2015 eBay purchase: Sunday Wolverines

Sometimes I have luck with some of eBay's bigger sellers that offer free shipping when purchasing a certain about.  After Tim from GSNHoF let me know he was interested in a pair of stickers being sold buy a guy I knew also had a PC card for me, I filled up my cart past the $10 mark and enjoyed watching the shipping charge disappear.  Three of those were Lou Whitakers I posted on TMV this evening, and the others were these:

Chris Getz 2009 O-Pee-Chee Black

If I'd posted this yesterday my mood would have been different, but thanks to watching the Tigers bomb the Sox into oblivion this afternoon I have no problem looking at a card of a South-Sider.  Also, it's Getz, one of my favorite collections, so either way I would have had a reason to enjoy posting this card.  Upper Deck actually produced this set back in 2009 but kept the O-Pee-Chee name.  It's my third of Getz's four from the set, and I just need the Blank Back version.  I now have 76/106 of the retired 2B.

Barry Larkin 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends

I often get the '99 set mixed up with the 2000 (non-"Century) version, but that's because you really can't go wrong either way.  Barry's Hall of Fame induction certainly lends credence to his appearance in this set, which was obviously made to cash in on MLB's All Century Team announced that same year.  The back gives Larkin credit for his '95 MVP and 30/30 season, further justifying his inclusion, not that doing so was remotely necessary!  This is my 273rd Larkin.

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman Chrome Golden Anniversary (#04/50)

Now here we have the card I've been wanting from this seller for quite a while.  Regardless of my chase of Murray's collection I don't recall ever seeing a card from this rare-ish set in-person up til now.  I realize that that 50 copies seems reasonably abundant to us these days, but then again, the further away you get from a set's release, the harder it seems to be to find limited cards like this, whether they're stars or guys like Heath.  Foreshadowing a future Topps habit this Chrome parallel is barely different from the base card other than the facsimile signature done in gold and the numbering to 50 on the back.

I still need a pair of cards from Heath's 1998 Bowman/Chrome rainbow--the Refractor version of this card (/5) and the non-Chrome version as well.  This one brings me very close to the end of Murray's run, though:  I now stand at 24/30, or 80%!

Not bad at all for a purchase I made mainly for trade bait!  Stay tuned for more pickups from Justcommons soon.

2014 eBay purchases: [unifying theme not found]

Nothing special here, just six new PC cards from two recent eBay purchases.  Let's get right down to it.  Everything you see today except the Murray below came from eBayer burbanksportscards.  Although their prices are often head-scratchers, once in a while I find a few things I need for a not unreasonable total, and hey, free shipping helps.  I spent around $10, which I think was also my total the last time I bought from them.

Red Berenson 1970-71 Topps and 1974-75 Topps

As a quick reminder, I officially started collecting Berenson after Doug hooked me up with 10 of his vintage OPC issues, a great beginning to be sure.  I added a few more via various other transactions, then decided to fill a couple gaps with these two 70s Topps versions via BINs on eBay.  These mean I now own all of Red's regular issue OPC and Topps cards (not including stickers/stamps/etc.) from '69-70 to '78-'79 (including a '69-'70 Topps I'll show off in another post soon).  Much of what's left is tougher vintage stuff--including his RC--plus tough-in-a-different-way modern stuff.  I'm just a couple cards shy of 50% at 26/55 after adding these.

Scott Kamieniecki 1994 Pinnacle Artist's Proof

It's hard for me to believe I have fewer than 10 cards to track down before I can call Scott's PC complete.  This '94 Pinnacle Artist's Proof--man those were TOUGH pulls back in the day!--gets me another step closer to that goal.  It's a great horizontal card with a perfect photo--Kam's follow through and an out-of-focus Mike Stanley--plus the much-desired stamp signifying that this card is rare. You guys.  "Only" 1000 were made, but when you consider how overproduced this stuff used to be, it's easier to realize just how difficult these were to pull.  The rarity is my 83rd out of his 90 issues, with a few toughies left to locate.

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Certified Blue Ink auto

My non-burbank pickup was this solid on-card autograph of pitcher Heath Murray, which I scored for just $3 (free shipping!).  Bowman made three versions of these signatures in '97, with the others being black and gold ink variations.  Personally, I'd argue that I got the best looking one up-front:  blue.  What's funny is that the photo on the card looks very similar to the one used the previous year, with a few small differences:  no glove on his right hand, looking directly at the camera.  The chain link fence in the background is a similarity, though, so it was probably a photo from the same shoot.  My sixth hit of Murray (five autos and a jersey) is my 23rd of his 30 issues I'm chasing.

