2022 eBay purchases: remembering the -embers

While I'm trying to keep up some relatively positive posting momentum, here's a look at my personal eBay wins from the months of November and December:

When talking about sets that are important in the hobby's history, 1996 Leaf Signature's one-auto-per-pack product ranks way up there. Thanks to eBay I scored my 10th from that iconic set, and second of PC guy Dean Palmer. In this case it's the Silver version (which you can kind of tell by the stamp), and those were generally limited to 1000 copies (Bronze were 3500, Golds were 500). I already own the Bronze and just need the Gold to round out Dean-o's run of mainstream certified autos. The clean look and relatively low print run meant I didn't think twice about paying not quite $3.25 for this.

Would it be an eBay roundup without something purchased from my favorite seller, markaguirre22? Back around Thanksgiving I won the pair of Zach Putnam Topps Mini parallels you see above. Again, I don't put much thought or money into the on-demand stuff, but the Blue /10 was just $2 and the Orange /25 half that, so I was cool plunking down $3 plus tax (and free shipping) to add those.

And once again he was super nice to throw in some extras of guys he knows I collect! The Hill minis are from 2008 Ginter and are the A&G Back and Black Border versions. Meanwhile, Larkin's cards hail from 2001 Pacific Private Stock and 2011 Topps mini inserts. I already owned all four but will be happy to use these as trade bait.

Switching over to football briefly, here's a not-quite-maize plate repping my team that will be continuing its playoff quest this Saturday. Standout CB Marlin Jackson appeared on a number of cards in Topps' 2005 Draft Picks & Prospects product back when Topps was able to produce those (and actually did a nice job!). What you see here isn't a base card plate, but one used for printing his Senior Standouts Relics jersey insert. A slight twist is that this is one of those products where you could find both the front and back plates, and in this case we have the latter. Here's the back of that jersey card (which I own) for comparison:

I believe this is just my second back printing plate card to go along with a Topps Mayo of Adrian Arrington. As you can see, the color yellow didn't factor much into the rear of this card, but it's a different story on the front with Jackson seen in Michigan's iconic uniform.

For under $8.50 delivered I scored my first Jackson 1/1 and his 23rd hit overall. The seller took a page out of markaguirre22's book and threw in some cool UM-specific extras:

That's three RCs of former TE/WR Devin Funchess plus a Topps Magic Mini of WR great Braylon Edwards. Once again I have all of these but the gesture was very nice, plus I happen to know someone who could use the Braylon!

Back to baseball. We're coming up on almost seven years since Doug sent me what was my first card of UM pitcher Karl Kauffmann, a player who wasn't even on my radar at the time. Kauffmann had only recently signed with the Wolverines, and even if he'd been with the team for a year or two, it was rare for players who hadn't been drafted yet to appear on cards. But thanks to Leaf's Perfect Game product, I had the start of my PC of the future Rockies prospect.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago and I snagged my second plate from this same set on eBay. Like the one above, the one Doug sent me (a yellow version) isn't a 1/1, but one of two made instead. I'm not sure how that works with these All-American Classic plates--fronts and backs? Maybe something having to do with these saying "Base - Common"? Still, while not true 1/1s, they're fun cards to find and can still join my plate/1-1 collection. And would you believe that I paid just a bit over $2 to get this in my mailbox? Not bad, eh?

To close things out this evening I have a pair of Bowman Draft plates of pitcher Clayton Richard from two different years and separate auctions. Up top is the Magenta plate from the base 2005 product, which featured Richard's first MLB cards. He definitely looks extra creepy and possessed with his eyeballs looking like they're 100% white in the scan!

The other is from the 2009 product, though I'll mention that Clayton did appear in the 2008 version as well. The 2009 base card included stats from his 2008 MLB debut campaign with the White Sox, though he'd only be with them for part of the season when that card was produced, getting sent to San Diego in July of '09 in the deal that brought Jake Peavy to the South Side.

Thanks to these purchases--$6.64 for the '05 card and $7.63 for the other--I now count 12 different 1/1s in his PC, second only to Rich Hill's ~26 (still TBD) and one better than J.J. Putz's 11. Those are also my earliest plates of his as the oldest I previously owned were three of his four from 2011 Topps flagship.

