My latest Hall of Fame & Tobacco Card Acquisition

The Pirates have 37 Alumni who played at least one game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Hall of Fame.  Of that group, only 11 were inducted into the Hall having played more games with Pittsburgh than any other franchise that individual had played for.

Recent inductees like Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage had wonderful careers, but likely won't be remembered a generation from now as being on the Pirates.

The Pirates were a powerhouse in the early 1900s being lead by the greatest shortstop of All-Time, Honus Wagner, and leftfielder, Fred Clarke.

My ultimate goal is to add autographs of Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente and Honus Wagner, but adding Fred Clarke was a major score to my collection.

This 2015 Historic Autographs includes a cut auto of the 1909 World Series Champion along with an original t206 Piedmont trading card.

Clarke finished his career with over 2,600 hits, a career batting average of .312 and an on base percentage of .386 while swiping 509 bags.  His best season may have come in his final season before joining the Pirates back in 1899 when he hit .340, stole 49 bags, and only struck out 18 times in 681 plate appearances.  He became the player manager his first year with the Bucs in 1900.

I was having a conversation with my brother the other day and what I find most fascinating about adding these incredible cut autographs to the collection is that guys like Fred Clarke had passed away before Carlos Correa's father was even born.  Wrap your head around that for perspective.  Fred Clarke was born before electricity really took off with Thomas Edison's inventions.

Honus Wagner 1/1 Auto hits the PTR

One of my 2015 collecting goals was to add another Pirates HoFer to my collection. I've already added Max Carey to the collection and now....

I've added an autograph of the greatest shortstop ever

This card is absolutely amazing. Shame the auto is a fake. The above custom card cost me $13 delivered. It may not be real, but makes a great conversation piece.

It goes well with my t206 Wagner bat relic.

This is what a high end Hall of Fame Cut Auto should look like...

This week has been a powerhouse week at the PTR. Dont believe me? Go back to Sunday to see how it started.

Last week, I showed off a Roberto Clemente bat relic numbered 6/25.  It was my 15th bat relic of the Hall of Famer.  I stated that I would do a reverse box of 2014 National Treasures this year and will likely have a lot of fun tracking down these high end cards.  The Pirates Pittsburgh Baseball Club is well represented in 2014 National Treasures with current players and Hall of Famers.

One such player that has some great looking Cut Auto Booklets /10 is Hall of Famer Willie Stargell.  Known to the fanbase as Pops for his leadership role on the 1979 World Series Championship team, Stargell has a great signature and for the most part it's also very affordable.

I've seen a handful of Stargell's booklets from National Treasures end up in the $125+ range, but I was fortunate to win this auction for only $81 delivered.  Now you're probably thinking $81 is a lot to spend on one card when you're trying to do a reverse box....and you're right.

I'm currently way over budget at $145 on two cards that my budget for said cards was $106.  I have a lot of ground to make up as I accumulate the remaining 6 cards of my reverse box.  Honestly though, I can't complain about having a HOF cut auto and jumbo bat relic numbered /10 along with a Clemente bat relic numbered /25 for the prices paid though.  I know it sounds crazy to think two cards for $145, but for these two beloved Pittsburgh icons, that's a great deal.

With 3 more guaranteed autographs, and a combination of gem, relic, auto left I know that I will be able to complete the remaining 6 cards for less than $280.  I am allowed to spend $46 per card to finish under the allowed amount.

Savings Start Now!

A NEW HALL OF FAMER ENTERS THE COLLECTION, First Goal of 2015 Complete!!!!

Last year was a great year for my collection.  I completed my first 2014 Goal within a week and day of making my list by adding a Goose Gossage Pirates autograph.  This year, I followed suit and completed my first 2015 Goal within a few weeks of the new year.

Following the same pattern as last year, I sought out a new Hall of Fame autograph to add to the collection.  There's a long list of Pirates in the Hall of Fame that I currently don't have, but 1961 inductee Max Carey can now be crossed off that list.

Max Carey never received more than 51% of the votes for Hall of Fame eligibility during his 15 years post retirement.  However 3 years after his last year of eligibility he was inducted in by the Veteran's Committee.  The fleet footed outfielder won the Stolen Base crown 10 times while a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates and still ranks 9th All-Time.

Carey finished his 19 year career with a .285 batting average, 2664 hits, and a patent for sliding pads to protect your legs and hips when sliding.  His numbers don't jump off the page, but during a ten year stretch he was one of the best in the game patrolling the outfield.

I've seen Carey autographs sell for as much as $200 in the past and I was very happy to win this auction with a best offer in the $50 range.  Obviously getting sticker autos or on card autos of many of the Pirates in the Hall of Fame besides Bill Mazeroski and the recently deceased Ralph Kiner are going to be tough to come by so I don't mind a cut auto when available.  However, I do have one rule for cut autos and that is it must show an image of the player.  I don't care if the logos have been cut out or it's unlicensed, but I want to see an image of the player.

