Small Business Saturday

Today marks the "official" day of Small Business Saturday.  Every year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, consumers are encouraged to support small businesses that offer great products instead of buying through major franchises.  Topps currently owns a monopoly for licensed baseball cards.

Panini has been producing some great unlicensed cards over the past 2 years.  I've had these waiting to be added to the Treasure Room for almost a year now.

Each card features a sticker auto of Cutch and all are numbered to less than 100 copies.

2012 Panini Signature Series Signature Stars AUTO 5/25

2012 Panini Signature Series AUTO 26/99

2012 Panini National Treasures Signature Materials (AUTO/Patch)  10/25

I really love the design of each of these cards with the Signature Series being my favorite.  It's just a close up shot of the player's face with a white surface for an autograph.  It looks like Bowman had a stepchild that got neglected.  Sure it would have been nicer if all the autos were on card, but I'm not going to complain about adding 3 more autos of the 2013 MVP to the Treasure Room blog.  I'm thinking I might get to 75 certified autos of Cutch before Opening Day next year.  That's Crazy sauce with a captail C!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving: AVS Style

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

To celebrate Thanksgiving or Turkey day as my friends and I call it, here's a card of one of my favorite players of all time Andy Van Slyke on a 1992 Mr. Turkey card.

Above is the back of the Mr. Turkey 1992 Superstar card.  No it's not serially numbered 25 of 25.  Many unlicensed companies in the 80s and 90s produced cards where the number of cards in the set were printed on the card.  Due to alphabetical order, this card is the last card in the set.

I should really start to add to my PC of AVS more.  How often do you see guys win 5 gold gloves in CF in a row these days?

Gerrit Cole USA PATCH!!!!!

Much like my Austin Meadows Jumbo Patch relic, I decided to grab a Team USA patch of one of my favorite Pirate pitchers, Gerrit Cole.

2013 Team USA Game Gear PRIME PATCH 79/99

Cole was selected to be a member of the collegiate national team and went 4-0 with a 1.06 ERA while fanning 46 hitters in 34 innings while holding opponents to a miniscule .104 batting average.

I grabbed the above card a couple of months back for a major bargain price.

McCutchen Monday: Triple Clear Vision

I showed off a few of the 2013 Pinnacle inserts of Cutch over the past few months and more recently showed the "double" clear vision insert.  I've now added the Triple version of Clear Vision to my collection.

For $3 shipped, this card is nicely put away with the others.  Now I just need to find the HR version.

Another Jason Bay DUAL AUTO: Dontrelle Willis 2005 Rookie Cup

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Jason Bay.  Last month I announced I wanted to update my Jason Bay partner project.

It was a lot of fun trying to get 38 different players to appear on a hit with Jason Bay.  So much fun, that I'm doing it again.  This time though, I want to get 38 unique players autographs with Jason Bay.

The above 2005 Topps Rookie Cups DUAL AUTO marks my 15th autograph of another player to appear on a piece of cardboard with Jason Bay.  Only 23 more to go...this is going to be fun.

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

Adam LaRoche
Bill Madlock
Bill Mazeroski
Bobby Crosby
Carlos Zambrano
Casey Kotchman
Dale Murphy
Dave Parker
Dontrelle Willis
Dustin Pedroia
Justin Morneau
Matt Holiday
Ralph Kiner
Tom Gorzelanny
Willie Parker

Nick Kingham Goodwin Champions AUTO

Nick Kingham was a 4th round pick of the Pirates in 2010, the same year the Pirates grabbed Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie.  Kingham was a highschooler when he was drafted and reached the AA level in 2013 during his age 21 season.

In 2013, Kingham's line was very solid in AA Altoona where he pitched to a 3-3 record with a 2.70 ERA over 73 innings.  His command got a little worse than what he had been doing through the rest of his career as he increased his BB/9 rate to 3.7.

If all goes well for the Pirates, Kingham will likely start the 2014 season in AA and recive a callup to AAA mid season when Jameson Taillon gets called up to the majors.

I found the above 2012 Goodwin Champions for a lowbid of .99 with $2 shipped.