So once again without spending a crazy amount I added some very nice stuff to a few of my PCs thanks to eBay. I look forward to showing off more additions in the form of the rest of my TCDB deals from this year before the end of the week!

12/4/2021 card show report: "Sweet" Christmas!

To say that Saturday, December 4 was an exciting day for me earlier this month would be an understatement. A week prior Michigan overcame years of futility to punch Ohio State in the mouth and beat them handily, earning them their first trip to the conference title game. The Wolverines ended my Saturday on a high note by demolishing Iowa 42-3 in a game filled with highlight reel plays and left the fans delirious with joy over their upcoming playoff appearance. Yep, it was a pretty good day.

And the start of it was just as awesome for me too. I headed east to Taylor as I do monthly for my usual card show, though I went that day instead of my usual Friday excursion for a special reason. The show had hosted the occasional interesting autograph guest in the past, but nobody in my experience elicited as much excitement as that day's signer: Lou Whitaker.

I couldn't tell you the last time he signed around here, and I'm not even sure the last time I paid for an in-person autograph--maybe Red Berenson at the old Gibraltar Trade Center years ago? So this was a Big Deal, and for once I had no problem ponying up $50 for the experience, which ended up being very positive!

For as many people as there were in front of me the line never felt interminable, and after maybe 30-45 minutes I was in front of Sweet Lou himself with a large framed poster I'd grabbed probably more than 20 years ago at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I'd always planned on having him sign it someday if I could get to a signing so that's exactly what I brought with me. He asked me where I'd like him to sign and I told him it was up to him. He ended up placing a huge, super legible signature right around his butt, and I'm very happy with the result:

Here it is hanging in my office/card room on a wall along with another Tigers signature (albeit one I bought second-hand), that of Bill Freehan.

Long story short, getting to meet Whitaker and get his signature was a big moment for me and one that I'll remember forever, so it was easily worth the $50 and my time. It'll be even more enjoyable once the committee voters get their heads out of their asses and elect him to the Hall.

So while I was there I paid my usual visit to my favorite seller, though a somewhat shorter one thanks to standing in line for the autograph. He actually noted that I was one of the very few people he noticed that came for the signing and stuck around to look at cards as well, which is kind of sad since I want to see this show continue for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I made pretty good use of my time by snagging 15 quarter cards that were 5/$1, 15 dollar cards, 18 that were $2 each, and even six that were $5 apiece. He called the total $80 and then I was heading home with lots of stuff that ended up in Christmas Card packages (some of which remain to be seen!) and a few things for myself too:

The available trade bait portion is just two cards because I was able to target almost everything to the packages I was going to send out. The pair includes an '08 Sweet Spot auto /150 of former Rangers P Scott Feldman plus an "S" letter manupatch/auto of Oklahoma WR Jalen Saunders out of '14 Upper Deck. (By the way, I'm rooting heavily against the Sooners in favor of Kerry's Ducks tonight, so go Oregon!) These are the kinds of cards I like to grab from the $2 boxes from time to time to beef up my FS/FT stuff on TCDB, but as always they're available here as well, so please shout if you're interested in either.

And the "for me" pile is relatively small too but still really, really good. First, I doubled my collection of former UM SS/Rockies draftee (2020 5th round) Jack Blomgren in scoring an autograph of his out of 2020 Elite Extra Edition for just $2. He's the 30th different player in my Michigan Baseball PC and I'd love to see him replicate some of the success that another sort-of recent Michigan guy, Jake Cronenworth, has had in the game.

Next I added to my collection of former blog namesake Curtis Granderson's hits with a 2016 A&G jersey. He may be shown there with the Mets but will forever be a Tigers favorite in my book. I now count 14 hits of him: nine relics, a manurelic, two autos, and auto/relic, and a plate. You can never have too many, I say!

Getting back to the Michigan stuff the most expensive card I picked up for myself was in the $5 box: a 2020 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor auto (# /150) of another Rockies draftee (2019, #77 overall), pitcher Karl Kauffmann. It's only my fifth card of his so I knew it would be a need and didn't mind ponying up $5 instead of waiting to find it slightly cheaper elsewhere. The color kind of sold me on it too. I actually have more hits (three autos and a plate) than base cards (one) of the potential future Rockie.

