It's crazy how much can change in nine-plus years. I don't tend to mark this blog's birthday because I almost always forget, but today's a big enough occasion to celebrate: I've finally hit post #1,000!
If any of you are like "It's been 3500 days since your first post and you're just now getting to 1K?" I get it. I'm lazy and I don't know how so many of you post nearly every day, so I give you all the credit in the world for doing so. Then again, I do have one excuse in my pocket: I started up my sister blog Too Many Manninghams on New Year's Day in 2012 and got to 800+ posts over there.
Anyway, 1,000 posts seems like a fun thing to celebrate tonight since it's evidence that I've stuck with this blog long enough to reach that mark, and generally had fun doing it. Better yet, I'd say that it's changed my collecting style for the positive; No more throwing away money on boxes and packs, way more focus on what I want to collect, and so many friends made trading. Thank you all that have kept me going for this long, and here's to 1,000 more!
So, with all that said, how am I celebrating? Well, I'm finally going to reveal some eBay purchases I made over the last few months about which I've been very secretive. I'll explain why it took so long in a bit, but we've gone long enough in this post without you seeing cards, which is why you're here, so let's get to it--a whole mess of 1/1s!
Everything you see in today's post except one card--I'll point it out--came from my favorite eBay seller, a former Michigan supercollector. He began clearing stuff out and I benefited from that bigtime. We're starting with a trio of oddball-ish 1/1s. This Clayton Richard (1/1 #8 for him) is the only one of the three I actually paid for, and it took all of a paltry $1.25 (free shipping) to get it.
Some of you might be aware of the goofy buyback 1/1s Topps made to celebrate stuff like their 65th anniversary or those opulent Transcendent parties. This one represents the former, taking a 2014 Topps 1st Edition set card and giving it 65th Anniversary and 1/1 stamps (the latter to the left of his hat) to mark the occasion. I wasn't gonna throw much money at an auction like this since I don't overpay for 1/1s as it is, and less so for non-standard ones. The price was definitely right in this case.
I've said multiple times that I love buying from this seller, not only because his prices are great and he offers free shipping, but on a few occasions he's even thrown in free cards--and I don't mean some '88 Donruss puzzle pieces for protection, I'm talking real-ass cards! Both of the Rich Hills here were included that way, one of which came with the above Richard, I believe. That's insane since I already said I paid him $1.25 for it!
Anyway, both of these were prizes for 2018 Topps Transcendent VIP Party attendees and made their way into my hands eventually. Up top is a stamped 2017 Topps Chrome Sapphire base while below you see a 2018 Topps Preview that got the same treatment. The former's 1/1 numbering is difficult to see in my scan, in the bottom-right corner, while the latter's scan looks much better.
That wasn't it as far as Hill 1/1s go as I also came away with a regular Yellow Plate card from 2017 Topps, at a cost of about $13 shipped from a different seller. $10+shipping is a price I'm generally willing to pay for my favorite baseball PC guy so this worked out nicely.
And now we're back to the original seller, which is where some of the confusion came in. I won a total of five other auctions of his where he was selling Hill 1/1s from 2008 Triple Threads, each setting me back from about $20-$25. While I thought I had a handle on all of the versions I was dead wrong. At least I was able to identify this one as the Platinum parallel of the variation of his appearance (you can tell by the "CHC" pattern instead of three stars), which looks similar to the base versions but includes holographic foil and a 1/1 stamp up front. So far, so good.
In the meantime he also posted these White Whales one at a time, and with a couple already in hand I got excited at the prospect of owning all of them. My puzzlement started when he put a second "MLB" patterned card up. I thought there was only one White Whale per version? Also, there was a new pattern, the one with the sport's logo, not used on the regular cards. How many of these were made?!
I'm currently awaiting some help from someone else on the Blowout Cards Forums who collected some of these but the consensus seems to be that all four plate colors exist for each White Whale, which is not how they're currently cataloged on TCDB or Beckett's OPG. Until I can get all the versions of the White Whales I have cleared up I'm not officially adding these four to my count just yet, but I'm looking forward to getting an accurate checklist and chasing the rest. In the meantime it was a coup to add so many high-end Hills!
Again, thanks to all of you who've stuck around for 1,000 posts. #1,001 tomorrow will be the usual Saturday Michigan Gameday post, and then I'll either return to Sportlots pickups or do a quick write-up of the monthly show I hit today, all as I slowly march to my next 1,000 posts. Have a great weekend, everyone!
