If I collected differently

I am a specific type of card collector, what I think most people would call a "traditional collector." I try to collect the way I did as a kid, by buying packs at the store closest to me.

That process is not the same as it once was. The stores where you find cards are much bigger than they were when I was a kid. The cards are not as available in as many stores as they were then. And, the same cards aren't available in each store. That was almost never the case when I started out.

So my method of collecting is basically a relic from 1975. It's not very effective. But "effective," to me, is not high on the list of collecting priorities. What is important is fun, connecting with childhood, and keeping as much of the adult perspective out of it as possible.

If I was collecting in an adult way, I'd probably buy boxes. I don't have a card shop near me, so I'd order them online. I'd probably order a box for every set I liked, and maybe multiple boxes for sets I really liked.

Sometimes I think about doing that. Maybe taking a year and getting to know what it's like to be that type of collector. I've always avoided frequent box purchasing because I just didn't have the money. But I think I could probably do one year of it. What would that be like? Would I suddenly start posting box breaks to video and screaming about marginal "hits"? Would I be throwing common cards in a giant garbage can next to me?

What would I become?

That's not to say that people who frequently buy boxes do that. I'm just not familiar with that world and, much like trying to envision what life is like as a major league baseball star, I have no perspective.

I thought of all this after I received a package from Andy of Ain't Nobody Got Time For Cardboard. I honestly don't know whether Andy busts boxes, or merely has a nice card shop nearby, or whatever. I just noticed a crop of current cards I needed and wondered.

That's a bunch of 2016 Stadium Club Dodgers. Maybe from a box. Maybe from a blaster. Maybe from just buying a lot of packs like I did in the '70s.

The Kazmir and Johnson are downright needs. The Gonzalez, Anderson, Seager, Pederson and Lee will go toward the set I'm not collecting. The Turner is a straight-up dupe.

That's a bunch of 2016 Chrome, most of which I need. Do the sepia parallels come in boxes? I thought it was retail-only. I don't know. I'm barely paying attention now.

2016 Panini Donruss. I hope Andy didn't buy a box of this.

OPTIC! These are my first cards of the blatant rip-off of Topps Chrome. It's just as you imagined. It's a Chrome card -- without logos. All my hopes and dreams realized.

That pretty much did it for the 2016 cards from Andy, with one exception. Most of the rest was a bunch of random-ish fun stuff, such as this:

You don't need to buy boxes for most of that. Stickers and fun packs and Opening Day. Weee!

Andy also sent a smattering of night cards, of which the Buxton card that scanned weirdly up top is one. (Wow that's a convoluted sentence).

This trade kind of came about after my post about my continued downsizing of my relic collection. I sent a couple to Andy (and would like to send a few more). I received this Gagne one back, which is definitely not a downsize -- I have at least five of his relic cards.

But I want it because I've interviewed Gagne and talked with his family members. There's this guy who covers the Dodgers on Twitter who absolutely hates Gagne, probably because of the PED thing, but he acts like it's something worse than that. I get that what Gagne did was uncool, but, geez, I talked to his family, they seemed pleasant, he seemed pleasant, you don't know what kind of advantage Gagne had, give it rest.

The venom and grudges people harbor, I'll never get. Go seek a professional and work it out.

Hey! That was a tangent, wasn't it? Let's get back to fun stuff and a couple of signed cards that don't replicate the names of the players featured at all! I'm not trimming my autograph collection, so this can be Yimi autograph number 3 or 4 and that's cool. The card of current Red Scott Schebler is my first for him and 123rd different Dodger autograph in the collection.

All right, this thing had to come out of a box, right? I think this is one of those High Def cards from last year's Bowman's Best. It's super thick, meaning you've got to display it on your mantle or you just feel stupid stuffing it in a toploader. ... OK, that's my hang-up. Gotta admit it's nice.

Definitely out of a box of this year's Baseball Wacky Packages. This is pretty cool, and my first sketch 1/1. I don't normally do sketch cards (you couldn't pull those in 1975, man). But I do Wacky Packages and this is right up my lane.

I don't know if I'll ever reserve a year to be a box buyer, but it does seem like fun sometimes. Maybe I'll just do it so people can refer to it as "the year Night Owl lost it."