bought this one. Even Satchel seems to be sayn' tuh tighten up, man. I, uhh, might have bought this one twice before, even, actually.

So, uhhh, got any extra Satchel Paige cards but might need this one?

Jorge Alfaro is a serious Dude

Sometimes, I become interested in a Baseball player solely because of their picture on their Baseball Picture Card. This is one of those times.

I never did get to see Jorge Alfaro play Baseball, live, on any of the numerous "screens" that permeate our daily existence now. That should have been easily do-able when he played in the media favorite NL East. But by the time I figured out this interest in seeing the man play the game of Baseball, he was already in the NL West, which basically doesn't exist when you live in the Middle West, unless you can watch MLB Network on a continuous loop, which, I, can not. Yet.

It all worked out in the end, however, as my Baseball Cards routinely help with such issues. I am only now finalizing the final homes of some cards received from COMC so many months ago, I forgot just when that was, and with a large new batch of cards waiting for me out there in WA. So, it was time...

The Card That Started It All

2020 Topps

That one seemed like a pretty unique Baseball Picture Card image; I can't even recall another example of "side eye" on a card. You really have to wonder just what his teammate must have done out on the diamond to earn this look from his Catcher. Though of course, maybe The Ump did it. But this one is definitely the card that brought Jorge Alfaro to my attention.

Not long after obtaining it, a bit of the perpetual chore of sorting another one of the 0-7 year old stacks of Baseball Cards permanently overpopulating the top of my card desk quickly had me stopping a stack thumb-through when I saw more Alfaro images. i.e. even before I read his name on the card. Once that happened a couple-three more times I did begin to deliberately watch for his cards in those stacks. 

Following are my finds, in simple sequential release order; any other way to do it would be anything but in-order-received, which I forgot, anyways...

2017 Topps Meijer purple parallel

(surely one of the worst designs, ever, for creating parallels, though bookended the year before and year after with 2 other strong contenders for that title)

2017 Heritage High Number

(whereas 1968 Topps cries out for a 'parallel' improvement on every single card)

2018 Stadium Club

I always enjoy Catcher-on-the-basepaths cards; one doesn't see too many of those and such cards could probably make a fun little side collection. I sometimes wonder if Catchers are less prone to being picked off a base, and/or actually less likely to generate a "CS" stat - Caught Stealing - than players from other positions, when compared to their sprint speed. Where's those analytics guys when I need one? 

I do have an enjoyable side collection of 'leading off' cards; perhaps one day this card will migrate to a new home.

2019 Big League

I will forever be disappointed with a simple design choice in the 2nd year of the Big League set; I liked everything about the set until the designers somehow created a pastel version of a tech-grey plastic Baseball pennant, like a mini black hole sucking all the color right out of the cards. Things improved the next year in the product, but that was a product no one could purchase, cuz, retail flippers changed it to an online only product. Perhaps some day I will revisit 2020 Big League, hope so.

As for Jorge up there at the plate, well, hitting is serious business as we all know, and he seemed to prefer remaining in focus on the concept, even when posed for a Baseball Card -

2020 Heritage

I love those cards from the rare cloudy day in Florida. Quite fitting for the theme at hand, here. And this is one of the better looks you will find, on real cardboard, at the Marlins' fantastic shoulder patch. Heritage is frequently quite good for showing those off. And it's a little stealthy given the automatic-via-software placement, but that is one heckuva signature. I might have to investigate those, further. Drag-drop that one a little to the right and down slightly, and this card would improve, muchly.

2021 Topps

Those teammates out there better get it together.

2021 Heritage

Another great Florida card. I quite like those; I just don't care for paging through 350 of them at a time, year after year after year, exactly same as year before, most of which refuse to let Florida (or Arizona) actually appear much. 

Card That Fell Off the Bubble

2018 Topps Update

I sooo wanted to include this card in this little project, but, alas, my collecting rules these days preclude mixing horizontals with verticals. So this card will have to wait its turn to appear in the always ever more wonderful Horizontal binder, with more examples of the Lurking Umpire, which is rather freaky on this particular piece of cardboard. Do you hear that Darth Vader breath on this one? I do. Run, Jorge, run. Or, is this card an out-take from some lurid Topps Attax set that was supposed to be called The Catcher With Three Arms?

The Final Piece of the Puzzle

2018 Topps Now

("El Oso" means "The Bear" in English).

Alas, no more Jorge Alfaro cards are being produced these days. Only a few appeared from his half season of work in San Diego, and none from his even briefer stints at the MLB level in Colorado, Boston, or another short stop in Washington this past September. One should never count a back-up Catcher out, however, until they themselves decide to move on. 

