Some Recent eBay Pickups

I was originally planning on having an autopsy post to examine my Gint-A-Cuffs X entry, but some recent developments have convinced me to delay that post for a bit. Instead, I am going to take a look at a few eBay pickups I've received during the past few weeks.

The first couple of cards are from 2018 Panini Stars & Stripes. I've been trying to snag cards of Steven Gingery whenever I can. Gingery, a fourth round pick for the Cardinals in this year's draft, was the ace of the Texas Tech staff until he blew out his elbow in one of his early starts this season. I'm excited to see him get back to being healthy and to see how he will do in the Cardinals' system. This Silhouettes patch auto is numbered to 25.

This may be my favorite addition to my growing Gingery collection:

It's not autographed, but this jumbo relic comes from the player's nameplate. It's numbered 1 of 4. I really dig it.

I also snagged a couple of Matt Harrison cards. It's getting harder and harder to find Harry cards that I don't already have. However, there are still a few out there.

For instance, I didn't have this 2012 Prizm auto, numbered to 25. Now I do.

On occasion, I will intentionally grab duplicates of cards I already have, like this one:

This is the Brooklyn Back/Red Back of the 2013 Allen & Ginter mini. I know I have at least one of these already, and I believe that I actually have one or two more in my collection, as well. I gave all of $1.25 (with free shipping, if I recall correctly) for it, so it was hard to pass up.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Yet Another Case Break With Hawks Breaks

Well, a few cases to be exact. I bought into a three-case player break for 2014 Bowman Draft (I chose Luis Ortiz, drafted by the Rangers but traded to the Brewers) and a single team case break for 2017 Bowman's Best. You know how this works, so let's get to it.

I've always loved the silver ice parallels. These, along with atomic parallels (which I believe are essentially the same thing), are always some of my favorite cards. This was the only parallel I got from the Draft break.

I also snagged this refractor auto in the third case of the break. It would prove to be the only auto I got, but I am happy with my haul.

As I mentioned, I had the Rangers in the 2017 Bowman's Best single case break. 

Willie Calhoun is featured on these inserts. On the top is the Baseball America Gradebook insert. Below is the Prime Cuts insert. The Baseball America insert also has a few autographed parallels, though I didn't get one.

This would have been my best hit from the break. It's a green refractor auto of Christopher Seise. I also got a base auto, but I forgot to scan it.

Not too bad of a haul. As they say, "them's the breaks!"

I Got The Group Break Bug

I'm so far behind that this post is about the release of Bowman Chrome which, at this point, has to be months ago. 

I couldn't sleep one night so I decided to watch some group breaks on YouTube. As I watched, I decided that I needed to get in on a Bowman Chrome break. After checking out prices on eBay, I realized that I couldn't afford the entire Rangers team in a break; rather, I took the player break route and purchased a couple of Ranger players. I selected Jose Trevino and Andy Ibanez. The best part about the break, however, was that the breaker made this a "keepers" break, meaning that you could purchase the same players for the same price for the following two breaks. I was in.

(After reading all of that, it sounds a little confusing, I think. Apologies if I lost anyone).

Anyway, after the breaks were all said and done, I ended up with six autos total. 

I got a redemption for a blue refractor of Andy Ibanez. Not pictured: a redemption for Ibanez's base auto.

Speaking of base autos...

I snagged three base autos of Jose Trevino. I'm pretty stoked to get these. Trevino is the Rangers catcher of the near future, and he's a pretty good defender behind the plate. He has quickly become a fan favorite and was the Rangers' Minor League Player of the Year this year. 

This was the best card I received in the breaks, though:

I believe this is called a "blue mojo" refractor. Whatever it's called, it's a good looking card!

Have you been in any breaks recently? What was your best "hit"?