Waiting for AJ

AJ Burnett had one of the best seasons of his career in 2013.  He became a free agent at the end of the season and the Pirates chose to not give him a qualifying best offer of $14.1 million to resign with the club for the 2014 season.  I can't argue the logic though.  AJ said numerous times that he would either be retiring after the season or resign with the Bucs.  The worse case scenario would be AJ took the qualifying offer then decided to retire midseason if he started out poorly.  This would leave the Pirates payroll in jeapordy and would have wasted an offseason where they sought out other pitchers.

No matter what happens to AJ Burnett during this offseason, I am happy he was a part of the Pittsburgh Pirates the past two seasons.  I got to see his Pirates debut last April and there was a buzz around the stadium that something magical would soon be happening in the Burgh that rainy day when he shutout the Cardinals.  He became a teacher to the Pirates young arms and was trully a leader in the clubhouse.  I hope that maybe one day AJ returns to the diamond as a pitching coach and helps lead future arms to become better ballplayers.

The above green paralle "Band of Brothers" 2013 Prizm card was grabbed for $2 shipped on ebay.  I'm happy to put it away in my Cutch collection, but think that I should get a 2nd copy for my AJ Burnett page too.

2013 Heritage Minors Team Set

I like Topps Heritage.  I said it, let's move on.
I came across someone selling the Pirates team set from Heritage Minors and pulled the $8 trigger for ten cards.  Dilson Herrera is no longer part of the organization as he was the centerpiece to the trade that brought Marlon Byrd, John Buck, and cash to the Pirates for their playoff push.

Of the 9 players still with the organization, 4 of them are listed as top 100 prospects in baseball (Taillon, Heredia, Hanson, and Polanco).  One is not too far removed from being on that list and if he can prove he's healthy, will likely return to being a top prospect (Josh Bell).

The Pirates future is bright, but....

The future star of this set though is Jameson Taillon (seen below)

McCutchen Mondays: 2013 Hometown Heroes Sportsdiscs

I remember playing with Sportflix as a kid and later on those 7-11 discs found on the bottom of slurpee cups.  I used to love scratching them as if they were records and I was a hiphop superstar.  Panini recently put out a set of cards called Hometown Heroes and had an insert set called Sportsdiscs.  They are round circular cards and feature some of today's best players on them.

The backs of the cards have very basic stats

With so few oddball cards on the market today, if you are a player collector, you need to check and see if your player has one of these sportdiscs in the 2013 Hometown Heroes set.  They're awesome!!!!  And usually pretty cheap too.

Cutch wins the MVP

Everything I could say about why Cutch was more deserving to win the MVP over other players has already been send throughout a long 162 game season.  Congratulations Cutch!!!!

Cross another off the list

I've been actively adding to my Charlie Morton collection for about 4 years now.  You'd think that for a guy with only 85 cards produced (before 2013 hit stands), acquiring his cards wouldn't be that hard.  Hahahahaha! Think again.  Ground Chuck has over 30 1/1s somewhere on this Earth.  I have 3.  Yup! Just 3.  Not good percentages.

However, of the non 1/1s (54) I now own 50.  That's right, I added another Charlie Morton to my collection thanks in part to some kindness on my brother.

2002 UD Premiere Prospects Future Gems Quads 313/600 with David Bush, Joey Gomes, and Josh Johnson

He bought me the 2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Future Gems Quad featuring Joey Gomes, Josh Johnson, Charlie Morton, and David Bush. The card ran about $9 and was one of the five remaining non 1/1s I needed to complete my Charlie Morton collection.   Now I'm down to only 4.

2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premiere Future Gems Quads came in very large 1 per pack box toppers back in the day.  I included a scan of the pack next to an average sized bowman card to show the difference.

Pretty large, right?  Well it has to essentially hold an uncut piece of cardbaord for 4 baseball cards.  These cards were all numbered out of 600 and finding them on the market today is very difficult.

Here's the back of the card my brother got me.

I am still in search of another that features Charlie Morton along with Val Majewski, Joey Gomes, Daniel Cevette.  I've yet to see that card available for sale anywhere.

It's one of only 4 non 1/1s I need.

Just four!!!!  Like the amount of players on this card.  I only need 4!
I've given some thought to which player I might PC in the future where I can collect every parallel of that player.  As much as I like Cutch, it's just impossible to collect all those different parallels.  I've been leaning towards Justin Wilson who is a hard throwing lefty the Pirates have in the bullpen.  I met him several times as he was developing in the minors as a starter and was at the 2010 Eastern Conference championship game when he was awarded MVP honors.  The problem is that his name is pretty common so saving it as an ebay search tool would be very annoying.

