2020 eBay purchase: As Many As I Can Getz

Coming hot on the heels off of my latest PWE from Paul, today's post covers another envelope that arrived the same day as his: another eBay purchase from my favorite eBay seller markaguirre22. He had a bunch of great Michigan Baseball items for sale including higher-end stuff like those sweet Topps Clear parallels limited to 10 copies, and other cards that were even more exclusive.

While I lost most of those at the last minute I still came away with a pair of wins at just a buck apiece, plus the dude threw in extras he knew I'd like, as he often does:

The two I won are on the ends of the top of the scan. Chris Getz's 2010 Topps 206 Mini Cycle was the last of his cards I needed from that "rainbow", and Getz's run from the set in its entirety. The Cycle minis were the toughest to find, numbered to 99 copies, and while they aren't particularly rare, I'd never seen one of Chris's cards at a reasonable price until now. More on that set in just a bit.

The other new addition was Getz's 2014 Topps Mini Pink parallel. This is of course the year where his photo has former Tiger Andy Dirks coming in hot and appearing to threaten the 2B's future hopes of having children. Compared to the flagship version which is number /50, the Mini set's card is twice as rare with just 25 copies made, and the one I got is #09/25. I now lack just the Black version /5, which I believe was one of the auctions I lost here. Oh well, I'll get one eventually!

The extras included a Getz Piedmont mini from the 206 set, which I already have--so Jeff will be the beneficiary if the seller's generosity, unless he doesn't want it for some reason--and Rich Hill's 2020 Topps Update base, which I did need. A super cheap common may not seem like much but it's certainly a nice way to keep me buying from you (as if the quick free shipping wasn't enough by itself).

Here's a quick look at the backs, which I've made an effort to show more often when I have a low number of cards to scan. Plus they're a bit more relevant today thanks to the minis.

And since I only had to scan four cards I went ahead and grabbed the rest of the Topps 206 Getz items I had to show off the rainbow (*not included is Mini Framed American Caramel auto, which is not a parallel version):

Pictured: top: base, Bronze parallel

bottom: American Caramel mini, Cycle mini, Old Mill mini, Piedmont mini, Polar Bear mini

I'm not generally one for mini cards, or parallels where the only difference is on the back, but these are kind of a fun way to look at the history of trading cards.

Now that I've posted these it may finally be time for me to show off the other massive trade I received from TCDB. I'll have some fun COMC items to show off at some point but haven't shipped the ones I purchased for myself yet (hmmm, interesting statement...) and haven't decided if I'll pay to get them rushed to arrive before the end of the year or wait until March. And who knows, other stuff may appear unexpectedly before then!

In the meantime, if you're perusing eBay, please consider Gary (markaguirre22), a trustworthy seller who offers free shipping on top of great prices! (#notsponsored)

2017 eBay purchase: Howe I completed another rainbow

I've got one more July trade package for you, but I'm enjoying this one-card-at-a-time thing on this lazy holiday weekend, so let's have a look at a couple cards I picked up on eBay at the end of that month.  One of those is Michigan Football-related and can therefore be seen on TMM this evening, and the other is a Michigan Baseball alum, which means I'm posting it here as part of my baseball PCs.

It's pretty likely almost anybody reading this here blog is familiar with the auto-per-pack 1996 Leaf Signature set, a product that caused quite the commotion back when it came out since that kind of thing was pretty much unheard of at the time.  There's a much smaller chance that you were aware that I completed the Bronze/Silver/Gold autograph trifecta for one of my Michigan Baseball PC guys, Mike Matheny (and posted it on my Completed Nameplates and Rainbows page).

Well, I'm happy to announce that I've completed a similar trio:  that of former pitcher Steve Howe:

This Gold auto is the last one I needed, and it became mine for under $7 delivered, which isn't bad considering how much some of these can go for.  As others did, Steve signed a total of 5000 of his cards, broken up into Bronze (3500), Silver (1000), and Gold (500).  Those print runs seem large today but were minuscule by 1996 standards!

