You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 5

Well here we are again, the last day of YCM pickups from my most recent purchases.  Since this is the final post, you can expect a nice payoff, and I hope this post delivers!

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

This is the package I saved for last because it was pretty much the least interesting, featuring 11 cards from 2002 Topps Total plus a single 2009 Topps entry.  Still, it got the job done as it put me a single card away from each set!  This seems like a good time to highlight Pat Neshek, despite his recent demotion to AAA, because he's a friend to the hobby and all-around good guy.  I'm sure collectors the world over are rooting for him to come back with a vengeance; count me in!
# of cards:  12

# of sets added to:  2

# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (COMC):

Like I said in a previous post, my COMC package showed up to save the day!  It made more financial and/or logistical sense to pick these up there instead of SportLots.  No problem for me since I was already putting together another shipment with them anyway.  To start with, Jeter finally completes my 2002 Topps Total set, which I consider a huge accomplishment since it encompasses all of 990 cards.  It'll pair up nicely with the same set from 2003 in my collection.  Next up, the Pujols was the very last card I needed from 2009 Topps, a set I pieced together entirely from retail rack packs, trades, and the one-two combo of SportLots and COMC!

Next up is a trio from 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects.  These last three guys--Aroldis Chapman, Dustin Ackley and Anthony Rizzo--were understandably a bit higher in demand than some of their set-mates, especially the Rizzo!  It's possible that taking this long to knock those out cost me a bit more than it would have closer to the set's release, but whatever, it's done and I'm thrilled.

Lastly we have a single card from 2006 Bowman football, a second-year issue of Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers.  As a reminder, 2006 Bowman was the first box I broke for this blog, which in three days will have happened three years ago!  So the math is relatively easy to do if I want to figure out just how long I dragged my feet completing the set!

Like I said, today was definitely the payoff day with the COMC package completing all four sets it touched on thanks to the grunt work of the previous packages.

# of cards:  6

# of sets added to:  4

# of sets completed:  4

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  18
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  4

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  11
• Total cards:  78
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  6

Once again this was a very productive endeavor.  When I started this time, I was working on 16 sets missing a combined 419 cards from my baseball and football lists.  Today those numbers dwindle to just 10 and 341, making me shake my head as I remember when those lists were almost as long as my reasons for wanting to fire Jim Leyland.  Hooray for set-building!

I'll be back tomorrow with another celebratory post for an entirely different reason.

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 4

Just one YCM envelope today, but as you'll see shortly, it was a doozy!

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

Just a pair of '02 Totals, which is considered a break from those around here.  A sextet of '09 Topps makes for a decent change-of-pace, including a still-weird Maddux Dodgers card and Birther/idiot Luke Scott, and those leave me needing just a pair!  Today's trio of '10 BowChro prospects is Ranger Tommy Mendonca, Yankee Slade Heathcott, and Braves future star Julio Teheran; a trio of cards, though not from SportLots, will sew up that set.  Today's final baseball offering is a 2012 Topps Archives of Mike Schmidt, and on that HOF note I can complete my first set in this series of posts!  Thanks again to all of you who helped me complete the vast majority of that set through trades, I appreciate it as always.

Moving on to football, this package added four more cards to my 2006 Bowman tally, shorting me just a base of Aaron Rodgers that I didn't pick up on SportLots due to undesirable pricing.  Those four are joined by six more from 2008 Topps (home of my constantly-mentioned favorite draft class of all time), including the oft-overrated Tony Romo and another pair of RCs from a New York Team.  Hmmm, wait a minute, according to my wantlist, I needed six cards from 2008 Topps...hey, cool!  That set's complete now!

