2014 Sportlots purchase #2: pitchers and catchers (and a SS) report

This week was a busy one filled with a big family event, but that's all done so now I should be able to return to my usual blogging pace, whatever that is.  Today is part two of my first Sportlots purchase of the year, with part one last Tuesday covering some vintage guys.  Today's loot is from the 1990s on up and features six players, most of which form a starting nine's battery:

Kelly Dransfeldt 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Black

...with SS Dransfeldt being the exception.  This beautiful card from one of Gold Label's best releases is one that's a bit hard to distinguish, but it's the Black parallel of his Class 1 RC, with black foil replacing gold in some places.  A colorful gem, it's my 20th of Dransfeldt as I near the halfway point to his 45 issues.

Rich Hill 2006 Bowman Heritage White

It really can be difficult finding Hill stuff I need now that I'm past the 200-card mark.  Sportlots actually has a decent selection of stuff I still need, but it's mostly sellers that each have one card, making shipping a pain.  Fortunately, I was able to include this one with a few other purchases this time.  It's a White parallel of the 06 Bowman Heritage base, and if you can tell them apart at a glance you're better than I am.  I now have 220 of almost 350 Hill issues, with a few incoming that you'll get to see soon!

Scott Kamieniecki 1992 Score 100 Rising Stars

Scott Kamieniecki 1992 Upper Deck Gold Hologram

Scott Kamieniecki 1995 Collector's Choice Silver Signature

Scott Kamieniecki 1998 Pacific Online Red

Scott Kamieniecki, on the other hand, is still pretty reasonably easy to find.  I was able to knock these four off my wantlist this time, and they comprise a fairly eclectic group.  I hadn't been able to find the Rising Star set card anywhere else, so that was an easy choice.  The Gold Hologram card, meanwhile, came from a factory set, and the only difference is the gold hologram on the back.  I somehow hadn't found the '95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature, but now I can add it to the Gold version and the base card.  Finally, the Pacific Online Red insert is my first Kamieniecki pickup from that odd set, and he has three more versions for me to chase, his only 1998 cards from his final season.  I now have 69/89 of Scott's cards, putting the finish line in sight!

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome International

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman Chrome International

Murray really doesn't have that many cards to his name, but sometimes they're surprisingly difficult--or expensive--to track down.  These consecutive Bowman Chrome International parallels weren't bad, though.  I still prefer the '99 version with the city background on it as opposed to the flag and map, but these still look great, especially in Chrome.  Like Dransfeldt, Murray hits the 20-card milestone today, and that puts him exactly 2/3 of the way towards being done!

Steve Ontiveros 1995 Ultra Gold Medallion

Steve Ontiveros 1995 Zenith

Although I picked up "just" two Ontiveros cards this time--a '95 Ultra Gold Medallion parallel and his '95 Pinnacle Zenith base card, which was much more expensive elsewhere--I've really made great strides with his PC since I began collecting him, and I now have 61 of his issues, just 10 away from his run of 71, so here's another collection with the end in sight.

David Parrish 2001 Bowman Gold

Going back to the theme of guys with very few cards to their name, I found what shouldn't have been a rare insert (but was) in the form of this David Parrish '01 Bowman Gold parallel, which of course is one of my least favorite in the history of parallel cards.  At least the base card itself looks nice, so the gold doesn't detract from that in any way--it's just a throwaway card otherwise.  Say hello to my 17th Parrish out of his 24 issues, with another on the way soon!

If you sum up both posts, I ended up adding a total of 21 cards that hit nine of my player collections thanks to Sportlots.  Hopefully I can keep up that momentum as 2014 carries on.  Speaking of which, watch out for some eBay pickup posts starting this week!