Cubs Lot #4

This is another smaller lot but one that I plan on spreading out over about 150 posts.

What?!

Don't worry, I'll explain in a bit.

I actually won several auctions from one seller who seemed to be doing a purge of his unwanted Cubs cards. Lucky me! I probably wouldn't have normally picked these up for the $0.99 I paid individually, but with combined shipping and the lot (you'll see at the end) that I won, I definitely feel I got my money's worth.

Now, most of these guys you'd probably have to be a pretty big Cubs fan to have heard of since just two made the big leagues. But I'm still happy to add these guys to the collection.

Brandon Sing made it as high as Triple A Iowa but spent the past couple of years in independent leagues. This blue refractor is limited to just 150 copies.

Elvin Puello topped out with six games in Single A Peoria in 2005 before going back down to low A Boise in 2006, his last year.

Chris Walker played for the Cubs organization from 2002 to 2007, rising up to Triple A Iowa. He's been bouncing around the minors and independent baseball since, spending 2013 in the Mexican League.

Kevin Collins played High A ball for the Cubs and Cardinals but hasn't played since 2006.

Ronald Perry "Bear" Bay didn't make it above A ball with the Cubs but played at the Triple A level for the Indians, Angels and Padres as recently as 2012.

Buck Coats had Major League time with the Cubs in 2006, the Reds in 2007 and the Blue Jays in 2008.

Matt Creighton bounced around quite a bit while in the Cubs organization, playing at multiple levels each season. But he couldn't quite break into the bigs. These are a nice pair of autographs to add to the collection though.

Bobby Brownlie is a former first round draft  pick for the Cubs and although he played Triple A for the Cubs, Nationals and Braves, he too, never broke through to the Majors.

Grant Johnson is a former 2nd round draft pick out of Notre Dame that topped out at Double A Tennessee.

Finally for the single cards, we have to most successful of the group, Tyler Colvin. A first round pick in 2006, Colvin made his Cubs debut in 2009. He was traded to the Rockies with DJ LeMahieu for Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers following the 2011 season. He bounced bewteen the Rockies and their Triple A affiliate for the next two seasons and is currently with the Giants Triple A team in Fresno.

However, the large part of this purchase was this lot below:

Nearly two hundred Mark Prior cards, all different. Considering my collection consisted of a meager 50-ish Prior cards before, this is a big boost. There weren't any autographs of relics, but there were a couple of serial numbered card. As I mentioned at the top of this post, I intend to get many posts out of this lot. There are so many different inserts that I missed out on in the early to mid 2000s that I think it will be fun to visit each (or most) individually. I'm thinking "Mark Prior Mondays" might be a thing although I may just use them when I get stuck for a post.

All of the cards in this post set me back $20.47 shipped, which works out to less than a dime per card. All of the minor league cards were new to me and I'm guessing at least 150 of the Priors will be new once I get them all scanned and cataloged. There weren't too many base cards which is what I mostly had. Not too shabby.

I will have to double check when everything is sorted out, but this may bump Prior up to my second biggest player collection (unofficial) behind Ryne Sandberg.