My Maz Collection grows again

My latest addition to my Bill Mazeroski is a two card lot.  One card is an autograph of the Hall of Fame Second Baseman and World Series Hero, the other is just a base Topps card.  Both cards use the same photo though.

Here's the autograph card from 2008 UD Premier numbered 15/25.

The other card is from 2014 World Series Heroes.

Besides Clemente and the guys from the deadball era (Waner, Wagner, Traynor) the Pirates Hall of Famers autos can be had fairly cheaply. Maz and Kiner autos often go for around $20

Doesn't get much better than this...

Since my blog debuted 4 years ago, I have shown off some pretty impressive Stargell, Clemente, and Mazeroski cards in my collection.  To date though, I never had a card that contained game used relics of all 3 on a single card....until now

A triple bat relic of 3 of the most famous Pittsburgh Pirates to ever play the game.  All 3 players on this card have bronze statues outside PNC Park acknowledging their contributions to the team and city.  The low numbered card was purchased when eBay was running a 10x eBay bucks promotion so it essentially dropped the price a great amount.

On Card HOF AUTO: National Treasures Reverse Box Update #6

For the past month I have been showing off my reverse box of 2014 National Treasures and I have already shown some incredible cards.  I will recap them all at the end of this post.

My latest addition of National Treasures is an on card autograph numbered to 10 of Hall of Fame Second Baseman and the only player to ever have a walk off Home Run in Game 7 of a World Series, Bill Mazeroski.

I've shown a handful of Maz autographs on this blog before with my most recent being a sketch card autograph last November.  The last On Card Auto I showed of Maz was from way back in 2013.

The back of the card talks about his dramatic World Series Home Run.

The above low numbered logoless on card autograph ran me $42 delivered which was under budget and brings my total to $234 for the $425 box.  I need 1 more autograph and 1 more auto/relic/or gem hit to complete my 8 card reverse box.  As previously stated once I complete the reverse box, I will just pick up cards I like until I reach the $425 limit.

Other cards I have shown already in my reverse box of /50 copies and all Pirates include

Roberto Clemente bat relic 6/25

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet 7/10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey 32/49

Jameson Taillon Jersey Patch 2/25

Gregory Polanco Colossal Prime Jersey Patch 14/25

Throwback Thursday: You Complete Me 1968

One of my collecting goals for 2015 was to complete 2 vintage team sets which you can see on my Vintage Needs.  I can now cross off almost two from the list and we are only a month into the new year.

Because of our work schedules and the hour difference between us, I didn't get a chance to see my mom on Christmas.  Instead it took us a few weeks into the new year to exchange gifts and enjoy some drinks and holiday cookies.

My mom went above all expectations and hooked me up with some vintage cards I needed to complete some team sets I was working on.  She filled in the remaining 5 cards needed for my 1968 team set by adding 4 cards sporting Hall of Famers (2 Clementes, 1 Stargell, and 1 Jim Bunning).

In addition to the 5 cards I needed for 1968, she also scored me a handful of 1962s which brings my team set needs for that year to only #10 Roberto Clemente.

Thanks so much Mom for knocking these out for me.

Throwback Thursday: I completed a 69

If this title doesn't draw you in, maybe these two sweet 1969 cards of Hall of Famers Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski will.  The former Bucs greats were the last two cards I needed to complete my 1969 Topps Pirates Team Set and it ran me just shy of $18 to do so.

Both cards are in beautiful shape and feature no major creases, chipping, or writing.  Absolutely awesome deal I got for these two at my local sports collectors show at the mall.

Throwback Thursday: 800th Post Mazeroski Sketch & AUTO!!!!

For my 800th post, I wanted it to be something impressive!!!!
Something that made people say "Woah that's cool"

A 1 of 1 sketch card and autograph of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, ought to do the trick.  I have been keeping my eyes on these Leaf Masterworks sketch cards for a long time.

As some of you may know, I used to collect comic books and spent a lot of weekends attending the comic book convention circuit in the summers.  While attending the events I would often spend a lot of time and money chatting up the artists to get sketches of my favorite characters.

When I got back into the sports card collector market, I still had a fixation on sketch cards as you can tell by all the Chris Henderson sketches I've gotten in the past year.

