[bbcard1]

Honestly, I am a good collector but not an overly lucky one. I am sort of a grinder. I pay fair prices and while I do ok and enjoy the process a lot, I hardly ever really just plain get lucky.

A couple of days ago a church friend brought me two decent size boxes of ball cards he had taken from his neighbor's trash pile. He and I have been fellow collectors for a while, but he is going through a profound downsize and decided to pass the "treasures" on to me. Turns out his neighbors were an older couple and they were moving and their son said he didn't want his cards.

I went through the first box and it was stuffed full of 1987-1990 Topps, Donruss, etc. To make matters worse, they had obviously been picked. Probably an Ozzie Smith and a Rollie Fingers were the best cards I found. Make no mistake, it was fun remembering Steve Balboni and Dan Pleasac...I myself had opened a lot of cards in those years.

Second box was a two level job. Top level was more of the same and I decided to lay it aside. I laughed and sent a text to my buddy that he had missed the boat because I had found a rubber banded stack of ET cards.

Tonight, I was avoiding work (turns out I still am) and decided to dig into the second level. More Kal Daniels and Bip Roberts...then I hit a run where the sides looked different. Although I am not a football or non-sport guy, this is what I found...a 1958 Topps football set less three cards but including a nice Brown rookie...A full set of original Elvis cards...A Topps TV Western set minus six and a few space cards along with a large stack (about 100) of 1955 Bowman football cards. Probably the best out-of-left-field find I have had in 40+ years of collecting. I'll probably finish the sets and just enjoy them.