Huge chunk of 1962 Topps Pickups

As you all know I am trying to complete the flagship base Topps Pirates team sets dating back to 1952.  You can see my vintage needs here if you would like to help me.

At a recent mall card show I managed to grab 8 Pirates from the 1962 set.  These cards ranged in price from $1 - $4.  I'm now 10 cards away from completing the 1962 team set.

More Jason Bay relics featuring Torii Hunter, Mark Texeira, and Andruw Jones

One of my 2013 Collecting Goals is to get 38 unique players to appear on a jersey or autograph hit of Jason Bay.  Through May 1st I was sitting at 28 unique players.

2009 UD Ballpark Collection 142/400

This card here puts me at number 30.  Only 8 more to go...
New comers to my Jason Bay partner project include Mark Teixera and Torii Hunter.  I previously had Andruw Jones showcased on another card.  The Hunter piece has a bit of pinstripe on it which is a nice touch.


Here's a list of the others that I have memorabilia cards with Jason Bay 
*if bold and yellow it means I also have an autograph of them with Bay too

Albert Pujols
Alex Rios
Alfonso Soriano
Andruw Jones
Bill Madlock
Bobby Crosby
Carlos Lee
Craig Wilson
David Wright
Edgar Martinez
Freddy Sanchez
Gary Carter
Jacoby Ellsbury
JD Drew
Jose Castillo 
Justin Morneau 
Ken Griffey Jr.
Kenny Lofton
Mario Lemieux
Manny Ramirez
Matt Holiday
Nick Markakis
Ralph Kiner

And here is a list of the players that I have autograph cards with Jason Bay

Bill Mazeroski
Casey Kotchman
Dale Murphy
Dave Parker
Willie Parker

Random Pirates Auto of the Day: Sean Burnett

2005 Fleer Authentix AUTO Sean Burnett 98/250

Sean Burnett was the 19th overall selection of the 2000 MLB Amateur Player Draft.  He quickly began to dominate the low minors and was named the Pirates Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2001 and 2002.  In 2002 he was named the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Year.  Burnett would continue to ascend through the minors before making his MLB Debut with the Pirates in 2004.  He finished the season 5-5 with a 5.02 ERA.

Burnett missed the entire 2005 season and was placed in AAA in 2006 and 2007.  In 2008, he was recalled to the majors for the Pirates and would later be traded with Nyjer Morgan to the Nationals for Joel Hanrahan and Lastings Milledge in 2009.

That trade worked out well for both teams as Burnett flourished in the nation's capitol.  He pitched to a 2.81 ERA limiting left handed hitters to a .227 batting average.

After the 2012 season, Burnett chose to leave Washington to join the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  He currently has allowed only 1 earned run in 13 appearances.

I managed to grab the above Sean Burnett 2005 Fleer Authentix AUTO numbered to 250 at a card show as part of a 4 for $10 lot.  This is my 1st autograph of the former Pirates southpaw reliever.

McCutchen Mondays: 2012 Panini Prime Cuts

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

I need to show better resistance to adding cardboard to my collection.  I really do, but it's just so hard to resist when every month there is a new Andrew McCutchen relic or auto to add to my collection.

2012 Panini Prime Cuts 19/49

This little grey swatch numbered 19/49 is from 2012 Panini Prime Cuts and ran me just a couple pennies over $5.

I've included the scan of the back for anyone that hasn't seen this product.

Q is for Quarter. That's good enough for me...

I'm trying to build up my Steelers collection.  There's a few players that I really like that always seem to find their way into the quarter bins, Heath Miller and Hines Ward.  Despite having great careers, these guys always end up in the quarter bins.  That's fine with me.  Unfortunately this time around I only found one Jerome "The Bus" Bettis.

Who wants this card? Red Sox fans? Yankees Fans?

I had been waiting for a redemption of Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole to come from Topps for about 6 months.  Today, I finally received my replacement.

2013 Topps Redemption DUAL AUTO ARod & David Ortiz 6/10

WTF!!!!  Don't get me wrong a numbered /10 dual auto of two players with 1,055 career Home Runs is incredibly nice, BUT I'M A FRICKING PIRATES FAN TOPPS!!!!!  C'mon send me a dual auto using all those Ralph Kiner and Neil Walker stickers you have in the vault.  I am incredibly disappointed that this is my replacement.

