In my last trade post recap I posted about a Collector's Choice oddball I hadn't seen before. I also mentioned that I found the complete 40-card set on eBay for $12 and purchased it immediately. I received the cards a few days later.
The cards were packed in a bubble mailer, which is always a great sign. However, the cards were placed loose in a plastic sandwich bag that had clearly been used in shipping multiple times. The bag was soft and wrinkled. Nothing like a new plastic bag would look and feel.
Due to cards being packaged loosely, over 25% were damaged in some sort of manner. Dinged corners and bent edges. The eBay listing did not disclose any such damage so the only possible explanation is that they were damaged in shipping.
I sent the eBay seller a message explaining the situation and asking if he might have any replacement cards. I didn't receive a response after several days so I then filed a refund request. Again, I didn't hear a response for a couple days so I sent one more message. After I didn't hear back, I escalated my claim to eBay.
Within an hour, eBay refunded my entire purchase. Although the whole ordeal was a slight headache, the end result is that I received the complete set for free. The cards are little dinged up but I think I can live with it.
This is the first time I've ever had to file a complaint with eBay. Hopefully it will be my last.
I've never been one to chase parallel sets. It's hard enough as it is chase the best set. I can understand why people put together "Frankensets" as an easier way to make a parallel set.
2008 Topps has only four parallels (/2008, /67, /1, and non-serial numbered gold foil) so a Frankenset does not make much sense. I had my eyes on a couple gold starter sets for 2008 Topps on eBay. After selling some Magic cards on eBay I decided to splurge seeing as how this is my favorite set.
Between Topps and Topps Update, I acquired 54% of the gold parallel set. Not a bad haul! The seller said he has another 200+ gold cards that he could sell, which I'm seriously considering. The toughest card to find will be the gold Kershaw from Update.
Many of the gold Update cards had slight printing issues, unfortunately. The cards have a gold base and then a gold sparkly printed on top. This resulted in an overlap of the gold printing. The flagship cards did not appear to have the same printing issue.
As you can tell, the gold circles do not match up. This is the worst of it. The rest have minor issues, if any.
Lastly, some pointless trivia for each set:
Flagship highest serial number 2004 and lowest serial number 3. Topps Update highest serial number 1975 and lowest serial number 301.
Being only 54% complete for the sets, it makes me wonder, have you ever completed a parallel set?
Every day it seems like I'm adding something new to my wantlist. Whether it's a new set to check out, a card to add to my player collection, or a new player to start collecting. That is one thing I love about the hobby: there is always something new out there.
2016 Topps Museum Collection Four-Player Primary Pieces Quad Relics Did Not Purchase This Card
With so many cards to collect, I try to be selective on what I'm going to pick. While the two cards in this post were not on my radar I couldn't pass them up anyway. I was browsing COMC and come across this quad-relic card. It features all the essential current Mariners, Cano, Cruz, Felix, and Iwakuma. You could maybe make an argument of Kyle Seager over Iwakuma but I'm satisfied.
The above card has a couple awesome jersey pieces with the teal from Felix and the multi-color patch from Iwakuma. However, the price for this one card was more than I wanted to spend. Especially for a card I wasn't chasing. Still, I liked the card concept and I checked out eBay to see if I could find it a little cheaper.
#9/99
#25/99
Enter the above two cards. An auction had the Mariners card for a few dollars more than COMC but, and this is a big but, it came with a second quad patch card! I'm not a Tigers fan, and I don't dislike them either, but two cards is better than one. The Tigers card is somewhat bland, except for the Carbrera piece. Although I thought if I wanted I could use it as trade bait in the future.
The Mariners card I won is just as good as the card I didn't buy. It still has two different colored pieces plus it's a lower serial number. The card layout looks nice and it was a good way to get four relic pieces from four of the best the Mariners have to offer.
Even though these cards were off my radar, they were a nice add to my memorabilia collection.
About a week ago I put up a new page listing some of the sets I collect. I didn't make a new post about it as I'm sure everyone would see it at some point. The set I put up at #1 is the 1996-97 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Basketball. In my introductory post way back when I mentioned this set as one I collected when I was a kid. Even if it's not the best or a classic set from the 90s, it holds a lot of memories for me.
As I browsed eBay to see how I could finish off the set (it's about 61% complete) I had a few options. I could get a factory set, a series 1 box, and/or a series 2 box. The factory set probably would have been the best option but I also wanted to try for some inserts. I ended up getting a Series 1 box, even though I already have 75% of Series 1. Oh well, I don't always make the smartest choices. I'll end up with more duplicates than I know what to do with of Series 1, yet I think I'll get some good inserts out of it.
Base
Here are the 9 base cards I pulled from the first pack tonight. Chucky Brown was the only new card, the rest were all dupes. I will definitely do a more in-depth/review post of the set later but I just wanted to throw this post up quick because I was excited.
Inserts
The mini-cards were a dupe but the other two inserts were new to my collection. Shawn Bradley was quite the interesting player to watch. Yes there have been really tall guys before him but they aren't always as lanky.
That's it for now. I will open up more packs later but it is currently time for bed.
My last foray into eBay buying is courtesy of C2Cigars over at The Trading Card Database. C2 posted that he was selling the Shaun Alexander card posted above. I've never focused on collecting football cards and I thought I could start adding some Seahawks to my collection. Alexander was a great running back for the Seahawks (he also ran behind an even better offensive line) and a class act. The fact that this was a serial numbered card also piqued my interest. So I put an offer on the card and C2 had the audacity to counter my offer with an even lower one! :) I couldn't say "no" and the deal was struck. He even was nice enough to send along another Seahawks. He must have seen on my TCDB profile my not-so-subtle love for Seattle sports. Thanks C2! Although I will say the Carlson card is the first time I have ever seen comic sans used on a professional sports card.
