2018 COMC purchases: ten out of ten

I've been on another self-imposed blogging hiatus, once again spending most of my card time on TCDB as I try to upload my collection, list trade bait, and contribute to the database by uploading scans, correcting checklists, and handle some inaccuracy reports.  It really is addictive!

But today I'm finally making it a point to set aside a bit of time to post the last of my 2018 baseball acquisitions.  These 10 new entries came from COMC, mostly around the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, if I recall correctly.  I have a lot more to post on TMM eventually--Michigan Football loot, natch--but at least today I can finally put these away.  Enjoy!

Former A's prospect Jason Christian starts things off with a beautiful Red Refractor parallel of his 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects base.  This one set me back $10, is numbered 2/5, and is tied with one of the two cards I'm missing in Christian's PC for fewest copies (2009 Donruss EEE Signature Status Gold).  The other is the final card in this rainbow, a Gold Refractor /50.  Both can be had if I'm willing to pay!

#2 is another Bowman Chrome Refractor, this time of Tampa IF prospect Jake Cronenworth, who continues to fight an uphill battle for a spot in the bigs.  Not even $0.50 was enough to score me this Black Wave Asia parallel, my 11th of Jake, all of which are from his 2015 Bowman Draft/Chrome rainbow.  That leaves eight to go.

The final player in this row is one of two new PCs I'm introducing today.  Fritz Fisher is a former Wolverine lefty who signed with the Tigers and appeared in just one Major League game, somehow striking out Harmon Killebrew in his 1/3+ inning of relief.  Gladding was the much more successful pitcher on this multiplayer RC from 1964 Topps.  Fritz's other card came out in the same set two years later, another duet, this time with the more well known John Hiller.

Here's a fun mix of new(ish) and old!  I think I've professed my love for Pacific's Paramount Fielder's Choice cards before, and here's another chance to sing their praises.  The one you see above stars none other than Mr. Padre Tony Gwynn, one of my favorite PCs.  There's a good number of 90s-adjacent inserts I'm chasing of Gwynn and his big four PC cohorts--Griffey, Maddux, and Ripken--and the super cool Fielder's Choice cards are part of that.

Dick LeMay is today's other new PC guy, also of the vintage variety.  The former Michigan pitcher signed with San Fran in 1958 and appeared in 45 games with the Giants and Cubs between 1961 and '63, the sum of his career.  Above you're seeing his '62 Topps RC, leaving me short just his base from the follow-up Topps set.  Yep, another two-card PC!

Card #3 in this bunch had me plenty excited, even if I have a lot like it.  I've managed to complete Zach Putnam's 2008 Razor Letterman base and #d /20 nameplates (check 'em out here) so all I can chase now are the rarer /5s and 1/1s.  This "N" is just the second letter of the six letters (I have the same number of 1/1s!) in the /5 group (I also own a "T") and is #1/5.  After a roughly two-month break from buying on the site starting last June, I may it my first purchase of this shipment on August 1 for $12, and if I can get the other four letters for about that I'll be thrilled.

The last "regular" cards of this post start with a 2017 Topps Update Gold parallel (#0245/2017) of new Blue Jays hurler Clayton Richard.  It's just the third I've got of his rainbow (including the Mini versions) to go along with a base and Rainbow Foil.  The 2017-19 spots on my PC checklists need lots of work!

And then there's a bit of player wantlist help in the form of card #8 out of Flair's 1995 Ripken insert.  I need cards 1, 3, and 5 and then will be able to show off another completed insert set devoted to the Iron Man!

The oddest item of the ten is my second 2009 Topps Heritage Ad Panel box-topper featuring ex-closer J.J. Putz.  It's hard to find a good checklist of these, but I believe I've figured out that Putz appears on three in total:  this one, the one I have that includes Braden Looper and Freese again, and a last one I'm still working on finding with Uribe and Alfonso or Rafael Soriano.  $2.40 wasn't an unreasonable price to pay for one of these in my opinion.

And at last we come to the final card and one of my favorite pickups of this latest shipment.  Thanks to many vintage stars appearing in modern releases it's easier than ever to find them on affordable plates and 1/1s, and that's exactly what I did here with Michigan and MLB legend George Sisler.  Surprisingly it took all of $8 to land one of the better cards in my collection of Gorgeous Georges, a Cyan plate from 2014 Panini Hall of Fame.  While I have a couple cards of him from the other subsets or inserts I didn't have this one.  Hey, a plate's as good a place to start as any!  (By the way, this is 1/1 #115 in my collection!)