I'm throwing this out there as trade bait.  Let me know if anyone wants it.

More Gerrit Cole Goodies

Gerrit Cole is fricking good!!!!
He's had a few rough starts as of late, but other than that I can't say enough good things about the future arm in the Pirates rotation.  He'll likely be up by the end of June and could be a key piece to the Pirates finishing above .500 baseball for the first time in 20 years.

I managed to snag a 2012 Bowman Futures Game jersey relic of the young hard throwing righty for $8.

89/199

My journey for Gerrit Cole doesn't end with one jersey card though...

I've been on a streak of buying Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon autographs like crazy.  I managed to grab a 4 card lot of Gerrit Cole autographs (2 were numbered to 99) for less than $40.  Less than $10 a card for on card autographs of (hopefully) a future ace.  Hell yes!!!!

2011 Leaf Valiant Blue AUTO 6/99

2011 Leaf Draft AUTO 

2011 Leaf Draft "Refractor" AUTO 48/99

The real highlight of this post is that I was able to meet Gerrit Cole at a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (minor league Phillies) vs. Indianapolis Indians game.

Gerrit was extremely generous to the fans asking for autographs.  He went around and signed photos, balls, posters, cards, for anyone that dangled something in front of him as he came out of the walkway to the clubhouse.

Here's my OMLB signed by Gerrit.  It's a shame it's not on the sweet spot, but when I asked if he could sign it there, he laughed and said "I'll probably get in trouble if I do."  I guess Mr. Boras doesn't want his agents signing for free on the sweet spot of baseballs.  Oh well...I still love the fact that Gerrit was signing before the game 

McCutchen Mondays: 2012 A&G Dual Post

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

My internet was down yesterday due to a problem with my modem so I'm doing two cards today for my McCutchen monday post.  It's an Allen & Ginter Double Header from 2012.

2012 Allen & Ginter Autograph

Up first is the autograph...my 57th certified autograph of Cutch

I grabbed this for $33 off ebay

2012 Allen & Ginter Jersey Relic

and now the jersey relic which was snagged for a 5 spot

$1 Bob

The Price is Right when I grab new Cutch cards for an average of $1 a piece.

Nothing too fancy here.  No super fancy relics or autographs.
The Triple Threads is numbered 102/240, but shows heavy wear on the corners.  The nicest of the lot is the 2013 Gypsy Queen white frame.

1st Goal of 2013 COMPLETE!!!!!!

One of my 2013 collecting goals was to add another 2 cards to my collection featuring the Pirates Jolly Roger logoman.

Last month I showed off my Neil Walker logoman patch I picked up for a bit over $30.

NOW....

IT'S HAMMER TIME!!!

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Relic #6/10

NUMBERED 6/10

While Joel Hanrahan is no longer with the Pirates, he was a 2 time All-Star with the Bucs and was one of my favorites when he stepped up to the mound.  I'll still be rooting for the Hammer when he recovers from his season ending surgery and hope that his career isn't over.

This Hanrahan Gypsy Queen mini framed relic cost me $29 shipped.  Of the 10 copies, this is the only one that I've seen pop up on ebay so far.

Random Pirates auto of the day

2003 Leaf Second Edition Kip Wells

Kip Wells had a solid season in terms of the Pirates in 2003.  He finished the year with a 10-9 record while starting 31 games and finishing with a 3.28 ERA.  He had 147 strikeouts and 76 walks over 197.1 innings.  Most impressive though was the he was the 9th most valuable pitcher in the NL that year according to WAR with 4.9 Wins Above Replacement.

Like all things early millenium Pirates, he regressed the following year and by 2005 he was leading the NL in losses with 18.  Wells is currently a 36 year old free agent who last pitched 7 games for San Diego in 2012.  He did not appear in the majors in 2010 or 2011.

This 2003 Leaf Second Edition ran me a whopping .99 on ebay and I can honestly say that I have no regrets.

This is how you celebrate Gypsy Style

Last night the Bucs came back to beat the hated division rivals Brewers in a 12 inning affair.  There were a lot of bad breaks for the Pirates throughout the game, but karma started to turn things around and fix themselves when Jean Seguera threw a cutout relay throw to homeplate that was about 6 feet wide and high allowing Neil Walker to score from 1st on a double by Russel Martin.  That tied things up in the 8th.

