2016 Blowout Forums purchase: the Finest in all the land

I'll get back to trade packages shortly, but first I thought I'd show off one of my few BlowoutCards Forum purchases from late last year.

While viewing the box break section I noticed a guy was busting a case of 1997 Finest Series I baseball.  "Hey," I thought to myself, "I need a set of that to go with the one I have of Series II!"  I'd opened up a box of the latter years and years and years ago (and had a very good time doing so) and eventually completed that set, then left it by its lonesome for a long time.

I should note that when I say "complete" I'm referring just to the "Bronze" or "Common" cards, numbers 176-275; the Silvers were 1:4 packs and the Golds went 1:24, and I didn't feel bad ignoring them and just treating the Bronze cards as the base to get.

So that's where I was when I asked the box breaker if he had a Series I set (#s 1-100) available.  $15 and a few days later, one was in my mailbox:

Here's both series next to each other:

I thought I'd give everyone a quick look at the design of this very fun product that's coming up on its 20-year anniversary(!) by pulling out some cards of each "theme" while also showing what each back looks like as well:

"Masters" seems to focus on some of the biggest stars based on the bunch you see here.  I do end up making the player selection look a bit better than it is, though!

Here's the back of the Big Hurt's card, and you can see that it has its own number as well as its place within the Masters theme.  And the back also helpfully denotes it as a "common" or bronze version.

"Hurlers" is centered around pitchers, naturally, though I had to reach for Percival as a third star from the Series I bunch.  This design makes it much easier to identify a bronze card up front compared to the Masters, but pretty much every theme is a winner here.

I didn't pay attention to every back as I was flipping through these, but it sure seems like Pedro's card is one of the few with a horizontal back.

The names stay fairly intuitive as "Blue Chips" feature up-and-coming stars.  Of course, Topps couldn't produce A-Rod cards back then so he didn't represent the third member of this trio, but Renteria had a pretty nice career like the other two guys.  This is one of the least obvious designs in terms of noting the common theme.

Thankfully, Nomah didn't blow past his rookie status until '97, when he put up a great AL ROY season.  This "prospect projection" was right on.

You might think the "Power" theme focuses on power hitters, but that kind of felt like a stretch to me as I tried to grab three good players from the group.  Delgado certainly qualifies, but the other two--a solid enough hitter and one of the better guys at the dish--weren't really sluggers.  The lightning theme is pretty cool, though again these aren't obvious bronze cards.

I love the photo of a younger and slimmer Delgado here.  I don't recall him hitting a homer over the roof of old Tiger Stadium back in 1996, but I remember it being a big deal whenever a player did so.

"Warriors" is the final Series I group, and it kind of feels like a combination of the designs of Masters and Hurlers the more I look at it.  This bunch seems to comprise grizzled veterans such as the three HOFers I grabbed here.  Larkin is my only PC player out of the first series and I already had his card, but I certainly don't mind having another copy!

Barry's got some nice stats on the back, but one stat is conspicuously missing:  home runs!  Larkin socked a career-high 33 in '96 to go with 36 steals as the 30-30 club's first SS, as the back mentions.

I haven't ever done a summary of the Series II set since I finished it so long ago, so while I had everything out I added a few scans of those as well:

The Griffey and Ripken cards have long been in their PCs and are among my favorites.  I grabbed a scan of Cal's card to show one of the themes unique to Series II, "Competitors", plus former Tigers speed demon Brian Hunter in the "Acquisitions" subset.  As Griffey's card shows, Masters was a holdover, as were Blue Chips and Power.

Here's the back of Hunter's card, and the speeder OF went off for 74 steals in '97, fulfilling Topps' promise here.

And Ripken's back.  This is a great shot of him in the field, even if the placement of the text near his shoes makes it hard to read.  The stitching pattern on the front is matched on the back in a nice touch.

It's fun getting to show off the occasional complete set like this as I've largely gotten away from collecting them since I almost never bust boxes anymore.  Sometimes you can't beat letting someone else put one together for you!  Maybe this will spur me to go after a few other half-done products in my collection.

2016 Blowout Forums purchase: High(-end) (twenty)five!

To say my card purchasing has diminished this year would be an understatement--I finally crossed the $1000 mark this month, putting me on pace to spend half as much as I did in 2015--or less!  That doesn't mean I haven't been able to score some fun pickups, though.

