Monday, February 29, 2016

Completely Red: 1992 Ultra, 1968 Topps Game, 2006 Fleer, 1982 Topps/Topps Traded

1992 Ultra

600 Card Set, 23 Reds (3.9%)

Checklist:

185 Glenn Braggs
186 Tom Browning
187 Rob Dibble
188 Bill Doran
189 Chris Hammond
190 Billy Hatcher
191 Barry Larkin
192 Hal Morris
193 Joe Oliver
194 Paul O'Neill
195 Jeff Reed
196 Jose Rijo
197 Chris Sabo
478 Scott Bankhead
479 Tim Belcher
480 Freddie Benavides
481 Jacob Brumfield
482 Norm Charlton
483 Dwayne Henry
484 Dave Martinez
485 Bip Roberts
486 Reggie Sanders
487 Greg Swindell
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1968 Topps Game

33 Card Set, 1 Red (3.0%)

Checklist:

30 Pete Rose
--------------------------------
2006 Fleer

400 Card Set, 12 Reds (3.0%)

Checklist:

 307 Aaron Harang 
 308 Adam Dunn 
 309 Austin Kearns 
 310 Brandon Claussen 
 311 Chris Booker RC
 312 Edwin Encarnacion 
 313 Chris Denorfia RC 
 314 Felipe Lopez 
 315 Miguel Perez RC 
 316 Ken Griffey Jr. 
 317 Ryan Freel 
 319 Wily Mo Pena 
--------------------------------
1982 Topps/Topps Traded

924 Card Set, 42 Reds (4.5%)

Checklist:

30 Tom Seaver
31 Tom Seaver SA
63 Mario Soto
97 Paul Moskau
128 Frank Pastore
159 Larry Biittner
165 Victory Leaders Tom Seaver, Denny Martinez, Steve McCatty, Jack Morris, Pete Vuckovich
169 Charlie Leibrandt
194 Mike Vail
228 Sam Mejias
294 Mike LaCoss
327 Joe Nolan
340 Dave Concepcion AS
342 George Foster AS
346 Tom Seaver AS
351 Reds Rookies Scott Brown Geoff Combe Paul House
361 Rafael Landestoy
400 Johnny Bench
401 Johnny Bench SA
427 Ron Oester
459 Bruce Berenyi
492 Joe Price
525 Ray Knight
562 Mike O'Berry
595 Dave Collins
620 Ken Griffey
621 Ken Griffey SA
660 Dave Concepcion
661 Dave Concepcion SA
700 George Foster
701 George Foster SA
723 Junior Kennedy
756 Reds TL/Griffey/Seaver
763 Tom Hume
785 Dan Driessen
19T Cesar Cedeno
41T Greg Harris
56T Jim Kern
58T Wayne Krenchicki
72T Eddie Milner
105T Bob Shirley
120T Alex Trevino
-----------------------------

Go Reds.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

COMC vs. My Paycheck: Part 5 - Canada's Finest

Last post of the haul. What did I save for last? Well, the most recent love of my life, of course: O PEE CHEE.


Oh yes. And a bonus...

Five new Hall of Famers toward that project. A project proving much more difficult than I would've imagined.

Go Reds.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

COMC vs. My Paycheck: Part 4 - Dunn and Griffey, but Mostly Dunn

I keep buying silly Adam Dunn cards. It's a sickness. Griffey too, but that is more socially acceptable.

Here's Leaf's tribute to the old Sportscaster release. These are regular size instead of giant and faux-rare. Faux-rare as in there are 15,000 versions of each, each serial numbered. These two are each out of 25. There are different colors and the little silhouette in the top right varies within each color I believe.

Did you know Adam Dunn was a Swing King? A King of Swing? So good he cracked the bat this relic was taken from, it seems.

Upper Deck Arifacts Blue. Yep.

Playoff Absolute Spectrum /100. Triple Threads base /1350. Yep and yep.

Man that Longball Leaders scanned poorly.

UD Baseball Heroes remains one of my favorite sets. I don't know why. I will have all of them someday. Green, blue, light blue, charcoal, tan, brown, red. There are likely more.

All four of these have Griffey looking pretty bored. HO HUM ANOTHER HOME RUN. YAWN.

The Meteor card looks better in hand. But all Chromes do. Hey, how about a bonus David Holmberg numbered out of 75 and a bonus Barry? Sure.

