2015 eBay purchase: the Mechanical Michigan Milestone Man

I showed off a beautiful pair of Tigers cards I picked up on eBay over on TMV tonight, but just in case you didn't see that post (or even if you did!), here's the highlight that's appropriate for putting on display over here:

Charlie Gehringer 2007 SP Legendary Cuts Inside the Numbers Cuts auto (#52/60)

This is my first non-manufactured hit of the HOF Tiger, and I'd be hard pressed to do better!  I'd wanted a cut auto of Gehringer for the longest time, but the ones that had appealing designs were almost always too expensive.  Not so this time as the seller's BIN of $40 was plenty reasonable for me, and I think you can see why:  Charlie's "Chas. Gehringer" signature is as beautiful as always, the cut window fits the whole thing comfortably ("...he said, as Topps studiously ignored him while designing another overpriced crap product"), and the old-fashioned look with the MM's photo ties everything up nicely.  This is a card I'm gonna cherish for a long, long time, and then some!

So, I deployed the "milestones" tag, why come?  Well friend, there's two reasons.  First of all, ol' Charlie here represents the 1500th total hit in my Michigan Sports collections.  Considering where I was just a few years ago when I started this blog, much less way back when I created TMV, this just blows my mind!  Don't forget to check out those collections with the links to your right towards the top.

The other milestone of the day concerns posting totals; yep, after three years and almost three more months, we at TMM have finally hit our 500th post!  That I took so long to get here is a testament to my laziness and ability to be distracted easily, so I'd like to thank the other blogs, TV, shiny objects, and loud noises, without which I wouldn't be writing this today.  Or, well, that doesn't make a ton of sense since without those things I would be writing this today, I'd just have way more posts under my belt.

As usual when reaching a milestone like this I'd also like to credit Jeff of My Sports Obsession who's contributed his fair share of content, especially his excellent Michigan tumblr photo features.  Thanks again for chipping in content sometimes, Jeff--that makes you just as much of a laziness enabler as the things listed above.

And thank you to the few of you that follow this blog that has a more specific and audience-limiting focus that my other one.  GO BLUE!

I'll be back soon with some fantastic trade package hauls, some loot from COMC, and the remaining new PCs I need to show off.

2014 COMC purchases: baseball fall classics

On a day where Michigan Football is celebrating the program's best news, probably, since Jabrill Peppers signed his Letter of Intent, with a buyout of athletic dipshit Dave Brandon (hey, maybe we won't suck anymore AND the students/fans won't be pissed!), I'm showing off more pickups from COMC that center on...baseball.  Well that's just what I felt like doing today, so that's what I'm gonna do.  Plus, as the title hints at, it's time to celebrate the 2014 season with the conclusion of the World Series, even if many of us are sad to be seeing it end.

Anyway, here's eight new baseball PC cards!:

Steve Boros 1984 Topps Tiffany

Up first thanks to the magic of sorting alphabetically by last name is the card I'm actually the most excited about today.  This '84 Tiffany of Boros completes yet another player collection for me!  That's 16 up and 16 down for the former Tiger/Cub/Red player and A's/Padres manager.  It's kind of funny to me that the final two cards of his I needed were 80s Tiffany parallels, not any of his vintage stuff that spanned '58-'65.  Check out that album for the full run or have another gander at the checklist here.  Up next, I suppose, will be a less-than-half-assed attempted at his three 1/1s or his Topps buybacks.  By the way, he's my seventh completed PC.

Jake Fox 2010 Upper Deck Gold (#02/99)

In many ways this 2010 UD Jake Fox parallel is the next most exciting addition for me because I have so few cards of his to chase at this point.  After I added a bit more credit trying to score some trade pieces, I had enough left to take a stab at this card whose price had previously kept me away.  I was able to make a solid offer and get it accepted, which I'm thrilled about because as with most of Fox's non-base cards, I don't think I'd ever seen more than maybe one other available anywhere!  Now that I'm at 17/19 of his run I don't expect to find the other two (#d /25 and /15) anytime soon, but maybe someday I'll get to 100$! 

