Black is the New Black: Silver Lambo-graph-ini

If you've followed my blog for awhile you know that I love silver ink and black borders.  I've got a large collection of Bowman Black autographs of all the Pirates top prospects (Cole, Taillon, Marte, Polanco, Glasnow, Hanson, Joe, McGuire, Meadows).

I've decided that I wanted to start seeking out Topps Chrome black autographs with silver ink also.
Up first is Andrew Lambo.

When Lambo came to the Bucs in 2010 for Octavio Dotel, I was extremely excited.  He was in his early 20s and already smashing AA pitching which lead to him being a top 100 prospect.   5 years later and he still hasn't been given his full shot to produce at the major league level.

The above on card autograph ran me less than $7 delivered which is an incredible price for a card numbered to 25 copies. Lambo is currently on the DL which is a shame because of the uncertainty revolving around Starling Marte's early exit yesterday.

$15 Lil Man, put those team sets in my hand...

I've been on a roll adding some great ebay deals for $15 lately.  My latest acquisition is a bunch of Pirates 2014 team sets for $15 delivered.  For a winning bid of $11 I received complete or near complete team sets of 2014 Topps, 2014 Donruss, 2014 Topps Opening Day, 2014 Finest, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Gypsy Queen, 2014 Bowman, 2014 Archives, 2014 Bowman Platinum and a few inserts as well.

Included were 3 really nice inserts or parallels of young outfield prospect Gregory Polanco

Also included were 4 different brands of cards using the same image of Pedro Alvarez.

Of course there were some Hall of Famers in there too with Clemente, Stargell, and Kiner all being represented.

Gerrit Cole made several appearances in the 102 card lot.
The white border Gypsy Queen is especially nice

A Nice Tyler Glasnow Purple Bowman Platinum was included

Along with a bunch of the Pirates top prospects (both hitting and pitching)

And of course it wouldn't be a Pirates lot if this guy didn't show up half a dozen times or more

Along with soooooo many others

Reverse Boxin' TTT

No today's post isn't some new sport featured on ESPN, it's another step closer to doing a reverse box of 2014 Topps Triple Threads.  Last year I started with a reverse box of 2013 Topps Tribute and continued that to this year with a 2014 Topps Tribute which I completed in October with 2 pink parallels (Didi Gregorious and Jason Heyward).

Earlier in the week I stated that I would reverse box a 2014 Topps Triple Threads starting with my Jason Grilli Jumbo Patch Autograph numbered to 10.  That card ran me $15 so if you're keeping track that left me $135 to go after the remaining 13 cards.  Not bad odds for completing a reverse box.

Well as I was browsing ebay I came across a seller who had several Pirates base cards, 2 Pedro Alvarez parallels, and an Andrew Lambo triple relic autograph numbered to 50.  What the heck...why not go for this large lot to help knock off some of the cards.  It ended up costing me $26 delivered but brings me to need only 2 base cards, 2 parallels, and 2 more hits with over $100 to spare.  Needless to say though I will likely take away a Pedro Alvarez base as I hopefully will not pull any doubles in a box that contains only 14 cards.

Here's the lot

2014 Triple Threads 8/50 AUTO/RELIC

Despite seeming like Lambo has been in the minors trying to break through for that breakout season at the major league level, Lambo is still just 25 years old.  I have high expectations for Lambo and think that he could be a better defender and contact hitter than Pedro Alvarez at 1B, plus he can play a corner outfield position.  I think that he will most certainly make the team next year and will likely win the starting 1B role midseason similiar to how Josh Harrison won the 3B role when Alvarez struggled.  Does this mean that I am giving up on Alvarez in the organization?  No actually.  I think Alvarez will return to 3B and Harrison will become a super utility guy again.

The other base cards in the lot were 2 Alvarez, 1 Cole, and 1 McCutchen.  As I said above I think I will most certainly replace one of the Alvarez base with either Polanco or Clemente.

2014 Triple Threads Gold 96/99 and Amethyst 236/325

As for the parallels I added the 2 Pedro Alvarez parallels because they were part of the lot.  Again though, expect one of these to not count towards the reverse box because even though it's a different parallel (amethyst and gold) I would like to get different players parallels too.