Here's all three cards for your viewing pleasure:

With that one out of the way, I currently own 80 of Howe's 81 cards, and just need to track down his 1994 Stadium Club Team First Day Issue parallel.  I've never seen it for sale in any of the usual places I buy cards (or a few others I generally don't) but I'll keep my eyes peeled, and I hope some of you will too!

Happy rainbow day!

On a day where millions of Americans are celebrating overturning gay marriage bans in all 50 states--a victory over ignorance, injustice, and the ridiculous use of religion in politics--I thought I'd celebrate in my own way with a rainbow in the best way I know how:  with cards!

Most of you know I'm a big player collector, but most of those players get featured over on TMM since my supercollections outside of Lou Whitaker are all Wolverines, so I don't know how many of you have seen my Completed Nameplates and Rainbows page over there, not that I've added to it in quite a while.

Well, I finally have another rainbow to show off, and it's one I completed way back in October of last year:

These are the nine cards comprising Chris Getz's 2013 Topps Update rainbow (which features one of my favorite all-time Getz photos):

• Base
• Black (#09/62)
• Camo (#15/99)
• Emerald
• Gold (#0771/2013)
• Pink (#30/50)
• Sapphire (#02/25)
• Target Red
• Walmart Blue

It may not exactly be ROYGBIV but I'll take a one-scan rainbow any day!

Once again, congratulations to those who fought so hard for equal rights and above all, a very good cause:  love.

A Grand quest for a rainbow

As I was flipping through some of my player collections, I realized I had four versions of Curtis Granderson's 2009 Topps Chrome card:

Base

Blue Refractor (#009/199)

 Refractor

X-Fractor

I believe these all came in various trades, though the only one that stands out to me is my favorite, the Blue Refractor, which I got from former Mojo-Beard blogger Mojo.  It does a great job of capturing the essence of Granderson during his too-brief tenure with the Tigers:  speeding around the basepaths, giving an all-out effort, getting his uniform dirty.  He's definitely a much different player now that he's with the hated Yankees, but we Tigers fans will always have great memories of Curtis' ebullient and talented play in the Motor City.

I'm not just showing these off randomly, though--I'd like to complete the non-1/1 rainbow.  That means I just need the Gold Refractor (#d /50) and Red Refractor (#d /25).  Ahhhh, the days before parallels got out of hand!  I know there's a Red on COMC, and really I could probably buy both of these if I wanted, but before I go in that direction, I thought it would be fun to try to finish this rainbow up as it began:  with trades. So if you or someone you know has either or both of those versions, please let me know and we'll set up a mutually-beneficial trade!  I won't be changing the name of this blog back to its original one, but if I can complete this project the way I'd like to, I'll find a cool way to celebrate.  So please help me finish up this rainbow!

A December You Complete Me AND Rainbow Additions

This post would have come sooner but I had decided to consolidate everything into one post and part of this haul only arrived today after the Sportlots seller neglected to, you know, actually ship the cards to me until this week, though we worked that out without incident.

So, what do I have for you today?  How about one eBay purchase and two Sportlots packages that equal two new rainbow cards and a bunch of baseball set wantlist help?

Gonna gonna gonna gonna gonna gonna buy me a rainbow, continued:

A quick purchase on eBay (I'm not letting these suckers get away as they're getting rarer) netted me this guy:

This is the Emerald jersey version from that rainbow I've been working on so hard for the last couple months.  This simple but pinstriped jersey is numbered out of 25, making it one of the rarer versions I have in the group, though I do have two /10 and two others /25.  It's a sharp card and I'm glad I picked one up that includes a nice Cubbies pinstripe.  This card goes along well with...

this Light Blue version of the jersey.  Much more common as it's #d /200, it's nonetheless an important part of the set.  This one arrived as part of the Sportlots package I was impatiently waiting for this morning, and it means there's only one card left on my wantlist that's numbered as high as 100--the Red jersey, which I have yet to see anywhere up to this point.  I'm now just seven cards away from the 30-card rainbow, and including that Red jersey, the average numbering dips to 28; make it 16.5 as soon as I pick that one up.  While I'm mentioning stats, how about a hand for the new leader in hits in any of my PCs now that Hill's 35 have surpassed Jake Long's 34 to take the crown?