Stay tuned for lots of great football stuff from COMC on TMM eventually while I figure out what I'll be posting here next.  With any luck it may be a second card show report for the month!

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!

2018 Sportlots purchases: I just want to love you Madd-ly

The end is so close I can taste it--one post left for each blog in this latest Sportlots series after the one you're reading right now, and two more days left in February.

In that spirit let's have a look at some new cards that site is responsible for adding to my Greg Maddux PC:

Mid-90s inserts from Select and Ultra hail Maddux as a strikeout artist, which he was while never being a flamethrower or leading the league in the stat (he only even broke 200+ once).  That '95 UC3 card dead center is a good reminder that Chicks Dig the Longball.  The bottom right corner includes three Certified cards (Select and Pinnacle) from '96 and '97 in all their mirror finish glory.  And Greg looks like an ace on my favorite SP base design, released in 1996.  Once I get caught up with purchases I'll likely put together a series on my favorite year of each product I like.  Non-purchase content FTW!

Topps' Gallery could be a product that could be difficult to narrow to just one, though here I prefer the '97 offering to the subset from 1999 seen on card #8 (though the regular '99 design is fantastic).  Collector's Choice's Stick'Ums seems to be quite popular among bloggers that were collecting back in '97 and I don't blame them!  I'm guessing Pinnacle Inside's 1998 Stand-Up Guys isn't too unfamiliar to most of you, and here you see half of one of Greg's appearances on a card he shares with fellow aces Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, and Hideo Nomo.  The other includes both Jones guys--Andruw and Chipper--and Javy Lopez.  Some very nice base designs from '98 Ultra, '99 Black Diamond, and 2000 Pacific fit in nicely while '99 SPx has always been a bit of an outlier, kind of like a non-numbered version of the previous year's SPx Finite with that big old gold stamp.

SPx's 2000 version is another natural choice for me when it comes time to do that favorites list.  A blast of blue from that year's Ultimate Victory looks fantastic, and 2001 Leaf Certified Materials completes a shiny trifecta in the top row.  Another trio of UD brands forms in the middle with 2001 Sweet Spot and Gold Glove and '02 Ovation.  The first two feature very nice designs while the latter is very easy on the eyes thanks to the combination of colors from the pairing of the stadium scene and sky border.  A couple Donruss brands and a one-and-done Fleer offering--Rookies and Greats--from 2003 round out this group.

This last scan is dominated by Upper Deck, producer of five of the eight cards you see here.  Classic Portraits (2003) was an interesting if brief experiment.  I'd argue that Sweet Spot didn't look nearly as nice as that '01 version in terms of the 2004-05 versions (cards #2 and 5, respectively), though I still appreciate the product's cool autographs.  I'm glad Diamond Kings spawned a whole set of their own like the one seen above from 2005.  Flair Showcase looked especially nice in 2006 and I believe a throwback to this design has been used in other sports lately.  Lastly, the horizontal cards are a tale of two UD products 20 years apart:  a 1992 Team MVP hologram insert and 2002's Piece of History, a fun set I broke back in the day.

That's 35 new Maddux cards for me and he seems to be one of the few guys that didn't hit a new milestone marker this series.  Still, it was a very productive purchase for his PC which now stands at a solid 643 with more surely to come soon.  After all, there is a card show this weekend....

Stay tuned here and over on TMM in the next couple days for the final posts in this series, after which I'll get to COMC pickups from late last year, then likely other stuff such as show purchases and maybe even a surprise large pickup!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Gwynning streak

I don't know if I'll get two more posts on each blog for this series done by the end of Thursday (to be done by the end of February) but at least I can say I'll have gotten two up this evening!  One of those is another RB special over on TMM and you can find the other right here.

The star of today's post is Mr. Padre, the second of my four big non-Tigers/Wolverines PCs, so let's check out some new Tony Gwynn cardboard:

We'll start with quite the range in years here:  1992-98.  Leaf's shoulda/coulda/woulda Black Gold parallel from '92, the one that should have been the base design, is a fun way to lead things off.  Then we go super shiny with Pinnacle's '94 the Naturals boxed set that was totally on-brand back then.  Sportflix's UC3 product from 1995 was redundant, plus the regular version was much better, yet the two you see above, including a Cyclone Squad insert, are still interesting relics of the time.  Everything else is fairly standard base card fare from 1995-98, though I always love seeing that Ultra design!