For instance, I recently made a relatively rare deal on the Blowoutcards forums--just the second such purchase I've made this year.  A Tigers collector decided to trim some of the fat from his collection by offering up a pretty nice Detroit lot.  Thing is, I already had a few of the cards he listed, plus there were others I didn't really care for.  So for the hell of it I asked him about the two I was hoping to get.  $33 delivered later I had a very nice envelope on the way.  And for what you could consider two cards for $15 each (plus $3 shipping), I'd argue that I did very well!

(Better yet, that seller noticed I was a Wolverines collector and tossed in a great surprise freebie!  Check that out over on TMM this evening.)

Have a look at what I got and decide for yourselves:

Al Kaline 2016 Immaculate Collection Immaculate Marks Red auto (#14/25)

An autograph of Mr. Tiger is a win; a Kaline signature numbered out of just 25 is a coup!  This is a beautifully executed autograph out of this year's Panini Immaculate product, and it's both super high-end and super thick.  Not only did Panini do a nice job of selecting a photo that minimizes the impact of the lack of logos--they paired that with a gorgeous on-card signature in all its bold blue Sharpie glory.  I like when card designs allow for a clearly-defined space for the 'graph, so I'd say Panini nailed it here.

I'm happy to say that I now own five total autographs of this legendary Tiger, and I sure wouldn't mind adding more before the end of 2016!

Justin Verlander 2007 SP Authentic By the Letter Signatures 'R' manupatch auto (#4a) (#09/25)

MOAR VERLANDERS!  I don't think there's such a thing as a bad JV autograph, but there sure are some nice ones, like this fun example of a letter patch/auto.  Without a doubt I'd crown Upper Deck as the champion of that genre, though Panini's done some nice ones as well.  The foil around the outside looks great in-person, the manupatch is executed well, and there's plenty of room for a solid signature.  I don't know how much I can expect to try to finish this nameplate, but it does give me hope that I was able to find this card for as reasonable of a price as I did.

I now count 228 Verlanders, 17 of which are hits, with four of those being of the autographed variety.

There's nothing like padding your favorite team's collection with stars from "A" to "V"!

Take the A-Tram!

I haven't made a ton of purchase over on Blowout this year, but I did recently pick up some cards I'm pretty excited about from a seller there, and I'm showing off one of them today.

I noticed a guy with a sale thread and he had a number of cards I was interested in.  For most of them the price just wasn't right, but I scored a pair I really wanted for $20 delivered.  One is a Chris Getz you'll see over on the sister blog soon, and the other one is this, which I think will make some of my fellow Tigers fans drool:

Alan Trammell 2004 Topps Retired Signature auto

Wow.  Just wow.  I don't know what it is about the Retired Signature autos I like so much.  That they're encased an "uncirculated" is a bit of a gimmick, but nothing that's really ever swayed me either way.  So I have to assume it's something about the design.  Seeing some of my older favorites on a modern Chrome-style design to go along with a sweet signature does have its perks, and I really like how Topps went with black borders for this set.  Black is a color that just doesn't work with base cards because it makes it so much easier to spot defects, but on a chrome card it can actually enhance things.

So here you have it, my seventh Trammell hit and third autograph, which is easily my favorite and will be very difficult to top, though that's a challenge I'm definitely up to!  I hope to add more high quality Tram autos like this, not to mention other Tigers mainstays, so I'll be on the lookout for more like this soon.

2013 Bowman baseball, completed Homer Simpson-style

As in,

Although I don't scan the Blowout Buy/Sell/Trade boards as much anymore as they've gotten junkier (and worse with spelling and grammar, YEESH), I happened to check it out the other day and saw a guy selling a bunch of complete 2013 Bowman baseball sets--#s 1-220 for the base and Prospects 1-110--for just $9 delivered, which, by then, he'd lowered to just $8.  That was good enough for me so I jumped on it, then came home today to find a USPS medium flat-rate box sitting on my porch.  That's right, he'd spent more than $9 to ship me a set I gave him $8 (minus Paypal's cut) for.  Still, I'd lean on the side of generosity and not stupidity here--it's pretty obvious he's a box-breaker since he used a bunch of 2012 Bowman base to pad the box--and just smile and enjoy the set.  Before I show off the goods I figure I'll link y'all to it in case you want one of your own, which you can get from this thread here.

