2014 Sportlots purchase: You Complete Me is back once more

As many of you know, from time to time I like to hit up Sportlots when I feel an itch to work on my various set wantlists.  Well, a few weeks ago I again put in some time trying to track down what little was left on my football wants (plus a few Michigan PC cards you can view on today's TMM post) and five sellers later here's what I came up with:

2005 Topps Draft:

This product was one of the very first boxes I busted waaaay back when I started this here blog--the post was dated September 3, 2010!  I grabbed a 24 pack box on eBay for around $25 as my second attempt towards completing the set, but despite not pulling any dupes, I added only 28 to my original haul (from a box I grabbed quite a while ago).

As of the start of this month I still needed 31 cards from the 165-card set, including 18 rookies.  Thanks to Sportlots I grabbed them all, including the nine you see highlighted above.  I decided to show off "new" Raider Moss, a Bill for Doug, a Hokie for Adam, and a pair of Mountaineers for Matt.  I also included a few other guys most people would know in Campbell, Williams, Orton, and White.  It sure is nice to have this set completed nine years after it came out!

2013 SPx:

Bo knows he deserves his own scan

2013 SPx is a box I picked up at a show and busted back in early August.  In my 10 packs I picked up exactly 40 out of the 50-card veteran base set with zero doubles.  I managed to find one Sportlots seller who had the ten I was missing, plus help with both other sets I'm completing today, so that was another case of money saved on shipping.

Because I showed all 40 cards I pulled from the box, I figured it would make sense to post the remaining 10 in lieu of showing the whole set at once.  The real highlight here is Bo Jackson, who earned the right to be the card I highlighted with the remaining nine filling one scan page, mainly because he was awesome.  No disrespect meant to guys like Marino and Moon, though!

2013 Upper Deck:

The gorgeous 2013 UD set is one I started last May with a couple rack packs I picked up with my brother while visiting Milwaukee (and attending a Brewers game).  I followed that up with a hobby box at a show this April, and that allowed me to complete the veteran group, cards #1-50, which I don't always work on since the rookies are usually more obtainable in rack packs by themselves.  I also fell 27 rookies short of the Star Rookies cards, #s 51-150, since I scored just 40 from the box, with others coming from the racks.

Happily, I was able to find all 27 cards on Sportlots, and without breaking the bank too.  I scanned a few highlights, including another Hokie (Davis) and Mountaineer (Geno "Interception McGee" Smith), some great photos (Rhodes, Webb, Swearinger, Hopkins, and Mauti), and a hilarious name:  "Trevardo."

All of those purchases put the kibosh on my football set wantlists entirely, which is a great feeling.  I'm really not used to being in a position where I'm building some sets, and right now the only one I'm working on at all is the 2002 Fall Classics HOF Plaques on my baseball wants page.  I'm sure this won't be the end of my football set collecting, though, especially as I find some fun UD products to pursue.

I hope you guys enjoyed some cool scans and seeing me get something done.  As for me, I'm off to file these away with their respective sets and put triumphant check marks on the boxes!

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 3

It's been a couple weeks since my last You Complete Me post, so instead of splitting up this last group in two (since they came over the course of two separate days), I thought I'd just finish the series up today because, hey, things come in threes, right?

As usual, the last day is the payoff day; although I showed off five packages in those first two posts, I hadn't completed any of the sets I was chasing.  Fortunately, that's not the case today!  Here's the final four packages, with three originating from Sportlots and the last one arriving as part of a recent COMC order:
Envelope #1 (Sportlots):

With four packages today I decided to scan just one page worth of each.  This one had 21 cards so I tried to pick a few highlights.  17 of the cards hailed from the 2008 Score set, from which I still needed a ton, especially the rookies.  The group just happens to have three Wolverines:  Brady, Manningham, and Hart, and I managed to find another star QB and a couple significant rookies to feature as well.

The other four cards were from 2012 Upper Deck (just the Star Rookies part of the set since I went with retail), and all three players represent excellent college teams.  The fourth was a Michigan State player, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna show one off on MY blog if I don't wanna!  As usual, I love the photography, design, and college unis here.

# of cards:  21     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (Sportlots): 

This was by far the biggest package from the haul.  One seller on Sportlots happened to have an absolute ton of 2008 Scores I needed, and at that rate it made sense to pile them into one shipment instead of spreading them out over others.  I believe 78 of the 79 cards were from that set, including the stars and rookies you see above.  Again, I managed to land a couple Wolverines in Super Bowl-winner Toomer and Saints rookie Arrington.