Charlie Gehringer 2004 Sweet Spot Classic Patch 300 manupatch (#216/300)

And Charlie is on the board!  This is the first hit of the Mechanical Man to appear in my Michigan Baseball PC.  Sure it's just a manupatch, but it's still a fun start--Sweet Spot resulted in some very cool patches featuring logos and other designs.  Best of all, I didn't have to throw down very much credit to nab one of the nicer cards in my Gehringer collection.  And of course it's always fun to add to the Tiger/Wolverine collection.  I do hope to add a "real" hit before the end of the year, though, ideally something along the lines of a cut signature.

Charlie Gehringer 2012 Panini Cooperstown Blue Crystal (#292/499)

Speaking of Gehringer, here's another great card I picked up.  I already had his base and Red Crystal versions from 2012 Cooperstown, but now I have what's obviously my favorite of the bunch:  blue!  The parallels look nice enough that I might try to track down the rainbow over time if it doesn't prove too costly.  Meanwhile, Gehringer bumps past the 20-card mark to a new total of 21.

Barry Larkin 1997 Studio Hard Hats (#3817/5000)

Right after Gehringer we have another HOFer, and a much more recent one in Larkin.  This acetate insert is one great example of how much we're missing the gold old days of Donruss and some of the inserts they came up with.  Hard Hats has kind of been brought back in a couple sports, but they're nothing like the original, which hailed from one of Donruss' finest products:  Studio.  Numbered to "just" 5000 copies, this is easily one of my favorite inserts of Larkin in his collection.

Barry Larkin 2010 Topps Commemorative Patch manupatch

I have one more Larkin to show off, and like his HOF peer Gehringer, it's a manurelic, my third such card of the SS legend (2011 Reds logo, 2012 World Series pin), two of which honor Cincy's most recent championship back when I was just seven.  Not bad for just a few bucks.  As always I bow down to the amazing collection of Chris at Nachos Grande (he posted a new one today!), but for my part I'm happy with the 224 Larkins I now own.

J.J. Putz 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil

Putz, who hasn't been the D-Backs' full-time closer since 2012, got into 18 games this year and wasn't terrible effective before being released back in June.  That didn't stop Topps from including him in Series II this year, though, so I'm glad to get to chase more of his cards while I wait to see if he makes it back to a Major League club next year.  Oddly enough this is my first 2014 Topps issue of Putz, and I grabbed it because the price was right.  I may go after the base and cheaper parallels elsewhere, maybe with Justcommons, but I'm happy to take my time tracking down the other 17 cards in the flagship/Mini rainbow.  This is my 180th card out of J.J.'s current total of 326, so as usual I still have a long way to go! 

Bobby Scales 2009 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor (#040/199)

Last but not least on this evening of shiny pickups is a beautiful Blue Refractor (a.k.a. Best Refractor) of former Cub Bobby Scales.  Like Fox (also a former Cub!), he doesn't have a ton of cards for me to chase so it's not terribly often that I find a new one.  In this case, the card above had been available on COMC for a very long time, but always at a price that made no sense.  Then patience proved to be a virtue when a different seller was asking for less than $1 for his copy.  Take THAT, other guy.  Also, hooray again for Blue Refractors.  This is my 21st of his 31 cards, with more work to be done on this set's rainbow, among others.

All in all, not a bad day for the baseball PCs, not to mention Michigan's athletic department!  Stay tuned for a final post covering the football stuff, maybe this weekend.

8-10-14 card show report: show me the Wolverines

As you might have read over on TMV tonight, I hit up the usual card show for the second month in a row thanks to my lack of interest in anything on the usual sites for now.  I spent most of my money on trade bait and a box of 2013 SPx football (reviewed on TMV), but I did dig up five Wolverines on the cheap that I'm happy to show off to you now:

Charlie Gehringer 2003 SP Legendary Cuts Etched in Time 175 (#079/175)

This not-quite-manurelic Gehringer has a cool "etching" on a wood-like piece inserted into the card (see the base version here).  It looked too nice to pass up for just a couple bucks, and it highlights the Mechanical Man entering the Hall in 1949.  Three versions were made, with the other two being numbered to 400 and 300 (though what's stamped on the piece stays the same).  This is my 18th Gehringer, and one of my nicest ones at that!