McCutchen Mondays: Another Archives Post

My current favorite player in baseball 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.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

I previously showed off one of my 1972 Basketball designs from 2013 Topps Archive Andrew McCutchen inserts on a McCutchen Monday.  Well, it's time for another.  This time we're retroing 1983 All-Stars designs to show off the 3 time All-Star.

Yet again, a nice pickup, this time for only 75 cents delivered.

Roberto Clemente 1966 Topps

I recently picked up another vintage Roberto Clemente for my PC.  This one ran me $25 from a vendor I've dealt with on several occasions.  The card has general vintage wear.

1966 Topps #300 Roberto Clemente

The corners are a bit rough and the surface of the card has general wear.  Either way you look at it, it's vintage Clemente bringing my Topps Clemente needs down to the following:
1972 Topps #309
1968 Topps #1 (Batting Leaders)
1968 Topps #3 (RBI Leaders)
1968 Topps #150
1968 Topps #480 (Manager's Dream)
1967 Topps #361 (Checklist #5)
1967 Topps #400
1963 Topps #540
1962 Topps #10
1961 Topps #388
1960 Topps #326
1958 Topps #52
1957 Topps #76
1956 Topps #33
1955 Topps #164 ROOKIE CARD!!!!

As you can see, I need a lot between 1955 and 1963, since I only have his 1959 in that span.  I really don't like the 1968 Topps design so I think that's why I'm so hesitant to pull the trigger on any Clemente's in that year.

Russell Martin is Gold

There's no doubt with the amount of baserunners that Russell Martin threw out that he would be a top candidate for a gold glove behind the plate.  Add in the amount of Fransisco Liriano sliders and Charlie Morton sinkerballs he had to catch and it becomes obvious that he was a huge part to the team's success.  Although he failed to capture the NL Gold Glove award for his terrific performance, I managed to grab the below gold chrome card off ebay.

2013 Topps Chrome Gold 34/50

I am trying to complete the rainbow to the 2013 Topps Chrome Russell Martin card because I'm somewhere on this card..

Jameson Taillon 2012 Bowman's Best Printing Plate 1/1

2012 Bowman's Best Magenta Printing Plate 1/1

Awhile ago I managed to grab the above 2012 Bowman's Best magenta printing plate for just shy of $20.  It's my first printing plate of the young future ace.  I can't wait to see Jamo get the call next year.  He's going to be damn impressive.

A pair of Uniques

Topps Unique was a unique card line (pun intended).  To my knowledge it didn't offer anything special that hadn't been done before.  It would have been a great idea if Topps released a whole line of cards showing players in alternate uniforms like the 1st card in this post which was a subset called Unique Unis.

Instead all the base cards were a lot like what you see above.  These "base" cards were all numbered, mine being 487/1199.

The above two cards are my latest Andrew McCutchen additions.

McCutchen Monday: 2011 Atomic Refractor

My current favorite player in baseball 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.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractor 192/225

I've been hunting down some older parallels of Cutch lately and managed to find this sweet looking atomic refractor from 2011 Topps Chrome for $2.50 shipped (combined shipping).  I really like these atomic refractors.  They look amazing when scanned in and even better in person.

How much longer until Cutch get his MVP award for the 2013 season?

Tony Sanchez Black Refractor

I talked about how I may start to PC Tony Sanchez.  Well, I'm going to make it official and start adding Tony Sanchez cards to my collection more regularly.

2011 Bowman Sterling Black Refractor 18/25

I just picked up this rare black refractor on ebay for $15.  It's numbered 18/25 and goes nicely with my purple refractor numbered 7/10 I showed off in February 2012.

Doumit! What's today's date?

I like pocket schedules.  They're fun little items that often times get thrown out after a season is over.  When they feature one of my favorite players, I feel compelled to add one to my collection.

Such is the case with this 2013 Minnesota Twins pocket schedule featuring Ryan Doumit.  This isn't just any pocket schedule.  It's the spanish edition.

Es moy bueno!

Happy November everyone!