Football Sunday: Rashard Mendenhall AUTO

I'm very short on time today because I'm going to one of those haunted house things with a bunch of friends.  Should be a good time.

Anyway, the Black and Yellow are going up against the Black and Silver in Oakland.  Here we go Steelers, here we go!

For all you fantasy football owners, it be best to sit former Steeler Rashard Mendenhall today as he's been scratched with his ongoing toe injury.  If you have Mendenhall on your fantasy team, you are likely terrible anyway because he's got nearly as many fumbles (2) as touchdowns for the year (1).  He's also below his career average in yards per rush this season.

2008 SAGE Rashard Mendenhall AUTO 45/200

Maybe that's why the above autograph of the former 1st round Steeler pick only cost me $2 shipped.

Football is back in Pittsburgh

The Steelers will play their first preseason game tonight against the New York Giants.  Preseason football might be even less meaningful than spring training for baseball, but I'm still going to root for the black and gold.

2011 Rookie & Stars Prime Patches Rashard Mendenhall 15/50

The above prime patch of Mr. Mendenhall was picked up at a mall sports card show back in May for $3.  Couldn't be happier to add it to my collection for the price paid.

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.

Lots of Ebay Pickups for $38 shipped

While browsing on ebay I manage to come across some really nice game used relic cards on the cheap that I wanted to add to my collection. The seller was willing to offer free shipping with a purchase of 10 or more items.  Here's the 10 items I picked up.

I grabbed this 2001 American Pie Jersey relic of Al "Scoop" Oliver for $4.  It's a nice looking card as all American Pie normally feature a relic and a previously used card of the player.  In this case, it shows Al's rookie card from 1969.  Al had a very strong career batting .303 with over 2,700 hits.  Scoop was also a 7 time All-Star, batting title champion (1982), 3 time silver slugger, and a member of the 1971 World Series Champion Pirates.

Like the Oliver above, this Dick Groat game used bat card is from 2001 Topps American Pie.  It cost me a little more, clocking in at $6 but it marks my first game used card of the 1960 MVP.  Now all I need is a rookie to complete his trifecta. 

In addition to the game used relics above I grabbed these 3 Andrew McCutchen cards I needed for my Cutch PC.  The below cards were picked up for $1 a piece which is a lil more than I would normally pay for parallels, but c'mon it's Cutch!!!!!

 2011 Gypsy Queen Green Framed

 2011 Topps Finest

2013 Topps (Emerald variant)

There wasn't a whole lot of baseball cards that I wanted from the seller, but he did have some nice football cards that I couldn't resist adding to my collection.

 Jonathan Dwyer 2010 Bowman Sterling Jersey relic rookie card.  Dwyer had a really good second half of the season this year as he become the Steelers starting running back when Mendenhall and Redman went down with injuries.  He scored his first career TD on a 16 yard run against the rival Ravens on December 2nd.  This was a $4 card.

David DeCastro 2012 Topps Platinum Rookie AUTO (on card)
DeCastro spent all but 3 games injured during the 2012 season when he severely injured his knee during a preseason game.  The Steelers will be looking for him to fully recover for the 2013 season.  This card cost me $6 shipped.

 

The above two Rashard Mendenhall jersey relics were grabbed for $2 a piece.  Even though Rashard lost his job midseason to Jonathan Dwyer, Mendenhall still possesses  a lot of talent and will likely start the 2013 season as the Steelers leading back again.

A LeSean McCoy Jersey relic in a PITT U card? Yeah, I'll pick them up for $4 every chance I get.  That's why I got two.

I just couldn't pass up this Shady rookie for $1 so I said what the heck. Why not?

To finish things off I grabbed a Santonio Holmes jersey relic card from 2006 Topps Total.  Holmes will go down in football history for his catch with seconds left in Super Bowl XLIII.  He won the Super Bowl MVP that year and was a key receiver for the Steelers for 4 years before being traded to the New York Jets in 2010.  The above rookie jersey relic of Ton cost me only $2 and I couldn't be happier to add a jersey of his to my collection.


I grabbed
1 AUTO
8 RELICS
4 BASE/PARALLEL
for only $38.
That's less than $3 a card.  Not too bad, right?