Beckett Did Right By Me: A MAJOR Russell Martin Spectrum Swatches Rainbow Pickup!

I'm getting down to the most difficult portion of Martin's '08 Spectrum Swatches Rainbow, needing cards that are, for the most part, significantly short-printed. Removing the one card /99 and one out of /44 (which I almost had), nothing is more abundant than 15 copies. Of course, it's not as simple as simply "removing" two cards I need. Except in this case, one can be removed, because I tracked down the elusive dual swatch and pounced on it like it was Alison Brie.

Numbered 31/99, this four-piece ensemble which ran me $12.48 shipped - $8.52 for the card itself - features Russ and former Dodger Juan Pierre. An odd combination, to say the least, but that one is on UD. Surprisingly, this card has been hell to find. I had never come across an auction on eBay, or seen it available for trade, or stumbled upon it at my LCS. There was a four-year-old completed eBay auction I found through WorthPoint, and one eBay UK auction I missed from around last year.

But after seeing a mailday post by Chris Olds over at Beckett, and his success in finding some PC cards through Beckett Marketplace, I checked the BM inventory on a whim. And voila! Out popped the above card, with a quantity of 1. Did I pay more than I'd like to? Yeah. Did I pay almost as much as I have for rarer Martins, and more than I have for 1/1s and sick autos? Yeah. Will I regret it though? Not a chance.

I read somewhere around the blogosphere that years from now, you won't remember how much you paid for a card, just that you own it and can appreciate it for the rest of your life. Had this been an eBay auction, I would be more than comfortable in bidding up to what I ended up spending. While I do presently hate that I paid more than half a blaster for something that has Juan Pierre on it (#CollettiFail®), I won't regret knocking off a major need, and putting myself one step closer to completing the long project that is Russ Martin's 2008 Spectrum Swatches Rainbow. The rainbow colors locked into my collection, as it presently stands, can be found below.