2018 Sportlots purchases: RIP this series

Well here it is, February 28, the date I recently set as my goal to finish up posting my Sportlots purchases from last year.  It took me longer than it should have to get that done, but get it done I did as you're now reading the final post in this run.  (Note:  you can also check out the last in the TMM series right here, though a number of you already have.  Thank you!)

The big finish on the baseball side isn't anything I scheduled purposely.  Instead I got the smaller bunches out of the way, then did the usual run of my big four PCs.  You saw Griffey, Gwynn, and Maddux, so naturally today's subject is my biggest PC from any sport:  Cal Ripken Jr.

We'll begin today with a card that's almost as old as I am:  1986 Sportflics #8 (Cal should always be #8 in a set!).  I love me those holograms/lenticulars, of course, so this was fun to grab, along with his appearance in that year's Rookies set, which I forgot I owned as it includes Lou Whitaker (plus Eddie Murray, Dave Righetti, Steve Sax, and Darryl Strawberry).  Next, a '94 Fleer Update Diamond Tribute insert looks super nice to me with that sky background despite coming from a lower-end product.  

More base from '95 Ultra and '96 Bowman's Best, Finest, and UD all look terrific.  I really think Upper Deck's design peaked in 1996 and '97, though it was a good looker year in and year out.  Speaking of that manufacturer, thanks to TCDB I found a second version of the header card from its multi-brand Ripken Collection set that has the Collector's Choice logo instead of UD's on the bottom.  What you don't learn on that site!

Last up here is the debut of Bowman Chrome in '97 on a design I've long enjoyed, maybe because the Refractors look so amazing with it (as is often the case with that product).  I also love action photos of Ripken in the field, like this one where he's flinging a grounder across his body to first for the out.

Three more '97s start this scan:  Donruss Limited, Finest, and Upper Deck.  The Limited card pairs up Ripken with future Cubs 3B bust Kevin Orie, the same thing Bowman's Best did with its 1994 debut.  The Finest is a double once again, but fortunately I know someone else who collects Cal.  And the UD is one of the many fine looking subsets from that year's flagship product, a set I really, really just need to buy for myself.

The second row starts with '98 Ultra's classy design in the form of a checklist.  Next up is '99 Black Diamond, a set I mentioned in my Jim Harbaugh post yesterday because it came with some beautiful looking numbered parallels.  And then we come to one of the best pieces of the post:  one of Cal's two appearances in '99 Topps Gallery.  I mentioned in the Maddux post that I didn't much care for the look of the Masters subset found within, but otherwise absolutely love the regular design once again.

On the bottom we'll start with Rip's regular base card from 2000 Bowman's Best (another favorite, as I keep mentioning) to go with the subset appearance I've long since landed.  The scan then ends with two excellent designs from 2001:  Donruss Classics and Ultra.  The more I see the '01 version of the latter the more I like it.

To finish up the verticals this last scan includes base cards from 2002 UD and 2003 Donruss Champions plus a 2005 Donruss Team Heroes Movie Gallery insert.  The first two look quite nice, especially Upper Deck (as usual) while the insert was a bit of a letdown as I'd forgotten what these looked like and didn't think to preview it somewhere like COMC.  Oh well, it's a cheap insert!

The quartet of horizontals is 75% Upper Deck, starting with one of Cal's two appearances in the '92 Team MVP Holograms boxed set, in this case a checklist using an image of a statue(?).  The rest of the set looks normal, including his other card, for what it's worth.

Next up are flagship base cards from '94 and '95.  The former is a subset that shows the HOFer signing at the park, as he was well known for doing, and the latter is a great shot of a play at the plate.

And I'm happy to end this post and series on a fun note with a two-player base card from Fleer's excellent Fall Classics product from 2002.  The last ten cards in the 100-card set (120 with SPs) were part of a subset called "All Time Series Team" that paired up legends at each position--or groups of three when it came to the outfield--with a player from each league--except for the outfielders, with one card per league.  You could make an argument for a number of other players to represent SS but I'm perfectly happy with the Ripken/Ozzie pairing here.

And at last this series is done, with Ripken retaining his PC crown along with a new total of 874 cards and counting.  Thanks to everyone who read and/or commented on any or all of these posts!

I'm looking forward to showing off my late 2018 COMC stuff here soon and finishing off my purchases from last year, plus getting up another show recap if I make it out there this weekend.  After that, maybe some original content like the favorite set designs idea I teased?  Who knows?  More to come!