We happen to be alternating between hit types and teams though not by design--as usual I'm going alphabetically. Ian Kinsler closes out the baseball group with a 2010 UD Game Jersey. I know these are among the lowest end of hits these days but I think I only paid $1 and as I always say when I mention him, I enjoyed his time in Detroit, not the least because he produced well and was part of the deal to get rid of Prince Fielder's dead weight. This is my third relic of his and all show him with his original team, the Rangers, but maybe I'll land a Tigers card at some point.

And then for the 2021 Big Ten Champion Wolverines we begin appropriately with a Michigan uni card, a 2021 SAGE Premier Draft of WR Nico Collins, a guy who had the shitty luck of being drafted by the Texans. At least he finally caught his first NFL TD the other day in a rare win against the Chargers. Speaking of California teams, transfer RB Justin Fargas played his entire career for Oakland, and I was glad to find a 2008 Select Young Stars insert (# /999) of his in the quarter box. And our final player today, like Collins, is active in the league, though out for the year with an Achilles tear. Brandon Graham has recorded 59.0 sacks and 19 forced fumbles over parts of 12 seasons with the Eagles and I'm always happy to show this defensive standout some hobby love when I can, like his 2021 Donruss Red Press Proof parallel above.

So to recap, that day I

• Met Lou Whitaker and got his autograph
• Picked up some great cards while at the show
• Enjoyed Michigan trouncing Iowa and winning the Big Ten conference title game

I think Luke Cage would have to agree that was a great Saturday a few weeks before a sweet Christmas!

With this stuff covered I believe my next few posts will be recapping trades but you never know. Either way they're going to drag into 2022 but I'd rather take my time instead of stressing myself writing up posts. I'm always glad to give people who send me stuff the effort they deserve as thanks, so I promise I'll start getting to those soon!

2020 COMC purchases: Dean-o and more new cards you haven't seen-o

Before I get to today's cards I just wanted to highlight a minor miracle that occurred since I last posted: last week my first COMC shipment containing the items I purchased for Christmas card packages finally rematerialized and appeared in Detroit, then Ann Arbor. I've since managed to put together all but one of those envelopes and send them out, so you may see some belated Christmas card posts soon!

Besides getting those done I've been hard at work ordering buttloads of cards from Sportlots (almost done!) and my first try with baseballcardstore.ca (ordered!), so I'll be showing those off in due time.

Ok, onward to tonight's content, which is 100% baseball:

Former slugging 3B Dean Palmer was one of two big winners today, and the guy who got the most new items added to his collection (now 160 cards strong). I'll get to the two most prominent items in a minute, but first, it's "90s inserts rule" time! The '94 Pinnacle Museum Collection design isn't nearly as good as '95's in my opinion, but it's still a great looking parallel. A year after the Preferred brand debuted as a Leaf name, it switched over to Donruss and was responsible for some very nice looking inserts, such as that Cut to the Chase die-cut parallel.

A Silver base card from '97 Finest gives me both of Dean's entries in the regular set, with the only two Rangers earning spots in the rare Gold versions the exact two you'd expect--Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez. And '99 Black Diamond has some very fine parallels that are nicely differentiated both in coloring and numbering. Above you see the Double (/3000) and Triple (/1500) versions, meaning I still need the Quadruple (/150) to complete the mini rainbow.

As if 90s insert greatness wasn't enough, I managed to score my second relic (also a bat) and first autograph for my Palmer PC. The signature hails from the well known auto-per-pack 1996 Leaf Signature product and is the most common Bronze version, limited to 3500 copies. The writing is a bit squished but fairly legible otherwise. And speaking of hit-per-pack products, the bat was found in 2001 Private Stock packs I remember quite well, busting many back when relics were more novel. Both of these make for a nice boost to that growing collection.

This next group is a bit of a mix, comprising two former Tigers and another favorite PC. It may not have been too many© but I did find two new Granderson jerseys from 2008--SP Legendary Cuts and Topps Heritage--getting me to the 10 hit mark, for just $1.50 and $1.25, respectively. I also came up with a 2016 Donruss Stat Line insert for under $0.50 which was exciting since I've loved the parallel since it first appeared in 2001. This one's numbered to 263 for his career HR total through 2015, and he's put up 81 more in his final four seasons for a solid total of 344. And after all that we're not quite done yet with Curtis....

