1991 Fleer IP/TTM Update: AVS

Andy Van Slyke is one of my favorite players ever.

When I saw a chance to grab this IP auto I couldn't resist. With this addition, I am down to needing only one big name player to complete the 1991 Fleer Pirates team set in autograph form. Unfortunately, that player is Barry Bonds who hardly ever signs.

Funny oddball of one of my favorites

For 99 cents delivered, I grabbed this unique oddball card from CardToons of Andy Van Tyke for the Parrots.

Look how tiny Andy is compared to the catcher!

Here's some interesting facts about the toddler

Throwback Thursday: Cannonball coming....

If you've ever listened to a Pirates telecast or Roots Sports Pittsburgh highlights, you have probably heard Greg Brown's call of "Cannonball Coming!!!" everytime the Pirates hit a HomeRun.

It's been a long time since card manufacturers highlighted defensive skills in addition to offensive skillsets.  Back in the late 80s and early 90s though, these were commonplace for card companies to insert as part of the base set.  Yes, defensive talents were recognized as base cards.  Everyone that collected the set, got to admire highly defensive players skill level on the diamond.

Above is a collection of those highlighted.

As you all know, Andy Van Slyke is one of the main reasons I became a Pirates fan.  The dude could flat out play defense.  He was efficient with the bat too.  Bobby Bonilla, like Pirates current former 3rd baseman, Pedro Alvarez showed immense power at the plate, but also had a cannon for an arm.  Unfortunately like Bonilla, Alvarez doesn't know where it's going.

Trade Post: Phungo, It's where the fun goes...

I recently made a trade with Paul of the blog Phungo, a Phillies card blog.

 

Paul had posted his thoughts on a rack pack of 2014 Allen & Ginter he bought back in August and had pulled an Andrew McCutchen mini.  I instantly jumped on calling dibs on it.

In addition to the A&G mini, Paul sent a package with his usual Phungo cards he produced himself.  Some of my all time favorites were included.

He also included a bunch of new cards I didn't already have in my Pirates collection including the well worn, but brand new to me 1993 Fleer Atlantic Collector's Edition Andy Van Slyke.  All 10 cards pictured above are new to my collection except for the Cutch which I have one signed in person.  The 75 mini of Al Oliver and Bowman Heritage Aramis Ramirez are probably my runner up favorites to the playing card of Barry Bonds.  I just love those unique oddball items featuring players from the 80s and 90s.  I wish they would do stuff like that again.

He also included this unique 2007 Upper Deck NL Central Pennant Chasers insert of Freddy Sanchez.  The Bucs actually had a shot at winning the NL Central Pennant in 2007 despite having a losing record.

Paul thank you so much for the awesome cards.  Your package should be arriving next week.  I went to a card show last weekend and got some extra stuff for you.

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.

The Best Ebay Lot EVER!!! Only 5 cents a card!!!!

While browsing for some good deals on ebay, I stumbled across this ridiculously cheap lot of 670 Pirates cards for $35 with FREE SHIPPING.  When you break that down, it's only a little over 5 cents a card.  Forget about your dimebox heroes, these are nickel heroes.

As part of the lot were 4 autographs from Francisco Cordova, the last Pirate to be involved in throwing a No-Hitter. Mike Kingery, Jon Liever, and Steve Cooke were the other signatures in the lot.

Also were 10 new Andy Van Slyke cards for my collection which I showed off yesterday.

It was overflowing with complete team sets from Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, Gypsy Queen, Pro Debut, etc.

It had over half a dozen minis.

Plenty of duplicate Andrew McCutchens (31 to be exact)

Plenty of new Andrew McCutchens (8)

More Jason Kendall, Brian Giles, Freddy Sanchez, and Jack Wilson cards than I will ever know what to do with

A Garrett Jones 2010 UD Biography card I've been chasing for awhile along with some more favorites that are all new additions to the collection

Several gold, blue, sparkle parallels (but my favorite is the blue Alex Presley shown below)

Oddballs and Diamond Kings

Some Hall of Famers

and a boatload of rookie cards for Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Gregory Polanco, Josh Bell, Luis Heredia, Tony Sanchez, Nick Kingham and Austin Meadows including a 2013 Bowman Refractor mini of Jameson Taillon

Of course there was junk in there, but considering that the cards were only 5 cents a piece, I think I got my money worth.  What do you think?

10 new Andy Van Slyke cards

One of my 2014 collecting goals was to add 36 new Andy Van Slyke cards to my collection (3 a month for 12 months).  I recently made a massive steal of a card collection deal on ebay that included 10 new Andy Van Slyke, I somehow didn't have in my possession.

Last week, I showed off my 1st new AVS of 2013 to the PC.
11 down, 25 more to go...

A new Andy Van Slyke card

One of my 2014 collecting goals is to add 36 new Andy Van Slyke cards to my PC.  The first few weeks of January lead to nothing, but I finally added a new AVS to my collection.

1 down, 35 to go...

This recent $3 pickup hails from the 2013 Hometown Heroes insert set, Rivalry and is my first unlicensed card of AVS in a long long time.

If you're not familar with the insert set, it features players that played for rival teams during their playing career.  Past fan favorites like Lenny Dykstra (NYM and Phillies), Roger Clemens (BoSox and Yanks), Orel Hershiser (Dodgers/Giants), and many others are featured in the set.

Above is a scan of the back of the card.

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?

