More Great Mail from eBay and Topps

Well the tax refund spending bonanza (minus the 50% put in savings) will continue here at the Quarry.  Before I show Thursday's mail, I want to take a moment to remind those of you that have not yet voted for the Rock Star right handed relievers, there is still time.  Keep in mind you should vote for THREE pitchers, so if you have already voted for one you can go back and add two more votes.

But now let's take a gander at today's eBay swag.

First up is a Hope Diamond (icefractor) parallel of one of the two Juan Nicasios from 2011 Topps Update.  I am going to start a small rant now.  One of the newest trends with cards that I am not enjoying whatsoever is multiple cards in the same series for rookies.  Rookie cup cards should be special, not one of two of the same player in the series.  Update went even further to with the insanity and not only gave rookie cards, but also "Rookie Debut" cards with the printed date of the player's first game.  Alex White even had one of his cards as an Indian and one as a Rockie (sort of) in the SAME SERIES.  This is ridiculous.  Even Braves fans have to admit that 3 Craig Kimbrels in 2012 Topps Series 1 is way too much.  I would much rather have seen a Kevin Kouzmanoff, Kevin Millwood or Matt Belisle Rockies card instead of a second Nicasio in Update.  Sorry for the rant, but it needed to be said.

Now that the rant is over here is my second black parallel from 2012 Topps.  I have been scouring eBay for the blacks since 2012 Topps went live.  Sure they are a little bit higher than normal, but with a /61 parallel if you don't find it early you might not ever find it.  This Dexter Fowler came to me for around $6, I actually don't consider that overpriced by any means.  Plus this is my favorite Rockies photo out of Series 1 by far.


I also got a delivery from Topps, but it won't count in the Spending Bonanza, because all this came FREE.

Why you ask.  Because of this.

That would be my "Limited Edition" 2011 Topps set.  I am happy with it, but I am also happier that it got me free shipping on 25 other rookie cup cards.  Well, 23 others as I'll explain below.  Most (but not all) of the cards I got were 1986 or newer simply because I wasn't going to pay to get them, but with the free shipping I figure what the heck.  I just scanned a few of the older ones and a couple that were interesting for other reasons.  Here they are.

Here is the oldest I got and one of the oldest rookie cups ever.  A 1961 Topps Ron Hansen with a FANTASTIC cartoon Oriole on the sleeve.  Why wasn't that one of the manufactured blaster relics from the past few years?  I would've got one.  Anyway, Hansen won the 1960 AL Rookie of the Year with an unbelievable (for the time) 22 home runs as a shortstop.  After Ripken and ARod and now Tulo, this generation has been spoiled with the power hitting shortstop.  Most shortstops throughout baseball history have been closer to Ozzie Smith (offensively, not defensively) than Troy Tulowitzki.

For this pair of 1970s cards I will focus on a very distinctive feature for the player on the card.  The 1972 Ross Grimsley has to be his ice blue eyes.  Imagine being a batter at the plate and having a staredown with those cold, zombie-like eyes.  No wonder he was an All Star rookie.  The 1977 Chet Lemon has to be the sideburns.  I really wish sideburns would make a comeback and not in the 1990s 90210 Luke Perry/Jason Priestley way.  I'm talking about the full on Civil War Ambrose Burnsides sideburns. 

Speaking of bad facial hair, here is the 1982 Tim Wallach and his attempt at having a mustache.  I think he made a very good choice to go clean shaven for the majority of his career.  He really have the porn star look going on in that photo especially with the unfortunate placement of the bat.  Cool photo though.  The 1981 Damaso Garcia is sort of a strange card as well and not just for the name Damaso.  The perspective of the photo makes Garcia look like he is 3 feet tall.  When in actuality, he was 6'1".  He just looks tiny in that photo.

Here is the first card that brought my total down from 25.  This is a 2003 Topps Brad Wilkerson which is needed on my want list.  The problem lies with the stamp.  Yep this is a Home Team Advantage parallel, so I still need the Wilkerson for my 2003 set.  What REALLY bugs me about this one is that the other 2003 card I got shipped was Rockie Jason Jennings and it was not the HTA parallel.  I am collecting the Rockies HTA parallels, but not the rookie cup parallels, switch the two and I do a cartwheel.  Leave them as Topps sent them and I still have two numbers on my wantlist.

This is the other card that I go shipped and my first thought was I actually needed a 1987 Topps Bruce Ruffin.  I know I had this card 20 times over as a kid, but I did not have it aside from my complete set.  So cool this was going to finish off my 87 rookie cup set. 


BUT

Then I saw the back.  I'm sure many of you know that that is not a 1987 Topps back.  It's way too white.  This would be a Topps Tiffany parallel.  It's actually a cool card and since it was free not really worth complaining about...but I still don't have my 87 set finished.  Someone out there has to have a 1987 Bruce Ruffin that they could send me.  Please.


Thanx for reading.