Well, bust my buttons!

The birthday has come and gone, and I did OK on the card front. The immediate family still doesn't know exactly what I want in terms of my hobby, but they've moved into the general vicinity, and really I'm all right with that.

So, I received a much-needed binder, some packaging material for trades, and a nine-pack assortment of Series 2 Topps and this year's Bowman.

My daughter actually apologized that her gift of four packs of cards was "nothing great." Sweetheart, you have no idea.

I didn't get anything fascinating out of the packs. Just typical trade fare. The diamond Soto here will be headed to Project '62 eventually, in my continuing quest to find something he might want.

I also received some cash, which will go to some card items, which you can expect to see in the not-so-distant future. Prepare to be amazed. Or appalled by my remarkable shopping ineptness.

I also opened a package from my folks. I've mentioned before that they go to auctions. Bunches of them. They don't do it as often as they used to, but it's still an occasional diversion. And, yet, not once have they found any cards for me, even though they've seen cards many a time.

After opening the package, I know that they still haven't produced any cards for me from their many auction visits. But they're getting closer ...

BASEBALL BUTTONS!!!!!!!

These aren't those early '90s Baseball Buttons that you see everywhere (or at least I do). These are the 1984 Fun Foods Baseball Buttons. I don't know if these were around at my local Greek convenience store where I did my card shopping in the early '80s. I had pretty much moved beyond collecting cards in '84, preferring to buy the whole Topps set instead.

I believe this was an 133-button set. I don't have all 133 buttons. As you can see, there are a number of duplicates. I counted 76 unique buttons in my lot. (Any duplicates are up for trade if anyone cares).

These buttons would've freaked me out as a kid. I hated things you pinned on yourself. I'm still not one for any memorabilia that isn't cards, but I admit these are pretty cool. I like little odd ball stuff like this, and the design is colorful and attractive. It helps that I've barely seen them (although I'm sure you can track them down pretty easily).

I have no idea how I'll store/feature them. I suppose I could find a board display and put them up in the card room. Then I'll have to decide whether I want to get the rest of them.

But at any rate this is a major advancement for my folks. After years of ignoring my No. 1 interest, I've finally broken them down. It'll only be a matter of time before I get them to hunt down 1972 Topps wants in a dank, dusty card shop on the bad side of town.

Not really.

But this is good!