And I'll close this one with Joey Votto in his pajamas.

One more COMC post incoming. Go Reds.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

COMC vs. My Paycheck: Part 3 - Parallels

More. Go.

2014 Topps Pink Ramon Santiago, Numbered out of merely 50. This is a good looking card.

Some Topps Gold. I will have every flagship Reds Gold card someday. I swear.

SEE? YOU CAN'T STOP ME!

Oh hell, I'll even own all the sparklies.

2004 Donruss Throwback Threads Glossy Holofoilsomethingorother parallel numbered out of 100. Sure.

Bowman Heritage Rainbow foil. Also, twice as thick as the base cards. That's how you know they're premium.

2012 Gypsy Queen Gold Frame Joey Votto. Apparently, these parallels only exist for some of the set. Weird. I think only Votto and Bench got the Gold treatment for the Reds. Complete team set! Woot!

I still have a ton more cards from the haul, and endless time in which to post. Go Reds.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

COMC vs. My Paycheck: Part 2 - Vintage

More from my COMC haul. Sweet, vintagey goodness. Roll 'em.

1978 Pepsi-Cola Superstars Tabs Dan Driessen. These came in strips about four times as long as this, but the other three-fourths is ad space, so most people cut the player portion off. Then 38 years later one of em sold it to me for a dollar.

1975 Hostess Uncut sheet Sal Bando, Joe Morgan, Mickey Lolich. This is awesome. My first uncut Hostess sheet from any year.

1978 Hostess Johnny Bench. More sugary goodness.

1976 Kellogg's Johnny Bench. Mint freakin condition, baby.

1961 Post Vada Pinson. I somehow had the Canadian version of this card, but not the American version. No more.

1971 Fleer Laughlin World Series Reds vs. White Sox. It's often forgotten that since the Black Sox threw the Series, someone actually did need to win it. That'd be my Reds.

1960 Leaf Eddie Kasko. Not much to say about this set. I'm sure there are those who love it. I am not one.

1940 Play Ball Duke Derringer. Reds HoF from one of the better sets of all time. Noice.

Today's closer is this Johnny Vander Meer from the 1977-79 Sportscaster series. These were from multiple sports and were obtained by mail order subscription for three years. Two dozen cards every few weeks. Oh, and they're like 6" x 8". This is the first one I've seen for sale of a Red, so I had to snag it. I am happy.

Even more to post in the next few days, Go Reds.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

COMC vs. My Paycheck: Part 1 - Ten Autos

Yeah, this isn't a fair fight. COMC wins every time. But I don't seem to mind, because I just keep on coming back for more.

Here's Part 1 of a sexy 98-card order, featuring people writing their names all squiggly-like on small pictures of themselves.

We'll begin with The Nooch. Noochie Varner never actually made it to the majors. His 8 year minor league career saw time with 5 different clubs (Reds twice, Tigers, Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Astros) but none gave him a shot. No matter. Nooch is a fan favorite.

Raisel Iglesias debuted in 2015 as on of 200 rookie starting pitchers we threw at the world. It looks like he's going to be a mainstay in our 2016 rotation.

Michael Lorenzen, another young arm in our rotation. I already had his auto, and I usually don't make a habit of getting more than one official auto per player, but this card was too good lookin' to pass up. Bonus: pitcher-at-the-plate.

Everyone loves Sam LeCure, After his rookie year, the Reds made him a workhorse reliever for four years, then he was sent down to AAA ball, then we had so many injuries/trades, we brought him back up, thanks in small part to Twitter, though no one would ever admit that.

Gavin LaValley spent 2014 in the Rookie League and 2015 in Single-A Dayton. He's only 21, so expect to hear from him in a few years.

Joe Oliver caught all 4 games for our 1990 World Series sweep of the A's. So I love him.

Bobby Livingston pitched 5 innings for Seattle in 2006 and started 10 games for the Reds in 2007 sandwiched among a 12 year baseball career.

Justin Towle spent 7 years in the Reds farm without making the show. But this card is great, so I bought it.

Drafted by the Reds in 2009, debuted for the Padres in 2012, led the AL in saves in 2015 for the Rays in an All Star year.

Drafted by and debuted for the Reds (8 games in 2012), then traded to the Diamondbacks, then to the Yankees as the unenviable replacement to Derek Jeter's shortstop post. I remember being sad when he left the Reds. I think I still am.

Many more COMC goodness to come. Go Reds.