You Complete Me, including an actual completed set:

As I mentioned, two packages, which I'll combine into one.

2001 Donruss Rookie Reprints:  1 (complete)
2002 Bowman:  2
2004 Topps Traded (set 2):  14
2005 Fleer Tradition:  17 (only need 2)
2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites:  2
2005 Topps Chrome:  19
2008 Topps Series 2 (set 2): 1
2008 Upper Deck Heroes:  10 (only need 3)
2009 Bowman:  10 (only need 4)
2009 Bowman Prospects: 8 (only need 6)
2009 Bowman WBC Prospects:  2 (only need 2)
2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects:  7
Totals:  93 cards, 12 sets, 1 complete

I'm obviously most excited about completing the 2001 Donruss Rookie Reprints set since I already went ahead and did a post about it on Tuesday.  Getting that final card, the Andres Galarraga 1986, was the impetus for the first of the pair of buys, and it led to a few more cards from 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites, 2009 Bowman and 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects.  The Light Blue Rich Hill above spurred the other buy which included lots more cards from the other sets listed and put a nice dent in most of those.    By my count I have nine sets that need 10 cards or fewer, meaning another Sportlots run may not be far behind.

Now that I've blogged all of that, I'm not sure what else will follow because I have nothing else in the pipeline at the moment.  Still, a new year, college bowls and a potential Lions playoff run leave the door open for new stuff very soon.  Until then, I hope everyone continues to enjoy the holiday season and that some of you get to enjoy the benefit of a week off like I am!

Merry eBay 1/1...boxing day?

As a follow-up to Thursday's post, another of my eBay purchases arrived yesterday:

Rich Hill's 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Autographs Red.  I know it seems crazy that I've been picking up a bunch of stuff in a small amount of time, but considering how limited some of these are--including this one being numbered 10/10--I know I have to strike while the iron's hot.  I should also point out that I really did get this card at a steal of a BIN price--less than I've spent on higher-numbered non-autographed cards in this rainbow, even.

All that said, I now have 21/30 cards in the rainbow, with a couple more en route to me, which is very exciting, as you might expect.  Some pertinent stats:

• This ties with the Jersey Autograph Navy Blue for lowest print run I own at 10
• It's the penultimate card I need that's just autographed, the last being the Purple version /5
• The average print run of the nine cards I still need is now 47
• Remaining types of cards I need:
• Base parallels:  2 (Light Blue /49, Purple /25)
• Autographs:  1 (Purple /5)
• Jersey Autograph:  1 (Emerald /5)
• Jersey:  3 (Light Blue /200, Red /100, Emerald /25)
• Patch:  2 (Beige /10, Purple /5)
• I'm now at 32 different Rich Hill hits, and of course 21 of those are from this rainbow

You should see a couple more from this project within a few days as I await a final eBay purchase, plus a couple Sportlots buys, which are also exciting because they'll produce a complete set I've been dying to show off.

Merry eBay 1/1mas!

Another of the exciting eBay purchases I alluded to a couple times this week arrived today:

Rich Hill's 2008 Upper Deck Heroes Autographs Beige.  Yes, beige, I know.  As you can clearly see, this guy is #d 01/25.  I didn't get it specifically because of that--I got it because it's the only one I've seen so far, and better yet, the seller was very cool and took my best offer on an auction where he actually hadn't set that up.  As these are getting hard to find, such a gesture is very significant and I certainly appreciated it.  

