The "OMG what did I get myself into?" lot part 3: all set

While I hadn't planned on finishing up covering my enormous Facebook Marketplace collection purchase stuff before everything else, I figured I might as well go ahead since my next most recent post, technically part 2 in this series, went over the trade bait I had available since I wanted to include what I could in Christmas Cards shipments. So here we are!

Most of what I have left to cover is the complete and partial sets I pieced together from the multiple unsorted boxes of commons and inserts. And I'm not kidding when I say "unsorted" because most of those monster boxes had sets mixed in them like they got hit by a tornado. That's why it took me so long to sort everything out, such as an almost full 5000-card monster box of '96 Score!

Anyway to remind you, the haul looked like this:

I did hold onto a few non-card items I'll show off later, but first I'll give y'all a look at the sets:

1994 Finest: well here's a great way to start! As I think I've mentioned once or twice here, one of the boxes was filled up quite nicely with base and inserts from 1994-97 Finest, putting me in a good position to chase some of them when that would have been unlikely otherwise. The set that reminds me of Fruit Stripe Gum has 440 cards to chase and I ended up at a healthy 388 when combining the ones in the box with what was already in my collection. (Wantlist link)

1994 Ultra Series 2: this one really takes me back to when I was around 10 or 11, and I especially remember the Award Winners insert. The base was quite cool too and portended some good things that I think came to fruition in the '97 version, one of my favorites. The collection pretty much only included Series 2 so we'll see if I ever try to track down the first, but it wouldn't be the only set in my collection that's halfway done! At least I only need three cards to sew this one up. (Wantlist link)

1995 Donruss Series 1: another partial set and there's a couple more to get to as well. I kind of like how Donruss changed things up a bit back in their heyday like this version with the home plate inset photos and foil. As you'll sometimes see the two series here weren't split down the middle but instead the one I'm working on is 330 cards and the other is 220. With what I had already in my collections I came up a reasonable 10 cards short so this one shouldn't be bad to finish. (Wantlist link)

1995 Finest: didn't think I'd have much chance of owning this one for quite a while either! There weren't as many of these in the box as those from the other years of Finest but I still ended up with a lot of the first version that came with protectors. On a related note, you might remember from my first post about this collection pickup that I grabbed all the dupes I found of my PC guys so I'd have peeled versions of them as well. I'm just shy of 75% of this set at 246/330 when including my existing PC cards. (Wantlist link)

1995 Leaf Series 1: another half set, this one includes probably one of the more divisive designs in the hobby, but I've always liked it so getting to chase it is fun for me. The 400-card complete set was split in half and the first series includes some of my PC guys and favorite Tigers to collect like Dean Palmer, Cecil Fielder, Kirk Gibson, Greg Maddux, Cal Ripken Jr., and Lou Whitaker. I fell just one card short of the series, needing Dante Bichette's card #135. (Wantlist link)

1995 Score Series 1: I'm not the biggest fan of the infield dirt-colored backgrounds Score went with in '95 but this is still kind of a fun set otherwise. This is (sort of) the last of the partial sets, at least in the sense that it's the last one I only ended up with one series of. Once again this one comes in at 330 cards while #2 was 275. There's plenty of stars to see here plus a few prospects, season highlights, and, interestingly enough, dual team checklists. At some point in the new year I'll try to track down the 22 cards I need to finish this one and then maybe eventually figure out if I want the second series as well. (Wantlist link)

1996 Donruss: this one didn't take too long to grow on me and I was glad to see it among the boxes I was sorting through. The full bleed photos are quite nice though I understand the criticism of the placement of the team name/logo box. Like others here this one was issued in two series but both of them were plenty present in what I pulled so I'll be able to work on completing the whole thing, which is nice. And that shouldn't take long since I just need five of the 550 base cards! (Wantlist link)

1996 Finest (Common/Bronze only): man is this one exciting! I think '96 and '97 are my two favorite versions of Finest from the 90s and the box stuffed with the brand had plenty of the former--enough to put together two more complete Series 2 sets and two more of those that both needed fewer than 10. Oh, and in my case I'm shooting for the whole shebang, at least when it comes to the bronze base cards (also called Common on the backs). Though I came away with a surprising number of the silver and gold cards I'm more than happy to stick to the 110 cards from each series that could be found most often. That means I'm just chasing #21 (Eddie Murray), #101 (Tim Wakefield), and possibly a decently expensive Derek Jeter (#92) to close out the set with Series 1. That I'm this close to it is awesome, and plus I added more peeled cards to my collection! (Wantlist link (includes rarer cards of PC guys))

