2018 Sportlots purchases: Motown and Cin-City

I managed to hit a large number of players among my copious PCs on this latest Sportlots jaunt, and in many cases that resulted in a stray card or three.  Since I don't consider those enough to warrant their own post I decided to lump some together in a pair of them.  For this one I even came up with a theme:  former Tigers and Reds.  The 47 cards of 13 players (see what I mean?) below cover guys who had some affiliation with either team or even both in a couple cases.  A mix of oddball and mainstream and variety of number of new cards (from one to 15) should make this a pretty interesting compilation:

Steve Boros was a Tiger for four seasons and Red for two so he's a double-dipper for this theme.  He's pictured here with the latter team on a 1978 TCMA 60's I issue, and you'll see that brand a bit more throughout this post.  I completed his regular checklist a while ago so this was a fun optional addition.

Bill Freehan, of course, was a Tiger for all 15 seasons of his excellent career.  This 100% oddball pair includes a repeat of the TCMA 60's set above along with a 1989 Swell Baseball Greats issue that's a bit of a rarity as a Freehan card released during that decade.

Next up is Kirk Gibson, this post's only non-Wolverine, whose two stints in Detroit added up to 12 seasons.  You may recall that in this series' second post I showed off a 1981 Kellogg's hologram of Gibby's teammate Alan Trammell.  I'm happy to be back today with a 1982 version of another of my favorite Tigers in Gibson.  To that I added a couple more oddly sized cards: 1990 Dodgers Target (the first of four you'll see in this series), which is a set you've surely seen on more than one Dodgers-centric blog, plus the oxymoronic 2013 Topps Archives Mini Tall Boys.  These are definitely appropriate for a guy that was anything but standard in his heyday.

Former two-sport star Drew Henson is a bit of a technicality as he never suited up for the Reds after joining them in a trade with the Yankees, and then he returned to the Bronx for all eight games and nine ABs in his bust of an MLB career.  But as they say, my blog, my rules, so here's an early 90s trio I added to his PC.  A 2001 Fleer Tradition base is my third RC of the ex-Yankee, and that's joined by one of Drew's two appearances in UD's fun 40-Man product from 2002, plus a Mini from Topps' 2003 Bazooka.

Barry Larkin is definitely the outlier in today's post as he clocks in with 15 new items, three of which were throw-ins from an apologetic seller.  One of those appears after I got Larkin to join in on the Sportflics action (1990) in the form of a '91 Topps Cracker Jack four-player card that appears to be an uncut version, something I hadn't seen.  Some higher end Topps--'95 Finest, '99 Chrome, and '01 Gold Label Class 1, add to the fun along with a couple parallels--'92 Topps Gold Winners and '97 Score Showcase Series--plus an '02 Heritage base.

Donruss' Leather and Lumber product was fairly forgettable, just the opposite of last year's Contenders Draft Picks which again brings the fun of college action to baseball collectors.  Then we have a pair of horizontal '96s with a Stadium Club subset and Upper Deck checklist that co-stars fellow HOFer Chipper Jones.  Those are joined by another throw-in, a '91 Panini Sticker, and slightly larger '03 Fleer Double Header base.

All in all it was a nice purchase for Larkin whose total vaults up to 717 items, second only to fellow SS Cal Ripken Jr.

Former Michigan QB Rick Leach was a Tiger for the first three seasons of his career but today you'll see him with the Jays and Giants.  The first three are fun oddballs from Blue Jays Fire Safety sets made in 1984, '86, and '87.  Meanwhile, card #4's product should look fairly familiar to a number of you:  Mother's Cookies from 1990.  Those rounded cards are pretty solid food issues and are always fun to collect.  Last up is an item for which I finally caved and added to my cart:  a 1991 Leaf error that was supposed to depict San Fran P Jeff Brantley but actually stars Leach.  Once again I can call his collection complete!

1990 Dodgers Target card #2 is of Don Lund, a Brooklyn Dodger for parts of three seasons who was also a Tigers OF for four.  His BB-R entry notes that the Michigan alum is buried in Ann Arbor's Forest Hill Cemetery where several former University presidents as well as legendary coach Bo Schembechler are interred.

