Stockton, Thy Sweater is Argyle (Wolverines edition)

NOTE:  As this post applies to both my blogs, you'll find it on the other one as well.  Just pointing that out to avoid any potential confusion.

Pictured:  Greg

Score another one for the awesomeness of the blogging community.  On Monday, Greg shot me a quick email pointing out that an auction that might interest me was ending soon.  His eBay diligence paid off today as this arrived in my mailbox:

This right here is Bill Freehan's 2005 Topps Fan Favorites Cyan Printing Plate.  Uh, yeah, Greg, I was kinda sorta interested in that.  If Beckett is accurate at all (stop laughing--I'm not referring to pricing here) in terms of his complete catalog, Freehan has exactly 20 total printing plates--four each of five cards.  That means I have 5% of Freehan's plates.  I just thought that was notable since I've put more effort into collecting him.  Hell, it doesn't surprise me he doesn't have many since he's not an extremely popular player, didn't play during the heyday of baseball card production and wasn't featured in many sets that resulted in plates.  So to say this was a rarity is an understatement, and I definitely owe Greg a huge thanks for pointing out an auction that I'd have otherwise been oblivious to.
Since this is already a relatively short post, I thought it would be fitting to repost a card already in my PC that ties in well with the above, Freehan's autograph from the same set:

The plate is my first of Freehan, of course, and my first of any Tiger, though I do at least have one other 1/1 (Verlander) in my Tigers PC.  He also fits my Wolverines baseball PC (which is why you're seeing this card on both blogs if you happen to read each of them) but thanks to Rich Hill, he's far from my only Michigan baseball plate.  Will I collect more of them?  If I find them, it would be fun to add more, especially considering the awesomeness of some of the sets:  this one, Topps Retired Signature, and more!

While I'm discussing the outstanding 2005 Topps Fan Favorites set, this seems like a great time to mention that I'm still working on that very set, and maybe some of you can help me chip away at it before I throw virtual wads of Paypal at Sportlots to finish it?

Anyway, thanks for the assist, Greg, and in my occasional eBay wanderings I'll make sure to return the favor so you can spend your hard-earned money on YOUR favorite guys!

Just Putzin' around on eBay

Before we begin, this is just a friendly reminder that brunette hottie Alison Brie is the patron saint of "Too Many Brunettes" week here on TMM. (not to mention Greg Z's's blog as well)

So, although I'm eager to continue posting my COMC loot, I have a few more eBay pickups to throw in the mix, and this one fits perfectly for me today:

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Silk Collection (#31/50)

Why is this card so apropos today, you might ask?  Well, as of this writing I actually AM putzing around on eBay waiting for a PC item auction to finish in about 15 minutes.  While I'm at it, the card does fit my theme of trying to spend less this month after a few weeks of heavy spending, especially on COMC.  How much did I pay for this beauty?  Try $0.99 with $2.50 shipping.  Silk cards seem to go for about $10 or more pretty regularly, so this was clearly a steal.  The timing of this post is also pretty good since the D-Backs recently picked up his 2013 option, meaning he'll likely be back closing games for them as he plays for a new contract in what's sure to be a great season for the former All-Star.

Today's Putz card puts me at 16 in-hand and scanned, and plenty more to come whenever I feel like it.  For now, please feel free to check out his PC album here or view the other Michigan baseball inserts I've scanned so far.

EDIT, 8 pm:  I ended up winning that auction (barely!), and while I was at it, over on TMV I threw up a post showing off the last five Bill Freehans I needed to own each of his vintage Topps cards from his playing career, so check that out!

2013 eBay purchase #6: Rich Hill hopes for 200 more

Before I get to today's post, I wanted to quickly mention that this here post is #200 for Too Many Manninghams.  As I've said in the past, I'm happy I made my decision to split off the Michigan stuff into its own blog, and now I'm happy I've stuck with it this long.  Thanks as always to co-contributor and fellow Michigan fan Jeff for his part of this milestone, and a special thanks as well to those of you who read, comment, and send us Wolverines stuff!

So earlier today, when I was thinking what I wanted to write about to celebrate this special occasion, I ran through a few options:  should I do another COMC haul post?  Nah, not special enough.  How about a trade post you need to catch up on?  Well, I do wanna get to that, but because of its size, I need more time to do that right.  What about the stack of cards I just got from a Blowout purchase?  Meh, nothing extremely special there either.

