10 Years of Allen & Ginter Minis

Allen & Ginter is celebrating their 10th anniversary this year.  As a result there are plenty of "buybacks" floating around with the 10th anniversary logo floating around the secondary market.  I've been trying to pursue adding at least 1 mini of the framed commemorative inserts.  Many have fallen in the 99 cent range which is about all I value them at.

Here's 8 of what I have so far.

2007 Chris Duffy
2008 Jason Bay
2009 Ryan Doumit
2010 Zach Duke
2011 Jose Tabata
2012 Joel Hanrahan
2013 Garrett Jones
2014 Ralph Kiner

The Zach Duke is the A&G back while the Hanrahan and Jones are black borders.

First Look at 2014 Topps with tradebait

I was in the mood for a $5 JanuarANY footlong at the subway near my house which happens to be inside of a WalMart and while there I decided to browse the card aisle.  I was surprised to see the 2014 Topps had just been packed out.

Here's some of the highlights of the blaster and hanger I bought.  With the exception of the Pirates, everything is for trade

First up is the Commemorative Patch I was guaranteed.  It's of the 2013 AL HomeRun champ, Chris "Crush" Davis.

Some cool inserts were found in the packs.  I purposely set the Big Papi 1989 mini crooked to give it that illusion of all those miscut 1989 Topps from our youth.

Because it's WalMart, there were blue parallels.

to go with the other color parallels

I'm not sure if every player in Series 1 has these parallels, but if they do, I will certainly be tracking down the Pirates team set.  Both of these are of the Pirates rival Reds.

And of course the mega hyped LA phenoms Yasiel Puig and Mike Trout

How did I do with Pirates in my Wal Mart adventure?

Well, I didn't strike out.
of the 4 Pirates I pulled, 2 were blue parallels (Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton)

I was f-ing pumped to see the Mortons!!!!!

Unlike previous years where sunglasses, celebrations, homerun robbing catches, and autograph signings are shortprints, this year they are part of the regular set.

McCutchen Monday: It came from Japan!

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you may remember that I picked up several video game cards produced by Topps for the Japanese market.  I highlighted those cards back in February which included Jason Grilli, Garret Jones, Joel Hanrahan, and of course Andrew McCutchen.

I found a seller of these cards who has a shop on ebay and added him to my favorites.
I recently saw that he had listed several of the 2013 Topps SegaCardGen cards so naturally I had to pick them up.

2013 SegaCardGen 

Here's the 2013 SegaCardGen gaming card of Cutch.

2013 Sega CardGen back

 Above is the back of the card.

In addition to Cutch, I grabbed 5 other Bucs and a former Buc.  Below you'll see Pedro Alvarez, Jared Hughes, James McDonald, Neil Walker, AJ Burnett, and Joel Hanrahan.

I don't have any idea what the back of the cards say, but I think my favorite description is for Pedro Alvarez. I wonder if El Toro wears a cape when he disguieses himself as  Power Hitting Hot Corner Man.

Remembering the Hammer at the Deadline

Joel Hanrahan was traded during the offseason leading into the 2013 season.  He was a 2 time All-Star closer in 2011 and 2012 and a very good setup man in 2010.  He had season ending surgery earlier in the year and it is unsure what type of role his career will be in when he returns.

During the 2011 season, a lot of contending teams were seeking bullpen help.  Since the trade deadline is today, I can only imagine what the Pirates might have received if they were willing to give up on the Hammer in 2011 with his 2 and 1/2 seasons of control left.  Jurickson Profar might be too much to have asked for, but Chris Davis or Mike Olt could have been reality.

2012 Topps Tier 1 AUTO 145/399

Anyway, here's a card I recently grabbed of the Hammer off ebay for .99

1st Goal of 2013 COMPLETE!!!!!!

One of my 2013 collecting goals was to add another 2 cards to my collection featuring the Pirates Jolly Roger logoman.

Last month I showed off my Neil Walker logoman patch I picked up for a bit over $30.

NOW....

IT'S HAMMER TIME!!!

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Relic #6/10

NUMBERED 6/10

While Joel Hanrahan is no longer with the Pirates, he was a 2 time All-Star with the Bucs and was one of my favorites when he stepped up to the mound.  I'll still be rooting for the Hammer when he recovers from his season ending surgery and hope that his career isn't over.

This Hanrahan Gypsy Queen mini framed relic cost me $29 shipped.  Of the 10 copies, this is the only one that I've seen pop up on ebay so far.