Going into the Archive files

2014 Archives was released a few months ago and I normally let the market die down a little before I go buy the singles or team sets.  Because of the different designs used for Archives, I sort the team set in my player collection binder instead.  I find it much easier to find my 2014 Archives of the 1989 design Gerrit Cole sorted with all my other Coles than trying to remember what design was used for what year.  Besides, I only have binders for team sets of Flagship Topps, Allen & Ginter, Topps Heritage, and Flagship Upper Deck.  Everything else gets sorted by player alphabetically.  If the player is a fan favorite or active player it goes in the binder.  If not, it gets organized alphabetically in a long box.

Enough about my crazy organization though.

Here's the players for 2014 Archives.

First up the inserts.  Ok.  I'm going to be very frank about this....I love this year's Pirates insert selections.  First up is a deckle edge of Andy Van Slyke, a guy that I have been building a PC of since 1987.  Having an insert of one of my favorite long retired players is awesome!!!! Next up is a fired up Jason Grilli All-Star card.  As much as Grilli struggled this year, I still love the guy.  And finally is Cutch.  Nuff said!

 Of the designs used in this year's Archives, the 1986 design is my favorite.  Pedro Alvarez is the only nonSP to be featured using the 86 design.

 The 1980 design is another favorite of mine for one reason...it was Rickey Henderson's rookie card.  I had a Henderson rookie card as a kid and lost it on the school bus when I brought it in for show and tell.  At the time it was going for around $100 according to Beckett and Tuff Stuff (remember that magazine?)  Recently I was able to grab a decent copy of one for $10 at my local card show in the mall.  Andyway, Marte and Clemente share the 1980 design which is great because I see Marte as having a similar style of play to Clemente, but with many less career hits.

I can't begin to tell you how many boxes, rack packs, wax packs, etc of 1989 Topps I opened as a kid.  Way too many.  Stargell and Cole represent the design I like the least.

 The 1973 might be one of my least favorite designs from the 70s and the player selection for this design is poor.  Grilli is gone, Lambo was still in the minors until a few days ago, and Kiner has passed away.

Lots of Autographs from Pirates vs. Phillies game

So the Pirates may have lost 7-2, but I left in the middle of the 5th inning because I had to travel back home for work.  At that time the Bucs were up 2-1 thanks to one of my favorite prospects to collect Robbie Grossman. 

Before the game started I saw Robbie out on the field warming up with the Bucs and he seemed extremely happy that someone recognized him and asked for his autograph.  He signed a baseball for me on the sweetspot and thanked me for his support. 

Also before the game started I was able to add to my sign I started in Spring Training a few weeks back.  This wooden sign is turning out great.  I added Matt Hague, Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker, Jeff Karstens, and team president Frank Coonelly. 

I also managed to get a few other balls signed between the two game series.  Joel Hanrahan, Pedro Alvarez, and Matt Hague all contributed to my solo signature balls collection.  The Hague was a game-used ball with some small dirt marks on it.  Matt actually tossed me a ball after the 4th inning when the Bucs were coming off the field, but I gave the ball to a little kid sitting behind me. 

I got a few cards signed as well.  Cards are a pain in the ass to get signed at games in Philly because you can't get near the dugout to seek out autographs.  I rarely bring cards unless I know that the player is very fan friendly and will accept a card being thrown at them like Gambit from the X-Men.

 2012 Topps Heritage Clint Hurdle

2011 Topps Opening Day Stadium Lights Pedro Alvarez

Former Dodgers Top Prospect and current Pirate Prospect Andrew Lambo
2010 Bowman Chrome Topps 100 numbered 82/499

The absolute best thing that my girlfriend and I got signed though was this 8x10 photo below.  We attended the Monday night On Deck game and the Red Philly Phanatic was taunting Pirates slugger Garrett Jones before the game.  Jones was trying to avoid him and shuffling back and forth.  My lady took a picture of the incident and printed out the picture before the Tuesday game in hopes that Garrett would sign it.  When he saw the photo he started cracking up and said this is the best thing he ever signed.  We prepared for that and gave him his own copy to keep as he signed ours.

Here's some other pictures that she took from the game.  For those wondering how close we were, try row 1 behind the Pirates dugout.  With pictures like this, she might have a job at Topps right?