[cesarcap]

Won an auction lot of about 200 cards cheap (for a change) with the idea of upgrading my EX/Ex+ mini set.

I never collected the mini-set as a kid and bought this set at a decent price (not cheap but not expensive either). The regular 75's were the 1st set I really collected. Flipping through the binder while watching college football and sipping some whiskey brought the OCD out in me.

The set, either in mini- or regular size, is really tough. So many cards have fish eyes, print defects, diamond cut, off center left to right or offset top to bottom. Slight chips on the corners or sides really show even w/o my reading glasses.

The auction lot was good-I upgraded about 70 cards including said John Milner, who I saw play at Shea. But I realized I was more critical about the cards of Mets and Yankee players (I grew up in NYC and then in NJ burbs). So now I will have to upgrade Sparky Lyle (pink border is washed out), Seaver is mis cut. Thankfully, the major RCs are fine, but too many all star cards are are miscut.

I originally thought that I could grade one of the sets. But now besides throwing money away, I simply enjoy paging through a binder full of (raw) cards even if not perfect. Way easier than hauling out boxes and boxes full of slabbed cards.