Smooth as Silk: 2013 Charlie Morton

In my ongoing quest to add 1 copy of every Charlie Morton card I can find, I grabbed this piece of cardboard and silk hybrid for $10.

2013 Topps Update Silk Collection 28/50

This is my least favorite design that Topps has used for their silk collections.  I hate the piss yellow they are using for the actual silks and this years boring grey and purple design does absolutely nothing for me.  But hey, it's another new Charlie and is numbered to only 50 copies so I had to add it.

One of my 2013 collecting goals was to add 4 more copies of Charlie's 2011 Silk collection to my card collection.  I added 3 copies of that card and now have added a 4th silk to the collection, albeit the wrong year.

McCutchen Monday: 500th Post!!!! THE ULTIMATE ANDREW McCUTCHEN AUTO ADDED!!!

On March 15, 2011 I created my first post.  I built this blog mainly to show off my card collection and so I could go back and remember how I felt about the direction of the Pirates organization.  There were several long periods of no posting as I battled through two hurricanes and several illnesses.  Through the nearly 3 years of having this blog though, I have made some good trading partners and learned a lot about the hobby through their wisdom.  It's been a fun ride so far.

I needed a major card to show off how much my collection has changed since I created this blog and that's why I'm showing off a sort of holy grail of McCutchen autos.  

2005 Topps Chrome printing plate cyan 1/1 AUTO!!!!

I was in talks with the owner of this card on the Blowout Card forums then he decided to let it go on ebay with a reasonable best offer price.
It goes well with these other 3 cards, don't you think?

Looking back over the past 3 years of posts, I realized how much money I have spent on this hobby.

2011 Andrew McCutchen totals

• 1 printing plate/proof 
• 2 manurelics
• 2 jersey relics
• 3 jerseys/autos
• 7 autos
• 0 silks
• 1 IP Auto
• 0 sketch

2013 Andrew McCutchen totals

• 15 printing plates/proofs
• 7 manurelics
• 47 jersey relics
• 19 jersey or bat/auto
• 48 autos
• 3 silks
• 3 IP Auto
• 2 sketch

As my collection continues to grow, I will continue to post more and more cards on the blog as long as you guys are still reading it.  Have a Happy New Year and be safe!!!

My newest Tony: Check out this SICK PATCH!!!!

This card has been a thorn in my side for nearly 2 years.  I have tried prying it away from the ebay seller since it first became available.  He put it in his store with a Buy-It-Now of $90 or best offer.  NO WAY WAS I GOING TO SPEND $90 for a catcher who hadn't even made his debut yet.  Well, finally after all the times that he has pulled it from his store and relisted and pulled it and relisted it, I finally managed to grab this incredible Bradenton Marauders logo patch of the Pirates backup catcher Tony Sanchez.  $30 is a big dropoff from the $90 asking price he's had and I am ever so grateful that I can FINALLY add it to my collection.

Somewhere near a rainbow: Russell Martin 2013 Topps Chrome Camo Edition

One of my ongoing goals is to collect the rainbow of Russell Martin's 2013 Topps Chrome

This marks my 4th of the bunch.  This serially numbered 10/15 chrome specimen of cardboard ran me $12 shipped.
The Gold version numberd 34/50 can be seen in this post.
The red (12/25) and sepia variants (45/75) can be found here.

McCutchen Mondays: 13 Topps Chrome

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.

2013 Topps Chrome Black Refractor 5/100

My newest addition to the Cutch collection is a black refractror from 2013 Topps Chrome that I won for $10.50 delivered.  I'm not a big fan of all the parallels of a player (excluding Charlie Morton), but I sure do like this one A LOT!!!  The black chrome refractor with the alternate black jersey worn by Cutch in the photo really makes the image just pop.  The scan doesn't do it justice.

Charlie Morton Game Used Autographed Jersey

Charlie Morton is my favorite pitcher in the game today.  He doesn't have that wipeout slider or high 90s heat.  He doesn't have a sick 12-6 curveball or a mind boggling knuckle ball.  However, he has a nasty sinker that generates A LOT of groundballs.

While browsing online I came across someone selling game used jerseys.  The MLB authentication sticker proves that Charlie did in fact wear this jersey August 2, 2011.  Charlie didn't pitch that day as the Pirates loss 11-6 to the Chicago Cubs thanks in part to Kevin Correia giving up a terrible line of 10hits, 4 HR, 8 earned runs over 2 innings pitched.

Here's a highlight video of Ground Chuck from 2013 jsut for fun.

Have you ever heard of this prospect?

Tyler Glasnow

You better learn the name!

