2015 COMC/eBay/Sportlots baseball PC purchase catch-up post!

I've had a bunch of these cards in my scan folder for way too long, so here's a bunch of baseball PC pickups from my usual favorite non-trade sources:
COMC:

Chris Getz 2014 Topps Clear Stock (#09/10)

I was starting to feel like one of the few people out there who didn't have one of these so I was thrilled to find Getz's version of one of Topps' few awesome ideas from the last few years--and it wasn't even as expensive as I thought it would be!

Steve Howe 1995 Bazooka

This is just one of a larger bunch of Howe pickups that you'll get to see a bit later in this post.  Fortunately, 1995's Bazooka set doesn't bring back the horrible memories that 1996's does--think worst...collation...ever.

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs Refractor auto (#375/500)

I've still got a long way to go on my O'Neill collection--this is just my 26th card out of his 83 I've checklisted so far.  But every little bit helps, and it always gives a PC a nice boost to add an autograph and Refractor at the same time!  By the way, nearly half of my O'Neill cards feature signatures, with a whopping 12 owning that distinction!

eBay:

Rich Hill 2009 Topps Heritage Ad Panels (with Poreda and Hall)

This is actually my most recent purchase this month, a card won on eBay exactly 10 days ago.  These Heritage Ad Panels can be a pain to track down, but once in a while you find a guy selling a bunch and luck out.  And as luck would have it, this should be the last Hill I need to track down now that I have three different versions (two, three).  I hadn't added this one to my checklist for whatever reason, so I now list 349 total cards in the run of the newest member of the Oakland A's (congrats, Rich!), of which I have about 70%.  I wonder if his bit of success this year will lead to any cards in 2015 or 2016?

Sportlots:

Chris Getz 2010 Topps Heritage

Just one other card of Getz, but it's from the classy-looking 2010 Heritage set, and it's further classed up by the Topps All-Star Rookie logo.  Today's pair puts me pretty close to the 75% mark of his collection.

Steve Howe 

1992 Topps Gold;  1992 Upper Deck Gold Hologram;  1994 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow

1994 Topps Gold;  1995 Collector's Choice Silver Signature;  1995 Fleer

1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality

And I finish off the post with seven more cards of Howe.  I got a lot of help from Sportlots sellers from whom I was mainly purchasing UM football rookies.  As always, combined shipping FTW!  Nothing terribly exciting here, though there's only one non-insert card ('95 Fleer).  Oddly enough, every single insert is a parallel, including UD's questionable Gold Hologram set that features--you guessed it--a gold hologram on the back of the card.  Woooo.  I keep plugging along on this collection, though, and stand at 62/82, good for about 83%, which isn't bad for a collection I began just a few months ago.

Next up I intend to get to a couple trade posts before showing off COMC stuff and a huge, huge cache of the aforementioned football rookies.

2015 COMC purchase: red, white, maize and blue

I'm more than halfway through my COMC purchases from the last couple months, and that's a good thing since I have more cards due to arrive next week!  Here's some nice stuff covering several of my baseball PCs.

Jim Abbott 2013 USA Baseball Champions Diamond Kings (#174/399)

Jim Abbott 2013 USA Baseball Champions Pride

Few things are more American than the American flag, baseball, and Diamond Kings.  Not sure why the flag is backwards on the second card, though.  Anyway, 2013 USA Baseball Champions is a fun set, and you can see why just based on these two cards, which give me a new total of 106 for Jim.

Scott Kamieniecki 1992 Topps Debut '91

Unlike someone such as Abbott, it's unlikely you'll be seeing more than one Kamieniecki at a time since I'm so close to completing his PC!  As I like to do with Topps' Debut sets, let's take a look at Scott's first MLB game:  on June 18, 1991, Kamieniecki was the Yankees' starter against the Jays in Toronto.  He was quality, going 6.0 innings and allowing 2 ER en route to the win (with a hold recorded by fellow Wolverine Steve Howe).  He struck out six against 4 walks and 9 hits.  One more stat to throw at you:  I now own 86 of Steve's 90 cards.

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Series 2 Blue Refractor (#154/250) and Bubble Refractor (#06/99)

Hey, a pair of Blue inserts for a guy who played for the Maize and Blue!  O'Neill has a LOT of parallels in this set (along with the Mini versions) so I'll be at this for a while.  For my money, the standard Blue looks way, way better than the weird-ass "Bubble" set, but we all know that Topps knows best.  I have seven cards from the entire rainbow so far as part of my current O'Neill total of 25.