I'd say things get a bit more interesting here as we move on to 1999-2001.  The base cards are from shiny and/or interesting products like Finest, Bowman's Best, Ultimate Victory, Absolute Memorabilia, and the underrated Upper Deck Gold Glove.  2000 Bowman's Best is one of my favorites in that product's run, other than the fact that they're already Refractor-ized.  A trio of Upper Deck inserts from 2000 make me fondly remember ripping some of those products back then.

Scan #3 is where class meets flash.  I was excited to land a mix of UD's Sweet Spot and SP Legendary Cuts issues along with an '06 Greats of the Game base.  Each of those look amazing and offer a nice variety of design.  Compare those to 2005 Leaf Certified Materials and the first bunch of horizontal cards, ranging from '93-'06, and bask in the fun of the variety we used to enjoy.  I think the Upper Deck Diamond Gallery hologram card from '93 is a particular highlight here, and the type of card I bet used to draw in younger collectors at the time.  Pinnacle's 1996 Aficionado is a pretty solid mix of style and substance, though.

And at last we reach the end with a few more horizontals.  While I have the '97 Bronze Coin from Pinnacle Mint I'll have to track down the '98 version to go with the die-cut base card above.  I also came up with both versions of Tony's 1999 Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes cards, and while I'm not sure why Pacific made multiple versions for each player I'm glad they're at least easy to tell apart.  The back of his 2000 UD Statitude insert notes that he compiled a career-high 220 hits in 1997 before picking up #3000 in 1999.  And I'm happy to end on a high note with one more classy offering from 2005 SP Legendary Cuts, another beautiful example of the quality that product brought year after year.

That all amounts to a very solid 33 new Gwynns for a new PC total of 629, making him another player to cross off a milestone during this series.

Stay tuned for two more posts in this series before I finally get to some very nice COMC loot!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Griffey goodness

It's time for another Sportlots catch-up post!  Let's delve into some cards from one of game's legends:  Ken Griffey Jr.:

Mid-90s-to-mid-aughts collectors represent!  Everything you see here today will fall into that span, a.k.a. my wheelhouse.  The golden age of cardboard creativity today brings us cards from three Fleer brands (plus Update, to be picky), three more from Topps, and a pair courtesy of UD.

The '94 Ultra set was my favorite of Fleer's early foray into premium cards, until the '97 set kicked it up a notch.  That '95 SP base is almost iconic for me when thinking about collecting back then.  I'll always be a fan of the matte Fleer cards from '96 and '97 such as this flagship/Update pair from the former.  Fleer's SI is a brand I continue to admire a couple decades later, especially the magazine cover issues.  And while Topps' '98 version of Finest wasn't my favorite it's still a good reminder of what they could make when they put effort into it.

In this next scan the cards narrow down to a three-year period:  1998-2000.  The Pacific Home Run Heroes insert isn't terribly attractive but it serves as a cool reminder of Griffey's amazing 1998 campaign in which he clubbed 56 homers for the second straight season.  As a matter of fact, many of his counting stats were quite similar to his MVP year in '97, though that season's bWAR was noticeably better than the follow-up.  While we're on the subject SI makes a second appearance while covering those same '97 numbers.

Meanwhile, '99 Bowman's Best had what I thought was a second straight off-year in terms of design, but fortunately the 2000 version, for which I have two examples here, was a return to form.  Finest's effort in 1999 was a similar improvement in my mind.  And since we're talking higher-end Topps products you shouldn't be too surprised that I went back to the Gallery well, in this case 1999's offering, as it always was one of the manufacturer's best products.  And speaking of the base, this scan closes out with my favorite SPx design, the one used on the 2000 set.

In today's last scan first we'll handle some unfinished business:  the year 2000.  That trio you see up top hails from that year's Topps flagship product (back when I enjoyed it), including one of the base set's subset variations (my fourth) and a couple inserts.  UD's Classic Portraits from 2003 was an interesting idea that possibly could have lasted had it done a better job of executing its theme in the design.  2007 Ultra brings another great look at Junior's trademark finish after that sweet swing of his.  And then we finish up with one horizontal card: a checklist from UD's one-and-done Collector's Choice SE from '95.

This fun bunch gets my Griffey PC to a new total of 797 with another exciting milestone within sniffing distance.  I'll work on hitting that soon, but next time it'll be back to the drawing board with Sportlots cards of another major PC guy!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Febru-Barry Larkins

Well what do you know?  Not posting for a while hasn't decreased the piles of cards I need to show off in posts!  That includes one over on TMM this afternoon, by the way.

