It's Been There Awhile

Yesterday, I was going through my regular eBay check. I have a handful of saved searches that I look at a couple times a day to see new postings of cards I want. I had an itch to buy something, but none of the new listings jumped out at me. So I flipped over to my Watch Items folder.

As I scanned through it, I realized that a couple cards had been in that folder for a while. A while as in years. These cards, for whatever reason, have never sold and are continuously re-listed. Let's take a look at a couple.

First up is a rookie variation of Yu Darvish from 2012 Topps. I know Cubs fans probably hate him, and a lot of Rangers fans were disappointed by him, but I'm still a Darvish fan. This card features Darvish throwing left-handed - something he's good at. Reports are that he can throw in the low- to mid-80's with his left hand. I've always thought this was a cool shot. 

I saved this listing when I first saw it at least three years ago. I'm on a budget, and rarely do I go out of that budget to get a card. I have waited for the price to come down, but it hasn't. A cursory search for the card on eBay now shows the cheapest listing at $12 or best offer, with $4 shipping. Maybe I'll swap out listings.

The next long-tenured card in my Watch List is this dual auto featuring Eric Campbell and my primary PC guy, Matt Harrison. Unlike the Darvish, the reason for not buying this card isn't money. while I think the price could be cheaper, I do think that the asking price here is fair. I just don't like this card. I think it might be one of the ugliest cards I've ever seen. So, since I know that I need this card for the collection, I drag my feet when it comes down to buying it. 

Lastly, the longest-watched item in my list. This hails from 2013 Triple Threads, featuring three nice patches from Harrison's All Star uniform. Unlike the last card, I think this card is a beaut! Like the Darvish, my problem here is cost. This card has been listed for $57 and has been for almost five years. I've tried emailing the seller to see if we could work out a deal for it, but I never hear anything back. So, the card will sit in my Watch List until it does get cheaper or I find another copy for less.

This leads me to what I believe is an interesting Blog Bat Around question: Which card(s) have been your Watch List the longest and why have they been there so long?

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!

More eBay Pickups

Okay, it's starting to become extremely noticeable that I'm targeting cards for my Yu Darvish collection. I honestly don't go out of my way to grab his stuff, but it is happening. I'm blaming separation anxiety. Darvish needs to just re-sign with the Rangers and stop making me feel this way.

Anyway, I've picked up a few cards over the last couple weeks. Let's take a look.

First up, this is a photo varitaion of Darvish batting from 2015 Topps. When this card came out, it easily sold for $10 or more. Patience paid off - I snagged this guy for less than $2.

While we're on the topic of photo variations, here's the 2016 Topps Update photo variation that features Darvish in a Dodgers uni. This is my second card of him pitching for LA. Still don't care for it. This card was also had for less than $2.

This is a red refractor from the 2017 Update Chrome set. It's numbered to 25. I don't really know what else to say about it.

That's it for now. We'll see if I keep subconsciously snagging Darvish cards in the future. 

Is there a player that you tend to unintentionally collect more than others?

Some Sparkly Gold Darvish!

In my post yesterday, I mentioned my love of the 2012 Topps set. That's the year I began buying cards again, so that set will always be one of my favorites. (Though, I have to say that I love 2013 Topps flagship just a tad more)

At one point, I had the gold sparkle parallel of Yu Darvish's rookie card. However, back then I wasn't terribly interested in keeping parallels. Needless to say, I no longer had it in my collection.

Until earlier this week. I found one on eBay for a reasonable price and decided to pull the trigger:

I love it. It just pops. 

I haven't been doing it intentionally, but it seems that the only cards that I have been picking up are of Darvish. 

I know not everyone is a big fan of parallels, but I know some of you are. If you are, what is your favorite parallel and from what year/set? 

If you aren't a fan of parallels, which ones do you especially dislike?

A Matt Harrison-Centric Post

Player collections can be funny, at least for me. I can go weeks or months without adding a single card. This is especially true when you are down to pretty much a handful of low-numbered cards as the only ones you need.

Such is true with my Matt Harrison PC. It feels like an eternity since I picked up a card that I needed for this PC. But, as the cardboard world seems to go, I've added three within the last month. Crazy.

