A Fantastically Fantastic Russell Martin Lot I Won/Purchased Brings Me Past 150 Unique Russ Cards (Cheap 1/1 Warning!)

eBay. Such a wonderful mistress. And temptress. And occasionally bad mamajama. I digress. I came across a seller with some great items which all featured low price tags to boot. The guy had a nice assortment of Russell Martin cards I lacked, so I took a stab at injecting some new blood into my Martin PC. The first addition, and the one I'm most excited about, was won with a bid of $3.84.

It's the Red Parallel 1/1 from 2007 Topps Moments & Milestones. I absolutely love the look of this card; the red was a great choice by Topps, and it really pops. The card does have some edge damage on the left, about even with Russ' right elbow. I did not even notice it until I scanned the card mere moments before typing this sentence you're now reading. But it's cool, as that may have helped me land the card for a better price.

Plus, it's a 1/1. So who cares that there's a tiny bit of damage. Also, it goes without saying that I'm not selling off my Martin PC, so I can live with the edge malfeasance. This marks the fifth Martin 1/1 I own (three Plates, one Blank Back BGS Authenticated card, and this red bad boy).

As I mentioned, the seller had more Russ than I knew what to do with. So I bid, won, and bought. I came away with the three cards you see above. From left to right, we have a manufactured All-Star Patch, #'d 08/25, from 2008 UD Premier Stitchings; some sort of light light blue parallel from 2008 UD A Piece of History, #'d 09/25; and finally, from the wonderfully fantastic 2008 UD Spectrum and featuring a great action shot of Russ, another parallel, this one numbered 07/25.

As always, every Russ card features a great photo of the former Dodger backstop, which makes collecting him even more enjoyable. The Spectrum card was a cool pickup due to the fact that I'm attempting to put his 2008 UD Spectrum Swatches rainbow together. Progress has been hit and miss, but it's been an entertaining journey thus far.

Now comes the really fun part. Well, not as fun as landing a ridiculously cheap and aesthetically-pleasing 1/1, but still, pretty damn fun nevertheless. After winning these four cards and a few other non-Russ Martins, the seller messaged me and asked if I needed any Generation Now cards of Mr. Martin. I said I did indeed, and he said to e-mail him. After obliging his request, he sent me a list of a ton of other Russ cards he was preparing to list. "Make me an offer" was what he told me, if anything caught my eye. As you can imagine - and as is evident by the fact that I'm still writing up this long, long post on the way to 150 unique Martins - plenty did catch my card-loving eyes.

I picked out five serial-numbered cards - including four awesome refractors - made the seller an offer of $10 delivered for the lot, and waited. Much to my delight, he accepted. This is what I picked out.

I do love me some gold! Another Gold Russ Refractor, this one #'d 42/50.

Damn, that scanned surprisingly well. It pairs very nicely with the autograph of Russ I have from this same set, which also happens to commemorate the same event, Martin beating the Giants with a walk-off homer way back in '06.

Now, the final three refractors, and the cards that started off this whole away-from-the-Bay purchase. From the Generation Now insert found in 2007 Topps Chrome comes this troika of sick Red Refractors, all numbered out of 99. I've scanned the back of one for the purpose of record keeping. Yeah, we'll go with that.

The exact numbering on the three are 23/99, 24/99, and 32/99. And now, the final card of this large-ish expenditure.

And it's a large one! Because it's a thick card stock.....wah wah. I've found that these super-thick cards fit rather nicely in vintage penny sleeves. Saves the corners and edges from more damage than they are already prone to being inflicted with. This Martin comes from 2007 UD Exquisite Rookie Signatures and is serial numbered 29/99. It does lack a signature, however. A bit of a misleading name, I would venture to say.

So there you have it. I have now surpassed 150 unique cards of Russell Martin, and in the process picked up my fifth 1/1 of the Canadian catcher, another gold refractor, and some all-around serial-numbered goodness (hot damn, I love those red refractors!).

Many, many thanks to the great eBayer who helped me reach this milestone, and here's to another 150!