Ware's base card is the only representative from the '08 UD First Edition set here, but again, it made sense to include it (along with some baseball PC guys you'll eventually see on the other blog).  The former Cowboy (which is really strange to consider) looks as menacing as ever here.

# of cards:  79     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (Sportlots): 

From the largest package we move onto one of the smallest, which included just these needs (plus a baseball PC pickup), but that doesn't make them any less valuable.  First up is another pair of rookies from '08 First Edition, putting me that much closer to the set.  Woodson was a pretty good QB for Kentucky before flaming out in the pros while Stewart, at star at Oregon, had a few good years for Carolina before declining line the prototypical RB.

The Broyles was even more useful, if that's actually possible for a card of a guy who plays (when he's not hurt, which is always) for the Lions--it completes the first set of the day, 2012 UD.  He looks as determined as I was to finish off some sets last month!

# of cards:  3     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  1

Envelope #4 (COMC):

Despite eight Sportlots packages, it still took another visit to COMC to mop things up.  That purchase included 19 cards that went towards a couple sets, 2008 Score and UD First Edition, split roughly evenly.  In a few cases COMC was cheaper than Sportlots, and in some others it had cards available that the latter didn't.

Matt Ryan was the heavy hitter in both sets, though I don't feel like I had to overpay for both of his RCs.  Better yet, I scored a trio of rookies of some of my favorite Wolverines in Henne, Long, and Hart.  And best of all, these cards close the books on those two sets!

# of cards:  19     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  2

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  4
• Total cards:  122
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  3

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  9
• Total cards:  158
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  3

After nine packages, 150+ cards, and three completed sets, it's time to drop the curtain on another edition of You Complete Me.  Once again it was extremely productive; if you don't think completing just three sets is impressive, consider that one was the huge and tricky 2008 Score, and that my football set wantlist now looks like this, with all of two sets remaining!

I'm not sure if I'll go right back at it this month or focus my efforts and dollars elsewhere for a bit, but you can write in stone that I'll have those last sets completed pretty soon!

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 2

Yesterday I showed off my first pair of YCM packages from this month, and today I have three more:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

This is my second envelope that included just one card from 2008 UD First Edition, but that's mainly because I tracked most of those down on COMC instead, since some of the prices were better there.  Thanks to Tashard here, I'm now down to 16 needed from that set.  Speaking of Choice, the Cowboys fourth-rounder out of Georgia Tech (after transferring from Oklahoma) had pretty nice junior and senior seasons but doesn't have much to show for his pro career.
# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

This package is the debut of 2008 Score football in this series.  I began piecing the set together mostly from discounted rack packs, but that quickly dried up as a reasonable source for completion when my extras piled up like crazy.  The biggest issue is that the rookies, all 110 of them, are a bit short-printed.  Fortunately I was able to find the majority of them (and most of the other base) I needed at or around the Sportlots minimum of $0.18.  I haven't received the package that contains my largest purchase of them, but this one, at 15 cards, goes a long way towards the set anyway.  Better yet, it includes a rookie of former Michigan star and 2008 #1 overall pick Jake Long.  Some of the other guys are also very notable, especially Stewart, DRC, and Charles.  Look for a bunch more of these soon.
# of cards:  15     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (SportLots):

...as soon as right now, actually.  As with the Choice card above, this one wasn't the sole card in the envelope as it also included some baseball PC guys from the same seller.  My 16th Score card of the day is this RC of former two-time Lions RB Kevin Smith, a speed-burner of a third-rounder for Detroit out of UCF in 2008.  He showed a ton of promise during his rookie season, scoring 8 TDs and rattling off almost 1000 rushing yards, but fell off from there, and he's now up north in the CFL.

I still need a buttload of cards from the set, but at least I was able to make some headway today, with all 16 cards being the tougher-to-get rookies.
# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

That's it for today, but I still have a few more Sportlots envelopes on the way, and hopefully those will be followed by my second COMC delivery of the month soon!
Stats for the day:

• Packages:  3
• Total cards:  17
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  36
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  0

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 1

It's that time again--another massive order from Sportlots means I get to celebrate with another edition of You Complete Me!  Once again I threw some effort (and money) into completing some sets while also scoring some cards for my baseball PCs.

