Sticking to a Budget Once Again

Recently, the couple of baseball card purchases I have made have involved me spending far less money than I have in the past. At times, I can go insanely crazy at the card show or buy a blaster or 2 at Target. Even what appears to be a casual trip to the dime bins sometimes ends up getting out of hand and costing me way more than I would have liked to spend.

Do I like the cards I get? Of course, I rarely regret a card purchase. But sometimes, they can get a bit out of hand. So, there's nothing wrong with sticking to a budget. Especially when the cards you get for a low price are still incredible cards for a great value.

I decided to test out my ability to stick to a budget once again when I took a trip to my LCS. I hadn't looked through the shops' dime bins in quite a while. The owner re-stocks them every couple weeks, though this time, they appeared as if he stocked them a couple days ago since they were well above average.

As usual, lots of cards were in groups by set. This included a reasonable stack of cards from the original Topps Archives set, produced in 1991. I found these 4 plus another few cards, all of the players I collect. The cards are done to emulate the original cards from the 1953 Topps set, and I believe they even feature the same or similar photos to the original set as well. The Wilhelm card is definitely my favorite and is also the first card I've added to that player collection in ages. He just never seems to appear at the baseball card show.

I also picked up a nice amount of 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game cards since it just so happens to be one of my dad's favorite cards of all time. How else would I find a card of Joe Charboneau, or learn he was the 1980 AL Rookie of the Year. The Duke Snider card and Reggie Jackson card will go straight to their player collections, while Johnny Sain and Mr. Charboneau will be future frankenset considerations. 

I know a lot of other collectors do this as well as myself, but I typically rely on the dime bins for cards of players I collect from sets that I don't. I have never opened a pack of 2017 Panini Diamond Kings in my life, but the dime bins allow me to pick up cards from the set including the one and only, Mike Trout. After all, if I don't have any cards from a set, there's a good chance the dime bins could.

I'm still kicking myself for forgetting National Baseball Card Day back in 2016, but I've found enough cards from the set in the dime bins to build a pack or 2. Still, free cards always beat dime cards.

Another thing the dime bins at my LCS usually have are Topps Heritage cards from many years ago. I never bought any packs from 2009 or 2010 Heritage which is when they were in the 1960 and 1961 designs, 2 sets I very much like. I also was able to pick up my 2nd card of John Smoltz on the Cardinals, a team I didn't even know he played for until, well, the last time I was at these bins. The Zimmerman from '09 Heritage isn't too shabby either.

Just like I found a duo of older Heritage cards, I stumbled upon cards from one of the very first Allen and Ginter sets as well. I'm always a huge fan of any card I can get of Roberto Clemente, but I was even more impressed to see this card of Nolan Ryan. He's never, and I mean NEVER, shown as an Angel on any of his cards nowadays, which is why this gem of Ryan when he played for California was one of the best cards of the entire purchase.

Noah Syndergaard rookie for a dime? I'll take that any day. I don't think I can look at this card for too long though, it makes me too irritated to think about the 1 good year of Topps Flagship squished in between boring and head-scratching.

Yes, those are Topps Heritage SP's from 2017 and 2018 respectively, which I bought for, unbelievably, a dime each, just like the rest of the cards. I didn't even have my want list with me, but if I did, I doubt I would've checked it. I couldn't pass up this opportunity. Even better than finding these cards was getting home and being assured that I did, in fact, need both cards for their respective sets.

Then came the numbered cards. Yes, even numbered cards found their way to these dime boxes. And I don't mean cards numbered to 1,000 or more, I'm talking about actual scarcely-numbered cards that ended up in the dime bins. For example, this Christian Yelich black parallel from 2018 Series 1. It's numbered to 67 on the back, but that's not even the best part. The best feature of this card would have to be that it's a black parallel and that Yelich is wearing a black jersey. It's hard to get much better than that if you ask me.

Yet somehow, there was still a card in the dime bin, serial numbered to fewer copies than the Christian Yelich black parallel. And that card was from 2017 Panini Donruss and was a card of Evan Longoria. It may be unlicensed, but this test proof (it's stamped on the back) Evan Longoria card in the 1983 design is a special card to get for just a dime. I don't know if Panini card values are low, Longoria card values are down, or if I just got lucky. But in any case, this card for a dime was an absolute steal not to mention all the other cards I chose that made this budgeted trip to the card shop such a success.