J.J. Putz 2013 Topps Heritage Venezuelan Black Back

Here's a card that was a long time coming to my collection.  I picked up Clayton Richard's version a couple years back when these came out, worried that they'd be rare and pricey for some reason.  J.J.'s card set me back much less since I waited.  It's my 191st of his 327, and better yet, taking into account 1/1s and "others" that aren't part of his mainstream run, I now own 200 of the former Michigan pitcher!

Matt Miller 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Signature Status Black auto (1/1)

Oh yeah, this little gem was in the package as well.  It came up on COMC but under a seller that's not really known for having great prices.  Fortunately, Tim from GSNHoF was generous enough to use his pull to grab it from me and send it to me in a COMC swap.  Thanks, Tim!  This completes a 10-card rainbow from the beautiful 2010 EEE set while also giving me my first 1/1 of the former Wolverines hurler.  He has 10 of those overall, so I'm already at 10% of those!  I should also mention it's my 7th Miller hit, 26th Michigan Baseball-related 1/1, and 38th 1/1 overall.  AND it's a Michigan uniform card.  Definitely a BIG win for my collection and one of the highlights of this package.

Stay tuned for two more COMC posts, both of which will be football-related.

2015 eBay purchases: a completed collection and more Michigan mishmash

I'm back today with a few more eBay purchases from last month, though I expect to put up a couple more trade posts shortly along with (hopefully) a card show recap.

Bobby Korecky 2008 Sweet Spot Rookie Signatures 50 auto (#50/50)

Up first is the latest addition to my Bobby Korecky collection and it's autograph #5 of the former Twins pitching prospect.  I believe the "regular" version of this card (#d to 399) was one of the earlier Korecky issues I picked up toward his collection, and this variant replaces the gold foil with a holographic version, plus the set's limited to 50 copies.  Regardless, it's still a fun on-card auto featuring raised "stitching" along the sides.  More importantly this is my sixth Korecky out of his tiny seven-card PC; I just need one more autograph--his 2008 SP Authentic Rookie Exclusives signature.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Prospect Signatures Red Prizms auto (#060/100)

Moving on to a PC that's much larger and not nearly as close to completion, here's Michael O'Neill autograph #11, a Red Prizm version of this signature from 2013 Perennial Draft Picks.  The Prizms parallels seem to feature interesting colors and the holographic area for the on-card autographs looks great, plus O'Neill has a very nice John Hancock.  Bought as part of a lot that includes the Anthony Carter seen below and a few things I grabbed for trade bait, this is my 23rd of O'Neill's 83 cards to-date, and I'll just keep plugging away one card at a time!

Leon Roberts 1975 O-Pee-Chee RC (with Carter, Hill, Meyer)

Here's today's heavy hitter, a card I also posted this evening on TMV because it's primarily associated with its best player, HOF catcher Gary Carter.  However, despite the fact that gave me plenty of reason to pick it up, the real reason I'm excited is that it's the 28th and final card I needed to complete my Leon Roberts PC!  This beauty, which completes the '75 triumvirate of OPC/Topps/Topps Mini eluded me for quite a while due to the premium Carter adds.  A Canadian eBay seller let it go to me for a very reasonable $12, preserving his country's reputation for friendliness.  I'll happily keep this with the other two in my significant rookie collection, but I can now happily knock the 14th PC guy off my list!

Anthony Carter 2014 Exquisite Collection Signatures auto (#94/99)

As I briefly mentioned earlier, I grabbed this Carter in a three-auction purchase that included the O'Neill above along with a four-card lot featuring a Rich Hill you'll see in an upcoming post plus three cards destined for trade packages, all for about $14!  Having won the two other auctions I threw a relatively low bid on this beautiful UD signature of AC and was thrilled to add it to my purchase.  As usual the Exquisite brand lives up to its name with a pleasing design and gorgeous college photo enhanced by a fantastic signature (jeez, maybe they should call it "UD Superlatives" instead).  I now have nine different Carter hits (all autos) in my football collection.

Stay tuned for more posts soon, a.k.a. whenever I feel like it now that the beautiful spring/summer weather has finally returned!

2015 trade package #13: My Sports Obsession enables my PC obsession

I'm behind on posting, which means I'm even more behind on trade packages!