Let's celebrate my first post of February with a guy whose first name rhymes with the month:  Barry Larkin!

We're starting all the way back in '92 with the second of Barry's Topps Gold parallels, this one a UER as the team in the bottom right corner says "Astros", an error that was repeated, then corrected on the Gold Winners cards.  Then we get into a nice Donruss/Leaf/Pinnacle run with Limited, Signature, VXP 1.0, and Mint cards from 1996-98, plus a super cool die-cut Lasting Memories insert from the last year in that run--a card I was surprised to land for so cheap on Sportlots.  Glove stories are the focus of the last two in this scan:  UD-branded cards from 2001 out of Reserve and Gold Glove.  The latter is a set I may try to end up with one day.

Here's one more small group of verticals.  2002 Fleer's design takes away from an otherwise fantastic photo of Larkin turning two, and a bit of sleuthing makes me think that might be Preston Wilson of the Marlins making a cameo.  I finally added the "regular" 2004 Donruss Elite base after getting the Extra Edition version by accident a couple times.  That same year's Topps was near the end of my interest in that brand's products but still offered the rare fun insert like Hit Parade.  And of course I was all over grabbing another Stadium Club offering, this one from 2018, featuring a photo from much earlier in the HOFer's career.

As with videos in this age of HD (turn your cameras 90 degrees, idiots!), baseball action often lends itself to horizontally-oriented photos like these. I scored yet another UD-produced hologram card, in this case from '92, and added a pair of '94 Collector's Choice issues from the manufacturer's debut of that product as well.  Speaking of parallels a '95 Stadium Club Virtual Reality insert features another very cool action photo, if you can call laying around on the job "action".  One of Topps' more out-there products, D3, was made that same year, and I bet you can see why it was a one-and-done.  Pinnacle's Aficionado taught me the meaning of that Spanish word and had a very cool looking design I wish we could have seen more of.  Lastly, I scored one more insert on the cheap, 2001 Fleer Tradition Diamond Tributes, starring a guy who definitely deserved it.

And the last item I picked up is probably the oddest of the bunch, or at least definitely the largest:

That's both sides of a 1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos card from a boxed set UD produced that year.  Beckett's OPG says that most of the photography was done by the legendary Walter Iooss Jr., as in the guy that had his own insert set in the previous year's product.  Barry was indeed at the Midsummer Classic in '94 during a run that saw him selected in nine of 10 seasons.  His teammate Rijo was coming off a career-best 9.2 bWAR and did pretty well during the strike-shortened season.  As usual the Iooss photography is excellent and this is a fun piece to add.

Larkin's haul continues to cement him near the top of my PCs at 745 cards, behind only Ripken and Griffey, a couple guys you'll see in upcoming posts.  But first I'll be giving you a look at what I picked up at this month's card show!

2018 Sportlots purchases: PC predators

I just received my first trade package of the year but that'll wait for another day as I already had a draft of today's post ready to go.  This evening we'll be ditching the vintage stuff (mostly) and perusing some cards from my Tigers and Michigan Baseball player collections that didn't warrant individual posts because I just found a few of each.  New cardboard:  GO!

One scan, three former Tigers greats.  Gibby gets three new additions thanks to '95 SP's Silver parallel (which is listed on TCDB as "Superbafoil" for some reason) and a couple 2001 Topps versions:  Chrome and Home Team Advantage.  A high-flyin' Tram doubles up Mark McGwire on '92 Leaf's Black Gold parallel, a.k.a. "What '92 Leaf's Base Set Design Should Have Been" (sorry if I say that every time) and he joins Gibson in the '95 SP parallel set.  Last up is a great 2017 Verlander pair:  Diamond Kings and Stadium Club.

And on to the Wolverines.  Jim Abbott is one of two players that hit the four-card mark today.  A '92 Seven-Eleven hologram coin is the most unique item I added of him this time, his '95 Finest base (White Sox version, #233) is the highest end, the Pinnacle Museum Collection from the same year is my favorite, and the Circa card from '96 wasn't a bad throw-in.

As for the single-card guys, we'll begin with Astros pitching prospect Brett Adcock, whose collection doubled thanks to that 2016 Bowman Chrome Draft base you see dead center.  My non-supercollection of superagent Casey Close (no Major League cards to chase) got a little boost to seven items thanks to a 1990 minor league issue.  It's been a long time since I rock & rolled and added a new Freehan item to one of my favorite Tigers/Wolverines PCs, but here you can peep the Tigers great on his '66 O-Pee-Chee card, one that's surely seen better days.  I still lack three checklist cards for pitcher Scott Kamieniecki but did track down another of his minors cards from '89.  And Elliot (not "Elliot") Maddox's completed PC grew by one with his appearance from 1990 Swell Baseball Greats.

