2017 JustCommons purchase: just the rest

Previously:  Jim Abbott, Kirk Gibson, Barry Larkin, Hal Morris, Chris Sabo, Alan Trammell

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

I've been busy/lazy/tired/sick since I last posted on this series, but it's long since past time I finished it, so let's get it done!  Today's post includes four players for whom I didn't land enough cards to merit their own posts:

Hey, a new Rich Hill!  This one is another entry in his 2016 Topps/Chrome rainbow, in this case the Chrome Sapphire parallel.  About a year ago these came out in complete set form, limited to just 250 sets, along with tougher parallels--thirteen numbered /5 and a pair of SuperFractors; the "base" cards like this one aren't numbered, though.  The blue is a very nice color for this design, though the fact that there's not much "border" on this card gives you less of it.

My 256th Hill issue keeps me right around the 2/3 mark of his run as he's appeared in a few other products this year, much to my approval.

Former Reds/Astros/Pirates pitcher Ross Powell makes his second appearance on this here blog (and first in about six months) with his RC out of 1994 Topps Traded.  Powell toiled in the minors for Cincy from the point he was drafted in '89 until a 1994 trade to Houston that brought seven-year Reds C Ed Taubensee back to the Reds.

I love me a good update/traded set, and Topps' '94 version is one I don't currently own in its entirety, so it's fun to pick up singles like this once in a while.  It gives me four of his seven cards, all '94 issues, with a couple reinforcements on the way!

Don't worry, not every player in this post is a former Wolverines LHP, but we do have one more to get to.  The two-sport talent Clayton Richard, a former Michigan QB, (as if I haven't mentioned that before) was picked up by the Cubs in 2015, and he went on to appear in 48 games with them between then and 2016, though he was let go before Chicago's World Series run.  Richard landed on his feet, though, with a return to San Diego as a decent innings-eater if nothing else; he remains a possibility for an August waiver claim/trade.

My lone pickup of him here is his 2015 Topps Update base that reflects his new Cubs uniform.  I actually already had the Gold parallel before this one, giving me just the pair from that year's rainbow.  Overall I have 112 of 154 issues of his that I've counted.

Former Tiger Alan Trammell threw out the first pitch for today's game, but it's his double-play partner Lou Whitaker who's starring in this post, outdoing the other guys with four new cards.

First up is the oddball of the bunch, a 1984 Fleer sticker, which happens to be my second of his from that bunch.

Next is a somewhat more mainstream example of a card from Donruss' 1990 Baseball's Best boxed set, in this case the AL version.  You can read more about those cards on BaseballCardPedia.

Then we have a couple parallels, starting with the Silver Signature version of Lou's 1995 Collector's Choice SE base.  SE was a slightly different version of Collector's Choice that included more foil and different photos, but it still included the signature parallels like this one, which includes a cameo of Twins CF Alex Cole trying to steal second.

The last one in the quartet is Whitaker's all gold foil Gold Medallion parallel from 1996 Ultra.  I believe this is the only year Fleer went with this design as the '95 version used a smaller medallion around the brand logo and subsequent versions went away from foil entirely.

With this small haul I moved the needle on Lou's collection up to 242/288 with a lot of toughies remaining (and a bunch of oddballs incoming!).

Whenever I can get back to semi-regular posting, watch for some new trade packages before a huge run of stuff from Sportlots!

2017 JustCommons purchase: just Trammells

Previously:  Jim Abbott, Kirk Gibson, Barry Larkin, Hal Morris, Chris Sabo

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

It's been an interesting few days of Tigers new and old, with Justin Wilson and Alex Avila heading to the World Champion Cubs for prospects, plus former catcher Ivan Rodriguez (2004-08), also the owner of a ring, getting enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Speaking of former Tigers (and players that most definitely belong in the Hall), my penultimate JustCommons post features one of the greats:  SS Alan Trammell.

My Trammell collection is half decent, though admittedly more sparse than it should be since I'm such an avid Detroit collector.  This purchase went a long way toward righting that wrong, and an impending Sportlots buy could further bolster what may quickly turn into a nice pile of cardboard.  For now, let's focus on the former, where Tram was the big winner out of the 10 PCs I hit.  Spanning 1982 all the way up to 2014, here's tons of Trammells!:

To start things off, we're going waaaaay back to the year before I was born--1982--and the second year of Donruss, on a pretty good design.  As in Kirk Gibson's post, you'll see a nice amount of O-Pee-Chee today, including cards #2, 3, 7, and 9 in this scan representing, respectively, the years 1983-86.  The others are 1984 Topps, 1985 Leaf and Fleer, and 1986 Leaf.  As you can see, I was able to fill in a number of early gaps in terms of the Canadian counterparts to Topps and Donruss thanks to this purchase.

