Ebay Loot for Under $20 (Part 1)

Total Cost of Cards: $19.69 (Free shipping)
Total Number of Cards:  59
Date Purchased: 01/26/10
Date Received: 01/30/10

Every once in awhile my favorite Ebay seller puts up a bunch of lots priced at around a buck each.  Even better, they are usually either serial numbered or shiny and from around the years 1994-2002.  Those are almost exactly the years I had stopped collecting, so the seller kinda feels like a pal who fills in the basic gaps in my collection.

Cost: $1.00

Details:  1998 Topps Finest Refractors.

I know very little about most of the sets from this era (which is part of the fun).

This set has four different versions of the same cards:  Finest, Finest No-Protectors, Finest Refractors, and Finest No-Protectors Refractors.

Honestly all the variations look identical to me on Ebay except for the protector thingy.  I read they look different in person though. 

My cards do have a very small letter R on the back (next to the card number) which, from what I could learn, indicates they are indeed refractors.  That's good because otherwise I'd just have to assume they're refractors.

Cost:  $1.00

Details:  1998 Topps Finest Refractors.

This lot isn't nearly as good player wise.  Am I collecting commons?  NO!  I'm collecting less common commons!

Chan Ho Park wins the prize for being the only active player out of the twelve total '98 Finest cards.

I'd like to open a box of this stuff just to get an up close look at the variations.  It's about $30-40 bucks now.  Looks like you get about 3-4 of these refractors (with protectors) per box.

(Digital Camera Pic)

(Scanner Pic - Click pics to enlarge)

Cost: $1.00

Details:  1999 Topps Gold Label Class 2.

There's Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3.  Class 2 was inserted one in every two HTA packs.  Hmmm, that seems pretty common.  Nice looking cards though.  They look great even on the scanner.  Thick too.  In person they don't shine much unless you turn them at a very particular angle (which I do, over  and over).

 

Cost:  $1.10

Details:  2002 Topps Super Teams Retrofractors.  These cards are serial numbered based on the year the team won the featured World Series (Furillo: 1955, Mueller: 1954, Law: 1960).

The serial numbered version of these seem a nice thing for team collectors to chase.  You basically get the World Series roster.  Cool idea. 

Ten teams are represented in the 146 card set: Giants, Dodgers, Braves, Pirates, Yankees, Cardinals, Mets, A's, Orioles, and Mets.  That's right.  The Mets are in this set twice.  Once for the 1969 World Series and once for 1986.

 

 

Cost:  $1.18

Details:  2000 Topps Finest

The giant shiny baseball that looks like a planet sucked me in.

 

Cost:  $1.20

Details:  1999 Fleer Mystique (SN to 2999)

I'm finally starting to appreciate Torri Hunter's career.  Nine straight gold gloves and 20 or more home runs eight times is pretty dang impressive.  

Cost:  $1.20

Details:  1996 SPx

The left card is the gold version.  I don't see it priced so nice very often.  The gold version cards from this set were inserted one in every seven hobby packs.  There's only 60 cards in the set though.

When these were released the packs went for $3.49 each.  You only get one card per pack too.  I guess people were chasing the chance of a Griffey or Piazza auto (1 in 2000 packs).

These days you can buy a box for around $35 on Ebay.

Well, I am only about halfway done but this post is long enough so I'll put up part two later.  One thing about this seller is I always feel like I get a lot for my money.  He even gives out cool free cards, which I'll show next post.

2008 Topps Hobby Box Break Series 2 (Box 2 - Happiness Again!)

2008 Topps Series Two Hobby Box

36 packs, 10 cards per pack

One Relic or Autograph per box

Cost: $21.00

The first box was a hit:  Topps 2008 Series 2, Box 1.  In that box I got an Evan Longoria Red Hot Rookie redemption auto card.  I nearly fainted.  Obviously I remained in bed for several days until I recovered.  Fortunately I was able to reach my cards and carry on.  They call that "being brave".

Box two did not disappoint:

I got very lucky with the gold card pulls in this box.