STOP!!!! (it's) HAMMER TIME!!!!

Can't touch this...

not for $7 shipped.

Joel Hanrahan has been one of the best closers in the NL the past couple years and was traded to Boston during this offseason.  He remains one of my favorite players though and when I can pick up on card silver inked autos of the 2 time All-Star I can't say no. ESPECIALLY FOR $7.
  

New Additions to the PTR

Yesterday I showed off some new trade bait including some Japanese import gaming cards featuring MLB's finest.  I also managed to pick up a few of my favorite Pirates from that set including Joel Hanrahan, Garrett Jones, and the PTR's favorite Bucco Andrew McCutchen.

I also found a few of the 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) gaming cards of Pirates too including Hanrahan (Team USA), current Pirates closer Jason Grilli (team Italy), and Pirates swingman Chris Leroux (team Canada). 

My recent Ebay purchases include a Ralph Kiner autograph for $10.  I've been on a Ralph Kiner kick lately and will be adding to this part of my collection a lot more this year.  I really want to focus more on my HOF Pirates collection this year so expect to see more Stargell, Clemente, Maz, Kiner, Honus Wagner, and the Waner brothers added to my collection this year. 

I realized that I had never posted this prior to my "fallout" from the blogging community.  It's a tri jersey featuring Jason Bay, Albert Pujols, and Ken Griffey Jr. that I won for $8.50

2 future HOFers and a Jason Bay.  It's numbered 49/50 so yup, I'll take it.
I have several more cards that I still need to add to this site that were purchased from many months ago.  Most of them are Jason Bay related.  I'll try to do a few massive updates over the next couple weeks.

Another Contest Winner: Free Tribe Cards go to....

The Pirates beat the Tribe today 9-5.  Yesterday, they won 9-2.  Pedro Alvarez now has 4 homeruns in his last 7 at bats.  I hope he's starting to heat up again because he can carry this offense when his bat is hot. 

Since the series was three games I'm going to randomize the entries 3 times

 Our winner is Coronado2010

You will be receiving the 4 Indians cards for this contest's winnings.

Since today's father's day I thought it would be nice to show off some recent pickups that remind me of my father.  When I was younger, my dad would always buy me baseball cards if we went out together.  There was a thrift store near the barber shop that would sell baseball stickers.  Every time my dad or I got our hair cut he would take me there and buy me a pack.  While I don't have any of the old stickers from the 80s or 90s, I did manage to recently buy a complete team set of the Bucs for $1.99 off ebay.  Stickers are fun!  They remind me of my childhood.  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

The Pirates are off tomorrow then will head back home to Pittsburgh to face off against the Minnesota Twins.  I'm excited to see Ryan Doumit back in the burgh.

Here's what's available if the Pirates win the series against the Twins.

2 jersey relics: 1 of Christian Guzman and the other of 2012 draftee DJ Baxendale
a 2012 Heritage rookie card, a TC Mascot card, and a Miguel Sano top prospect card

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.

Finally A Win!!!!

Today marked the first time the Bucs have won in a week.  The Pirates haven't had any complete blowouts besides Matt Cain's near perfect game, so they look like they are still competing with the NL West teams.  The Bucs will face off against the Diamondbacks starting tomorrow.

To celebrate the win today, I'm going to show off some of my recent purchases.

Kevin Correia pitched another great game to start the season.  If he continues to pitch like this through July, he may earn his second All-Star game as he picked up the win today and had his ERA sitting at 1.50 while allowing only 3 hits over 6 innings pitched.  The card pictured above may look familiar to those that read my blog regularly.  That's because Julie from Things Are Funner Here sent me the red swatch version of this card in a previous trade.

Garrett Jones had a solo HR to put the Pirates up 2-0 in the 2nd inning which was the game winning run.

Joel Hanrahan came in to close the game out in the 9th and had some control issues, but earned his first save of the season.  WOW! It feels good to get a win today.

As stated above, the Pirates will be traveling to Arizona to face off against the D'backs tomorrow.  Don't forget to cheer on the Bucs for a chance to win free cards.

The cards given away for this series will include future pitching superstar Trevor Bauer's Bowman rookie card, a Dan Haren 2010 red parallel (numbered123/299), and a Curt Schilling Flair Jersey Heights white jersey card.  Root for the Pirates to win the series and you could win free cards!  Let's Go Bucs!!!!

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?