This version ties for my second-lowest number in the rainbow thus far with the Patch Light Blue; the Jersey Autograph Navy Blue tops the list at 10 copies made.  In case you're interested, the new average numbering for the remaining cards I need is 43, mainly thanks to a /100 and /200; after those two are gone, the highest-numbered version will be /49 and the new average will be 17!

I'm now exactly 2/3 of the way done with this 30-card rainbow, and fortunately I have a line on a couple other copies.  Just as encouraging is the fact that this is Rich Hill hit #31 for me, comprising almost half my Michigan baseball PC!

Coming up in the next couple days watch for at least two more eBay posts (unless those somehow arrive at the same time) plus a Sportlots package.

Card show report: 11/27: a No Relics Rainbow

Dustin (No Relics Pulled) and I hit up another of the monthly Gibraltar Trade Center (Taylor, MI) card shows this past Sunday, and I'll get to my pickups in a couple future posts, but first I wanted to show off the goods he brought along to complete our most recent ongoing trade.  (Side note:  in-person trading is the best and I wish I could do it more often, but I've been lucky to be able to meet with both Dustin and Jeff at least once, so that's a plus)  

So to even us up this time, Dustin put in some time on COMC and, aside from getting some exciting stuff for himself that I can't wait to see, made excellent use of my singles wantlist page and went at it with a vengeance like his name was John McClane.  The results?:

Bill Freehan 1964 Topps

Bill Freehan 1966 Topps

Bill Freehan 1974 Topps

Bill Freehan 1968 Topps Game

Bill Freehan 1975 Topps

That's a whopping FIVE cards I needed for my Freehan player collection, meaning I'm down to just eight.  This group is interesting because it includes what are now my oldest (1964) and most recent (1975) of the collecting.  The '64 is my favorite since it's his second-year card (I can almost taste that RC!) although the '75 is a lot of fun due to its signature colorfulness and having a ton of years of stats on the back.  Despite looking around at shows I haven't seen a ton of Freehan that I need recently so getting these five was a huge help; I may follow Dustin's example and just snap up the rest of them online.

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Autographs Black

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Jersey Blue

Dustin mentioned that he had some help for me on the Hill rainbow, too, and he definitely delivered with this pair #d out of 50. (12 on the auto, 02 on the jersey)  The autograph is especially great as the red ink stands out on the black background.  I now stand at 11 cards left to get, and at least a couple of those are reasonably attainable.  Still, not including the Light Blue jersey #d to 200, the average numbering left is 26, so we'll see how that goes.  In the meantime, I can enjoy these as well as...

Rich Hill 2007 Sweet Spot Signatures Black Glove Leather Silver Ink

...this bad boy, my favorite of the whole lot.  Dustin was nice enough to grab me something besides the PC/rainbow stuff from my singles/player wantlist and this was the result.  I already had a gold ball and Red Stitch/Blue Ink version from the set, but this one definitely blows those out of the water, especially as far as manu-autos go.  Topps can go to hell with their horrible leather manubominations while Upper Deck goes and does something right with these.  That's my 30th different Rich Hill, by the way, putting him close to some of the football players in my PC.

Rich Hill 2006 Topps autograph

Dustin got one more card for me in a bundle deal with other stuff he picked up, but as it turns out, I already have it, so this 2006 Topps Hill auto is now part of my Wolverines trade bait, though I won't be such a hard-ass about having to trade it only for other Michigan stuff--if you're a Hill or Cubs fan, hit me up and we'll make a deal!

This turned out to be another great haul from one of my favorite traders and I'm already looking forward to our next deal.  Thanks again, Dustin!

Continuing the NBC Thursday Night Lineup Theme...