Last time I received just one star (and one potential star) out of seven gold cards.  This time I got two Hall of Fame locks (F. Thomas, Jeter), a star (Sizemore), and a guy who may still  become a star (Gordon).

Luis Gonzalez isn't so bad either (2591 lifetime hits, 354 home runs, .283 ba, .845 OPS).  Gonzalez is an impressive 15th on the all-time doubles list (596).  Had he hit just 29 more doubles he would have climbed into the top ten.  He has more doubles than Palmeiro, Yount, Murray, Hornsby, Frank Robinson, Boggs etc.  He had over 1000 extra base hits in his career.  Not bad at all.

One Mantle insert (two in the first box). 

A lot of commons and a star.  I still enjoy this subset.

Great cards, especially the Michael Young and Markakis.

Topps Stars inserts.

David Ortiz bat card.  I like the borders on these cards.  It works in small doses.  Strange to highlight a doubles record for Designated Hitters.  Does anyone know the doubles record for left fielders?  Pretty random record.

Jared Weaver (Black, s/n: #55/57).

Alright!  I thought this was my big hit of the box.  But I was told every box has a Red Hot Rookie redemption.  Not sure if that is true.  A few sources online do verify it.  I'd think Topps would advertise that type of promise on the box.

Of the twenty cards in the Red Hot Rookie redemption set, just two are autographed:  Evan Longoria and...

Jay Bruce!  Back to back Topps auto boxes!  I have had my share of bad boxes (just check out my breaks), but boy howdy these two were gems.  Like the Longoria, I have no Jay Bruce autos.

I am still confident Bruce will become a star.  He's just age 22 (23 for all of 2010) and already has 43 career home runs.  Even though he had a rough 2009, Bruce is just too impressive and too powerful to dismiss (as some prospectors already have).

Of course I won't fully believe I'm actually going to get these two autos until they are in my hands.

2000 Bowman Chrome Hobby Box Break

2000 Bowman Chrome Hobby Box
24 packs, 4 cards per pack
Parallel set:
Refractor 1:12
Inserts:
One oversized Chrome box topper card.
Bowman Retro-Future 1:6 (Refractor 1:60)
Rookie Class 2000 1:24 (Refractor 1:240)
Teen Idols 1:16 (Refractor 1:160)
Bidding for the Call 1:16 (Refractor 1:160)
Meteoric Rise 1:24 (Refractor 1:240)

Cost:  $19.95 (Blowout Cards - Black Friday deal)

Leading off:  McGwire in full bash mode.

Shiny is as Shiny does.  In this case Shiny doesn't scan quite the way it looks in person.  But most everyone reading this has some of these cards.

By the way my box topper card was Eric Munson (not scanned).

Big Frank Thomas.

As sometimes happens with chrome type cards from several years back, the cards in the packs were fused together.  Fortunately separating them did not damage any of the cards.

I've opened some other older shiny card packs that were so stuck together most of the cards ended up damaged when pried apart.  Took the coating right off.  I don't know a trick to prevent that from happening.

Zito rookie.  I am still a fan of Zito.  Despite being 31-43 with a combined era around 4.50 the last three seasons, Zito will be just age 32 in the 2010 season.  He's always healthy and racks up a lot innings every year, he's shown flashes of regaining his form, he pitches in a pitcher's park, he's a lefty so he may linger around until age forty or later, and he has 133 lifetime wins.

Zito has a good shot at 250 career wins which is nothing to sneeze at, but the Hall of Fame career many had expected has faded away.  It seemed a shoo-in that at least one of the Zito, Hudson, Mulder trio would make the Hall of Fame one day.  Hudson seems the only one with an outside shot now.  Gesundheit.

Chipper.  His .364 batting average in 2008 at age 36 was a final exclamation mark on a superb career.

Furcal and Vernon Wells.  Two players who never quite lived up to expectations.

Luis Gonzalez, Ben Sheets (rookie), Carlos Pena, Chavez, Giambi, and Smoltz round out the rest of the star/semi-star cards in this box.