While checking out the checklist for the Shaun Alexander card I noted that the insert also had a Matt Hasselbeck card. A helpful and clever feature of TCDB is that card pages have eBay links if that card is currently up for auction. It turned out that one seller had the Hasselbeck card available. The card was reasonably priced but shipping was $3. However the seller had a special that if you spend $9 on cards they give you free shipping! Seeing as how I was already going to spend that $3, I decided to check their list if there were any Seattle cards worth purchasing. I found a few more to get me over the $9 threshold and made out with 7 different cards. Their marketing trick worked but I came out with a good score.
I love the 2008 Topps design (bottom right) and I was at the Wild Card game depicted on the card. Even though Super Bowl XL is still one the worst moments in Seattle sports history (the refs robbed us!), I feel like the city finally moved once the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2013. Therefore, I thought it was nice to get a card capturing Super Bowl XL for the Seahawks.
The 2011 Topps card (upper left) is great because it features Hasselbeck and another Seahawk running back great, Marshawn Lynch. Typically I think of Russell Wilson and Lynch as the offensive tandem but this card is a good reminder of the Hasselbeck/Lynch connection. Plus the back of the card makes mention of the Seahawks' improbable 2010 Wild Card win over the Saints. If you have not seen Lynch's 67 yard TD run against the Saints (dubbed Beast Quake) you have to see it:
I could get into all the reasons behind why this run was so momentous for Seattle sports but the highlight is that the crowd was so excited during that run that they literally made rumblings that registered on a seismograph near the field. Thus that's why the run was called Beast Quake.
The other modern day Seahawks card (top right) makes mention of their Super Bowl victory so I thought it would be another good one to add to their collections. This also reminds me that I still need to get the card set from their Super Bowl victory. The "wantlist" never ends!
The other two cards rounding out this haul are noteworthy because A) one mentions the remarkable 2001 Seattle Mariners team that tied the Major League record for wins, going 116-46 that season and B)the other card is a great shot of Safeco Field, which is one of the nicest ballparks in the league.
In the end I spent more than I planned but I made sure not to add just filler cards for the sake of getting free shipping. Each card has meaning, which is one of the reasons I like this hobby. I'm (hopefully) done with my eBay shopping spree for the time being but you never know what might grab me!
Base Bruins set from 2013-2014 Upper Deck Artifacts
While on eBay I came across a listing for something I had not seen. The auction was for all Boston Bruins cards from an unopened hobby box of 2013-14 Upper Deck Artifacts. This appealed to me because I would mostly want the Bruins cards from a box anyway and this also came with the chance that the Bruins card(s) would be inserts, autographs, jerseys, anything! I watched the auction closely and as it wound to an end the price still sat at $0.99 so I threw in my bid at the last second and won.
The next day after the auction, the seller live streamed the opening of the box and went thought all the packs. The Bruins cards ended up only being the base set but this still seemed to be a good deal for 7 cards.
If the price is right I would consider doing this again but at the moment I don't feel the need to do it again. A fun experiment overall!
eBay is a very, very dangerous website. With the "Buy Now" option it's easy to go from listing to listing clicking "Buy" with reckless abandon. On the flip side, it's a great way to get the cards you want without spending a load of money on packs or a box trying to get them. I'm not one to seek the ultra rare 1/1 printing plates or anything to the extreme, but since getting back into a hobby over a month ago I've spent about $20-$25 on eBay getting a few cards that I think look nice. Without further ado, let's get into the cards!
First Haul
As someone who attended Gonzaga, I'm a big fan of Kelly Olynyk. He had quite the transformation at Gonzaga. His first two years you could tell he had the potential to become a good big man. He was good in the post and mid-range but he was small for a center and his skills were too raw. He redshirted his third year and he came back for his senior year a completely different player. He had put on a lot of muscle, honed his skills, and was ready to carry the Bulldogs as their center. Based on his breakout year I knew he was going to the NBA and I was excited when he was drafted by my favorite team, the Boston Celtics. His rookie cards were $0.75 each and I didn't have any of his cards in my collection so I bought two of his base rookie cards.
Sticking with college players I like, I also bought a Klay Thompson Wazzu card. I saw Klay play when I went I did my undergrad at WSU and he was a lot of fun to watch; such a good 3-point shooter. I didn't anticipate that he would do as well in the NBA but I'm happy for all the success he has had so far. With the NBA playoffs going and the Golden State Warriors winning, I'm not ashamed to say I've jumped on the Warriors bandwagon. I don't have any Klay Thompson cards and I thought that having him in a Cougar uniform would be great. His Golden State cards seemed to be little more expensive so I had no problem sticking with a college card. Not coincidentally, I've themed my blog in the WSU colors.
Last but not least, my first memorabilia card. Being new again to the hobby I didn't realize that memorabilia cards were a thing now. However, I was reading the great Cardboard History by Billy Kingsley and he made a post about pulling a patch card. I thought that the patch cards looked neat and were a unique thing to have. Rather than spending money on a box hoping for a patch from a player I care about, I went to where else but eBay. I figured that Mariners memorabilia cards would be the most prevalent and stumbled upon this Felix Hernandez card. Felix is a workhorse and truly the King of this Mariners team for many years now. A nice card to have in my collection.
That's it for part 1! I have a couple more eBay purchases to document but those will come at a later date. I don't expect to be a big eBay user but at the beginning stages it's a helpful way to supplement the collection with cards I actually want.