All right, we'll start with the most relevant cards to this blog, the Tigers from the base set:

That's definitely a fantastic group, I'm just surprised they didn't include Verlander, but it's fine.  Garcia was one of the "RCs" you'll see more of in a minute, but since he's pictured as a Tiger I'll include him here.  If Jose Iglesias had a card I would have included him too.

Detroit also had four guys in the Prospects set:

The Rondon is the base version of the parallel I just got from GSNHoF.  Castro is an up-and-coming 2B, which is good since Infante won't be around forever.  I have to admit I know nothing about Moya.  As for Thompson, I got to see him in-person, as well as Castro, when I took in a Lansing Lugnuts game vs. the teammates' West Michigan Whitecaps (he wasn't all that great).

Before I get to the rest of the stuff to show off, here's a couple card backs:

This is Torii Hunter's from the base set.  As often happens with Bowman, yearly stats are replaced by more info about the player, which seems reasonable enough.

And here's Rondon's back from the Prospects set, where the extra analysis becomes more useful.  Not a bad look overall, I think.

To close things out, I thought I'd show all of the base set's "RCs" and a few higher profile Prospects.  I always have to put "RC" in quotes these days because the term has become meaningless for reasons I've beat into the ground.  Anyway, I counted 24, including Garcia's card above, and I filled out the last scan with a few top prospects many of you may already know.

 

 

Twins fans are surely geeked to have one of the game's consensus rising stars in Buxton.  Giolito was the Nats' first-rounder last year.  Schoop isn't as high-profile but has an awesome name.  And Correa was the #1 overall pick last year for a team that might have a few of those in a row.  But hey, Sam, at least they included an Astro!  (By the way, Jose Altuve's in the base set).

So while I'm no prospector (good luck making ANY money off Topps' crap anyway!) I'm happy to have landed my first 2013 set for just $8.  By the way, if anyone needs some 2012 base cards for their set, please let me know, and I'll be including some of those in future trade packages to get rid of them.

Stay tuned for another exciting TMV/TMM trade package this week!

Attention Allen & Ginter hobby box busters: check your lids

I'm no fan of this set, or Gypsy Queen, which is the same difference as far as I'm concerned, but since so many of you are busting hobby boxes of A&G right now, I wanted to alert you to a thread I caught on Blowout that's relevant to your interests.

Apparently, rippers extraordinaire brentandbecca noticed something while bulldozing through a ridiculous 384 boxes:  three of the box LIDS contained rare 1/1 cards.  The good:  this is a very cool, unexpected bonus for you die-hards that bust boxes of the stuff every year.  The bad:  nobody seemed to have been aware of this, and a number of these cards may come out damaged, if not entirely thrown out with the bathwater, as it were, by collectors who tear into their newest obsession.

I lean on the positive side, although I think Topps could have done a bit more to prevent damage by unsuspecting box-rippers.  Those of you who've opened one or more hobby boxes should definitely check them for these cards if you haven't already.

That magazine with the made-up prices and delusional editor has more details on the story here.  Much better hobby news source the Cardboard Connection also has more on the news.  Good luck to you collectors, and well wishes to all the Gint-a-Cuffs participants this year!

A PWE from CB, a BA Benny teaser, and @floppscards

CynicalBuddha's PWE is anything but plain:

I received a couple card-related items in my mail yesterday, and the more manageable of the two (more in a moment) came from Mark/CynicalBuddha of Collector's Crack.  Apparently he was fairly pleased with the package I sent his way recently, so he decided to send me a few more Tigers, not that he needed to do so after our last trade.  Still, it was a nice PWE surprise on an otherwise dreary Monday:

I think at this point everyone in the civilized world knows these are the Gold and Emerald parallels from 2013 Topps.  While Delmon is now part of the group of players traditionally called "former Tigers," his exploits last fall were enough to sway me to hold onto his Detroit cards. (At least until I forget why I'm keeping him and send them to someone else!)  So in short, this was a perfect kind of PWE trade to open up after the first work day of the week.  Thanks, Mark!  I definitely look forward to more trading in the future.

BA Benny tradesplosion preview!:

While he's not back among the land of bloggers (or, I guess, Blogoland, since that's one of his favorite terms), Mike from BA Benny's Stuff and Junk sent me a trade package that I've been looking forward to for a while--not that I don't understand why he just got around to sending it considering the 1980s Hollywood cocaine party's worth of snow and assorted bad weather that got dumped on his state.  As always, he made it worth the wait, and while it'll take me a while to get everything scanned and posted (I don't even know where to begin right now!) I wanted to at least give you guys a teaser of what's upcoming:

Medium flat-rate box = SCORE!