Outfielder Elliott Maddox was a Tiger for just one season a couple years after Detroit drafted him in the first round in '68, but that's good enough to include him today!  Here he is on the first card I've acquired since completing his checklist, another SSPC piece, in this case from 1975.  By the way, Maddox never did appear on a card with the Tigers; his '71 Topps RC shows him as a member of the Senators, another of his one-and-done clubs.

As with Leach I scored both oddballs and needed checklist cards of Hal Morris, a guy who played for both of the teams featured in this post but of course known mostly as a Red.  The top three cards you see are Columbus Clippers issues from 1988 (CMC and Police) and '89 (ProCards) from his time in the Yankees system.  It warms my heart every time I think about the 80s/90s Yanks suffering a World Series drought thanks to getting rid of guys like Hal.  The other two are 90s parallels from '96 Metal Universe (Platinum) and '98 Topps--the Minted in Cooperstown stamped cards that were, well, what it says right there.  I appreciated the small dent in Morris' checklist as I get closer to 75% of his run.

Pitcher Heath Murray was part of both systems I'm covering today but never played for the Reds.  He did appear in 14 games for the abysmal '01 Tigers (who'd get even worse in '03) which is why he's here today.  While I didn't land any of the five cards I need to complete his collection I did come up with a couple "others" to add from '94 Signature Rookies and Best's '96 Double-A All-Stars, with the latter being light years better in terms of design.

As I did with Maddox I was able to find a couple more cards to add to a completed PC, which in this case is late pitcher Ross Powell, a one-time Red.  He's shown with a couple of Cincy's Minor League clubs here:  the AA Chattanooga Lookouts (1990 Grand Slam) and AAA Nashville Sounds (1991 Line Drive AAA).  Minor League cards don't always have the greatest designs but they're fun to collect thanks to the many fun team names and the fact that they're sometimes the only way to get a player on cardboard.

OF Leon Roberts, who I just learned hit a grand slam off of fellow Michigan alum Geoff Zahn in 1978, is another guy whose collection I've long since completed--noticing a trend here?  But I always like to add more cards to a PC when I can, so I came up with this interesting quartet.  #1 is a return to the '75 SSPC set made during Roberts' second and final season with Detroit, the team that drafted him.  I also found him on a 1987 ProCards minor league issue as the manager of the Tigers' AAA affiliate in Toledo--another new fact I learned!  And you know what else I was previously ignorant of?  How about the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a 35+ league that featured a number of former stars that ran from 1989-90.  Leon appears here on 1989 cards representing this association from T/M and Topps.

Last up today is very well known Reds 3B Chris "Spuds" Sabo, and all three of these were checklist needs, so that was pretty exciting.  #1 is an '89 OPC base that leaves me five short of his run from the 80s, and I was glad to grab that because the brand sometimes carries a price premium on this side of the Canadian border.  Second is another junk wax era offering, 1990 Donruss Best NL, made a couple years after his NL ROY campaign.  And last up is a Gold Rush parallel of his 1994 Score Rookie/Traded base that shows him as an Oriole after he signed with Baltimore that year (before eventually returning to the Reds).  This trio gives me exactly 150 cards on his checklist out of the 210 I'm chasing, so it really feels like I'm making progress there.

Stay tuned for one more post like this one packed with a bunch of players, then three more solo posts featuring some very popular PCs!

2018 eBay purchases: not Mad about finishing another PC

As I think I mentioned recently I snuck in one more eBay purchase before April ended, and I was happy to find that envelope in my mailbox upon returning from a trip to visit friends.

