Recent Mail Days - A Variety of Collecting Interests

I haven't done a Mail Day post in quite some time, I have just typically picked and chosen my favorite cards or ones I think someone may be interested in.  However, when I was sorting through the cards I got over the past couple days and entering them into my checklists I noticed that I have been making purchases that hit on a wide array of my collecting interests.

I thought showing off all the cards at once could give a sense of where my collecting head is at right about now.

The first few scans here are of Day 1:

First up are a pair of 2013 Panini Cooperstown Short Prints.  The short prints are the only ones with color photos in this set.  If you can imagine it, I actually gasped and almost dropped the card stack that awas topped by the Lasorda when I saw his ugly smiling mug looking up at me.  The things a set collector will buy...  These two happen to be the last 2 cards I need to finish up this set, and that includes the insert sets I decided to chase. At some point I will do a comprehensive review of the set.

This was a cheap Sportlots auction win of former USC backup QB Matt Cassel.  Whenever I see a USC relic on the cheap I try and jump on it to enhance my Trojan collection.  One of my 2014 goals is to put some focus around my football card collecting but I suspect cheap autos and relics of former Trojans will always be something I pick up.

Dave Parker is someone I have decided to collect, he was one of my favorites in the late 70s and early 80s. I am only focusing my collection on his cards that feature him as a Pirate, I love the unis and that is where I best remember him.  This card is unlicensed but the photo and swatch are obviously from his Pirates days.

Another collecting focus is of course the greatest lead-off hitter of all time, Rickey Henderson. Two more unlicensed cards, a 2012 Panini Prizm Dominance Insert and a 2013 Hometown Heros Sportdiscs insert. Both very cool additions to the Rickey collection.

 Check out this beautiful on card auto of Vida Blue from Tier One.  I really like the Tier One product, the cards are high quality, pretty solid designs and usually have on card autos.  I still have some work to do on Vida's 2013 releases, he has quite a few autos and auto parallels to track down.

The final two cards of day 1 are some nice Barry Bonds pickups.  The Turkey Red is the Grey Uniformed SP and finished my run of Giants Turkey Red cards. That was one of my goals in 2013 and I put a goal in place in 2014 to tie up some loose ends like the Turkey Red collection.  The Elite Series in serial numbered to 10,000 but are tough to track down. I picked up the Matt Williams card from this year a few weeks back (featured here). Not technically a 2014 goal but rare inserts from Barry Bonds will always grab my attention.

Here are my Day 2 pickups:

 I made a purchase off of Beckett to secure a card that I will show in a couple of scans but in an effort to grow my newish Dave Parker Pirates collection I did a quick search of the seller and picked up these for between 25 and 50 cents each.  I am loving the 70s Decade cards. I bought a couple packs of these in the day and have a couple McCovey's and Reggie's in my collection but these were the first I had seen of Parker.  Fleer did a nice job back in the early 2000s, I miss having multiple companies competing.  Of the 3 Topps cards my favorite is the Pristine.

 Same seller as the Parker's netted me these Giants.  The Buster and Pablo finished off my Museum Collection base set, another tie up loose ends goal for 2014. The Cain and the Golds aren't official goals but they fit nicely into the Giants collection.  I plan to actually finish off the Giants gold and emerald parallel sets from 2013 fairly soon if I can track them down for a solid price.

 This is the card that drew me to the buyer.  This ties up a big loose end, it is a Heritage SP and the final Giant Heritage card I need in my collection (at least until 2014 is released). You can mark off another tied up loose end.

 This eBay purchase is of my favorite football player, Ronnie Lott.  I haven't given his collection too much attention lately and that is part of the reason for my desire to focus my football collection.  He will be a part of if for certain and I am loving this 2 color Niners swatch.

The final card in this 2 day mail day is this awesome Vida Blue box topper from 2013 Archives.  It is numbered to 99 but seems much more rare.  This was the first one I saw on eBay and I jumped.  I shared the Will Clark one prior and put another card next to it if you are wondering how big it is.  I love this card and am very happy that Vida was featured in this set and I was able to track it down.

Hope you enjoyed my somewhat eclectic and very satisfying 2 days of mail.