Welcome to the third part of my initial Check Out My Cards purchase. If you’re just joining us, you can find the first parts of the countdown here and 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.
We’re now about to cross the halfway mark. The prices are getting higher, although they won’t go over $1.00 in this round, and the numbers are getting lower (then temporarily higher, but then lower again).
$0.99 – #/200 – 2005 Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros Purple – Each post has seen one of these so far. Today will be the last time you see one for a while.
$0.99 – #/150 – 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Team Tandems Spectrum – Remember when I was complaining about the lack of flash on these team tandems? Well, here it is at the exact same price point. Not bad!
$1.00 – #/949 – 2004 Prime Cuts – Transitioning to the exactly one dollar group, Prime Cuts rears it’s relic window-based head again. Not much more to say about this ornate sucker.
$1.00 – #/749 – 2004 Leaf Limited – Limited is a product where I think all cards are serially numbered. This is the normal set card – hence the limited nature. I would also assume that a box of this stuff probably only gets you 20 cards or less. Again, happy to be picking up someone else’s scraps.
$1.00 – #/675 – 2006 Upper Deck Epic Events – Card companies milked the 20 strikeout game for all it was worth, even 8 years later.
$1.00 – #/599 – 2004 Leaf Certified Cuts Stars – For all my bitching and complaining about player placement on cards, I should probably hate this card. After all, the reason that big Cubs logo is on the right is so they can throw a jersey swatch into only 35 produced cards. Still, I like the font and the starburst effect and the 1920’s red border. You win this time, Leaf.
$1.00 – #/525 – 2009 Topps Triple Threads Sepia – Oh, hey! It’s another Gwynn sepia Triple Threads card. I actually bought this separately through a flea market purchase…for half the price. So…trade bait!
$1.00 – #/500 – 2005 Donruss Elite Face 2 Face Black – For those that may not remember, Kerry Wood “faces” off against two different players in this multi-tiered insert. Berkman will be tougher to acquire than the Shawn Green ones. The black version looks good, but I’m more interested to see how the relic versions shake out.
$1.00 – #/500 – 2005 Playoff Prestige Prestigious Pros Orange – Here’s the last of these…for now. As I mentioned before, there are still four more color versions I still need for Kerry Wood alone. Then I also have 8 more to chase for Tony Gwynn, Frank Thomas and Greg Maddux. Oh, and the relic versions, too, in some cases.
$1.00 – #/499 – 2002 Finest Refractors – Who knew that as late as 2002 the regular Refractors were so scarce (and were numbered). That’s pretty cool in a way. I wish this were still true. Instead, I opened a box of Finest recently that resulted in more refractors than base cards. Not exaggerating.
$1.00 – #/201 – 2002 Donruss Stat Line Career – Here’s another one of the stat line based numbered cards. I love how fancy these are. Not only do you have the foil background, but the logo is a shinier version and they added those pin stripes. Much better than tossing a stamp in a corner and calling it different.
$1.00 – #/200 – 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Team Trios – Look, it’s Dempster’s confused look again. He’s wondering why the Trios card has Juan Pierre and Cliff Floyd when his two Tandems cards feature Cliff Floyd and Charles Johnson. That sneaky Pierre was so fast, he jumped in front of Johnson and stole his spot at the last second.
$1.00 – #/199 – 2005 Finest Refractors Green – Another Finest refractor. This shows that three years later, the deluge has begun. Regular refractors are no longer numbered and the colored parallels have their own variants. I still need the Green X-fractor.
$1.00 – #/150 – 2004 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Green – Away – I know it doesn’t look green, but that’s what it’s called. I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them. Actually, I don’t even do that. I just collect them. Expect to see a very similar card next time.
$1.00 – #/150 – 2004 Skybox Autographics Insignia – I think of all the cards I bought, this is one of the biggest disappointments. Go back and look at the Donruss stat line parallel and then come back and tell me if you think this is worthy of being numbered to 150. So damn lazy for a 2004 set.
$1.00 – #/100 – 2004 Leaf Certified Cuts Marble Red – Now this is a parallel. Look at the shine! Look at the deep red color! I don’t see no marbles, but who cares. It makes pretty colors go into my eyeballs.
$1.00 – #/99 – 2004 Fleer Sweet Sigs Gold – Last up for today is another lazy card. Toss a tiny bit of nearly indistinguishable gold on it and call it a day. Like I said, this isn’t a worst to best list. On the positive side, this is the first card we’ve seen that’s numbered lower than 100.
Next time, we’ll start with the cards priced over $1.00 and never look back. Boy, this is starting to get expensive….
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