2016 eBay purchase: a drought I thought would never end!

Welcome to those of you who came over here from TMV this afternoon.  If you read that post you saw some sweet PC additions to my Lou Whitaker collection as part of a 13-card purchase from eBayer BurbankSportsCards.  In that post I mentioned that the impetus of that buy was some help to my favorite PC--that of Rich Hill.  It actually all started with one specific card, and I'll show it off in just a minute.

It's a card I've been chasing for quite a while, and while it wasn't as long as the Cubs' World Series drought, sometimes it felt like it.  Have you ever seen literally one copy of a card you need on eBay, but it's owned by a seller that never, ever, ever changes their ridiculously inflated asking price?  And by "ever" I'm talking years.  Sure, they even make it a Buy It Now auction, though you can't fathom why since they never accept any offers.

That's the situation I found myself in last Friday when I finally found a second copy of that card from the aforementioned seller, and that led to even more good fortune to the tune of 13 total cards.  Six of those are featured in the Whitaker post on TMV, and the other seven, comprising four players, are right here:

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Documentary Gold (#1855)

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Heroes Light Blue (#21/49)

Rich Hill 2009 O-Pee-Chee Black

The UD Documentary and O-Pee-Chee parallels are all well and good--I certainly needed them.  The Documentary set has been a bit of a thorn in my side since there's so freaking many cards and each has one of those Gold parallels.  And the OPC is a card I could have had for a while at this price if I was so inclined, but at least it's another mark off the checklist.

But the big winner here is the Heroes card.  I've long been working on Hill's run--28 cards--from this very cool product, and I even have most of his hits out of it.  But the Light Blue parallel, numbered to an ostensibly reasonable 49, had eluded my grasp until now because an eBay seller has wanted $10 plus shipping.  For years.  Forget that.  Luckily Burbank came along and wanted just $2 for it.  SOLD.  With this pickup I need just three from the set:  the Purple parallel (#d /25), plus the Jersey/Autograph Emerald and Purple Autograph (each /5).  Hopefully they won't take as long for me to get as this one.

By the way, a bit more celebration is in order for the NLCS game 3 winner today:  these additions put me at exactly 250 of his non-1/1 issues!  That gives me 267 overall, and I can claim ownership of about 2/3 of his cards to-date, which at present I number at 369.  I'm happy to see that that number keeps growing as Hill's returned to relevance.

Joining Rich were cards of three other players:

Steve Howe 1993 Upper Deck Gold Hologram

These pesky cards, likely familiar to at least some of you, came as part of one complete set per 15-set case of this product.  Lame parallels are bad enough but it's even worse when the only difference is a minute detail on the back of the card.  Anyway, this was the last of Howe's run I needed through 1993, and I'm short just three of his 81 cards:  '94 Stadium Club Team First Day Issue, and '96 Leaf Signature Silver and Gold autos.  Not bad!

Scott Kamieniecki 1997 Ultra Gold Medallion

Here's another card I could have had for a while but left until this purchase since I never found a better price.  It's been a while since I added a new Kamieniecki to his PC, and I'm happy to land another card from one of my favorite products, 1997 Ultra.  The Gold and Platinum Medallion cards each feature the same photo which happens to be different than the one used for the base card, though I think the latter actually has the cooler photo.  As far as this set goes, though, you can't go wrong!  As with Howe, I just need three of Scott's 90 cards to complete his collection:  '94 Collector's Choice Gold Signature, and '98 Pacific Online Web Cards and Winners.

Brian Simmons 1999 Fleer Tradition Millennium and Warning Track

Last up is former White Sox OF Brian Simmons, a guy you don't see very often around here since he only has 35 cards for me to chase.  With this pair I'm close to 2/3 of that run with 23.  Both are parallels from Fleer's pretty solid 1999 Tradition product.  Their flagship set looked pretty good in 1998 and '99, though I still prefer the very cool card stock they used in 1996-97 and 2000.  Here they made good use of a stamp for a significant event or achievement, in this case Brian's MLB debut.  The Millennium version is unnumbered but limited to 5000 copies as part of a special boxed set that features a stamp for the year 2000.  Warning Track parallels were one-per-pack, and these more common versions changed the foil color to red, including the set name's stamp in the lower-right corner.  That just leaves me to chase the extremely rare Starting Nine card, numbered to--you guessed it--nine copies!