This one comes with a bit of a story:  I'd been trying for months to find the last card I needed to complete one of my PCs and had had no luck when searching his name specifically.  Finally I thought to see if I could find it in a larger lot and that's when my luck changed.  I was fortunate to be working with a very responsive and reasonable seller who agreed to toss the card I needed in for a buck if I won one of her other auctions.  I readily agreed by picking up this guy:

This Greg Maddux 1994 Flair Hot Gloves insert was actually on my singles/players wantlist as well so I didn't mind paying maybe a bit over the usual price for it.  These super cool die-cut inserts could be found in Flair from 1994-96 and Flair Showcase in '97 and once again in 2006.  While Pacific ultimately made what I'd argue is a cooler version, Fleer was the first to come up with these fantastic looking cards that exemplify the creativity of the 90s.  And Maddux naturally fits into the set thanks to finishing his career with an insane 18 Gold Gloves, still a record!  I'm hoping to track down the Griffey and Ripken issues from this set eventually, plus subsequent versions of my PC guys.

And the card I was so excited to track down that I put in this much effort?  Ross Powell's 1994 Score Boys of Summer insert.  This was the last card I needed to nail down his seven-card PC, making him the 15th complete Michigan Baseball player collection I've knocked off.  And it really did take some effort as this was one of those cards I may have seen available somewhere once, then never again.

These could be found in Super Packs (I'm assuming jumbos) of '94 Score as part of a 60-card set, where 25 different teams were represented, especially the expansion Marlins (a set-leading five cards) and Rockies (four, tied for second).  The late Powell was one of two Reds, and he fits in with lots of other guys that are head-scratchers more than 20 years later.  However, a few future stars did figure in such as Mike Piazza, Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, and Chipper Jones.

Considering the way I keep adding new supercollection chases to my PCs it's nice to finally finish up another one.  That leaves me with three players with just a single card between them and completion:  Jake Fox, Steve Howe, and Bobby Korecky.  You can see all three of those needs at the top-right of this here blog under "Too Many Cards I Really Need".

With these covered I have one more eBay post scheduled for each blog and I'm looking forward to showing off those purchases.  But for more reading today please head over to TMM and check out the latest envelope I got from Jeff over at My Sports Obsession!

2017 Sportlots purchases: RIP and PCs

An amazing World Series has given way to a rough last few weeks for Major League Baseball after the tragic deaths of retired Blue Jays and Phillies ace Roy Halladay (plan crash) and top Red Sox prospect Daniel Flores (cancer), who was just 17.  Unfortunately, another former player passed unexpectedly a couple weeks ago as well, and this time it affected the Michigan Baseball family and one of my player collections.

Former Wolverines pitcher Ross Powell and his dad were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a van they were using for their recently-opened lawn care company.  Ross was just 49 and his dad was 72.  Their tragic passing was on my mind as the baseball world mourned an all-time great in Halladay and a potential future star in Flores.  Needless to say I extend my condolences to the families of each and hope MLB honors each of their contributions to the game.

While I already showed off my Powell pickups from Sportlots in my last post (along with those of another too-soon deceased player in Steve Howe), I do have some items today representing a couple former Wolverine baseballers and PC guys that have long since passed:  Charlie Gehringer (1993) and George Sisler (1973).  I had a great time tracking down a good bunch of cards of each, many of which skew more towards the oddball side, making it even more fun to add them to those collections.  So enjoy these new cards of a couple Hall-of-Famers:

Let's start with the Mechanical Man.  Gehringer's haul begins with a 1980s trio, with a 1983 Donruss HOF Heroes leading off.  Those Dick Perez works of art were just becoming a Donruss staple back then.  Next is a 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats, another fun example of 80s holograms.  That's followed by the very recognizable 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats, with a great casual shot of ol' Charlie.

The next four hail from the large multi-year Conlon product of the early 90s, with the first two coming out of the 1992 version, the third from '93, and the last from '94.  I love that the second '92 card goes with Charlie's awesome nickname right up front.

Last up is Gehringer's base card from the excellent 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends set.  This product paired classic photos with a beautiful design--so basically, a typical Upper Deck issue.

I also found a couple cards of non-standard size.  On the left is a 2003 Upper Deck Play Ball 1941 Reprint, which is probably as close as I'll get to that card, at least for a while.  The smaller card on the right is a 2011 TRISTAR Obak T212 Mini, and like the Conlon earlier it also has the "Mechanical Man" nickname.