1996 Flair (Silver base w/ gold foil and Gold base w/ silver foil): I'm handling these together since they were apparently produced in the same quantities, though I tend to consider the cards with silver backgrounds and gold foil logos/names the "true" base. There was one monster box almost full of these and at first I thought there were five complete sets but instead they were mixed between the two versions. That led to an enormous TCDB project to get both variants correctly on the checklists (many thanks to those that did the bulk of the work, though I helped!) and now I'm chasing each 400-card variation. Considering how high-end it was at the time it's pretty cool that I seem to be a total of 25 cards shy of owning both silver and gold sets! (Wantlist link)

1996 Leaf: this is a fun, colorful and foil-y set with some cool photos so I was happy to end up with all 220 cards with enough dupes to put together a second set minus just one card (Jason Isringhausen's #26). It's got a good mix of Tigers and PC guys I collect while not being huge so it's right up my alley in a 90s kind of way!

1996 Score: and the final set today is a textbook entry from Score back when they still produced baseball sets. The 1996 version weighs in at 517 cards and I had absolutely zero problem pulling a whole set from the mess that was the boxes after stuffing a monster box full of commons. In fact, I ended up with three complete sets, a fourth missing just one card, and three more Series 1 sets, plus lots of extras! I still like the relatively simple look, decent subsets, and cool photos like Hal Morris' card above, so it was great to land one more full set here.

And now here's a quick look at what else I kept, generally for future TCDB trade bait and other deals:

Inserts part 1: 1994-97 Finest. This will be true of all three groups of inserts I show here but considering how many I kept for my PCs and included in Christmas card packages, it's absolutely bonkers to me that I have this many cards left, and some really nice ones too! I'm hoping I can turn some of the Refractors and Silver/Gold cards into similar ones of the players I collect.

Inserts part 2: 1996 and '97 Donruss. There's still a nice pile of Press Proofs (Gold and Silver) from both years giving you an idea of just how many there were (again). There's also a handful of examples from four other '97 chase cards, with Power Alley and Rocket Launchers being numbered. I still remember opening '97 Donruss boxes, especially the Rookie Update (essentially series 2) version fondly.

Inserts part 3: the last of them, from '96 Bowman and Score. That includes a few Bowman's Best previews and their parallels (though most got traded), ROY Candidates, and a Mantle reprint. Score includes Gold Stars, Future Franchise, Diamond Aces, and Artist's Proofs. I also mentioned the bevy of Dugout Collection parallels I had left in the last post listing stuff for trade, and those will also make their way to my TCDB trade bait at some point soon.

This plaque of Junior Griffey was one of three in the lot and one of two of this exact player, though the others ended up in Christmas packages. I already had something similar but since there were two up for grabs I kept the one that was more useful to me as it also included a card I didn't own, a fun 90s insert!

And finally, I kept a pretty large number of souvenir cups from a family that obviously loved them some Tigers and Wolverines. I'm more likely to store these than display them but couldn't convince myself to get rid of them, other than the duplicates, some of which I redistributed.

Well, that's pretty much everything I wanted to show off! As a reminder, I still have a good amount of stuff available from the last post that I'm willing to make deals for until I get sick of seeing it and list it on TCDB or dump it on Facebook/elsewhere.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (I sure did!) and look forward to showing off the December trade packages and other pickups I keep promising.

2021 trade package #26: Night Owl

Blogging legend Night Owl and I are very different in terms of what we collect, but one great part of the hobby is that that doesn't remotely matter when it comes to trading. To thank me for sending him his first second autograph of Paul Lo Duca, a cheapo I found at a recent show, Greg got a PWE over to me earlier this week. I didn't expect anything which made it that much nicer, and that meant I had no idea what I'd be pulling out of the envelope, which is even more fun. I'd say he did an outstanding job picking out these cards for me:

Since I had room I thought I'd include the tiny note he sent (always a plus, and something I like to do as well!) and fancy business card. I know I've said this before but I tend to keep pretty much anything like the latter because it's kind of fun to collect in its own right, plus people obviously put effort into it, so you won't see me throwing that stuff away!