My latest signed 1/1 Cut Signature

My most recent cut auto is of my main super collection player, Charlie Morton.  This 2012 A Sign of History slabbed cut auto ran me $7 + shipping.  Not  a bad price to be had for my latest 1/1 of Ground Chuck.

Charlie deserved his first win of the 2014 season last night when he pitched 6 scoreless innings giving up 4 hits, 1 walk and striking out 6 batters, but due to a rare Pirates bullpen blown save, that wasn't the fate. The Bucs still walked it off though thanks to a pinch hit single by 2009 1st round draft pick, Tony Sanchez

My first Babe AUTO!!!!

2013 Historic Autographs offered a rather unique product to the public.  Each PSA/DNA contained a cut auto of a historic player and either an original tobacco card OR an original artwork of a tobacco card of the player from 1909-1912.  These retailed for $270 a box.  Each box contained 1 autograph.

I saw the sell sheet of the players available and there were some very big names like Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, and Walter Johnson.  There was also a cut auto of the Pittsburgh Pirates all-time Wins leader, Babe Adams which I snagged for $125.

2013 Historic Autographs Babe Adams Cut Auto 10/18

Charles Benjamin "Babe" Adams spent 18 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates posting a 194-139 record with a 2.74 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.  He received above 10% voting for the Hall of Fame only once in 1947.  The two time World Series Champ (1909 and 1925) would go on to serve as a reporter for World War II.

The most remarkable thing I read about Babe was that he once pitched all 21 innings of a game against the NY Giants without allowing a walk.  In nearly 3,000 innings pitched, Babe allowed only 430 walks (1.3BB/9).

3 New HOF Autos for the PTR

I've been adding to my HOF Pirates AUTO collection recently by picking up ON CARD AUTOGRAPHS of 2011 inductee Bert Blyleven and 2008 inductee Goose Gossage.

You can see those posts by clicking on the players name above.

In addition to Bert & Goose, I was looking to add to my autograph collection of 2 players who were more well known to the Pirates.  I'm talking about Ralph Kiner and Bill Mazeroski.

In 2005 Upper Deck released a limited print run of HOF players called "Class of Cooperstown". These cards featured bat relics that were etched with the players HOF year of entry along with a sticker auto.  The players photos were black and white on a blue background.  They looked very classy and were limited to only 15 copies per player.

I stumbled across the Ralph Kiner and Bill Mazeroski who were both being sold by the same seller.  The seller was asking $30 a piece with free shipping.  Some further research made me realize that if I didn't take this opportunity now, I would probably never be able to get them again.  Only one other copy of each had reached the secondary market in the past year. So I hit buy-it-now and now they are part of my permanent collection.

Ralph Kiner 2005 Upper Deck Class of Cooperstown AUTO/BAT 1/15

Bill Mazeroski 2005 Upper Deck Class of Cooperstown AUTO/BAT 3/15

After acquiring the above two cards, I came across this CUT AUTO of HOF Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner from 2008 Topps Sterling Cuts.  I used to have a Lloyd Waner that was part of my collection, but when my ex left so did that card.  Sad story I know.  

Personally though I prefer this CUT auto featuring Lloyd's HOF plaque over the signed check.  It cost me $40 which doesn't sound too expensive for a deceased HOFer. 

Little Poison debuts on PTR

Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner patrolled the Pittsburgh outfield with his brother, Paul "Big Poison" for nearly a decade in the 1920s and 1930s.  The Waner brothers have more hits than all 3 Alou brothers combined in addition to all 3 Dimaggio brothers.  The two brothers amassed 5,611 career hits between the two of them. 

He appeared in 1 All-Star game (1938) and finished his career with 2,459 hits and a batting average of .319.  Little Poison was a hitter with an extreme plate discipline.  His largest single season strikeout total was 23 in 1927 when he collected 223 hits while batting .355.  His career strikeout totals were 173 times over 8,334 plate appearances.  To put that into perspective, Mark Reynolds of the Baltimore Orioles had 196 strikeouts last year alone in only 620 plate appearances. 


Despite not having hit any of the milestone numbers, Lloyd was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967 by the Veteran's Committee.  Sabremetrician Bill James has stated that Lloyd Waner is one of ten players elected into the HOF that don't have the statistics to warrant the enshrinement.  I strongly disagree with his assessment based on the fact of how well he hit and controlled the strike zone while batting.

It's always nice to add an autograph of a Hall of Famer to my collection, especially one that means so much to my favorite team.  Lloyd passed away in 1982 so it's very hard to find autographs of him and although it's numbered to 217 (not a very low print run for a deceased HOFer) I am very happy to add this Lloyd Waner AUTO to the ever growing Pirates Treasure Room.  I picked this up at a card show for $50 which is a steal if you ask me.