COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 11: Putzing around near the end

(Note:  view all posts in this series with this link)

I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.

J.J. Putz is the focus of my second-to-last baseball post in the series, so let's get down to it with a lucky 13 new additions:

J.J. Putz 2004 Donruss Team Heroes Showdown Bronze (#039/150)

I sort of like the colorful-but-simple base card, although I don't think the Bronze border adds all that much to the package.

J.J. Putz 2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Green (#18/25)

You can really tell this is one of those sets where Panini based the entire design around room for an autograph and then worked backwards.  This is my fifth out of nine cards in this set.

J.J. Putz 2005 Donruss Signature Autograph Gold Master Series auto (#03/50)

In their heyday, the on-card Donruss Signature sets were a sight to behold.  This one's not bad, and features one type of sticker I'm cool with.  It's my fifth of eight in the set, with a pair of autographs and a parallel /10 to go.  Also, this is my seventh autograph and 12th overall hit for J.J., and #249 in the Michigan Baseball PC!

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Co-Signers Blue (with Felix) (#044/250)

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Blue (with Felix) (#072/250)

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Bronze (with Felix) (#293/300)

Aaaaaand queue the reasons for the "parallelarrhea" tag today.  A good number of the Co-Signers parallels look cool, but there's 12 and 10 cards in the 2007 and 2008 sets respectively that I need to chase after, and they get ridiculous after a while!  I have just three from the former and four from the latter at this point.

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor (#167/559)

Now here's a parallel I can enjoy!  I think the Heritage Chrome concept was a great idea, and making Refractors was a natural extension of that.  Sorry the Refractory-ness doesn't come across as well in this scan, but trust me--it's Refractastic.

J.J. Putz 2009 O-Pee-Chee Black

Ok, what I said about the Copper Team Heroes card above?  Take that and multiply it by 10 and then apply it to this card.  Wooo black border....

J.J. Putz 2009 Topps Attax

File this under "The crap player-collectors have to put up with."  At least it was cheap, I guess.

J.J. Putz 2009 Topps Wal Mart Black Border

J.J. Putz 2011 Topps Target

Stupid, useless retail exclusive meets slightly more interesting useless retail exclusive.

J.J. Putz 2013 Topps Mini

J.J. Putz 2013 Topps Mini Gold (#47/62)

Try calling someone "YOU LITTLE PUTZ!" and see how that goes.  As for the Gold, that's a parallel I've always liked, so it's ok in my book.

13 dynamite new J.J.s give me a new PC total of 174/308, with an additional four 1/1s and three "others" for a new count of 181 in Putz's collection.

More on the way soon, including a new Doug C. trade package, the final two posts in this series, another Justcommons haul, and a few welcome additions to the TK Legacy collection!

COMC haul #36: J.J. Putz is a man of many seasons, and teams, and numbers

(Note:  all COMC haul posts can be accessed here)

I'm back today with another double-digit group of J.J. Putz additions:

J.J. Putz 2006 Topps Update Gold (with Ichiro) (#0199/2006)

Definitely a nice pair of Mariners there.  2006 was one of an amazing seven seasons Ichiro led the league in hits, and that year coincided with J.J.'s first as Seattle's closer, which obviously turned out very well.

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Co-Signers Hyper Silver Red (with Felix) (#23/75)

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Co-Signers Silver Blue (with Felix) (#021/150)

This pair is fairly interesting because Felix is the obvious headliner, but the combination with Putz makes a lot of sense since you're pairing up the team's best starter and reliever.  There's a ridiculous 12 versions of this card I'll ultimately need to chase!

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Gold (#0160/2007)

I like how the colored boxes in this card pair up better with Arizona than Seattle, considering the D-Backs are J.J.'s most recent team.  Not that Topps could have known that in 2007--you can barely count on them to get a player's CURRENT team right!

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Gold Border (with Borowski and Jenks) (#1419/2008)

Raise your hand if you were on this card and are still pitching in the majors.  That's right, it's just Putz!  Borowski followed up his 45 2007 saves with a shortened 2008 before retiring.  Jenks, an angry fatass, last pitched with the Red Sox in 2011, with zero saves to show for his efforts.  He's probably still an angry fatass, though.

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Triple Threads Sepia (#406/525)

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Triple Threads (#0791/1350)

Out of all the cards today, the second Triple Threads above is the only "base" card.  It looks pretty reasonable, which is more than I can say for the one above it--is "sepia" Topps-ese for "shit brown?"

J.J. Putz 2009 Topps Gold Border (#1592/2009)

J.J. Putz 2010 Topps Update Gold (#0281/2010)

A couple more Topps Golds, and what's cool is each of these features one more stop before Putz ended up in Arizona.  He was traded to the Mets before the 2009 season and was ineffective due to injury.  He signed a FA deal with the White Sox to reestablish his value before 2010 but wasn't used as a closer, which means the Diamondbacks got a nice deal when they signed him before 2011.  He's repaid them with 77 saves the last two seasons.