Three boxes, a boxed set, wrapped-up stuff, cardboard-protected stuff, and MegaBarry

THAT'S A LOTTA NUTS CARDS!

So, yeah, that should be a lot of fun!  Stay tuned for what I'm betting will be a series of posts about one of my largest trade packages ever from my #1 favorite trader ever.

More like...FLOPPS trading cards--oh wait...:

I don't know how I missed this up until now, but someone made what just may be a parody of Topps' Twitter account.  See, based on what's being said, it's not completely out of the question that @floppscards is the new official mouthpiece for the dictatorial card company.  I mean, they're certainly consistent with Topps' messages to and sentiments towards collectors:

Spooky.  Anyway, the whole reason I found out about this account was reading Blowout's boards as usual.  Oh sure, there's multiple threads a day about the impossibility of getting through to customer service at Topps (and, to be fair, Panini).  Still, some collectors had found a reasonable method of resolving their cases of missing hits, long overdue redemptions and the like:  tweeting at Topps' support account, @toppssupport.  Some chose to directly message Topps there while others, usually with more success, made their requests public, so that at least in theory, Topps' hand would be forced.

Well, a Blowout member noticed today that the @toppssupport account has gone the way of Topps Total, leaving lots of collectors in the lurch.  While it's possible something will step up to take its place by the time you read this, or not long after, this is a second black eye on Topps face when it comes to customer service. I'm pretty sure that means they've run out of eyes.  The company already does a horrible job of packing out its products, considering the multitude of reports of missing hits, and it appears as though they insert redemption cards as a practical joke on consumers as they fail to fulfill those in a timely fashion, if ever.  More recently, they've also taken a reputation hit after completely messing the Turkey Red distribution to disappointed buyers.  Still, at least people had the recourse of working with someone through @toppssupport instead of dealing with the most common experience I've heard so far:  trying to call, getting stuck on hold for a half hour or more, then either leaving a message that's never responded to, or failing to leave a message because that box is already full of other collector complaints about Topps' shitty QA.

So considering the fact that Topps has killed the most effective means of customer support while keeping the propaganda machine humming along, is it so far-fetched to believe that @floppscards is simply a misspelled official Topps account?

2012-->2013, part 2: money money money mooooney...MOOOONEY!

Yesterday I covered my 2012 and 2013 resolutions, then promised that I would return today to talk about the financial aspects of my collecting habit, both last year and going forward.

After June I posted a mid-year look at my spending and selling, and I'm proud to report that I stayed disciplined enough that I continued to record every purchase (and sale), no matter how tempting it might have seemed not to do so.  That would have been a massive waste of time, though, and there really was no point in not keeping an accurate running total so I could keep my spending reasonable.  Also, I've maintained that I try to be reasonably transparent with my spending on my blogs, and I feel that I've lived up to that.

So today, you get to see my net spending for an average (?) year in my collecting life, including how often I bought stuff, where I was most likely to purchase cards, how I did trying to sell, and maybe some other useful info.

Before I begin, a few notes:

• Anything I purchased with "house money" such as gift cards, eBay bucks, and even bottle returns (a gray area, yes, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want) didn't count towards my spending total, though if those only covered a part of a purchase, I prorated the price accordingly.
• Purchase totals for online sources include delivery costs.  Basically, I was good about reporting the full price paid every time I bought something.
• Purchase totals for retail include Michigan sales tax.
• Selling totals (I believe) don't take into account what I had to pay to ship those items; I felt like it would be more interesting to capture the total price of each sale, especially since shipping costs are pretty much implied when you sell over the Internet.
• I didn't track spending on packaging for and shipping of trade packages and giveaway items.  I think of trading as a zero-sum game (where everyone wins!) and while those costs are a necessary evil, I don't believe they merit meticulous tracking.
• I also didn't include the cost of any supplies I purchased for myself, such as boxes, sleeves and top-loaders.  While those purchases are related to what I spend on this hobby, I also don't feel they merit consideration when looking at yearly spending.