Next we jump ahead to a 1987 trio of Donruss Highlights, Fleer Glossy, and O-Pee-Chee.  1988 is surprisingly similar with Donruss Baseball's Best, Fleer Star Stickers, and--you guessed it!--O-Pee-Chee.  In a nice bit of symmetry, the final three cards are all from 1989, with a repeat of Donruss Baseball's Best, then base cards from Score and Topps.  Yes, I still sometimes need '89 Topps cards (and I think I don't even have everything of Trammell's from that set!).  That's just two pages from the 80s, but I don't suppose that's a surprise considering the explosion of products the following decade brought us.

This scan starts with our fourth straight trio from one year, in this case 1990, and Donruss Best AL, O-Pee-Chee, and Topps.  We then start to get a hint of things to come with a six card bunch of '91 stuff:  Classic II, Fleer, O-Pee-Chee Premier (n00b #1), a pair from Score, and Studio (n00b #2).  Nothing terribly interesting here, though as usual I appreciate the first version of a product I'd really come to enjoy in Studio.

Card #1 here finishes off 1991 with another debut, Ultra, and a photo that makes it look like Tram is about to get blown over.  Everything else is from 1992, part of a 10-card run that bleeds into the next scan.  The group of eight here includes:  Donruss, Fleer, Leaf (and a great turn-two photo that includes a Mark McGwire cameo), O-Pee-Chee and Premier, Pinnacle (debut #4), Score, and Topps.  The fielding shots in this bunch are pretty interesting, including a potential stolen base situation on the Donruss and a rundown from a very cool perspective from Score.

Now we can complete the 1992 run with the maiden voyage (#5) of Donruss' Triple play, plus the much better second year of Ultra.  Then a quicker jaunt is in the cards (sorry) for 1993, which includes Donruss, Leaf, Pinnacle, Score, and Triple Play again.  Two reps from 1994--Donruss and Pacific (second year, close!)--finish things up.  Card #1 wins worst photo in my book with a blurry 3B blocking a chunk of the view, but the '93 Donruss a couple cards over also includes a curious choice.

Here we continue on with 1994 as we get nearer to the end of Tram's career.  First up is one of my favorite parallels, Pinnacle's Museum Collection, and that's followed by base from Score, SP (year two), Triple Play (got 'em all right this time!), and Ultra.  Then we jump to 1995 with base releases of Donruss, Score, Upper Deck Collector's Choice, and Ultra.  Not only did I get the CC card wrong as usual, but I even put it before Ultra, which would have been wrong if I was thinking of it as Upper Deck Collector's Choice!

Four more cards polish off the vertically-oriented standard size group.  From 1996 I grabbed Collector's Choice, which includes a cool "tribute" logo to honor Tram's career, then Leaf and Pacific.  Then we take a huge leap forward to 2014 Panini Prizm, and it makes me glad to see that Panini realizes this is a guy that's still relevant to many collectors.

Now we have some odd stuff to look at, beginning with the oversized 1994 Fleer Extra Bases, which you've seen a few times in this series.  Below that is a 1984 Fleer Sticker, and you'll get another look at a Tiger from that set next time.  Finally, I grabbed both of Tram's Topps Micro cards from 1991 (.  Those are definitely fun to scan in the same group as standard sized cards plus an example from Extra Bases!

Finally, here's a fun group of horizontal cards, some of which take advantage of the format with some nice photos.  1991 includes the second year of Leaf's standalone product (and a Devon White cameo!) and the excellent debut (#6!) of Stadium Club.  1994 includes a cool fielding/hitting photo combo from Score's sophomore release of Select, plus what I'd assume is a spring training shot (from Tatooine?) with a Marlins cameo.  Skipping a couple years, we go to a close-up photo on a Score '96 base, and then a Detroit Stars commemorative uni from '97 Pinnacle.  Last up is one more debut (#7), the first of three years of the slightly oversized Topps Big, with a big headshot of a very.  Serious.  Trammell.