I got to meet Tyler during the summer last year and managed to get a ball signed by him which is now proudly displayed in my collection.

Much like my reasons for not getting a Bowman Chrome AUTO of Gerrit Cole upon initial release, I've held off on grabbing a Tyler Glasnow auto for the same reason.  When 2013 Bowman Chrome initially hit, the base autos of Tyler were reaching as high as $30 a pop.  With several months of patience, I was finally able to grab one for under $12.

Though Tyler was only 19 for most of last year, he put up incredible numbers in A ball.
Here's his minor league career stats
Innings Pitched: 149.2
Strikeouts: 208 (12.5K/9)
Hits: 77 (4.6H/9)
Walks:: 78 (4.8BB/9)
WHIP: 1.036
ERA: 2.10

Assuming that Tyler will play in A+ ball to start the 2014 season and get promoted to AA mid season, if Tyler can cut down on the walk rate over the next two seasons in A+, AA, and AAA he will be a dominating arm to have at the back of the rotation for the Pirates entering 2016.  He's currently ranked #97 on MLB's top 100 prospects.

$1 BOB: Jameson Taillon Insert

Jameson Tailon cards for $1 delivered, yes please.

Does it sort of look familiar?  It should.  I grabbed a Gerrit Cole 2013 Top Prospects for a $1 also back in October.

Hometown Heroes Gerrit Cole

Just my newest addition to the growing Gerrit Cole collection.
It's from the 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes set.  Each unlicensed card has a throwback look to it along with some facts about the player and their hometown.

Grabbed this for $1 off ebay with combined shipping of some other items.

The back talks about Cole coming up with Brandon Maurer (Seattle Mariners).

If I stay the course and make one post a day, my 500th post will come next week.

Dammit it's a Doumit: 2013 Silver Slate 8/10

In 2000, Blink 182 was tearing up billboards with their pop punk hit Dammit.

In 2005, Ryan Doumit became my favorite member of the Pittsburgh Pirates until others started to join the fray in 2009 (Cutch and Charlie Morton)

In 2013, I grabbed a Silver Slate parallel from 2013 Topps

What do all these things have in common?
Not a damn thing!!!!

This extremely rare silver slate parallel ran me $12 delivered on ebay.

Should I make a weekly or monthly feature of my Ryan Doumit collection?

McCutchen Mondays: 2013 Panini Studio Printer Proof

I started collecting baseball cards in 1987 and continued until around 1995, before rejoining the hobby in 2009.  One of the sets I remember so vividly was the 1993 Donruss Studio set.  It featured studio pictures of the players along with personal information about the players on the back.  It ranged from how many siblings he may have had to their favorite authors to their favorite Smashing Pumpkins song.  The cards made you feel connected to the player in a way that other baseball cards at the time didn't.

In 2013, Panini did a limited number of Studio 13 cards that mirrored that Donruss 1993 set perfectly.  One of the players selected to be a part of the set was my favorite ballplayer Andrew McCutchen.  I showed off the lava flow version of this card back in September.  I've recently added the Printer's Proof that was inserted into packs of the 2013 Father's Day series.

The Printer's Proof cards aren't numbered and look like just thicker black and white photocopies of the basecards.  See the back below.

I didn't trim the scan down to show just how plain these proofs are.  Lame, right?

Well, if it's a new version of Cutch and it's affordable, I'm probably going to buy it.
This card ran me under $6 shipped.

Sunday Museum

When I was really young, I used to like to go to the museum and check out all the dinosaur bones and neat history artifacts.  Lately, I've been watching a ton of Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel documentaries and realized that I need to go visit a museum again.  Well, I didn't quite make it to one, so instead I just pulled out my 2013 Topps Museum collection of base cards and inserts and finally after many months of living behind ultra-pro page protectivity, they were able to breathe again (briefly) just for a scan.

Below is a lot of 4 cards I won for less than $7 shipped.
I absolutely love the base cards, but as a one time comicbook and sketch collector, I have to show off the inserts first...

The Canvas Collection inserts are beautifully drawn.  Topps even put a few original art sketches randomly into packs like the Cutch I showed off in July.  I'd like to own an original sketch of the Great One too.

 This is the Canvas Collection of the Andrew McCutchen card.

Now for the base...

 This is what the Topps Museum base cards look like.  They aren't numbered, but do feature a nice frame (sorry for bad scan) around the card and a nice image of the player on the front.  Less is more when it comes to these.  They aren't over the top with a lot of bells and whistles and foiling and funky fonts.  Basic is better

The Willie Stargell above is a bronze parallel numbered 277/424.

