The Beginning of a Good Thing

My collection of the NFL's best rookie is off to a nice start thanks to @bgmartin76 box breaks. 

 

I try not to let anyone know that I collect football cards of any kind, but Oregon Ducks cards are my weakness as is well documented here. When the chance arose to jump in on some cheap box breaks hosted by Ben's Cards and Collectibles that featured 2020 NFL product, I also couldn't resist. Guess who my new favorite NFL team is? No, it's not really the (Los Angeles?!) Chargers, but for collecting purposes it really is whichever team Justin Herbert is suiting up for. At the time these first breaks happened, I was just trying to snag my first card or two of his. Now that we're at the end of the season, Herbert is in the books with one of the best rookie campaigns of all-time for a quarterback.

There was more than football (and Herbert) cards for me, however. I had a rare opportunity to claim the Cardinals in a couple of baseball spots. Usually those spots are already spoken for. Having not gone to a card show in about a year, I haven't had the chance to dig through boxes to find shiny Chrome cards for my team needs, so I've had to increasingly rely on breaks like these.

Ben even broke some basketball boxes at one point. He must be some kind of wizard. I had never seen this Aficionado Meteor insert before, so it was a really cool addition. You can tell this set is old as Dame is still wearing the Adidas jersey.

Here's another Dame from that 2016-17 Panini Aficionado set. I believe this is also an insert.
 

It's back to baseball here with a die cut Big Mac insert from the 2020 Topps Chrome set. Honest question here: Bonds and Clemens aside, how many players on the current Hall of Fame ballot were demonstrably better than Mark McGwire's peak? (I'm not actually advocating for McGwire's inclusion. I just find it interesting. Besides, I'd rather celebrate Scott Rolen and complain about Jim Edmonds getting booted off the ballot.)

The Jerk Store!

I feel like I picked up a ton of prospect Cardinals cards in 2020. Hopefully they will be fun to look at a few years down the road.

I also snagged the Eagles in a couple of the football breaks. My Eagles fandom really runs hot and cold (you can certainly guess what temperature it's at right now), but once I saw Randall Cunningham on the checklist, I knew I needed it.

I wish Alshon Jeffery had managed to stay healthy. Every team needs a huge receiver to bail you out once in awhile. This card is numbered to 100.

As mentioned, however, my favorite additions were my new Justin Herbert cards. It doesn't hurt that he's still in the Oregon uniform on these particular cards, but I'm sure I'll end up with quite a few Herberts in Charger blue... whichever shade they're happening to wear in a given week.