Hal Morris is another PC guy who got a card knocked off of his checklist thanks to that '96 Collector's Choice Silver Signature you see leading off this scan.  But new Blue Jay Clayton Richard had the most productive day in terms of new adds with four Topps-branded cards from 2018:  Flagship, Big League and its Gold parallel, and Heritage.  I wonder if he'll get a card with Toronto this year or if Topps will ignore him in favor of a 13th Aaron Judge subset.  As for Leon Roberts, I completed his checklist a while ago but lately have had some luck finding Senior League cards of his, this one from Pacific.

And here's a nice bunch of players to close out the group today.  I still need plenty of help in terms of my Chris Sabo collection but this time I did score both a fun oddball, an '89 Fleer box panel card, plus a need, the Golden Rainbow parallel of his '94 Stadium Club card.  I also bumped up my George Sisler PC to 85 cards with a pair of decent Topps inserts from 2010-11.  100 cards here I come!

That leaves three more players.  I considered it too oddball to be part of his supercollection checklist but happily picked up pitcher Gary Wayne's 1993 Pacific Spanish issue, and now I'm showing it off about a week before his sorta namesake, the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, returns on Netflix's excellent Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt for its final season.  I managed not to get shut out when it came to my favorite PC, Rich Hill, thanks to his nice horizontal appearance from last year's flagship Topps product.  And finally, we travel all the way back to 2006 and Topps Chrome for a base issue I somehow didn't have:  a Gold Glove subset card starring former catcher and manager Mike Matheny.

That wraps up the collection of smaller additions to my PCs so look forward to bigger bunches of cards featuring some of your (and my) favorite stars, not to mention a brand spanking new trade package!

2018 Sportlots purchases: the (mostly) new guys

Here we are in the middle of January 19 and I still have lots of 2018 purchases to show off!  Get ready for a bunch of Sportlots posts as I catch up on those over the next week or two, both here and on TMM (there's even one of those already up this evening).

Today I'll be looking at a bunch of guys who are making their debut among my PCs, with the exception of two I added late last year.  These are all guys that I eventually found out were Michigan Baseball alumni and therefore started chasing.  If that's not interesting enough for you, well, you might like the fact that just about every card in this post is of the vintage variety.

We'll start off with pitcher Jim Burton.  A Rochester Hills, Michigan, native, Burton was originally drafted by Detroit in '67 but headed to Ann Arbor, then went to the Red Sox in the first round four years later.  Good choice.  He appeared in just 30 games over the 1975 and '77 seasons and was out of pro ball after spending 1978 in the Mets' system.  I was able to find both of his regular issues from OPC and Topps produced in 1976 so he's done as far as those are concerned, though I have a couple optional SSPC issues I can chase.

John Herrnstein was one of a number of multi-sport athletes to star for the Wolverines.  In his case football was a family affair, and he did quite well for the team as a FB and LB in the late 50s before a knee injury steered him towards the diamond full time.  He spent most of his five-year Major League career with the Phillies before being traded twice in 1966 (Cubs, then Braves), once as part of the deal that brought HOFer Fergie Jenkins to the Cubs.  You can see his final issue from 1966 Topps above, and he appeared in that set the three previous years as well.  It'll be tough to track down his first two and final two cards, though:  the former are multi-player RCs with Willie Stargell and Dick Allen and the latter are 2015 Topps Heritage Real One autographs!

Here comes a player to spur Jeff's interest:  a Wolverine/White Sox combo.  Pitcher Mike Joyce is a Detroit native from around the same time as Herrnstein that signed with the South-siders after his college career.  And like Burton he pitched in just 31 games over a couple seasons (1962-63).  Card-wise you can find him on his 1963 Topps RC, seen above, another from that brand the following year, then once again, a couple versions of Topps Heritage's Real One autos, this time out of the 2013 product.

Meanwhile, Frank Kostro actually debuted here last month when I found a buyback of the very card you see above, his '68 Topps base.  I have four others of his to track down, including a '63 Topps multi-player RC, though fortunately that won't be quite as expensive as Hernnstein's.