Here's a great one from fellow TMMer Jeff of My Sports Obsession.  Jeff let me know he was gonna send me some stuff for my PCs, and he sure wasn't kidding about that!  Check these out:

Barry Larkin 2003 MLB Showdown

I had just one other MLB Showdown card of Larkin before Jeff sent this one my way, and now I've doubled my collection thanks to this base from 2003.  It's my 276th different Larkin card, which is awesome.

Hal Morris 1990 Albany Yankees All Decade Best

Moving on to Larkin's old Reds teammate Hal Morris, here's a cool oddball/minor league card, #105 in his collection.  Hal's another pretty good Yankees prospect that got away, likely to the chagrin of Frank Costanza.

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini Factory Set, 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Series 2 Green Refractor (#40/75), Purple Refractor (#112/150), and Refractor (#393/500)

Here's where a lot of the PC help came in handy:  Jeff sent my four Michael O'Neill cards from 2014 Bowman Chrome products.  The first hails from the Mini Factory Set while the others are all rainbow Refractors from the "regular" version.  O'Neill has a crazy count of 42 cards between the various products and I now have six...oof that's a long way to go!  Thanks to Mr. Laws, though, I'm now over 25% of O'Neill's current run at 22/83.

J.J. Putz 2001 Royal Rookies Futures auto (#1967/6995)

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Co-Signers Bronze (with Felix) (#023/275)

J.J. Putz 2014 Topps Target Red Border

Today's other multi-card player is pitcher J.J. Putz, who retired last year.  First, Jeff flipped me a Royal Rookies auto I was surprised I didn't have until I realized the one I own is from 2000 instead, plus I have the base version of the card.  I can't believe Putz had to sign almost 7000 of those!  That's my 16th Putz hit and 11th auto as well.

Next is another parallel from the '07 Topps Co-Signers set along with Felix Hernandez.  Of the 12 versions I now own a third of them, and I'll probably add more if the prices ever come back to reality since some of them aren't that hard to find.

Finally, speaking of Topps and its parallel-happy nature, here's the retail-exclusive Target Red card from last year's flagship set.  My progress on the flagship/Mini rainbow now stands at 8/18.

As for J.J.'s overall count, I have 189/327 of his regular run, four 1/1s, and five "others" (including the Royal Rookies cards referenced above) for a grand total of 198.  It's almost milestone time!

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman Chrome Gold

Finally, Jeff added on to one of my more obscure PCs, former White Sox prospect Brian Simmons.  Since Jeff's a fan of the lame South Siders I do appreciate that he sent this my way.  I'm not quite sure why Topps decided to produce this parallel that year since the only difference is the signature appearing in gold, but that's Topps for you.  More importantly it bumps up my Simmons tally to 21/35 or exactly 60%!

Thanks again for all the useful cards, Jeff, and it's always fun trading with you!  Readers, please follow Jeff's collecting exploits at the following locations (besides occasionally on this here blog):

• My Sports Obsession
• My Personal Collections
• My Baseball Card Obsession

2015 eBay purchases: March Michigan mishmash

March was a pretty good month for me on the Michigan PC front.  I made five purchases, each of a single card, but they were all useful for my various player collections.  One of those pickups was the final Ted Sizemore OPC card I needed and had Doug land for me, and now I'm back to show off the others I hadn't posted yet:

Rich Hill 2008 SP Authentic By the Letter 'U' letter patch auto (#14/50)

I paid a reasonable $8 for my fourth Hill manuletter auto from this series.  There are two nameplates, one spelling "H-I-L-L" and the other "C-U-B-S".  From the former I have just the "I" while I've made much more progress on the latter--besides this "U" I have the "C" and the "S".  I'll keep a sharp eye out for the remaining letters, especially that "B" as I'd love to finish off this small project.  This is just a great looking card for a Cubs player and I think UD nailed the design as usual.

Numbers-wise this is my 112th hit of Hill, and 294th in my Michigan Baseball PC.  For Rich's PC I'm about a card or two shy of 2/3 at 232/347, and I own 244 of his cards overall.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Bowman Sterling Prospect Autographs Orange Refractor auto (#13/75)

My favorite up-and-coming Yankees prospect is well-represented in last year's Bowman products, but I'm still working hard on his 2013 stuff as well.  I made another small step towards his Bowman Sterling rainbow with O'Neill's Orange Refractor auto, adding to the base, Refractor (/150), and Gold Refractor (/50) I own.  Six versions remain, some ridiculously scarce!

My 10th O'Neill hit is an autograph like the other nine, and this is my 295th unique baseball hit.  I can lay claim to 18/83 of his cards produced thus far, with a nice new chunk on the way thanks to Jeff.

