It’s a COMC X-Mas (2013, Part 2 of 5)

Welcome to the second part of my initial Check Out My Cards purchase.  If you’re just joining us, you can find the first part of the countdown here.

I bought a total of 85 serially numbered cards as a Christmas present to myself in 2013, which will be split into 5 parts for sanity reasons.  It’s not exactly intended to be a “worst to best” list.  Instead, I’ve sorted them all from cheapest to most expensive and then highest numbered to lowest.

Let’s continue the Kerry Wood heavy countdown below and see all the shiny goods.

#68

$0.75 – #/100 – 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum Silver – In 2005, everyone was making cards, even vitamin companies.  Who can forget Spectrum Silver’s high end Absolute Memorabilia series.  All jokes aside, this is one of the cards that had more damage than anticipated (those scanned images are helpful, but still ambiguous), so at some point I’ll try to track down one of the other 99 copies.

#67

$0.88 – #/250 – 2011 Bowman Orange – Oh, Bowman orange…the precursor to the inevitable Bowman burnt sienna.  All the crayons must be represented.  ALL THE CRAYONS.

#66

$0.91 – #/499 – 2004 SP Authentic – I don’t have a non-parallel to compare, but I have a feeling the only real difference is that there’s a stamped number there.

#65

$0.95 – #/3000 – 1999 Bowman’s Best Franchise Best Mach I – Everyone was making cards in 1999, even razor companies.  Who can forget Mach I’s famous “razor-sharp” Franchise Best die cut inserts.

#64

$0.95 – #/500 – 2005 Donruss Elite Career Best Gold – Elite is full of cards that are made for relics.  And there are a lot of relics that were indeed made.  In fact, there are three versions of this very card that contain relics of some kind.

#63

$0.95 – #/299 – 2005 Finest Refractors Blue – I’m really trying to find a way to avoid complaining about endless parallels the entire time.  Here’s an optimistic spin then: I am 1/4th done with my 2005 Finest Kerry Wood collection.

#62

$0.97 – #/299 – 2011 Topps Marquee Blue – I’m 2/5th done with the Marquee Tony Gwynn stuff now too.  Happily for me, there is only 1 hit that I need to chase – the Titanic Threads jumbo swatch thing.

#61

$0.99 – #/1000 – 2004 Throwback Threads – One penny less than $1 for the rest of this grouping.  The higher the price point, the lower I expect the numbering to be.  That’s why I start off at #/1000.  I’m not completely sure, but I think this is a serially numbered short print from the main set.  If true, that means it’s more scarce than one of the inserts from this same set.

#60

$0.99 – #/916 – 2000 Pacific Prism Drops Silver – I really want to open a box of this stuff one day.  There are so many crazy parallels and I think it would be fun to discover them in packs and get some great trade bait for bloggers in the process.

#59

$0.99 – #/700 – 2005 Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros Red – In the last installment, we saw the first parallel.  Here’s number 2 of 4 acquired in this batch.  I know it’s tough to see, but it’s the Red version.

#58

$0.99 – #/699 – 2004 Prime Cuts II – Will someone help me understand the difference between Prime Cuts and Prime Cuts II?  Were they two separate products? Two series?  All in one, but with stupid labeling?  No idea here. I just collect the scraps.

#57

$0.99 – #/625 – 2012 Topps Triple Threads Sepia – Here we see Tony Gwynn doing his world famous Popeye impression. Can’t wait to see the spinach green version.

#56

$0.99 – #/480 – 2001 Fleer Focus Green – Here’s some green.  I believe this is a parallel where each player has a different stat-based serial number.  What this is saying is that Kerry’s ERA was 4.80.  It has nothing do to with batting average. Fleer just didn’t want to change the printing process.

#55

$0.99 – #/418 – 2004 Leaf Limited Lumberjacks – You know what everyone’s favorite part of a card design is?  Crowding the player as far off of the face of it as possible. I mean, you have to show that sweet fake wood grain, right?

#54

$0.99 – #/250 – 2004 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Turn of the Century – We’ve gone too long since seeing a die cut in this post.  You’re welcome.  Such arbitrary cuts, but I don’t care. It’s still cool.

#53

$0.99 – #/250 – 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Team Tandems – I know it’s stupid, but I also usually expect that my more expensive cards be shinier.  We’re bucking that trend with these next two cards.  There is no flash to be found on this sucker. Just a low number.

#52

$0.99 – #/250 – 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Team Tandems – I probably bought this from the same seller.  Pre-Cubs Dempster cards is a very weak spot in my collection so far.  I’m slowly making progress and these cheaper Absolute Memorabilia cards are a big help.

We’ll see a couple more of these next time as we get into the “Top” 50 and finally break into dollar bill territory.