And then I got home and found in my mailbox a card I snagged from eBay and have been waiting for with bated breath, and I knew it was the perfect thing to feature today:

Rich Hill 2008 Bowman Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

What better way to celebrate such an occasion than highlighting a high-end card of my favorite player in all my Michigan PCs?  I found this gem on eBay last week in what very well may have been a one-day auction. I put in a generous max bid because I was NOT going to be denied.  Fortunately for me there aren't too many serious Rich Hill buyers, and about $7 later I had my eighth 1/1 of Rich Hill.  It also probably didn't hurt that the seller helpfully titled the auction "2008 Topps Printing Plate of Rich Hill."  Attention to detail, guys!  It can mean the difference between $2 and $20 sometimes.

Anyway, this is a great new plate of Rich, and it's even better that it comes in a Michigan Man's favorite color--blue (or cyan, as the case may be).  As I said, it's 1/1 #8 of Rich in my PC, and 1/1 #18 overall.  It's also my 63rd Hill IHAS hit, putting him one behind Jake Long until I finish up the COMC haul.  Looking at the bigger picture, it's Hill IHAS card #153 (including 1/1s) overall, with plenty more in-hand but not scanned!

As if I didn't have enough reasons to post about Rich, he ended up garnering a Spring Training invite with the Indians--his fifth different team, though he never played in the Majors for the Cardinals--putting him back in the news, even if it isn't particularly exciting news.  I hope he gets a real chance to crack the bullpen, and I'll be pulling for him to rack up some nice numbers, even if it's at the expense of the Tigers.

So here's to at least 200 more posts, and if I make it there, I hope all of you are still following.  Go cyan, and GO BLUE!

Disregard currency, acquire memorabilia, help students!

Please note this is a double post here and on Too Many Verlanders for increased awareness

When I spun off Too Many Manninghams I promised to keep most of my Michigan-related stuff there, but this is a special post that will hopefully appeal to readers of either or blog of my blogs.

MGoAuction is an excellent fundraising site dedicated to donating money to three University of Michigan undergrad scholarships:

The Bernard "Pat" Maloy Cancer Scholarship - This four year scholarship was created by former students of University professor Bernard "Pat" Maloy who passed away in 2001 after a courageous battle with esophageal cancer. The scholarship is a four year scholarship awarded to an incoming freshman with financial need who has battled cancer or whose direct family members have been stricken with cancer. Pat loved teaching and promoted excellence in analytic and writing skills. He was known as a strong, caring professor, who challenged his students and took great care in evaluating their work. According to Maloy, the students were more challenging than any jury he ever faced. Pat began his career with a law practice in North Judson, Ind., but he returned to graduate school several years later to study sports administration. Upon graduation, he took a corporate management job with MDS Qantel, a computer company specializing in dealings with teams in the National Football League, National Basketball Association and several universities.

The Shelly Kovacs Scholarship - Created in 2007 this scholarship honors thirty years of service by one of the University's most beloved student counselors Rochelle "Shelly" Kovacs. The Kovacs Scholarship is a four year scholarship awarded to an incoming freshman based on financial need. 

THE KAS Governor's Scholarship - We all remember that classmate who spent hours and hours of his own time working on projects to benefit public service causes or University student groups at the expense of his or her own study and personal time. A group of alums have joined together to create a scholarship to award to rising seniors at the University of Michigan who have held leadership positions and donated so freely of their time and effort for the purposes of benefiting the others. Keep your eyes open for these items and more that will help establish the KAS Governor's Scholarship. 

Why should you care, whether or not you're a Michigan alum or fan?  Well, as the name implies, the fundraiser is an auction, and many of the items are relevant to the interests of readers of this here blog.

There's quite a few awesome Michigan-related things for sale from all the major sports (and more), including game-used and signed memorabilia, apparel and more.  But I'd be remiss if I left out some of the auctions that should draw more universal interest, including

Autographed items from Tigers Max Scherzer, Miguel Cabrera, Torii Hunter and Prince Fielder

Lots of NFL autographed items AND some unopened boxes

Some ridiculous Red Wings items, such as this Chris Chelios signed stick, and lots more

And for my fellow Michigan fans, there's ton to get excited about, including

Barry Larkin autographed cleats(!)

