January 2024 arrivals

[gt2590]

My current favorite Wildcat. Wearing #2 is kinda tradition for Nova point guards…

 

[gt2590]

Had this for a while.

Everytime I sort my cards, PC or FS, I find something I had forgot about.

2002 Donruss Originals. Not valuable but my favorite “Big 3” on the 1984 Donruss design. Gonna throw it in a 3 card Magnetic…

 

[Dilferules]

Had this for a while.

Everytime I sort my cards, PC or FS, I find something I had forgot about.

2002 Donruss Originals. Not valuable but my favorite “Big 3” on the 1984 Donruss design. Gonna throw it in a 3 card Magnetic…

View attachment 353577

I wish they had done this set the next year and covered the odd-year sets from the '80s. The '85, '87, and '89 cards would have been pretty sweet.

If you want a little more of a challenge you could go after the Aqueous (glossy) parallels for those three. I always though that was a weird set because 1990 Donruss was a design they didn't use, but they had an Aqueous parallel. Growing up I always assumed the 1990 Donruss Aqueous cards were glossy since "Aqueous" sounds like it relates to water and high gloss gives it sort of a "wet" look. Calling the 2002 glossy parallel Aqueous didn't help that misconception. When I finally did get a few actual 1990 Aqueous cards I was a little disappointed that they just looked the same as regular 1990 Donruss aside from the test printing on the back.

 

[Hawk8]

There was a big piece for the 1998 Significant Signatures Master Set in the mail today.

1998 Donruss Signature Significant Signatures Image Variation Sandy Koufax Replacement Copy
View attachment 353571View attachment 353572

Whats the story on the replacement copy?

 

[WizardofOz1982]

Whats the story on the replacement copy?

Donruss generally held back 5 or so copies of serial numbered cards to replace cards that were damaged in pack. They'd stamp the replacement with the same number as the damaged card and destroy the damaged one, at least in theory. I've seen some duplicated serial numbers from other sets, with one card having damage, so some damaged copies that should have been destroyed were not. After the 1998 Donruss bankruptcy many of the damage replacements made their way into the market through bankruptcy auctions.

The thing that makes this Koufax (as well as the Ozzie Smith Image Variation I have) interesting, at least for me, is that the Image Variations for this set weren't ever issued in packs*. The numbered versions hit the market after the bankruptcy auctions just like the replacement copies did. It has been my belief they were intended for insert in a later product that never happened due to the bankruptcy but that may change after some info I got yesterday. I'm still trying to nail some stuff down there.

*The refractors for Ryan, Koufax, Smith were all redemptions as well so were never in packs either but all have damage replacement copies out there which is odd to me.

 

[theplasticman]

Got a monster on the way

1998 Donruss Crusade Red Darin Erstad /25

 

[nevermore]

Very happy to knock off a two tougher GU with a single mail day. The MVP Glove is his first memorabilia release from 2000, tough odds. Also added a few Tek patterns as well bringing me to well over 900 different O'Neills from his playing years spanning 1993-2002.

2024 will be 20 years of me collecting O'Neill. Did some math, I stand at 919/1064 = 86.37% according to Beckett. The 1064 includes all Teks/Diffractors and 1/1s. I haven't counted CMYK front/back plates separately. I count them as a single issue with a print run of 4 or 8 as Beckett has done for earlier years. I don't include executive samples or ABBA gaming cards either although I have a few.

This amount excludes his 150 or so Cincinnati Reds which at one point I had completed 100% from 1982 to 1993, but decided not to keep in my collection along with his post-retirement issues about 10 years ago. I've doubled down on just the Yankee ones spanning 1993-2002.

My short term goal is 87.5% or 7/8ths by this year. Have a few easy ones remaining. I've purposely avoided oversized cards and aftermarket releases like the Pacific Fanfest and NSCC cards stamped/5. I had a bunch at one point but traded them for other needs.

Long term, I'm hoping I can one day reach the 90% mark. About 40 cards to go, it may take another 20 years! Of the remaining 145 cards I'm missing, one third are Teks, one third are 1/1s and the last third are lowered numbered parallels.

 

[Topnotchsy]

Very happy to knock off a two tougher GU with a single mail day. The MVP Glove is his first memorabilia release from 2000, tough odds. Also added a few Tek patterns as well bringing me to well over 900 different O'Neills from his playing years spanning 1993-2002.

