New tab item: Player Collections and Rainbows

Just a quick post tonight to highlight a bit of work I did to get myself moving along on a couple projects:  up there at the top where all the tabs are you'll see a new one called "Player Collections and Rainbows."  It's my intention to use this as a place to show off exactly those two things--player collections, in which I go for all of a player's base cards made during their career (currently just Bill Freehan, though I'll probably be adding Kirk Gibson before long) and rainbows I'm building, which right now is limited to Rich Hill's 2008 UD Baseball Heroes cards.  Should you prefer, you can also view that entire collection at once as an album here on my Picasa Web Albums.

Having seen some of you pursue similar projects, this seemed like it would be a fun undertaking and something more worthwhile to spend my money on than junk wax, such as anything Topps ever produces again.  I've had organizing and posting these projects on the back burner for a while, but now I finally have a little time to get things started, and I think now that they are I should start making more progress quickly.  Here's a bit about the two current pursuits and why I'm chasing them:

Bill Freehan:  Because Bill was a Tiger for his entire 15-year career, I had a few of his items in my collection already which I acquired through various channels over the years.  However, now that my collecting efforts are more focused on former Michigan players as well as the Tigers, Freehan is a natural fit--I'm sure I've mentioned a gazillion times that he played for my alma mater, and he happens to be one of the better players the Wolverines produced, being responsible along with Barry Larkin for the lion's share of our players' All-Star appearances. (11 in his 14 full seasons!)  I'm also more interested in starting with someone who played back when there was only one manufacturer to make things easy on me. 

Further, I'm defining what I consider a complete collection of his base cards to be those that were produced during his career, e.g. nothing from Topps reprint sets, no autographs, no oddballs, etc.  In fact, the wackiest I got was including his Topps Game and 1975 Mini cards because those seemed normal enough.  That gives me a reasonable 20 to chase, (of which I have seven currently) and only his RC will really set me back anything significant.  Now that I finally put together that wantlist, I'll be more likely to pick those up at the shows I hit around here, though recently I had been able to pick up a couple here and there.

Rich Hill 2008 UD Heroes rainbow:  I can definitely blame this one 100% on Tim from the GSNHOF.  I say that thanks to this trade which essentially set me off on this quest.  Really, when someone literally hands you that much of a head start, how can you not pursue it?  I don't blame him at all for passing these on to me because he knew how much of a fan I am of Hill, another Michigan baseball product, plus he's shown a great deal of focus and commitment in becoming the world's foremost Seneca Wallace collector.

It also doesn't hurt that these are some great looking cards, especially the above patch that I got in a trade with Eric from Manupatches and MustachePatches.  But besides that one, there's quite a few cool variations involving base, serial numbering, autographs, jerseys, patches and colors--30 total cards, actually, of which I own 13.  This won't be an easy challenge because that's an oxymoron, but that's because I'm looking down the barrel of tracking down three cards each numbered to 10 and five, only one of which I've seen on any of the major sites I frequent--eBay.  But what fun would this challenge be without accomplishments like that?  Tune in for further updates as I either inch closer to completion or totally fall flat on my face and admit defeat!

Of course, if you have ANYTHING from either wantlist, conveniently located here, please let me know and we'll make a deal--I have cards and money, and I'll gladly give you either in exchange for YOUR cards.