George Sisler 1979 Topps #411 (with Ty Cobb)

I scored my second-oldest Sisler (to this '61 Fleer) for less than a buck today in the form of this '79 Topps All-Time Record Holders card that notes Sisler and Ty Cobb as the season and career hit leaders at the time.  Cobb's record of 4191 stood from 1928 to 1985, when Pete Rose broke it.  Sisler's, meanwhile, lasted from his 257-hit 1920 season until it was finally topped by Ichiro in 2004 when the Mariner compiled 262 (while appearing in seven more games and with 73 additional at-bats).  That means Gorgeous George's mark needed 84 years to be broken!  It's fun to have a card to note that feat, and it join's Sisler's PC as his 49th card.

Braylon Edwards 2011 Timeless Treasures Jerseys jersey (#173/250)

For just $1 I added this cool Braylon Edwards jersey which arrives in the form of this 2011 Timeless Treasures card whose design I can't help but like for some reason.  If I had to guess, it's the borderless photo.  Not a bad relic for Bray-Bray, and maybe the first card of the cameraman making a cameo on the sideline?  This is Braylon #55 in the football PC if you're counting.

Denard Robinson 2013 Finest Jumbo Jersey Autographs Refractors jersey auto

Remember when I scored that Tulo auto ridiculously cheap at a previous show?  I made sure to hit that guy's tables again and once more he had some sparkling deals on some nice stuff in the form of $4 or 3/$10 cards (and more).  I grabbed a few of those for others, but one I was shocked to find for myself was this Denard auto/jersey from 2013 Finest.  It's my second auto/relic of Shoelace after Sam the Dimwit sent me this auto/patch from the same set.  Considering I would have happily paid a few more bucks for it, I was thrilled.  It's my 6th Denard hit overall and I'm having a surprisingly ok time finding his stuff at reasonable prices.

Tyrone Wheatley 2005 Zenith Z-Jerseys jersey

Last up is this Raiders black jersey of thundering RB Tyrone Wheatley.  A buck was all it took to pry it away from the same seller that had the Braylon.  You can't go wrong with a non-white swatch plus Panini's signature Dufex Technology!  My second relic of the former bruiser is my fifth Tyrone overall.

For my money it was definitely another productive show, and better yet, I only had to scan five cards to show off this time!

Charlie and George were among the Greatest Hitters

I realize I've gone without posting for nearly two weeks, but I've been busy putting together my spring cleaning contest for the other blog (which I hope to have ready by today), and more importantly, enjoying the fantastic spring/summer weather that's been long overdue!

While I have plenty to show off in the form of trades and pickups from Sportlots, COMC, eBay, and more, today I have a pair of cards I dug out while flipping through things to get rid of:

Charlie Gehringer and George Sisler 1982 TCMA Baseball's Greatest Hitters

TCMA cards, and this set in particular, may be familiar to many of you.  This version came out a year before I was born, but my parents must have bought them for my brother and I at some point, and I've had them for a long, long time.  It's chock full of legends, including these two, which are among my player collections.

Both Gehringer and Sisler are in the Hall of Fame, of course, and for each that was the case especially thanks to their hitting prowess.  Gehringer, the "Mechanical Man," finished with a career average of .320 and more than 2800 hits.  Sisler was even more renown for his skills with the bat, tallying a .340 career mark and owning the single-season hits mark of 257, broken many years later by Ichiro.

These cards mark my 17th Gehringer and 33rd of Sisler, and I think they were perfect for a lazy Sunday kind of post, which will hopefully get me back in the habit!

To see more of this classic set, hit up this link to the Trading Card Database.

April 19 card show report

As I mentioned over on TMV yesterday, I hit up my monthly show in Taylor after not having been since last November.  The bulk of my budget went to a box of 2013 Upper Deck football, reviewed in that post, and the rest went to a pair of $15 purchases that included singles for me and trade bait for some of you.

Besides the hits, the highlight of the UD box was this base card of Anthony Carter, my only Wolverine:

Go ahead, try to tell me that set's not awesome--I'm not listening!

The singles purchases were split into two:  one was a small group of cards, two of which you'll see here, one which will show up on TMV (maybe tomorrow), and some trade bait.  The other was made up of quarter and $0.50 boxes:  25 for $5 from the former, and 12 for $5 of the latter (in which I double-dipped, totaling $15).  You'll see a few of those today too, some on TMV, and maybe others in your mailbox!

