I Held The Coveted Card and a McCutchen Mailday (120-126)

Yesterday I went to the Chantilly Virginia sports show with my brother because he wanted to attend a few of the Jacksonville Jaguars player signings. It was my last day of vacation and I tagged along for the ride. In less than two months I will be an uncle as my brother and his wife are expecting a baby girl in Early May. I viewed this little get away to be one of the last times him and I get to hang out without a baby or our ladies around.

I really wasn't interested in any of the player signings except Antonio Brown, but his prices were way too high.

Instead I just browsed the dealer's area and picked up some supplies, dime box cards, and some vintage I needed.

Oh and I got to see an authentic T206 Honus Wagner in person AND get my picture with it.

BOOOM!!!!!

This sure beats the heck out of all the reprints I have seen in my time.

I did find this unique oddball card talking about the prized card in the 25 cent bin.

As if that wasn't enough, I also grabbed a bunch of supplies, some vintage, and a few Cutch cards I needed.

When I got home these were in the mailbox.

I will return to normal updates to show all the Cutch cards I have gotten between my 72nd new PC additions and 119th new PC additions.

Holding the Wagner and getting a trio of Cutch rookies needed an immediate update though.

Overall though, I am very very happy with how the Cutch collection has grown to Supercollector status over the past year.

Gem Mint 10 Honus Wagner

I've been looking for some oddball vintage cards recently and while browsing, I came across this 1953 Brown & Bigelow Joker playing card of the greatest shortstop of all time, Honus Wagner. 

The art on the  card is what drew me to it.  It's such a beautiful image of an older Honus signing a baseball for a young fan.

I probably overpaid for it because it was a Probstein auction, but considering that I have never seen this image of Honus before, I couldn't pass it up. 

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.

Throwback Thursday: Honus Wagner Career Hits Debate

Just a few days ago, there was many announcers stating that Derek Jeter had moved into the sole possession of 7th (8th if you count the real hit king) place on the All-Time Hits list.  However in doing research, I have seen multiple sources state different numbers for Honus Wagner's career hits.  While it will often be debated who is the greatest All-Time shortstop, one thing is for certain...Honus Wagner was the greatest before Jeter came along.

It even says it on his Hall of Fame plaque.

Here's a list of the various internet resources all stating different totals for Honus' hits totals
The back of the card above states 3,420
Baseball Reference siting 3,420
ESPN siting 3,415
Baseball Almanac siting 3,430

I think it's safe to say that Jeter will pass the 3,430 mark needing only 8 hits over the next two months, but what if he hadn't gotten to that mark.  Who would you claim was higher up on the All-Time hits list?

Furthermore who do you think is the greatest Shortstop of All-Time?
Also, what do you think about my latest Honus Wagner I grabbed from 2013 Cooperstown for $1?

3,000 hits

On this date in 1914, Honus Wagner became only the 2nd player in baseball history to collect 3,000 hits.  He's currently 7th on the All-Time list with 3,420 hits.

1994 Upper Deck Baseball-The American Epic Documentary

While cleaning out a closet in my parents house a little box of Upper Deck Baseball cards was found.  The cards highlighted events from the Ken Burns BASEBALL documentary from the early 90s.  Inside was the card you see above.  I'm going to keep the Pirates from the set, but am willing to break up the rest if anyone is interested.

This is a look at what the cards from the back look like.

Trading Post: Screaming Line Drive

I recently made a trade with Daddyoho of the blog Screaming Line Drive.  For a couple Phillies jersey relics and a few Flyers, I managed to get 3 nice Pittsburgh additions to the Treasure Room.

2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historical Impressions 175/200

Up first is the card that started the trade, a 2003 SP Legendary Cuts Historical Impressions Honus Wagner numbered 175/200.  It's a nice looking manucard made to resemble Honus' autograph.

