2020 eBay purchases: Who Framed Rich Hill?

Just another quick post today to cover my latest in-hand eBay purchase (I have one more on the way), this one from a week ago. I once again hit up my favorite seller, markaguirre22, and found that he had more of my Michigan PC guys listed. For a buck each and the usual 6% sales tax I nabbed this pair:

These are Rich Hill buyback minis from 2015 A&G, with the cards originally being found in the 2007 and '08 products. I didn't realize until I was scanning them that the '07 card I got is the A&G Back version, which is kind of cool. You all know I'm not really a fan of Ginter, but I do like framed cards--Silks especially--and of course I like to grab anything new for my Hill PC at the right price. I wouldn't have gone higher than $1 for these and I ended up ignoring a couple other former Wolverines he was selling, but $2 seemed reasonable. You can see I added scans of the original versions I own which are definitely yellower both in-hand and in their scans for whatever reason. That makes the ones I bought last week look more like reprints than buybacks, but I'm guessing these minis are just more prone to yellowing in both regards.

Anyway, it was nice adding a couple more Hill cards for cheap. Hopefully I can add to his collection again soon since he'll appear with the Twins in Topps Series II, which is out now. If you end up with any dupes during your own breaks please keep me in mind!

1/5/19 show report: lots of hits for two bits

If last Saturday's show is any indication, I'm gonna have another great year of pickups from my usual guy at Taylor Town Trade Center!  It was a nice day all around with the sun shining as I headed east and then spent a couple hours digging through quarter boxes.  Also, props to Tigers legend Willie Horton who was there signing autographs when apparently a gas leak caused an evacuation (after I left, I guess?).  Horton ended up continuing to sign for folks in the parking lot.  What a guy!  (HT to Paul for letting me know about this)

Anyway, my efforts once again paid off handsomely as I headed home with 175 total cards for $47.  170 of those were $0.25 per and the other five were a buck apiece.  Not much of a discount this time, but it all evens out.

I'd say the personal keepers vs. trade bait percentage was around 40%/60%, but regardless I ended up with a ton of new stuff to enjoy.  That includes a pair over on TMM this evening, plus this bevy of stars:

My take-home largely comprised the big guys, starting here with Junior Griffey.  This first bunch includes his '94 Finest base, a quartet of '97 inserts, and a shiny offering from 2000 UD.  I still remember pulling some of those Pitcher Perfect cards from packs of '97 Score!

Griffey part 2/3 here.  I guessed a bit when sorting these and got the years wrong because like Donruss/Leaf, UD didn't always use the actual year as the copyright date.  So you get to see, out of order, Ovation Curtain Calls inserts from 1999 and 2001, then a 2000 PowerDeck Magical Moments CD (no, I'm not gonna try to play it), and a cool Superior Sluggers insert from the 2003 flagship set.  Now that I'm looking at all of these and the next scan, I realize I grabbed a lot of UD stuff, but that makes sense since they made a ton of great inserts during their run while Topps mostly opted for boring stuff.

And the horizontals.  The SI Covers insert is my favorite here because I've always loved those, but four UD inserts spanning 1994-2000 and a 2000 Fleer Gamers subset aren't bad either.  Black Diamond was a favorite of mine one year, and we get another appearance by PowerDeck.

This little haul of Gwynns has me pretty close to a total of 600, which (spoiler) I'll be achieving soon thanks to Sportlots cards.  You'll also see a few more starring Gwynn in a later scan in this post.

A Diamond King and Sportflix insert from '95 have me pining for the good old days of the 90s, while there's plenty more cool chase cards like 2000 Fleer Gamers' Change the Game and '99 Pacific's Team Checklists.  Pacific sure knew how to make checklists anything but boring.

By the way, that '96 Circa Access insert was new to me, and I had fun scanning all facets of the booklet-like card:

He's right, too--I bet Tony would have hit .400 given the chance in '94.

I went three-for-four on the Larkins I pulled out of these boxes so a certain Jeff will be getting the dupe of the group in a future trade package.  As for me, I scored a pretty interesting mix, including a 1994 Score Dream Team Sample (samples are fun!), a Century Stars insert from 2004 Throwback Threads (#d /1500...for a quarter!), and an example of one of my favorite chase cards, Select's 1996 Team Nucleus.  These acetate cards look badass and the trios are pretty interesting.  Here the '95 NL MVP is matched up with Reggie Sanders and Bret Boone.  The former would play eight seasons in Cincy, putting up an All-Star '95 in which he recorded a career-high bWAR of 6.6, while the latter spent most of his solid career with the Reds and Mariners.

It was another good day for my Maddux collection thanks to this lucky seven (plus one!).  Most of what you see here is from my favorite cardboard era--the mid-90s through the mid-aughts.  Respect was a cool insert from '96 Ultra, and next to that is a successfully exchanged UD Predictor from '95 (again, guessing on the years when scanning).  Those are followed up by a '99 Skybox Molten Metal "Don't Call Me Leaf Preferred Steel" Xplosion card and a much more recent Topps Gallery Insert from 2017.

The horizontals feature my second copy (one that hasn't been peeled) of Donruss's '95 Dominators insert, another from Leaf All-Star Game MVP Contenders Gold, a 2000 Pacific team insert, and one of a couple Donruss Estrellas Spanish cards you'll see today.