I'd be hard-pressed to be more productive in one purchase than this these days, so I'm very happy with the results.

Next up will be a trade package from a very familiar blogger.

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.

2016 eBay purchases: Rich Hill wins the Cyan Young award

If you're reading this here post having come over from TMV this evening you already got to see a nice high-end eBay addition to my Charlie Gehringer PC.  Now you'll get to take a gander at my other recent eBay score, this one of a decidedly more modern player:  playoff-bound(!) pitcher Rich Hill, currently of the Dodgers:

Rich Hill 2007 SPx Winning Materials Printing Plate Cyan (1/1)

If some of you are like "He found another Rich Hill plate?!" well then, yes, indeedy I did!  And I didn't even have to pay $8, which was even better.

The 2007 SPx set is one that's largely eluded me in terms of Hill's cards.  It took me a long time to nab his Young Stars Signatures auto, then I even found a plate version of that, but I've literally never even seen any of his 21(!) different Winning Materials variations.  So naturally I found a plate version of those as well.  At least that gives me some evidence that those relics exist!

This plate is a bit of a milestone for me as it represents my 125th different hit of my #1 PC player, good for more than 1/3 of my baseball hits PC.  It's also my 64th overall printing plate/1-of-1, and Rich is represented on 17 of those.

All those numbers are great, but the ones I'm most interested right now are the stats he'll be putting up in a quest for another Wolverine World Series ring!

7/2/16 card show report: getting Rich-er by the day

Now that those of you who follow Too Many Verlanders read my show recap over there, it's time to show off the rest of my haul for the few of you that continued over here this evening!  As I said, my haul consisted of ten dime cards, 16 quarters, and four at $2 apiece, with a few of those being trade bait.

Here's the Wolverines from the bunch:

Rich Hill 2016 Topps

The set-filler guy I mentioned, with a table full of dime cards sorted by set, had the Rich Hill base I needed from 2016 Topps Series II, so I happily grabbed that for my first 2016 release of the A's' sort-of ace.  The photo's not the greatest--what do you call something like this, "resting pitch face"?  Anyway, it's my 246th of his 357 issues and 257th overall.

Rounding out the buck I spent with that seller, here's a nine-spot of Wolverines from recent base sets.  I grabbed my first two cards of Wolverine RB transfer Thomas Rawls, a kid who was simply poorly coached by the Hoke regime, headed to Central Michigan, and did well enough to join the Seahawks as an UDFA.  He had a pretty nice 2015 campaign before suffering a season-ending ankle injury, and with Marshawn Lynch gone in Seattle he could have a chance to put up some nice numbers.

Rawls joins Devin Funchess by being represented in both 2016 Prestige and Score, David Harris shows up in the latter, and Denard Robinson the former.  Meanwhile, I added to my Charles Woodson PC with a card each from those same sets to go with a beautiful base issue from 2015 Gridiron Kings, which is another excellent football product that baseball fans just have to be jealous of.

Devin Funchess 2015 Topps Museum Collection RC and Copper parallel

From the quarter box here's a pair of Funchess cards from Topps' 2015 Museum Collection product.  One is a rookie I needed for my first-year collection, and by my count that gives me half of his 24.  Next to his base is a Copper parallel, which is about as meh as it gets for parallels.

TK Legacy Michigan Checklists (#SK1)

Joining the Funchess parallel in the insert collection is this checklist previewing Sketch Cards from TK Legacy.  I've never managed to purchase one of those elusive items because they're relatively rare and very expensive.  Still, even the previews are nice to look at, and I'll pretty much grab any TK Legacy card I don't have in a slow, maybe-I-will-maybe-I-won't effort towards a master set.  Star WRs Braylon Edwards and Desmond Howard are pictured here, by the way.