Now for the card backs

Let it snow, let it snow

New Jersey is currently under a snowstorm.  It's expected that we'll only get about 6 inches total.  No biggie.  While sifting through my football card collection trying to find a card played in the snow, I remembered the 2009 Winter Classic played in Buffalo when the Penguins beat the Sabres.

2008-09 O Pee Chee

Here's a card from my collection to show off that 1st Winter Classic bout.

Willie Stargell Coin

Back in September, I showed off my Andrew McCutchen 2013 Topps Proven Mettle coin card.

Well I finally got around to adding the Willie Stargell to my collection.

2013 Topps Proven Mettle 78/99

There's one thing that I really hate about this card though.  Topps should have enough images of Pops in his later years (late 70s/early 80s) to use as an image to match the coin depicted on the card.  Granted Willie Stargell had a Hall of Fame career and it should be worth showing his younger playing days as well as immortalizing his later years as well, but can't we get a card where the picture of Pops is from his famous "We are Family" 1979 World Series if you're going to use a coin depicting him from that era?

My latest auto of HOFer Ralph Kiner

I said I wanted to add 5 new Ralph Kiner autos to my collection this year.  As much as I like adding more of the HOF leftfielder's autograph to my collection, I don't like spending a lot of money to do it.

I picked up another low print run of HOFer Ralph Kiner on ebay earlier this year.  This 2005 Upper Deck HOF Baseball Bat Relic and AUTO ran me just shy of $30.  The card features a piece of his bat which has been marked with 1949 HR Leader.  The card is numbered 6/15.

How do you guys feel about getting a bat relic then having it burnt to resemble a team logo or date or stat on the relic?

I need these Charlie Morton cards!!!

With finally owning a Charlie Morton superfractor I figured I would update my needs to obtain 1 copy of all Charlie Morton cards.  It's fitting that I show this post off today as Charlie Morton has just been extended by a 3 year $21 million contract that could reach up to $30 million with incentives.  Even if all incentives are met, getting Charlie and his 62.9% groundball rate and 3.26 ERA from last year is a huge discount for the Pirates.
Below is my rainbow I finally completed from 2008 Bowman Chrome.  I am still searching for a printing plate, but got all the other colors

Superfractor 1/1, Red Refractor 5/5, Orange Refractor 19/25, Gold Refractor 19/50

Base, Refractor Blue Refractor 32/99, Xfractor 55/199

 IF YOU SEE ANY OF THESE CARDS BELOW HIT THE MARKET, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!

Total cards owned 60/100 (60.00%)
Non 1/1s owned 55/64 (85.94%)
1/1s owned 5/36 (need 31) (13.89%)

Here's my needs
2002 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractors /50

2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Future Gems Quads /600 (Val Majewski, Joey Gomes, Daniel Cevette, Charlie Morton)

2004 Rome Braves (minor leage Multi-ad)

2008 Bowman Chrome Printing Plates 1/1 (needs all 4: cyan, black, yellow, magenta)

2008 Bowman Chrome Superfractor 1/1

2008 Bowman Draft & Prospects Printing Plates 1/1 (need all 4: cyan, black, yellow, magenta)

2008 Bowman Draft & Prospects Red 1/1

2008 Bowman Sterling Printing Plates 1/1 (need all 4: cyan, black, yellow, magenta)

2008 Bowman Sterling Red Refractor 1/1

2011 Topps Update #235 Gold Canary Diamond 1/1

2011 Topps Update #235 Platinum 1/1

2011 Topps Update #235 Printing Plates 1/1 (need 3: black, yellow, magenta)

2012 Topps #516 Factory Set Orange /190

2012 Topps #516 Platinum 1/1

2012 Topps #516 Printing Plates 1/1 (need all 4: cyan, black, yellow, magenta)

2012 Topps Mini #516 Printing Plates 1/1 (need 3: cyan, yellow, magenta)

2013 Topps Update #147 Gold /2013

2013 Topps Update #147 Black /62

2013 Topps Update #147 Camo /99

2013 Topps Update #147 Target Red

2013 Topps Update #147 WalMart Blue

2013 Topps Update Printing Plates 1/1 (need 3: yellow, magenta, cyan)

2013 Topps Update Blank Back 1/1

He was a Pirate?

Back in April 2013, I showed off my Benito Santiago bat relic.  Many people forget that Benito played for the Steel City during the dreadful 20 year losing streak.  It's hard to imagine why though?  He did play 6 games as the backstop for the Bucs.  Not only did he barely play for the Pirates, but he also managed to get 2 bat relics and an autographed card featured in a Bucs uniform.  Good job Topps!  Good job!!!  You can't aknowledge your redemptions, but you can manage to put out autograph and relic cards of players that played 6 games for a team?

