April 19 card show report part 2 of 2: quarter/$0.50 boxes and more!

It's Thursday and I'm finally getting around to showing off the rest of my haul from last Saturday's show.  My post on Sunday covered the 2013 UD Football box I grabbed while my TMM post on Monday included the Wolverines I landed.  Today's includes cards I kind of alluded to in that TMM post, when I mentioned my two non-box purchases:

• Three hits in a three for $5 deal, plus a pair of Wolverines for $10, totaling $15
• 25 quarter cards from a box where they were 25 for $5, and 24 $0.50 cards where the deal was 12 for $5, so another $15 there

Besides what you see below, a bunch of what I picked up was trade bait, mostly of the variety that'll allow me to send out a bunch of PWEs very soon!  Nothing huge, but fun stuff for everyone involved, I think.  Considering I flipped through probably eight monster boxes worth of singles, I think I did pretty well.

Here's what I landed for myself:

These all came out of the $0.25 and $0.50 boxes.  I hit two of my major non-Tiger PCs in Gwynn and Maddux, and I'm always happy to add fun inserts of guys like that.  If you guys like the middle UD Gwynn insert, I'll give a little teaser that someone's gonna get that insert of a player they really like!  I already have the '96 Ultra On-Base Leaders Gwynn (a set that taught me about the statistic, by the way), but this one is the Gold Medallion version, as you can see in the bottom-right corner.  The rest of this scan goes Braves heavy as I picked up both the 10th Anniversary Preview and 10th Anniversary Team inserts of Maddux from 1999 UD.  The Chipper was a cool looking insert celebrating Atlanta's '95 title, and I have good memories of him playing in the '90s and 2000s.  Next, I found a pair of Hudson Refractors, which seemed like a good idea since I'm starting to collect him a bit more.  And finally, I dug up a Lou Whitaker 2nd-year card from 1979 Topps, which was as "sweet" as Lou was.

Next up is the majority of cards I found in the $0.50 box.  A few--maybe three or four--were together early on and my interest was piqued.  Then I found more and assembled all I could find.  As it turns out, these are the Hall of Fame Plaque inserts from 2002 Fleer Fall Classics.  It's a 30-card set done up in the style of a Hall of Fame plaque (including die-cutting) that features an embossed image of the player on the front and a brief write-up that spans both sides, followed by serial-numbering to the year of the player's enshrinement, like-a so:

It looked like a fun set to work on, and since I was able to pick up 19 of the 30 cards for under $10, I decided to go for it!  The group of 11 I'm missing includes some of the bigger names, but I doubt I'll have too much difficulty completing the set at a reasonable price.  You can find my wants on my recently-reinstated baseball set wantlist.  I'll show off the whole set when I have it.

Troy Tulowitzki 2007 Ultra Rookie Autographs auto (#284/499)

Finally, I landed this Tulo autograph (my second, actually) from the other guy that also had a couple Wolverines for me.  When I saw this card in the 50-count plastic case with other hits, I figured he'd tell me it didn't belong there, but to my surprise he didn't bat an eyelash.  How much do you think I paid?  $10?  At least $5, right?  No way, dude--this was one of the three hits I landed for just $5 total!  Did this guy know something about Tulowitzki I don't?  Whatever the case, it was a great score for me, along with a couple hits I'll be sending in a future trade.  I'm adding this to my baseball autograph PC, but I'm also open to trading it if anyone would like to make me a tempting offer.  There was no way I could go wrong getting this card for less than $2, either to keep or trade, and I'd have to call it my find of the show.

So that's how I did this time.  As usual, I'm not sure when I'll be heading back, but I'll probably hit up at least one more before the year's up.  Stay tuned for some more new stuff soon!

Huddy's still my buddy!

Hey guys!  Do you remember how I showed off a pretty cool triple relic card of Tim Hudson a few weeks ago, featured in this post?  Well this month my spending has been comparably light because I'm avoiding COMC until its catalog gets rebuilt and the backlog of submissions is taken care of.  Because of that, I was able to go after some wants on eBay, and that included a card I've wanted for quite a while.  The price for the one in this post has been all over the place, but about $9 and a few days later, I landed a great new pickup of Hudson, one of my all-time favorite non-Tigers:

Tim Hudson 2000 SPx auto (#0232/1500)

I've long admired the shiny holographic/gold look of the 2000 SPx set, and better yet, the on-card autos from the product.  Hudson has plenty of others out there, but this is the one I've been locked onto for years (with a Sweet Spot being choice #2).  I didn't think I'd be able to find one for under $15 plus shipping, but after checking out some completed listings I started to get more optimistic, and I ended up with surprisingly little competition in this particular auction.

Thanks to the beautiful Tools of the Trade card from last time, I'm in the perfect position to post a trifecta of Hudson soon since I also have a RC to add to that album, and that may inspire me to great a "trifectas and more" page on this blog since I have a few other good examples.

So hooray for a new PC addition that doesn't fall into my Tigers and Michigan Baseball collections but still makes me happy and was therefore totally a worthwhile purchase!  Also, hooray for the return of Huddy's health and effectiveness this season after his last one ended so painfully--it's great to see him back in business!