In the bottom of the 12th inning, my favorite ball player Andrew McCutchen came up and roped a line drive homerun to right center for a walkoff blast.

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Andrew McCutchen SSP Variant

I recently snagged this Andrew McCutchen SSP Celebration variant in 2013 Gypsy Queen for $30.  These come roughly 1 in 800 packs so the odds of coming across one is pretty rare.

Pirates Prospect AUTO for less than $3

Just grabbed another Pirates prospect auto for less than $3 off ebay.

2012 Bowman Sterling Barrett Barnes AUTO

Barrett Barnes was selected in the supplemental 1st round of the 2012 as compensation for losing Ryan Doumit to free agency.  He attended Texas Tech and was viewed as a top 40 pick entering the draft.

After signing quickly he became a member of the State College Spikes, Pittsburgh's short season A ball team, and put up really strong numbers while playing center field.  He finished the year with a .288/.401/.456 line with 5 HR and 10 Stolen bases in only 38 games.

McCutchen Monday: 2012 Museum Signature Swatches

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

2012 Museum Signature Swatches AUTO PATCH 51/70

Here's my newest Andrew McCutchen autograph.    

Pedro Alvarez Gypsy Queen Hit! It's a big one!

My post may be a little deceiving.  It's not a major hit.

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Pedro Alvarez Jersey Relic 

It's just a full size cardboard relic of El Toro.  I previously showed off my mini framed relic of Pedro from 2013 Gyspy Queen

I realized a few days ago that I have a gift for predicting Pedro Alvarez homeruns.  There's been 4 games that I've been at and called homeruns of his on the exact pitch count and plate appearance.  I don't do it often, but when I'm watching him take practice swings, I look to whoever's around me and say "El Toro is gonna go yard on the 3rd pitch" or "Pedro's gonna hit one in the Alleghany on a full count." Hopefully they keep coming true.

COBRAAAAAA LALALALALALA!!!!!

I got 3 packages in the mail today and inside each was a cobra.  I had made about a dozen ebay purchases over the past week so I really wasn't sure what was going to be inside each package.  After opening the 3rd package and seeing another Dave Parker relic, I went all Cobra Commander and screamed Coooobbbrrrrraaaa!!!!!!  True story that really happened.

Let's take a look at some of the treasure I scored collectively for less than $10.

2 different versions of the 2005 Donruss Leather & Lumber Big Bang Relics.

2005 Donruss Leather ^& Lumber Big Bang BAT RELIC 208/250

The bat version which is kinda blah numbered 208/250...

2005 Donruss Leather & Lumber Big Bang JERSEY RELIC 240/250

and the yellow jersey version numbered 240/250.  Even though it's practically the same card, I like the jersey version much more mainly because the jersey swatch is in the shape of HR signifying 339 Career HRs for the Cobra.  Plus yellow fabric is always welcomed in the Treasure Room.

2010 Donruss Panini Century Collection JERSEY RELIC 69/250

The final card, which I managed to snag for less than a buck is this Panini Century Collection numbered 69/250.  I've seen different versions of this card, but again yellow fabric is always welcomed.  This particular card shows a young Dave Parker, possibly from high school.  I wish I had the autographed version of this card though.

To sum up my thoughts on these 3 cards, I leave you with this video

COBRALALALALALALALA!

Gerrit Cole AUTO for Trade/Sale

I'm trying to downsize my collection a little and am offering up some extras that I no longer need to have in my collection.  If anyone is interested, leave a comment below or email me.

This Gerrit Cole autograph is ON CARD!!!!

2011 Leaf Valian AUTO (ON CARD)

I need an oPINion...

When I saw last year that Topps was producing pins of World Series Champions, I hoped that their would be some Pirates available.

2012 Topps World Series Pin Card 258/735

Series One brought me this sweet Clemente pin numbered 258/735 which I grabbed for $20

2012 Topps World Series Pin Card

Series Two brought me this un numbered Mazeroski pin that I picked up for $9.99 shipped.

Why wasn't there an update series Willie Stargell pin celebrating that famous "We are Family" team?  Topps loves Pops and often includes players like Bill Madlock and Dave Parker in their autograph and relic insert sets.