Clayton Richard 2013 Topps Pink (#42/50)

Speaking of rainbows from Topps products, I'm also another step closer to Clayton Richard's from 2013 Topps/Mini.  Of his 17(!) different variations I own 12, so I'm getting there.  My overall progress for Clayton's collection has been pretty solid, too, as I stand at 110/150, or almost 75%.

Shawn Hunwick 2012-13 Certified Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

And I believe I saved the best for last.  I scored this Hunwick plate on a combined purchase with another of Milan Hejduk that I sent to Doug.  These are a bit confusion because they don't show up in Beckett's OPG/checklist, and though they're for cards produced for 2012-13 Certified, the copyright date is 2014, and I believe these were actually inserted as hits into last year's National Treasures product.  Either way, it's another cool plate of Hunwick, and the second (after this one) I've managed to score.

Better yet, this plate hits multiple PCs.  It's my 21st overall card of the former goalie and 166th hockey hit.  I also shouldn't forget that it becomes the 34th plate/1-of-1 in my growing collection!

So yeah, not a bad month at all!  Speaking of pickups from a few weeks ago, I'll be showing off some Barry Larkins I nabbed for Justcommons pretty soon, plus much more!

2015 trade package #9: check out my Wolverines WRs from GSNHoF

Tim, who runs the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame, is another trader who's willing to put in some effort to hit the PCs I show off on both blogs, and now that he's hit a good rhythm as a flipper on COMC he's even more effective at doing so!  He recently sent me another package filled with goodies I'm showing off over here as well as on TMV this evening, with the bulk being of the Wolverines variety this time:

Michael O'Neill 2013 Bowman Sterling Prospect Autographs Refractor auto (#028/150)

First up is a new addition to the PC representing the youngest active player in my baseball collections, Michael O'Neill.  I was excited when Tim let me know that he'd picked this up as I'm slowly but surely (mostly slowly, though) chipping away at this rainbow, and I now have the Refractor version to go along with the base and Gold (/50) I already had.  That puts me at 3/10 with another on the way shortly.  As for O'Neill's full collection I'm up to 17/83, good for more than 20%., and nine hits, all of which are autographs.

Braylon Edwards 2007 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Blue Materials jersey (#47/50) and 2008 SP Rookie Threads Flashback Fabrics 50-60 dual jersey (#20/60)

I haven't had much Braylon stuff to show off recently but Tim fixed that in one fell swoop with this pair of Browns hits.  Both are actually variations on cards I already had, but as they're different they're more than welcome to join the collection.  The LCM card is a Mirror Blue parallel of that year's set, and I already had a Mirror Red, which also featured a different section of jersey.  As for the SP Rookie Threads card, not only is this version rarer than the one I already had, it also includes two brown jersey swatches instead of plain old white.

The pair bumps Braylon up to 58 total cards, jumping him past Mike Hart by one for third place in my football collection.

Mario Manningham 2008 SP Rookie Threads Rookie Threads Patch dual patch (#40/99) and  2008 SPx Rookie Materials Logo X Logo Triple 75 triple jersey (#34/75)

I specifically tried to call out the fact that WRs feature prominently in today's post via the title, and with that in mind, next up is blog namesake Mario Manningham.  Before I get into these cards a bit more, I'm going to point out that, while I love UD, the way they named and numbered lots of their hits in both these sets was absolutely bananas.  Different subsets, some of which are very similar, have varying names but sometimes identical serial-numbering.  I think I got all of my existing cards straightened out along with these two.

The SP Rookie Threads card appears to be my very first patch hit for Manningham, and it looks fantastic as it includes two very patchy swatches, both including stitching, and one that's two colors.  Things got a bit more confusing with the SPx card, but I believe I identified it correctly, and I really like the trio of Giants blue swatches.  With the pair, by the way, Mario joins Braylon (as well as the Henne/Long/Hart trio) in the 50-hit club with a new total of 51.  Thanks for hitting that milestone for me, Tim!

Amani Toomer 2004 Fleer Sweet Sigs Sweet Stitches Jersey Silver jersey (#059/244) and 2005 Donruss Gridiron Gear Jerseys Numbers patch (#11/50)

Finally, there was no confusion when it came to today's final WR, Amani Toomer.  The first hit is a nice Giants blue (again) jersey swatch from a 2004 Fleer product, and the design is very familiar to anyone who's ever collected Autographics or some of their relic offerings.  Because it's the Silver version it's number to a seemingly random 244.