2005 Topps Traded and Rookies Signature Moves

This 2005 Topps Traded and Rookies Signature Moves recognizes the Pirates trade for Benito from the Kansas City Royals on December 16th, 2004.  The on card auto of the 5x All-Star and 3 time Gold Glover ran me $5 delivered.

McCutchen Mondays: 2013 Archives 1983 All-Stars Insert Printing Plate 1/1

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.

Last month I showed off my 2013 Topps Archives 1983 All-Star Insert.

2013 Topps Archives All-Star Insert Magenta Printing Plate 1/1

Well, I've since added the printing plate to my collection.  This is my 14th printing plate of the 3xAll-Star, 2xSilver Slugger, 2012 Gold Glove, 2013 MVP winning centerfielder.

Football Sunday: Hines Ward 2011 Gridiron Gear

I don't know why, but Sundays are always rushed posts.  One guy who didn't rush a whole lot in his career was Hines Ward.  He finished his career with 428 rushing yards over 57 attempts (7.5/attempt), 1 touchdown, and 23 first downs.

But that's not what Ward was known for.  He was the Steelers primary receiver over a 14 year career.  Ward finished his career with 12,083 yards, 85 touchdowns, and 620 first down completions.  He averaged 12.1 yards per completion.  Ward will likely one day head to the Hall of Fame as he's only the 19th player in NFL history to have over 12,000 receiving yards.  In addition he became only the 8th player in NFL history to have 1,000 receptions.

It's a Fleury of a post on Friday

I have trouble keeping up with daily updates on the blog.  So I figured I would treat you guys to two posts on the same day.  Something strange happened in the Animal Kingdom last night as the Penguins killed the Sharks.  WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THAT ONE, ANIMAL PLANET FOLLOWERS!

Sidney Crosby continued to dominate and got himself 3 more points as he assisted in 3 of the Penguins 5 goals.

The star of the game though was Marc-Andre Fleury who had 44 goals.
44 GOALS!!!

That's a hot glove if I ever saw one.


Which I recently did see on ebay.  I grabbed this 2006 McDonald's Hot Glove insert of the Flower for just a couple bucks about 2 months ago.

The dicut card is shaped like a goalie's glove and features Marc in one of his classic poses.

Oh, how I miss buying Upper Deck products.

Smooth as Silk: 2012 Andrew McCutchen

I don't like Topps Silk cards unless they're really cheap.  I find them to be lame gimmicks.  However, when I came across an Andruw McCuthcen on ebay a few months back I knew I had to take a stab at winning this card for 99 cents.+ shipping.  Thanks for not knowing how to spell mr. seller.  Needless to say, there wasn't any other bidders on the card.  Sweet score for me!!!

2012 Topps Silk Collection 8/50

WTF is this card talking about? PT1

I know that Topps isn't perfect.  Their quality control is actually pretty bad to be honest, but this card threw me for a major loop.

The front of the card appears to be just another random insert from 2013 Topps Update.

Cool idea for an insert set actually.
It's called Franchise Forerunners and features Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole.  That seems fair considering that Cutch won the 2013 NL MVP and Gerrit Cole looks like he could be a future ace in the making.

The back however.....

I have no idea who they are talking about. Do you?
It makes mention of power arms with devastating change-ups.  The Martinez they speak of is obviously Pedro Martinez who "was an NL force before joining Boston".  I don't know why Allen Webster is referenced on the back though.  He hardly seems like a franchise forerunner considering that his WHIP was 1.81 with an 8.60 ERA and a 1-2 record.  More importantly what do either of these guys have to do with Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole or the Pirates for that matter?

I FINALLY OWN A SUPERFRACTOR!!!!

Can you belive this???

2008 Bowman Chrome Superfractor 1/1

Me neither!!!

This is the first Bowman Superfractor that I own and I was pumped when I saw it on ebay.  For around $60, I was able to add another 1/1 of my favorite MLB pitcher.  It doesn't get much better than this.

McCutchen Monday: 72 Topps Chome

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've been showing off a bunch of current Cutch cards in retro looking sets lately as you can see here and here.

I figured I would throw another out there.  Topps continued their reprints of 1972 designed cards in the 2013 Topps Chrome series.  Unlike prior releases of 72s, these 72s are full sized versions but have been chromed out.

The back is made to look exactly like a 1972 card, but again has been chromed out.

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