I'm starting to wonder if anyone still reads this blog, so if you do just leave a comment.

Pitching Prospect AUTO

If it's true that you can never have enough pitching, then you can never have enough pitching prospect autos. Even if that's not true, it is in my house.  The Pirates have a lot of very talented arms coming up in the minors led by Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole.  But there are also dark horses like Clay Holmes.

Clay was selected in the 9th round of the 2011 draft.
Last year, Clay put up really strong numbers as a 19 year old in short season A ball.  This year, Clay is struggling to locate the strike zone as his BB/9 has jumped to a very unhealthy 7.4.  It's still early in the season, but Clay already has as many HBP and nearly as many BB in 27 innings as he did for all of last year.

2012 Bowman Platinum AUTO 118/199

Even with the slow start this year, I still highly believe in Clay Holmes and am stoked that I managed to grab this autograph of the tall young right hander for less than $3 shipped.

Another Jameson Taillon AUTO?

I listed that I wanted to get up to 20 autographs of Jameson Taillon as part of my 2013 Collecting Goals.

This 2009 Upper Deck USA Baseball 18U Q&A AUTO gets me one step closer to completing that goal.  It marks my 13th unique auto of the future front line starting pitcher.

2009 UD USA 18U Q&A AUTO

With news of Doc Hallady being placed on the DL today, it made sense to show this card off.  There's a few variations out there for "Which pro ballplayer do you most admire"

I've seen some where Jameson has written a combination of any of the following players: Mariano Rivera, Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay, and Bryce Harper.  The Bryce Harper one really puzzles me because he wasn't even a pro athlete at that time.  Harper was just begining to gain recognition, but certainly wasn't the superstar he is today.  I wonder if since they're friends, Bryce told him to write that on a few of the cards.

Starling Marte collection continues to grow!!!!!!

Starling Marte has a career batting average of .439 when leading off an inning.  His OPS is 1.121.  That's a quality leadoff hitter there.

2012 National Treasures AUTO Bat Relic 25/49

Over the past few years as Starling started to really have a breakout season in AA, I began to collect more cards of the young outfielder.

2012 National Treasures Rated Rookie Jumbo Bat relic ON CARD AUTO 29/99

He was never recognized as one of baseball's elite prospects and doesn't qualify as rookie status this year due to getting 17 extra at bats last year.  Rookies can not have more than 150 at bats in a season.

2012 Bowman Black 25/25 ON CARD AUTO

In his very first big league at bat on his very first pitch he saw, he went yard becoming just the 47th player in MLB history to accomplish such a feat.

2012 Gypsy Queen ON CARD AUTO

He's shown an arm worthy of a gold glover...

2012 Gypsy Queen Mini ON CARD AUTO numbered 4/10

and has made many highlight reel catches in the outfield.

In addition he's also a major threat to run when on the basepaths as he's currently one of the leaders in the NL with 10 SB.

My Marte collection sits at 13 autographs, 2 bat relics, and 4 jersey relics.  I have 1 printing plate and 1 MLB Logo Man patch.

I actually have a duplicate of the 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen AUTO if anyone wants to trade for it, just leave a comment or shoot me an email.

McCutchen Monday: Laundry Day

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

"2012" Panini National Treasures is a great set of cards.  It offers high end product for a reasonable price.  The player checklist is great.  The only downside is that there are no team logos.  That's fine with me though.
I guess calling a set 2012 when it was released in 2013 is kind of a downside too, but that's just a minor detail that can be overlooked.

A few months ago I managed to grab my very first laundry tag.  I had been on the fence about buying a Jason Bay Upper Deck laundry tag for over a year, but never pulled the trigger.

2012 Panini National Treasures Laundry Tag 1/6

When I saw this card pop up on ebay I just had to have it.  I don't know what it is about this card, but it was calling me.  Not only is it low numbered, but now I can see part of the actual cleaning instructions. WATER. DO NO USE MILD DRY LOW CLEAN.  Will that work? Doubtful, so don't try that at home.

Numbered 1/6 the card features the same backing as the other jersey relics of all Andrew McCutchen cards in the set.  At the top of the card it states PRIME because it's a prime part of the jersey.

