This new occasional department is as its title says -- it's just for fun ... a super-quick look at something found that could be new or could be old. It could be comical, it could be serious. It could be cards, it could be something else. It's perhaps collectable -- to somebody -- but there still might be a quick story in there somewhere, too.

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Buzz recently did some deep dives for odd stuff in the autograph realm and a trio of signed late-1970s Pittsburgh Pirates expense checks caught my attention. Why? Just some goofy similarities between them made me wonder what the deal was -- and, well, this isn't even all of them. Again, why? To add some weird but simple items to my autograph collection on the super-duper cheap.

The checks are from 1978 and are signed by former Pirates Treasurer Douglas McCormick -- not a big deal and really, really not as cool as a player's absolute first payday I wrote about here -- so this trio isn't about the ink. This time, it's about who's getting paid.

In the case of the Oct. 25, 1978, check above for $10.20? That's The Sporting News. The weekly sports newspaper was $1 an issue back then, so I suppose it could be for a discounted subscription based on 52 weeks a year but that still seems low. Was this for a subscription for somebody up high? Maybe one for a waiting room? Maybe it was for a bundle of copies of Dave Parker's cover a month earlier? We'll never know ...

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