2016 trade package #15: World Series Wolverines from My Sports Obsession

As mentioned on TMV tonight, I met up with Jeff this past Saturday as he was in Ann Arbor attending the Michigan-Illinois game.  I'm guessing he headed home happy after another resounding Wolverine win.

I loves me some in-person trading and this was no different.  This time the bulk of the goods was Tigers and non-Michigan baseball PC players, but Jeff and I are both Michigan collectors so naturally there was some Wolverines content as well.  And as it turns out, everything in this post is also baseball, fitting in nicely with the World Series theme from the TMV post.

Here's a gander at what I got:

• Jim Abbott 1993 Pinnacle:  Abbott never got to experience any round of the playoffs, but then again he played in the 90s for the Angels, Yankees (pre-dynasty), White Sox, and Brewers, so that's no surprise.  That's too bad--he would have been fun to watch in the playoffs.
• Chris Getz 2009 O-Pee-Chee and 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil:  Chris played for a relatively short seven years, mostly with White Sox and Royals teams that weren't all that great except for his 2008 rookie season, when Chicago left him off the roster.  He's at least relevant to the South-Siders once again having been hired as director of player development.  Hopefully that position leads to a fantastic front office career! 
• Steve Ontiveros 1986 Donruss:  Hmmm, nothing here either, though Steve at least spent time with the '88 Oakland team that won the NL pennant.  This theme isn't looking to good for the Wolverines today!
• Clayton Richard 2014 Topps:  HERE we go--Clayton was part of that '08 White Sox squad that Getz missed out on, and he appeared in 6 1/3 innings over two games as his team lost to the eventual AL pennant-winning Rays.  Seven years later he pitched in six games as the Cubs beat the Cards in the 2015 ALDS, then lost to the Mets.  It's conceivable Richard could have been part of the Cubbies' pen this year, but he was let go in August, and actually went on a decent run in a return to the Padres.
• Chris Sabo 1992 Topps Stadium Club:  Ah, here's our winner.  Spuds participated in only one season's worth of playoffs but made it count as his 1990 Reds team beat the Pirates and Athletics to win it all.  His NLCS was solid, including a game 4 homer that plated the eventual winning run, but he took things to the next level against Oakland, going off for a .563 average, two more taters (both in game 3), and five RBI.  If not for Jose Rijo's excellent pair of starts--both wins--Chris may have won MVP honors.

Jeff tossed in a nice hit as well:  this auto:

And it's a very timely Indians card as well.  Zach Putnam, here on a 2009 Bowman Prospects auto card, was drafted by Cleveland but pitched for them for just a year before being shipped to Colorado.  He then spent 2013 with the Cubs and then the last three seasons in Chicago for Jeff's favorite team, so he's never been part of a playoff-bound club, much less been left off a postseason roster.  Hopefully he's not bad luck!

Jeff, thanks for another fun in-person trade.  I'm guessing we'll have to wait until sometime next year to do it again, but at least that gives me some time to track down new stuff for you!

2015 trade package #26: thankful for Wolverines from SCFtDS

As I said on tonight's TMV post, I'm thankful for many things, including the generosity of Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, especially since this mark's my 50th trade post between my pair of blogs!  It's been a blast swapping cards with my Canadian neighbor and I can't wait to hit the century mark (which won't take long, knowing Doug!).

All right, here's what you came over here for--the goods:

Baseball, basketball, and football:  there's a lot going on here.  First, the 1991 Michigan Ontiveros is my first non-mainstream card of the former pitcher, and I love that it's from a Michigan-centric set (which I totally need to track down).  

A pair of stars in Burke and C-Webb comprise the basketball portion this time, which is great since I still have very little of the talented Burke.  Doug sent a pair of Tom Brady base cards from this year's Topps, and I'm not surprised he had dupes as he's working on that set.  Also from 2015 is a Valor RC of Funchess, who's come on a bit as of late.  (By the way, I've finally made my Michigan Football rookie project more visible on the sidebar to your right, and that includes the checklist.)  

Last up is a 1971 OPC CFL card of Dave Raimey, an HB/DB who briefly played for the Browns before having a nice run with Winnipeg and Toronto in the CFL.  Leave it to Doug to find another player I didn't know much about and dig up a CFL card of him!

Mitch McGary 2014-15 Totally Certified Jerseys Purple Die Cuts jersey (#82/99)

The basketball hits portion consists of this very cool die-cut jersey relic of big man Mitch McGary, my first of the OK City prospect (and 22nd overall player).  This thick, die-cut card includes a nice Oklahoma City blue swatch and is a great addition to my basketball collection.

Denard Robinson 2015 Panini Spectra Sunday Best Jerseys jersey (#069/199)

While I prefer his Saturday best in terms of uniform, I'm very happy to see Denard play on Sundays with the Jags.  Here's a really nice black swatch from a shiny Panini Spectra relic, which represents what's already my 22nd hit of Shoelace!

As usual the hockey portion dominated the package.  I got a bunch of hockey Mikes, mostly Cammalleri but also a new Comrie, to go along with hockey Andrews Cogliano (Ducks) and Copp (Jets), Copp's teammate Jacob Trouba, and finally Max Pacioretty.  Keep an eye on that Cogliano--it may look familiar in a minute.

If you're down with O-Pee-Chee then you probably know Doug, who scored me a pair of vintage Wolverines here.  Fox, whose card hails from 1982-83, was a four-year defenseman who spent the largest chunk of his NHL career with the Hawks.  Manery, from the 1981-82 set, was a prolific four-year forward in Ann Arbor (111 goals and 97 assists!) appeared with a few different NHL teams over a short career.  Some hockey history to go with the earlier football version, I love it.

