A Trip to the Dollar Box at my LCS

I had the day off, so I decided to take a short trip to my LCS, JWW Sports Cards & Gaming in Fargo, ND. Now being on a self-imposed tight collecting budget, due to an upcoming autograph even in Minneapolis mid-November, I went in with the idea of perusing their dollar boxes that I always seem to overlook whenever I stop in to browse.

I have been watching a good amount of collecting videos on YouTube recently, and a common theme I see when content creators talk about the hobby on a budget is to sit down and spend some time in the discount bins. Of course, finding anything of major value for a dollar may be a fantasy, but there is a great chance for you to find some things you will really like at an affordable price.

I set myself a $10 limit and came away with these 10 cards to add to my Cubs Collection

First is a 1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery hologram card of Ryne Sandberg. This one is a no-brainer, as Ryno was my favorite player growing up, and still is one of my main player collecting focuses. I took a gamble with selecting this one, because I wasn't sure if I had it yet, so I'm happy to add this one to it. Hologram cards don't scan very well, but they look great in person.

Next, are six cards of current Cubs. I haven't bought a whole lot in the past 7 or 8 years, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I did pretty well here, grabbing three Nico Hoerner cards (2024 Topps Big League and 2022 Topps Chrome base and X-Fractor parallel), plus a 2023 Topps Stars of MLB insert of Dansby Swanson, a 2025 Topps Summer Superstars insert of Shota Imanaga, and a 2024 Topps Greatest Hits Insert of Christopher Morel. I suppose Morel is no longer a "current"  Cub, but he fits best with this group. 

Side note: being away from the blogging part of collecting for a few years, I Forgot how frustrating it can be to scan Topps Chrome cards. They still haven't figured out the curl.

Lastly, I grabbed three cards of players on the 2016 World Series winning team. As with any Cubs fan, these guys in particular hold a special place in our hearts, and with many of them, their time with the Cubs would prove to be the high point of their career. Here we have a 2015 Bowman Chrome rookie of Addison Russell, a 2022 Donruss Diamond Kings insert of Willson Contreras, and a 2018 Topps Chrome International Affair insert of Javier Baez. 

There were a total of four baseball boxes at JWW to go through, and I just went through one. Even after pulling all the Cubs out of that one box, I still had to cut that stack in half to meet my $10 budget. It was a great way to kill some time on a day off, and I look forward to the next one!