Anyway, on to what we have here. Let's start with the quartet of vertical Tigers. Cards seem to be less and less for kids these days but you'll still see mascots pop up like Detroit's Paws on a 2020 insert. I didn't realize that season marked his 25th as the team's mascot, a pretty cool fact! Then Panini gives us a double dose of Tigers legends (and batting title winners) in Kaline--2018 Donruss last name only variation--and Kuenn--'21 Diamond Kings. I like that the latter has him listed with Detroit where he enjoyed the best seasons of his 15-year career, from 1952-59. He'll actually be popping up again in a future post, by the way. Joining him in that set is future rotation stalwart Casey Mize on an artistic RC. 2021 saw him enjoy a pretty solid first full campaign and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does when the team's actually got more talent around him.

The other four cards are also very exciting for me because they're kind of a double-dip: favorite players and wantlist help! I don't know if Greg hit up my wants on TCDB but I needed the entire quartet, starting with card #5 out of '95 Fleer's Cal Ripken Jr. insert also known as "Enduring." I now need just cards 1 and 3 to knock off the 15-card set, so if this was a blind guess by Greg then it was a hell of a shot!

Similarly, while I'm not going after the entire enormous 2007 Topps Generation Now chase set, I've slowly pieced together the ones representing current blog namesake Justin Verlander's 17 wins in 2006 (done) and also those of former title guy Curtis Granderson. Grandy put up 31 doubles in his first full season, then went 20/20/20/20 (2B/3B/HR/SB) the following season. The three cards Greg sent me got me up to 24/31 with not a double in sight, so once again if he managed to do that on a pure guess, that's amazing, and if instead he sought out my wants on TCDB, he's a very smart person.

Greg, thanks again for a fun PWE that hit my favorite baseball team, two of my best PCs, and two set wantlists all in just eight cards! I'll see if I can't hit you back before the end of the year in the event that I can find anything up your alley.

I'll be back soonish with another PWE trade post, one that's double the fun, plus a much larger package too!

Mail goes out, mail comes in. You can't explain that.

First up today is an outgoing mail call.  With all but one of the envelopes shipped out (that one may have to wait another few days), I want to mention the common theme of many of them.

Michigan fans are well aware of the phrase "attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind", a phrase Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh (and his brother John, above) attributes to his dad Jack.  I decided to put that kind of effort into one of my favorite card collecting pasttimes:  going through the wantlists of bloggers I trade with.  

For a long time I was a big-time set-collector, especially in the days where I busted a lot of boxes, and throughout my time with this here blog I pretty much whittled my own sets down to practically nothing.  Since then I've become more of a player collection guy, and that's lots of fun too.

But the completionist in me still likes to see sets and projects get finished, so I found a great way to scratch that itch and benefit others.  Kind of like I did last year, I put some time into scanning base and team set wants (and "most wanted" lists like the "elusive eight" and "nefarious nine" types many of you are familiar with) of the many blogs I follow.  I was looking for lists that were down to just a few cards--maybe up to four or five and as few as just one--to see if I could blow them away.

Mostly through Sportlots, with a bit of assistance from COMC, I picked up stuff for 13 different bloggers.  By my count I completed more than 20 base and insert sets and found many more to finish team sets and put a big dent in most-wanted lists.

As always I hope this project inspires those folks and others to keep attacking their wantlists while remembering they're not in the hunt alone.  And for those of you that haven't, get those lists up on your blogs--you never know who might be able to help!

To wrap up this portion of the post here's a look at who I sent PWEs to week or two ago:

• 2x3 Heroes
• All Trade Bait All the Time
• ARPSmith's Sports Card Obsession
• Baseball Card Breakdown
• Nachos Grande
• Night Owl (who posted about it here)

The following will be receiving bubble mailers starting next week (not all of which are part of this project; some are just getting random trade packages!):

• $30 a Week Habit
• Angels in Order
• Bob Walk the Plank
• Brad's Blog
• Cards on Cards
• Chronicles of Fuji
• The Collector
• I Feel Like a Collector Again
• Sports Card Collectors
• Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Keep an eye on your mailboxes starting early next week, guys!