In all, some 69 new Alan Trammell cards made it from JustCommons' inventory to my collection, putting me within spitting distance of a fun milestone at 198 cards.

Stay tuned to one more (much shorter!) post to close out this series soon; you may just get to see one or more cards of a certain former teammate of the guy above....

2017 JustCommons purchase: just Sabos

Previously:  Jim Abbott, Kirk Gibson, Barry Larkin, Hal Morris

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

Today's player, our third straight (and final) former Reds player and TMV PC guy is "Spuds", a.k.a. Chris Sabo!  Some of you might have pieced that together between the fact that I've been going alphabetically and that I mentioned his team.

Sabo is also the third PC guy, along with Mike Matheny and Hal Morris, that I recently promoted to supercollection status, and his collection of 210 regular issues may be the most manageable of the trio.  However, I didn't pick up nearly as many cards of the former ROY and World Series champ--just two scans worth--as I did of his former teammates Barry Larkin and Morris, and his collection pales in comparison for now.  Oh well, it's a work in progress.

Let's look at some new Sabo cardboard:

In this first scan we skip the first three years of Sabo's cards and begin with 1991, specifically the end, alphabetically:  the debut of Fleer's Ultra product plus Sabo's inclusion in the 10-card Gold set, putting him among stars such as Bonds, Griffey, and Henderson--quite the club!  1992 is heavily represented by, in order:  Donruss, Fleer, Pinnacle, Stadium Club Dome, Triple Play, and Upper Deck FanFest.  I'm a big fan of Stadium Club in general, and the "Dome" cards that came packaged in a SkyDome-shaped container are no exception.  Meanwhile, the FanFest card was part of a 54-card set that also celebrates the Midsummer Classic, and I have a Gold version to track down as well.  We finish off this scan with a solid base card from '93 Leaf.

Here we continue 1993 with base cards from Score, Stadium Club, Triple Play (that's two for two!) and Ultra.  Each of these features a pretty nice photo, and TSC and Ultra come back with nice designs as usual.  Moving on to 1994 I repeated my success from '92 in grabbing a Donruss/Fleer one-two punch.  A close-up of the goggles-clad 3B with his second of four teams, the Orioles, is the lone representative for 1995.  Finally, my only horizontal card, from 1993 Select, features a sweet photo of Chris making a great diving grab.

These 17 new cards give me a total of 68 Sabos out of the 210 I have on his checklist (to go along with three oddballs/"others"), and I look forward to adding more, including a possible big chunk from Sportlots soon.

Until then, look forward to two more posts in this series; the next will be the player for whom I added the most cards while the last will include four players who didn't have enough stuff to merit individual posts.

2017 JustCommons purchase: just Morrises

Previously:  Jim Abbott, Kirk Gibson, Barry Larkin

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

Today on Too Many Reds, we're featuring Hal Morris, another one of those future good-to-great players the Yankees gave away in the 80s while wondering why they weren't making the playoffs (Fred McGriff and Jay Buhner say hi too!).  It just so happens that Hal is one of three existing PC guys (the second is Mike Matheny, who doesn't feature in this series, but you'll see the third guy in my next post) I'm promoting to a supercollection as his roughly 350-ish regular issue run feels like a reasonable chase.  Between what I already had and this JustCommons purchase, I've got a nice start, plus I should get a very nice boost from Sportlots and COMC before much longer.

So, about those JustCommons cards--let's see exactly what they are:

I'm missing just two of Hal's 1989 cards, so we'll kick things off with 1990 and that year's Classic Update and Score Rising Stars sets, the latter of which is one of just 10 regular issue cards I know of picturing him with the Bombers.  I added just a pair of '91s as well in Topps and Upper Deck, with the former awarding the young Red with its coveted Rookie Cup.  Five 1992 cards neatly finish out the scan:  Donruss, Fleer, Pinnacle, Score, and Triple Play (YES!  Got it right!).  Hal appeared on a decent amount of cardboard in his first three years with Cincy, likely because he finished third in the NL ROY balloting in '90 and won a ring with that year's squad.

As I've mentioned recently, things seemed to get more interesting design-wise in 1993, and while card #1 in this scan from Fleer doesn't really fit the bill, the trio of Leaf, Score, and Ultra are all improvements in my opinion.  1994 was pretty good too with examples from Bowman, Donruss, Fleer, Leaf, and Pinnacle.  Once again, I consider the '94 versions of Bowman, Donruss and Pinnacle to be better than their previous issues, while Fleer is still kind of Meh and Leaf is about the same.  One interesting note as I'm comparing this scan to the last one:  after zero fielding action photos up top, this one includes six.

Here the top row finishes up the 1994 products with Studio, Triple Play (right again!), and Upper Deck Collector's Choice (welp).  As usual, the mid-90s and later Studio designs look fantastic.  Moving on to 1995 we've got more solid entries from Bowman and Donruss, a strange-but-at-least-different Fleer, a Topps Cyberstats parallel, and another nice looking Ultra.  Finishing off the scan is a '96 Donruss base with the logo square comically looking like it's censoring something!

The first half of this eight-spot finishes up Hal's 1996 run with the debut of Metal Universe, a rather conservative Pacific design, a typically nice Stadium Club, and one of the better looks for Upper Deck Collector's Choice (aw h*ck).  The second half feels somewhat like a repeat with '97 and '98 Pacific (alternating gaudy and subtle), 1999 Metal Universe--with a lone Royals appearance--and 1999 Pacific Aurora (whatever).  That's a lotta Pacific!

And then of course we have some horizontal Hals:

Starting with 1992 O-Pee-Chee and a Topps Gold Winner parallel, let's start with a photo of Morris apparently sliding in a completely empty stadium; practice makes perfect!  1994 Score's photo makes it look like a close pick-off play at first for a Padre making a cameo.  A foil-heavy '95 Flair release gives us another close-up of the 1B sporting eye-black.  And finally, we're treated to a double play of Morris at the bat rack from '95 Score and its Gold Rush parallel.

In all I managed to grab 40 new Morris cards for his newly-minted supercollection, plus a fun oddball, giving me 144 of his 359-card checklist I pieced together, and 149 cards overall.  I had a Hal of a good time making these additions, and I'm looking forward to showing off the other three posts as well soon, including one more Red!

2017 JustCommons purchase: just Larkins

Previously:  Jim Abbott, Kirk Gibson

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

Who's today's player I alluded to yesterday?  It's none other than HOF SS Barry Larkin.  I still think it's likely that more of you collect Jim Abbott than Larkin for various reasons, but the lifetime Red is plenty popular himself, and for good reason.  While I collect him primarily for his connection to my alma mater, there's plenty of reasons to chase cards of one of the greats of the modern era.

So let's have a look at the nice pile of his cards I scored on JustCommons:

We begin with one pre-90s card in the form of 1988 Fleer--not one of the product's better versions.  Feel free to ignore the '91 Score Dream Team subset issue as I already had it, but the other offering from that year, Ultra, was new at least.  1992 enjoys a nice run with O-Pee-Chee and OPC Premier, a Score insert called Impact Players (found in jumbo packs) and both of Barry's Topps flagship issues from that year, including an All-Star subset.  The following year's OPC Premier kicks off a three-card run from '93.

Score and Select (made by Score!) finish off that trio, then we get a hand's worth of '94 releases:  Leaf, Pinnacle, Score, Sportflics, and Studio.  I'd say that year is when things really start to get interesting design-wise, and I give all five my seal of approval, especially Sportflics and Studio.  Moving on, Donruss is our only entrant from 1995, and I still generally appreciate the design, though I wouldn't mind getting a better look at the jersey of the player getting doubled up, covered by the inset photo.  The first of five total Bowman-branded issues finishes off this scan, this one from the 1996 set.

1996 continues throughout most of this scan, namely the next seven cards:  Fleer Update, Leaf (one of his two issues, and I'm missing the checklist he shares with Mo Vaughn), Pacific, Score, a pair from Upper Deck Collector's Choice (dammit), and Ultra.  Have I mentioned that I love the matte cards from 1996 and '97 Fleer?  I probably have once or twice.  I don't know if I'll ever acquire '96 Ultra Series I to go with my complete second series set, so I keep grabbing the PC singles I need.  A pair of '97s sews things up here:  Bowman and Select.  The Bowman features an excellent cameo by then-rising star Jermaine Dye, about to get caught stealing, and the Select will become more interesting in a bit.

Through sheer randomness, this scan ends up including more high-end stuff than the rest.  The acid trip-inspired '98 Circa Thunder doesn't fall into that category, but all three 1999 cards--Bowman Chrome, SP, and Topps Gallery--certainly do.  Man did Topps make some beautiful cards back in the day like that Gallery example, probably my favorite in the bunch.  The first 2000 exhibit, from Bowman Chrome, keeps the above average-end streak going, and while the other, from the more mainstream Paramount brand, breaks things up, I can still appreciate its looks.  Then a four-card run from 2001 starts, including our final Bowman issue, the odd Donruss Class of 2001, and the shiny Donruss Elite.  I'd say the Class of 2001 card is the one I liked the least here, and a rare misstep from Donruss--it's just weird for some reason.

Here we finish off 2001 with one of Fleer's multi-year-but-short-lived products, Focus, then get another from 2002 in Platinum; the latter's 2001 version was nice, but I wasn't a huge fan of subsequent releases.  2003 gets represented twice with Leaf and Ultra, both of which are fairly representative of their brands.  2004 and '05 each present one card:  Donruss Elite Extra Edition (shiny again!) and Leaf, respectively.  We then abruptly finish with that decade and jump ahead to 2012's fun Panini Cooperstown release, the same manufacturer's USA Baseball Champions product from 2013, and a vintage-inspired 2015 Topps Archives base.

And now for some lengthwise Larkins:

The 1990 Topps Big card, which lives up to its name, is about the oddest-ball in this bunch, and the oddly framed '92 Triple Play issue joins it from the junk wax era.  I now want to point out that the remaining three cards on the left hail from Score's Select product, and with the two you saw above they give me Larkin's base card run from the brand, from 1993-97!  The remainder on the right side includes '95 Score and Barry's Ultra Award Winner insert from the same year (I already have the Gold Medallion parallel of this one).  Last up is Barry ranging to his right on a lovely horizontal offering from 1997 Pinnacle.

This group of 52 new Larkins, when added to my other Barrys

gives me a milestone-worthy new total of 410 cards.  I'm coming for you, Nachos Grande! (Not really)

Speaking of Chris, all of you fans of Reds may enjoy my next couple posts (hint hint!).

2017 JustCommons purchase: just Gibsons

Previously:  Jim Abbott

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

Today I'm bringing you another well-known player, if not one lots of you collect (outside of Tigers and Dodgers fans, at least):  OF Kirk Gibson.

Gibby's career spanned 1979-1995 (plus another five seasons as Arizona's manager), and a lot of what I picked up came from the first 10 or so years of that run.  We'll start with a pair from my birth year of 1983:  Fleer and O-Pee-Chee.  The latter product appears a bunch here since junk wax-era Topps cards were plentiful, and in my younger days I began supercollecting Gibson before I even knew what that was, meaning the base flagship cards I need are few and far between.  In this scan alone, cards #3, 6, 7, and 8 represent OPC from the '84-'87 sets, respectively.  They're joined by 1985 Leaf and Fleer (not sure why I got those out of order), plus one of my favorite oddball-before-it-became-mainstream brands, Sportflics (from '87).

1988 and the owners' collusion resulted in Gibby, once again a free agent, heading to the Dodgers, and that's reflected on eight of the nine cards above.  The 1988 group includes Donruss Baseball's Best, Fleer Update, O-Pee Chee (still a Tiger!), and Topps Traded.  Meanwhile, 1989 is represented by Classic Travel Orange, another Donruss Baseball's Best, and Score.  If you're looking for 1989 cards celebrating the '88 Series, well, I have one below, but most of those are already in my collection.  Getting into the 90s, we have the first two of a trio with 1990 Donruss Best NL (a slight name change!) and the auspicious debut of Leaf's original-not-rebranded-Donruss set.

Three teams appear in this scan, and while one is the Dodgers--card #1 from 1990 O-Pee-Chee--the Tigers aren't in the group.  The former '88 Series hero signed with the Royals as a free agent late in 1990, and he spent a decent '91 season with KC, as captured on 1991 cards from Fleer Update, Score Rookie/Traded, Studio, Ultra Update, and Upper Deck.  Hooray for update sets!  1992 base cards from Donruss and O-Pee-Chee (last one!) close out his Royals run, but that year's Pinnacle product throws us a curveball by documenting Kirk's short-time stop in Pittsburgh, all of 16 games after a March '92 trade to the Pirates; he would be released in short order in May.

Fortunately for those of us who are Tigers fans, that brought him back to Motown for good, which ended up being the 1993-95 seasons.  The first portion of this scan includes that run and cards from 1993 Fleer Final Edition, Stadium Club Members Only Parallel, and Studio (rally cap!), plus 1994 Pacific.  Our final standard vertical card hails from 2008 Donruss Threads, a product from which I had two inserts but not this base card somehow.

Moving on to the releases of unusual size (ROUs), first up is the very looooong 1994 Fleer Extra bases.  Then we get smaller with a 1985 Fleer Star Stickers appearance, an '88 Fleer Mini, and '89 Topps UK Mini.  Last up is a 1991 Topps Micro card, so small you can't even be sure it's there, like a Republican Senator's heart (topical humor!).

Now let's have a quick look at some cards aligned along the X-axis:

Technically I could have included the two oversized-ish Topps Big cards, from 1988 and '90, in the last scan, but I think they work well with this group.  They're joined by a great '89 Fleer World Series issue (from a set included with factory sets) immortalizing one of the game's most dramatic home runs ever; one of Gibby's two base cards from 1992 Stadium Club (the other shows him with the Pirates!) in a fantastic posed dugout shot; and 1994 Select, featuring a facial hair-less Gibson.

In all I was fortunate to add some 42 new cards to my Gibson collection, jumping him over the 200-card mark to 202.  Hooray for PC milestones!

Watch for my next post featuring an even more popular player soon.

2017 JustCommons purchase: just Abbotts

Back in late May I made my largest JustCommons purchase yet:  around 330 cards for about $57.  That total included a few things heading into trade packages, but overall I added almost 300 new cards to some of my baseball PCs.  Over something like seven different posts I'll cover those new cards, player by player!

The first player in this series may prove to be the most popular one among my readers as I know a good number of you collect him either as a PC or because of the teams for which he played.  We're kicking things off alphabetically with Jim Abbott!

I went for quantity over quality with these purchases, so there's a lot of junk wax-type stuff--not that nothing here is interesting.  We begin with a lone 1990 card:  Jim's entry in the Score Rising Stars boxed set.  1991 is represented by the oddball-ish Classic III and Fleer's maiden voyage of Ultra.  We then begin a tour of 1992 with Donruss Triple Play (I keep making that mistake!), Fleer, OPC, Pinnacle, Score, and Abbott's other Topps base card I needed from that year (I already had the one that mirrors the OPC version).

1992 concludes with this scan's first two cards:  the Gold Winner version of the Topps card you just saw, plus Jim's base from the much-improved Ultra offering from that year.  1993 claims the next five cards, including Donruss Triple Play (DAMMIT!), Fleer, OPC Premier, Topps, and Topps Traded.  I always was a sucker for update/traded sets!  We get a brief opening look at 1994 with Donruss' and Fleer's base sets of the new Yankee.  Speaking of that, what's the deal with the Triple Play Boggs card above?

Jim's on the back!  Why Donruss couldn't put together a horizontally-oriented card with both images on the front, I don't know.  As a reminder, Abbott headed to the Bronx before the '93 season in a deal that brought J.T. Snow back to the Angels.  Jim had just put up 5.8 bWAR for the Halos in '92, and though he couldn't live up to that performance with the Yankees, he did make history with his no-hitter late in the '93 campaign.

One card here finishes off the '94 card season:  Triple Play (got it right!) in one of my favorite designs for the product.  That's followed by a lone example from 1995 out of another Donruss base set.  1996 saw Jim's return to an Angels uni on cardboard, and he's shown here on portraits from Pacific (normal Pacific, not LSD Pacific) and Score (doing side-eyes), plus a zoomed-in-like-Topps mound shot from Upper Deck Collector's Choice (sometimes I scan things too quickly for my own good).  We then jump all the way forward to 2013 and Gypsy Queen, plus one I grabbed without realizing I already had it--USA Baseball Champions from the same year; there's another one for Jeff's pile.  Finally, we go back just one year from when I'm posting this and see that Jim was still plenty relevant to be included in the 2016 Archives base set.

That's not quite all I have, though, as I ended up with one more scan of the horizontal cards:

Topps Big cards, like this one from 1990, bug me by being just a bit oversized, but are fun anyway.  Hologram-loving UD put out card #2, a Team MVP Hologram from 1992.  Being a big fan of mid-90s Pinnacle, I grabbed the third card--Jim's base from the '94 set, another card that gives you a fun view of his patented pitching motion.  The photo used on the next card, Abbott's base from Upper Deck's offering from the same year, might make for a good caption contest.  And last but not least, we have another pitching action shot from a different angle courtesy of Score's interesting 1995 set.

For as little as I paid for most of these I came out happy with the variety of years and designs I came up with as I added 30 new cards to my Abbott PC, a collection that now totals 155 items!

Stay tuned for more JustCommons PC additions very soon.

2015 Justcommons purchase: lotsa Lous!

I'm still trying to get caught up on all the stuff I need to post, so here's all the Lou Whitaker cards I nabbed from Justcommons a few weeks ago:

(Those are mostly in order, though I accidentally put the '90 OPC in front of the Score 100 Stars card and the '94 Finest ahead of the '93 cards.)

That's a ridiculous (and very scanner-friendly) 63 new additions to my Whitaker collection which now stands at 139/290 (about 48%) and 149 cards overall!  I'll also have lots more on the way from COMC before much longer.

With these posted, hopefully I'll get to a few excellent trade packages very soon!

2015 Justcommons purchase: tons of Trams

First, to quickly explain away my recent lack of posting, the weather around here has been great and I'm taking advantage of it!  That said, I still have plenty to post.  Here's my penultimate post covering my recent Sportlots PC pickups, today focusing on Alan Trammell:

Alan Trammell 1986 Sportflics (#172) and 1987 Sportflics

Crazy hologram technology!  I picked up some of these 80s Sportflics (NOT "Sportsflics," guys!) cards of a few of my players and happily included Tram.  I noted the card number from the '86 set as Alan also appears on a World Series MVP-themed card along with Rick Dempsey and Reggie Jackson.

Alan Trammell 1988 Topps Mini Leaders

Moving up a year and towards the oddball realm is this mini '88 card.  The back notes that Tram was third in the league in batting average and hits in '87, fifth in OBP, and tied for 5th in game-winning RBI and runs.  A damn fine season for the should-be HOF SS.

Alan Trammell 1990 Score 100 Superstars

Also a bit oddball-ish is this '90 Score issue from a boxed set that included a nice number of guys I collect.  The back actually notes how well his '87 season went, which you knew if you looked at the card above this one!

Alan Trammell 1992 and 1993 Stadium Club

Early Stadium Club, late Stadium Club, doesn't matter--I'll always love this set.  Here in consecutive years we get a nice batting shot followed by a humorous post-play scenario where it would appear that the player made it safely to second, much to Tram's annoyance.

Alan Trammell 1994 SP Die Cuts

I never did buy this product when it came out in '94, but I'm sure for those that could afford it, the combination of shiny and die-cut were irresistible.  Another nice shot of Tram in the field, by the way.

Alan Trammell 1995 Finest

Here's another Finest card that I really should peel and re-scan at some point.  At least Trammell didn't need people campaigning on his behalf for entry into the Finest set!

Alan Trammell 1995 Studio

It's the "love it or hate it" '95 Studio set.  Or, as comedy legend Mitch Hedberg said, "I played in a death metal band.  People either loved us or they hated us...or they thought we were OK."  I'm more of an "OK" on this one but I've always been a fan of Studio's offerings.

Alan Trammell 1996 Upper Deck (#106)

Here's my favorite card of the group, though apparently not enough that I thought to scan the back myself (thanks COMC!).  '96 Upper Deck included a fantastic 16-card subset called "Young at Heart" that highlighted players that had been in the game for a long time.  The beautiful, simple front is complemented by a back that features a photo of a younger version of the player plus career stats.  Tram's teammate Lou Whitaker is part of the group, and oddly enough, their '84 Champs teammate Lance Parrish was also around long enough to make an appearance!

Alan Trammell 2003 Flair Greats

Everything else from here on came out after Tram retired, and he was obviously still significant enough to the Tigers and the sport to be included in some greats-themed sets like...2003 Flair Greats!  This set features some cool sepia tones paired with great vintage photos.

Alan Trammell 2005 Diamond Kings and Diamond Kings Framed Red

"Legend" is damn right, Panini, and good on you for highlighting Tram in this set.  I grabbed both the base and Framed Red versions, with the latter differentiated by a raised "frame" and red foil.  Another classic Diamond Kings product.

Alan Trammell 2008 Donruss Threads

And lastly here's another set that included some very cool throwback photos.  The one on this '08 Donruss Threads issue looks like it came straight out of the 80s!

That's another 14 cards to add to my Trammell collection, and I still have a nice number to scan and post, so hopefully it won't be much longer before I'm showing those off as well.