2013 eBay purchase #6: Rich Hill hopes for 200 more

Before I get to today's post, I wanted to quickly mention that this here post is #200 for Too Many Manninghams.  As I've said in the past, I'm happy I made my decision to split off the Michigan stuff into its own blog, and now I'm happy I've stuck with it this long.  Thanks as always to co-contributor and fellow Michigan fan Jeff for his part of this milestone, and a special thanks as well to those of you who read, comment, and send us Wolverines stuff!

So earlier today, when I was thinking what I wanted to write about to celebrate this special occasion, I ran through a few options:  should I do another COMC haul post?  Nah, not special enough.  How about a trade post you need to catch up on?  Well, I do wanna get to that, but because of its size, I need more time to do that right.  What about the stack of cards I just got from a Blowout purchase?  Meh, nothing extremely special there either.

And then I got home and found in my mailbox a card I snagged from eBay and have been waiting for with bated breath, and I knew it was the perfect thing to feature today:

Rich Hill 2008 Bowman Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

What better way to celebrate such an occasion than highlighting a high-end card of my favorite player in all my Michigan PCs?  I found this gem on eBay last week in what very well may have been a one-day auction. I put in a generous max bid because I was NOT going to be denied.  Fortunately for me there aren't too many serious Rich Hill buyers, and about $7 later I had my eighth 1/1 of Rich Hill.  It also probably didn't hurt that the seller helpfully titled the auction "2008 Topps Printing Plate of Rich Hill."  Attention to detail, guys!  It can mean the difference between $2 and $20 sometimes.

Anyway, this is a great new plate of Rich, and it's even better that it comes in a Michigan Man's favorite color--blue (or cyan, as the case may be).  As I said, it's 1/1 #8 of Rich in my PC, and 1/1 #18 overall.  It's also my 63rd Hill IHAS hit, putting him one behind Jake Long until I finish up the COMC haul.  Looking at the bigger picture, it's Hill IHAS card #153 (including 1/1s) overall, with plenty more in-hand but not scanned!

As if I didn't have enough reasons to post about Rich, he ended up garnering a Spring Training invite with the Indians--his fifth different team, though he never played in the Majors for the Cardinals--putting him back in the news, even if it isn't particularly exciting news.  I hope he gets a real chance to crack the bullpen, and I'll be pulling for him to rack up some nice numbers, even if it's at the expense of the Tigers.

So here's to at least 200 more posts, and if I make it there, I hope all of you are still following.  Go cyan, and GO BLUE!