J.J. Putz 2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary

J.J. Putz 2011 Topps Factory Set Holiday (#55/75)

J.J. Putz 2011 Topps Factory Set Red Border (#095/245)

J.J. Putz 2011 Topps Gold (#1878/2011)

Here's four versions of J.J.'s 2011 Topps cards.  I currently have five, with another three on the way, and after that I'll be left needing three more.  Parallelarrhea!  Also, I fully realize the Red Border card looks fairly orange, but I think we all know how easily that happens with scans.

J.J. Putz 2012 Topps Gold Sparkle

J.J. Putz 2012 Topps Gold (#1536/2012)

J.J. Putz 2012 Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations

And we'll finish up today with three versions of a card with one of the goofier photos in the 2012 set.  The Opening Day card actually gives you a slightly different view, which is cool.  The event in question is Putz earning the save on September 23, 2011.  It was his 44th, which was a nice personal accomplishment, but more importantly, it clinched the NL West for Arizona.  That's definitely a moment worth capturing on cardboard, and I'm glad Topps did.

Today's 16 give Putz an IHAS count of 44, including three 1/1s.  I have one more group of his pickups that I'll get to soon, then you'll see even more of him when I get my latest package shipped, so stay tuned!

COMC haul #30: Clay's the rainbow part 3: parallelarrhea

(Note:  all COMC haul posts can be accessed here)

A couple Wednesdays ago I came back with a second group of Clayton Richard rainbow cards.  Well today you're getting the third and final round--though I do have one more grab bag of his stuff to post soon.  So here's another nine for your viewing pleasure:

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractor (#081/225)

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Chrome Orange Refractor

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor (#235/499)

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Chrome Refractor

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Chrome X-Fractor

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Chrome

Before these pickups I had exactly zero of Clayton's cards from after 2010.  Now I have nine (including the three below), including these six out of Richard's 10 Topps Chrome versions.  That means he has a base card and NINE parallels.  Excuse me, I need to go start a blog called "Too Many Parallels."  What?  It's got the right number of syllables and everything!  The only problem is that every post would literally be me going "TOPPS, Y U SO MANY PARALLELS?"

Seriously, though, that's way too many parallels.  Out of these, I really only care for the Refractor and maybe the Orange Refractor.  The Purple is just an ugly color, and I've just never cared for Topps' "Atomic" Refractors and X-Fractors.  Oddly enough, the ones I like the most--Blue, Gold, and Red--are among the four I'm missing, along with Sepia, which is at least decent.  In my perfect world, you'd have a Regular Refractor plus increasingly rarer Red, Blue, and Gold (why ISN'T Gold the toughest, anyway?), and then maybe a 1/1 version with a different color each year.  There, that's four normal Refractor parallels and one 1/1 to boot.  I'm fortunate that the four I do need aren't ridiculously rare, though, so this'll be one project I can put some effort into this year.

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary Factory Set Limited Edition

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Gold (#0873/2011)

Ok, that's it--I'm coining a new collecting term:  parallelarrhea.  When Topps swallowed up all of its colorful competitors, something didn't agree with it and the result was way too many different versions of the same card, also known as parallelarrhea.  Old Clayton also has 10 versions of his card in the 2011 Topps flagship set (not including the "Padres Topps" set).  These three only scratch the surface.  While you've got the old standby Gold, which shouldn't go anywhere, at least not until the year 5000 or something, and I've always been cool with the rarer Black version, but then things get iffy:

• Cognac Diamond Anniversary:  take a look at that top card and try to convince me it's not a hot mess.  It looks like whatever didn't agree with Topps came out the other end and they threw up camouflage all over the front.
• Diamond Anniversary Factory Set:  you earned this if you spent way too much money on codes for Topps' Diamond Giveaway scam.  The only difference is the logo in the upper-left corner.  You don't even get a different colored border or anything.
• And the rest:  Diamond Anniversary (maybe), Factory Set Red Border (WHY?), Hope Diamond (meh), Target (NO), and Wal Mart Black Border (NONONONONONO!).  Topps.  Wat r u doin? Topps.  STAHP.

How about we simplify things with Gold, Black, something very rare like Platinum, and then one other color that changes every year?  It's good to challenge collectors by making one or two versions that are tough to get, but this retail-exclusive bullshit has to stop.

So all that complaining aside, I now have 42 Clayton Richards, and I'm on my way to getting past half of his PC.  That's no small feat either, considering I had very few of his cards before going nuts on COMC.

I'll be back tomorrow with another football post for you Wolverine faithful!