2013 eBay purchases #s 8, 9, and 10: feeling Rich and bringing in the Bills

I had a very productive week on eBay and landed three nice new PC hits at great prices, so here's a trio of baseball pickups to celebrate spring training officially kicking in to gear:

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Premier Signature Premier auto (#35/45)

I ignored the seller's $9.99 starting price and made a Best Offer instead, and fortunately for me, I nabbed this sweet Hill autograph for $5 shipped.  It's a great looking card, and a nice addition because I actually have another version from COMC that I'll be showing off soon.  My only nitpick:  why is an autograph, from a set called "Premier" that costs as much as it does, on a sticker?  Oh well, that's the hobby these days, but it doesn't really bother me--I'm just happy to have another Hill auto!

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Premier Swatches Gold triple patch (#22/25)

Another Best Offer effort paid off when I made another $5 offer (plus $2.50 shipping this time) on a $10 card and saw it get accepted quickly.  $5 is simply a steal for this gorgeous triple patch from the same set as the auto above.  I already had the more common version #d /50 in my collection, so those two together make an eye-popping pair that rivals Jennifer Lawrence's (or your favorite actress!).  Hooray for patches done right!

This pair gives me 65 Rich Hill hits, which means he retakes the lead from Jake Long's 64 for the all-sport title.  I also have an IHAS count of 163 (plus eight 1/1s) for him, putting him very close to the halfway point of his non-1/1s, and I have the promised Hill COMC hit explosion post pending!

Bill Freehan 2006 Greats of the Game Tigers Greats Memorabilia bat

I closed out the week's purchases on Wednesday with this spiffy Freehan bat relic, and was very happy to find it in my mailbox this morning.  If today's first two cards were steals, this one was downright robbery:  my $0.50 bid was enough to bring those home, along with $2.50 for shipping.  Don't you love it when the shipping costs more than the card?  Anyway, I thought it was great to be adding a new Freehan hit to his PC, and at such a low price, since they're getting a bit harder for me to find.  I do have a decent number of Bill's 2006 GOTG cards in my possession, though, including the insert from which this relic is based.  Out of his eight from that set, I'm just missing a parallel, autograph, and autographed relic.  Soon, soon....  By the way, that's a new total of 17 Freehan hits and 56 cards (plus a plate) in his PC.

So once again I did pretty well with some nice pickups during a month where I'm trying to limit spending a bit due to my big January.  $15.50 for these three cards was well worth it, and while I've spent way more on COMC this year, I've actually done pretty well in my 10 eBay purchases, picking up 11 cards for about $65 this year.  Hopefully that trend will continue as I put more emphasis on my baseball player collections this year!