And now here's an update on my Sportlots Box experience:

As a reminder, here's a look at the shipping options for the seven sellers with whom I used the Box option:

Seller	Cards	Budget	Premium	Box
barriere	25	$3.50	$12.00	$1.75
bkcardsx	148	N/A	$7.50	$0.00
cogrinch	61	$3.50	$3.50	$1.05
cttcdork	47	$5.00	$5.00	$3.00
davbondx	39	$3.79	$4.35	$2.84
DelBacon	49	$3.75	$3.75	$1.25
kommking	105	$4.00	$7.20	$1.30
Total		$31.04		$11.19

So had I had the cards shipped directly from each seller I would have paid $31.04 for whatever the best shipping option at the lowest price was, and $11.19 is the total cost for each seller shipping their cards to Sportlots.

I can now tell you how much Sportlots charged me to ship my box cards and give you the total amount I saved using that method.  I can also present the shipping times in case you want an idea of how long it might take for your cards to arrive.

First, my shipping cost for these seven packages (boxes, envelopes, or other), left unopened and shipped together), was $9.05.  So in all I spent $20.24 on shipping, as opposed to the $31.04 direct cost.  A $10.80 difference might not seem like much, but when many of the cards you're buying are in the $0.18 to $0.20 range that could be another big stack of cards you can buy instead of paying to get them sent to you.

As for how long I waited here's a quick timeline:

• All orders placed:  6/12
• Packages arrived to Sportlots Box on 6/19 (x3), 6/21, 6/22, 6/26, and 6/27
• Box package shipment requested and shipped on 6/27
• Box package arrived 6/30

(The final package that made it on the 27th was from Canadian shipper barriere)

In conclusion, my final verdict from this experience would be to utilize the Box option again whenever there's a noticeable different in cost.  It was nice getting everything in one package and Sportlots quickly got that package to me once everything arrived.  Plus I was able to spend an "extra" $11 on cards.

I hope some of you find this useful and I'd be happy to answer any other questions about my experience or Sportlots in general that you may have.  And as always I highly recommend Sportlots as a source for lower-end cards, especially base for your PCs and to fill your sets.  Be prepared to put in a lot of time optimizing your cart to get the best price per card with shipping, but know that it's worth it.  I'm betting a number of the folks I mentioned in the first second will sure appreciate it!

Anyone wanna trade sets?

So I've got all these extra complete sets lying around in my card closet:

I know, I know, mostly junk wax.  Anyway, I thought I'd throw these out there in case anyone's interested in trading for them.  I'm also looking for some sets in return if possible:

• 1993 Upper Deck II
• 1996 Ultra I
• 1997 Finest I
• 1988 Collector's Choice II
• 2000 Finest I

Those would finish off half-sets that I currently have.  Besides those I'd be interested in any Topps flagship/update sets from my birth year (1983) forward, kind of my own Lifetime Topps Project, I suppose.  Those aren't as high-priority for me, but some of them are probably more realistic targets given what I'm offering above.  These are the ones I need right now:

• 1983
• 1983 Traded
• 1984
• 1984 Traded
• 1985
• 1985 Traded
• 1987 Traded
• 1988 Traded
• 1989
• 1989 Traded
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1992 Traded
• 1993
• 1993 Traded
• 1994 Traded
• 2002 Traded
• 2005 Traded
• 2007 Update
• 2008 Update
• 2011
• 2011 Update
• 2012
• 2012 Update
• 2013
• 2013 Update
• 2014
• 2014 Update

Now I'm not exactly looking to trade my 2001 Topps set for 1989 Topps, but if you have any interest in swapping some complete sets, please let me know with a comment or an email!

2/7/15 card show report: I'll PCing you later

As has become fairly common for me recently, I hit up the monthly card show at the Taylor Town Trade Center, about a 30 minute drive for me.  As has also become fairly common, although I spent lots of time flipping through boxes, I really didn't spend much at all--just $17.  The damage was 44 quarter cards, four that were $1, and one that was a whopping $2.  Per usual most of that was trade bait, but I do have a few things to show off over here and on TMM.

I happened to be flipping through the $2-or-6-for-$10 box of the guy from whom I'd made my large initial purchase from this set last year when I came across this Gehrig.  It's one of just three I still needed so now I'm just lacking the Ruth and Musial cards, a very exciting development for me.  I may even be able to finish the set very shortly now!  The price was fantastic, too--I was looking at upwards of 3-4 times this amount online.

The rest of today's cards all go towards some of the PCs I wrote about in my previous post on Thursday:

Kirk Gibson 1995 SP Championship Classic Performances

Huh, I wonder what game this card is commemorating?  It's fun to see the different designs that go around this iconic shot.  By the way, I'm pretty sure I have the die-cut version from way back when I was supercollecting Gibby before I even knew that was a thing.  Also, back then he didn't have nearly as many cards as he does now.