Ripken's group ended up being a pretty interesting one as it paired him up with a couple other PC guys.  The solo offerings include a Score Dugout parallel and Ultra Checklist from the mid-90s, another Ultra insert, a second Estrellas card from the early 2000s, and the "Auxiliary" (read:  non-CD) version of a 1999 PowerDeck insert.  He then gets matched up with a couple other good shortstops on a '94 Triple Play Medalists insert, one being Tony Fernandez and the other, Hall of Famer Alan Trammell.  The final three cards are from a Ripken/Gwynn insert from 2007 Upper Deck that celebrates both entering the Hall that year (I attended that induction ceremony!).  There's apparently 50 of these and I may eventually try to chase them down.

How about starting the year off 100% on-brand with too many Verlanders?  I didn't mind paying a quarter apiece for 18 new cards of his from 2007 Topps Moments and Milestones, which also let me earn a few points but uploading their scans to TCDB.

Here's the other nine, giving me one from his "wins" version and 17 of the "strikeouts" cards.  Taking a quick look in his folder it would appear that I now have two of the former and 22 of the latter "base" versions (plus two Black parallels of just the strikeouts).

I also came away with these two Topps Chrome Generation Now cards from the same year, then found that I actually completed his run of that version because the only offering #s 1, 10, 15, and 16 in Chrome for some reason.  I'd previously knocked out all of the base versions from Flagship, so that's pretty cool!

Last up is mostly a mix of buybacks plus another PC checklist card.  Elliott Maddox ('74 and '79) and a badly miscut Lary Sorensen ('79) are 2015 Topps Originals Buybacks.  Sabo's is the Gold version of his 2017 Bowman Buyback of his '90 Bowman base.  Finally, I found a pair featuring Geoff Zahn from Topps' 2014 75th Anniversary Buybacks:  his '75 Topps RC(!) and his base from the following year's set.  Not bad!

To those I can add retired 2B Chris Getz's Yellow parallel from his final flagship appearance, 2014 Topps.  That leaves me needing six more versions from the flagship/Mini rainbow.

It was indeed another great show for me, and I may just be looking to replicate that success in the western part of my state as weather (and getting my ass up in time) permitting I might be meeting up with John for a show in his neck of the woods, the Kalamazoo area.  Here's to another blogger meet-up!

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!

2017 COMC purchase: new Jack city

Before I get to today's card I'm using the beginning of this post to try to solve a quick postal mystery:  who is the anonymous Oregonder (or Oregondor, which makes me think of The Lord of the Rings) who sent me a very nice bubble mailer full of Tigers (and a few Ripkens) from the ZIP of 97204?  I'd very much like to give that Portlander credit when I get around to the accompanying trade posts, and to return the favor while I'm at it.  So if you're the nice trader who sent that envelope on the Oregon Trail (where it did not die of dysentery or break and axle fording the river) all the way to Ann Arbor, please step up and get your kudos by leaving a comment or shooting me an email!

Ok, on to today's card, the last one I have from last year's COMC purchases (though if you want to see more of those, head on over to TMM!).  It doesn't fit in with the player collections guys I posted the other day but will look great with the best I can offer from my Detroit Tigers hits:

From the high-end 2004 Donruss Timelines product ($50 per pack with autographs 1:2, says Beckett) this here is a Recollections Autographs signature (#32/56) of newly minted Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Morris.  This enormous autograph offering includes almost 1600 cards (this one is #923) that are signed buybacks of past Donruss issues that add a "Recollection Collection" foil stamp (and serial numbering on the back) and leave everything else as-is.  Charmingly (or annoyingly, depending on your opinion) that means many are off-center like this one or feature other flaws, but for me that just makes them more fun. 

A quick search shows that Morris signed 18 different Donruss cards from 1981-93, with multiple appearances from a few years.  Print runs vary from 139--one of his 1988 base cards--all the way down to a single copy of his Baseball's Best boxed set issue.  The one you see above, of course, is from Donruss' sophomore product in 1982.

I'm sure buybacks like this are somewhat polarizing, though surely not nearly as much as Jack's induction into the Hall this year.  His was a tough case so I'm just glad to see him get in.  Even if he didn't I'd be happy to continue collecting some of his better stuff like this.  It marks my third auto of the former ace and three-time Series-winner, and I'm always on the hunt for more.

That's it for COMC stuff from last year, finally, so while I catch up on purchases from there over on TMM you can all look forward to a couple trade packages here soon!

2015 COMC purchase: Sweet SweetLou's Baadasssss Post

Although Barry Larkin's post featured the most cards, I figured I'd end this series with a bang by posting the 34 new Lou Whitaker cards I nabbed for his PC.  That's nearly four full pages and I managed to fill in a lot of gaps in Lou's run over his entire career, not just from the 80s or 90s alone.  (NOTE:  there's actually 35 cards in the scans below, but I added one via trade before posting these, so I'll note that below.)  Here they are!:

(NOTE:  card #4 in this scan is Whitaker's 1995 Upper Deck base, and that was already sent to me by GCRL in this trade.)

Lots of variety here, from 1984 all the way through 1996, plus a 2014 Leaf buyback numbered 4/5 (which I nabbed for an insane $3.29!).  Mixed in are some Glossy and Tiffany parallels, lots of different brands, and an extremely cool "turn two" photo on his 1996 Upper Deck issue (second-to-last card in the last scan).

Those of you who remember that I'm supercollecting (LOUpercollecting?) Whitaker might be curious how much these additions help with my progress on that project.  Wonder no more, friends:  I now own 174 of his 292, good for almost 60%, and that's before accounting for another little bunch on the way out of my next COMC package!

That's all for this time, but watch for more COMC additions soon (when I get around to scanning 200+ cards), and make sure to check out today's TMM post, one that ends its own COMC series with a bang!