My Gehringer collection remains small, but this ten-spot at least bumps it up to 44.

Now we'll move over to "Gorgeous" George Sisler (don't worry, none of these cards feature that nickname).  Like Gehringer, his first scan begins with three cards from the 1980s.  First is George's card from the 1977-84 Galasso Glossy Greats set (with Sisler's card hailing from the 1980 version focusing on the '20s), an issue that made me look into the name and find out that it was a TCMA product given out to folks that bought complete sets from early dealer Renata Galasso.  Very cool!  That's followed by a Pacific Legends card from the same year, one that features a grinning Sisler in a photo we'll see twice more in this post.  The last of the trio is from a 1985 Woolworth's Topps boxed set that focused on all-time records, in this case George's then-lead in hits in a season (257).

As was also the case with Gehringer, I found four of Sisler's Conlon TSN issues, with these hailing from 1991, 1992, and a pair from '93.  The quartet manages to depict him with two of his three career teams:  St. Louis and Boston (Braves).

The final two cards in this scan are a bit more modern.  The first hails from 2001's version of one of my all-time favorite products, SP Legendary Cuts.  There's that Sisler grin again!  Boy would I love to have a cut signature of this all-time great.  That's joined by one of his two issues in 2010 Topps' Legends of the Games insert set.  This one, showing him as a St. Louis Brown, is from the flagship product while the other, which I don't have yet, came out of 2010 Update and includes a Braves photo instead.

Finishing off 2010, the first card we have here is one of Sisler's two appearances in that year's Topps National Chicle base set; I currently lack the St. Louis Cardinals SP version that can also be found.  Also, that smile looks mighty familiar....  Next is a base card from Panini's excellent 2012 Cooperstown product--a card I surprisingly lacked despite owning two of the very cool colored parallels.  Speaking of 2010s Panini, we'll finish up the regular sized cards with Sisler's base from 2014 Classics, featuring a slightly altered repeat photo from the previous card.

Opting for small ball, we'll end today's post on a pair of 2011 Topps-branded minis.  On the left is one of his four appearances in that year's Gypsy Queen Minis set--he also has a Browns issue, and each of those has an SP version with a different photo.  To its right is the very vintagey looking Kimball Champions insert that was somewhat oddly included in 2011 flagship.

14 new Sislers put his collection at a nice even 80.

I'll be back with more stuff from my huge Sportlots haul soon, but first it's time to show off some new trade packages, so watch out for those soon!

2017 Sportlots purchases: Rich on the Hill (and other guys)

For a huge number of baseball fans like myself, Christmas came early this past Saturday when the World Series-bound Houston Astros gave us all the gift of Yankees Elimination Day!  Houston celebrated its fifth year in the AL by taking home the pennant, largely thanks to this here blog's namesake, Justin Verlander.

But I don't have any cards of him to show off today, and as a matter of fact I'll be pulling for JV's opponents, the Dodgers, this Series--even though they (rightfully) left former this here blog namesake Curtis Granderson off the roster.  Why?  Just look at L.A.'s starter for game 2--one Rich Hill, he of the incredible comeback a couple seasons ago that culminated in consecutive playoff appearances with his latest team.

In his first taste of the postseason since 2007, Hill went 1-1 in three playoff appearances last year, winning his lone start--game 3--of the NLDS to the eventual champion Cubs.  Now he's taking the mound for the favored Dodgers in game 2 of the Fall Classic--crazy!

That made me do some quick digging to find out the last time a Michigan alum

• ...made it to the playoffs (Hill, 2016 Dodgers)
• ...made it to the World Series (Barry Larkin, Hal Morris, Chris Sabo, 1990 Reds)
• ...won a World Series (that same Reds group)
• ...participated in the World Series as a pitcher (Steve Howe, 1981 Dodgers)
• ...won a World Series as a pitcher (Howe, 1981 Dodgers)

So this is a pretty significant game for one of my favorite PC guys and you know I'll be watching!  To celebrate, I have some Sportlots pickups of both Hill and Howe, plus some of a few other guys who came in at four or fewer cards in my enormous 1000-ish card haul from the site:

In grabbing these flagship and Archives issues I finally got my first 2017 cards of Hill, and therefore my first of him in a Dodgers uniform, because why would Topps have done that in last year's Update set?  Or even Series 1 this year?  God I miss those idiots having competition.  I'm back up to around the 2/3 mark of his run though that doesn't include his Chrome Sapphire releases, which I haven't been able to checklist yet.

