Cazzie Russell 1975-76 Topps
Before I get to the baseball pickups, I wanted to show off the results of my last (only?) hurrah with the old SportLots bonus system. You used to get points based on how much you spent on the site, then could choose from an array of inserts, hits, and other stuff. Because I didn't ever really have enough points, plus never saw anything worthwhile, I never bothered with this stuff. But recently SportLots announced they were doing away with that promotion and replacing it with a "Seller's Loot" system where you're rewarded by the sellers themselves.
So not only was I motivated to spend those points before they were gone, but I finally found some stuff I liked! For one set of points, I got in on a pack break of '82 Donruss, meaning I'd get a predetermined number card from a Youtube pack bust. That ended up being crap, but it was fun anyway. More importantly, I was able to pick up this sweet vintage Cazzie Russell card! Although it depicts him on the Lakers, the colors almost make you think this is a Michigan card, which is fantastic. I don't see myself collecting much vintage basketball stuff, but this was still a nice pickup, and better yet, a FREE one!
Ok, on to the baseball stuff with 11 new baseball PC scores:
Jake Fox 2009 Topps Update Wal Mart Black Border
Well, the other usual sources--eBay and COMC--had pretty much dried up, but fortunately I was able to pick up this trio on the cheap, thought at this point I just would have settled for availability. See, I'm now at 15 out of Fox's 19 non-1/1s, and I'm pretty much done with the relatively easy-to-find and reasonably-priced stuff.
Of these, the Heritage card is definitely my favorite, and not just because the other two are superfluous, annoying parallels. Heritage is just about always a great-looking set, and Fox did well to be part of the '09 version. But even better news came for him a week ago which he announced on his Facebook page: he's been signed by Arizona and reported to their AAA club in Reno. Although it might be a long shot at this point, I still hold out hope that he can make it back to the Majors, and maybe even appear in a few new sets! Good luck to Jake in AAA.
Bill Freehan 2013 Panini Golden Age Mini Carolina Brights Green Back
Wow! What can I say, five new Freehans means bigtime progress for me. The jersey is my easy favorite not because it's a relic, but because I'd been trying to pick it up for a LONG time. A guy on COMC has one, but doesn't ever respond to offers, and another eBayer is selling one but I didn't care for the price. So knock the one off the list. The American Pie, meanwhile, is a big plus because it fills a hole in that part of Bill's PC and puts me complete through 2002. Finally, the trio from Golden Age gives me my first Freehans of 2013; naturally the set has five different minis to get, so welcome back "Arrgh, minis" tag. These five cards give me 64 of Freehan's 125-card PC, officially putting me over 50%. Hooray, it's milestone time! Meanwhile, the jersey gives me seven Freehan relics and is my 22nd hit of the catcher overall.
Chris Getz 2010 Topps 206 Mini American Caramel
Finally in today's trio of gets is a trio of Getz! The first is an '08 Bowman Draft base card I can't believe I didn't have. I now have all three versions of his Draft run from that year (still working on the Chromes), including the Blue and Gold parallels. The superfluous-with-a-cool-back Update Target card is my fourth out of the five from that set--I just need the Black parallel numbered to 58. Finally, the American Caramel Mini (Arrgh minis again!) puts me at seven of the eight cards from that run, meaning the Mini Cycle (/99) will put that set to bed for me whenever I can find it. Getz finishes the day with 51 of his 80 (by my count) PC cards, with many of the tougher-to-find issues still looming.
I don't necessarily intend to go alphabetically by player for every post, but I'm thinking of trying to keep them to about this many cards, meaning you should expect multiple featuring one player: Rick Leach! I also have another pretty exciting eBay mailday coming very soon, and yet another COMC package should be here by the end of the month, so watch for all of that.
For being more or less monocromatic (five syllable college (Michigan?)word) the Legendary Lineage card is well designed. The Russell card has some strange colors but his smile is infectious. Nice pickups!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, those LL cards are kind of pleasing. And there's no such thing as a bad Russell card.
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