Andrew Cogliano 2013-14 Upper Deck Team Canada Autographs auto

And now for the hockey hits.  Didn't I say the Cogliano earlier would look familiar?  UD took the base version, added the word "Signatures" along the left side, and affixed a sticker autograph, and in my opinion that resulted in a very nice card.  With some of the designs UD uses I agree that there's no need to mess with what works.  This is my 10th hit of the current Ducks C and I love how he included his (former Oilers) jersey number

Jack Johnson 2013-14 Panini Titanium Game Worn Gear Dual Memorabilia dual jersey (with Erik Johnson) (#252/300)

Hell yeah, it's JMFJ!  This card features two different Johnson defensemen (no relation), both of which are American, were high draft picks, and played for the USNDTP here in Ann Arbor.  Jack joins Cogliano in the 10-hits club with this card.

David Oliver 1995 Classic Images Autographs auto (#200/1500)

Here's another guy that's new to my collection--the 40th player among my hockey hits, in fact.  Oliver starred at RW in the early 90s for Michigan, potting 97 goals and 98 assists in his four college seasons.  He went on to play for the Oilers, Rangers, Coyotes, Senators, and Stars, as well as teams from several other leagues.  As you can clearly see on this Classic card, he has a beautiful signature.

Mary Turco 2015-16 ITG Used Maximum Memorabilia Silver jersey (#48/50)

Last (and maybe most) is this enormous jersey swatch of blog favorite goalie Marty Turco.  This simply has to be one of the largest relic cards in my collection.  I'd venture to guess that Doug and I are two of the bigger supports of In The Game because they make very cool cards, often of guys that don't get much hobby love.  Hell, I love the fact that they made a Turco card despite the fact that he's been retired since 12.  What a very cool piece, which includes something along the lines of stitching towards the bottom.  Since today has been pretty milestone-heavy I'm happy to announce that this is my 30th hit of Marty, who still leads the hockey collection.

Once again, Doug, I'm thankful for this package and every other envelope you've sent my way.  I'm also looking forward to sending things back to you across the border after this weekend's show and whenever my COMC package arrives.

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.

2014 COMC purchases: take me down to the parallel city

Here's some more baseball PC pickups from COMC in a special 100% parallel edition:

Jim Abbott 2013 USA Baseball Champions Legends Certified Die-Cut (#026/699)

I haven't seen a lot of Abbotts that interested me on COMC recently, but this one sure looked like a winner.  Jim appears on a nice number of cards in Panini's 2013 USA Baseball Champions set thanks to his legendary Team USA career, and besides a base card, he's got a bunch of different versions of a die-cut parallel, like this one here.  I really like how it looks, but the colored "Mirror" versions also look great, and I'll have to see if I can pick those up too.  For now, I have 93 Abbott cards.

Scott Kamieniecki 1994 Finest Refractor

Scott was one of the bigger winners among my supercollections this time.  First up is this beautiful Refractor from Finest's second-year entry in 1994.  This and the base card still have that goofy color scheme, but there's no way you can't enjoy a Refractor!

Scott Kamieniecki 1995 Donruss Press Proof

I believe Pinnacle kicked off the Artist's Proof/Press Proof craze in 1994, and Donruss followed suit the next year with this set, limited to a "scant" 2000 copies.  Donruss took the base card and added gold foil as well as the "PRESS PROOF" notation at the top.  This wasn't a bad start, but I prefer the '96 version, which you'll see a bit later.

Scott Kamieniecki 1996 Collector's Choice Silver Signature

The most ho-hum card today is this parallel from 1996 Collector's Choice, though as I've said, I do prefer '96's versions that include colored borders.  This card completes the trio for me as I already picked up the base and Gold Signature versions.

Scott Kamieniecki 1997 Ultra Platinum Medallion

I was excited that I was finally able to land one of Kamieniecki's toughest cards, this '97 Platinum Medallion from Ultra, which has a different image than the base card, by the way..  Print runs are limited to a not-impossible 200 copies, but I have yet to see multiple versions of most of the cards from the large set.  It was a little tough plunking down $5.65 (accepted offer) for a non-hit, but my desire to complete Scott's collection overrode my frugality in this case.  And with these four, I now have 79 of his 89 cards in my possession, close to 90%!

Steve Ontiveros 1995 and 1996 Donruss Press Proof

If Kamieniecki had a productive day thanks to a four-card haul, Ontiveros did even better.  "With just two cards?" you ask?  As it turns out, Ontiveros has 71 cards in his run, and these two put me at 70, meaning I'm almost done with another PC!

This pair of Press Proofs includes the '95 version, like Kamieniecki's above, plus the '96 card, which I prefer since I think the base design is superior.  For some reason I just like the latter's layout better, including the cool shiny Donruss logo.

Stay tuned to find out if/when I can land the very last card to complete Steve's PC!

Clayton Richard 2014 Topps Green

Clayton Richard 2014 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border

Clayton Richard 2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Border

Finally I have for you today this trio of cards that exemplifies Topps' disturbing obsession with repetitive colored parallels, including the store-specific exclusive Purple and Blue and the rack pack-pulled Green.  I've now acquired seven of Clayton's cards from 2014 flagship and yet I still have FIVE more to go--Black, Camo, Clear, Pink, and Yellow, all of which are numbered except the latter.  Yeesh.  Richard's collection now stands at 105/145, and hopefully I can increase that number elsewhere before long.

Come back tomorrow (or soon) for more!

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!