While filling my cart with loot of the other PC guys you'll see in this series, I dug deep for everyone I collect just in case, hence the appearance of a few guys today such as Dransfeldt, the former Texas farmhand.  I turned up a couple minor league issues from 1999:  Baseball America Diamond Best Gold and Just.  Both were decent products and I've always liked the look of the BA set (not to mention the magazine and its excellent prospect coverage).

Here's the other World Series-winner I mentioned (as a Dodger!), Steve Howe.  Throughout this post and the rest of the series you'll see a good number of oddball items, mainly from the 80s and early 90s, after I let loose and grabbed almost literally everything of my PCs that was $0.20 or under.  Such is the case here as we have a couple 1983 Fleer offerings:  a Star Stamp (you can kind of make out the perforations in the scan) and a Sticker as well.

Getting back to mainstream issues for my supercollections, here's my favorite card of the post:  David Parrish's 2001 Topps Chrome Retrofractor.  A parallel of a RC he shared with fellow catching prospect Scott Heard of the Rangers, this is one of the best Refractor-type cards Topps produced, and that's saying something!  It features the typically excellent parallel finish, which looks great with that shade of green, plus it includes an old-school cardboard texture on the back to give it that "retro" feel.  My 20th card of the son of former Tigers backstop Lance leaves me just two shy of his run!

I belatedly discovered that Powell was a Michigan alum around this time last year, and in the roughly 12 months since, I've tracked down all but one of his seven cards.  The '94 Score Gold Rush parallel on the right was no problem as I could have nabbed it several times if I didn't mind paying more, but the Pinnacle Artist's Proof from the same year is one of those issues I was beginning to think didn't exist!  I was so shocked when it turned up that I immediately made sure to buy it before it disappeared, either in a sale or as a mirage.  Now I'm just left chasing his '94 Score Boys of Summer insert, a copy of which I've seen online so I know it's extant!

Just as I was happy to see Rich Hill finally appear in 2017 flagship Series 2, I was also pleasantly surprised that injured White Sox RP Zach Putnam also gained admittance, his first in a flagship product, not to mention his first mainstream issue since 2010!  I now get to chase his rainbow from that set while I try to lock up the final three cards I need from his earlier cardboard appearances.

By my reckoning Putz is the made the next most recent appearance by a Michigan alum in the playoffs, Arizona's 2011 NLDS loss to the Brewers.  As with Putnam I only tracked down one card of the former closer, a 2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue parallel made the same year as his sunset season.  It's my ninth from that rainbow with a good number of parallels still to go.

Howe's not the only player for whom I went all oddball, all the time.  I'd long since completed the checklist of Sorensen, a late 70s/80s pitcher for seven different teams, when I managed to come up with these fun additions:  another 1983 Fleer Sticker (we're not done with those yet!), another sticker from Topps' 1984 version (shared with Royal Larry Gura), and a standard-sized 1990 Swell Baseball Greats.  Man did people in the 80s look weird....

We'll finish at the end of the alphabet with another pitcher whose checklist I've had completed for a while:  Geoff Zahn.  Another former Dodger, Zahn appeared in the 1982 postseason with an Angels squad that lost to Milwaukee, who'd lose in seven to the Cardinals.  I added three more stickers to my collection in the form of Zahn's entries from 1983 Fleer and Topps and 1985 Topps.  Then I went big--literally--with Geoff's 1985 Donruss Action All Stars, a large 3.5 x 5 inch release from a 60-card set.  Adding these four boosted me to a nice even total of 40 Zahn cards.

And with that I'm off to watch two of my favorite PC pitchers duke it out on baseball's grandest stage!  Good luck to both in what I hope continues to be a classic Series.