Charlie Gehringer 1983 Galasso 1933 Goudey Reprints (#222)

Charlie Gehringer 1985 Galasso 1934 Goudey Reprints (#23)

Charlie Gehringer 1985 Galasso 1938 Goudey Heads Up Reprints (#265)

First up, from the quarter boxes, is a trio of oddball Charlie Gehringer reprints.  I hadn't heard of this Galasso set before, but the reprints are very cool as they come from some very famous sets indeed.  You really can't go wrong with any of them.  I now have 16 cards of the Mechanical Man.

Barry Larkin 1996 Topps Gallery Expressionists

Next is a Larkin insert I found for $0.50.  If there had been more Larkins I promise you I would have picked up more.  This is a beautiful Topps Gallery insert set, I just wish Topps had chosen a better expression for Barry, who had plenty to smile about during his career!  Anyway, this is my 212th Larkin.

J.J. Putz 2000 Royal Rookies Futures Autographs auto (#3443/4950)

Today's last card from the $0.50 box was a surprise hit:  a Putz auto I've wanted for a while, but never picked up because nobody in their right mind would pay more than $1 for it.  Royal Rookies is an unlicensed junky brand, but an auto is an auto.  The seller actually had three of these but I didn't see any reason to grab more than one; if anybody else wants one, I'll keep an eye out for them next time.  It doesn't go towards his PC checklist, but it's my 185th overall Putz, including 1/1s, and 13th hit.

I got this last pair for $10 from the other seller:

Ronald Bellamy 2003 TK Legacy auto

My TK Legacy momentum has slowed quite a bit since earlier this year, so I was happy to dig this Bellamy auto up.  The guy actually had a few others from the Hail to the Victors National Champs auto subset, but said he'd "have to research them" because "some of those guys might be dead."  Uh, ok man, whatever, I'll just take this one.  It's my third Bellamy auto, and better yet, it's my 79th from the M Go Blue set!  Bonus points, of course, for the Michigan uni, plus more for a gorgeous signature.  Well worth $5 for me.

Chris Perry 2004 Fleer Platinum Pro Material Jerseys Autographs Die Cut jersey auto (#04/25)

The other $5 went toward this sweet die-cut jersey/auto of Chris Perry.  I was already sold on it before I flipped it over and noticed the very low serial-numbering.  I actually already had the "regular" version, so this was a nice get for me.  It's my 35th hit of the former star RB, breaking him out of a three-way tie for 8th place with David Terrell and Leon Hall, and putting him one card behind WR Jason Avant.  And who knows, I might try to track down the other versions!

Although this show tested my patience (and stamina--I flipped through a LOT of boxes!), I'm quite happy with how I did, ending up with a nice mix of useful stuff.  I don't know when I'll go back next, but hopefully I'll have as much luck then as I did on Saturday.

2014 COMC pickups #2: Tigers that earned their stripes long before I was born

Today I'm back with baseball again, specifically a couple Tiger greats that played way before my time--Bill Freehan and Charlie Gehringer:

Bill Freehan 1970 O-Pee-Chee (#465)

When I completed Freehan's run of cards from his playing days, I neglected to include the O-Pee-Chee cards, like this All-Star from 1970.  Since I included that set for the rest of my PCs, I went back and added it to his list as well.

Bill Freehan 1972 O-Pee-Chee

I don't expect these to come terrible cheap, at least not all of them, but I can't complain about the prices I paid for the ones you see today, including Bill's '72 card.  Others, though, especially the higher numbers from certain years, will set me back a bit whenever I end up locating them.

Bill Freehan 1973 O-Pee-Chee

This play at the plate card is definitely a fan favorite, and the photo ranks near the top for me as well.  Obviously the centering is...well, "centering" probably doesn't apply to this card, but as usual I'm not THAT picky about condition.  All that matters is that the fantastic photo is there in all its glory.

Bill Freehan 1975 O-Pee-Chee

I've got the '75 Topps and Mini versions of this, so why not the OPC as well?  You can see that Freehan is listed as a "C-1B," which makes sense since 1974 was the only year in his career in which he appeared in more games at first than behind the plate (65 to 63).

Bill Freehan 1976 O-Pee-Chee

This '76 card is Freehan's final OPC issue, though he did appear in the '77 Topps set.  In all, Bill appeared on 10 cards from that brand, and I'm halfway to owning all of them.