This definitely had to have been my most productive package, which included cards from all six sets I decided to attack, and completed two of them thanks to my completely arbitrary order of posting.  One SportLots package remains, along with COMC set to swoop in and save the day soon after!
# of cards:  22

# of sets added to:  6

# of sets completed:  2

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  1
• Total cards:  22
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  2

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  9
• Total cards:  60
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  2

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 3

It's been a few days since I last posted, but I'm back with two more SportLots packages for you this evening, putting a dent in a few more of my sets:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

First of all, sorry that there's even more 2002 Topps Total today, which is hard to avoid since they were part of just about every one of my packages, but we're getting there!  I didn't plan on the pair in this package being Rockies, that's just how it worked out.  The '09 Topps pair of Lincecum and Fowler (another Rockie!) almost put that list on life support.  The pair of unscannable 2010 BowChros today is Met Eric Niesen and Tigers pitching prospect Adam Wilk.  From '08 Topps football the VY is a timely card as he just won the Green Bay backup QB job with a very nice pre-season so far.  Finally, 2012 Topps Archives makes its debut in these posts with this quartet.  I wonder if Vance Worley signed off on that inset photo?  Anyway, I'm now down to just ONE card needed from that set!

# of cards:  12

# of sets added to:  5
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

Blah, it's four more cards from 2002 Topps Total.  With their addition (and the ones above) I'm down to 14 cards needed, so like I said, we're getting there!
# of cards:  4
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  16
• Sets added to:  5
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  8
• Total cards:  38
• Sets added to:  6
• Sets completed:  0

You Complete Me is back again...again, Part 1

That's right, after another marathon run of searching SportLots and optimizing packages based on shipping costs, I have 11 more You Complete Me packages to show you (plus a future one from COMC very soon to close things out).  Some were large, some were small, and most included one or more Michigan PC cards as well, which will be on display over on the other blog soon.

As I did last time, before I get started I just want to detail my starting point:

Baseball:  7 sets left, 122 cards needed
Football:  9 sets left, 297 cards needed

And a quick note for each sport that I don't think I previously mentioned:  two sets I thought were incomplete--2004 Leaf Second Edition baseball and 2011 Topps Super Bowl Legends--were actually complete.  For the former, I hadn't realized that a couple cards weren't made, which explains why I couldn't find them.  As for the latter, due to their Roman numeral numbering, I didn't realize they hadn't produced one card for every Big Game (and didn't think to consult a checklist).  No harm done as I'm very to knock two more sets off the list with no effort or cost to me!

Ok, without further ado, on to today's packages:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

Since it's the oldest set on my baseball wantlist (excluding the complete sets I'm looking for, which don't count here), I decided to attack Topps' huge low-end offering from 2002 this time.  When I started my search I needed 28 from this set, which actually isn't bad considering there's 990 cards overall; still, I wanted to get this one done ASAP.  Right down the middle is the key card of the package, a Chase Utley RC.  I nabbed that and the two others from this particular seller due to his excellent price for the Utley.  You'll probably notice quickly how much I broke up my sources for this and the other sets when you see the rest of the packages.
# of cards:  3
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

Here's another 2002 Topps Total card, depicting DeShields in his swan song 2002 season.  The Pettitte hails from 2009 Topps, from which I needed 13 cards on day one.  Andy went 2-0 in the Yanks' World Series win over Philly, and 4-0 overall that postseason, proving he still had plenty left in the tank.  Since 2010 Bowman Chrome cards are awful to scan, I'll help you out--that's Oakland prospect Rashun Dixon, a former 10th-rounder who hasn't cracked the big team's roster just yet.  From that set I started off needing 12 cards.
# of cards:  3
# of sets added to:  3
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (SportLots):

Well, that first set sure looks familiar.  The Bay, like the Utley above, is a RC, but considering how far his star has fallen, this one didn't set me back much.  Along with him is Pettitte's PED partner-in-crime, career asshole Roger Clemens.  Joining that duo is Haloti Ngata, who was Ngata bad first-round pick for the Ravens in 2006.  That card hails from 2006 Bowman, and I had 10 cards to go at the start of this latest run.
# of cards:  3
# of sets added to:  2
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #4 (SportLots):

Yeah, these two aren't much easier to read as another pair from 2010 Bowman Chrome.  On the left is Rockies 2009 first-round pitcher Rex Brothers, who's had some success as a reliever the last couple years.  Joining him is Jaff "don't call me Jeff" Decker, a San Diego 2008 first-round pick who's gotten some ABs with the Padres this year.  Yes, these are both extremely curved, but I don't especially care, thought maybe I'll flatten them out someday.
# of cards:  2
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Envelope #5 (SportLots):

