2015 eBay purchase: Christmas is the time to say I love Lou

December is a fun time of the year for me when it comes to collecting because I know what's left in my collecting budget and that means I can sometimes aim a bit higher than normal (such as last year when I landed my Tom Brady autograph!).  Thanks to some reasonably careful spending this year, not to mention some solid COMC sales, I was in position to take shots at cards I wouldn't really consider most of the rest of the year.

I'm happy to report that I've managed to land two such cards over the last few days, and the first of those arrived today.

Pretty much anyone that follows this here blog knows I'm a big fan of former Tigers 2B Lou Whitaker--big enough of a fan that he's my first non-UM player collection.  One major PC component of his I've been lacking is a certified autograph (I do have one IP auto of questionable origin and this Leaf Ink card). That isn't too shocking since he doesn't have many of those; I count 11 non-1/1s (I don't include brands like Historic Autographs and ITG), and all but one are fairly limited in production.

Here's the 11th card:

Lou Whitaker 2001 Topps Archives Autographs auto

Maybe it's because I haven't seen the other options, but if I had to pick one Whitaker autograph to own, this would be it.  Retroactive cropping of the four-player card aside, I really like what Topps did with its Archives autos back in the 2001 product, and not just because other Tigers Bill Freehan and Kirk Gibson were also part of the set.  The idea of an autographed rookie reprint simply appeals to me, especially when it's a guy like Lou that's lacking in hobby love (not to mention Hall of Fame respect).

In opening this post I mentioned that I'm able to spend a bit more if I need during a month where I know exactly what my budget will be, but I was surprised that I didn't have to spend nearly as much as I thought for a card like this that pops up on eBay from time to time, but not terribly often.  Believe it or not, about $27 delivered was enough to send this white whale of sorts straight to my PC, and that's much less than I've seen these going for in the last few years.  Hooray for Christmas miracles!

I'm sure my fellow Tigers fans--and possibly others--will agree with me that this is a cool purchase, but I should have an even bigger surprise in store for y'all tomorrow!