Taste the Rainbow #3 + 2 Big Blog Milestones

 

It has been a while since I have trotted out this series, but it has also been a while since I have completed a rainbow.  The last go around saw two different rainbows completed with 2011 Topps Huston Street and 2010 Topps National Chicle chrome Ian Stewart.  This time I will be focusing on my favorite player, Christian Friedrich.  I have completed the rainbow of his most recent card, 2013 Topps Update.  Well, almost completed anyway.  I am still missing the Platinum 1/1 which I am actively searching for.  If any of you see or hear about it, please let me know.  I'll reward you greatly.  I also don't have any of the printing plates, but I don't count them and I don't really collect them either.  Let's take a look at the Friedrich rainbow.

The sapphire parallel is actually #'d 01/25.  I am not one of those collectors that seeks out the first, last, or uniform number, but it is cool when you actually get one.  Most people were complaining about Friedrich even having a card in 2013 Update, but I was not one of them.  He was on the 40 man roster and missed the season with injury.  Every Topps set that I can remember have featured at least one player that didn't play the prior season due to injury.  At least this time it is of a player that I collect.




I mentioned that there were also two big milestones for the blog with this post.

First, this is the 3rd birthday for Cards from the Quarry.  Well, actually the birthday was on the 14th, but I had a Quarry Unlimited post that day.  I was going to celebrate on Sunday, but then I decided that the birthday celebration should be today so it coincided with the other blog milestone that is occurring today.

This post is #500 for the blog.  I had to interrupt the Quarry Unlimited set, because I did NOT want post #500 to be about the Dodgers.  After three years, I hoped to be around 700-800 posts, but life intervened several different times.  My posts are usually lengthy, so I never post more than once a day.  Either way, I am very proud of myself for sticking around to spew my insanity and I am even more thankful that you guys continue to read it.  I don't know how high I actually will go, but I wouldn't mind seeing post #1000 one day, but who knows.  As long as I enjoy writing this blog and you enjoy reading this blog, I will stick around if I am able.

Thanx for reading.

Hobby box break x 3 - 2008 Tristar Prospects Plus

Well I'm back with another hobby box break, actually 3 of them from 2008 Tristar Prospects Plus.  You can check out how I did on the first box here.  Did I do better?  Yes I did and thank you for asking.

HOW'D I DO
Base Set Completion - COMPLETE
Base Set Dupes - a bunch, but no 2nd complete set...will sort and get back to you later
Christian Friedrich - several base, no hits or parallels... :o(
Regular Parallels /50 - 4
Regular Parallels /25 - 2
Regular Parallels /5 - 1
Regular Parallels 1/1 - 0
Die Cut Parallels /50 - 4
Die Cut Parallels /25 - 1
Die Cut Parallels /5 - 0
Die Cut Parallels 1/1 - 0
Die Cut Parallels - 1
Regular Jersey /199 - 1
Parallel Jersey /50 - 1
Parallel Jersey /25 - 1
Regular Autos - 9
Green Autos /50 - 2
Yellow Autos /25 - 0
Orange Autos /5 - 0
Purple Autos 1/1 - 1 (WOOHOO)

Okay enough raw stats, you came for the pics, here they are.

 

Green Parallels /50
14 Ethan Martin - 13/50 - Dodgers 1st round 15th overall

33 Corban Joseph - 01/50 - Yankees 4th round 140th overall

38 Zach Collier - 13/50 - Phillies 1st round 34th overall
65 Bryce Stowell - 11/50 - Indians 22nd round 681st overall

Yellow Parallels /25
95 Stephen Fife - 01/25 - Red Sox 3rd round 85th overall

120 Austin Jackson - 03/25 - Yankees 2005 8th round 259th overall

Orange Parallels /5
10 Justin Smoak - 2/5 - Rangers 1st round 11th overall (traded to Mariners for Cliff Lee)

Green Die Cut Parallels /50

43 Ray Kruml - 14/50 - Yankees 11th round 350th overall

81 Zeke Spruill - 15/50 - Braves 2nd round 70th overall
102 Hunter Cervenka - 46/50 - Red Sox 27th round 832nd overall
123 Yonder Alonso/Jemile Weeks - 15/50 - Reds/A's both 1st round #s 7 and 12 overall

Yellow Die Cut Parallels /25
145 Boise Hawks - 01/25 - Cubs Josh Harrison (6th), Ryan Keedy (16th), Jake Opitz (12th)

Regular Jerseys /199
P-CG Carlos Gutierrez - 109/199 - Twins 1st round 27th overall

Green Parallel Jerseys /50
P-SF Stephen Fife - 39/50 - Red Sox 3rd round 85th overall

Yellow Parallel Jerseys /25
P-LL Lance Lynn - 12/25 - Cardinals 1st round 39th overall

