When the sideline photographer nails the shot.

Being that I collected the entire 1995 Select Certified Mirror Gold football card set, I’ve occasionally seen Mirror Gold cards from other sports and I had to purchase this one. Love the gold against the teal jersey. Our dude is coming over the boards, already sizing up who he’s going to hit.

I came across this gem while sorting through cards today. When I was growing up in the early-‘90s, a store near us sold bags of oddball baseball packs. I pulled this from one of those bags in maybe 1993. I haven’t looked through the checklist but I can’t imagine there’s a better card in the set.

If someone were to sort through my football card collection, they’d have no way of knowing my favorite team or player. My collection is a mishmash of cards that are inexpensive and photogenic - like this 1991 Score auto of Henry Ellard. Great player, awesome card design, and amazing auto. I’ll break a $5 bill for this any day.

In three decades of collecting, I’ve never owned a serial-numbered card that matched the player’s jersey number - until lightning struck twice this week.

I nabbed this 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man Rainbow of Orlando Hudson #’d 3/40. When I received a shipment of cards from Burbank a few days later, I found that the 2004 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Gold Richard Hidalgo I purchased was #’d 15/25. Just like that, $3 cards immediately became $5 cards (that’s retirement money!).