The Ultimate Baseball Card Set - Card #248

Time to select another card for The Ultimate Baseball Set, a franken-set compiled from all of the baseball cards I own from any brand or year.  Today I'll select card #248.  Don't worry, I'm not going with Wilbur Howard and his obnoxious 'Stros uniform.  Even for such an obscure card number as 248 there were at least a few cards in my collection that outranked Wilbur here:

Babe Ruth occupies #248 in the 2007 Goudey set with a nice Heads Up short print.  I don't have any vintage Ruth cards, so this is the closest thing I've got.  Not going to make the cut though.

I've yet to select a Red Sox card for this set yet, and I had hopes that this would be my first chance.  I like this Pedroia Gypsy Queen mini, but honestly I wouldn't rank it above even the Goudey Ruth card.

Now here's a much more interesting Red Sox card, a 1964 Topps Johnny Pesky.  One of my favorite Red Sox cards, from one of my favorite '60s sets.  I would have loved to have chosen this card for inclusion in the set, but unfortunately I had to pass on it.

The 1959 Topps Red Sox team card was another really strong choice at #248.  I love everything about this card, most of all the old school batting sock logo.  There was one #248 that won out over even this card though.

1984 Donruss - #248 - Don Mattingly RC

Yeah, I chose a Yankee over those two great Red Sox cards.  I sound like a broken record here (four of the six cards I've selected now are big-name '80s rookie cards), but during the time when I collected cards as a child the rookie card was king.  The 1984 Donruss Mattingly was right up there with the best of the decade.  In fact, this may be the biggest non-Hall-of-Fame rookie card of the decade.  Maybe?

The other reason I selected this one is because I am a huge fan of the 1984 Donruss set.  Like many other collectors, I feel it's a level above anything else Donruss ever released.  I could devote entire posts to this set (and hope to at some point), but for now I'm happy to have it represented in my Ultimate Baseball Card Set.

The Ultimate Baseball Card Set, which now stands at 6 cards and counting, can be seen here.

COMC Blaster - Red Sox, Whalers & Short Prints

Let's blow through another $20 on COMC, shall we?  Today's virtual blaster features 17 cards, so figure about $1.18 average per card.  If you can find a site with better deals than this online then I want to know about it!

 2013 Topps Turkey Red #45 - Jon Lester - $1.63

We'll start things off with a couple of Red Sox from the 2013 Turkey Red set, which I think was some kind of internet-sale-only gimmick by Topps.  They're relatively scarce, I've read maybe 500 copies or so of each card, so I was happy when my $1.63 offer for Jon Lester's card was accepted.

2013 Topps Turkey Red #52 - Dustin Pedroia - $1.25

I ended up with the Pedroia for even less than that, which was surprising to me.  Best part is these are the only two Red Sox on the checklist so that's a complete team set right there for less than $3.

2013 Topps #241 - Jacoby Ellsbury Emerald Foil Parallel - $1.00

$1 might have been a bit much for this one, but it was purchased shortly after release and prices were still a bit crazy.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for a good parallel.

2013 Topps #64 - Will Middlebrooks Wal-Mart Blue Parallel - $.75

Here's another one, featuring one of my favorite photos from the 2013 set.  Fantastic shot.

2011-12 O-Pee-Chee #530 - Ron Francis Rainbow Foil Parallel - $1.99

I might have been able to find this parallel in a dollar bin at some point had I waited it out long enough, but I didn't feel like waiting any longer so $2 it is.

2010-11 Upper Deck SPx #107 - Gordie Howe #'d/999 - $1.12

Here's another new Whalers card, numbered to 999 copies.  It's a little busy for me, but a new Whalers card of Mr. Hockey for just over a buck was too hard to turn down.

1995-96 Metal International Steel #3 - Sergei Fedorov - $.77

I grabbed two Fedorov inserts from the '95-96 Metal set for $.77 each.  The International Steel card you see here is decent enough, but I like the other one a bit more.

2006-07 Parkhurst #227 - Kevin Dineen Captains #'d/3,999 - $.77

Here's a card I've needed for a good long while, but never wanted to pay the shipping costs required to snag one off of eBay.  I still need the Mike Rogers Captains card to go along with this one.

1995-96 Metal Heavy Metal #2 - Sergei Fedorov - $.77

Here's the other Metal Fedorov insert, this one is much nicer.  It didn't scan so well but it's an impressive card in person.