Ken Griffey Jr. 1997 Ultra Gold Medallion

Does this card scream "Junior Griffey" or what?  There's Kenny with his trademark backwards cap look grinning with his bat in his hands, and this Gold Medallion parallel of his '97 Ultra card would fit right in for his encyclopedia entry.  By the way, this set arrived the same year Griffey won his only MVP after clubbing 56 HR for the first of two consecutive years; in fact, between 1996 and 2000 he went for 249 dingers!

Tony Gwynn 1993 Leaf Heading For the Hall

Tony Gwynn 1996 Fleer Road Warriors

Tony Gwynn 1996 Pinnacle Aficionado Slick Picks

Tony Gwynn 1998 Topps Stars Bronze (#0562/9799)

Tony Gwynn 2003 Leaf Limited (#203/399)

I didn't mean to have this kind of field day with Gwynn--it just happened!  I was certainly happy with my luck, though, picking up five cards covering about a 10-year span, including the 2003 Limited card from after he retired.  Then again this reminds me of the work I have ahead of me, scanning around 160 cards from my completed sets, not to mention a ton more singles!

Cal Ripken Jr. 1996 Fleer Checklists

Cal Ripken Jr. 2000 Topps (#238C) and Topps Opening Day (#107)

Finally, here's $0.75 worth of Ripkens.  The '96 Fleer Checklist had a fun picture of the Iron Man on it, so why not?  And the Topps/Opening Day pair was a happy coincidence.  I couldn't remember exactly which version(s) of the former I have since there are five different variations honoring different moments in his career.  Since this is the one I found and it's probably my favorite, I gladly spent the quarter on it.  I hadn't realized that the same year's Opening Day set featured a similar card (with no variations), though one that highlights a slightly different moment.

And yes, putting these with the rest of Cal's cards made me realize I'll really need to break up the work of getting his stuff scanned so I don't go insane.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't find more to bring home with me, but I still left with some cool PC stuff for me and a bit more trade bait, and now I have whatever else I would have spent leftover in my budget to use elsewhere, so that's a positive.

Don't forget to check out TMM tonight for a few other pickups!

2014 COMC purchase: the Wizard of plaques

Here's a quick post to catch me up on my final COMC purchase of 2014 while rooting for the Patriots against the Colts.

I've been chipping away at the 2002 Fleer Classics HOF Plaques set ever since grabbing a nice chunk of the set at a show last year.  By the time COMC's Boxing Day sale rolled around I was just four cards short; unfortunately most of those are big names and therefore expensive.  However, I did luck out and tackle card #30 in the set at a nice price:

This here is Ozzie Smith's card, and though I'm not showing the back yet (saving those for the upcoming post when I show off the completed set), I'll tell you that it's numbered to to 2002, the year in which he was inducted into the Hall.  I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the best scan ever, but I promise to do my best when it's showtime for the whole thing.

That leaves Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Stan Musial before I can call this complete (wantlist is here).

Stay tuned for a few trade posts and a show recap very soon!  Oh yeah, and go Pats!

2014 COMC purchases: plaque good

I had a blast picking things up on COMC during their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales this year, and luckily for me that included a bonus $20 shopping spree plus another $5 free for shipping 100 or more cards in November.  A nice number of those cards went to traders and readers like you, and I've been glad to see people posting and showing them off!

Speaking of posting and showing off cards I have just four for you to see on this blog, but there'll be a bunch more over on TMM.  Here's what I bought:

This is a quartet of 2002 Fleer Fall Classics HOF Plaques I needed towards the set I'm building.  I originally debuted this set back in April after I picked up a huge chunk of it from quarter and $0.50 boxes at a show.  Before November I still needed eight cards, so now I'm missing just four (as seen on my baseball wantlist):  Ruth, Gehrig, Musial, and Ozzie Smith.  With just a few days left this month I doubt I'll finish it before 2015, but that's ok since it's literally the only set I'm building right now!

I definitely ended up with a pretty nice group here, and I believe I landed each of them for less than $3.00.  As with the rest in the set, these are serial-numbered to the year each player joined the Hall of Fame and have a die-cut HOF plaque-like design with text on the front and back.  As I continue to promise, once I land all of them I'll show off the set in its entirety--fronts and backs!