Now the inserts:

Two refractors (as expected).  These scan much better than the base even though in person the shine is not dramatically different.

Urquiola.  Wow.  That's a lot of vowels.  One of four 'Retro-Future' cards.  Cool tv set/screen look.

Chris George had a lifetime era of 6.48 in the majors.  The Royals must have thought highly of him because they kept throwing him out there (four partial seasons).  Although the Royals weren't exactly known for their pitching depth (2001-2004).

Career Line:  237.1 ip, 300 hits, 95 walks.

Holy spanked.  George just turned 30. He pitched in AAA for the Orioles and Red Sox in 2009.  With a lifetime minor league era of 4.76 in over 1200 innings, it is amazing he keeps getting chances.  The number one most likely reason:  George is a lefty.

Rico Washington played 12 years in the minors before getting 19 at bats (.158 ba) with the Cardinals in 2008.  He appears to have retired right after the brief call up, indicating he had been fighting all those years just to prove to himself he could make it to the Big Show.

I gotta respect players like these two.  Perseverance is always an interesting story to me.

I love this card.  Another card I've never seen.  At least I got a star 'Retro-Future' card.  And a big one.  A Big Hurt one.

'Rookie Class 2000'.  Corey Patterson.  Ankiel and Vernon Wells are the best players in this 10 card insert subset.

'A Meteoric Rise' Chipper Jones.  There's 10 'Meteoric Rise' players.  They did a super job with player selection.  No duds in the bunch:  Ripken, Griffey, Ramirez, Garciaparra, Randy Johnson, Piazza, McGwire, Maddux, and Ivan Rodriguez.

'Bidding For The Call'.  Nick Johnson.  Ah, what could have been.  In seven full big league seasons Johnson has only reached 500 ab once.  And he was excellent that season:  .290 ba, 46 doubles, 23 hr, 110 bb, .948 OPS.  With a lifetime .402 OBP the only thing holding Nick back is his inability to stay healthy.  I wouldn't mind seeing him on the Orioles just the same.

Of the 15 players in this subset, only Alfonso Soriano and Josh Hamilton have defined themselves as stars.

'Teen Idols'.  Bobby Bradley.  There are 15 players in this subset as well.  Some of the good ones are Arod, Sabathia, Josh Hamilton, Andruw Jones, Griffey, and Juan Gonzalez.

Bobby Bradley's lifetime minor league era was a sparkling 3.25.  He was a number one draft pick by the Pirates in 1999.  He was picked ahead of Zito, Sheets, and Brett Myers.  Bradley was hit with a series of injuries:  Tommy John surgery, surgery on his shoulder, surgery for nerve damage.  He is another guy that kept battling.

Don't feel too sorry for Bradley, he purportedly won a 2008 Vegas poker tourney with a purse of $96,000.

Another 'Teen Idol'.  Sean Burroughs.  I definitely got unlucky on these two pulls.  The percentages were in my favor to pull at least one star from this subset.

The son of former major leaguer Jeff Burroughs (one time MVP winner), Sean Burroughs never lived up to the high hype.  He is a bit puzzling.  Sean hit for mammoth batting averages in the minors.  And he did so at high levels at a young age.  He hit .359 as an 18 year old in A ball and .322 in AAA as a 20 year old.  Sean looked like a phenom.  A Wade Boggs type.

I believe it was expected that his power would develop or that he would hit .320 consistently.  Neither occurred.  He didn't walk often, he didn't even hit many doubles (let alone home runs), and although he did manage a lifetime .280 batting average in the majors (1537 ab), his career OPS of .698 wasn't enough from the third base position.  By age 26 he was out of baseball.

So that's it.  I yammered on because I was in the mood to take a look at some of these lesser known players.

My luck in this box seemed below average, but I actually had a great time opening these packs.  It is the kind of box that makes you want to bust ten more.

If I could get a few more at $19.95, I'd do it.  But I see they normally sell for around $30 when shipping is factored in, so this may be the first and last 2000 Bowman Chrome I bust.

If Blowout Cards discounts these again next sale, I'm on-board.

Thanks for reading!