eBay Wins #107

Looking through my post history, this is my 4th largest eBay purchase in terms of the number of cards, and the top two were full 792-card sets. However, there were only 34 unique cards of the 81 I purchased, so the other 47 will go in my trade list. They're all from the Diamond Debut insert set in 2006 Upper Deck.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-41 Takashi Saito
#DD-42 Kenji Johjima
#DD-45 Taylor Buchholz
#DD-46 Josh Barfield
#DD-47 Brian Bannister
#DD-48 Nick Markakis
#DD-49 Carlos Martinez
#DD-50 Macay McBride
#DD-51 Brian Anderson

This portion of the set is guys who actually debuted in 2006 or late 2005, so it's mostly some hit-or-miss prospects. Nick Markakis is obviously one of the hits.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-52 Breddie Bynum
#DD-53 Kelly Shoppach
#DD-55 Ryan Shealy
#DD-56 Chris Resop
#DD-58 Mike Jacobs
#DD-59 Cody Ross
#DD-60 Jose Capellan
#DD-61 Dave Gassner
#DD-64 Paul Maholm

We're gradually moving towards 2004 and 2003 debuts, but I'd say Paul Maholm is the only widely known guy from this bunch.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-65 Nate McLouth
#DD-66 Ben Johnson
#DD-69 Brandon Watson
#DD-70 David Wright
#DD-71 David Ortiz
#DD-72 Alex Rodriguez
#DD-73 Johan Santana
#DD-74 Greg Maddux

Now we're into the All-Stars. That may be my only card of David Ortiz as a member of the Minnesota Twins, since he came up right around the beginning of my collecting hiatus.

2006 Upper Deck - Diamond Debut
#DD-75 Ichiro
#DD-76 Albert Pujols
#DD-77 Hikeki Matsui
#DD-78 Vladimir Guerrero
#DD-79 Pedro Martinez
#DD-80 Mike Schmidt
#DD-81 Al Kaline
#DD-82 Robin Yount

Now we've got All-Stars and Hall of Famers. Guys like Vladimir Guerrero and Pedro Martinez changed teams relatively early in their careers, so we get some very young photos of them to illustrate their debut team. But, with Mike Schmidt and Robin Yount being single-team guys, they're clearly a bit older than the 22 and 19 years of age they were at their debuts.

Also, when I first saw Al Kaline's name as a kid, I assumed it was a made-up placeholder, since I knew of alkaline batteries. I think my Dad finally set me straight on that once he realized what I was thinking.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2709
Total Spent	$45.65
Per Card	1.685 cents