Regular Autos unnumbered
FH-JA Jay Austin - Astros 2nd round 56th overall (hope his bat aim is better than his sticker aim)

FH-MM Mike Montgomery - Royals 1st round 36th overall

FH-JK Jason Knapp - Phillies 2nd round 71st overall
FH-EQ Edwin Quirarte - Giants 5th round 147th overall

FH-RP Ryan Perry - Tigers 1st round 21st overall

FH-CS Cody Satterwhite - Tigers 2nd round 67th overall

FH-ID Ike Davis - Mets 1st round 18th overall
FH-TR Tyson Ross - Athletics 2nd round 58th overall
FH-JL Josh Linblom - Dodgers 2nd round 61st overall

Green Parallel Autos /50

FH-DS Daniel Schlereth - 15/50 - Diamondbacks 1st round 26th overall (traded to Tigers)

FH-AS Aaron Shafer - 38/50 - Cubs 2nd round 65th overall

Purple Parallel Autos 1/1

FH-XA Xavier Avery - 1/1 (well d'uh) - Orioles 2nd round 50th overall

That was my very first pack pulled 1/1 ever and he isn't a bad prospect either.  Amazing that the Red Sox 27th rounder, Indians 22nd rounder, and Yankees 11th rounder got in this set but the Rockies (among other teams) 3rd rounder didn't.  But I'm used to it.  Let other teams' collectors gather their 28th round picks, I'll save my money to buy the boxes to sell them said 28th rounder hehe.  Jokes aside, I love this set and even though I have my complete set (and a Friedrich jersey on the way) I still may buy more boxes because they have a great price and great potential.

My last February hauls from eBay

In preparation for my latest foray into The Budget eBay Collector, I spent the last week of February buying like crazy on my favorite site.  Here is what I got back, including my first non-plate 1/1 (AND IT'S A GREAT ONE for me anyway).

These three 2010 Topps National Chicle Chrome Refractors #'d to 499 I got in a lot for the very nice price of $3.06 shipped.  I would've figured just the Wright would go for more than that.  I guess I was lucky that the seller didn't mention any of the players in the title.  I bought this lot for the Ubaldo, the other two are for trade (Better hurry the Wright will be snapped up approximately 3.6 seconds after publishing this post).

I got this lot of 6 2010 Topps Chrome Xfractors for about a buck a piece with a best offer feature.  I think I finally figured out the best way to scan the 2010 Chromes.  Penny sleeve in a top loader, then crop...they scanned pretty well compared to the Chicles above which I scanned card only.  In this lot I only wanted the Hawpe and trade bait, the other 5 are up for grabs and shouldn't last long given the teams involved.

 

What's this card from the overproduction era doing in my eBay buys?  Well, I tried one of those 1 random card for a penny deals and my random came up to be this 1989 Bowman Andy Hawkins, could've been worse I guess.  The best thing I remember about Hawkins was his 8 inning no hitter in 1989 in which he lost 4-0 (gotta love defense).  The Tulo is a 2007 Upper Deck Rookie of the Month insert for the rare month of Postseason.  I think it only comes around every other leap year, seriously couldn't they have put October.

 

I got this lot of 9 Tommy Helms cards in pretty good condition ranging from 1969-1977 for a VERY cheap price of 82 cents shipped.  Once again the lack of info from the seller paid off for me, because he couldn't identify the 1969 Deckle Edge or 1969 Topps All Star cards.  In an ideal world, I would feel guilty for taking advantage of this type of situation, but they have access to the same info I can get.  I just take a little time to know the products I am purchasing.  The extra 1970 Topps Helms is for trade and the card number is 159 for you set builders out there.

AND NOW FOR THE CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH PORTION OF OUR SHOW

I picked up this Razor Letterman "I" numbered 16/20 for $7 and change.  It is the second I in Friedrich.  I always wondered if players with multiple appearances of the same letter in their name had a proportional number of letters available.

This 2008 Razor Signature Series Black parallel auto #447/1199 was included in a package for the next card down the page.  By itself, this card would've been a nice purchase as it is my first non-patch auto of Friedrich.  But with this next card, it was a great deal.

The 2009 Tristar Projections purple parallel of Christian Friedrich #'d 1/1.  Yep, I am the only person in the world with this card and I already had the base, green /50, and yellow /25 for this set.  All I need now is the orange /5 and I have a pretty cool rainbow.  The seller was asking $55 + shipping for both cards, I best offered him down to $40 bucks total for both.  It wasn't a slam dunk, out-of-site best bargain ever type of purchase, but I don't think I got a bad deal here.  And for the player super collector the time to buy a rare card is the first time you see it because you might never get it otherwise.