2016 Sportlots purchases: some Sweet PC cards

Some extremely generous traders are filling up my mailbox with content to post, and I promise to get back to those very soon, but I've got some other stuff I've been wanting to post.

Today I have for you an 11-spot of new cards for my Lou Whitaker PC courtesy of Sportlots.  I've put in a bunch of time on the site the past few months, mainly going after cards for my Michigan Football rookies project, but as I add stuff to my cart and get it optimized for price/shipping, I also like to see if any of those sellers can help me out with other PCs.  Hence my success in acquiring the following:

1986 Sportflics Rookies (with Murray, Righetti, Sax, Ripken Jr., and Strawberry)

I'm more of a Sportflix man myself, but the older-school Sportflics cards are cool too.  This six-player card is one of three multi-player cards you can find in the boxed set, and highlights "Six players who were outstanding in their rookie seasons."  Each guy was a ROY between '78 and '83 so this seems like a pretty reasonable list, despite Steve Sax's run-ins with the law.

1989 Bowman Tiffany

I don't have that much to say about this Tiffany parallel of the annoyingly oversized '89 Bowman set because it's not all that interesting, so instead I'll use this space to highlight the fact that I'm just two cards away from having everything of Whitaker from the 70s and 80s ('88 Score Glossy and '89 O-Pee-Chee).

1991 O-Pee-Chee

Speaking of O-Pee-Chee, here's one from '91, when the brand was still basically just English/French versions of that year's Topps.  That was the case until 1993.

1993 Stadium Club Members Only Parallel

Ah, now we get more exciting:  the inimitable Stadium Club, and a Member's Only card at that.  The borderless photo if Sweet Lou turning two is fantastic, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better case for a horizontal card.  Given the mediocrity that Topps flagship has become, I thought I'd imagine what that brand's version of this photo would have been, and I think it might have gone a little something like this:

Just kidding, it would have been zoomed in way more.  Anyway, hooray for Topps' past triumphs, even if they're long gone.

1994 Collector's Choice Gold Signature

For a parallel set from such a low-end product like Collector's Choice, these little bastards sure are a pain in the ass to get.  Fortunately I found a couple sellers that helped me out with the relatively rare inserts I was chasing of Whitaker and others, like this Gold Signature card.

1994 Fleer (#709) (with Alan Trammell)

You know, as ubiquitous as this pair was I feel like I should have a lot more cards of them together than I do.  It looks to me like Fleer went with a Spring Training shot here.  It's always a nice bonus when I can add a card to both Whitaker and Trammell's PCs!

1994 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow and Members Only Parallel

Back to Stadium Club (and parallels) and we get another great shot of Lou turning two!  Looks like he's already forced Brewers IF Juan Bell and has gunned to first for the twin-killing.  The "label-maker" version of Stadium Club was fun, though the Golden Rainbow parallel seems superfluous to me.  Members Only was a nice additional for several years, though.

1995 Collector's Choice Gold Signature

The '95 version of the Gold Signature cards don't come across as obviously as the '94 issues when it comes to scans since they lack the colored border, but the gold effect is more pronounced in-hand.  These are annoying bastards to chase down too!

1996 Donruss Press Proof

"My name is Lou and I like to turn two!"  The high-flying 2B levitates while doubling up another hapless foe.  Since I first encountered press proof parallels back in '95 (though they existed earlier) I've found them interesting, maybe because for those first few years they were relatively scarce and it was a big deal when you pulled one.  '96 Donruss' versions are fun because you not only get the gold stamp, the team name/logo/number box is gilded as well.

1996 Ultra

Last up is a simple base card from '96 Ultra.  Since it's from Series I I didn't previously own it--I have the base set of Series II only.  A late-in-his-career Whitaker readies to record yet another assist.

My updated Whitaker count moves up to 232 courtesy of these additions, and thanks to a bit of checklist adjustment--I've stopped including buyback cards--I'm just 55 short of his entire run and past the 80% mark.  Finishing off his collection would be sweet indeed!

If you're interested in seeing the rest of my Sportlots baseball PC additions, please head over to TMM this evening.