My 1st Jackie Robinson relic with special guest Roberto Clemente

Today is a historically recognized day for not just baseball, but America as a whole. As we all know Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier on this day.

This is my first relic of Jackie and it also happens to feature one of the pioneers in Latin American ballplayers too.

The back describes it perfectly

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.

McCutchen Mailday #61: Big Time Addition to the PC

The Pirates have several alumni that are widely recognized as being some of the All Time Greats (Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, and Willie Stargell). When you look at the game today, Cutch could join that list one day.

I've seen several different versions that combined Cutch in Heritage Clubhouse Collection before, but getting Cutch with Clemente and Stargell is the best of the versions available.  No disrespect to Wagner, Kiner, and Mazeroski but this group of ballplayers is the Trinity to me.

Speaking of Trinity, I saw Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice this week. I have mixed feelings on it. I love the idea of bringing the DC Comics Trinity together, but to me it just seems forced unlike what Marvel is doing with their Avengers stories.

McCutchen Mailday #26 & 27: Cutch 22 and His Amazing Friends

Anyone remember the cartoon, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends which starred Spider-Man teaming up with Iceman and Firestar while at college?  It was a fun cartoon in which they had a tripped out apartment and fought villains of the week.  I don't own any of the episodes on dvd, but I remember having the episode where they fought Magneto on VHS. 

I bring this up because as my Andrew McCutchen grows (almost daily) I come across cards that feature Cutch with past and present stars.  My absolute favorite combination to pair with Cutch includes cards with Hall of Famers.

Every baseball fan knows of Roberto Clemente.  He's one of the greatest rightfielders of all time.  He's a Pirates legend.  He's the superstar that opened the door for latin players in America.  He's also one of the most tragic stories in sports.  I love grabbing Clemente cards.  If Clemente is on the card with Cutch, I feel I owe it to myself to grab it.

One player who many fans put high hopes and expectations on who never lived up to the hype was Pedro Alvarez.  Pedro was cut from the Pirates future plans when they chose not to go to arbitration with him.  He's a one tool player (power) with terrible defense and poor plate discipline.  He doesn't get enough credit for his base running ability for being a big guy.  What I mean by that is that he will never likely have double digit steals, but was very good at knowing when to try and take the extra base. 

McCutchen Mailday #245 & 246: Steel Greats and another On Card Auto

It's going to be tough for me to cram in as many cards as possible as the year comes to a close and I still have Andrew McCutchen cards rolling in.  I made a huge purchase on Black Friday and when all is said and done, I will have tripled my goal to add 100 new Cutch cards to the PC.

My 245th and 246th new McCutchen cards added to the PC this year are a pair of high end hits from yesteryears that I previously didn't have.

Up first is a card that I have wanted for a long time, but never pulled the trigger because it would often go for over $100.  I was lucky to snag mine for well under that and add a nice home jersey swatch from Hall of Famer Willie Stargell, a batting practice jersey swatch from 5 time All-Star Andrew McCutchen, and a dual bat relic from Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente.

 This card is amazing in person.

Next up is another on card autograph of Cutch from 2012 Tribute.  This was the year that Topps had slabbed all their cards.  The seller had taken it out of the case and submitted it to BGS, but it came back with sub grades, which worked out for me as I added my near century mark of Cutch autos to the PC.

Throwback Thursday: A Simpsons Hand of 1952 Topps, a Pair of Clementes, and a Stargell

Nothing beats vintage deals

Here's a lot of cards I recently purchased from a vendor at a mall card show for $50.  A pair of Clementes and a second year Stargell along with a Simpsons handful of 52s.  I couldn't be happier to add these to the collection.

Hopefully by showing off some vintage, the Bucs can get back to their vintage ways and win some games again.

Doesn't get much better than this...

Since my blog debuted 4 years ago, I have shown off some pretty impressive Stargell, Clemente, and Mazeroski cards in my collection.  To date though, I never had a card that contained game used relics of all 3 on a single card....until now

A triple bat relic of 3 of the most famous Pittsburgh Pirates to ever play the game.  All 3 players on this card have bronze statues outside PNC Park acknowledging their contributions to the team and city.  The low numbered card was purchased when eBay was running a 10x eBay bucks promotion so it essentially dropped the price a great amount.

