April 2018 Ebay Wins

In my March post, I mentioned how that month has been historically difficult for me due to work concerns.  That’s the big deadline we work toward each year, and it becomes an all-hands on deck, don’t plan anything during nights and weekends affair.

April, on the other hand, is a lot more free.  For me personally, it was more so because I changed positions in the company and I’m no longer subject to the stuff that goes with that deadline.  My day-to-day responsibilities dropped considerably but my income stayed the same, so that allowed me to celebrate by making a few bigger purchases.  Also, getting a tax refund helped.

This was a big month, so let’s start slow and save the craziest for last.

Still missing the non-LL vintage

Slow for me is a vintage stock parallel /99.  I think people that have followed the blog understand the pattern that I rarely buy stuff off ebay with higher numbering.

Digital waterslide

This is probably the most unconventional single card purchase.  Here’s the more common SP.  There’s an “SSP” as well.  These photo variations are so common this year, that I got it for a 99 cent bid and relatively cheap shipping.

The black version of the Beam Team #/99

This card came shipped with the next one from a foreign seller.  I think that’s why I was able to win them.

And the Black Power Zone

I have a bit more confidence in the foreign sellers and understand that they’ll be taking a while to arrive.  I’m still mindful of their feedback scores and make sure they have enough transactions as a seller, and so far there have been no issues.

Much better than the negative parallels

Contreras cards are tough to come by.  I pretty much only bid the minimum, and he’s popular enough that people bid on his stuff…most of the time.  That didn’t happen at all with this GQ B&W #/50 for some reason.

The GQ is also better than this

My Bunt quest continues.  I may finish off all of the parallels and inserts before too long.

The black parallel is better than this by far

Even the orange parallels have been pretty easy to come by.  I’m probably one of only a few that look for them.

I pulled an Altuve Galazy in my box

I think this is the first time I had seen the Galaxy insert offered as an auction.  This is the normal version and the back has a scratch off code for the app (still intact).  There’s also an orange version of this that I’ll need at some point, but it’s a cool card with the blue.

How festive

Speaking of Arrieta, I added this green refractor.  It’s easier to pick up green parallels across all products for some reason.

Don’t need a green border of this

I’m a little surprised at how many of these blue bordered Heritage cards I’ve acquired.  These are pretty nice, and it’s great that I can easily identify them as opposed to the color swaps or weird errors.

#/500

This is not one of the bigger purchases, but the next three are.  This is just a cool die cut Gold Press Proof.

Still missing the non-sketch Maddux from 2017

Normally this would be the biggest card of the month.  Not this time.  Anyway, Transcendent is back with a higher print run, but lower printed autographs.  That’s good because it allowed me to pick up this sketch card of lesser quality than 2016’s sketch, and also because I don’t have to worry about the autographs.

2013 – #/125

Speaking of autographs…This was a big one for me.  I have been monitoring these Cooperstown autos for a while.  Even though they don’t have logos, they seem to be pretty highly valued and sought after.  Maybe there are some auto set collectors, or just the on-card Hall of Fame aspect.  Anyway, they’ve always been a little pricey, and they’ve dried up considerably over the past 5-6 years, which is understandable.  When this came around, I took a chance and I think you know how it worked out.

I don’t have the base card, but I do have this

But I’m not done.  I surprisingly also found a 2012 autograph as well, which is lower in number.  Which one do you like better?  I think I like this portrait.  What’s great is that I can compare them in person.  I didn’t think I would have either of these two for a long time, let alone both in the same month.

Okay, now I’m done!  Those were fun presents to myself!  On to May, which will certainly be easier on the wallet.