The real highlight of the package, however, is the other patch card (also of a Giants WR!).  Here we have a large swatch from 2005 Gridiron Gear that includes a piece of Toomer's jersey number.  This easily becomes one of the nicest Toomer cards in my collection by far!  The two of these give Amani a new total of 16 hits--not bad at all.

Tim, thanks again for an outstanding bunch of cards!  With another show coming up in a couple weeks I'll see about doing some shopping for you so I can hit you back.

2014 COMC purchases: year-end Yankees

We're still smack in the middle of bowl season, one of the true highlights of what can otherwise be a rough time of the year in the northern midwest, but I still have lots of baseball stuff to post, so let's get back to those instead!  Today I have 11 cards with a theme:  every single one of them is a Yankee.  I'm no fan of that team, but plenty of Michigan baseballers have played for them, so I happily collect them anyway.

First up is former two-sport star Drew Henson, who appeared in three straight Michigan bowl victories over SEC teams during his college career:

Drew Henson 2001 Fleer Triple Crown RC (#2486/2999)

Beckett's online checklist lists "just" 12 RCs for Drew, all out of 2001 Fleer products.  I already had his Platinum RC and now I own one of his 10 numbered rookies.  I remember trying Triple Crown that year and thought it was decent, but I'm just not one for trying to pull short-printed cards out of boxes, so I'm glad to be able to add this on the cheap.

Drew Henson 2002 Topps Traded Gold (#0912/2002)

And now we get a bit rarer with the serial-numbering.  It's funny, the 2002 Gold parallels don't look extremely different compared to the base cards when it comes to color.  Still, I've always been a fan of some of the Topps designs from earlier in the decade, including 2002's.

Drew Henson 2003 Bazooka Blasts Relics bat

Bazooka brings back some bad collecting memories for me since for some reason I decided to chase the 1996 set despite the product having abysmal collation (and absolutely no redeeming value).  But for under a buck I found my 8th Henson relic and 13th hit overall.  This kind of card was just about right as a hit out of the 2003 product, one that wasn't awesome for collectors older than 10 but still much better than the '96 version!

Drew Henson 2003 Topps Chrome Refractor (with Brandon Claussen) (#191/699)

Refractor!  I really like the fact that the 2003 version of the "regular" Refractor was blue, which is obviously my favorite.  Claussen, by the way, is the player the Yanks sent to the Reds for Aaron "F%$king" Boone in 2003 before his fateful HR.

Drew Henson 2003 Topps Gallery

Not much to say here--Gallery was often a beautiful set and 2003's version combined the artistic design with some shininess.  Count me as a fan.

That gives me a new Henson count of 31--just baseball, of course!

Next up is pitcher Scott Kamieniecki, whom the Yanks drafted when Henson was just six years old:

Scott Kamieniecki 1995 Stadium Club Members Only Parallel

Just one of Kam today, but that's no surprise since I'm in the home stretch as far as his collection goes.  Today's card is his '95 Stadium Club Members Only issue, and that not only closes the door for me on that set, but also the year of 1995.  I own 85 of his 90 cards, and of the five remaining I'm really only worried about his tougher 1998 Pacific Online versions. 

And last but not least is the most recent Yankee draftee, OF Michael O'Neill:

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Signature Aspirations auto (#032/100)

I'm always aware of what I'm getting into when I collect Elite Extra Edition stuff--lots of different parallels, some of which can be pretty tough to find.  But I tend to like the designs, plus in some cases that might be the only product that carries hits of some of my guys.  Fortunately that's not the case with O'Neill, but regardless I'm having fun tracking down his EEE cards, like this die-cut auto.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Draft Hits and Draft Hits Prizms

Here we have a "base" insert and a Prizm parallel of that insert--it's Prizmception!  I count 15 different O'Neill cards in the product and I own six of them, so hooray for hitting 40%!

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects and Prospects auto

I was doing pretty decently with my O'Neill collection until 2014 Bowman Chrome and its 30 (by my count, hope I'm not missing any) new cards came along.  Well, it'll probably be tough sledding, but now that I have his base card and "base" auto, I just need 14 more parallels of each!  With the above EEE auto I now have eight of Paul's nephew.

Five new cards at this point is a very helpful boost and I can now lay claim to 16 of O'Neill's 70-card run, good for about 23%.

Stay tuned for one more baseball post and two or three more covering football.  The new year may start tomorrow but I'm still not done covering 2014 pickups, and that includes a very special Boxing Day COMC haul still to come!