Ted Sizemore 1972 and 1974 O-Pee-Chee

Last up is a pair of early 70s OPC cards of former Dodger/Cardinal/and more Ted Sizemore.  Some of those earlier OPC sets aren't as cheap as you might think, which I would have to assume is due to relative scarcity, though if you wanna talk expensive and relatively scarce, a good example is Ted's '71 OPC base, which I haven't seen reliably for under $50 in a while.  That's a shame because it's the last of Ted's cards that I need--yep, I own 22 of his 23-card run!  That joins Leon Roberts' (and Gary Carter's) 1975 OPC as tough-to-find-cheap last-cards-in-the-PC, so if any of you finds a nice deal on reasonable condition copies of either for under $20, please let me know!

I have at least one more card heading to me via eBay, plus some stuff from COMC, but my next post should feature a few Michigan PC guys I grabbed from Sportlots.

2014 COMC purchases: Murray, O'Neill, and Simmons

My last group of baseball PC guys this time focuses on three pretty familiar players:

Heath Murray 1994 Stadium Club Draft Picks First Day Issue

First up is former Padre Heath Murray.  I only have one card of him to show off, but since he appears on just 30 overall, that's not too much of a surprise.  What I managed to find this time was a First Day Issue parallel of Heath's '94 Stadium Club Draft Picks card.  The standalone set did indeed get its own First Day Issue cards as well as the similar Members Only parallel, from which I still lack Murray's card.  Even a solitary addition is productive for his PC as I now own 22 of his 30 issues, good for almost 75%!

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Aspirations (#022/200)

O'Neill, who you may recall is a recent Yankees OF draftee, makes an increasingly common appearance here today with three new 2013 inserts.  First up is this cool die-cut (unsigned) parallel of his auto card from that year's EEE set.  Aspirations cards keep the same red color scheme as the base/autos and are numbered to 200.  As usual, I'm a fan of the Elite design and fun array of parallels.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Bloodlines (with Paul O'Neill)

Because former Yankee Paul is Michael's uncle they were naturally paired on this Bloodlines insert, which also features the likes of Carl Yastrzemski and Ivan Rodriguez.  I never cared for the whiny, annoying elder O'Neill, but I'm sure he's the kind of guy you like when he's on your team.  This is a cool idea for a double-sided insert and executed well by Panini.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Prizms

Speaking of that brand, my final O'Neill from today hails from another Panini set, this time Prizm Perennial Draft Picks.  This Prizm parallel is clearly a ripoff of Topps' Refractors, but I guess if you call it something different there's nothing to get sued about!  I already have the base card, but I still need a few more inserts from the set, including a pair numbered to just 10.  While I work on those, today's trio bumps O'Neill's PC up to 8/40 for an even 20%, at least until he appears on more cards.

Brian Simmons 1998 Best Autographs Signature Series auto

Former (a WHILE ago former) White Sox OF prospect Brian Simmons comprises the bulk of today's post with six new additions.  First is this 1998 Team Best auto, which doesn't go towards his PC checklist since it's a minor league card, but it's still a fun addition, and it makes him player #23 in my baseball PC.  This is his only hit but at least it's an autograph, and an interesting signature at that.

Brian Simmons 1998 SP Top Prospects

Simmons was included in Upper Deck's '98 SP Top Prospects set, and I'm glad since it's definitely a very nice set to look at.  The photo UD selected does make me laugh a bit since he's being interviewed for a local news station and has a comically enormous earpiece in his left ear.  Ah, 1990s technology....  Anyway, the Birmingham Barons logo is also a nice highlight.

Brian Simmons 1998 SP Top Prospects President's Edition (#04/10)

Along with the base card from the set I was able to knock off this doozy, a parallel hand-numbered to 10 on the back, which made me decide to include it as part of the scan.  COMC also had a couple copies of this die-cut card without the numbering available separately, but I decided to go with what I consider the "real thing" here.  The gold-ish border and die-cutting make for a pretty cool card.

Brian Simmons 1999 Crown Royale

If this doesn't scream "1990s Pacific" I don't know what does, although in this case I don't mean that in a bad way.  The Crown design resulted in some interesting sets like this one from '99, and you can still see some influences from these earlier versions these days.

Brian Simmons 1999 Crown Royale Limited (#40/99)

Pacific was known for their parallels, and in general I think they were reasonably easy to spot, if not positively identify, but this one doesn't really fall into that category, at least not from the front.  The tip-off is a small red stamp above the "Rookie" designation towards the bottom-right of the card.  The back also features fuzzy digitally-printed serial-numbering (whar stamping, whar?), in this case out of 99.  I still need to track down the Opening Day parallel, numbered to 72 for some reason.