2012 Topps Archives #207 - Vida Blue SP - $.82

I'm still half-heartedly chasing the 2012 Archives set (although I won't be pursuing 2013 other than Red Sox cards).  Thanks to Brad of Brad's Blog I completed the 200-card short set earlier this year.  I'm still whittling away at the short prints, here's one off the list.  Great card of Vida, I would have probably picked this one up even if I wasn't chasing the set.

2001-02 Topps Archives #38 - Bill Clement - $.75

Here's another Archives card I needed, this one from the '01-02 hockey set.  Now that I've got Bill Clement in hand I'm down to needing just two cards to kill this one off...

2011-12 O-Pee-Chee #L8 - Ron Francis Marquee Legends - $1.88

Here's another O-Pee-Chee Francis, with Kevin Dineen lurking in the background.

 2010-11 Upper Deck French 20th Anniversary Buyback #172 - Pat Verbeek - $1.88

Upper Deck included buybacks from their inaugural flagship set in their 2010-11 French set.  I've been picking up Whalers cards as I see them for a reasonable price (stopped bidding on a Ron Francis when it went above $14!).  I was able to land Pat Verbeek...

2010-11 Upper Deck French 20th Anniversary Buyback #327 - Brad Shaw - $1.88

...and Brad Shaw for $1.88 each, both from the same seller.  Would love to complete this team set someday, but these don't crop up all that often.  Anyone else out there have any of these buybacks?

2007 Goudey #243 - Ichiro Heads Up SP - $1.06

To finish this post off, a trio of short prints towards my 2007 Goudey set...

2007 Goudey #231 - Akinori Iwamura SP RC - $.89

2007 Goudey #246 - Kei Igawa Heads Up SP - $.85

There you have it, 17 new cards for $20.06.  Best of all no buyer's remorse, which is more than I can say about a blaster most of the time.  I think I have enough COMC purchases left to do maybe one more of these, I'll try to get it posted sometime this coming week...

Coot Veal Red Sox - Part Two - World Series Champions

Here are the contents of the second team set bag from the recent package of Red Sox cards sent by Dustin of Coot Veal and the Vealtones.  Here's where we start to pick up some steam, as this one was entirely packed with Red Sox stars.  There were 35 cards in this lot and only 9 of them were dupes for me.  Here are the 26 new ones...

This one's from National Baseball Card Day back in 2006.  I didn't start collecting again until 2007 so I hadn't even seen this card before.

A nice card from the 2009 O-Pee-Chee set that refers to Kevin Youkilis as a cheerleader.  I've always liked this set, I can see why there are at least a few collectors I know chasing it.

Here's one from the "way too busy" files, 2005 Upper Deck Pros and Prospects.

This one's a die-cut insert from Upper Deck X, with the negative space to the right and left of the X cut out.

Although I returned to collecting in 2007, I purchased just a single pack of the flagship Upper Deck set that year, so this one is appreciated for sure.

Is Miguel Tejada still clinging on with a roster spot somewhere?  I want to say no, but I'm too lazy to look it up...

I had the Xfractor version of this Chrome card, but not the base until now.

Quite a few Lesters included in this one.

Given how much 2010 Topps I purchased I was surprised I didn't have this one, until I found out it was from the Updates set which I bought very little of.

Here's a nice one from the 2008 Topps set, commemorating Pedroia's Rookie of the Year award.

A very shiny, very purple Daisuke.

This 2006 Topps David Ortiz is from the Red Sox team issue, and is numbered BOS1.

I never looked before, but after this post I ran a tally of my David Ortiz cards and realized I'm getting awfully close to crossing the 100 unique cards threshold.

Ah, Manny.  Talk about a fall from grace.

I remember the obnoxious blonde dreads phase.

Also thrown in this portion of the package were two great, oversized 1989 Bowmans.  Lee Smith in front of a bush...

...and Will Clark, the only non-Red Sox card in the package so far and a complete hit in terms of my collection.  Dustin not only recognized that I collect Clark but also managed to hit on one I did not own.

Sticking with the oversized cards, there were three from the 1990 Topps Big set.  Had a ton of these as a kid and gladly welcome these three back into my collection.

I'll have part three of this trade post up sometime this week...