First, I received a care package from none other than Greg, the mind behind the Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle blog. A while back, I sent a 2016 Topps Gold Label black-framed Julio Urias auto to Greg. Greg said this package was for that card, but I am pretty sure that he has already sent me something for it. I guess this means that I will have to keep sending all the Cory Seagers I pull his way!

Anyway, here's the card at the center of that package:

This comes from the 2004 Just Rookies set. The card always makes me crack up - who's the poor schmuck in the lower-left that had his faced blurred and half cropped out? One day, I'll figure it out. This is the black version, numbered to only 25!

Just a couple days before receiving the package from Greg, I won an eBay auction for the following card. It arrived the day after Greg's:

This is the 2013 Topps ERA leaders black printing plate from Series 1. I honestly never thought I would see this card or, even if I did see it, I had even less confidence I would win it. I guess I'm fortunate that David Price and Jered Weaver have kind of taken a step down from the star players they were in 2013 (well, Weaver retired, but Price certainly isn't what he was). 

I always hate the "1 of 1" tag on a printing plate. It is misleading. I think we should petition Topps and all other card companies to label printing plates as "1 of 4." That's a losing battle. 

Finally, I noticed another card hit eBay that I have been looking for since I began collecting Harrison's cards. I had seen others in the set and fell in love, but Harrison's never popped up anywhere...until last week. Behold:

The 2011 Topps Lineage 1952 Canary Autograph of Matt Harrison! These are limited to only 10 copies. I love the gold shimmer (hey Fuji, not a gold refractor, but I think that Gwynn would look good with this background, too!). The only "knock" I have on the card is that it's a sticker auto. Regardless, I love this card. It looks perfect to me (the scan is a little off because of the crop), so I am thinking about sending it in to PSA to get slabbed to keep it that way.

So there you have it: three cards in a month for a player collection I haven't added anything to in a while. Do you have any player collections that you are finding it hard to add cards to?

**UPDATE** Naturally, after I finished and scheduled this post, I won an auction for yet another low-numbered Harrison that I needed (for less than $3, at that!). I'll get that post up as soon as I receive the card!

An eBay Insert

I've found myself searching for oddball Ranger teamsets lately. One of the sets that I've found was printed as a promotional item (I think) by Jarvis Printing in 1984. The cards look pretty standard, if such a things exists, for promotional cards:

The front consists of a basic picture with the player and team name in a big blue box. The rear features a few stats about the player, including marital status and where he lives.

Other than that, there really isn't much to talk about with this card. However, I do want to briefly chat about what the seller included in the package:

A tri-fold brochure titled "Mickey Mantle: His Final inning." I thought that this would be a neat account of the literal final inning of his baseball career...

...But it wasn't. Instead, it's a brief account of the Mick's hard-partying lifestyle and how that lead him to an early death. Furthermore, it tells of his acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior.

Now, I'm a believer of these things - I, too, have accepted Jesus as my savior. But, I don't know how to feel about this. I'm certainly not upset by receiving it. I guess I just feel odd receiving it from someone that I have never met. I dunno, I digress.

What's the strangest thing - if anything - an eBay seller has included in a package to you that you did not purchase or request?

eBay Mailday(s)

I've fallen behind in posting my eBay purchases. There haven't been many, but I could certainly do a better job of posting. Let's clean out the ol' eBay scan folder and see what has come in recently.

First up: this hideous Easter purple/pink Cole Hamels parallel from 2017 Gypsy Queen. I really hate that color and think it looks terrible on a baseball card. But I wasn't consulted - and I'm sure there is someone out there who loves it. Either way, it's a new Hamels for my collection.

Next up:

I mentioned a few times that I really like the Meaningful Materials relic cards from this year's Museum collection. I previously purchased a version of this card (also numbered to 50) but I was able to upgrade to one with a better patch (see above). The best part? I won this card for .49 cents (plus $3 shipping). I'll happily pay $3.49 for this card!

I also grabbed another parallel of this card, this one numbered to 10. It cost me maybe $5 total. Again, I will happily pay that!