After the 2021 cards I found I did not feel any of his Padres cards matched this goofy little page of Baseball Cards, and Jorge languished in my "Players" box until I turned to the vast library of every-Baseball-Card-ever-made known to us as COMC, where I found the just exactly perfect image to wrap up this collection. Once you scroll through the entirety of Alfaro's Baseball Card oeuvre there, you will see plenty of more expected Baseball expressions, including sufficient happy ones as seen here. I do hope Señor Alfaro can continue his career en el Béisbol, perhaps at an academy back home in Colombia, or maybe re-climbing the coaching ladder to the Bigs with one of the 30 MLB minor league systems, as he laboriously did in the mid-10s, appearing in Topps Pro Debut for four years sequentially, possibly a record. Until such a never-say-never deal may appear some day, I will quite enjoy this particular entry in my Players Collection, courtesy of Baseball Cards.

The Result

Repack to the rescue?

It's been a long, busy and successful year, in everything except one area of Life which you, dear Reader, might be particularly fond of: the enjoyment of Baseball Cards. Of course success in economic endeavors is great for obtaining more Baseball Cards. But ultimately there is something even more important than money in the enjoyment of Baseball Cards, which is simply Time, itself. Without time to sit down and casually paw through a stack of Baseball Cards, turning a few over, sorting them some, etc., solely obtaining them can become rather hollow. And when one is hundreds of miles from their card collection, even Free Time is not enough for a little Baseball Card relaxation.

Lately when I have found myself particularly missing Home, and the Baseball Cards therein, I end up drawn once again into a store I don't otherwise really care to visit. One completely full of corporate junk products with the prices set at: Maximum, and also full of already sick people trying to figure out how to make themselves feel better while busily shedding their germs: Walgreens. 

A touch harsh, yup, but riddle me this: who goes to Walgreens for fun? I do, that's who. I can easily tune out those aforementioned concerns as I make a bee-line straight to some quick, EZ relief of my symptoms, too. So as it turns out, I must thank Walgreens for hooking me up with what should be a basic staple of American life, in my not humble at all opinion: cheap Baseball Cards.

It has been an interesting year for me in that regard at least, with a variety of Baseball Card experiences on just 3 or 4 visits to the mini box store, which has been a plus compared to visiting the Big Box store options lately.

My go-to @ Walgreen's is that there Baseball Collector's Edge box, generally of 50-ish loose cards and one sealed pack. It rarely disappoints, completely. Eat your Wheaties, cuz them things are tougher than they look, and let's "rip" one...

Well we're not off to a good start, even though I quite like this card and already have copies permanently enshrined in 2 collections — a complete set of 2024's "The Neon," and also one in a nascent City Connect collection of Rockies cards. This one is letter perfect for that still under construction page, for one of the best CC unis. But I don't really want year old cards in my repack products.

So this repack began with four cards a year old; oddly, two from Series One and two from Series Two. I concluded the repack packer was being careful in disposing of recent cards, even when I pawed straight into more '24 -

I lost all desire to own any more Topps Holiday after a few years, and that has just never rekindled. Perhaps this card will make an exception to that rule, as I also keep a few Sunglasses cards from any pile of cards I have. Maximum Neon could use at least one bling-out on a binder page, I guess, and Holiday Neon is None-More-Neon.

Year old Baseball Cards though, that's not what I want to see in a repack, silly rabbit. Fortunately, those stopped at 5 cards, and amidst the swirling Donruss & Fleer junkwax, the nuggets began to appear:

2001 Bowman

Another good Sunglasses card? Or a good Eye Black card? Albeit one with a live Baseball, incoming.

This card, with its odd half-shadow lighting, won't make an eventual best-of 2023 Heritage High Numbers for me, but I scanned it to remind myself that Kimbrel might could mebbe qualify for a page of 9 uniforms, 9 Topps designs now after reaching the team total in 2025. We'll see.

and boom goes the dynamite

Or maybe the fuse just sputtered, there in a failed-foil scan. Anyhow, that's Jose Bautista, who's future was so bright there in 2006 Topps Updates & Highlights that he had to, yup, wear shades. That there definite year-end Best Sunglasses Card winner has an intriguing card back, too:

which reveals that after 75 MLB games with 4 MLB teams across 2 seasons,

Jose Bautista had not yet hit a Home Run.

He must not have been lucky enough to face Paul Foytack, I guess.

&, I quite like the always-sunny-at-Topps optimistic prescience here, with Topps Card Back Writer confidently calling career-so-far .190 hitter Bautista a "crucial component" and in Pittsburgh "to stay." Next stop, Hall of Very Good.

see what I did there?

I have to wonder what Hitting Coaches might say about that card. A keeper though, bright, and just so ... live, as in Baseball, being played. I did begin to worry, however, that this card might be the duly required Hall of Famer card in a repack, in the mind of the repack packer person. Because I would likely fail a question on Tony Fernandez's HoF status, voting in the affirmative.