Jason Avant, Steve Breaston, and Ty Law 2009 Topps Magic Minis

The last of my inserts were this trio of Minis from one of Topps' most well done sets, 2009 Topps Magic.  I showed off the complete Wolverines team set of 15 cards way back in December of 2014 and now I have some minis to go with them, meaning I may just have to chase those as well.  Not that I need any excuses to grab more Wolverine uni cards....

And last but not least we have the $2 hits:

Adrian Arrington 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear Autographs Platinum Holofoil auto (#09/25)

I probably say this every time I add a new Arrington, which unfortunately isn't too often these days, but it's hard for me to find something of his that's new to me.  I was surprised to find that I didn't have any version of his 'graph from this product, so to land a parallel numbered to 25 for just a couple bucks was exciting for me.  This is my 47th hit of A-Squared, and each and every one carries his signature.

Thom Darden 2006 TK Legacy auto

And now we move on to a guy making his debut in my football hits collection!  If I have trouble finding new Arringtons, it's often even more difficult to track down TK Legacy autos I don't yet own, so $2 for Mr. Darden here was more than fair to me.  I introduced the productive Browns safety with an Afro back in April in a Rookie Blue-Out post, so he's not entirely new to my collection, just to the hits.  His extremely legible signature makes him subject #197 in that collection, and I hope I can push that number above 200 before the end of the year.

Devin Funchess 2015 Panini Prizm Prizm Premier Jerseys jersey

Lastly, I wouldn't have paid $2 for this Refractor-y (sorry, "Prizm") jersey relic of Devin Funchess by itself, but factored into the total I was fine with it.  It's got a nice photo of a concentrating Funchess making a catch along with a black Panthers jersey swatch, though the design isn't anything to write home about.  While I still need to dig up an autograph of Bunches of Funchess one of these days, I'm now up to three hits of the TE-turned WR.

And all that is clearly an improvement on last month's one-card Taylortown show so I hope I can continue that momentum into August.  Until then, how about some show-off posts from my latest COMC haul?

2016 eBay purchase: resurgent Rich, the comeback Cub

Now that I'm all caught up on my COMC pickups I can post my very last in-hand card--though my new COMC package should be showing up tomorrow!  Still, it's been quite a while since I've had my scan folder completely clear of purchases.

Speaking of buying, I think I've mentioned a number of times that my overall spending is down quite a bit this year so far.  I attribute that to having less luck on eBay and not finding quite as much on COMC so far, plus the shows I've been to have disappointed me thus far.  That's not really a bad thing, though, as it leaves me plenty of cushion to score some bigger stuff or rarer needs as they appear.

Today's eBay pickup falls more into the latter category because it didn't come with an exorbitant price tag:

Rich Hill 2007 Sweet Spot Signatures Bat Barrel Silver Ink auto (#09/25)

Though he's been on the shelf for a few starts due to injury, Hill has been one of the game's best stories since his unlikely return as an MLB starter late last year.  Also, there's a chance he'll be returning this weekend, hopefully to keep adding to his impressive 2016 numbers for Oakland.

Fortunately I don't think I've had a lot more competition than usual for his cards on eBay, either because people are smart enough not to pay a crazy premium for a guy whose track record doesn't indicate he'll keep this up, or I'm just able to outspend most comers because I already have a majority of what gets listed.  Either way I threw down a bit under $8 for this manu-bat auto a bit more than a month ago at the end of May.

The silver pen signature looks quite nice on the manufactured wood, much better in my opinion than the weak pen they went with on the Blue card.

Out of Hill's 13 solo entries in the set this is my 10th, and now we're really getting into the rare stuff because the final three I need are numbered to 15, 5, and 5!  I also haven't ever found any copies of any of the four issues he shares with 3B Aramis Ramirez.

My 124th hit of Rich, this is card number 245/357, including his new issues from this year's Topps Series II.  I now have 261 of his cards overall, including 1/1s.

Here's a quick look at the other 9 cards I already have from this set:

Here's to what will hopefully be a successful return against the Pirates tomorrow night!