This time it was all about football, which makes sense since I previously eliminated all of my baseball wants and currently am working on just one baseball insert set.  My football wantlist is in great shape too, and thanks to these posts will look even better shortly.  I combined some seller's loot and a round of package-optimizing to minimize shipping, and now I have 13 packages headed my way.

Four of those arrived today, and two of them included set wants:
Envelope #1 (SportLots):

You first saw the 2008 Upper Deck First Edition football set on this blog way back in August of 2011, when I chose a box of the product as my freebie from D&A's while ordering my case of 2011 Topps Football.  I wasn't very kind in my review considering I managed to avoid pulling a complete set (I was missing 21 cards) despite a staggering 120 extras, plus the inserts were whack.  All this time later I still needed 18 cards, and because I like the rookie class from that year (have I mentioned that?), I decided I'd go for it.  This Star Rookie of Erik Ainge, the erstwhile Tennessee QB, is the first step towards completion, but I'll give you a heads-up right now that Sportlots wasn't enough by itself to sew things up....

# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

NOW we're getting somewhere.  I began collecting this set with a couple retail value packs closer to when it came out, and just a few weeks ago I found a very nice deal on a few more of those, landing me just 23 cards shy of the 100 Star Rookies.  It seemed like an opportune time to chase the set Sportlots-style, and fortunately I was able to find one seller who had a scanner-friendly 18 of those.  As usual I love the Upper Deck design and photography, and I'm happy to say that I even know who a lot of these guys are, including QBs like 40-year-old Browns laugh draft pick Brandon Weeden, Northwestern's Dan Persa, and LSU's Jarrett Lee, plus Alabama RB (and also Cleveland bust) Trent Richardson.  Oh yeah, and then there's the guy in the maize and blue helmet, Mike Martin--I hear he's pretty good too.

Stay tuned for the rest of the set pretty soon.
# of cards:  18     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

I'll have more for you as the other packages from this purchase arrive!

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  19
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  19
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

2014 You Complete Me #3: Score (off the) board

Last Sunday I showed you the first chunk of cards from my Sportlots purchases that led to a couple completed sets, and today I'm back with the ones that hadn't arrived until the other day.  These cards hail from 2013 Score football:

There were 30 in all spread out over a few packages, and these six featured the most exciting photos, which is really no surprise since the horizontal layout gives you better options.  What I thought was most interesting is that Score did a great job with the Derrick Johnson card, giving a great view of a menacing LB staring across the line of scrimmage; cards like these might make defensive players more collectible!

Some of you might vaguely recall that I dipped my toe into collecting this set last June with a few rack packs, grabbed more, and also got some help in multiple trades, including Screaming Line Drive and My Cardboard Mistress (thanks again, guys!).  One of the most productive parts of this quest was nabbing a huge chunk of the rookies last July, meaning I mostly just needed base help, which I got in abundance thanks to several trades.  When I got down to needing just 30 cards, it was off to Sportlots to shut the door on another set--and it didn't even take me a year!

Just three sets remain on my football set wants, and I'm as motivated as ever to knock those off soon too!  Until then, here's to another one scratched off the list.  And some nice photos, there's that too.

2014 You Complete Me #2: bye bye, baseball, and another football set down

I have a few more COMC cards to show off, but I also wanted to make sure to cover my recent Sportlots purchase in my first You Complete Me post since January.  Besides targeting more guys from my Michigan baseball PCs, I was able to attack three more sets from my baseball and football wantlists.  I'm still waiting on one last envelope with cards from the third set, but here's the two others that fell:

These 10 cards, all from the rookies subset, close the book on my second set of 2008 SP Rookie Edition football.  I found a few full retail boxes at Meijer a few years ago and had enough extras to make it worth putting together a second set.  In typical Sportlots fashion I got five of these from one seller, three from another, and the last two from a third.  In all, I made purchases from seven sellers but still came in under $30 because I was able to apply some sellers' loot for the first time.

Axing this set makes my football wantlist smaller, and I'll also insert a side note that I decided to cease collecting 2001 MVP football because I just wasn't into it; the incomplete set, minus Wolverines of course, is available for trade, and I'll have more on that at a later date.

Stay tuned as I'll hopefully show off the other football set I completed shortly.