A ball signed by cagers Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Josh Bartelstein

Tons of great football items, like this ball stuffed with legendary autographs (Griese!  Woodson!  Hart!  Long!  Glen Steele!)

Hockey stuff, like this puck and card signed by mighty mite Shawn Hunwick

And then there's $1, $5, and $10 items to start with, and so much more.  Yours truly will likely put in one or more bids on that awesome Rich Hill autographed Ball.

This is all for a great cause, so I'm happy to do a little to support it, and I hope you guys will too if you see something you like.  To remind everyone, there will be a banner at the top-right of the blog for the duration of the auction.  Please help support some outstanding scholarships because the world can always use more Michigan Men!

2013 eBay purchase #15, trade package #6, plus some annoucements

Announcement #1:

Former Michigan star OL Jeff Backus has decided to retire from the NFL after 12 seasons, all with the Lions.  He was drafted by Detroit in the first round, 18th overall, in 2001, one selection after Seattle took his former linemate and future-HOFer Steve Hutchinson.  While his effectiveness was sometimes spotty, especially at the end of his career, his endurance and toughness were never in question as he played in 186 straight games--an amazing feat when you consider how brutal the modern game is (ridiculous Goddell rules aside), ESPECIALLY for linemen on either side of the ball.  Backus was a Michigan Man who was successful in the NFL, and the league is that much worse without him.  Happy trails!

Announcement #2:

 Album (Picasa Web Albums)

Spreadsheet (Google Docs)

If you keep up with my Player Collections page, you might have noticed a new addition:  former Michigan and Yankees catcher David Parrish.  The son of former Tiger World Series champ catcher Lance, David came to Ann Arbor all the way from California for his college career, then was chosen by New York with the 28th overall pick in 2000.  He never did make the Majors, but was around long enough to earn appearances on a number of cards, which I'll now be trying to collect.  I already had four from previous purchases/trades/etc. and will be adding more from COMC soon.  Please hit up the links to see what's what with my David Parrish collection!

As soon as I get to scanning last month's COMC pickups, I'll have another player to add to the PC page!

eBay purchase:

Have you ever had that one card on eBay?  You know the one?  The one that you need for your PC but the seller has had it for ten times what it should go for as a BIN, refusing to take a best offer?  But then suddenly they actually put it up as a normal auction starting at $0.99?

That's exactly what happened to me last week with a card I've been gunning for for a while, and amazingly, it didn't go for what the seller thought, but instead $2.50 plus $1.50 shipping.  And here's the goods:

Rich Hill 2007 Finest Rookie Finest Moments Refractor auto (#20/25)

This is simply a Refractor-ized version of this card, which picks a nice moment for Hill indeed:  a September 16, 2006 shutout (the only of his career) against the Reds, in which he gave up two hits and struck out 10.  I realize it's a bit tough to tell from the scan that this is a Refractor, and even in person it doesn't shine like they sometimes do, but it still looks nice when you can actually see the effect.  Also, as a plus, the autograph on this card is in much better shape than the regular version.

In terms of numbers, this is Hill hit #78 and IHAS card #186 (with 9 1/1s).  It's also one of the cheaper ones I've picked up recently!

I don't have any other eBay pickups pending as of today, but that could change very quickly as I have a few auctions I'm watching, so watch for more of these in the future.

Trade package:

If you caught my post over on TMV earlier, you know that I received a great trade package from Sean/daddyohoho of Screaming Line Drive that was filled with some great Tigers.  However, he also decided to throw in a few Wolverines for me as well, and I wanted to give him credit for that too, so here they are:

This here is a J.J. Putz 2002 Bowman Chrome Refractor (#d 132/500), and while I already have a copy of this, it's a double I'm more than happy to keep since it looks amazing!

This heavily airbrushed 1996 Score card is indeed a RC of former star RB and all-name team member Tim Biakabutuka.  If manufacturers have had to remove certain features of a uniform on their cards, I've generally understood, but when they come out like this, the uniform colors end up looking so strikingly different you'd be hard-pressed to convinced me this was a Michigan game otherwise!  Still, I'm happy to pick up anything of the Buckeye-destroyer.

