Purple & Pink

I've got a few shiny card projects that I plan to work on in 2021, one of which involves a small binder filled entirely and exclusively with shiny purple cards.  Towards that end, here are a few that I've plucked recently...

At the beginning of this binder, I'd like to have complete Topps Chrome Purple Refractor Red Sox team sets of the white-border 2010 through 2014 sets.  Found a seller on Sportlots that had four I needed towards the 2014 team set, available for mere pocket change.

I really miss the colored Topps parallels from the years when the cards had a full border, these just look fantastic in hand.

I was especially pleased to find this Shane Victorino, as the photograph is amazing.  I've got many different flavors of this card between base and Chrome parallels, but the Purple Refractor had eluded me until now.  Look at how the crowd glows almost angelically.

I really thought Will Middlebrooks was going to be a stud, but it was not meant to be.  He did last quite a few seasons at the MLB level, though.

Even though Topps Chrome Purple Refractors are my favorite shiny purple cards, I do want some variety in the binder, so I added these next two for a buck a piece with free shipping when I tacked them onto an existing eBay order a few weeks back.  Can't go wrong with future HOFer Justin Verlander.

Trevor Story is one of the best shortstops in the game, has been for a few seasons running now.  Some say he has the potential for Cooperstown down the line.  I'm not sure, but I do know that I love a team color matching refractor, so this probably won't end up being the only Colorado Rockies card in the purple binder.  Maybe a Nolan Arenado or two to accompany Trevor here?

Back to back Trevors!  As the post title indicates, I enjoy a good Pink Refractor as well.  I tacked this 2018 Trevor Bauer onto a Sportlots order for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, I could add one more card to my order without increasing shipping cost, and this was available for a quarter.  Secondly, Bauer had recently won the 2020 Cy Young Award, so it seemed like a good time to add a shiny card of his.  Finally, of the sets that have come out since Topps moved away from the full white border, I think the 2018 Topps Chrome release has the refractors that look the best.

Part of that same order was this Xander Bogaerts 2020 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor, for my player collection of the Boston shortstop.  Xander has moved into the number one overall spot in my baseball collection as far as sheer number of cards, and I have a feeling he'll hang onto that title for quite some time.

One more card to close out today's post, and it's a basketball card?!?!

Yep, it's a basketball card.  I am very slowly and very selectively (please don't mail me heaps of NBA cards) venturing into basketball as something new in 2021.  As with the purple cards, I'm going to try to build up a really small collection of random basketball cards that fit into a single Z-Folio binder (these hold 360 cards).  

There's really no criteria for this project except to have fun with it.  I'm guessing the end result will contain a lot of bright cards like this one, and probably some sentimental stars of my youth.  As opposed to baseball where I am in pursuit of various sets and goals, and have more rigidity to my collecting, I think it will be rewarding to have an open goal like "stuff this binder with 360 basketball cards you think are cool".

The very first card to be inserted into said binder is this gloriously shiny Pink Ice parallel of Paul Pierce's 2019-20 Prizm card.  This thing looks freaking amazing, and makes me wish badly that Panini had a license to produce MLB trading cards.  If you're a baseball player or team collector, tell me you wouldn't love to chase a card like this of your guy?

My one fear with a basketball card project in 2021 was that the market may have gotten so crazy that I wouldn't be able to afford enough interesting cards to fill out the binder.  In the early going though, I'm realizing that you can still find some great b-ball cards for cheap coin even today.  This Paul Pierce cost me all of 75 cents for example, and less than a dollar shipping.  Better yet, there are so many different colored and shiny variations of this card that I may devote an entire page of the basketball binder to house nine different parallels of it.

More on my basketball project later, but that's a wrap for today.  Thanks for stopping by to see some of my new shiny pick-ups, and stay safe out there!