As usual with Sportlots, one card pretty started things off in terms of making a new purchase, and this time it was the one above, a Jose Rodriguez (who?) from 2002 UD Honor Roll.  I'd been searching high and low for this card for quite a while, and then out of the blue it popped up in the search results for that set on the site.  For $1 plus shipping, not to mention three of the SP football cards above, I finally completed this set from 2002 UD Rookie Update, one that's been a thorn in my side for quite a while.  But now that it's complete, I'm feeling pretty damn good.  Can you guess why?  I'll give you a hint:  here's what my baseball set wantlist looks like right now:


That's it.  NOTHING.  I seriously have no idea when the last time was that my baseball set wantlist was empty in all my years of collecting.  In a way it's a bittersweet moment as it pretty much signals the end of my days as a set-builder, but the fact is that newer products haven't interested me, and neither have box prices.  But that's totally fine because it's led to my new focus of player collecting, which has given me a refreshing new lease on the hobby.

That's not to say I won't ever collect any more sets, baseball or otherwise, but if I do it'll be a much smaller part of my collecting experience.

Keep an eye out for one more football-centric You Complete Me post, hopefully this week!

First You Complete Me post of the new year is a big one

You Complete Me is already back for 2014, so you know what that means:  I completed more sets!  I should note that quite a few of these cards arrived in 2013, but I waited until now to show off everything now that their sets are finally complete.

It took multiple purchases from Sportlots, COMC, and eBay, but I can happily knock two more sets off my baseball wantlist:

2002 Upper Deck Victory Update:

 

I needed 15 total cards, all of which you see here.  Four of them came from Sportlots, but the real story was the 11 I landed on eBay.  One seller had all but one I needed for $1 apiece (plus shipping) as it turned out I had JUST missed out on the Finley.  Fortunately he found that one in another box and threw it in with the others while also accepting my request for a small discount; see that?  Not everybody on eBay sucks!

Victory is one of the three 2002 UD Rookie Update sets I've been chasing, with Honor Roll and Ovation being the other two.  I finished up the minuscule Ovation set a while ago but am still chasing three from Honor Roll.

Still, Victory is the story today.  2002 Victory ended up as a 660-card set, and Update comprised 110 cards of that.  #s 551-605 are generally traded players and guys that didn't appear in the original iteration while 606-660 are the Rookie subset you can see above.  The rookie class isn't terribly inspiring as the best of the group are Jose Valverde and...Aaron Cook, I guess?  Maybe Freddy Sanchez?

Victory was a decidedly low-end product but that didn't mean it wasn't interesting to collect.  I was more hooked by the fact that it was an update set anyway, and just didn't realize how difficult it might be to find some of these in the future!  No matter, now it's done, and I'm one happy collector.

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites:

Regardless of how small my set wantlist was at the time, this was my favorite set I hadn't yet completed.  I own a few other years of Topps' Archives/Fan Favorites offerings and I sure as hell wasn't going to skip this one.  Again, Sportlots furnished most of the cards thanks to, I believe, three sellers.  One of them shipped my cards only for the USPS to lose them (what a shock), but he was good enough to get me a refund, and I was able to grab the same two from a different seller.  COMC had a better price on the Ozzie Smith and possibly one other card I can't remember.

When all those arrived I was left needing just one card.  But I couldn't find it on COMC or Sportlots, Beckett's Marketplace prices with shipping were laughable (plus it's Beckett--screw them, even if the sellers aren't really affiliated with their nonsense), and eBay was hit or miss.  Thankfully, waiting until this month worked out as I got some free money in eBay bucks and didn't have to pay a dime of the $3 shipped for #107, Walt Jocketty--the former Reds and Cardinals GM.  Don't ask me why it was so hard to find, I have no clue!

Like some of the other versions Topps made, this was a great looking set.  I don't believe many of these were done as straight-up reprints, so most of the time you get a player on a random previous Topps design.  In the positive column, Topps made the numbers on the back easier to see, incorporating them as they would have appeared on the original design.  My biggest annoyance continues to be Topps mutilating the multiplayer rookies, making them into awkward single-player versions like the Ryan and Schmidt above.  Honestly, if they were going to go that route, why not use hindsight to make versions that include other stars that didn't appear on the originals?  Whatever, we all know Topps doesn't care.

This was one of my larger recent projects as I had to acquire a crazy 46 (of the 142) cards to complete the set.  Still, based on some of the stars and others included (a new Jim Abbott!  That awesome '75 Bench!) it's great not only to check off another project, but have something else fun to look at.