Annie's Boobs:

As promised to Greg, I present to you Annie's Boobs:

Trade with 30 Rock Dollar a Week Habit:

File this under yet ANOTHER trade I completed and promptly forgot about, to my amazement when I popped my mailbox open today.  Robert from $30 a Week Habit let me know that he had a cool hit for my PC, and all he really wanted in return was some Blue Jays stuff and some fodder for his pretty sweet Serial-Numbered Insanity project.  No problem for me--I had a bunch of those to offload for something I wanted.  Here's what he sent my way:

Brian Griese number five for me, a 2002 Playoff Piece of the Game ball.  This is my first game ball relic of Griese, which kind of makes sense since those aren't as prolific as jerseys these days.  This is a sweet hit of the championship-winning QB and becomes Michigan football PC hit number 379 for me.  I can't wait to see if I can get to 400 by January.

A Lion and a Tiger, but after Sunday's performance, fortunately there wasn't a bear in sight. (unless you count Griese, I guess)  Best is, of course, a RC, and Jackson is super sparkly.  Robert also threw in a few more Tigers for that PC.

And a couple trade bait cards to round out the package--Aaron Rodgers 2005 Topps Heritage SP #344 and Adrian Peterson 2007 Bowman RC.  Both are up for grabs so please feel free to make an offer.

Thanks for a great deal, Robert, and if I come across more serial-numbered stuff for you, rest assured it'll be headed your way directly.

YOU CAN'T DISAPPOINT A PICTURE!:

While I was digging around the youtubes for the Reading Rainbow theme for this post, I found this gem from one of the best ever episodes of Community:




That really doesn't have anything to do with anything other than I have another addition to the Rich Hill rainbow, possible the last for a little while as things get harder to find:

Here we have Hill's 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Autographs Charcoal version, #d 003/100.  For a measly $4 delivered via Blowout--cheaper than anywhere I could find when you take shipping into account--I picked up my 17th card out of the 30 that comprise the rainbow.  Only 13 more to go!  Then again, the average print run of those is a harrowing 43, and only 30 when you take out the relatively abundant Jersey Light Blue, numbered to 200.  But I won't give up, and I hope some of you will selflessly offer some help finding these down the line!

Manager of the Year, but not Assistant Manager of the Year or even Assistant TO the Manager of the Year:
I had to get an Office reference in here too.  Today's a day to celebrate if you're a Tigers fan, and I guess if you root for the Diamondbacks you can join in too:  Kirk Gibson was named the NL Manager of the Year.  Every article boils the achievement down to one main factor in the form of a cliched phrase:  "worst-to-first."  Gibby impressively turned around a bad team from last year which in 2011 went on to win its division handily and push the Brewers to the brink in the NLDS.  The fiercely competitive former Tiger has always found a way to succeed at whatever he pursues so this was another case of one of our state's own doing us proud.  Way to be, Gibby!  And may he replace the Ron Zook of the American League sooner rather than later.

Did I have you going, Greg?:

To increase page hits and reward all of you who read this far, I give you Annie's boobs fo' reals:

Re(gar)ding rainbows

Yeah, I went there

Apparently good things happen when you get off your lazy ass and work on stuff you've been putting off for a while.  As you'll recall from a few posts ago, I finally put together a wantlist for my Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes rainbow.  I then posted that list on Blowout and proceeded to make three deals for four cards, leaving me with 13 on the wantlist.  Three of those four arrived today, and the last should show up within a couple days.  For now, here's the three that showed up today:

Jersey Autograph Light Blue
I got this one along with the third in this post for a fairly nice price considering how relatively rare the two are.  This one interests me because when I was first figuring out a checklist for these, this version didn't show up in Beckett's OPG system, and it still doesn't, actually.  But when I saw it on SportLots, I knew it actually existed, and of course a seller on Blowout ultimately confirmed that by selling it to me.  The light blue versions look pretty nice, but considering Chicago's team colors, I think you'll agree the third one today looks even better.

Patch Light Blue

This is my second card with a patch, and both look fantastic, featuring very American Red/White/Blue patches and lots of stitching, unlike many "patches" you'll see in Topps' and Panini's products.  Numbered to 25, this is my second-rarest card in the rainbow so far, second only to...