This repack, though, seemed to be leaning into this HoVG trend -

this is from one of the years of the Gallery 1.0 product(s), as distinct from the 2.0 revival beginning in 2017; the earlier iterations are a set of checklists I have zero experience with, card-in-hand. This card didn't yay-or-nay me much, though I like the camera's perspective point. The back however,

Pitcher-At-The-Plate.

Keeper.

1997 Pinnacle

Pop-Up.

Sunglasses.

'nother Keeper.

1992 Pinnacle

This card is moving me into acceptance of a conclusion that of all the 1990s sets of Baseball Cards that might still exist in an unopened state, the one I might most want to peruse pages and pages of its cards, said set might just be this one. Mesmerizing. Classy.

This is a Public Service Announcement:

1993 Fleer Ultra is not aging well.

Another sometimes seemingly required inclusion in a repack is a taste of, Oooohhhhh, Shiny....

oh well. I was way looking forward to scanning this one, as it is around an 8.5 on the Oooohhhhh, Shiny scale, in-hand, which is quite impressive, particularly on a sunny day. Sometimes they scan fabulously, sometimes they don't.

Otherwise the other stick-in-my-head aspect of this card will be the set name from whence it came, 1995 Pinnacle Select Certified. I would have to wonder what a Marketing 101 textbook would comment on that mouthful. 

But the Pop-Up page will need an Oooohhhhh, Shiny rep, so into the collection it goes. Repacks are so good for the side collections, such as:

another entry for page 2 of truly Devout players

OK, quiz time:

How long has it been since you held a 1994 Stadium Club Baseball Card in your hand?

I'll bet you didn't know that last name there, straight off the DYMO•Tape machine about which youngsters are like, what's a DYMO•Tape machine, well on that cool facsimile of DYMO•Tape the faux impressioned plastic letters are actually embossed onto the Baseball Card as part of the printing. A Deluxe Baseball Card, in the sky. I did not remember that, not having held a 1994 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Card in my hand since, 1994.

Pop-up Hot Pack.

Sunglasses Hot Pack.

Manager - Dave Roberts, foil-fail scan strikes again

'nother keeper.

TOPPS

2005

I like 2005 Topps a little more every time I see it.

However I think it might be a long time before I discover another Baseball Card with not one but two hitters in a batting stance, even though this is the second one I have scanned for you recently.

Overall the repack packer had come through for me, with a respectable quantity of collectable Baseball Cards, for MY collection(s), anyway. I had not pulled an actual Hall-of-Famer Baseball Card, but I liked the optimism that Dave Roberts will "get the call" one day, which seems likely, to me.

My eventual memory of any of these little overly-glued, rectangular boxes will often depend on what actual sealed pack is included. Here, it was a re-run, same as my last  $6 "Collector's Edge" purchase before this one -

1988 style

Again. Not my hope & dream when I successfully open/destroy one of these boxes, but the pack is sealed and a small portal back in time to 1988 -

a favorite name from my youth, still going strong from Vintage, on into Junk Wax

Should I put a card of a Pitcher wearing a Batting Helmet in with the Pitchers @ Plate cards? Decisions, decisions.

Maybe the blue uniform on a blue plaid (did I just type that?) Baseball Card isn't a problem, after all, when you are at the Stadium nice and early on a sunny late morning. NY Mets - Donruss Card Miner nailed this one. A great First Card upon opening the pack.

now that's how to MVP Baseball Card

yet more Hall-of-Very-Good action

this repack packer's got skillz

did I mention liking these MVP cards?

Both, in one pack!

Wait.

The Braves and the Dodgers both play in the National League.

Which can have only one MVP.

(googles)

& What about George Bell and Andre Dawson, 1987 MLB MVPs?

do their 1988 Donruss Baseball Cards say MVP on them too?

I was told there would be no homework assignment.

88 Donruss, strikes again.

the pack tries to make amends...

all of the above, and a Diamond King

(what's up with those blue, green & yellow diagonals doh?

I'm not sure suprise color spaghetti helps out, on this design)

but wait, there's more

got racing stripe? New York, Mets.

Were these things created in suburban Chicago, or deep in NYC?

88 "Plaidurday" Donruss Mets Team Set? Hmmm.

Ha!

Now you can't ever unsee this Baseball Card, either.

Were they the M&M's back then?

And there's _that_ digit? Don't see that every day.

How much do you think the guy wants for that pair of white pants there in the back? 

And where's his customers?

but wait, the train is still here in the HoVG station...

the Giants & Giants though?

and finally, the Last Card is reached, another famous name:

however that was not an opportune day to take a Baseball Picture Card photo; RJR has better Baseball Cards than that one.

1988 Donruss. They just don't pack 'em like they used to.

Rescued.