And then there's the best result of this flurry of purchases; want to see what's left of my baseball wantlist?  Here it is:

2002 Upper Deck Honor Roll Update: 131 179 185

Did you miss it?  Wanna see it again?

2002 Upper Deck Honor Roll Update: 131 179 185

Yep, I literally have one set missing three cards on my set wantlist.  I can't remember it ever being this low, and now that I'm focusing more on player collections, I think that's a fantastic development.  That's not to say that I won't add to it once again in the future, but I can almost taste the awesomeness of a completely empty list, which now becomes a major goal for the year!

You Complete Me, eBay edition: 2005 Topps Series II baseball

This is sort of an unorthodox YCM post, but I feel like it fits the theme.  My very last August pickup from eBay was a complete set of 2005 Topps Series II baseball for about $17 delivered.  I'd wanted one of these for a while since I'd completed Series I quite a while ago, but I was too busy flip-flopping between buying a set or hobby box to figure out what I really wanted to do.  After killing so many of my set wants this year, I thought it would be a good idea to attack the few complete sets I needed, and in this case the price was right.

Here's a look at some highlights from the set, since I've never really had the opportunity to show off 2005 Topps here otherwise:

Here we have all but one card for a Tigers team set.  Ah yes, Eric Munson and Rondell White--thankfully those days are over.  And Urbina proved his worth by letting the Tigers flip him for Placido Polanco BEFORE he was charged with attempted murder.

Here's a few of the stars and better photos.  Jeter's is a gorgeous horizontal shot that gets used for all the right reasons.  Sadly, much of the photo is obscured by Topps' huge borders; still, this card is definitely a winner.  So is the great shot of Jeff Bagwell's signature batting stance, one that's sorely missed since the slugger retired.  Still, for my money, the coolest photo in the set belongs to Tim Hudson, going into a windup from the seats.  Well done, Topps!

Hmmm, I really feel like I'm missing something.  Let's see, there were the Tigers, the stars, I counted everything to make sure the set was complete, but I KNOW there was another reason I grabbed this set.  OH YEAH:

Justin Verlander 2005 Topps RC

It's a pre-pair of no-hitters RC of some guy named Verlander.  This card by itself is responsible for the rising cost of hobby boxes, not to mention complete sets, and almost always sells for more than I paid for the entire series plus shipping!  It's a fantastic rookie that I'm thrilled to have as part of multiple PCs since it can be filed under rookies, Tigers, and JV's player collection.  Blog namesake represent!

One quick request to you readers before I put this one to bed:  does anybody have checklists 3 and 4 from Series II?  The seller included the first two, and I'm not OCD enough to worry that much about not having them, but if anyone feels like including them in a future trade package, I'd surely appreciate it!

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 5

Well here we are again, the last day of YCM pickups from my most recent purchases.  Since this is the final post, you can expect a nice payoff, and I hope this post delivers!

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

This is the package I saved for last because it was pretty much the least interesting, featuring 11 cards from 2002 Topps Total plus a single 2009 Topps entry.  Still, it got the job done as it put me a single card away from each set!  This seems like a good time to highlight Pat Neshek, despite his recent demotion to AAA, because he's a friend to the hobby and all-around good guy.  I'm sure collectors the world over are rooting for him to come back with a vengeance; count me in!
# of cards:  12

# of sets added to:  2

# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (COMC):

Like I said in a previous post, my COMC package showed up to save the day!  It made more financial and/or logistical sense to pick these up there instead of SportLots.  No problem for me since I was already putting together another shipment with them anyway.  To start with, Jeter finally completes my 2002 Topps Total set, which I consider a huge accomplishment since it encompasses all of 990 cards.  It'll pair up nicely with the same set from 2003 in my collection.  Next up, the Pujols was the very last card I needed from 2009 Topps, a set I pieced together entirely from retail rack packs, trades, and the one-two combo of SportLots and COMC!

Next up is a trio from 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects.  These last three guys--Aroldis Chapman, Dustin Ackley and Anthony Rizzo--were understandably a bit higher in demand than some of their set-mates, especially the Rizzo!  It's possible that taking this long to knock those out cost me a bit more than it would have closer to the set's release, but whatever, it's done and I'm thrilled.

Lastly we have a single card from 2006 Bowman football, a second-year issue of Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.  As a reminder, 2006 Bowman was the first box I broke for this blog, which in three days will have happened three years ago!  So the math is relatively easy to do if I want to figure out just how long I dragged my feet completing the set!