Well, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and that the good cheer lasts into the new year!  I'd call my own holiday so far good, but is it plaque good?

2014 Sportlots purchase: You Complete Me is back once more

As many of you know, from time to time I like to hit up Sportlots when I feel an itch to work on my various set wantlists.  Well, a few weeks ago I again put in some time trying to track down what little was left on my football wants (plus a few Michigan PC cards you can view on today's TMM post) and five sellers later here's what I came up with:

2005 Topps Draft:

This product was one of the very first boxes I busted waaaay back when I started this here blog--the post was dated September 3, 2010!  I grabbed a 24 pack box on eBay for around $25 as my second attempt towards completing the set, but despite not pulling any dupes, I added only 28 to my original haul (from a box I grabbed quite a while ago).

As of the start of this month I still needed 31 cards from the 165-card set, including 18 rookies.  Thanks to Sportlots I grabbed them all, including the nine you see highlighted above.  I decided to show off "new" Raider Moss, a Bill for Doug, a Hokie for Adam, and a pair of Mountaineers for Matt.  I also included a few other guys most people would know in Campbell, Williams, Orton, and White.  It sure is nice to have this set completed nine years after it came out!

2013 SPx:

Bo knows he deserves his own scan

2013 SPx is a box I picked up at a show and busted back in early August.  In my 10 packs I picked up exactly 40 out of the 50-card veteran base set with zero doubles.  I managed to find one Sportlots seller who had the ten I was missing, plus help with both other sets I'm completing today, so that was another case of money saved on shipping.

Because I showed all 40 cards I pulled from the box, I figured it would make sense to post the remaining 10 in lieu of showing the whole set at once.  The real highlight here is Bo Jackson, who earned the right to be the card I highlighted with the remaining nine filling one scan page, mainly because he was awesome.  No disrespect meant to guys like Marino and Moon, though!

2013 Upper Deck:

The gorgeous 2013 UD set is one I started last May with a couple rack packs I picked up with my brother while visiting Milwaukee (and attending a Brewers game).  I followed that up with a hobby box at a show this April, and that allowed me to complete the veteran group, cards #1-50, which I don't always work on since the rookies are usually more obtainable in rack packs by themselves.  I also fell 27 rookies short of the Star Rookies cards, #s 51-150, since I scored just 40 from the box, with others coming from the racks.

Happily, I was able to find all 27 cards on Sportlots, and without breaking the bank too.  I scanned a few highlights, including another Hokie (Davis) and Mountaineer (Geno "Interception McGee" Smith), some great photos (Rhodes, Webb, Swearinger, Hopkins, and Mauti), and a hilarious name:  "Trevardo."

All of those purchases put the kibosh on my football set wantlists entirely, which is a great feeling.  I'm really not used to being in a position where I'm building some sets, and right now the only one I'm working on at all is the 2002 Fall Classics HOF Plaques on my baseball wants page.  I'm sure this won't be the end of my football set collecting, though, especially as I find some fun UD products to pursue.

I hope you guys enjoyed some cool scans and seeing me get something done.  As for me, I'm off to file these away with their respective sets and put triumphant check marks on the boxes!

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 3

It's been a couple weeks since my last You Complete Me post, so instead of splitting up this last group in two (since they came over the course of two separate days), I thought I'd just finish the series up today because, hey, things come in threes, right?

As usual, the last day is the payoff day; although I showed off five packages in those first two posts, I hadn't completed any of the sets I was chasing.  Fortunately, that's not the case today!  Here's the final four packages, with three originating from Sportlots and the last one arriving as part of a recent COMC order:
Envelope #1 (Sportlots):

With four packages today I decided to scan just one page worth of each.  This one had 21 cards so I tried to pick a few highlights.  17 of the cards hailed from the 2008 Score set, from which I still needed a ton, especially the rookies.  The group just happens to have three Wolverines:  Brady, Manningham, and Hart, and I managed to find another star QB and a couple significant rookies to feature as well.

The other four cards were from 2012 Upper Deck (just the Star Rookies part of the set since I went with retail), and all three players represent excellent college teams.  The fourth was a Michigan State player, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna show one off on MY blog if I don't wanna!  As usual, I love the photography, design, and college unis here.