2015-16 COMC purchases: COMPCs

Last Wednesday (May 18) marked a fun confluence of events kind of like a rare alignment of planets:  former Wolverine pitchers Rich Hill, Zach Putnam, and Clayton Richard all appeared in games on the same day.

I did some quick digging and found out that that actually occurred twice last season:

• September 13, 2015:
• Rich Hill makes the start for the Red Sox in his triumphant return to a MLB rotation, and Boston defeats Tampa 2-0.  Hill goes 7 innings, allowing a hit and a walk, and strikes out 10 for the first of three straight starts.
• Zach Putnam pitches in his customary relief role for the White Sox in a 7-0 loss to Minnesota.  He records a strikeout against one hit as he mops up the 8th inning.
• Clayton Richard throws 4 innings in relief of Cubs starter Dan Haren, who'd given up 4 runs in just 3 innings.  Richard gives up the winning run in the Phillies' 7-4 win and is saddled with the loss despite allowing 3 hits against 4 strikeouts.
• October 1, 2015:
• Hill strikes out 6 in his "worst" of his four 2015 starts, which was still quality as he gives up two runs in the Yankees' 4-1 defeat of the Red Sox.
• Putnam gets a couple outs without being charged for any runs in the 6th inning of a 6-4 loss to the Royals.
• Richard throws one pitch and allows a hit with 2 out in the 7th in a 5-3 Cubs win over the Reds.

As it turns out, Wednesday was a little kinder to the Michigan trio:

• Hill went a strong 6 IP in an 8-1 win over the Rangers to move his record up to 6-3 for Oakland.  He allowed three hits and a walk to go with Texas' only run, but also struck out 6 in his sixth quality start of the season.
• Putnam's White Sox lost 5-3 to the Astros, but they can't blame him as he got three outs beginning in the 6th and allowed just a hit and a walk against two strikeouts.
• Richard got the final out in the bottom of the 13th of a 2-1 Cubs win over Milwaukee, and that earned him his first save of 2016!

So let's celebrate by showing off cards of those three guys plus pickups from five other baseball PCs, all courtesy of COMC:

Jake Cronenworth 2015 Bowman Chrome Draft/Refractor/Sky Blue Refractor
2015 Bowman Draft/Silver (#054/499)

Cronenworth is the latest Wolverines baseball alum to appear on cardboard and therefore to join my PCs.  A native of St. Clair (northeast of Detroit and on the Canadian border), he left after his junior season in Ann Arbor having put up some pretty nice overall numbers (check out all of his accolades here).  Tampa drafted him in 2015's 7th round, and so far he's had pretty good success as a hitter since his debut in low-A last year.  A middle infielder/outfielder by trade, he's played just one pro game in LF and has stuck at SS this year after moving up a level.  Jake was a pretty good pitcher for the Wolverines too but it looks like the Rays made a good call to let him focus on his bat.

To-date Jake has appeared on 19 cards (plus 10 1/1s), with all of those coming out of last year's Bowman/Chrome Draft product.  As usual there's a buttload of parallels to chase, and I landed two of them from Chrome and one from base Draft to go with each base version.  Depending on his progress it could be a while (if ever) before he gets more cards to his name, but you never know, and I hope he someday gets to make an impact at the big league level!

Chris Getz 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Gold Refractor (#30/50)

Gooooooollllld!  Moving back a few years to another middle infielder, albeit one that's retired, here's a shiny Gold Refractor of former 2B Chris Getz from 2008 Chrome Draft.  Thanks to my recent pickup of Getz's Red Refractor from the same product I can now claim ownership of the rainbow!  I'll make sure to show that off in a future post.  I now have 80 of Getz' 106 issues, good for about 75%.

Rich Hill 2008 SP Authentic By the Letter 'H' letter patch auto (#01/50)

I was definitely pretty surprised when this manuletter/auto of blog favorite (and Oakland A's ace!) Rich Hill popped up back in January, and I was all too happy to drop $7.50 to add it to the few I already have from the same product.  Of the two nameplates, I have this "H" and the "I" from "H-I-L-L" while I can almost spell out "C-U-B-S" with this "C", "U", and "S".  It'll be a big day when I can show off one or both of those!