Like I said, today was definitely the payoff day with the COMC package completing all four sets it touched on thanks to the grunt work of the previous packages.

# of cards:  6

# of sets added to:  4

# of sets completed:  4

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  18
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  4

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  11
• Total cards:  78
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  6

Once again this was a very productive endeavor.  When I started this time, I was working on 16 sets missing a combined 419 cards from my baseball and football lists.  Today those numbers dwindle to just 10 and 341, making me shake my head as I remember when those lists were almost as long as my reasons for wanting to fire Jim Leyland.  Hooray for set-building!

I'll be back tomorrow with another celebratory post for an entirely different reason.

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 4

Just one YCM envelope today, but as you'll see shortly, it was a doozy!

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

Just a pair of '02 Totals, which is considered a break from those around here.  A sextet of '09 Topps makes for a decent change-of-pace, including a still-weird Maddux Dodgers card and Birther/idiot Luke Scott, and those leave me needing just a pair!  Today's trio of '10 BowChro prospects is Ranger Tommy Mendonca, Yankee Slade Heathcott, and Braves future star Julio Teheran; a trio of cards, though not from SportLots, will sew up that set.  Today's final baseball offering is a 2012 Topps Archives of Mike Schmidt, and on that HOF note I can complete my first set in this series of posts!  Thanks again to all of you who helped me complete the vast majority of that set through trades, I appreciate it as always.

Moving on to football, this package added four more cards to my 2006 Bowman tally, shorting me just a base of Aaron Rodgers that I didn't pick up on SportLots due to undesirable pricing.  Those four are joined by six more from 2008 Topps (home of my constantly-mentioned favorite draft class of all time), including the oft-overrated Tony Romo and another pair of RCs from a New York Team.  Hmmm, wait a minute, according to my wantlist, I needed six cards from 2008 Topps...hey, cool!  That set's complete now!

This definitely had to have been my most productive package, which included cards from all six sets I decided to attack, and completed two of them thanks to my completely arbitrary order of posting.  One SportLots package remains, along with COMC set to swoop in and save the day soon after!
# of cards:  22

# of sets added to:  6

# of sets completed:  2

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  1
• Total cards:  22
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  2

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  9
• Total cards:  60
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  2

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 3

It's been a few days since I last posted, but I'm back with two more SportLots packages for you this evening, putting a dent in a few more of my sets:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

First of all, sorry that there's even more 2002 Topps Total today, which is hard to avoid since they were part of just about every one of my packages, but we're getting there!  I didn't plan on the pair in this package being Rockies, that's just how it worked out.  The '09 Topps pair of Lincecum and Fowler (another Rockie!) almost put that list on life support.  The pair of unscannable 2010 BowChros today is Met Eric Niesen and Tigers pitching prospect Adam Wilk.  From '08 Topps football the VY is a timely card as he just won the Green Bay backup QB job with a very nice pre-season so far.  Finally, 2012 Topps Archives makes its debut in these posts with this quartet.  I wonder if Vance Worley signed off on that inset photo?  Anyway, I'm now down to just ONE card needed from that set!

# of cards:  12

# of sets added to:  5
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

Blah, it's four more cards from 2002 Topps Total.  With their addition (and the ones above) I'm down to 14 cards needed, so like I said, we're getting there!
# of cards:  4
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  16
• Sets added to:  5
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  8
• Total cards:  38
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  0

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 2

Just one package today, but I figured I'd at least give everyone a break from the 2002 Topps Total stuff for at least a day!

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

We'll start things off with a pair from 2009 Topps baseball.  As I said yesterday, I started off needing 13 cards from that set, and I showed off just one yesterday.  Today you get a Classic Combos subset cards featuring Fat Elvis/Big Puma Lance Berkman along with Carlos Lee, plus a manager card--former Oakland skipper Bob Geren.

Next up is another card from 2010 Bowman Chrome baseball, this one of David Lough, a 2007 Royals 11th-rounder who's actually having a pretty solid season in Kansas City.  Combined with yesterday's trio I'm down to just eight needed.

I only showed off one football pickup yesterday, a Haloti Ngata RC from 2006 Bowman.  Four more players from that set, all RCs as well, join him today:  Bears return ace Devin Hester, Detroit native and former Badger Jonathan Orr, 2006 NFL Defensive ROY DeMeco Ryans, and current CFLer Dee Webb.  I can now cut that list down to just five needs.