# of cards:  21     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (Sportlots): 

This was by far the biggest package from the haul.  One seller on Sportlots happened to have an absolute ton of 2008 Scores I needed, and at that rate it made sense to pile them into one shipment instead of spreading them out over others.  I believe 78 of the 79 cards were from that set, including the stars and rookies you see above.  Again, I managed to land a couple Wolverines in Super Bowl-winner Toomer and Saints rookie Arrington.

Ware's base card is the only representative from the '08 UD First Edition set here, but again, it made sense to include it (along with some baseball PC guys you'll eventually see on the other blog).  The former Cowboy (which is really strange to consider) looks as menacing as ever here.

# of cards:  79     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (Sportlots): 

From the largest package we move onto one of the smallest, which included just these needs (plus a baseball PC pickup), but that doesn't make them any less valuable.  First up is another pair of rookies from '08 First Edition, putting me that much closer to the set.  Woodson was a pretty good QB for Kentucky before flaming out in the pros while Stewart, at star at Oregon, had a few good years for Carolina before declining line the prototypical RB.

The Broyles was even more useful, if that's actually possible for a card of a guy who plays (when he's not hurt, which is always) for the Lions--it completes the first set of the day, 2012 UD.  He looks as determined as I was to finish off some sets last month!

# of cards:  3     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  1

Envelope #4 (COMC):

Despite eight Sportlots packages, it still took another visit to COMC to mop things up.  That purchase included 19 cards that went towards a couple sets, 2008 Score and UD First Edition, split roughly evenly.  In a few cases COMC was cheaper than Sportlots, and in some others it had cards available that the latter didn't.

Matt Ryan was the heavy hitter in both sets, though I don't feel like I had to overpay for both of his RCs.  Better yet, I scored a trio of rookies of some of my favorite Wolverines in Henne, Long, and Hart.  And best of all, these cards close the books on those two sets!

# of cards:  19     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  2

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  4
• Total cards:  122
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  3

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  9
• Total cards:  158
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  3

After nine packages, 150+ cards, and three completed sets, it's time to drop the curtain on another edition of You Complete Me.  Once again it was extremely productive; if you don't think completing just three sets is impressive, consider that one was the huge and tricky 2008 Score, and that my football set wantlist now looks like this, with all of two sets remaining!

I'm not sure if I'll go right back at it this month or focus my efforts and dollars elsewhere for a bit, but you can write in stone that I'll have those last sets completed pretty soon!

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 2

Yesterday I showed off my first pair of YCM packages from this month, and today I have three more:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

This is my second envelope that included just one card from 2008 UD First Edition, but that's mainly because I tracked most of those down on COMC instead, since some of the prices were better there.  Thanks to Tashard here, I'm now down to 16 needed from that set.  Speaking of Choice, the Cowboys fourth-rounder out of Georgia Tech (after transferring from Oklahoma) had pretty nice junior and senior seasons but doesn't have much to show for his pro career.
# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

This package is the debut of 2008 Score football in this series.  I began piecing the set together mostly from discounted rack packs, but that quickly dried up as a reasonable source for completion when my extras piled up like crazy.  The biggest issue is that the rookies, all 110 of them, are a bit short-printed.  Fortunately I was able to find the majority of them (and most of the other base) I needed at or around the Sportlots minimum of $0.18.  I haven't received the package that contains my largest purchase of them, but this one, at 15 cards, goes a long way towards the set anyway.  Better yet, it includes a rookie of former Michigan star and 2008 #1 overall pick Jake Long.  Some of the other guys are also very notable, especially Stewart, DRC, and Charles.  Look for a bunch more of these soon.
# of cards:  15     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (SportLots):

...as soon as right now, actually.  As with the Choice card above, this one wasn't the sole card in the envelope as it also included some baseball PC guys from the same seller.  My 16th Score card of the day is this RC of former two-time Lions RB Kevin Smith, a speed-burner of a third-rounder for Detroit out of UCF in 2008.  He showed a ton of promise during his rookie season, scoring 8 TDs and rattling off almost 1000 rushing yards, but fell off from there, and he's now up north in the CFL.

I still need a buttload of cards from the set, but at least I was able to make some headway today, with all 16 cards being the tougher-to-get rookies.
# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

That's it for today, but I still have a few more Sportlots envelopes on the way, and hopefully those will be followed by my second COMC delivery of the month soon!
Stats for the day:

• Packages:  3
• Total cards:  17
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  36
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  0