Ticket Stud or Ticket Dud? You decide ... here's Chapter 1

There are two things about collecting that might be a slightly lost art right now with so many big-money chases out in the card world -- but they still might apply no matter what you're chasing.

What are they? Well, Buzz loves "the dig" and the concept of "something for nothing." They're things that are still do-able in today's hobby, but it just depends on your definition of "nothing" and your digging tastes. Sometimes there's plenty to dig through in boxes and other times you just have to scroll and scroll some more.

With this new series starting right here, right now, I'm turning just a tiny bit of that energy just a few degrees away from cards (we'll still have plenty of them here) for a different kind of cardboard. What am I doing? Simple ... this is an occasional dip into some random ticket lots -- a show and tell showing something small with a story. A tip: Tickets have picked up steam with slabbers -- and it's a topic that's not just limited to sports, either -- so if something is appealing there might be value ... especially if it's obscure and interesting.

Keep reading to see the item and the details this time ... and tell me if you think it's a Ticket Stud or a Ticket Dud.

THE DETAILS ...
The Category: College football ... with an NFL tie-in
The Games: Texas Tech vs. Arkansas, Sept. 13, 2014 and Texas Tech vs. Kansas, Oct. 18, 2014
The Results: Arkansas wins 49-28 and Texas Tech wins 34-21
The Attendance: 60,277 and 54,071 (So ... these aren't that rare. Ha.)
The Face: $85 and $60
The Cost (for me): Literal pocket change ... maybe 65 cents total?

The Ticket Stud (Key Player): Texas Tech freshman QB Patrick Mahomes ... you might know him.
Others: Davis Webb, Brandon Allen, Jonathan Williams, Alex Collins, Kliff Kingsbury

What's Buzz-worthy: I'm an SEC guy, so other tickets in my random lot caught my eye first ... but these two jumped out at me as pieces with potential because of the timeframe, that team and who was on the roster. The numbering on the tickets is a little odd -- they are the second and fourth home games of the year for the team, but the third and seventh games of their season. That also makes them the third and seventh games of Mahomes' college career. Cool, cool. The back-to-reality bummer here, though? Mahomes didn't actually play in either game. He made his on-field debut on Sept. 25 -- the week after the first one -- and he also played on Oct. 4 and Oct. 25 (before and after the second ticket here) before taking over in November. Mahomes finished the season with 16 TDs in just seven games and generated plenty of action after that before taking the show to the NFL. While he didn't play, these still strike me as interesting since it's Mahomes. There were other guys who put up some numbers for all of the teams here but I'll keep it simple with the obvious reason this one was interesting to me.

Stud or Dud? I could have found worse, I guess (actually, I did). For pocket change, I think this one is more Stud than Dud.

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