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 Sportlots purchases: the Pinnacle of PC success

At some point last month I had the sudden realization that my '96 Pinnacle set wasn't quite as complete as I thought; I had one of each card but five of those were the Foil parallels found in Series II.  They're not quite as noticeable in scans but as I ran through my set the reflective foil was unmistakable.  Oh well...TO SPORTLOTS!

In the end I don't feel all that bad about this mistake since it turned into a new card each for my Jim Abbott and Greg Maddux collections.  Abbott's card is his second in the set as he has one in each series, and Maddux is shown on one of his two checklists out of three overall Series II issues (to go with one entry in the first series).  A Dante Bichette Hardball Heroes subset along with a pair of former Dodgers, Ismael Valdes and Greg Gagne, rounds out the group.

Set complete.  Um, again.  Sweet!

But that's not all I grabbed from these couple sellers this time since I was trying to do my usual shipping cost optimization.  So why not see how much they could help out my PCs?  As it turned out, a pretty good amount:

Here's a pair of Kirk Gibsons from early 2000s Upper Deck products:  2003 Sweet Spot Classic and 2004 SP Legendary Cuts.  I just can't get enough of these products because their base sets were solid along with the fantastic autographs they included.

I don't usually get to show off this many new Rich Hills at once these days so this quartet of 2016 Topps stuff has me in a pretty good mood.  From the 2016 flagship rainbow we have 65th Anniversary and Limited Edition stamped parallels along with Hill's Topps Mini base.  Hooray for more unnecessary parallels!  I'm up to six of the 18 rainbow cards with more on the way soon.

Joining those is a very classy looking entry from 2016 Heritage High Numbers.  With that one out of the way I'll need to track down four parallels, but at least I've already found the Advertising Panel, which I didn't even know existed until finding it on COMC the other day!

My new Hill count is 257/374, though as I'm sure I've said a few times recently, I hope he'll make some appearances in 2017 products to bump up that denominator.  Topps unceremoniously ignored him in Series I--hey, who'd be interested in a guy who plays for the Dodgers, doesn't have any cards yet with that team (Topps Now doesn't count, not now, not ever), and was a big story in the regular season and playoffs in 2016?

I managed to find the same flagship trio for new LA Angel Ryan LaMarre that I did for Hill, and the fun photo should make for a good looking rainbow when all is said and done.  I have five of those 18, including his base card and the very rare Framed parallel, as part of 26 of his 54 issues to-date.

I don't always have a ton of luck adding this many cards of Barry Larkin at once either; Sure, there's plenty more to choose from compared to a guy like Hill, but the HOF SS's cards also tend to cost more.  Not in this case, though, as everything you see set me back the minimum $0.18 price (Hill and LaMarre had the only cards that cost $0.25 or more in this case).  One of my favorite Bowman's Best designs, the '96 version, kicks things off, and another card from that year, one of Larkin's Score Dugout Collection parallels, follows.  I went back to the Bowman's Best well with his card from '98, a set that's a bit lower on my list.  Finally, enough time has passed from when I busted lots of '99 Fleer Tradition packs and got sick of the Vintage '61 inserts that I gladly added Barry's card on that old-school design.

Lastly, I managed to triple the number of cards in one of my PCs with this pair of Ross Powells.  A pitcher who was Larkin's teammate for all of nine games in '93, Powell is one of the newest members of my collection since I managed to miss the fact that he was a Michigan Baseball alum who appeared on MLB cards.  I introduced him in a TMM post last year after picking up just one of his seven cards I need to track down, a '94 Pinnacle Museum Collection parallel, and now I'm back with a couple more cards from that year (which is actually the only year during which Ross made it onto some cardboard).  On the left is the base version of that Pinnacle card, in all its full-bleed glory, and to the right is a card from Score which may have been taken at the same game;  Both are rookies, naturally.

I'm hoping I won't have too much difficulty landing the other four, though I have yet to see the Pinnacle Artist's Proof anywhere!

Hey, sometimes a mistake ends up being something productive for your collection.  Kudos once again to Sportlots for helping pad my PCs!