Catcher Tom Lundstedt is the player of interest here on the four-player RC you see from '74 Topps, though the Brewers' Charlie Moore definitely had the best career of the bunch.  Like Foote to his left, Lundstedt was a first round choice in 1970, selected by the Cubs.  The Iowa native saw his career fizzle out after spending 1973 and '74 on the North Side and 1975 with the Twins.  Like Burton above his cards are limited to OPC and Topps issues from the same year, 1974, so I'm a card away from completing his "run".

If Bob Reed's name sounds familiar that's because the Topps version of the 1970 OPC card you see up there was included in a Fuji trade package that made me realize there were way more Michigan guys for me to collect.  Yet another Wolverine/Tiger, he was a Detroit second-rounder in 1966 and would pitch in 24 games for the team between 1969 and '70.  Aside from the two 1970 cards I now own he also appears in both sets made the following year, and I plan to track those down before long.

Getting back to the newbies, Dick Wakefield, who can be seen on oddballs from '79 TCMA and '89 Score Rookies to Remember (the mini hologram) was apparently quite a character.  After just a year with the Wolverines he eventually signed with the Tigers (!) in 1941.  In the years before the draft you could garner a huge bonus if you were good enough, and Wakefield had plenty of interest, becoming a "bonus baby", a title bestowed upon others such as Sandy Koufax.  He got to play a bit that year, came back up in '43 with an excellent campaign, served in the military, and spent 1944 and 1946-49 with Detroit.  His wartime bet that he'd beat Ted Williams in multiple batting categories...didn't go well at all for him.  Three games each for the Yankees (1950) and Giants ('52) concluded his career.  I have an interesting challenge on my hands as I need to chase his 1949 RCs from Bowman and Leaf!

Here's the back of the hologram card in case you're interested.

This comprehensive post goes from "B" to "Z", as in pitcher Bill Zepp.  Another Detroit-born guy, Zepp didn't sign after he was taken by Boston in 1967 (7th round), plus Detroit failed to sign him in '66, and he landed with Minnesota the following year.  After pitching in just four contests in 1969 he went a solid 9-4 in 1970, then was included in a deal that found him in Detroit for the final 16 games of his career in '71.  As you can see above I landed his Topps base from that year, and once I buy his OPC version plus his '70 Topps three-player RC I'll own his run.

I hope you enjoyed this vintage-y look at a bunch of new baseball PCs I'm chasing, and I'll be back to more familiar territory soon so stay tuned!

2018 eBay purchases: last in, first out

No resolutions over here, just more collecting fun, but I may try to do a quick 2018 recap after skipping that the last year or so.

Nope, instead I'm posting my final purchase of 2018 despite the fact that I have lots of Sportlots and COMC loot to show off.  But why not?  It's just one card so this'll be an easy post!

My very last pickup last year was an eBay auction I won this past Saturday, the 29th, for $5.49 delivered, and it showed up in my mailbox today.  Proving once again that small things come in good packages, this is my first printing plate of former Yankees OF prospect Michael O'Neill, one of my many Michigan Baseball PC guys. 

Not to be confused with fellow prospect Mike O'Neill, the current Rangers farmhand is pictured here on a magenta plate from the 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini Complete Set product Topps put out that year.

(Here's the base version)

Each complete set guaranteed 30+ parallels of the colored Refractor variety plus the chance at 1/1s (plates and Superfractors) like the one you see above.  The scan you see is roughly the size of the plate (with both sides pictured as I like to do), and it appears to be the smallest such card in my collection, smaller even than a few of the Topps Mini versions I own.

Getting down to the numbers, it's 31st O'Neill card, my 114th 1/1, 356th Michigan Baseball hit, and 50th total baseball 1/1.  That's all pretty cool as far as I'm concerned!

Hopefully I'll finally be able to make some more headway on Michael's checklist this year, and I can at least tease that I have one other new card of his to show off before much longer.  Until then, Happy New Year to everyone that's stuck around and continues to follow!

12/1/18 card show report: Saturday shopping

This past Saturday's monthly show was a return to the norm for me in that the vast majority of what I picked up will be heading out in upcoming packages instead of going to my PC.  I mention that because the opposite was true last month.

Though I had more time on my hands than I did in November I think I stayed for around the same duration, meaning I was much more efficient.  Besides that I was quite happy with the results:  80 quarter cards, 12 that were $1 apiece or six for $5, and five $2 pickups.  For those of you that don't feel like doing the math that adds up to $40 and the seller, cool dude that he is, asked for $35.

So I was thrilled to add more nice fodder to my Christmas card packages that will be going out later this month.  I'll probably talk about those a bit more in a future post, but right now it looks like I'll be  getting something under the trees of around 20 of you, so stay tuned.