2024 will be 20 years of me collecting O'Neill. Did some math, I stand at 919/1064 = 86.37% according to Beckett. The 1064 includes all Teks/Diffractors and 1/1s. I haven't counted CMYK front/back plates separately. I count them as a single issue with a print run of 4 or 8 as Beckett has done for earlier years. I don't include executive samples or ABBA gaming cards either although I have a few.

This amount excludes his 150 or so Cincinnati Reds which at one point I had completed 100% from 1982 to 1993, but decided not to keep in my collection along with his post-retirement issues about 10 years ago. I've doubled down on just the Yankee ones spanning 1993-2002.

My short term goal is 87.5% or 7/8ths by this year. Have a few easy ones remaining. I've purposely avoided oversized cards and aftermarket releases like the Pacific Fanfest and NSCC cards stamped/5. I had a bunch at one point but traded them for other needs.

Long term, I'm hoping I can one day reach the 90% mark. About 40 cards to go, it may take another 20 years! Of the remaining 145 cards I'm missing, one third are Teks, one third are 1/1s and the last third are lowered numbered parallels.


View attachment 353611

Incredible!

 

[Dilferules]

A couple of big ones. 2006 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor Frank Thomas 34/50 - this completes the team set. 1998 Donruss Signature Century Marks Autograph Jason Giambi - this completes the 3 A's Century Marks autos from the set; I believe the last A's auto I need from this one is the Preview Ben Grieve.

Some other stuff: 2017 Bowman Chrome Draft Gold Refractor Auto/50 Kevin Merrell. This was purchased from eBay in early November and shipped with the eBay "standard envelope" shipping - tracking showed it as delivered in mid-November but I never received it. Lo and behold it showed up in the mail yesterday, two and a half months after it was shipped. 2005 Bowman Chrome Printing Plate of failed prospect Michael Rogers, 2003 Donruss Signature Decade Proofs/10 of failed prospect Shane Bazzell, 2005 Donruss Classics Timeless Tributes Gold/50 Eric Byrnes (2 away from that team set), and 2005 Reflections Joe Blanton/Ian Snell Blue Dual Auto/35 (one of the last few A's dual autos I needed from that product).

 

[mrmopar]

Back from vacation with a pile o mail!

Another palmer. took forever to get one, then ended up with 2! THIS SEEMS TO HAPPEN TO ME A LOT.

. Dent is the gold /5 that I like so much.

 

[mrmopar]

This redemption could have been issued w/o the sticker and just have details on back, but still cool. Competition drove the price beyond what the actual signed copy sells for, so there is that.

Then this came. I won that larger lot and it was advertised as all unique, but there were 3-4 dupes. the seller was great and offered to send replacements and didn't want the dupes back, but didn't have any I needed. I figured they may balk, but I said if they really wanted to, I'd take an extra Murray. No problem!
This is a neat way to get a rookie era item on the cheap. These were from the 1978 series, so essentially the same as his Topps RC.

 

[madbull34]

WBC Base Relic Yoshida

 

[WizardofOz1982]

Another Koufax in the mail today. It's going out in the mail in the morning to get crossed over to SGC for my SGC 9+ set.

 

[jmc855]

Got a monster on the way

1998 Donruss Crusade Red Darin Erstad /25

Congrats!! Beautiful cards. I ll never see a Clemens in my stash tho as I could never justify the price people woukd ask. Be happy to have green and purple.

 

[theplasticman]

Congrats!! Beautiful cards. I ll never see a Clemens in my stash tho as I could never justify the price people woukd ask. Be happy to have green and purple.

Hopefully one comes around at a comfortable price.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

Another gold off the checklist.

 

[gt2590]

More Villanova hoops card lots came in…

 

[michaelstepper]

Not a Huge fan of these but picked up this Ichiro Jersey Fusion.
COA on back states the Jersey is from Millcreek Sports and was used in 2001.
Hence, the 2001 All-Star game patch piece

 

[Philip J. Fry]

A good way to end January. Not sure why, but 1994 was my favorite design for the Diamond Kings insert set released in the 90s, perhaps ever.

 

[cjedmonton]

Started a Bobby Miller collection this month. Curious how he fits into LA's rotation this year.

The biggest win to me was the Topps Aces card. A $3 BIN! Not bad for a gold back #/75.