My Best eBay Transaction Ever

A few days ago, I bought a lot of ten (10) 2003 Topps Retired Signature autos on eBay. With a winning bid of just a bit over $30, seemed like a good deal to me. If you've read my earlier posts, you know I'm dangerously obsessed with the 2004 Topps Retired set, specifically collecting the certified autographs.. And I hate to say it, but I'm close to falling for the 2003 set, too. It's a real nice design. Not quite as sweet as the '04 set, but still very good. While many of the players overlap, there are a handful of guys only in one set or the other. These 10 cards recently added to my collection feature excellent former ballplayers and a HOF manager, though they might not be top-tier legends, which is I'm sure how I was lucky enough to get them all packaged together for a good price.

Here's who was included: Luis Tiant (229 career wins), George Foster (only player to hit 50 HR in either the 70s or 80s), Darrell Evans (414 HRs), Lance Parrish (right there with Fisk and Carter as best catchers of the 80s), Earl Weaver (legendary skipper), Moose Skowron (on five WS winners), Bobby Thomson ("Shot Heard 'Round the World"), Jim Piersall (great baseball character), Maury Wills (stolen base king of the 60s), and Ron Cey (incredible third-baseman). Plus, each card was bagged, keeping the cases nice and scratch-free.

At $3.14 a piece, and no additional shipping cost (see below), these were a sweet deal.

I'm happy to have a good foot in the door with this set now. But what was really cool is that the seller (Adam) was also here in Portland, Oregon. Before I paid, I wrote him just curious if we were in similar parts of town, and if so, maybe we could save some time and postage by doing a local drop off/pick up. He was cool with that idea and sent me a new invoice with shipping cost removed. He was even down to drop the cards off to me at work on my lunch break. And the kicker is he threw in a free bottle of hot sauce!

Apparently, he started a hot sauce company, and his day job is driving around distributing hot sauce to stores and restaurants. I love spicy food (I'm known to occasionally snack on jalapeños, and very often splash a healthy dose of hot sauce on my meals), so that was a happy surprise right up my alley. It's really good hot sauce, too.

I figure I should repay Adam's kindness by giving him a plug. So yeah, if you're into hot sauce, check out Portland Pepper Sauce Company. Good stuff.

A bunch of nifty cards at a very fair price, personally delivered directly to my hands for free.. plus a tasty bottle of hot sauce thrown in free.. all adds up to possibly my best eBay transaction ever. Please feel free to brag about your best eBay moments in the comments. Always fun to hear about great finds and generous sellers.