Closing things out today, we have--oh look, it's more 2002 Topps Total.  Anybody remember when Kotchman was a big-time prospect for the Halos?  The son of a California/Anaheim/Los Angeles of Anaheim of California of Earth scout, he appeared to have a bright future, but like many before him (and many to come), he never lived up to that potential.  Meanwhile, I had to look up Shanks because I'd never heard of him, which is saying something considering how much I collect and follow the sport.  He was a 1998 21st-rounder, meaning Topps might have been taking "Total" literally!  He's been playing independent ball since 2007.
# of cards:  2
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  0

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  13
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  13
• Sets added to:  4
• Sets completed:  0

As usual I didn't complete anything on the first day, but no worries because I have plenty more to come, so stay tuned!

The return of You Complete Me! Part 4: go big or go home

Today will be my last YCM post from this latest bunch, though I have to say completing more sets, as usual, as inspired me to finish more, so I may be hitting up SportLots and the like again before long!  Here are the last two packages, plus the results from my several purchases this time:

Package #1 (SportLots):

These actually came from a slightly larger package that also included a bunch of Michigan baseball PC guys, which you'll get to see eventually on the other blog.  Still, while it's only two cards, this pair closes the book on the 2010 Score Football set, including the large rookie subset.  I know one of you that I've traded with before hit me up with a HUGE chunk of that subset, a gesture that made this possible, but I'm sorry to say I can't find who it was now; thank you if you remember doing that!

# of cards:  2
# of sets added to:  1
# of sets completed:  1

Package #2 (SportLots): 

I can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure this large package spawned from the number of 2002 Topps Totals this seller had.  Once I noticed just how many of my wants were in his inventory, I made sure to search each and every one and add everything he had that I could use.  From Topps' debut "ALL THE PLAYERS" set, he helped me knock off a very productive number of 14 cards, meaning I'm down to just 28 from the massive 990-card offering.  I'll definitely feel a great sense of accomplishment when this one is done. 

A few months ago I received a ton of help with 2009 Topps from a few bloggers, which I still appreciate very much since I didn't end up buying a ton of packs of that product.  This time I made a bit more progress with it as I was able to add seven cards I needed, putting me at just 13 to go.  That's the most recent Topps flagship set I'm working on since I have 2010 all set and haven't pursued any since.

I also managed to find a pair of 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects I needed.  That's a set I've kind of stalled on for a while since I don't feel a big rush to complete it--it's not like I'm missing any big names at this point.  Since the scans make them hard to see, I'll mention that the two I added were Simon Castro and D.J. LeMahieu.  The latter is actually a Michigan native whom the Tigers drafted in '07, but he ended up playing for a different Tigers team--LSU.  The pair gets me down to 12 cards left in this set known mostly for card #1, which is a Strasburg.

Moving on to football, here's another pair that helps a little.  I've been working on 2005 Topps Draft football since before I started this blog, and I still need a good amount of the set, but since this seller had two I needed, it made sense to add them.  In this case it was a pair of veterans, though most of what I need at this point falls in the group of rookies.  Fortunately I've long had the big gun, Aaron Rodgers, out of the way.  Some day I'll get the 31 cards I still need to finish this one up.

A month from today will be this here blog's third anniversary; three days from now is the third anniversary of my first box break post, in which I busted a jumbo of 2006 Bowman from Dave & Adam's Card World.  That gives you an idea of how long I've been working on/neglecting this set.  Well I was fortunate that this SportLots seller had a solid 15 cards I needed from the 275-card strong set, including a nice number of rookies, none of which was an especially big name.  10 more cards and I can finally close the books on a set with extra special significance to TMV!

This Chrome set actually also came from that same box with cards #1-55 inserted in packs of 2006 Bowman.  In that break I pulled 39 of those 55, and apparently I hadn't done a lick of work to make more progress because I still needed those last 16 up until a couple weeks ago.  You saw one of those in last week's post, and today you get the final 15, completing the set for good!  Among the players I decided to highlight are former Wolverine TE Tim Massaquoi and Hank Baskett, the "favorite" player of the main character of the novel The Silver Linings Playbook, which I wholeheartedly recommend since the outstanding movie did a great job of bringing it to the big screen.  Anyway, woohoo, another completed set!