On the back of the card is an interesting fact about how Honus ranked in the top 10 in the entire league in average, RBI, hits, runs, OBP, slugging, extra-base hits, and total bases over the course of a 11 straight seasons.  It also shows his career totals for his Hall of Fame career.

Once we started talking, we added more cards to the mix.

2002 SP Authentix Jersey Jason Kendall 

Included is this 2002 SP Authentix Jersey of Jason Kendall.  It such a shame that he suffered such a major injury during his prime cause he could have been one of the best contact hitting catchers in MLB history.  As it stands he finished his career with 2,195 hits and a .288 batting average.  That puts him 4th all time on the catcher's hit list.  4TH ALL TIME!!! Ahead of Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, and Gary Carter.  Do you think that Jason Kendall will ever be recognized as a HOF player?  Probably not.  Mainly because of his off field problems with his ex wife.  And that's a damn shame because it would have been nice to see a Pirate I rooted for get his plaque in Cooperstown wearing the Black n Gold.

2012 Black Friday Sidney Crosby

The final card of the trade was a Sidney Crosby 2012 Black Friday base card.  I'm sure that since he's a Flyers fan, he was more than happy to throw this in since, well.....Flyers don't like Sidney and Sidney doesn't like them.  Why? He just don't like them.

Patching up some holes in my collection

I recently picked up 3 manupatches for my collection.

The first is of HOF left fielder Ralph Kiner and is numbered to 300.  It shows the Pirates "P" along with a "TM" logo.  I like adding these type of cards from time to time if they are unique.  Adding 20 different "P" with the same core group of players though gets a little boring.

The card is very thick (138pt).  This is my first manupatch of Kiner with the Pirates current logo.  I grabbed it for $7.

I also grabbed another Pirates HOF player and quite possibly the greatest shortstop to ever play the game, Honus Wagner.  While this card epically fails in comparison to my T206 Honus Wagner bat relic card, it's kind of cool to get a logo patch of the Bucs from the 1903 World Series.  Honus was a key player heading into that 1st World Series where the Pittsburgh Pirates played the Boston Americans, but managed to bat only .222 with only one extra base hit and only 3 stolen bases.  The Bucs would lose the best of 9 series in Game 8.  The 2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Patch is numbered 70/200 and cost me $10 shipped.  

The other manupatch I picked up is a throwback patch of Rashard Mendenhall from the 2010 Topps Football set.  It cost me $3 and is my first Steeler manupatch.

Why I save for rainy days

Does anyone else have a change jar they use for emergencies?
I don't use mine for emergencies, I use it for my "rainy day" card splurges.  

Normally I put all my pennies, nickels, and dimes in a Poland Spring water cooler bottle and let it sit there until it's too full I can barely lift it.  Friends will throw money into it too when they come over.  It's awesome.  When it get's damn near full I cash it in and get a couple hundred bucks out of "useless change".

Then I use it to buy myself something nice.  Something like what's below...

I saw this card for sale at a card show for triple digits which is expensive as $#!^, but couldn't resist adding it to my collection.  

Honus Wagner jersey relics are very tough to come by (this is my first).  Roberto Clemente relics are always extremely expensive and sought after.  Combine them with another HOF Pirate player 7 time HR champ Ralph Kiner and you have a very neat card that spells out the Pirates nickname "The Bucs".  I love this card and it displays nicely in my man cave along with my other Pirates memorabilia cards like this one below

I bought this card off ebay after searching for a very long time for a Barry Bonds bat relic card featuring the HR King in a Pirates uniform.  When I saw this pop up on ebay I had to overpay to add it to my collection.  No sweet patches or autographs or 19 year old phenoms appear on this card, but it has a very low print run of only 9.

HONUS WAGNER T206!!!!!

As a baseball card fan and a Pittsburgh Pirates fan to be more specific, I have always wanted to add a Honus Wagner T206 to my collection.  I have 3 options regarding this goal.
1) Sell my house to buy 1 baseball card and live in my car.
2) Give up the dream
3) Get a reprint version that is worthy of being on display

After getting back my tax return I decided to splurge and go for option 3.