Throwback Andy Van Slyke

I miss some of the 90s cards.  The Pirates yesterday were guaranteed their first nonlosing season since the days of Andy Van Slyke.

1993 Score Dream Team

I'm going to make it a mission to update my Andy Van Slyke PC sometime this week.

The Best Damn McCutchen Collection...just got better

I take pride in my Andrew McCutchen collection.  I like the fact that I really started to collect Cutch in his rookie campaign and have been getting more and more aggressive adding to my collection every year.  The fact that he has blossomed into one of the most promising young superstars in the game today, only makes me more proud of it.  Prior to the 2009 season, guys like Alcides Escobar, Travis Snider, Colby Rasmus, Cameron Maybin, and Rick Porcello were all ranked higher than Cutch.  While all are servicable major leaguers in the game today, none of them are doing what Cutch is capable of.

Anywho, I decided to recently treat myself to some cardboard.  Here's what I came up with.

Up first is a nice 3 jersey relic of 2011 All-Stars Curtis Granderson, Justin Upton, and Cutch from 2011 Topps.  This serially numbered gem is an ebay 1/1 or as we call it in the real world 25/25.  This marks my 4th jersey relic featuring Justin Upton and Cutch on the same piece of cardboard.  This ran me $30 which is much less than some that I've seen sell for up to nearly triple digits.  

So many people have been posting about how they want to see Panini get a license and how annoying the Topps monopoly is.  I would have to agree, but that's a subject for a future post.  The above patch relic which actually has some stitching on it is numbered 15/25.  I managed to grab this for only $9.99.

 This might be my favorite multiplayer card featuring a Cutch relic I own.  Willie Pops Stargell is my favorite "vintage" player.  Andy Van Slyke was one of my favorite players from my youth and Cutch is my current favorite player.  Add in the fact that this marks my first AVS bat relic and the numbering of the card to 18 (AVS number) and the serial number of the card 8 (Stargell's number) and the saying "Pure Steel" .....well this card is just flat out awesome!!!!

Topps 5 Star is a really nice line of cards.  They are crazy overpriced, but sometimes you can find them on the cheap when the player's name is listed incorrectly.  This Cutch cost me only $8 shipped thanks to a no reserve and a low starting bid.  I will not release to you my saved searches for f-ed up spelling errors, but I love it when I can grab cards like this so cheap.

I also grabbed the above 9 cards I needed for my collection in a mega lot purchased for $25.  I had the sticker somewhere, but evidently misplaced it somehow.  The Heritage base cards I had in my Heritage team set binders, but not in my player collection binder.  The real gems of the above lot are the SP 2013 Heritage, the 2 2013 Heritage Refractors, and the 2009 T206 City Skyline variant.  I was most excited about the skyline variant as I have never been able to find that card for less than $8 by itself.  Also included in the lot were a few other Cutch cards I already had along with the below 2011 Lineage AUTO.  I already have that card, but if anyone wants to make a trade for the on card auto of one of baseball's promising young superstars let me know.

All those are nice cards, right?  While I like them all, they fail in comparison to this

CLEMENTE!!!! & CUTCH!!!!

Ok, so the design isn't jaw dropping.  The plain bat relic and jersey relic aren't anything to get excited about. But C'mon it's Clemente & Cutch TOGETHER on a card numbered to 50!!!

Some sweet COMC Pickups

I saw a very limited dual auto of the Pirates 2010 Top Draft Picks (Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie) on COMC and decided to use some of the money in my paypal account to pick up some other fun cards for my collection.  So for the price of two blasters, here's what I got.

a couple presteroid cards of Barry Bonds.  Notice how much bigger his head is compared to his body before going into San Fransisco.  LOL! I also got a Jay Bell(hop) card which just looked fun.  Well worth the price of a gumball for all 3 cards.

I picked up just a few cards for the player collection with not a single card costing me more than .55 which includes an Andy Van Slyke 1985 Topps Rookie Card

I also got a couple Heritage cards I needed getting me closer for my team sets to being completed.  I picked up 2 of Nate Baker because I'm hoping to get one signed at a future AA Altoona game.

I couldn't pass up these numbered parallels for the asking prices.  They ranged from .25 to $1.15.
Bonds 1125/1992
Taillon 284/309
Milledge 1595/2010
Vogelsong 573/2006

The above 4 autographs were all picked up for less than a $1 each.  Sure there's no HOF candidates in there, but it's nice to get on card autographs of Bucs from yesteryear. 
Tony Womack is 99th on the alltime steals list with 363 (122 in a Pirates uniform).
Kevin Young is 10th All Time on the Pirates HR list with 136 HR wearing a Pirates uniform. 
Al Martin is 18th all time on the Pirates HR list with 107 HR wearing a Bucs uniform. 
Brad Eldred...he was the first Pirate to hit a HR that my girlfriend and I attended a game together.  He also has 240 minor league homeruns which is ridiculous numbers.

I finished off 2 Topps team sets from 1971 and 1973.  I also got two nice looking vintage Gene Alley cards.

A COMC box wouldn't be complete unless it had some Jason Bay jersey cards in it so I picked up 3.  I'm really digging that 4 piece Canada jersey from 2006 Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings.  The 08 Topps and 07 Sweet Spot cards were had for $1.99 and $2.50 respectively.

This was the big hit of my COMC purchase.  A dual auto from 2011 In The Game Heroes & Prospects of 2010 1st round draft pick Jameson Taillon and 2010 2nd round draft pick Stetson Allie.  This card had a print run of 15, but is not numbered.