Grab Bag - Tasty Knuckler & More

Not much time for cards today.  I'm expecting a trade package and some great eBay wins in the mail, maybe over the weekend, but in the meantime here's a quick post featuring five cards plucked from the dollar box at the local hobby shop many months ago, and finally scanned during a cleanup of my card desk recently.  In some cases I think I got a deal, others I probably overpaid...

Here's one of the cases of having overpaid.  There just wasn't much to be had on this particular day and I wanted something new, so I actually paid $1 for a lousy Wal-Mart blue parallel from 2011 Topps Update.  What was I thinking?  I don't even like the endless All-Star cards in the Update sets of recent years.  This was clearly a case of team-collector temporary insanity.

This '67 Topps Bob Miller was much more in line with my usual dollar box selections.  Nearly any card from the 1967 set in good shape for a buck is going to come home with me.  I am not delusional enough to think that I'll ever have the funds or time to take a crack at this set, but I have now managed to accumulate 32 different cards over the years.

I was on the fence about forking over a buck for this '82-83 O-Pee-Chee Mike Gartner, but it's a card I need for my set and he's definitely one of the more under-rated, consistent scorers of his era.  I still can't believe I haven't completed this set after all these years, I guess I'm too easily distracted.  I've got just enough cards that I'm on the fence about just buying it complete and saving the hassle, especially since I'm still missing some of the bigger cards like Gretzky, Fuhr RC, etc....

There was no way I was leaving this awkward Tim Wakefield card behind, especially since it's shiny and serial numbered on the back.  What a strange painting.

Last but not least, a serial-numbered Ted Williams.  As a kid collector of the early '90s, the Baseball Heroes design sort of has a nostalgic grip on me.  There was nothing like pulling a Williams or Nolan Ryan Heroes insert from an Upper Deck pack back in the day, so of course the team collector in me had to grab this one.

So there you have it, five cards for five bucks.  This definitely wasn't my best ever grouping of dollar box cards, but I guess when you consider that some folks spend that on a latte at Starbucks it doesn't seem so bad...