The interesting thing about getting cards from 20+ years ago is when they give you questions that need answering. In this case, the 'Babe' patch on Kirk McLean's jersey. I was scared to google it, thinking I'd most certainly end up at a NSFW location.  Thankfully, the first link given up gave me the story I needed.

Thank you Internet. For once, you did not lead me astray. And by astray, I mean several shameful links that would quickly be deleted from my history.

Let's start this off with a classic card from the dollar store packs. I usually get many early 90s Topps/Donruss cards in  them, usually to the point of that if there isn't at least 3 or 4 in each 20-pack that fall into that range, I'm surprised. Usually, they end up being left as geocache trading material. But this is one that I had to keep. It, along with pretty much ANY Ken Phelps card with a close up of his face, seems to make people's lists of the ugliest baseball cards ever. It's usually either this one, or the 87 Donruss. I'll pick this one simply since the border makes it even worse.

This did inspire me to look through the Phelps cards at checkoutmycards.com. The man simply does not photograph well.

On my addiction

I often find myself in dollar stores, looking for various items. Over the past few years, they've had little bags of sports cards available. I always find myself walking out of the store with at least one pack. Between 15 and 30 cards, depending on the sport, for a buck? Why not? I've started putting some of my more interesting finds into binders, so I figured I'd start pulling them out and sharing them.

With two cards visible out of the pack, the stuff that I'll usually take fall into some categories:

1) Players on my favourite teams (Senators, Blue Jays, Mets, Bills, Celtics)
2) Minor league teams
3) Interesting photo
4) Goaltender cards with a good photo of the mask

And when I doubt, I'll just grab a random pack and put it in the basket. Rarely, I'll hit the Walmart and pick up a more expensive pack of newer stuff, but when you're seeking interesting as opposed to valuable, that happens rarely.