Rejuvenated Rich continues his embarrassing dominance over my baseball hits collection with his 123rd hit as part of 244/350 issues, though I expect that denominator to grow a bit thanks to his recent success.  I love letter patch autos so this was a great addition for me to be sure.

Steve Howe 1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality Members Only

Howe is the subject of the least interesting card today, but it's still a pretty decent one since it's a fun parallel from 1990s Stadium Club--you really can't go wrong with those.  I do think it's a bit goofy that a regular Members Only card (which I don't have, oddly enough) existed along with these parallels of the Virtual Reality cards, parallels themselves, but that's neither here nor there.  I now have 75 of Howe's 81 cards, and besides a bit of a fight to get his three '96 Leaf Certified autos I don't think I'll need to shell out too much to add him to the finished pile.

Ryan LaMarre 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Signature Status Emerald auto (#06/25)

LaMarre is another fairly recent Wolverine with a rainbow I made some progress on this time.  I recently showed off his Black Status autograph from this same set (one of my favorites), and now I can add this one to the colorfest.  Surprisingly, this fairly limited (numbered /25) card didn't cost me very much at all.  Besides being a fun signature card, I love that it features a Michigan uni shot as well--that doesn't happen nearly as often with baseball as it does with other sports.

While I still need a pair of cards to complete this rainbow I'm happy to bump up my LaMarre total to 23 of his 37 issues while adding the 10th hit to his collection.  Hey, that's a milestone!  Ryan is the 10th player to hit 10 hits so far.

Zach Putnam 2008 Razor Letterman 5 T patch auto (#2/5)

Hill's earlier card wasn't the only manuletter/auto I scored.  I'd been lusting after this Razor Letterman of Zach Putnam for years but the seller had never budged on his price, which was way more than what similar cards #d /5 usually go for.  Eventually he finally brought the price down and I made a deal to land my first letter from this version of the nameplate; as a reminder I have the unnumbered and /20 versions done plus I even have two of the 1/1s cards.  This black version looks pretty sharp, plus it's another Michigan uni card!  It becomes my 33rd Putnam hit (second only to Hill by just 90 cards) and 42nd out of 52 issues, though of the 10 remaining eight of them are #d /5.  Jeez.

Clayton Richard 2008 Bowman Sterling Refractor (#079/199)

And here's our final 2016 player.  Richard eventually found his way from the south side to the north and the Cubs, and I hope he gets to be part of something big this year.  It took me a while but I finally added this Refractor version of his 2008 Bowman Sterling card to the base and Gold Refractor I own, leaving me just the Black Refractor #d /25 short of the mini rainbow.  It's more progress for his collection 113 cards strong out of 157 (with a tiny chance of more being made), putting me near the 75% mark.

George Sisler 2009 Topps Triple Threads Sepia (#122/525)

2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Framed Paper (#95) (#463/999)

2011 Topps Lineage Cloth Stickers

2014 Classics Legendary Lumberjacks

Old George Sisler doesn't have time for all those young whippersnappers above him, dammit!  I had fun adding these four inserts to his decent-and-growing collection on the cheap thanks to COMC.  Fortunately the Toppsopoly didn't win out this time as I snuck a Panini card in there, but the Topps stuff is actually kind of fun with numbered Parallels from Triple Threads and Gypsy Queen (about the only things I can appreciate from GQ are framed versions) and a throwback cloth sticker.  For just a couple bucks I'm glad to add these and bump Gorgeous George's collection up to 54.


It was nice getting to show my baseball PCs more love, but the next few posts will cover football and hockey as I work to clean out my scan folders.

2016 eBay purchases: rarefied air

Now that I'm all caught up on trades for the moment I can finally show off some outstanding eBay pickups from March and April, plus my only May purchase so far.  When I say "outstanding" I mean it as today's most common card is numbered to 16!  If you like 1/1s you've come to the right place.