Finally, we have a 2012 Topps Magic Mini Blue Border of Super Bowl (and 2005 Penn State game) hero Mario Manningham, namesake of this here blog.  The back itself even notes his big game antics, saying "Made three clutch catches for 56 yards in final 4:00 as Giants rallied to win Super Bowl XLVI over Patriots, 2/5/12."  I'll have to check to see if I have anything else of Mario with his current team, the 49ers, but this may very well be my first pickup of him in San Fran.

Thanks again, Sean!

Stay tuned tomorrow for what could be a fun post depending on how things go (if at all) at the monthly card show!

2014 eBay purchase #12-15: draft day deals

Well it's Saturday and thee three-day NFL draft (is that really necessary?) is finally done, with all three eligible Wolverines finding new homes.  I'll likely celebrate that in a post this week, but for today, here's five more recent eBay pickups--one of which is, appropriately, football:

Jim Abbott 2003 Topps Retired Signature auto

This beautiful Abbott signature is actually my most recent purchase, and it arrived in my mailbox yesterday.  With time ticking down I was amazed to find myself the only bidder--these usually go for a LOT more--and landed it for about $7.50 delivered.  It's my fifth auto of the former Angels hurler, and second from the Retired Signature product (2005), though this one's cooler in that it's also "uncirculated."  Though it's a small step, it gets me a tad closer to the century mark as my 92nd Abbott, and it's a gorgeous one at that!

Chris Getz 2013 Topps Update Sapphire (#02/25)

About $6 was enough to win this Sapphire parallel whose color is sorta close to the Royals' powder blues.  The low-numbered insert puts another dent in the 2014 Blue Jay's 2013 Update rainbow, and of those nine cards I just need the deplorable Wal-Mart Blue to finish things off!  With a new total of 67/101 of Getz's run, I'm just a card shy of the 2/3 mark.

David Parrish 2001 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor (#14/99)

With new Parrish cards few and far between on the various card procurement sites, I jumped at the chance to pick up this '01 Bowman Chrome parallel for his rainbow, and I didn't feel bad throwing down about $7 for the honor since I'm now at exactly 75% of his 24-card run, not to mention and X-Fractor shy of said rainbow.  I've always admired the simple beauty of the 2001 Bowman/Chrome sets, but this Gold Refractor really sets things off nicely.

Clayton Richard 2012 Panini Prizm Autographs Prizms auto (#18/25)

If the theme of the day is obvious shininess, then this Richard Prizm auto delivers in spades!  My 9th hit of the erstwhile Padres pitcher, this is a Refractor-like version of the "base" auto, numbered to 25, and even without San Diego's logo it looks great.  About $15 delivered was enough to land me this, my 101st Richard--almost 70% of his 145 issues--along with the following card, a sum I happily paid late last month.

LaMarr Woodley 2009 Topps Magic auto

While waiting on the Richard auction to wind down, I did what everyone else does and had a look at the seller's other auctions to take advantage of combined shipping.  Imagine my surprise, though, when this gem popped up!  I'm slowly working on the Wolverines autos from the gorgeous 2009 Topps Magic set, and Woodley here is my sixth (Arrington, Askew, Henne, Henson, Breaston).  I simply love the looks of these artistic wonders, especially the fact that all players appear in their college unis, even if they weren't celebrating their rookie seasons in 2009; on the contrary, most are seasoned veterans.  I hope to track down the others--including Tom Brady, eep!--before all is said and done.  As for Woodley, this card, my eighth hit of the new Raider, is easily my new favorite.

Coming up in the next day or so--depending on how lazy I am--will be a finale of sorts for my recent eBay purchases, but the timing's good since I should have a nice COMC package to show off soon, and before that I'll have a brand spanking new trade post as well!

2014 eBay purchases: hip H-O-P hooray!

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Jeff for his three posts in the last week or so (while I've been too lazy to post).

And now here's something new from me, finally--another eBay showoff post covering pickups from the last few weeks--er, months, now that I look over my purchase history!  So here's some new stuff of three of my favorite players from my Michigan Baseball PCs:

Rich Hill 2006 Topps Triple Threads Emerald dual jersey auto (#07/75)

It was a good productive few months for my Hill collection thanks to several eBay scores, that's for sure.  First up is this Triple Threads dual jersey/auto from 2006.  I actually got it from a friend of my brother's who was selling off most of his Cubs stuff.  Although I offered to buy it directly for a bit more than the minimum and shipping, he let the auction ride, and I got it for the bare minimum of $3.49 total.  Of the set's five variations I'm now short just the Sapphire (/25).

