Cutting down the expenses!

Hello everyone!

The title might be misunderstood, so let me clarify immediately.
I haven't decided to reduce the budget for cards pickups, but the exact opposite, because I've been able to snag some nice cards off ebay for even less the usual dollar!

I don't know why this thing fascinates me so much, but I really cannot ignore a card that has been signed by a professional player, or that features a chunck from his jersey, especially when the cost for it is significantly lower than the price of a coffee at the bar.

The first card costed me 1 cent, so it's the lowest you can go on ebay today, as long as people will start giving stuff away for free!
The card comes from a beautiful set (IMO), a set to which every now and then I try to add some more pieces, such as the one coming. It's 2005 Donruss Studio Portraits, where a selection of 100 players is portrayed in beautiful sketch like cards. The thing that makes the set interesting, is that every player has several variants, every one connected to a specific Donruss brand (you can recognize it on the back of the cards) and every one is numbered to a low numbered of specimens, and also the front can be b/w or colored, in different tones and with different frames colors.
The card I'm about to show features Nomar Garciaparra in a Cubs uniform, is numbered to 70 and on the back advertises the brand Zenith.
After all this talking, here's the card!

I love especially the logo on the bottom left of the front, that reminds me of the old cabinet cards.

The next card costed 25 cents, so I'm rising the bar dramatically here!

The card comes from 2007 Upper Deck Elements, the set is called Clear Cut, and it is pretty rich in terms of featurings, since it has a piece of jersey with pinstripe and an autograph as well!

The player? Austin Kearns, a decent player I would say, so no problems in paying a pretty quarter for this card!

Maybe the sticker auto is off centered, and apparently there's a little smudging near the Nationals logo, but hey, this card comes almost for free!

From the same seller I was able to pickup two more cards, one of which is the next to come.

It is from 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces, and is a Jersey card of Torii Hunter.

If I'm not wrong, he recently retired, and since the card has been made by a manufacturer that also "retired" from the hobby, I thought that would be a cool addition to the collection. Also, I had no cards of this player before, so now he's in the Completist team too!

By the way, this card costed 50 cents, I'm such a big spender recently!

I apologize for the bad quality of the pictures but I'm taking them directly from the auction...

So for the total of 76 cents I got 3 nice cards, and gave a home to three good players that otherwise could have remained in auction for the coming months.

I hope you liked these close-to-free purchases... to be honest I bought more cards (relics) for a cent each but I already archived the transaction on ebay and I don't know if I'll ever be able to find them again...

Have a nice weekend and keep collecting!

CIAO!