Continuing the theme of "ALL THE 2006 FOOTBALL SETS," here's '06 Topps flagship.  This is another set where the names don't scan very well, but among the players here are Lions Megabust (sorry for the redundancy) Mike Williams, retiring Bear Brian Urlacher, and a RC of former Western Michigan Bronco/current Viking Greg Jennings.  All told I added 22 cards, besides the ones you saw last Sunday, and therefore that's ANOTHER completed set today!

The guy only had a pair of 2008 Topps, one of my favorite sets, but since I've been working on that for so long I'll take any help I can get.  Better yet, one of the pickups was former Michigan QB Brian Griese in his second go-round with the Bucs in his final season.  I need just 10 cards to knock this one off, and count me motivated to get it done before long!

And finally we come to a single card, and maybe the one I'm most excited about, strange as that may be.  Again, you saw some of these cards last week, and I kind of explained how I've had this set on the back-burner for about 10 years.  Well NO MORE--this set is DONE with the addition of this here card, a RC of Stars goalie Dan Ellis.  That was the only hockey set wantlist I had, though I'm not killing the page in case I get interested in something else.  Another completed project and another thing to celebrate!

# of cards:  80
# of sets added to:  9
# of sets completed:  3

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  82
• Sets added to:  10
• Sets completed:  3

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  7
• Total cards:  185
• Sets added to:  14
• Sets completed:  4

As a reminder, here's how things stood on day 1:
Baseball:  9 sets left, 151 cards needed
Football:  12 sets left, 457 cards needed
Hockey:  1 set left, 20 cards needed

Thanks to this project I picked up 185/628 set wants I needed, impacting 14/22 of those sets I was working on and completing four of them.  That's just the kind of progress that keeps me motivated enough to keep at it...you know, eventually.

That's all for YCM this time, though keep an eye out in the future for more of these as I attack my dwindling set wants.  Stay tuned for other stuff this week!

2013 trade package #18: a dime bag from Dime Box Nick!

Have you ever read a trade post...

ONNNNN WEEEEEEEEEEEEED?

Anyway, I apologize for the lack of posts recently--I've been pretty busy with other fun stuff, and I've just kind of fallen out of the habit.  The weather's getting nicer (the last 48 hours very much excepted) and there's been lots to do, but I'm still trying to keep up with a few posts here and there.

Such as today's, which features a trade package from yet another new 2013 trade partner!  Nick from Dime Boxes recently put out an APB for some extra pages.  I happened to have a bunch chilling in my card closet because I don't really put my cards in binders anymore.  I stuffed a USPS medium flat rate box full of what I had (plus a Bowman Ryan Dempster RC) and sent it his way.  Soon after, I received a great package in return, featuring what you see here:

Tigers new and old!  I still love picking up anything new of Dean-o, and the Showcase is an extra-nice addition to his PC.  I hope Mariners fans don't cringe too much when I post stuff of Fister.  The AJax (A&G back) reminds me that he was just sent to the DL, but at least that means Avisail Garcia was called up, and maybe if he performs well we'll finally see the last of Don "The New Gerald Laird" Kelly.  The Magglios (including a Topps Rookie Cup reprint) depict him with the White Sox, but I think he'll be most remembered for his Tigers heroics.

Tigers most certainly of the past, but no less memorable.  The pair of Fidrych cards adds to my too-small PC of a team favorite.  The Cochrane, Tanana (rock that 'stache, bro!) and a Morris below feature Tigers in different uniforms, but I certainly don't mind that.  Kaline and Greenberg are two of Detroit's absolute legends as well and are most welcome.

Two Tigers legends kick things off here, including the Newhouser.  The rest are of the oddball variety but still feature mostly familiar names.  The Coleman pairs up nicely with a Freehan you can see over on TMM.  By the way, I've now got a growing collection of those '87 Coke cards.

Lastly, this pair of '02 Topps Total commons puts a small dent in my wantlist for that set, which now sits at a manageable 42.

