Collecting Game-used: A small bit of Spencer Strasmore's saga

This unusual item in my collection comes from a high-profile dealmaker in the reel world and since it was captured on film that makes this piece game-used ... used in The Hollywood Game that is.

My latest in the Collecting Game-used series is something I grabbed last year but it got lost in the shuffle with some delays on photo-matching end and, well, it's still not yet definitively matched to the frame above -- but I think it's likely. It's something straight from the production of Ballers and the fuzzy visual above was found, with some dumb luck, in a semi-pirated, fan-tweaked clip somewhere out there on YouTube months ago. Rather than spend more time and a few bucks to revisit HBO Max and find it, I'm just going to let it roll here today.

What is this super-cheap but unusual addition to my collection of weird sports stuff? Keep reading.

THE BASICS ...
Ballers set-used prop (Screenbid/HBO cert): Spencer Strasmore's Zolpidem prescription bottle
Watch it in action: Ballers -- Season/episode TBD (likely Season 5 finale) ... but I'm sure it's out there and in higher resolution than this montage

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What's Buzz-worthy: I've picked off a number of Ballers props over the last few years -- most of them here in the archives -- with some big and some small pieces in the story that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson brought to life as Spencer Strasmore, a former college football star and NFL player turned agent and then game-changer on a grand scale. Many of the props and wardrobe for the HBO series, which ran five seasons, were sold at auction and a lot can still be found via one auction spot and, of course, via eBay. Among many subplots were Strasmore's health and physical issues that came in the years after the game and, well, this bottle was an easy grab for the price of a lean retail box of cards.

Zolpidem is used to treat insomnia, so devotees of the show might even be able to figure out when this was in the series. My money is definitely on Season 5 as that clip above is from the final speech in the series -- but rather than lose any sleep over matching this one I'm just rolling with it here today. Some of my Ballers finds are big, some are just interesting and a lot of the stuff from productions -- there's a lot more used than you might think, especially with big ensemble casts -- is cheap, even for the biggest names. This one is cheap, not one-of-a-kind -- there were many bottles and many scenes -- but this one just felt unique for the price. Besides, there are still a couple more props I need to work into this series -- just for fun -- in between all the traditional game-used stuff you'll see here regularly.

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>> See all past Collecting Game-used stories from Buzz here

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