An Eclectic Sportlots Lot Brings Me Cards, Trade Bait

There is a seller on Sportlots who goes by the handle AAAVINTA. He often has lots of random cards for sale, usually about 40 cards large with titles that only mention a couple of the big-name players who are to be found in the lot. I took a chance on a couple of these lots a year or two ago and was quite pleased with what came my way. So I decided to do it one more time. Apparently, more people have picked up that this is a pretty good seller because I had other people bidding against me this time. So I didn't get all of the lots I wanted because I don't like to get into bidding wars. But once again the cards I did receive were a fun pick-up and interesting to add to my collection.

Let's start with a pair of inserts and a couple of really cool brands of Kirby Puckett. Not only is Puckett an all-time great, but he is also always welcome in my collection due to his being an All-Star MVP.

Here we have another Hall of Famer that I like to collect. The thing I like about these cards is that they are all from his playing days, even if they are from the later years. I find it interesting that the 1982 Fleer and the 1982 Topps In Action cards feature the same photo. In the days when not all cards used action shots and there weren't 30 different products out there, I just didn't expect to see the same image twice.

Now here's somebody who very well could be in the Hall of Fame, if not for his connection to PEDs. I'm not a huge Rocket fan, but he did win an All-Star MVP early in his career, so all of these cards will have a place in my collection. These are mostly pretty cool inserts, so that's a plus. The 1992 Donruss in the middle is a set issued by McDonald's.

Speaking of guys linked to PEDs...I present Jose Canseco! Bash Brother #1 probably wasn't going to make the Hall of Fame anyway, but the specter of steroid use has most definitely killed off any hope he might have had. Once again, we have a player that fits my collection (AL ROY 1986) with some pretty cool cards in the lot. I don't know which of the top row cards I like most, though. I think the Pro Visions card has the edge, even though it is the only one of these four I had seen before.

A couple more Rookie of the Year players from the Steroid Era, but two that already have busts in Canton. And once more, the seller included only inserts. I like Piazza and Bagwell much more than Clemens and Canseco, too. I don't know how much I care for Piazza's "Game Face," though.

To cap off the baseball lot, I have some trade bait. The Gold Rush Score and Upper Deck Special Edition Gold are very shiny and very cool, but I don't need them. I don't remember ever seeing the Upper Deck Special Edition Gold ever before, but apparently, they commanding a much higher price on COMC than I would have expected. The cheapest one is $.99, which surprised me to learn. Nevertheless, I'm not too interested in holding onto Mike Greenwell or Chuck Carr, so all you see here is available for trading.

The football lot I picked up from the same seller had some pretty big names, too, albeit fewer keepers. These four are all players that I collect and new to me. I received this package and scanned these cards the day before Chris Doleman passed.

More inserts, all from 2006 Ultra, and all players from the All-2000s Team. I wasn't collecting in 2006, but one thing I've noticed from the middle part of this century's first decade is a trend to design cards with the memorabilia swatch in mind. There is far too much empty space with an odd shape in the middle, obviously meant to look good when there is a jersey swatch filling it.

More inserts from 2006 Ultra, obviously designed for a memorabilia card. All of the cards above are trade bait.

Along with these . . .

and these. I like the Award Winners cards best, and I briefly thought about chasing down the rest of the set, but I'm really trying to stay focused on the myriad goals I already have at hand.

From these Campus Classics cards, I'm keeping Heisman winner Charles White, but the other two former Jets are up for grabs.

The impetus behind the two random lot purchases was one that wasn't so random. I first bid on an auction for 200 2010 Topps 206 cards and added the other lots for discounted shipping. This wasn't really a need, but, for the price, I thought it was a good opportunity to get a good number of cards I didn't have without breaking the bank.

As I was going through the box, I didn't love the look of the cards, so I was thinking that I would have a lot of good trade bait. Now seeing a 3x3 scan, I'm thinking that this set could look pretty good in a binder. Now I'm seriously considering building this set. I'm about 2/3 done with the base set, not counting the SPs, which I wouldn't chase anyway. The biggest challenges will probably be Strasburg and Posey rookies. I have already traded a couple of cards away, so what will probably happen is that I decide to build the set and Nate McLouth will haunt my wantlist forever after I once had it. For now, I'm going to sit on the cards while I consider if I want to add another older set to my waitlist.

For any of the other cards I posted as traders, let me know if you want to swing an exchange for them. Thanks for looking!