Jersey Autograph Navy Blue

This guy.  When I considered that I'd be getting cards numbered to 75 and 10 from one person, for under $25 no less, I jumped at the offer.  After all, I'm getting to the point where, other than a jersey numbered to 200, everything I still need is numbered to 100 or less.  The Navy Blue versions are probably the best of the bunch for the Cubs and their team colors, and I think you'll tend to agree with me after seeing this scan.

Stay tuned for at least one more Hill rainbow card shortly!

New tab item: Player Collections and Rainbows

Just a quick post tonight to highlight a bit of work I did to get myself moving along on a couple projects:  up there at the top where all the tabs are you'll see a new one called "Player Collections and Rainbows."  It's my intention to use this as a place to show off exactly those two things--player collections, in which I go for all of a player's base cards made during their career (currently just Bill Freehan, though I'll probably be adding Kirk Gibson before long) and rainbows I'm building, which right now is limited to Rich Hill's 2008 UD Baseball Heroes cards.  Should you prefer, you can also view that entire collection at once as an album here on my Picasa Web Albums.

Having seen some of you pursue similar projects, this seemed like it would be a fun undertaking and something more worthwhile to spend my money on than junk wax, such as anything Topps ever produces again.  I've had organizing and posting these projects on the back burner for a while, but now I finally have a little time to get things started, and I think now that they are I should start making more progress quickly.  Here's a bit about the two current pursuits and why I'm chasing them:

Bill Freehan:  Because Bill was a Tiger for his entire 15-year career, I had a few of his items in my collection already which I acquired through various channels over the years.  However, now that my collecting efforts are more focused on former Michigan players as well as the Tigers, Freehan is a natural fit--I'm sure I've mentioned a gazillion times that he played for my alma mater, and he happens to be one of the better players the Wolverines produced, being responsible along with Barry Larkin for the lion's share of our players' All-Star appearances. (11 in his 14 full seasons!)  I'm also more interested in starting with someone who played back when there was only one manufacturer to make things easy on me. 

Further, I'm defining what I consider a complete collection of his base cards to be those that were produced during his career, e.g. nothing from Topps reprint sets, no autographs, no oddballs, etc.  In fact, the wackiest I got was including his Topps Game and 1975 Mini cards because those seemed normal enough.  That gives me a reasonable 20 to chase, (of which I have seven currently) and only his RC will really set me back anything significant.  Now that I finally put together that wantlist, I'll be more likely to pick those up at the shows I hit around here, though recently I had been able to pick up a couple here and there.

Rich Hill 2008 UD Heroes rainbow:  I can definitely blame this one 100% on Tim from the GSNHOF.  I say that thanks to this trade which essentially set me off on this quest.  Really, when someone literally hands you that much of a head start, how can you not pursue it?  I don't blame him at all for passing these on to me because he knew how much of a fan I am of Hill, another Michigan baseball product, plus he's shown a great deal of focus and commitment in becoming the world's foremost Seneca Wallace collector.

It also doesn't hurt that these are some great looking cards, especially the above patch that I got in a trade with Eric from Manupatches and MustachePatches.  But besides that one, there's quite a few cool variations involving base, serial numbering, autographs, jerseys, patches and colors--30 total cards, actually, of which I own 13.  This won't be an easy challenge because that's an oxymoron, but that's because I'm looking down the barrel of tracking down three cards each numbered to 10 and five, only one of which I've seen on any of the major sites I frequent--eBay.  But what fun would this challenge be without accomplishments like that?  Tune in for further updates as I either inch closer to completion or totally fall flat on my face and admit defeat!

Of course, if you have ANYTHING from either wantlist, conveniently located here, please let me know and we'll make a deal--I have cards and money, and I'll gladly give you either in exchange for YOUR cards.