I KNOW THAT I OWE MANY TRADE PACKAGES AND WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEND THEM OUT SOMETIME THIS WEEK.  IF I OWE YOU SOMETHING OR YOU WANT FREE CARDS, SEND ME AN EMAIL WITH YOUR ADDRESS AND WHAT CARDS I OWE YOU.

MARAUDERX [AT] ROCKETMAIL [DOT] COM

My newest COMC haul

I recently made a small purchase on COMC for my Charlie Morton player collection and a few other cards that I wanted to add to the treasure room.

The Morton gem of the lot was a "Hope" parallel numbered 59/60.  I've been after one of these for awhile, but with a print run of only 60 they don't pop up too often.  When I saw this card, I decided to add some other items to my shopping cart and complete my purchase.  If it wasn't for this card, I probably would not have bought the others.

The card is numbered 59/60 and cost me just shy of $5.  I still need the printing plates for the card, and the Topps factory set parallels.

I also picked up a couple 2012 Topps variants I was still chasing

I needed the mini despite having the black printing plate for the card.

The red Target parallel and gold sparkle parallel.

The gold parallel numbered 566/2012

a 2008 Bowman Chrome blue border parallel numbered 32/99

From rehabbing pitcher to future ace, I also grabbed a Simpsons hand full of Taillon cards for $3.

I got 3 base cards of the young right hander.  2012 Topps Heritage Minors, 2012 Bowman Platinum and 2011 TriStar Pursuit.

I even managed to grab a jersey relic of Jameson for under $2 from the unlicensed company Onyx.

Since many of you may be unaware of the Onyx brand of unlicensed cards, I included a scan of the back.  This particular jersey is numbered 139/500

For $1.26 I also grabbed a game used relic of one of my favorite players here at the PTR, Dave Parker.  It's an unnumbered UD Heroes of Baseball bat relic from 2001.

It will go nicely with my Mad Dog bat relic from the same series.

Pedro Alvarez is the type of player that many fans can lose sleep over.  Personally I'm a huge fan of El Toro.  When he's swinging the bat well he can carry an offense.  When he's not in the zone, you'd rather send up a pitcher to pinch hit.  There's no doubt about it though that the man has incredible strength.

Check out the above video for some of his raw power.

I grabbed 4 cards of El Toro that I needed for my collection.  These were some of the most expensive cards I purchased with each card averaging a buck and a quarter a piece.  Each card is from 2011 Topps except the 2008 TriStar Plus Prospects (3rd card).  I didn't have any atomic refractors until I got this one of Pedro and I have to say, I love these cards.  They look like glass shattering and when light hits them they really pop.    The top 2 cards are from box store exclusives.  The Blue Diamond insert is exclusive to Wal Marts and the 2nd card is exclusive to Target Hanger packs.

One player who has not been struggling at the plate for the Bucs this year is Starling Marte.  He's having a season simlilar to what Cutch did last year.  Through May 4th he's posted a .328/.394/.513 line for an OPS of .907.  That's not a bad line for a corner outfielder.  When you consider that his natural position is centerfield, that's even more impressive.  He's leading the NL with 10 steals while also hitting 4 HRs and driving in 15 RBI.  

Because I will never get a pack of Spring Fever or Turkey Red, I figured it be fairly cheap to pick these two base cards of Starling up for $2.50 total.

To finish things off I got 2 autographs of Pirates prospects.

Stetson Allie was a highly touted flame throwing pitcher the Pirates drafted in the 2nd round of the 2010 draft.  In 2012, the Pirates turned the high risk/high reward prospect into a corner infielder.  His numbers through 2013 are monsterous and he has become the top slugging prospect in the farm system for the Bucs.  I recently did a prospect profile on him where I had showed off some of the cards I have of the 22 year old. The above ITG Heroes and Prospects auto cost me $2.25 and is now my 6th autograph.

Wyatt Mathisen is currently ranked the Pirates 15th best prospect, just one behind the highest ranked catcher, Tony Sanchez, in the farm system.  Mathisen is still very young, 19 years old.  He's currently struggling in A ball batting .182, but will be given many chances to prove himself as the everyday starter for West Virginia.  Last year while playing in the Gulf Coast league, he batted .295 with a very solid K:BB ratio (basically 1 to 1).  The raw skills are there for the young backstop.  The on card auto of Wyatt ran me $2.65.