But I'm not done with Museum Collection yet:

I was also able to get my hands on this Rougned Odor Meaningful Material relic. This one was a bit more expensive, but still well less than half a blaster. This is the base parallel, numbered to 50.

That's it for this eBay Mailday - but fear not, there are more in the future!

My First 2017 Topps NOW! Purchase

I like the idea of on-demand sports cards. I find it kind of neat that I can see something happen and then have a card of that event in a couple weeks. What I don't care for is the $9.99 price tag for a single card.

Therefore, when a Toppsn NOW! card drops that I want, I generally go to eBay and purchase one from one of those sellers. This was the case for Joey Gallo's first walk-off home run:

This set me back a whopping five bucks. Anyway, short, one-card post.

I hope everyone is well!

Harry Mail Day!!!

My collecting habits have really slowed lately. I bought a box of '17 Series 1 and massively underwhelmed. I didn't pull any color parallels (other than three golds and a few rainbows) and the auto was forgettable. It was probably the biggest disappointment since I returned to collecting. I'm somewhat excited about Heritage, but even then, I have mixed feelings as I hate the '68 design.

Nonetheless, I still have a few saved searches on eBay that I check daily. One of which is for my main PC, Matt Harrison. The cards that I don't have tend to be lower-numbered parallels, so it isn't often that something pops up that I don't have. However, this week was different. This caught my attention immediately:

This is the copper rose parallel of the 2013 Tier One Crowd Pleaser auto. This card has alluded me for a few years. As a matter of fact, it is the card I was waiting for (redemption wise) and gave up on (receiving the Johnny Bench Museum Collection auto as a replacement). So I don't know if the card was recently fulfilled or if it was one of the few that was actually signed initially. Either way, it doesn't really matter - all that matters is that I have it now.

Perhaps this is a sign of things to come this year for the Matty H PC. One can hope, right?

A Nice eBay Mailday

Recently, Topps Heritage High Number hit the market. I love the Heritage products, so I knew I needed to grab a box or two. I did just that, but in the excitement of getting everything organized and put away (more on this in a later post), I forgot to create a post about what I pulled. In short: nothing terribly exciting.

So I decided to hit up eBay for some of the cards I did want. A couple came in a few days ago, and since I am in Iowa City, Iowa, for a wedding, I have a bit of free time on my hands to share with you what I bought.

First up, this guy:

You can't tell from the front....

...but this is actually the mini parallel version of the card. Only Desmond and Nomar Mazara had mini parallels in the set. Speaking of Mazara...

...I was able to grab this redemption for his Real One Auto. Topps hasn't indicated whether or not Mazara has signed these, so I am assuming that means that he hasn't. However, if the way the Rangers are playing the Blue Jays is any indication, he may have a few months of free time pretty soon.

That's it for now. I hope everyone is doing well!

The Daily List - November 26, 2013

So, I'm trying to think of new features for the blog. A lot of people do a random card of the day, random set, etc. etc., so I thought I would join in on the fun. I am going to attempt to have a daily list. This list can be about anything related to baseball, baseball cards or blogging so get ready.

So, without further ado, here is my first Daily List.

1. We've all heard about the old man that has a crazy card or memorbilia collection, but what about a relatively young older woman with a museum-worthy collection? Check out this story about Susan Plymel and her insane collection that once included a verified Babe Ruth autographed ball (it was stolen from her!)
2. Don't think there are enough blogs about the Dodgers? Here's one you need to check out - Chavez Ravining. A great read about cards related to the Dodgers, a.k.a. the "West Coast Yankees." (Sorry Alex, I couldn't resist!) Give it a look and subscribe to his site!
3. Speaking of blogs, mine has grown visually boring to me. Leave me a comment of what you would like to see changed, and design ideas you might have, or, if you are into graphic design, design my site for me!
4. I still have a few things up for sale via eBay for my Wounded Warriors project fundraiser. Go check it out and buy somehting. Reader Defgav has helped out - now it's your turn!
5. Lastly, on a related note, there are still plenty of teams available for my 2013 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects two-box break to raise money for the WWP. Go here to sign up!

Well, there it is. Here's a thank you for reading through!