This great image of a happy Maz (even though logoless) complete with a sticker auto of the Hall of Fame secondbaseman and 8 time gold glove winner was just too beautiful of a card to not add to my permanent collection in the Treasure Room.

Thank you to everyone that reads my blog over the past 800 posts.  It's been fun interacting with you all.

Card Show Pickups pt2: Vintage Edition

Yesterday I showed off some very cheap cards I was able to grab for under $1.

I was able to continue my success to one of my favorite parts of the hobby, VINTAGE!!!!
Nothing excites me more at these local card shows than digging through 50% off vintage and 5 for $10 bins.  I came away with a few steals in my search which I will immediately show off.

Up first are my $2 Roberto Clementes, I found in the 5 for $10 bins.  $2 for vintage Clemente????!!!! Hell yeah!!! Who cares that there is a major crease on Hank Aaron.  I sure as hell don't.

Next up are 3, yes 3 vintage Willie Stargells I grabbed for $5 each.

A trio of 1963 Topps I grabbed for $60 including a really nice looking Clemente

To finish up is four 1964s and four 1969s I grabbed for a total of $12.

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?

The Most HOF Relics I can fit into 1 post

I wanted to make a giant post showcasing a bunch of HOF relics I've picked up over the past couple months.  Relics featuring Hall of Famers are never cheap, but I'm quite happy with the prices I paid for these bat and jersey relics.

2004 Topps Tribute HOF BAT RELIC Roberto Clemente

The most expensive of the relics was the above Roberto Clemente bat relic from 2004 Topps Tribute HOF. This card ran me $18 shipped which if you've ever tried to purchase a Clemente bat relic is a bargain.  Most Clemente relics sell in the $25+ range.  As you all probably know, Roberto was inducted into the HOF in 1973 without having to wait the mandatory 5 years of retirement for induction.

2002 Topps Tribute Memorable Materials 

In 2002 Topps Tribute released a series of cards called Memorable Materials.  Bill mazeroski was part of that checklist highlighting his walkoff Game 7 World Series winning Homerun in 1960.  Topps has aknowledged Maz' walkoff HR in several of their releases throughout the years.  The above card was won for $8.50 shipped.

2012 Panini National Treasures League Leaders BAT RELIC 99/99

I previously showed off a few bat relics of the Waner brothers last year.  I managed to pick up another Paul Waner  bat relic numbered 99/99 from 2012 National Treasures.  My 3rd bat relic of the 17th all-time hit leader ran me just $5.99 with combined shipping of another item I plan on showing off in the near future.  I know the cards aren't licensed, but I think the National Treasures series may have been one of the best high end products on the market.

2008 UD Premier Legendary Remnants 9/30

This card put me to 47 hits of Willie "Pops" Stargell, the most hits I own of a retired baseball player.  The 2008 UD Premier Legendary Remnants ran me a cool $8 to add it to the Treasure Room.

Overall I grabbed 4 relics of HOF Pirates for around $40 shipped.  While not considered steals, I think I did ok for myself.

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

My loot from the Crackin Wax break

I decided to participate in the Crackin Wax Allen & Ginter 2013 Case break and of course chose my beloved Pirates.  The Bucs had several good hits from the set list and I was hoping to add one or two to my collection.  Unfortunately I got shut out, but that also meant I got a $5 reimbursement which I've already used to purchase a Starling Marte auto which I'll show off in a future post.

2013 SPs: McCutchen & Martin

The Pirates did have two SPs in the team set (Andrew McCutchen and Russel Martin) and I managed to grab two cards of each.  I will consider trading a copy if the offer is right.

2013 Base team set: Clemente, Mazeroski, Kiner, Stargell, Burnett, Jones, Alvarez, Walker, Marte

The rest of the Pirates team set includes 9 base cards

2013 Across the Years inserts: Stargell and Clemente

The Allen & Ginter Across the Years set includes two Bucs greats (Roberto Clemente & Willie Stargell).

2013 Minis: Walker Black Border, Kiner base, Kiner A&G back, Stargell base, McCutchen A&G back

One of my favorite things about A&G is the minis.  I didn't exactly hit on anything of major note, but did get two A&G backs (Kiner and McCutchen) along with a black border Neil Walker.

As an added bonus I received two cards from 2013 Platinum that I desperately needed to add to my collection.  They are of top prospects Gerrit Cole and Alen Hanson.