Rich Hill 2007 UD Black Illustrious Dual Autographs dual auto (with Sean Gallagher) (#02/25)

This shiny dual sticker auto hails from the high-end UD Black product of 2007 and was a reasonable buy at $8.  It's the more abundant version of two made as the Gold Spectrum variation has 10 fewer copies.  Hill was paired with fellow Cub prospect Gallagher on four other cards that year, all of which are found in Upper Deck's Exquisite Collection product;  I have two of them (base and Gold) so far.  Sean, by the way, was part of the deal with Oakland that brought Rich Harden to the Cubs back in 2008, and he's bounced around the minors since his last Major League appearance with the Pirates in 2010.  

Rich Hill 2008 Topps Triple Threads 217B triple jersey auto

Lastly for Hill today I finally scored this version of his "base" 2008 Triple Threads triple jersey/auto.  I've owned the "A" card (featuring three stars instead of the team abbreviation) for a while, and plenty of other parallels, but I didn't find a price I liked on this one until recently, when a bit more than $7 worked for me.  Rich has 18 cards in the set, including eight where he's paired with one or more players, and I've scored 13 total, including all but one of his solo cards.

Today's trio gives me a total of 227 of Rich's 347 issues (about 65%), and an all-PC-dominating 108 hits.  His 239 overall cards give him a small edge over second-place SS Barry Larkin!

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Signature Green Ink auto (#01/10)

The "O" in today's title is Yankees prospect Michael O'Neill.  I probably could have posted this 2013 EEE Green Ink auto a BIT sooner--I grabbed it in late MAY for $10.50--but sometimes I just prefer to group my eBay pickups together.  Anyway, its extreme rarity makes it a big win to add it to O'Neill's PC as his second auto (here's the base) from that set, never mind that it's also #1 of the production.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Status Gold (#3/5)

And along for the ride is this even RARER, non-autographed Gold Status insert.  I was surprised to pick it up for a measly $4 a few weeks ago, knocking off what should have been one of Michael's toughest cards to find.  The gold and die-cutting go very well with Panini's EEE design this year--as usual--and of course I'm thrilled to have landed this card now, which gets me 1/3 of the way done with his 15 cards in the product.

Speaking of the number five, these cards represent my fifth hit of O'Neill and a minor milestone of 10 out of his 40 issues to-date, crossing the double-digit mark.

Zach Putnam 2008 Playoff Contenders Draft Class Autographs dual auto (with Trey Haley) (#22/25)

Back in June I happily plunked down a reasonable $7.50 to get this dual autograph featuring the "P" of the title, Zach Putnam, because it closes the chapter on his 2008 Contenders cards:  Playoff Ticket, base auto, Draft Class insert, Gold Draft Class, and Black Draft Class.  I knew this auto would be the hardest one to find, but it still eluded me until June as I'd literally not seen ANY copies available previously.

I now have 41 of Zach's 52 issues, but I'm in an interesting position since an insane nine of those are numbered to 5!  I'm also very curious to see if he gets any newer cards since becoming a more important part of the White Sox's bullpen--he was one of their leading closer candidates before a recent injury.  For now I'll enjoy owning 32 of his hits, which are good for second best in the baseball PC, which by the way, is now at an almost-milestone total of 275.

With nothing else planned for now, stay tuned for what I previously promised will be an exciting series of pickups, at least for some of you!

2015 eBay purchases: a completed collection and more Michigan mishmash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2013 eBay purchase #s 2 and 3: plates and patches

A couple Sundays ago I showed off the spoils of my first purchase of 2013.  Today I'm back with two more buys I made recently over on the Bay:

Mike Hart 2008 SP Rookie Lettermen 'T' patch auto (#56/62)

Just as my first eBay pickups included a Hart letter patch/auto, so does this one.  For the hell of it, especially since the prices have been surprisingly reasonable, I've been hunting down his nameplate from this set, and I now have "A-R-T" which is pretty sweet:

Please believe that if I had any sort of "F" patch it would be in this image

This actually brings up an interesting dilemma:  there's an auction for an "H" ending tomorrow evening, but it's a slightly different version that not only has different numbering (out of 16 instead of 62), but also a different color scheme.  I have these three out of the four and they're all of the same variation, so should I hold out for an "H" that's the same?  That's the way I'm leaning, but we'll see how things go tomorrow night.

