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.

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.

Remembering Ralph Kiner

It's been six months since Ralph Kiner passed away and I am still disappointed that I never made the trip to a Cooperstown signing that he so often attended.  Kiner was one of the greatest sluggers of his time and during his 10 year career he hit 369 homeruns.  After his playing career ended, Kiner went on to be an announcer for the New York Mets.  Both the Mets and Pirates are wearing commemorative patches to honor Kiner this year.  The above card was purchased for $15 back in January and is my 15th certified autograph of the Hall of Famer.

R.I.P. Ralph Kiner

I may have already had 13 autographs of the Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, but for less than $12, I couldn't resist adding another to my collection, especially since it's on card!  Welcome to the collection, number 14.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game ON CARD AUTO

Sadly, news broke of Ralph's passing a few hours after receiving this card. My condolences go out to the Kiner family, the Mets and Pirates organizations and all those whose life the great HOF slugger impacted.

My latest auto of HOFer Ralph Kiner

I said I wanted to add 5 new Ralph Kiner autos to my collection this year.  As much as I like adding more of the HOF leftfielder's autograph to my collection, I don't like spending a lot of money to do it.

I picked up another low print run of HOFer Ralph Kiner on ebay earlier this year.  This 2005 Upper Deck HOF Baseball Bat Relic and AUTO ran me just shy of $30.  The card features a piece of his bat which has been marked with 1949 HR Leader.  The card is numbered 6/15.

How do you guys feel about getting a bat relic then having it burnt to resemble a team logo or date or stat on the relic?

Ralph Kiner ate his Wheaties

Everyone knows what 1952 Topps did to the card market.  Prior to that, very few cards were found to be mainstream.  Sure you could get cards as bonuses in tobacco or cereal products, but nothing like what Topps was able to accomplish when they released the 1952 series.

I've previously shown off a few of my 1952 Topps cards I've picked up at shows, but just recently came across this little gem for $3.

It's a 1952 Wheaties side panel featuring Ralph Kiner.  Clearly it doesn't have the same market or resale value that a Topps card would have and the cutting of the "card" was not done perfectly, but for $3 I will gladly add this to my binder of Pirates HOF players.

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.

1 more Ralph Kiner auto added to the collection

I said I wanted to add 5 new Ralph Kiner autos to my collection this year.  As much as I like adding more of the HOF leftfielder's autograph to my collection, I don't like spending a lot of money to do it.  Ralph signs A LOT!!! Nearly every Topps release now has a Ralph Kiner autograph you can pull.  To try and diversify my collection a little bit, I went to the unlicensed card company Panini and their National Treasures release earlier this year.

I LOVE NATIONAL TREASURES!!!  So many cool autographs, relics, and a much more unique group of players are available.

Now that I have 16 autographs of Mr. Kiner, I can safely say that this Immortal Cuts is probably one of the neater penmanship autos I have.  Many of the autographs of Kiner from Topps get a little scribbly and smushed.  This is clean and clear.

Not a bad pickup for $20.

2013 Goal Update: Pirates Partner Project

I've been trying to collect 38 unique players pictured on a relic or auto of Jason Bay for well over a year now.  I'm going to add a few more players that I would like to add to this theme along with their Pirates jersey numbers.  The rule for this partner project though is that the player must have appeared in at least one official game so my Bill Rowell autograph with Cutch doesn't count.

I may add players like Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole to this list one day, but in the meantime I am going to stick with Jason Bay, Andrew McCutchen, Willie Stargell, and Roberto Clemente.

Bold, italic, and yellow indicates that I have both a relic and auto of the player
Yellow indicates just an auto

Andrew McCutchen -22 (currently at 19)
Jose Tabata
Adam Jones
Alex Presley
Lorenzo Cain
Cole Hamels
Jason Heyward
Gio Gonzalez
Daniel Moskos
Ralph Kiner
Pedro Alvarez
Hunter Pence
Justin Upton
Matt Kemp
Curtis Granderson
Ryan Braun
Mike Trout
Willie Stargell
Roberto Clemente
Andy Van Slyke

Willie Stargell - 8 COMPLETE (currently at 9 players)
Dave Parker
Bill Madlock
Roberto Clemente
Manny Sanguillen
Al Oliver
Johnny Bench
Ralph Kiner
Andrew McCutchen
Barry Bonds

Roberto Clemente - 21 (currently at 8)
This is the one I need to work on the most.

Willie Stargell
Manny Sanguillen
Al Oliver
Barry Bonds
Honus Wagner
Ralph Kiner
Andrew McCutchen
Vladimir Guerrero

4/12 This Day in Pirates History

HOF Left Fielder Ralph Kiner began his career on April 12, 1946 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He would play only 10 years before his career ended early at the age of 32.  He managed to lead the league in HRs 7 years in a row, a feat that no other player in baseball history has done.  During his 8 years with the Pirates he hit 301 of his 369 career home runs.

In 1953 he was traded to the Chicago Cubs for 2 years.  Pirates then General Manager Branch Rickey stated "we finished in last place with you, we can finish in last place without you".

To celebrate this day in Pirates history when one of the greatest sluggers to wear a Bucs uniform made his MLB debut, I thought it would be fun to show off all my Ralph Kiner AUTOS, RELICS, and MANUPATCHES.

I've currently got 10 Autographs of the HOF slugging Left Fielder.  I'd like to have added 5 new Kiner autos by the end of the year.  That should be one of the easiest of my 2013 Collecting Goals to accomplish.

2012 Topps Golden Moments AUTO

2010 Topps Tribute AUTO/Bat Relic 20/99

2004 Donruss Absolutely Ink AUTO/BAT relic 53/100

2003 Donruss Signature Series Legends of Summer AUTO

2006 UD Ultimate Ensemble Signatures QUAD AUTO 19/25

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen DUAL AUTO DUAL RELIC 7/15

2010 Topps Sterling DUAL AUTO DUAL RELIC BOOKLET 10/10

2005 Upper Deck Class of Cooperstown AUTO/BAT Relic 1/15

2001 Donruss Classic Significant Signatures ON CARD AUTO 

2004 Fleer MLB Draft Edition Past Present Future TRIPLE AUTO 12/33

Triple Threads TRIPLE RELIC 11/27

2008 UD SP Generations Dual Relic (BAT)

2012 Topps Triple Threads BAT/JERSEY relic 18/36

2010 Topps Triple Threads Legends BAT relic 16/27

2007 UD Sweet Spot Classic BAT relic

2002 Fleer Classic Cuts BAT relic

2002 UD SP Legendary Bat

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen BAT relic

2006 UD SP Legendary Cuts BAT Relic 172/199

2010 Topps Manufactured Bat Barrel 25/99

2004 UD Sweet Spot Classic Patch 264/300