First let's have a look at the other cards here. Gwynn was one of the two subjects (Griffey's the other) I wanted to track down from Leaf's 1997 insert called Knothole Gang. Leaf took the motif seriously and came up with a super cool design. These are numbered /5000, which you should remember was pretty tough back then! 90s inserts rule and this was an easy purchase for me. Would you believe it was a "Freedom Isn't Free" special at just a buck-oh-five?

Former versatile Tiger (and player for five other teams) Tony Phillips, like Palmer, is another PC I've been starting to build up in the last year, and this '97 Refractor was the cherry on top of this order, the last card I snagged with my dwindling credit before seeing about shipping my two groups of purchases (trade bait and personal). 1997's design happens to be one of my favorites of the brand so I didn't mind paying $0.75 for this shiny 90s gem.

I said I'd get back to Grandy, didn't I? After naming this here blog after him more than 10 years ago I was finally able to add a plate to his collection. As you can see, this one's from 2017 Donruss and is of the yellow variety, and it was right in my $5-10 wheelhouse at around $8. I'm super excited to add another 1/1 of a favorite player, and I may have to put together a display for whatever "-fecta" I end up with. Right now I could do a RC, relic, auto, 1/1, and manurelic, which is a pretty nice group!

Switching over to the Michigan guys, here's today's last group. Leading off is the Mechanical Man and a 2012 Panini Cooperstown Crystal Collection parallel. This is the regular version, numbered /299, and it completes the trio for me as I already had the Red and Blue versions--a trifecta rainbow!

Next, I was ecstatic to score my first UM uniform autos of 2019 draft picks Tommy Henry (D-Backs, 2nd round) and Karl Kauffmann (Rockies, 2nd round). Elite Extra is perfect for collectors like me because of just such cards. In each case it's also my second auto but obviously my favorite for both given the college photos.

Staying relatively recent, I continued my slow progress towards P Clayton Richard's collection with a 2019 Topps Walgreens Yellow parallel. While the hues aren't quite right, combined with the blue of his team's uniform, it makes for a very appropriate card for a Wolverine!

I'm pretty sure buddy of the blog John, who's definitely already enthused by this group, will like this next card the most. My fellow Freehan collector would be all over this 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Glory Days jersey, one that was surprisingly new to me as I got down to my last few bucks of credit. I already owned the Gold (/75) version of this but not the unnumbered regular one you see above. $3 was a small price to pay for my 25th hit of one of the franchise's best all-time catchers.

And last but not least is the end of my baseball gets, namely a Getz. Hailing from 2008 Just Minors' Just Autographs set, this is a Gold autograph that's numbered on the back (digitally, on a foil stamp), which set me back $1.33. I ended up snagging it instead of the paradoxically more costly (on COMC, anyway) base version. This one getz (sorry, not sorry) his hit total up to 16, with all but two of those (a couple of plates) featuring his signature.

This is quite a nice haul to look at and I haven't even gotten to my football stuff yet! I haven't even scanned that yet, much less figured out if I'm going to break it up into multiple posts, but between the card stuff I mentioned above that's been keeping me busy and putting together this post, I've neglected a couple really nice trade packages I need to show off, so look for those to be my next two posts before I possibly get back to the rest of my COMC loot.

Until then, please enjoy looking at these pickups while we all wait for pitchers and catchers to report!

2019 trade package #39: Cards on Cards

In the end the Citrus Bowl went about as expected, even if it took longer than I thought for Alabama to put it away.  Still, I loved watching my Wolverines and am looking forward to the 2020 season as eagerly as usual.

Speaking of 2020 let's open up the year with a trade post as I continue to catch up on 2019 acquisitions.  I'm going chronologically--in the order these envelopes arrived--and I love that I get to start 2020 off with a bang.  Kerry of Cards on Cards sent me one of the finest packages I've ever received, which is saying something considering some of the gems that made their way to me from some of the greats of blogging.

As Kerry celebrates Oregon's thrilling Rose Bowl win, enjoy this celebration of some of my favorite collections!

