Recent eBay Purchases - Dollar Cards

I was browsing eBay a few days back and stumbled across a Relic card from 2010 that I was hoping to add to my Giants collection.  As I typically do when hunting on eBay I looked for combined shipping and then search to see what the seller has in their inventory.  The seller with this 2010 relic has a bunch of Giants cards for sale in an auction format that I didn't have in my collection, all with a starting bid of $0.99.  I referenced my checklist and quickly put out some $1 bids on all the cards I needed.

I ended up scoring all but a couple of cards that I bid on which made me quite happy.  Here are the cards I scored:

 Here are 2 cards from 2001.  The Ransom is a serial numbered (to 625) short print to the Donruss Class of 2001 base set, not a huge card or a huge score but I always like knocking of a base card from the want list.  Speaking of knocking base cards off want lists, this Willie Mays from 2001 Topps Archives is actually a card from my 2013 collecting goals list!  Very happy to get this rookie reprint for a buck.

These cards are all from 2002 starting with a couple nice gold parallels from the Bowman Prospects set.  Cain has obviously emerged as a star, there are still days I wonder what would have happened if Francisco Liriano was never traded.  The Rich Aurilia is a Spotlight parallel to 100 and the Bonds Donruss Original is an SP - both good pick ups.  The Mays is one of 4 color variation inserts from the Topps American Pie release.  The Santos is from UD Diamond Connection and is considered a base card despite the serial number to 1500.  Finally an UD Vintage insert of Barry Bonds.  Great card and photo showcasing the wall after Barry hit number 500.

 This is an amazing collection of HOF star power from 2005.  7 total Willie Mays cards and 2 Mel Ott cards, that is 1171 career home runs between the two!  I am a huge fan of the Diamond Kings set from 2005 and have very few cards from the set.  There are quite a few Giants so I am really not sure why I have so few but scoring 4 Mays cards from the set from the same seller is quite nice. The first two have the raised borders while the other two come from insert sets.  The middle card is from Throwback Threads and I am familiar with this set due to the large number of Rickey Henderson cards so getting a Mays on the cheap worked out fine.  The two Ott cards are from UD Baseball Heroes are cool, another set I am under represented.  Finally 2 Zenith inserts of the Say Hey Kid - a set I am quite a fan of.  I actually bought a box of this a year or two back and it is a nice product. 

 Finally the last of the non-hits.  The top 2 cards are xfractors from 2008.  This Lincecum card is one of his last releases with short hair and if you haven't heard the short hair is back - hope that leads to a bounce back season.  Still a little hard to believe they won it all with his awful season.  The Bowman Chrome xfractor is of Giants closer Sergio Romo, very cool card of one of the newer Giants stars.  The bottom card is an insert from 2007, it is nice and shiny and the star of the show for me is The Freak.  It is serial numbered to 199 and he is on 2 additional cards with different pictures. I may have to go after the last two.

In addition to these base/parallel/insert cards, I did pick up 4 "hits" including the one that started it all.

First up this random Auto of a Giants prospect that never made it:

I can honestly say this is a card I never would have sought out on my own but when I saw it in the sellers inventory I decided to throw down a dollar.  It is numbered to 950 - man that is a ton of autos to sign.

Next up Mr. Perfect:

I have said it before and will say it again, I am usually a fan of blue on a sports card.  This card is a bright blue and to me works even with the Giants uniform.  Not sure how these were inserted into packs, I am thinking it might be a retail only as Beckett.com doesn't show a price for it or a print run. I do think they are somewhat rare as I don't see them around a lot.

Next is a Giants HOF that you don't see too often in a Giants uniform on cardboard:

Lefty, Steve Carlton is featured on this card tipping his cap after recording his 4000th strike out.  I thought back then that is was cool that he hit his milestone as a Giant.  I guess I was rewarded almost 20 years later with this relic card.  It is the Emerald parallel version numbered 17/99.

And finally the card that started all the madness:

A Kung Fu Panda relic from 2010 Topps Series 2. Apparently this was a redemption so I wonder how many made it out into the public.  I was glancing through my checklist and saw that I only had 1 of the 7 relics from this set, it happens to be an insert and relic set that I really like.  I thought the Pablo Sandoval mike be a little more reasonably priced than the Buster, the two Mel Otts or the Monte Irvin.  I have a Matt Cain already and apparently there is a second but a quick search for the Pablo lead me to this great purchase.