A Perfect Addition To My Collection!

It's been a while since I've posted to the blog. Things here have been crazy with moving back to the Cincinnati area after being in Northern Ohio for more than 20 years. It's nice to be close to family again. I'm also hoping that I can make it to a game or two at Great American Ballpark this year. Anyway, I've been looking for some time to add a ticket stub from the only perfect game thrown by a Reds player. Tom Browning accomplished the feat on September 16, 1988 against the Dodgers in a 1-0 victory for the Reds. Most of the tickets I've seen come up on eBay have been for unused tickets selling in the range of $150 or more. While it would have been nice to have one, I couldn't justify the cost. This ticket was listed last week and I was happy that I was the only bidder for this ticket AND I picked it up for a fraction of the cost of others I had seen. I'm looking forward to having this arrive shortly in the mail. Now if I can only complete one of my vintage Reds team sets before the end of the year. 

Closer to the End of the Rainbow

Last week I received a notice on one of my eBay saved searches that I card I had never seen available for purchase in almost 10 years was finally listed. Unfortunately, it was listed as an auction and the card was graded a PSA 10. While I normally don't chase after graded cards, I knew I had to try and snag this copy since I had no idea if I would ever see one again. These 2013 Topps Orange cards are numbered out of 230 and are exclusives that were included as a pack of five cards in sealed factory sets. I'm not sure how many collectors have opened their sets but I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that choose to keep them sealed. I was fortunate enough to be the high bidder on the card and the card arrived safely this past Saturday. With this addition I now have 37 different 2013 Topps Joey Votto cards in my rainbow. Of the three cards I'm still chasing for this project, two I've never seen for sale (the 2013 Topps Opening Day Purple Toys R Us and the 2013 Topps Silver Slate Framed that's numbered out of 10) and the 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor that's numbered out of 5 has only appeared once. As it stands, I've probably reached the end of this project since the remaining cards I'm chasing will more than likely never surface. But I'll still keep an eye out just in case one of those white whales were to ever surface.

Coming Soon To A Mailbox Near Me!

With the release of 2024 Topps right around the corner I went ahead and did the same thing I've done year-after-year for the past ten years or so. I headed over to eBay to find sellers that had this coming year's team set available for purchase. Normally Reds team sets don't go for that much but I had a feeling that this year would be different with Elly De La Cruz and Christian Encarnacion-Strand having their rookie cards in this release. $16 shipped is what I paid for the 12 cards in series 1. Now I just have to wait until around the end of the month before they arrive. I'm still on the fence about the design of this year's flagship set. Not sure if I like it or loathe it. I'll make up my mind when I actually have the cards in hand. Regardless, I'm glad that baseball season is right around the corner.