We'll open things today with an eight pack of future Tigers.  These hail from 2019 Topps Pro Debut and pretty much every guy is in the team's 20 prospect rankings.  Pitchers Manning and Mize are the jewels of the organization and could form a killer 1-2 in the rotation if both beat the odds and reach their potential.  It's also nice that a few offensive prospects are rated highly since the team could use them ASAP, such as outfielders Cameron and Meadows.

And some more Tigers of the near future and/or now.  Boyd may not be long for Detroit if they can get a good haul for him (sorry, John!), and Greiner hasn't shown much, but we should see a good amount of the others, such as Paul's dude JaCoby Jones.  Kerry tossed in another Mize to bolster his tiny collection.

Speaking of current Tigers, here's a nice five-pack of LF Christin Stewart, who hopefully has a better season this year because he could be a mainstay here for years.  Between what Kerry sent me and what I already had I finally felt like I had enough Stewarts to enter them on TCDB and came up with a total of 15 thus far.  Not bad!  My favorite is the Panini Chronicles card that reuses an older Certified look that I've always loved.

I was able to pair up most of Miggy's cards with those of free agent Nicholas Castellanos in one scan, and that made me think I should look up how well they did as teammates.  From 2013 until Nick was traded last season, they combined for 260 HR, 995 RBI, and 27.9 bWAR.  This bunch of (mostly) 2019 cards is a great reminder of how much fun they were together.  The Cabreras also pushed him past the 300-card mark, which is awesome.  Donruss' Optic is a highlight here multiple times.

I challenge you to find one boring scan in this post, just one.  Can't do it, can you?  This one includes some nice base of some important Tigers from the aughts, Ty Cobb, a numbered Torii Hunter, and two fun McLain inserts.  2013 Hometown Heroes is one of Panini's best products of the last decade and I liked both cards you see here:  the stamped States parallel, and even more so, the round Sportdiscs lenticular insert.  I've had my eye on Jim Abbott's card from the latter and now I really want it having seen this McLain in-hand.

Here we'll finish up with the non-PC Tigers.  The Miggy is from 2015 Prizm and is numbered /100 which is pretty sweet.  I also checked J.D.'s and V-Mart's combined Tigers stats and came up with 214 HR, 825 RBI, and 21 bWAR (though as opposed to Miggy and Nick, I combined their entire Tigers careers, not just the years they coincided).  Soto is another potential future piece and I'm not sure why I didn't include him in one of the earlier scans.  And lastly, Kerry surprised me with a pair of Miggy jersey relics from 2017 Topps flagship--one from each series.  It looks like these give me 15 hits of one of the greats of the past decade, broken down into three autos, 10 relics, and a manurelic.  Not bad at all!

The Tigers half was outstanding but where things got really interesting for me was how well Kerry hit my player collections.  I'm not sure if he took the time to check my wants via my PCs page, or on TCDB, or what, but he managed to hit a ton of players with new stuff, and I needed every last card you'll see, starting with this bunch.

The Abbott is the same Hometown Heroes States parallel you saw above, and I really like it, though it would have been fun, as I usually say, for "hometown" to refer to that player's birthplace, meaning Abbott could have had a Michigan stamp himself.  All three cards of Astros pitching prospect Adcock from 2016 Bowman Draft/Chrome are new--Refractor, Sky Blue Refractor, and Silver (/499)--and give him a nice bump.  Granderson and Griffey appear on 2019 Topps-branded base, with Junior a single card away from 900!  I claimed the 2019 Topps Walgreens Yellow parallel of Hill after Kerry pulled one back in November because I'm your friendly neighborhood Hill supercollector!  And the LaMarre 2016 Topps Gold parallel is the first of his I've added in a long, long time, getting me up to 30 of 54 cards I've got checklisted for now.

I can't emphasize enough how impressed I am with what Kerry picked out here because not only did I need everything in these scans, but they're also not just a handful of common base cards I can check off of a list.  This group is a great example, beginning with a trio of Hal Morris issues:  an '89 minors card, '95 Pinnacle Nth Degree parallel, and an oddly named '98 Pacific variation called Red Threatt (the extra "T" is for "threat!").  Putnam finally gets a new addition thanks to the beautiful 2017 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition and its beautiful blue background.  Putz gets an insanely nice triple play of 2005 Prestige Xtra Bases Red (/150), 2006 Upper Deck Gold (/299), and 2007 Upper Deck Predictor Blue (the last of the Predictor versions I needed!).  And lastly in this scan is a 2009 Topps 206 base of George Sisler that I thought I had until I found out this was a short print--wow!

