2016 eBay purchases: Hill and Howe

The Division Series round of the playoffs ends tonight one way or another, and to celebrate one of my favorite PC guys starting the deciding game five--in which I oddly find myself rooting for L.A.--here's a couple eBay pickups of Dodgers past and present:

Rich Hill 2007 Sweet Spot Dual Signatures Glove Leather Black Ink auto (with Aramis Ramirez) (#06/15)

One of those proverbial "Cards you never see for sale on eBay or elsewhere", I was thrilled when this beauty of a Sweet Spot dual auto popped up a couple weeks ago.  Rich has 17 cards in this product, 13 of which are of him alone, and I have 10 of those; now I can lay claim to my first of his four duals with Ramirez, a guy who spent most of his first six years with the Pirates, then--look away, Matt!--put up 23.8 fWAR for the Cubbies.  There's three other versions I need to chase of this pair, all of the manu-ball variety, and numbered to 15, 10, and 5.  Hoo boy!

My 126th hit of Hill gives me 247 of the southpaw's run (which is again growing!), and 264 cards overall.

Hill wasn't quite as impressive as usual in game 2 for the Dodgers, but I think he's got enough magic left in him to combine with Julio Urias in a win to advance to a matchup with the team that drafted him, the Cubs.  He at least gets another shot at playoff success after his loss last week and his only other playoff start:  a loss to the Diamondbacks in 2007.  Regardless, I'm thrilled to see him get a chance like this with everything on the line after coming out of nowhere last year.

Speaking of Dodgers pitchers, here's a former member of that team, pictured in different digs:

Steve Howe 1996 Leaf Signature Autographs Bronze auto

Howe was with the Dodgers from his 1980 debut, in which he was named NL Rookie of the Year, until later in '85, when he was released.  That means he enjoyed the team's success in winning it all in 1981.

Here he is from the wonderful '96 Leaf Signature product on a card that's my first autograph of the former bullpen ace (making him the 26th member of my baseball PC).  Howe's final three cards were this Bronze auto, along with the rarer Silver and Gold versions, which I still need to track down.  Maybe they won't be as bad as I thought--this one cost me just $3 on eBay when most there and on COMC were shooting for the $10-$20 range.  Patience:  I has it.

As for his collection, I'm getting really close to slamming the door, so to speak.  Besides the two other autographs from this product, I'm short just his '93 UD Gold Hologram and '94 Stadium Club Team First Day Issue out of his 81 issues.

With these cards scanned and posted I believe the next post will be the grand finale of my latest COMC packages starring the rest of my football hits.

The New Matheny, or, Once, Twice, Three Times a Cardinal

Well, I went and done it:  after picking up the Bronze and Silver versions, I swept the podium and nabbed the gold:

The rarest of the trio, this 1996 Leaf Signature Gold auto of Matheny set me back $13 (after having paid $6 for the silver and $1.50 for the Bronze) and it was totally worth it, because now I can show THIS off on my completed nameplates/rainbows page:

I'm especially proud to have 100% of Matheny's certified autos right now since he's skippered a team with a lot of heart and determination right back into the thick of the playoffs and made them a major threat to repeat.  While I hold out hope for the Tigers, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a Michigan Man lead a team to a championship (as a backup plan!).  Go Mike, and GO BLUE!