Ok, on with the show!  First up are some buying numbers and charts:

Let's get down to some stats, shall we?:

• Total spending:  $3,173.76
• Average monthly spending:  $264.48
• Most spent in one month:  March ($533.72)
• Least spent in one month:  December ($0!  I can't remember the last time I went this long without buying anything!)
• Largest individual purchase:  $300 for the "IPP" lot of Michigan Wolverines on March 30
• Source purchased from the most:  COMC, $1,463.55
• Source purchased from the least:  Group breaks, $24
• Average spending per source:  $396.72

COMC clearly ruled the roost here, accounting for nearly half my 2012 spending, and for good reason:  I love buying me some singles, and so far there hasn't been any other place that's been such a reasonable source for collecting my favorites.  Look for that to continue this year.

eBay was the next most useful, and I really did pick up some exciting stuff for my PCs this year, mainly in terms of the Michigan collections, but not entirely.  Similarly, my spending at card shows included zero dollars spent on boxes, with all of it going towards my baseball and Michigan PCs, trade bait, and autographed memorabilia.

While I don't have numbers for my 2011 spending, I can tell you for sure that I spent a LOT less on Blowout this year as those boards have kind of devolved in my opinion over the last few months.  No loss, though--there's always other places to spend my money!

That $300 in-person purchase, while costly, was most certainly a boon to my Michigan PC, especially because of the fact that I picked up both a good number of high-end stuff and a bunch of new players for the football collection.

The $200+ I spent on retail was my biggest regret of the year, but looking at that number gives me plenty of motivation to avoid the same mistake this year.  Meanwhile, I certainly don't regret joining Dimwit's group break, but as I explained yesterday, I don't see myself participating in any breaks this year.  I may, however, spend a bit more on a site like SportLots as I seek to complete a few more baseball and football sets.

Overall, I spent a good chunk of change, but I added so much useful stuff (and relatively little junk) to my PC that I can say without a doubt that it was worth it.

Next up, a look at how I did with some sales:

NOTE:  the eBay total above is $55.

And some stats:

• Total sales:  $769.75
• Average sales per month:  $64.15
• Most sold in one month:  July ($222.75)
• Least sold in one month:  as you can see, there's a bunch of zeros up there...
• Largest individual sale:  $200 for multiple lots on the Blowout forums.  Technically, I sold more in one day on COMC, but that included many individual sales along with one large port sale.  So for the purpose of this post, the Blowout lot wins it
• Smallest individual sale:  $0.50 for a 2001 Topps Chrome Adrian Gonzalez on COMC
• Source sold to the most:  COMC, $430.75
• Source sold to the least:  eBay, $55
• Average selling per source:  $256.58

I hadn't really planned to dabble too much in selling this year, but in the process of trying to get rid of unwanted stuff earlier in the year, I put up a bunch of lots over the course of a few days on Blowout and did fairly well.  Later, I finally jumped into COMC head-first and had a blast dumping some unwanted trade bait for some store credit, all of which I promptly spent (and plenty more!).  Finally, during my 2012 Topps Football frenzy I managed to sell a Drew Brees manupatch and Chris Houston 1/1 for a bit more cash.  The fact that I totaled more than $750 absolutely amazed me, and while I can't possibly hope to replicate those results this year (thanks to a dearth of cards to sell, really), that gave me a bit more spending room for the year, which you can tell I think I put to good use.

And lastly, but most importantly, a look at my net spending:

• Total spending - total sales = $3,173.76 - $769.75 = $2,404.01
• Net spending per month:  $200.33

See?  My $2,400 yearly budget I decided upon yesterday wasn't entirely pulled out of my ass!  Besides being an easily calculable $200 times 12 months, that's almost exactly what my net spending was last year, and I see no reason to change that considering the results I had.  The only difference between then and now, as I said, is that I probably won't get involved with selling much, if at all, this year, so look for the total spending number to decrease accordingly.  That's not a problem as far as I'm concerned:  I'm happy to work on getting better at scoring nice deals, plus that'll get me that much more motivated to attain my goal of 100 trades, which might have a bigger stake in terms of being a source of incoming cards for 2013.

Well, I hope this admittedly numerical analysis-heavy look at my 2012 spending was as interesting and informative for you as it was for me.  I'm thrilled to be able to find ways to improve so easily this year, and I'm already aware of how little effort it really takes to track my card spending, so you can be sure I'll be repeating that this year!  Here's to a more frugal but fruitful 2013!

