Until June ...

I often receive email invitations to buy baseball cards. The vast majority of the time I ignore them. One of the reasons I do that is I just don't have a lot of money to spend on cards -- or anything, for that matter.

As a family guy with the usual expenses, card purchases are budgeted like anything else. I look on with envy at the collectors who bust multiple boxes of new cards, and I can't help but think of where that money could have gone.

That's just me coming from the world I know. I'm cursed with a guilty conscience. And I have daily reminders (including a nice stack of bills) of why I need to stay on some sort of card budget.

That definitely includes shopping for cards online, where money can evaporate faster than anywhere else. I restrict my spending to a certain small amount per month, and when the cash is gone the spending be gone, too.

Most monthly online card shopping goes toward CheckOutMyCards. I'm comfortable with it and my cash is too limited to go to multiple sites. As I've said before, ebay barely exists for me if I want to stay serious about a budget.

I'm waiting until June to grab some more online goodies, but I haven't quite shown all of the COMC cards that I bought in May. You saw several of them with the Andre Ethier posts, as well as that awesome Luis Alvarado card from 1973.

But I added a few more of my Dodger favorites, too:

I'll continue with the Nomos, because he represents the majority of the purchase. This 1996 Pacific is one of my favorites. It's a crystal clear photo, one you could stare at for hours.

Not crazy about players from different teams sharing a card with my Dodgers, but I was suckered into getting this one because I know there's a boxscore on the back. I'll buy any card with a boxscore. That's countryman Shigetoshi Hasegawa to Nomo's right, if you care.

The final two cards that I needed from the Upper Deck five-card set from 1996. One of my favorite insert sets of the 1990s

Die-cut madness from the mid-1990s. Since I barely collected in the mid-'90s it took me until just now to realize that there apparently was another part to this card that completed the "matchup." The background shows the outfield stands of Dodger Stadium, but there aren't a lot of people there. So that must mean it's, what, the third inning? ... I kid, Dodger fans. I kid.

Pinnacle Certified sure was fancy. I wonder if people who collected this entire set spread all the cards out on the floor and pretended there was a disco ball overhead.

No? Hey, there are some lonely people out there you know.

This is my favorite Nomo card from the bunch. It looks great and the card title, "The Untouchables" is one of the best I've seen. A lot of the titles used in the last 15 years or so have been pretty painful, but this works.

On to another favorite in "Future Cy." Just a common variety Piedmont back Topps 206 mini that had eluded me.

I had no knowledge of Bowman Originals until I saw this card. Couldn't tell you one thing about it. But it's cool to have his 2006 high school pitching record on the back. Impressive.

I like me the TCMAs. You can't go wrong with a set titled "Baseball's Greatest Pitchers."

That is the back of the card from the 1982 set. I'm showing it because I received this card from 1st & Goal a few days after I received my COMC order:

I hope you can tell that this card is perforated, unlike the other Koufax card.

That's the back of the perforated Koufax. Everything is the same as the non-perforated Koufax except the white card stock.

I'm not sure where the difference lies. The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards doesn't help me. I'm wondering if the cards were offered through the mail as a sheet of cards sometime after the originals were released.

Last card is a Penguin that I needed. This is from the 1979 L.A. Dodgers set, which I often see called the "Dodger Blue" set, probably because the cards say "Go Dodger Blue!" in big blue letters on the back.

The card is slightly shorter than your average 3 1/2-inch card, but it's a nice-looking card and I'll have to get the whole 15-card set someday. You can see Cey is relaxing in a Dodger blue wooden chair.

And there goes all the cash. Those cards and the previously mentioned Ethiers, etc., used up the online card budget for May. I'd say it was pretty successful, and I'm looking forward to June. I already have some cards sitting in the shopping cart, waiting patiently. Very patiently.