As for me, I've got four cards headed to my PCs to show off here and a lone addition over on TMM, so don't forget to check that out as well!

Here's that quartet for your viewing pleasure:

We'll start off with Gibby on an insert I was unfamiliar with:  Calling the Shots, a manager-centric set from a product I do know well, Panini's 2013 Hometown Heroes.  Kirk finished a bit under .500 over parts of five seasons managing Arizona, including a 94-68 record and playoff appearance in 2011 that earned him NL Manager of the Year honors.  Consecutive 81-81 finishes preceded a terrible 2014 that spelled the end of his career as a skipper, but it was still fun to see a former Tiger leading a team.

That card you see of Tony Gwynn is a base offering from Topps' 2014 Museum Collection, yet another of their high-end products geared toward breakers (though aren't they all at this point?).  I definitely wouldn't have wasted money buying it in any unopened form but do think the base set looks quite nice.  Still, give me the Pinnacle version of Museum Collection any day!

Frank Kostro is a brand new name here but he won't be unfamiliar for long as he's one of several Michigan Baseball alumni soon to join my collection after I scoured Baseball Reference to turn up such players I'd missed.  As a matter of fact, the Pennsylvania native has my favorite pedigree:  a Wolverine who debuted with the Tigers!  He spent most of his career, which spanned a good part of the 60s, with the Twins, and amassed five Topps/O-Pee-Chee cards I'm chasing.  The first addition to his PC, though, isn't part of that mainstream checklist, but is instead a 2017 Topps Heritage buyback of his '68 Topps base.  Normally I wouldn't throw a buck at a buyback like this, but I hold a higher opinion of the Heritage versions compared to the much less useful Million Card Giveaway and Rediscover Topps garbage.  Expect to see a bit more of Kostro in the future as I chase his cards.

Last up is the Iron Man on a relatively recent release.  While it doesn't hold a candle to the heyday of its original run, 2017's version of Topps Gold Label still looks quite nice.  A couple differences between this version and the originals:  it eschews the thicker card stock, and notes the version (in this case Class 1) up front instead of on the back, though that's difficult to see in this scan.  "Class 1" runs perpendicularly near the left edge, so it's very clear which variation this is.

For now I have nothing else in-hand to show off but within a few weeks I should have new items from COMC and Sportlots, plus news of Christmas Cards, so stay tuned!

11/3/18 card show report: a Topps heavy day of serial-numbered insanity

I had a great time as always at my usual monthly show in Taylor a couple Saturdays ago, though it was anything but the usual in many ways.  While I got good value for the little money I spent at my favorite dealer's table, I had to limit my time there a bit so I could get home to catch the start of the Michigan/Penn State game.  Also out of the ordinary is the fact that the vast majority of what I bought is staying with me instead of heading to trade packages.  And out of those I ended up with way more Topps stuff than I usually do, though you'll see why in a bit.  Finally, I didn't turn up anything for my Michigan PCs so you won't see a second post on TMM this evening.

As for the comfortingly familiar, though, I had a blast pulling stuff for my many PCs, landing 49 cards of six players.  In all I snagged 60 from his 5/$1 box and nine that were a dollar apiece, giving him $20 for the bunch.  Here's what I got:

First is a trio of the Grandyman.  The former namesake of this here blog stars on one of the $1 cards I picked up, a low-numbered 2008 Topps Moments and Milestones Blue parallel.  I know there's multiple versions of each card so it's not as rare as it looks, but it was still fun getting a favorite player of mine on something /10.  Meanwhile the $0.20 entries were a Rediscover Topps Gold buyback of his 2014 Topps base, plus a numbered offering from the short-lived original return of Stadium Club in 2008 (#318/999).

Sticking with the G-men, player #2 is Griffey on a nice pair.  My second dollar card is an excellent Dufex insert from 1998 Pinnacle called Spellbound, and this is the first of Ken's seven issues which spell his last name.  He's joined in that 50-card set by the likes of Ripken, Gwynn, Frank Thomas, and others, and I wouldn't mind finishing up a few of those names!

Joining that is one of his two appearances in Upper Deck's 2008 Masterpieces base set.  The product is one of the many reasons I miss UD nowadays because it continues to impress me even 10 years later.  I have yet to track down the SPed second Griffey card from this set, by the way.

