eBay Bargain Hunting - Vintage, a Photo Variation & Some Buybacks

While I work on preparing my next trade thank you post, let's take a peek at a recent eBay bargain...

This was your classic case of taking advantage of combined shipping.  The seller had a bunch of cards all starting at just a penny, and was offering a pretty solid deal on combined shipping.  The result was a scenario where if you won just one or two cards you weren't getting much of a deal, but if you won more than a handful it worked out nicely.

This '58 Topps Joe Nuxhall was the most expensive card I ended up winning, with a bid of 93 cents.  Not the best deal really, as it's got a nice big surface crease through the middle.  Who can resist a new vintage card featuring that great Reds logo though?

The Joe Nuxhall was the only '58 issue I won, but the main reason I was drawn to this seller is that he had a bunch of '59s available in pretty decent shape.  I've been halfheartedly working away at a '59 Topps set for a while now, and while it's nowhere near completion and isn't necessarily at the top of my priority list, I couldn't resist the opportunity to add a few cheap cards to it.

From what I can tell, Rocky Bridges is a man who enjoyed his chewing tobacco.  Seems like practically every card I've seen of the guy features him with a mouthful of chaw.

Ned Garver made a name for himself in 1951 when he became the first (and still only) modern pitcher to win 20 games for a club that lost 100 or more!  Love that Kansas City A's logo too.  This card might not be in the greatest condition, but I needed it for my set and I ended up winning it for the minimum bid of a penny!

Willie Jones' nickname was "Puddin' Head".  He clearly seemed to embrace it, because you'll note that in the facsimile signature on this card he actually signs Puddin' Head rather than Willie.  Apparently it originated from some '30s song.

Despite being badly off-center top to bottom, I couldn't resist picking up yet another card featuring the completely awesome Mr. Redlegs logo.  I might end up upgrading this copy someday, but it was worth 36 cents just to pick up a filler card for the binder and cross this one off my want list.

Out of the 8 '59 Topps cards I ended up with I found it odd that 3 were Yankees.  Not good players mind you, but I still figured these would attract more bids than they did (though I'm pleased they did not!).

Though he broke into the bigs with the Yankees, Marv Throneberry is probably better remembered as a Met.  I just learned for the first time when typing up this post that Marv shared my birthday which is kind of cool.  Maybe I'll have to become a Throneberry collector now that this has come to light!

Seth Morehead represents the final '59 Topps card I was able to acquire from this run of auctions.  Like I said, I'm still hundreds of cards away from knocking this set out, but it does feel good to have made at least a small dent here.

Why on earth did I bid on a 2015 Topps Update Brett Lawrie card on eBay?  Well, because it's a photo variation.  Here's what Lawrie's standard Update release looks like:

As usual, I prefer the photo variation.  At 6 cents that may be the cheapest one I've ever acquired.

#271 - 1978 Randy Lerch

Finally, I picked up a trio of buybacks that the seller had available.  These were what led me to locate the seller initially as I was browsing for cheap pick-ups for my buyback franken-set.  This '78 Randy Lerch makes the cut at this point as the lone #271 buyback I've got.

#608 - 1976 Vic Correll

This Vic Correll also makes the franken-set without any competition.  Correll was mostly a backup catcher, but it's nice to land a high numbered card for the franken-set regardless of who graces the front.

#612 - 1975 Terry Hughes

I honestly couldn't tell you a single thing about Terry Hughes or his time with the Red Sox.  Not that surprising as I just looked it up and he was for the most part a "AAAA player", and appeared in just 41 total games with Boston.  Either way, he's in as far as the franken-set is concerned!

A satisfying enough little lot there, especially given that the total bill came to just $3.55 plus shipping!

Franken-set Progress:  81/792 (10%)