This Honus Wagner T206 from 2002 Topps T206 features an actual bat relic of Honus.  The card is fricking gorgeous. 

Check that off the bucket list.

Trade Post with It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

Dan from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop is a Diamondbacks fan.  I like the D'backs.  They're a good young team and have a really solid pitching staff. Dan and I set up a trade in exchange for a Justin Upton jersey relic I had purchased earlier in the year.  In exchange for the Upton jersey amongst other D'backs I sent him, I received some really nice vintage for my ongoing Topps team sets needs. 

2 nice vintage cards (58 and 59 Topps) of the 1960 MVP Dick Groat and a World Series Celebration card from 1961 featuring a very happy Maz.

Dan also included some other Pirates cards.  These were my favorites.

Trade Post with Ryan's Pitch

Ryan's Pitch recently completed a trade with me in exchange for a Craig Kimbrel relic I had laying around along with some Yankees and Braves.  Here's what I got in return.


2 Gypsy Queen minis that are both new to me....and one is HOF Honus Wagner!!!!

an assortment of Pirates

and the highlight of the trade, a 2009 UD Icons Letterman Nate McLouth "T" numbered 2/40.  2 is his current number with the Pirates so this year it's an ebay 1/1

I have packages that went out to the following zip codes today
10028
90230
71203
72758
85338
29063
12571
75201
91381
29229
21117

The greatest shortstop of all time is now in my collection

I have longed for a relic of any kind featuring the greatest shortstop of all time. 

Who am I talking about? 
The Iron Man?

 The Captain?

 The Wizard?

Sure...it would be nice to add one of the above cards to my collection.  I grew up watching them all play and they are all sensational athletes.  However, my collection of treasures features PIRATES!!!!  That's right, those battling bucs and 5 time World Series Champions. 

The first World Series was played in 1903 and the Pittsburgh Pirates were a dynasty in the early 1900s having won the NL Championship in 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1909 (which they also won the World Series). 

A main reason why the Pirates were so good back then was a shortstop nicknamed Honus, Hans, or the Flying Dutchman. "Honus" was born Johannes Peter Wagner in 1874 and was cited by Ty Cobb as "maybe the greatest star ever to take the diamond". 

He won 8 NL batting titles, collecting 3,415 hits, and 1,732 RBI and finished his career with a .327 batting average through out his 21 pro seasons.  He still holds the records for most stolen bases as a shortstop with 723.  More impressive though is that he was only caught stealing 23 times in his career.  Some major leaguers border on 20 caught stealings in a season or two.  He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of it's original members as a first ballot Hall of Famer with 95.1% of the vote.  He won a World Series championship in 1909 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

In 1955 a life size statue of Honus Wagner was unveiled outside Forbes Field where a very frail Honus Wagner attended the game and waved to his fans.  Later that year, he passed away at the age of 81.  The Honus Wagner statue has been a fixture to Pirate stadium since it was created and now resides outside PNC Park facing where the former stadium of Honus played. 

I have always wanted a bat or jersey relic of The Flying Dutchman, but those cards always seem to be out of my range, often times going for the same amount of money that a Ruth or Gehrig or Cobb would go for. 

When I saw this 2001 Donruss Classics Stadium Stars pop up for less than $20, I had to have it.  Granted it's just a stadium seat card, but it's a nice looking card featuring a relic from something that saw history happen in the early 1900s when baseball was just begining to become America's past time.  I really enjoy the backs of the early 2000s Donruss relics.  There's something neat about seeing the actual jersey or bat or seat (in this case) used to make the card.  I included scans of the front and back of the card to show off this card. 

As an additional note, I'm going to try and collect as many reprints of the T206 famous Honus Wagner card as I can get my hands on.  Anyone have any lying around?  I'll gladly take an original too.  LOL!