Anyway, I'm excited to pick up yet another one of these Lettermen auto patches as they look fantastic, plus, of course, Hart is one of my favorite players.  That's hit #41 of the former Michigan #20, by the way!

J.J. Putz 2012 Topps Mini Printing Plate Magenta (1/1)

If you thought I was excited about the Hart, just imagine how thrilled I was when this showed up in my regular search for Putz stuff.  Not only is it a great addition to my small 1-1/plate collection, and not only does it represent my 28th different Putz IHAS card, it also happens to be the third out of his four 2012 Topps Mini printing plates!  Way back last September I had picked up the first two in separate auctions for about $10 each.  As crazy as that was, I was indeed in possession of the Black and Yellow plates when this one became available.  I made it a priority to nab it for just a bit more than the other two, and a week later I now have it in my grubby little hands.

This is particularly exciting for me because I've never been this close to completing a 1/1 set before--the best I've done is a couple pairs of Rich Hill plates.  I realize how difficult it can be to pull something like this off, so I'm not going to go all Captain Ahab and make it my life's work to complete this set, but if I see it and the price is reasonable, that's awesome.  If not, I can be happy having as many as three 1/1s of one of the players in my PC, and that's great too.

I actually have one more eBay pickup I purchased before these, but the seller was extremely lazy about shipping and it looks like I'll have to wait a bit long.  When that shows up I'll make sure to get a post up for it as well.  For now, I'd say the $17.50 or so I spent for this pair was well worth it.

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.

2013 eBay purchase #7: Putzing around with 2013 Topps

As I was on eBay a few days ago flipping through my saved searches of my Michigan PC players, I made sure to get an idea of the market for the cards of the only Wolverine player I collect to appear in 2013 products so far:  J.J. Putz.  As usual, there's a few parallels to collect, and I thought I'd dip my toes in the water to see what I could find of these, since I bet I'll be able to nab his base card in a trade with one of you before long.

I decided to watch an auction of his Black parallel since it had a nice, low starting price and $0.99 shipping.  To my surprise, my $3.99 minimum bid was enough, and a few days later I found this in my mailbox:

J.J. Putz 2013 Topps Black (#36/62)

I rag on Topps a lot, but there's still many aspects of their products that I like, and one of them is the yearly presence of the Black parallels.  I'm first in line for the crowd that wants to see the retail exclusives gone, but at least for me, the Golds and Blacks are a yearly tradition that should continue.  I'm even more in favor of the Black cards just because they have the "real" serial number stamping that the others lack.

My Putz collection moves up another couple cards (please see below) to a new IHAS count of 56 (including three 1/1s).

NOTE:  for yet ANOTHER recent Putz pickup, please check out my post from this evening over on TMV!

2013 eBay purchase #13: call me Richmael

Just one card to show off today, but like Highlander, there could only BE one, namely a card that would make Old Ahab proud:

Rich Hill 2008 Topps Triple Threads White Whale Printing Plates BB triple jersey auto (1/1)

I've put together a decent number of Rich's 2008 Triple Threads variants over the years, and I can now say that I've reached the 1/3 mark:  9/27.  That includes 1/1s, like this guy above, and the other one currently in my possession.  That's certainly a lot, especially when you consider that he has nine 1/1s in this series alone, but I tend to collect those for fun, not because I have to have ALL THE ONE-OF-ONES, you know.

This one came to me courtesy of the only bid on an auction that ended the other day:  $19 plus another $2 for shipping.  Certainly not cheap, but for the right card, I'm willing to go around that amount, especially since I haven't thrown down a whole lot of money this month so far.

This White Whale joins the ranks of my other 1/1s, which are near a milestone of their own at 19 strong.  It's also my 77th Hill hit and 185th IHAS card overall; I definitely can't wait to hit 100 and 200, respectively.

So to celebrate a one-of-a-kind card and the fast-approaching baseball season, why not a one-of-a-kind baseball song, thanks to a heads-up from fantastic blogger Shlabotnik Report: