Not JUST Commons: Mike Matheny

After hearing good things about JustCommons from a lot of you, I gave it a shot, throwing down about $14 for 43 Michigan Baseball PC cards.  They may not be the fastest in the world when it comes to shipping, and sometimes their spelling leaves something to be desired, but I agree with everyone else that this is an excellent source of cheap cards.  For one thing, you're buying from one seller, so unlike SportLots, shipping cost doesn't get out of hand.  Matter of fact, shipping is free if you spend more than $10, or just $2 otherwise!  The selection is very good with prices mostly being reasonable, and stuff gets restocked all the time.  Searching is a little wonky because it's difficult to sort things the way you want, but with a bit of work you'll find what you need.

I was thrilled to find a few needs for the players whose full collections I'm chasing (including Rich Hill, Rick Leach, Clayton Richard, and J.J. Putz), and since it was so obviously worth it, I tacked on a bunch of stuff from the other guys I collect.  Today you'll get a gander at 15 new Mike Matheny cards I scored.  I introduced Matheny as part of my PC in this post, and while I'm not supercollecting him due to his crazy number of cards, I'm still after whatever fun stuff I can get, like what you see here:

Mike Matheny 1994 Score Select RC

My second RC so far (the other is '94 Ultra), so I'm halfway to his rookie quartet, which also includes Bowman and Sportflics Rookie/Traded.

Mike Matheny 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection

I still have fond memories of '95 Pinnacle, a set I pieced together from retail blisters (which sometimes included packs) and a big purchase from a friend in middle school, if you can believe it.  The Museum Collection cards are also awesome, up there near Refractors in terms of quality parallels.

Mike Matheny 1996 Flair

Mike Matheny 1996 Fleer

That the '96 and '97 sets were matte was a fun feature for me.  They may have been harder to flip through thanks to the added friction, but I really think it made the cards that much better.

Mike Matheny 1996 Fleer Tiffany

Tiffany easily could have been a throwaway parallel, but since they weren't one-per-pack afterthoughts, but instead glossy, premium versions of the base, they came out all right in the end.

Mike Matheny 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man

40-Man was similar to Topps Total, but while I liked the design more in several ways, it was just too unwieldy for me to put together, and I don't recall it being nearly as cheap as Total.  I love the redness of this Redbirds card!

Mike Matheny 2005 Bowman Heritage Mini

Mike Matheny 2005 Topps Chrome Update

Mike Matheny 2005 Topps Chrome Update Black Refractor (#087/250)

Mike Matheny 2005 Topps Chrome Update Refractor

Mike Matheny 2005 Topps Update

Mike Matheny 2005 Topps Update Gold (#1963/2005)

Hmmm, this here is the start of a pretty nice looking rainbow!  Matter of fact, I'm short just the Red X-Fractor (#d to 65), so I should make picking that up a priority.  Wait, only parallels between the base and Chrome versions?  Are we SURE this is a Topps set?

Mike Matheny 2005 Upper Deck

Mike Matheny 2006 Topps Chrome Refractor

And another Refractor for good measure.  In this case it's a spiffy horizontal award-winner card.  MOAR REFRACTORS, PLZ.

Mike Matheny 2013 Topps Heritage

I made sure to pick up one of the first cards I saw highlighting Mike as a manager, and I'd love to add more.

Stay tuned for another couple posts showing off the rest of my JustCommons haul, then even MORE posts pretty soon as I made another large purchase there last weekend!