Stan in the place where you blog (now face north)

As they sometimes do, a golden opportunity presented itself to me late last week:  a Blowout forums seller was listing an incredible card at a bargain basement price.  The catch:  it was slightly damaged--not in a major way that would seriously detract from the overall awesomeness of the card, but enough that the purists and grading-obsessed of the world would probably shy away.

I ended up being second in line, and I waited patiently to find out if the first deal would fall through.  Luck was a lady that afternoon, and $30 later I had one of the highest-end cards in my PC on the way to my mailbox.  Judge for yourselves if that $30 was wisely spent on a card that arrived in my mailbox this very afternoon:

Stan Musial 2004 Donruss Leather & Lumber Leathercuts auto (#84/96)

Um, wow.  And you only want $30 for this?  Are you sure?  So, the obvious flaw is the peeling going on starting from the middle of the front left edge.  The scan actually does a pretty good job of showing just how minor of a flaw it really is.  And whether you can get past that or not, let me reiterate that this is AN AUTOGRAPH OF A HOFer WHO WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME.  Yeah, I'm pretty excited.

This will simply fit in beautifully with my collection of baseball HOF autos (some are duplicated due to their showing up in multiple albums) and easily becomes one of the best cards in my collection period.  In terms of autographs, he's neck-and-neck with Willie Mays for best player, ahead of Juniors Ripken and Griffey and the Baltimore Robinsons, not to mention Warren Spahn and Tony Gwynn.

I'm still in shock because you just can't get a Musial autograph this cheap these days, and rightly so.  A member of the Hall of Fame class of 1969, he was a .331/.417/.559 hitter in 22 seasons, compiled an amazing 3,630 career hits and 475 HR, and won three MVPs and World Series rings.  Oh yeah, and every one of his Baseball-Reference Similarity Scores players is also in the Hall except noted cheater Rafael Palmerio.  For an entertaining read about his career and life, check out Stan Musial:  an American Life by George Vecsey.

Well, I can't imagine I'll be able to top this one for a while, but regardless, it's 100% awesome to have something like this appear out of the blue and jump right into my collection.  I hope each of you have had a similar experience, and if not, will soon.  You just never know what might show up in your mailbox tomorrow--maybe even The Man!

Stick a spork in 2012 Topps football

A couple months ago I set off in pursuit of 2012 Topps football and a few of its inserts.  Not long after that, a ridiculous trade with Colby plus a few Blowout forums trades culminated in my completing the base set.

Well, today I received the last two cards I needed for two of the three insert sets I was chasing (I already had the QB Rookie Reprints done) courtesy of a deal on Blowout, and so I'm celebrating the fact that I polished off every last bit of this project via trading (other than buying the packs, of course), which is a big accomplishment for me because I'm usually too hyper or lazy to do anything other than paying someone to finish sets for me.  This is a 100% trade-produced set and I'm very proud of that.  So here's the three insert sets in all their glory:

Paramount Pairs:

QB Immortals:

QB Rookie Reprints:

Stick a fork in 2012 Topps fooball

Well, that went a lot better than last year!  After the mixed results of my case of 2011 Topps football, I took until a couple weeks ago to finish my last base set from that product.  This year was a different story as I threw all my money at retail packs until I started pulling quintuplets and up, then proceeded with trades, and only trades, which is a diversion from my usual strategy of throwing money at people until they complete my sets.

By far the biggest help was Colbey and our recent largeish trade.  I had a blast putting together a set with a fellow collector, and better yet, doing it the way a real collector should--by trading with someone.

He knocked out more than half of the remainder of my list, allowing me to make just a few deals on Blowout to finish up the base set and get close on a couple inserts.  Here, then, is a quick look at the highlights of what arrived today:

Pictured are three of the QB Rookie Reprints I needed (and I should have the stragglers arriving soon), three of the QB Immortals I needed, and the base card I was most annoyed not to pull myself:  Tom Brady.  Brady was one of 48 base cards that ultimately closed the book on this set for me, which is nice if only because I won't be spending ANY more money on it.  Now I'm getting excited about finishing up the QB reprints since they look pretty cool.  Stay tuned her for when I do complete those insert sets as I'll likely show one or more of them off whenever I feel like it.  For now I'll be enjoying another completed project, one that's all the sweeter because it was accomplished through trading.