Bill Freehan 2013 Panini Golden Age Mini American Caramel Red Back

My last Freehan pickup this time is from a much, much newer set.  Bill has eight cards in the product, including five minis, and I own six and four, respectively, lacking just the Nadja Caramels Back from the latter group.

This sextet of Freehans gives him a new PC total of 73/132, and you can check out each and every one of those right here.

Charlie Gehringer 2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historical Impressions (#110/350)

Today's other Tiger is the Mechanical Man, Charlie Gehringer.  My favorite addition for the day is this super thick SP Legendary Cuts insert, which has a manufactured, um, thing, in the middle.  It's kind of hard to describe just based on the scan, but it kind of has the feel of a refrigerator magnet, as weird as that sounds.  The signature is raised, and that photo is actual inset deeply in the circular frame.  There's a couple other versions of this card that are rarer, and I may try to land them eventually.

Charlie Gehringer 2007 SP Legendary Cuts

Keeping with the Legendary Cuts theme, here's another one from a set that came out four years later.  It retains UD's tradition of a classy looking design and classic photo.  This is actually my fourth different card from the product's base set, along with 2002, 2003, and 2006.

Charlie Gehringer 2012 Panini Cooperstown Crystal Collection Red (#236/399)

Finally, I found a nice deal on this red parallel from 2012 Cooperstown.  As of now it's my only parallel of this card, but as nice as these are I have a feeling I'll be adding more before long (especially the blue one!).

These three cards bump up my Gehringer PC to a lucky 13.

Stay tuned for more soon!

COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 5: hall bound

(Note:  view all posts in this series with this link)

I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.

Just as I did almost exactly two months ago (in their MMMM post), I'm pairing up today's subjects once more:  Hall-of-Famers Charlie Gehringer and George Sisler.  It just makes a lot of sense to me to group these two vintage legends together while giving more recent honoree Barry Larkin his own posts.  That's not meant as a slight toward either old-time great, though, even if their combined collections pale in comparison to Barry's!

Between COMC and Justcommons I had some nice luck adding some quality stuff to each guy's PC, especially in Sisler's case, as you'll see shortly.

Charlie Gehringer 2003 SP Legendary Cuts

Charlie Gehringer 2004 Greats of the Game

Charlie Gehringer 2005 UD Baseball Classics

Charlie Gehringer 2012 Panini Cooperstown

Charlie Gehringer 2012 Panini Golden Age

Charlie Gehringer 2013 Panini Cooperstown

These six cards actually tripled my Gehringer PC to a total of nine.  I'm a much bigger fan of the first three since they're licensed sets, meaning Charlie is clearly depicted with the Tigers.  The latter three, though, do feature some cool photos, my favorite being the 2012 Cooperstown.  All six of these came from Justcommons, and I didn't find any inserts that made sense for the price, but I'm hoping to add some soon.

George Sisler 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends

George Sisler 2003 Flair Greats

George Sisler 2005 SP Legendary Cuts

George Sisler 2005 Sweet Spot Classic

George Sisler 2004 Topps Tribute HOF

George Sisler 2009 Topps Tribute

George Sisler 2011 Topps Lineage Diamond Anniversary Refractor

George Sisler 2011 Topps Lineage Diamond Anniversary Platinum Refractor

George Sisler 2011 Topps Tribute

George Sisler 2012 Panini Cooperstown Crystal Collection Blue (#052/499)

George Sisler 2012 Panini Cooperstown Crystal Collection Red (#387/399)

Yep, I clearly had a lot more luck with Sisler this time, nabbing seven cards from COMC and another four from Justcommons.  This was a nice mix of base (including some higher-end!) and inserts.  The '99 Century Legends and '04 Topps Tribute are my co-favorites from the base thanks to their excellent designs, with the 2011 Tribute a close third.  And while the Lineage parallels aren't bad, the 2012 Cooperstown Blue and Red (with the Blue getting the nod, obviously) are gorgeous and make me want to see about maybe trying for the rainbow.  The "Cracked Ice" look combined with the excellent color choices make for sweet cards that really take the sting out of the lack of team names and logos.  And so ol' George crosses a minor milestone to hit a new total of 23 cards in his PC!

Despite a great opportunity to post some football stuff in honor of yesterday's Super Bowl, I didn't, mostly out of laziness, but I'm planning on posting some of those this week along with more of my baseball pickups, so watch for those soon!