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.

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.

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!

2014 Sportlots purchase: more Michigan PC guys

Last month I put together another nice bunch of purchases on Sportlots, and while I still need to post my set wantlist additions over on TMV, I also wanted to show off five Michigan PC pickups I grabbed from one of my more reliable suppliers of such cards:

Red Berenson 1969-70 Topps

Back on Wednesday I showed off a couple new Reds and mentioned that I was the proud owner of his regular OPC/Topps run from '69-70 to '78-'79, but hadn't yet posted his '69-'70 Topps issue.  Well here it is!  It's tied with the OPC version as the oldest in my Berenson collection for now, and of course this one's in much better shape.  I'm just a card shy of 50% at 27/55 in his run.

Steve Boros 1986 Topps Traded Tiffany

For some reason Sportlots seems to be a pretty good source for Tiffany cards--two of today's scores, including this Boros, came from a seller there, and I've landed a number of others before as well.  This '86 Traded Tiffany was an exciting addition because it leaves me needing just one to complete Steve's collection, and that's the '84 flagship Tiffany, oddly enough.  I should be celebrating having Boros' run completed very soon, but for now this is card #15/16.

Dave Campbell 1974 O-Pee-Chee

Moving on to an even more exciting card for me, here's another vintage OPC of Dave Campbell, which was a sight for sore eyes as far as I was concerned because I now own 100% of Campbell's PC!  Sure, it's only 10 cards, but it's still fun to have completed another Michigan guy's collection, and Dave is the 6th to earn that distinction.  That group includes Topps cards in 1969 and 1970, then OPC/Topps versions from 1971-74.

Chris Getz 2013 Topps Update Wal Mart Blue Border

Next up is the most modern card in the bunch, another entry in the rainbow of Chris Getz from 2013 Topps Update.  As a matter of fact, it happens to be the final card I needed to complete that project as the 9th in the group.  I'll make sure to show off the rainbow in a future post, but for now this card featuring a great photo of Getz sliding is my 72nd of his 106 entries to-date.

Scott Kamieniecki 1991 Topps Traded Tiffany

Finally we have the other Tiffany card I found this time (from the same seller that had the Boros) in the form of this very young Scott Kamieniecki from '91 Traded.  As you can imagine I was happy to find both from one seller since that saved me a bit on shipping.  This was the last I needed in terms of Kam's 1991 cards (he has six of them), and I continue to make steady progress on his collection which now stands at 84/90.  With a bit of luck I may dig up his tougher-to-find '98 Pacific Online Web and Winners cards before the end of the year, and that would put me in a good position to close out his run as well.

With these posted I'll likely be moving on to new COMC purchases shortly, with another eBay win to mix things up a bit.

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: ...and the rest

(If you get the connection between the title and this .gif, a million made-up points to you!)

Here's the rest of my recent COMC pickups, but worry not as I'll have more heading my way before much longer!

Jake Fox 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars auto

I waited a long, long time for this Fox auto to become available anywhere I looked, and then suddenly someone on COMC had it for a great price!  I was thrilled to add it, but I'm not quite so excited now, because, unbeknownst to me it got caught in the hinge of the lid of my scanner as I was scanning other cards.  Now the only copy I've ever seen of this autograph has a huge crease!  Oh well, life goes on--I can still knock the card off my wantlist and maybe someday I'll find another one.  I'm nearly done with the former Cub's collection at 16/19 cards!

Chris Getz 2014 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border

I'm sure I'll be working on the 2014 flagship rainbows of a couple of my guys for a bit, but fortunately I was able to score this Purple Getz on the cheap to get him one card closer to that goal; right now I have his base plus five parallels.  At 71/106 cards I'm essential 2/3 done with Chris' collection to-date, which isn't bad at all.  

Scott Kamieniecki 1993 Yankees Stadium Club

I didn't initially have this Kamieniecki on my checklist as it didn't show up when I searched for his cards on Beckett, but once I saw it I considered it a perfectly reasonable card to include in his collection.  It's definitely very different from his "regular" Stadium Club issue from the same year thanks to using its own design and another photo, but it still looks great.  Then again, it's Stadium Club, so who's surprised?  I'm getting down to the tough finds for Scott as I now own 82 of his 90 cards.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Prospect Signatures Prizms auto

Yankees OF farmhand O'Neill sure does have a nice signature, doesn't he?  I've definitely come to expect good things from his autograph as this is now my fifth of a guy I hope turns into a big star, even if it makes him tougher to collect.  That's already happening anyway thanks to the release of 2014 Bowman Chrome, which includes a crazy 30 new cards of Michael, many of them autographed and/or numbered under 50 copies.  This is now my 11th card of his current total of 70, and I hope both of those numbers increase!

J.J. Putz 2005 Donruss Champions Impressions auto

J.J. Putz 2005 Playoff Prestige Signature Xtra Bases Purple auto (#08/50)

It's no secret I have a long way to go when it comes to my Putz collection--his total run is just a bit lower than Rich Hill's and I'm at around 55% right now.  But every little bit counts, and it's even better when I'm able to add two of his autos at once for relatively cheap.  Both hail from 2005 Donruss/Panini products, and while I have a good number of J.J.'s Champions cards, I'm not even close on his bevy of issues from Prestige (though both my cards from the latter are signed).  I'll just continue to chip away slowly at his cards while I can, and for now I own 179/326.