Tony Gwynn was a winner today, just not the winner (more on that soon).  Here's eight of the 10 cards I found of Mr. Padre at this show.  The first five are from a 1999 Pacific Omega insert called Hit Machine 3000, a set honoring Gwynn eclipsing the magic milestone that season.  There are 21 cards each numbered to 3000 so I have almost a quarter of the set!  These were $1 a pop, a reasonable price in my opinion.

Rounding out the group is a trio of Upper Deck inserts.  Curtain Calls was a foil-heavy chase set from 1999 Ovation and it differs greatly from the baseball texture of the base design.  The next two come from 2000 Hitter's Club and are called Epic Performances (again noting Tony joining the 3000-hit mark) and Generations of Excellence (again again noting that feat, joined by Wade Boggs who did the same that year).

Gwynn's day ends with a lower-end insert from the kid-centric '98 Collector's Choice, a Mini Bobbing Heads card--and one of my favorite inserts, 2001 Fleer Platinum Classic Combinations.  The latter included multiple appearances for several players, and here Gwynn is paired up naturally with "The Man", Stan Musial, on a card numbered 1501/2000.  It was worth every penny of the buck I paid for it.

Gwynn's PC got a nice bump but nobody was going to touch Greg Maddux's staggering 30 new cards on the day, exactly half of what I took home!  You wouldn't know it by this group, but as I keep teasing, you'll see why in a minute.  The first five include '93 Triple Play's Diamond Kings-like Gallery insert, drawn as always by Dick Perez.  The final dollar card today is insert #2 from 1995 Sportflix's Double Take chase set, a very cool card that pairs Mad Dog with Jimmy Key, a guy who wasn't in Maddux's class overall but who was quite good, good enough to be the runner-up for the AL Cy Young in '94.

The other three are from the subsequent decade, starting with Upper Deck's 2000 Pros and Prospects Best in the Bigs.  "Pinpoint control" is a good way to describe the mound artist.  Similarly, Fleer considered the pitcher the Cream of the Crop in this 2003 Hot Prospects insert.  Lastly, one of two non-standard size Maddux cards you'll see today is a fold-out Ticket Studs card from Fleer's 2003 Authentix.  This ticket-like card noted Maddux would open the season against Montreal in 2003 and that it was likely he'd throw a "pitching masterpiece".  Oddly enough he gave up five runs (four earned) in a 10-2 loss, though he'd eventually recover to have another great season.

The biggest reason Maddux was the biggest winner today is a huge pile of 2008 Topps Moments and Milestone cards.  They may not be as rare as their numbering makes them look, but for $0.20 apiece I happily added 24 of them to his collection.  This scan includes cards highlighting his 20 wins and 199 strikeouts during his first of four straight Cy Young-winning seasons.

Next, this one moves on to the '93 award he won in his first year in Atlanta.  I found one card from the 20 commemorating his 20 wins plus 14 from the bunch made for each of his 197 strikeouts.

These last six are from that same group and include the one with the lowest serial number, 002.

That wasn't quite all, though, as I also found this 1998 Sports Illustrated Then and Now Great Shots mini poster, the other odd sized card of the HOFer (and one of three such posters I found that day).  It represents card #601 in his collection meaning I'm celebrating another PC guy hitting the 600-card mark!

Among the many, many Rediscover Topps buybacks I flipped through, mainly from 1988 and '89 (what a surprise) was one other PC guy to join Granderson:  former Michigan pitcher Steve Ontiveros on his '88 Topps base.  I was glad to be able to add something new like this to one of my few PCs for which I've completed the regular checklist.  As with Granderson's card it appears to be the Gold version, but it's much easier to tell in-hand rather than through a scan.

The last player in today's post is the fourth member of my non-Tigers PC quartet, Cal Ripken Jr.  Only one of the three items I found of him in the $0.20 box was a regular sized card, a Class 2 version of his 2001 Topps Gold Label base.  If you're a fan of this design like I am make sure you check out Chris' group break over at Nachos Grande!

You'll remember I mentioned in Maddux's section that I found two other 1998 Sports Illustrated mini posters and these are them.  The second is from the same Great Shots insert set as his while the first is from the original Sports Illustrated product's Opening Day Mini Posters.  That one has Cal representing his Orioles on a fun collectible that doubled as a team schedule for the season.

Getting all of this and a few other things for a measly $20 meant yet another successful show for me as we head towards the end of the year.  Barring anything unforeseen I should be making it back to this show in December and padding my other purchases with big orders from Sportlots and COMC.  Thanks to Black Friday I should be doing a bunch of spending on the latter leading to another round of Christmas cards just in time for the holiday season!