2017 eBay purchases: high-end eBay time (or, Bringing the HEET)

Now that I'm finally getting caught up on some of my 2017 trade packages, I feel like it's about time that I showed off my eBay purchases for the first two months of this year.

I've spent about $115 over seven total purchases, with the spoils of two of those available over on TMM this evening.

As for what you'll see right here, well, I just hope you're a fan of high-end stuff!  In order of "better" to "best", here's five great cards I bought in January and February:

Rich Hill 2016 Topps Mini Blue (#07/10)

One of my two February purchases, this rare mini of Hill set me back about $7.50, which I believe was not much more than the opening bid plush shipping.  You really can't know what to expect with the prices on these low-numbered parallels, especially when sellers go the BIN route with higher starting prices.  In my case I lucked out and landed my seventh card for Hill's 2016 rainbow, giving me 258 of the 374 cards I have on his checklist, not to mention 275 total.  300 here I come!

Jason Christian 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects Printing Plate Magenta (1/1)

You had to know that when I started with a card limited to 10 copies as my "worst" pickup, things were about to get interesting.  I see I haven't used a tag for Christian's name over here, so I'll just briefly mention that he's another Michigan Baseball PC guy so you're not wondering why I collect cards of a player that's been out of pro baseball since 2013.

This plate, with its reversed image as it was used to make a Chrome card, was my very first purchase of 2017 back on January 2, and I was glad to land it for under $9 shipped.  It's actually my fourth 1/1 (out of 11 I know of) of Christian, and I also have the Black plate and SuperFractor from this set, so I really am a supercollector of his!

J.J. Putz 2009 Topps Printing Plate Yellow (1/1)

And another plate!  I put Putz here since I'm sure many more of you are aware of his career.  The former Michigan pitcher had a few nice seasons as the closer for Seattle and Arizona, though he's seen here as a member of the Mets, the club he pitched for in 2009 after being traded the previous offseason.  He was in New York for just one season but apparently that was long enough for the Mets to be his team on his Series II card, and therefore this yellow plate, which cost me a bit under $10.  It's my seventh such 1/1 of the Trenton, Michigan native and 19th total hit, putting me near a fun little milestone.

Since some of you may not read my TMM post, I'll just mention that with the two plates above and another over there, my Printing Plates and 1/1s collection now stands at a crazy 67 cards!

So those three are pretty nice, but what could be better than a card #d /10 and two 1/1s?  How about not one, but TWO new HOF cuts?:

Charlie Gehringer 2006 SP Legendary Cuts A Place in History Cuts auto (#23/57)

Charlie Gehringer 2007 SP Legendary Cuts Enshrinement Cuts auto (#03/65)

The last couple months I've been tracking down cut signatures of the Mechanical Man with mechanical efficiency, and these two Gehringers are the fruits of my labor.  Would you believe I now have eight different cuts of the HOF 2B for the Tigers?  I know I hardly can.

Up top is my third cut from Upper Deck's 2006 SP Legendary Cuts product (the other two hail from the Legendary Signatures Cuts and When It Was a Game Cuts sets), and this design is immediately one of my favorites because of the fun top half.  As you can see, both cuts come from index cards, so it's important for the top half design to add to the signature and enhance the card, and I feel UD did a bang-up job here with the certificate motif, old-school typewriter font, and inset photo.  For my money, a cut signature's not at its best without a player photo of some sort.

Meanwhile, the other card from the same product is my second from the 2007 set (with the other being an Inside the Numbers Cuts version).  This one looks amazing as well but it's not as easy to tell in a scan because of how reflective the foil is.  This one uses the same photo as the other 2007 card I have but this time places it inside a crest-like shape with a solid dark blue background.  That top half is embellished with some gold foil banners and other decorations, and I like how all of that encroaches on the cut's half a bit to make them feel more connected.

I'd also like to reiterate that Gehringer had a beautiful signature that was mechanically (see what I did there?) consistent, making it even more worth putting the time and money into collecting them.  In terms of the latter consideration, I continue to be surprised at the reasonable prices since I paid about $24 and $39 respectively.

It'll certainly be a challenge to top this bunch of cards in the coming months but I'll happily try to bring you more high-end pickups!