Nick, thanks for an outstanding first trade, and here's to many more!  Readers, please check out my accompanying post over on TMM, and head over to Dime Boxes for some cheap thrills!

2013 SportLots purchase #1: 2002 called, it wants its cards back

Hi all, sorry for my more-than-usual extended absence.  Life's been pretty busy lately (in a good way!) and blogging has taken a back seat to that.  Fortunately I have some cool stuff to show off now that I'm back.

Last week I made my first SportLots purchase of the year.  This one came about mainly because I owed a fellow trader some cards (which should be going out today or tomorrow!) and had some great luck finding them.  While I was at it I decided to try to get out of the rut some of my older sets were in and attack those as well.  Finally, I picked up a trio Michigan player collection cards, which you can see over on TMM.  Did I mention that these all came from the same seller?  Well, they did, which is the way to play the game when it comes to SportLots.

I spent around $30 this time, but considering what I ended up with, I think I did just fine, especially when it comes to sets from 2002:

Here's the three main stacks, details of which you can see below.

Card #1 is this 2002 Bowman base of Chin-Feng Chen.  Why did I start off with this one?  It officially closes the book on that set for me.  At some point during my previous SportLots pickups, I failed to realize that I needed this one, and then I think a seller sent me the wrong card, so I was still left needing the Chen.  This particular seller had it, and I jumped all over it.  Make that another set done and another box that'll get a big old check mark on it when I get around to putting these away (I'm terrible about that).

Next up I grabbed a total of 42 2002 Topps Total base cards.  This set was a bit of a catch-22 for me--I didn't feel motivated to work on it because I still needed so many, and I needed so many because I don't make the effort to pick them up.  Well, I grabbed every card I needed that this seller had, and now I'm down to a slightly more manageable 44 cards needed.  These will be fun for me to put away because I store them in a binder, just one of two sets ('03 Topps Total) I do that with because otherwise I'd be up to my eyeballs in binders.

I highlighted a few interesting players here, including the retiring Mo, a trio of former Tigers, and a few throwbacks.  Remember former 20-game winner Pat Hentgen?  Remember his ridiculous mustache as a member of the Orioles too?  How about Kaz Sasaki, proof that closers are often a dime a dozen?  As always, this set is a lot of fun, and shame on Topps for killing it and replacing it with more and more of their shitty, overpriced products.  How many guys do you think made this set that wouldn't have otherwise appeared on a baseball card?  BRING IT BACK, TOPPS!

These next two sets were part of a 2002 Upper Deck Update product, which included updated runs of a few of their 2002 products.  Unlike Topps Total, I'd really done VERY little with these since I'd opened them, so I needed quite a few.  Fortunately, this guy had a pretty good number of them for me.  We'll start with 2002 Honor Roll Update, of which I grabbed 14 cards (leaving me needing just four!).  This set included some more season highlights and prospects, finishing off the job of the main set.  In my scan I included some more fun highlights, including former legend-in-the-making Mark Prior, Chicago White Sox megabust Joe Borchard ("2001 Top-Rated White Sox Prospect," LOL Jeff), a pair of Tigers (including Tim Kalita #2) and one of a pair of Jason Simontacchis (remember HIM?).  Hopefully I'll get this one completed before much longer.

Finally, I nabbed 23 cards from 2002 UD Victory Update.  Victory was sort of like UD's answer to Topps' lower-priced entries, and therefore a large set, but UD added to it just like their other products that year.  I'm now 16 cards away from finishing this update set, which is fantastic news.

I highlighted a few traded players, plus most of the rookies I picked up.  Phillips and Colon, of course, were both involved in that ill-fated deal for Montreal that brought Cleveland many of its better young players for a few years.  I included Durham because how can you hate a guy like Ray-Ray?  Hey Eckenstahler, what happened to the logo on your hat?  And there's Simontacchi #2.

As I often like to do, I'll show off the damage to my wantlist this purchase did, before:

and after:

Sweet!  As I find money in my monthly budget the rest of the year, I'll see if I can't make even more headway on my baseball set wantlists, which are getting ridiculously small considering where I was at just a couple years ago.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have some cards to put away!