Brian Simmons 1999 Fleer Brilliants Blue

Lastly today we have this beautiful Blue parallel of Brian's 1999 Fleer Brilliants base card.  As poorly as the reflective silver base cards scan, I think Fleer should have gone with blue from the get-go, but then again I probably wouldn't have produced this set in the first place.  Gold (/99) and 24-Karat Gold (/24, of course) parallels wait in the wings.

The five new supercollection cards bump Simmons' PC up to a new total of 20/35, jumping yet another PC guy over the 50% mark to my great satisfaction.  Hopefully I'll have more of him to show off before much longer.

As usual, this was a very productive COMC haul when it came to my Michigan player collections, and I'll look to keep that momentum going whenever I next throw some money down on my favorite card-acquisition site.  Stay tuned for the final post in this series, covering football hits, shortly!

2014 Sportlots purchase #4: Kelly, Bill, Heath, Steve, and J.J.

Yep, more Sportlots pickups today, so let's get right down to it:

Kelly Dransfeldt 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 2

Just one Dransfeldt this time, but it's from the gorgeous '99 Topps Gold Label set.  Class 2 means two things:  the background is the "T" team logo, and the main image is Kelly as a baserunner (along with the inset image, which is the same on all three versions).  I have Class 1 and Class 3 already, giving me that trio, so now I'm left to work on some parallels.  I also have 21 of Dransfeldt's 45-card run, putting me pretty close to 50%!

Bill Freehan 2004 Upper Deck Legends Timeless Teams (#73)

Just one Freehan today as well, but that's sort of a theme since four of this post's five players are flying solo today.  In old Bill's case I finally landed one of his two base cards from this Timeless Teams set, this one honoring the '72 squad that lost to the eventual three-peating A's (the other is the more honor-worthy '68 team).  It goes nicely with the autographed version, which is pretty much the same card with a signature right where the year is (nice design!).  Bump the count up by one to 74 of Bill's 132 overall.

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman Chrome Refractor

Today's Refractor comes courtesy of former Padres hurler Heath Murray.  My fifth card from his '98 Bowman/Chrome rainbow leaves me needing four, including both Golden Anniversary cards (#d to 50) and the ultra-tough Golden Anniversary Chrome Refractor (just five made!).  I don't need a whole lot more than that, though, as this is my 21st of Heath's 30 issues.  Viva Refractors!

Steve Ontiveros 1995 Donruss Top of the Order

Steve Ontiveros party time!  First up is this Donruss card that looks like a precursor to the more popular MLB Showdown game.  It's slightly oddball-ish, but normal enough to count as far as I'm concerned.

Steve Ontiveros 1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond

Electric Diamond was a parallel of a few different Upper Deck sets in the 90s, and in this case, the one-per-pack version featured silver foil, including a home plate that encompassed the UD logo.  Personally I favor the copper foil and regular UD logo of the base card, but to each his own.  Meanwhile, I still need the rarer Gold version.

Steve Ontiveros 1996 Collector's Choice Gold Signature

This one was tougher for me to find for whatever reason, but I eventually nabbed it when I saw it on SportLots.  1996's Signature parallels are a bit better than some of the other years' since the border features the same color as the signature.

Steve Ontiveros 1996 Metal Universe Platinum

Look!  It's a very slightly different version of the base card!  This is such a typical 90s parallel that...well, I dunno, but it's a very typical 90s parallel!

Steve Ontiveros 1996 Stadium Club Extreme Players Silver

Out of all the cards I scanned for today, I'm proudest of this one, because I lucked out and really got a fantastic image of the "Extreme" Silver stamp.

Steve Ontiveros 1996 Stadium Club Members Only Parallel

This Members Only parallel is decidedly less interesting, but still features a pretty cool stamp.

Steve Ontiveros 1996 Stadium Club Silver

THIS parallel is probably the most unnecessary since the Extreme Silver card looks so much better and already features silver foil.  At least it closes the book on Steve's six cards from '96 Stadium Club!  Better yet, I now sit amazingly close to Ontiveros' PC with a new total of 68/71!

J.J. Putz 2008 Upper Deck Gold (#40/99)

It's kind of funny--I think Upper Deck pretty consistently produced Gold parallels numbered to 99 going back to around 2006, and yet the older ones are generally much cheaper than the newer ones.  Case in point:  this Putz from 2008.  I grabbed it for just $0.75 (before shipping), which seems crazy to me since I see cards from 2010 going for 10 times that much!  Hey, whatever--I'll take 'em as cheap as I can get 'em!  This is my 177th Putz of his 320 or so cards.

