Four New Shiny Cards!

A quick quartet of shiny cards to show this evening, all of which entered my organized collection proper within the past week.  First up, a pair of stars from a set that is really growing on me more and more, and has likely become my favorite unlicensed baseball set of all-time...

Yes, it's Panini's 2017 Donruss Optic release, back for the second time on the blog just recently.  Last week I showed off the Pink parallel of Mookie Betts' card, this week it's the Blue, which is actually numbered to /149.  I actually picked this one up for less than $2 back in the fall of 2017, but it sat in my COMC to-be-posted chest until I plucked it for scanning and inventorying this past week.

As with the Pink, this card is really a stunner in hand.  It's hard to properly describe the holo refraction technology on these cards, but combined with the bright colored borders it really makes them pop.

Around the same time as the Betts card, I also snagged this Jose Altuve Blue.  Obviously he was much more in collectors' good graces back in 2017 when I picked this up, before the sign-stealing controversy in Houston.  Still, I'm excited to pick-up any star player parallels from this set, and recently decided to dedicate a small collecting project to them, which will be covered in another post.  Snagged this one for a dollar even.

The other two cards I'll be showing actually arrived in my mailbox just yesterday, courtesy of Sportlots.  On the paper invoice that the seller included with the cards, he included a note indicating that he clearly noticed that I got a pretty good bargain on one of them, at just 18 cents.  First time I've seen a note like that, I have to say!

Before we get to the 18 cent bargain card though, here's the other one, a beautiful Purple Chrome Refractor of the great Albert Pujols from 2013 Topps Heritage baseball.  This will also be included in a newly-conceived shiny card project, separate from the Optic one mentioned above.  I thought this was a pretty good steal for one of the best hitters of the 21st century so far, and a guy who is a lock for Cooperstown.

Speaking of which, the card that I got the bargain on shares pretty much all of those same characteristics...

No, it's not a Mike Trout rookie, or anything that I'd be able to sell and make a mortgage payment with, but nonetheless I was thrilled to locate this Miguel Cabrera Purple Chrome Refractor for the site-minimum 18 cents!  I'd say this might be the best bargain I've found recently while looking for shiny cards for these new projects.  Another guy who will absolutely have a plaque in the HOF someday.

That's a wrap for now.  I've had more great cards coming into the household in 2020 than I've been able to find the time to write about, but with the winter months approaching I'm expecting more time to get through that backlog and to post more frequently.  I hope you'll join me as I do, and for now thanks as always for stopping by!