Chris Getz 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Red Refractor (#1/5)

OMG eBay 1/1 you guys!  I would have been happy with any of the five cards in this print run since the Reds are so limited, and everyone knows the closer you get to 1/1 without actually being a 1/1, the more expensive the card gets, so I was happy to pay under $10 delivered.  This beautiful Getz is my 79th of his 106, so I'm just about 75% of the way to his collection, not to mention one card shy of this set's rainbow.

Chris Getz 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Printing Plates Yellow (1/1)

And I even managed to land a plate to add to that rainbow!  Just my second Getz 1/1 after this 2011 Topps Black plate, I picked it up on the cheap for a nickel over $6 at the end of April.  This serves as a good reminder that Chrome plates feature reversed images.  Besides being plate #2 this is my 15th hit of the former second baseman.

Rich Hill 2006 Topps Printing Plate Cyan (#1/1)

I was quite happy to see another Rich Hill plate appear on the Bay in mid March so don't be too surprised that I didn't mind spending a bit more than I ordinarily would have thanks to Hill's 2015-2016 pitching success.  Given that I already landed the Magenta and Yellow versions I just couldn't pass this up, even for more than $15 delivered.  I'd love to complete a second plate set of Hill though who knows how long I might have to wait for the Black version to be put up for sale, if ever?  Anyway, it's my 16th 1/1 of Hill and 122nd hit overall.

Ryan LaMarre 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Signature Status Black auto (1/1)

You really can't predict when 1/1s are going to pop up, especially the "true" kind that isn't something like a plate.  I was able to add Matt Miller's version of this exact card last year via COMC thanks to Tim from GSNHoF, and then towards the end of March teammate Ryan LaMarre's card became available on eBay, so I jumped all over it and landed it for $20 even, putting me just a couple cards shy of his true rainbow from 2010 EEE, one of my favorite sets ever.  This is my first 1/1 of the former Red and ninth hit overall.

Ryan LaMarre 2016 Topps Framed (#12/16)

LaMarre may be with Boston now, but thanks to making his Major League debut with Cincinnati last season he was pictured with the Reds in 2016 flagship series 1.  Jeff was nice enough to flip Ryan's base version my way, and then I found this silver Framed version on eBay for an absurd $4.44 on the first of this month (still my only purchase of May to this point!), which is a paltry sum since these tend to go for double digits at least.  I'm thinking of doing a series of TMV posts covering things Topps has done that I've loved and hated, and this fun--not to mention super thick and heavy--parallel will definitely be in the former category.  Just my second LaMarre from this set, it represents #22 of his 37 made so far, putting me just outside the 60% mark.

J.J. Putz 2014 Topps Printing Plates Black (1/1)

J.J. Putz 2014 Topps Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

The last three cards, including this pair, came to me from one seller for about $36 on April 1 (no foolin'!).  So what's better than getting one plate from a set?  How about two?  I still have a ways to go to finish Putz's rainbow from his farewell Topps appearance, but at least I have a couple plates to go with it when I do!  Angry Pitching Face Putz is on full display on the sharp Black version while his face is harder to see on the Cyan.  I now have six Putz 1/1s (all of which are plates) as part of 18 total hits.

Clayton Richard 2013 Topps Printing Plates Magenta (1/1)

Richard is scuffling a bit early on in the Cubs bullpen this season but was pretty good as a reliever and spot starter last year in his return to the Majors, and he has plenty of time to turn it around with a team that's just gonna keep winning.  Here he is on a Magenta plate back when he was with the Padres after being shipped there by the other Chicago team.  It's my fifth plate of Clayton, and it happens to be my second from this set since I picked up the Yellow version at some point.  Halfway there!  It's also cause for a small celebration as it gets him to the 10 hit mark, the eighth player in my baseball PC to hit that milestone.

Speaking of milestones, you had to figure I'd be celebrating some sort of mark after adding six new 1/1s today, right?  Well, you were correct; I am the proud owner of 55 cards of that extremely-limited variety!  All but one of those (a Verlander) are part of my various Michigan PCs, proving just how much my collecting focus has changed since I began blogging.  And I'm not done adding to that collection yet with a couple more in-hand I still need to show off, which I may very well be doing soon now that I can return to posting COMC pickups.