Stay tuned for the last part in this series pretty soon, and then some recent eBay and COMC scores!

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!

COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 12: Heath Murray

(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.

This will be the second-to-last post in this series, and the last featuring a baseball PC.  Today's subject is pitcher Heath Murray, who you might remember from such posts as the second in my Many More Michigan Men series.  Before these purchases Murray's PC sat at a paltry three cards.  Let's see how much I added to it late last year:

Heath Murray 1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks Signatures auto (#7/7750)

First up is an "other" card--an autograph from the EXTREMELY LIMITED unlicensed Signature Rookies set from 1994.  This card likely depicts Heath in Ann Arbor, but since it's airbrushed it doesn't get the "Michigan Uniform" tag.  Still, I'm pretty sure I snagged it for under a buck, and it IS an autograph, so not a bad way to start!

Heath Murray 1994 Stadium Club Draft Picks XRC

Although it's not a "true" RC, but an XRC, this is still Murray's first mainstream card, so that's cool.  As it's Stadium Club, it also gets First Day Issue and Member's Only parallels, though I have yet to find either.  One cool feature I haven't seen in a set before:  the back note's he was a third-round pick (1994) and then updates fans on the status of the team's previous five picks in that round.  The '89-'92 players were uninteresting, but the Padres' 1993 third-rounder was Matt Clement, who went on to a decent nine-year career (and was in Class A at the time).

Heath Murray 1996 Bowman RC

Heath Murray 1996 Bowman Foil

Up next is Heath's only true RC from '96 Bowman, along with the Foil parallel (yep, it existed all the way back then!).  But wait, it doesn't have the RC logo on it, how am I to know that's what this is?!  In all seriousness, this is a nice portrait shot, and the pair represents the sum of Heath's 1996 cards--but far from the only Bowman issues we'll see today.

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome International Refractor

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome Refractor

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman International

I wasn't lying!  These five come from the six-card '97 Bowman/Chrome "rainbow" (which I put in quotes since there's not much to get.  I'm just missing the non-Refractor Chrome International card, which I don't think I've seen for sale so far.  The inaugural release of Chrome proved to be a very popular one, and it became a fan-favorite that's highly-regarded to this day, though it's become much more complicated.  For my part I think the design came out very well when Chrome-ified, and I love the Refractors, as usual.

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman Chrome

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman International

1998 Bowman/Chrome increases slightly to a nine-card rainbow thanks to a couple more parallels, but I don't currently have any to show here.  The Chrome set again looks nice, so I look forward to scoring those Refractors.  Meanwhile, the International parallel is a bit of a step up thanks to the map-like background instead of the previous year's flag (although they again improved in subsequent years).  Besides these two, I already have the base Bowman card by virtue of owning the complete set, so I'm 1/3 of the way done here.

Heath Murray 1998 Fleer

This is Heath's other 1998 card, and it signals we're done with Bowman for the day.  I've said a few times I like how Fleer went the highlight stamp route instead of making separate cards, which too often feel like filler.  I'm also a fan of the borderless design, even if the manufacturer went away from the awesome matte finish from the previous years.

Heath Murray 2000 E-X Genuine Coverage jersey

Heath Murray 2000 Fleer Mystique Fresh Ink auto

Heath Murray 2000 SkyBox Autographics auto

Heath Murray 2000 Ultra Fresh Ink auto (#838/925)

After a one-year hiatus, Murray appeared on four cards in 2000:  these four, all of which are hits, which I guess isn't a major surprise since the turn of the century coincided with the relic/autograph explosion in the hobby.  They also happen to be the final four cards for his career, so he certainly when out with a bang.  Once I pick up the '97 Bowman Black, Blue, and Gold Ink autos I'll own 100% of his hits, which seems attainable.

The Reds cards make me laugh a bit because he never appeared in the Majors with the team; Cincy grabbed him off waivers after the '99 season but released him the following spring.  The Dodgers signed him, but Murray never made it back with them either, leading to a 2001 season with Detroit, then a few games in 2002 with Cleveland before he retired.  This isn't the first example of that in my collection, as this Rich Hill Cardinals auto will attest.

Anyway, I do like the various designs Fleer used with the three autograph sets, especially the Mystique and Ultra versions, the latter of which has an interesting sticker design that kind of adds to the card.

These hits make Heath the 21st member of my Michigan Baseball PC, and also put that collection over a pretty major milestone of 250 hits--254 exactly as of today.  So woohoo to that!

I'm also very happy to have added 15 new Murrays to the checklist (and 16 to his collection overall) for a new total of 18/30, which is exactly 60%!

Stay tuned for the final post in the series, which will be all football, plus trade packages and more.