20,000 Cards - They're Mine! And Yours?

If you're buying new product, 90 bucks can get you one hobby box of a newly-released product (maybe?), or 4.5 blasters (without tax) at the local big box retailer.

This is what 90 bucks on Craigslist just got me.

Those are six large file boxes (maybe used for comic books?) that are filled with cards.  They are stacked 3 or 4 layers deep in each one.  I estimate it is between 15,000 and 20,000 cards altogether.

So what is it?  Junk wax, right?  There definitely is some of that in here, but it's the minority.  Talking with the guy who sold it to me, he was collecting in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and it is just a big variety from that time-period, primarily.  Standing in his house for 5 minutes, I obviously couldn't look through every layer of every box, but I saw enough to know that I wasn't going to end up with only crap out of this -- there's a lot of fun stuff from that time-period.....which was the period when I WASN'T actively collecting, so this will fill a big need for my Royals collections from that era.  I am a "low-end" collector so doing all the digging through these should be a blast.

It is approx 70% baseball, 25% football, with 5% being miscellaneous (Basketball, Hockey, Star Wars, Simpsons).  I know one of the six boxes is completely full of MLB Showdown and NFL Showdown cards, which he said he was REALLY into at the time.  I rarely see those up for trade, so I should be a source for those if you have some team/player sets you need help with.

My project:  I am going to start sifting through these and posting the general contents of what I am finding (what years, what sets, how many cards, anything particularly interesting that I find).

If You Want Cards:  I know a lot of you are in the same boat as me, and weren't collecting during part of that period from 1995-2005.  There are WAY more cards here than I will be able to keep, and I'd love to trade away anything that you out in the blogosphere could use.  LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU WANT and I will set it aside for you.
Please make your requests for:
1) Specific card wantlists from certain sets.  I.e., "I need cards #4, 13, 19, 22 from 2003 Fleer Double Header."  If you have a team-based wantlist with card numbers, shoot that my way.  These are the most-specific requests and will be honored first.
2) Player collections.  I.e. "Please set aside any Jeff Bagwell cards" or "Please set aside any Tom Glavine cards, but only if he is shown on the Mets."
3) Team requests.   I.e. "I want all your Seattle Seahawks."   <---This is the least specific, so I will honor those last.
Feel free to add any additional requests as you start to see what comes out of here.

When I brought the boxes home, I let my oldest son pull out a handful of cards to show him what was in here.  He grabbed a stack of miscellaneous football, and in the middle of his handful he says "Look at this one, Dad!"

It's a Starting Lineup oddball of my favorite football player.  Found in the first handful of this "haystack."   Let's see what other lovely "needles" we can uncover in this process, shall we?