P-Town Is Where It's At

I've never been to Peoria, Illinois. I've driven through the state to get to Chicago for spring break 11 years ago, but I wasn't back into the hobby yet, so I had no idea that Peoria is the home to incredible cards.

At least, that's the perception I get from P-Town Tom's latest package. A little while back, I sent Tom a framed parallel of Addison Russell (I think???) from 2016 Gypsy Queen. I'm trying to slim down my collection, so I didn't mind sending a card that I had no use for. 

I expected nothing in return. But Tom would have none of that.

Last week (or earlier this week - summer really throws off my measurement of time), I received a bubble mailer from Peoria that was filled with all kinds of awesome.

The first two cards were for my Rusty PC and my soon-to-be listed Pudge PC. Sadly, I sorted those before I scanned them. Sorry about that.

But Tom also included three sweet Dillon Tate cards. I'm pretty excited that Tate is a Ranger, so I'm stoked to add his cards. And let's face it - any card featuring a player wearing a USA jersey is just awesome.

Here was the first card:

Wow. Awesome card! Then I found this beauty:

This card is nice and shiny, which is why my scanner hates it. Awesome watch from a national team jersey! But wait, the best is yet to come:

CRUSADE!!!! How effing MAJESTIC!!! I absolutely love this card - I've always like Crusade cards, but I've never cared for Panini's no logo cards. However, add in the USA jersey, I'm sold. So perhaps you don't get as excited for this card as I did, but that's cool. I lvoe this card and now I know that I need to get all the parallels.

Tom - I can't thank you enough for the cards. I truly didn't expect anything in return, and I can't thank you enough for what you sent!

Holy Buckets, Batman!!! An MCH Update!!!

Sorry, but this post has nothing to do with Batman. I'm sitting in a survey methods course talking about questionnaire design, and honestly, I'm bored. For some reason the title just popped into my head when I decided that I should write an update.

During the course of the past couple weeks, I've picked up a few cards from eBay. Let's take a look.

First up, I snagged this gold refractor parallel of the Joey Gallo Top 100 insert from 2016 Bowman. I dig these parallels, but I've always been a bit of a fan of chasing a cardboard rainbow. This is the only version of this card that I have.

Every year in recent memory, Topps has put out the "Spring Fever" insert usually available only in shops as a "free" pack when you purchase a box of Series 1. Occasionally, a pack will have an auto. This card falls into that category, but someone other than me pulled it. It's a rookie auto of Luke Jackson, numbered 33 of 175.

I saved this card for last. I've been wanting it since I saw the sell sheet for 2016 Bowman. In the product, there is an insert set called "Turn Two." It features two key prospects form the organization, one on each side of the card (ironically, it doesn't necessarily feature middle infielders, which is what I think of when I think "turn two"). 

Some of these inserts feature autos of the two players featured. The Rangers have one of these cards, featuring last year's #4 overall draft pick, Dillon Tate and star prospect Lewis Brinson. I failed many times trying to get my hands on one, but finally succeeded last week:

Strangely, I've only seen the gold parallel numbered to 50 and the superfractor. I haven't seen any autos on the base, green or orange refractors of this card, so I think the autos are only on the gold version. With this card, I've been able to snag at least one copy of each Ranger auto in the 2016 Bowman set.

I hope everyone is well! I'll have more to post soon!

Additions To The Harry PC

Well, school has officially started again. One of the reasons I decided to go back and get my PhD is so that I could teach at the collegiate level when I finish. One of the benefits of this is getting summers off if I choose, but that really isn't an option while you're a graduate student. So, I'm back on the grind.

I made a couple purchases last week on eBay to fill some holes in the Matt Harrison PC. Both of these are pretty rare cards, so I'm extremely happy to add them.

First up:

This is the black mini parallel from 2013 Topps, numbered 2 of 5. I have been watching this card for almost, if not more than, a year. When I first saw it, the seller had a BIN price of $30 with no best offer option. After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally able to negotiate a price of $6. I've been working on patience as a buyer, and it is really paying off.

I think I only need the platinum 1/1 and a printing plate to complete the 2013 mini rainbow.

The next card:

This is the yellow printing plate from 2013 Topps flagship. This is the first time I've seen a printing plate from 2013 flagship. The buyer was asking $9.99, so I jumped on it.

So there are my newest babies for the PC. I've got more Harries coming from COMC, but I'll post about those later.

Hope all is well!