With this scan we're almost done with the baseball stuff in the package.  The first six star PC leader Cal Ripken Jr., who stands alone in consecutive games played and cards in my collection (the latter number:  946).  I have to say that the Gallery Preview up top looks quite nice, even if much of the artwork in the final product wasn't really up to par.  The other three cards here are of blog namesake guy Justin Verlander-Upton.  While the 2019 issues are nice enough I'm oddly a fan of the 2009 Topps card since it's the Target parallel with the cool retro back texture.  I don't like the idea of retail exclusives at all but at least once in a while the execution is good.  Justin gets up to an almost milestone-worth 396 items.

I saved the best of the baseball stuff for last because I was floored to find these two cards in the package.  On the left is a 2009 Topps 206 Mini Framed auto of former blog namesake guy Curtis Granderson.  As I always say, these mini framed cards look terrific and Grandy's is no exception.  The artwork does a great job of capturing his enthusiasm and joy for the game, and I would love to see him return to Motown to mentor some of the young players on the team.  Anyway, well done by Kerry to surprise me with my 10th Granderson hit and third auto.  In case you were wondering, I still don't have too many!

The other card is one I'm also very excited about as it's just my second of Michigan pitcher Karl Kauffmann, and this one's even cooler as it's a Wolverines uni shot.  A few different Michigan draftees made it into several Panini-branded products in 2019 and I'm looking forward to capitalizing on those, though fortunately I didn't have to wait thanks to Kerry's generosity.  This 2019 Prizm Draft auto looks great, and if it's a sign of things to come then I think I'm going to enjoy chasing more of the 2019 College World Series runners-up!

That's right, we're still not done because there's still football stuff to get to!  The '95 Finest Everitt is the other card in this post that I asked Kerry about and again he was nice enough to send it my way.  Few Michigan fans can top his level of intensity in supporting the maize & blue, I'll tell you that much.  As for Jake Ryan's card, the 2015 Crown Royale base is his lone RC that qualifies for my Rookie Blue project (his other rookie is an autograph), so I can cross his name off the list and continue hoping that he can stay healthy long enough to earn himself a good shot in the league.

Everything else in the scan features one of my larger football PCs, especially in terms of hits, Jake Long.  The first two are 2008 Panini brand inserts from Rookies & Stars and Contenders, and they both bring that signature Panini shininess (and numbering-- /1000 and /500, respectively) from the late aughts that gets me every time.  Blue is a great color for a parallel version of an insert, such as the Icons card, also numbered (/250).  And my favorite Oregon fan even threw in a relic I could have sworn I had (but didn't) out of 2008 Bowman, highlighting that year's #1 overall pick.  That brings him up to 84 hits, good for fourth behind Henne, Manningham, and Braylon.

I was able to give our last subject of the day his own scan, even if I noticed later that I didn't remotely put these on the scanner in any sort of order (and didn't feel like fixing it).  WR Amani Toomer's career spanned a good run in the hobby meaning he earned a ton of cardboard appearances, and Kerry didn't disappoint with these six.  There's Ultra Gold Medallion parallels from 2006 (the die-cut one) and 2006, plus numbered parallels in the form of a 2001 Pacific Impressions Hobby Red Backs (/280) and 2008 Bowman Blue (/500).  Yep, the former is pretty much as described with all text and effects on the back in red.  And after a 2006 Turkey Red base we get to the day's final surprise, a 2004 Prestige Game Day jersey of the Super Bowl-winning wideout.  It's pretty much right in my wheelhouse in terms of the kind of thing I'd be chasing on COMC and it marks his 25th hit, making him the 16th football player to reach that mark.

Kerry, I can't thank you enough for the obvious effort you put into such an incredible trade package other than to say that you more than earned the last couple envelopes I sent your way!  Enjoy the afterglow of your guys' Rose Bowl win as you await St. Louis' Spring Training date and I'll work on putting together a return when I can.

The rest of you can stay tuned for two more trade packages (one in-person!) plus a larger than expected show haul from the end of last month, and possibly another show report from my usual monthly location I'll likely hit up on Saturday.