May Card Show Pickups: Thrill of the Chase

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Today's post will be split in two - there are a lot of cards here to show. The goal here is to hopefully knock out some more of the inserts, parallels, and oddballs I need in my sampler collection. At the show, I just grabbed cards I thought I needed - all of these were had for about 20 cents each.

•  First is a '94 Bowman reprint from the 2005 Topps A-Rod Spokesman set. Need it. Good start! (I thought I might not need it.)
• Hunter Pence orange /250 from 2010 Bowman. Need it.
• 1999 SkyBox Molten Metal Xplosion Orlando Hernandez - need it. And this card is made of metal. Very cool! It's a parallel set which would be very difficult to put together, I'm sure.

•  2000 Bowman Chrome Bidding for the Call Refractor Scott Sobkowiak. Who? Yeah, that's why this card was cheap. But I need it!
• 2005 Upper Deck Update Platinum Keiichi Yabu. Platinum! That's good! Need it!
• 2005 Upper Deck Origins Blue Keiichi Yabu. Another Yabu! Yahoo! Well, it's blue/50, and need it!

•  Not just any 1988 Fleer, but Glossy 1988 Fleer. But this is my first bust of the day. I took a chance on this one, and I knew it.
• Hey, a 2011 Bowman Prospects snuck into this stack. Need it! I saw Villar play on the JetHawks a couple times on my April trip. Even though he probably won't make the majors, it's nice to see cards of players I recognize in this set.
• 2001 Donruss Baseball's Best Bronze Rookies Rafael Soriano. Need it - my first from this set. There are bronze, silver, and gold versions of the regular, rookies, and rookie Diamond King cards.

•  2009 Topps Chrome Xfractor Cole Hamels. Need it!
• 2005 eTopps Promo Alex Rodriguez. Despite being a promo, it fits in with the regular set, so a nice find for a under a quarter!
• Another 2005 Upper Deck Update, this time just the regular version of Carlos Ruiz. Don't need it.

•  Something really AuSome: a 1999 Upper Deck HoloGrFX AuSOME parallel of Ken Griffey Jr. I don't need it for the sampler collection, but I'm going to keep this one for the upcoming player collection.
• 2010 Bowman Chrome Topps 100 Refractor of Austin Romine. Need it.
• 2010 Topps Pro Debut Hall of Fame Stars Jimmie Foxx. I didn't buy many cards for most of 2010's season, and I didn't pick up a single pack of Pro Debut. So, need it!

•  2005 Upper Deck Reflections Purple and Red parallels. Need them both!
• Another 2005 Upper Deck Update Carlos Ruiz card - this one of the silver parallel. Busted again. If you like Carlos Ruiz I've got a couple cards for you!

•  Let's go horizontal for a little while, starting with this 2008 A Piece of History Stadium Scenes Copper of Chipper Jones. Need it.
• 2004 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Draft Class Chris Lambert. Shiny, but not needed.

•  2004 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Round Numbers Eric Beattie. Again, shiny but not needed.
• 2004 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Career Best All Stars Hideki Matsui. Strike three with the '04 EEE. At least that's the last one.

Alrighty, we've seen a lot of 2010 Bowman Platinum this week already, but what about for the sampler collection? Well, I just realized that I *still* haven't added it to the spreadsheet. Hold on a second. ... Okay. Well, since it wasn't there before, this should be easy.

• Base (Jeter), Refractor (Haren), Golf Refractor (Oswalt) are all needed. I also had a prospect thick refractor sitting around! Needed!

In a couple hours, the thrilling finale to today's random insertness!