2014 COMC pickups #2: Huddy's my buddy

I'm a bit tired from a couple days of doing a bit of OT, but I've got another single I've been dying to show off, and fortunately it arrived with my COMC package on Monday.  While I've still got a nice bunch of Tigers to get to, here's one of my favorite pickups from this month:

Tim Hudson 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Swatch Triple Prime Red jersey-jersey-hat (#23/50)

Whoa dude!  I love the '05 Tools of the Trade set (here's my Bagwell from the same product) as it features a number of really nice cards like this Hudson, with the only hitch being that they can sometimes get kinda pricey.  Not so with this one, believe it or not--it set me back a measly $5.50!  Not bad for a triple relic that includes two "prime" swatches (it's not a patch if it doesn't say "patch") and the relatively uncommon hat piece.  Better yet, the left jersey is a fantastic looking swatch, and the hat is bursting with so much color it literally comes off the card!  Even the weak link middle swatch at least shows a bit of stitching.

Don't assume that I picked this up for the combination of swatches and price, though--although he's not as high on my list as others, I'm still a pretty big fan of Hudson, who's quietly had an excellent career.  In 15 years he's gone 205-111, finished in the top six of the AL Cy Young voting four times (#2 in 2000) and compared well to another winning percentage ace, CC Sabathia.  Sadly, though, none of his teams has ever won a playoff series, with Hudson going 1-3 over six losing efforts.  That's really the only knock on his career to this point, though.  I'm hoping he can bounce back well from last year's gruesome ankle fracture and get back to business as usual.  He's a guy with a reasonable shot at a plaque in the Hall, and I for one am rooting for him to punch his ticket when all is said and done.

Stay tuned for more COMC pickups now that I've got everything scanned, labeled, and uploaded!

2013 trade package #25: Coot Veal's keeping it real on the west siiiide

Hey, it's another trade post!  You know, trading, the thing I said I was gonna do more of this year, then haven't done nearly as much as I should?

Dustin of Coot Veal and the Vealtones posted a card I really wanted that led to a trade that grew and grew until it clocked in at 100% awesome.  He actually sent his end before I had his stuff ready to go, and now I'm finally getting around to posting it.  Here's the goods:

Dustin is the western Michigan version of me, meaning we collect many of the same things.  Case in point:  Tigers.  This is a great mix of new and old Tigers, including base and inserts.  You just can't beat the variety, especially when you've got a Kaline and Gibby mixed in with a numbered Boesch and a Zumaya sans facial hair!

Three words:  seven many Grandersons!  I've got a few of the Generation Nows now, so I may casually pursue those in the future.  And this is a good reminder that I really need to get around to scanning my Grandersons.

Sure, past Tigers are impressive, but how about VINTAGE past Tigers?  The Niekro would be a fine subject for Hot Corner Cards' Twilight Tigers series.

"Yeah, yeah," you say, "where's the really good stuff you always leave til the end?"  Fear not, hypothetical reader:

Cliff Mapes 1952 Bowman

Dustin casually tossed this into the trade like it was nothing, which I guess it wasn't for him since this was a double.  I'd have to check, but this is very likely the oldest card in my PC, and the fact that it's a Tiger makes it that much cooler.  I scored another '52 Bowman Tiger on COMC for Mr. Veal in return for this one.

As it turns out, 1952 was Mapes' final season in the Bigs, and his only with Detroit.  Over five years he also played for the Yanks and the St. Louis Browns.  Naturally, since he was with New York for a few seasons, he won a pair of rings.  And there's a fine example of how a baseball card can give you a history lesson.  THE MORE YOU KNOW.

Tim Hudson 2011 Topps Allen and Ginter Relics jersey

When this fell out of the package I was confused for a minute, then vaguely remembered possibly letting Dustin know I'd be interested in picking it up in a future trade.  Though I don't talk about him much around here, Hudson's one of my favorite non-Tiger ballplayers.  He's been a fun (and effective) guy to watch since his years with Oakland, and I have nothing but respect for a player that can go out and put up the results he does.  I was definitely saddened to hear about his freak ankle injury, and I hope he can come back stronger than before.  Anyway, I do like Topps' framed relic cards, and this A&G looks great, so I was very happy to end up with it after all.

Kirk Gibson 2007 Sweet Spot Classic Classic Memorabilia jersey

Gibby!  I believe this was another of the Coot's doubles, and since Gibson is one of my all-time favorite Tigers, I happily accepted its addition to the deal.  You Dodger fans can remember his big moment in '88 for as long as you want, but he'll forever be a Tiger, homering twice in 1984's game five, with Sparky yelling "He don't wanna walk you!  He don't wanna walk you!" in reference to Goose Gossage's choice to pitch to him.  This is my sixth Gibson hit--two each of autographs, bats, and jerseys!

Jeremy Bonderman 2010 Upper Deck UD Game Jersey jersey

Miguel Cabrera 2010 Upper Deck UD Game Jersey jersey

These last two ended up in the deal together, and as it turns out, both guys are again teammates in 2013, which is very cool.  I would never say no to a pair of current Tigers relics when they're of players like these two.  I now own four Bondo jerseys and five of Mr. Triple Crown (plus an auto and manupatch).  These rounded out what turned out to be a very satisfying Tiger-centric trade package.

To see the last couple cards I picked up, please head on over to TMM; I'd argue it's worth it as one of them was the impetus for the trade.

Once again, thanks a ton to Dustin for an easy and fantastic deal.  I was thrilled to work out another trade that was even better than our first one from last year.  I hope you enjoy your stuff, and that we can get another swap in the works soon.  Readers, please mosey on over to Coot Veal and the Vealtones for some cool Coot collecting!