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Heritage SP

Last up today is pitcher Clayton Richard.  While I'm past the 70% mark for his run, I'm still sometimes able to find new stuff of his on COMC.  Case in point is this 2011 Heritage SP.  I'm not really sure why they short-printed Richard that year, though his 14-9 2010 campaign was essentially his career year.  This card from the set honoring the '62 design looks good and I'm happy to make it card #107/150 in his collection.

I'll probably have more COMC stuff to show off in a few weeks but for now I'll get back to trade posts plus a few things from eBay and Sportlots.

2014 eBay purchases: an Ontiveros bites the dust, and more!

Moving on from my COMC purchases, here's a 10-card pickup that comes to me directly from eBay, namely well-known (for many reasons, some good, some bad) seller Burbank Sports Cards.  The megaseller had a specific card that led to this buy, but the shipping price wasn't worth it for just one card, so I found 10 I needed for a surprisingly reasonable $12.31 shipped.  Here's those two hands' worth of additions:

Red Berenson 2004-05 ITG Franchises US East and US West

ITG made some interesting cards in '04/'05 including this pair of Berensons that depict him with two of the teams for which he played.  Along with those I have the US West autograph, which still shows Red with the Blues but opts for a different photo.

Red Berenson 2009-10 ITG 1972 The Year In Hockey (#38)

The other Red I picked up is this red-filled Red Wings card from a more recent ITG set.  It nicely replicates the '72 OPC/Topps design, though if you compare them you can see where ITG took a few liberties, which still results in a pretty cool card.

Three new Reds--featuring Red in older days--boost his PC nicely as I now have 24/55, putting me nice and close to 50%!

Kelly Dransfeldt 1999 Revolution RC

Ah, good--I can finally knock this Dransfeldt RC off my list.  I've had the Shadow Series parallel for a while, but the base card remained out of my reach due to incomprehensibly high prices, up to the point that I found this one on eBay.  Since Kelly has a notably small collection, every little bit helps, and this one puts me a card shy of 50% at 22/45, with plenty of tougher finds to come.

Bill Freehan 1970 O-Pee-Chee (#335)

It seems like it's been a while since I added a vintage Freehan to his collection, but that's because I put the Topps versions to bed a while ago, and some of the OPC editions have been a bit tougher to find, at least at reasonable prices.  This '70 O-Pee-Chee is the second of Bill's cards in that set because, like the Topps version, he has an All-Star card as well.  Although his Topps cards go back to 1963, 1970 was just Bill's third appearance in the Canadian alternative.

Bill Freehan 2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams (#26)

Another card I'd been dying to mark off the list is this one from '04 UD Legends Timeless Teams, which also includes a base card of Bill for the '72 squad.  Obviously the '68 champs are much more notable, so I'm glad to have finally landed this one.  I now have both base cards and their autographed versions--'68 and '72.

This pair allows me to continue plugging along on Bill's PC with an updated count of 77/132.

Scott Kamieniecki 1994 Stadium Club Members Only Parallel

Scott Kamieniecki 1994 Stadium Club Team First Day Issue

With this pair of parallels, I can finally close the book on Scott Kamieniecki's cards from the 1994 Stadium Club sets.  The main (a.k.a. "Label Maker") set had three variations while the Team set had just the First Day Issue and it's cool, shiny stamp.  You can probably imagine that I was pretty happy to knock these two off for what I considered a reasonable price.  As it turns out, I'm also glad to report that I'm nearing the end of my quest for Scott's collection as I now own 81 of his 90 issues!

Mike Matheny 2004 Donruss Stat Line Career (#052/273)

Matheny is the only guy in today's post that I'm not gunning for as a Supercollection--e.g. I'm not chasing his run to completion.  That doesn't mean I can't still pick up stuff of his from time to time, especially if it's from a set I really enjoy.  I previously found his Season Stat Line from the same year (which scanned WAY better, by the way), and when I saw that Burbank had the career version, I thought it would be a great time to pair those up.  This one is numbered to 273 to highlight his career total of runs scored between 1994 and 2003; he'd end his career three seasons later with 353.

That might not have been much of a milestone, but this one's more significant to me:  the card you see above is my 50th of the manager of the reigning NL champs.  Here's to 50 more!

Steve Ontiveros 1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond Gold

Alphabetically last but most definitely not least is this Gold Electric Diamond parallel from '95 Upper Deck.  If you'd like to know why I'm so excited about landing this card, which keyed the whole purchase, it's not just because I now have the trio that includes the base card and Silver Electric Diamond; I have all of Steve's cards, as in all 71 of them, making him my fifth completed player collection!  Considering I collect so many guys, including a bunch of supercollections, I'm thrilled to have completed another project.  Check out his collection here or have a look at my proof in the form of his PC checklist here.  And feel free to place your bets on who'll be next to the 100% mark.

I have a few more eBay scores to show off to you in bunches soon, including an incredibly exciting (to me) project that pretty much ate up my July budget, so watch out for those posts.