Finally, I can apply some cards to a set I hadn't covered yet, 2008 Topps football.  I began the day needing 10 from this set, which I began building with a hobby box a few years ago (I believe I was shorted a hit!).  This pair of QBs puts a nice 20% dent into that project, including a RC of Louisville star and NFL washout Brian Brohm.

That's a solid day's work as things are starting to come together.  Stay tuned for more tomorrow, or whenever I get around to it!

# of cards:  9
# of sets added to:  4
# of sets completed:  0

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  1
• Total cards:  9
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  6
• Total cards:  22
• Sets added to:  5
• Sets completed:  0

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 1

That's right, after another marathon run of searching SportLots and optimizing packages based on shipping costs, I have 11 more You Complete Me packages to show you (plus a future one from COMC very soon to close things out).  Some were large, some were small, and most included one or more Michigan PC cards as well, which will be on display over on the other blog soon.

As I did last time, before I get started I just want to detail my starting point:

Baseball:  7 sets left, 122 cards needed
Football:  9 sets left, 297 cards needed

And a quick note for each sport that I don't think I previously mentioned:  two sets I thought were incomplete--2004 Leaf Second Edition baseball and 2011 Topps Super Bowl Legends--were actually complete.  For the former, I hadn't realized that a couple cards weren't made, which explains why I couldn't find them.  As for the latter, due to their Roman numeral numbering, I didn't realize they hadn't produced one card for every Big Game (and didn't think to consult a checklist).  No harm done as I'm very to knock two more sets off the list with no effort or cost to me!

Ok, without further ado, on to today's packages:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

Since it's the oldest set on my baseball wantlist (excluding the complete sets I'm looking for, which don't count here), I decided to attack Topps' huge low-end offering from 2002 this time.  When I started my search I needed 28 from this set, which actually isn't bad considering there's 990 cards overall; still, I wanted to get this one done ASAP.  Right down the middle is the key card of the package, a Chase Utley RC.  I nabbed that and the two others from this particular seller due to his excellent price for the Utley.  You'll probably notice quickly how much I broke up my sources for this and the other sets when you see the rest of the packages.
# of cards:  3
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

Here's another 2002 Topps Total card, depicting DeShields in his swan song 2002 season.  The Pettitte hails from 2009 Topps, from which I needed 13 cards on day one.  Andy went 2-0 in the Yanks' World Series win over Philly, and 4-0 overall that postseason, proving he still had plenty left in the tank.  Since 2010 Bowman Chrome cards are awful to scan, I'll help you out--that's Oakland prospect Rashun Dixon, a former 10th-rounder who hasn't cracked the big team's roster just yet.  From that set I started off needing 12 cards.
# of cards:  3
# of sets added to:  3
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (SportLots):

Well, that first set sure looks familiar.  The Bay, like the Utley above, is a RC, but considering how far his star has fallen, this one didn't set me back much.  Along with him is Pettitte's PED partner-in-crime, career asshole Roger Clemens.  Joining that duo is Haloti Ngata, who was Ngata bad first-round pick for the Ravens in 2006.  That card hails from 2006 Bowman, and I had 10 cards to go at the start of this latest run.
# of cards:  3
# of sets added to:  2
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #4 (SportLots):

Yeah, these two aren't much easier to read as another pair from 2010 Bowman Chrome.  On the left is Rockies 2009 first-round pitcher Rex Brothers, who's had some success as a reliever the last couple years.  Joining him is Jaff "don't call me Jeff" Decker, a San Diego 2008 first-round pick who's gotten some ABs with the Padres this year.  Yes, these are both extremely curved, but I don't especially care, thought maybe I'll flatten them out someday.
# of cards:  2
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #5 (SportLots):

Closing things out today, we have--oh look, it's more 2002 Topps Total.  Anybody remember when Kotchman was a big-time prospect for the Halos?  The son of a California/Anaheim/Los Angeles of Anaheim of California of Earth scout, he appeared to have a bright future, but like many before him (and many to come), he never lived up to that potential.  Meanwhile, I had to look up Shanks because I'd never heard of him, which is saying something considering how much I collect and follow the sport.  He was a 1998 21st-rounder, meaning Topps might have been taking "Total" literally!  He's been playing independent ball since 2007.
# of cards:  2
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  13
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  13
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  0

As usual I didn't complete anything on the first day, but no worries because I have plenty more to come, so stay tuned!