Throwback Thursday: You Complete Me 1968

One of my collecting goals for 2015 was to complete 2 vintage team sets which you can see on my Vintage Needs.  I can now cross off almost two from the list and we are only a month into the new year.

Because of our work schedules and the hour difference between us, I didn't get a chance to see my mom on Christmas.  Instead it took us a few weeks into the new year to exchange gifts and enjoy some drinks and holiday cookies.

My mom went above all expectations and hooked me up with some vintage cards I needed to complete some team sets I was working on.  She filled in the remaining 5 cards needed for my 1968 team set by adding 4 cards sporting Hall of Famers (2 Clementes, 1 Stargell, and 1 Jim Bunning).

In addition to the 5 cards I needed for 1968, she also scored me a handful of 1962s which brings my team set needs for that year to only #10 Roberto Clemente.

Thanks so much Mom for knocking these out for me.

Reverse Boxin National Treasures 2014: Up First Roberto Clemente

For the past two years I have done reverse boxes of Topps Tribute and it has been an absolute blast trying to get only the cards I want for less than the price of a box.  Last year I also reverse boxed Topps Triple Threads in penny pinching form, combining two boxes worth of cards for the price of one box.

I stated in my 2015 goals that I would reverse box Topps Tribute again this year (unless I despise the checklist), but also wanted to reverse box another high end product.  I have been seeing a lot of hits pop up for 2014 National Treasures and gotta say, I'm hooked.

I will be doing a reverse box for National Treasures this year despite the $425 box price tag.  Every box guarantees 4 autographs, 1 booklet, and a combination of 3 other cards (auto, relic, gem)

Many of the jersey and bat relics are numbered to 99, but for some of the more scarce Hall of Famers, they have relics numbered to 25 or less.

2014 National Treasures 6/25 BAT RELIC

The very first card I received in the mail from my recent eBay winnings is none other than the Great One, Roberto Clemente Walker.  

This bat relic of Roberto marks my 15th unique bat relic of the Hall of Famer and is numbered 6/25.  It cost me more than the $53 allowed per card to make this a successful reverse box, but I have confidence that I can pick up some other Pittsburgh Baseball Club members for a significant amount less than that.  At only $9 over the limit per card, I am feeling pretty good about my chances so far.

That leaves me $363 more to complete the reverse box.  

Stadium Club!!!

I have always loved Stadium Club.  It was one of my favorite sets for years when I was younger.

This year's set is no different.  I know I am behind on posting these and many others already have highlighted them.  I just wanted to show off their great photography

$15 Lil Man, put those team sets in my hand...

I've been on a roll adding some great ebay deals for $15 lately.  My latest acquisition is a bunch of Pirates 2014 team sets for $15 delivered.  For a winning bid of $11 I received complete or near complete team sets of 2014 Topps, 2014 Donruss, 2014 Topps Opening Day, 2014 Finest, 2014 Topps Heritage, 2014 Gypsy Queen, 2014 Bowman, 2014 Archives, 2014 Bowman Platinum and a few inserts as well.

Included were 3 really nice inserts or parallels of young outfield prospect Gregory Polanco

Also included were 4 different brands of cards using the same image of Pedro Alvarez.

Of course there were some Hall of Famers in there too with Clemente, Stargell, and Kiner all being represented.

Gerrit Cole made several appearances in the 102 card lot.
The white border Gypsy Queen is especially nice

A Nice Tyler Glasnow Purple Bowman Platinum was included

Along with a bunch of the Pirates top prospects (both hitting and pitching)

And of course it wouldn't be a Pirates lot if this guy didn't show up half a dozen times or more

Along with soooooo many others

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.

Throwback Thursday: Clemente, Parker, and Bay ON ONE CARD???

I really don't have a lot to say about this card because fellow Pirates blogger, BobWalkThePlank, has already shown it on his blog back in May.  I wish I had more Clemente relics in my collection, but when this card was offered for around $40, I had to pounce on it.

The timeline of the different uniforms and cool stiching on Bay's uniform piece were the main reasons I decided to get it.  Oh and it has Clemente.  That probably had more to do with it than anything else actually.

2008 Upper Deck Premier Teams Clemente, Parker, Bay 11/50

I hope you guys are enjoying these Throwback Thursdays where I highlight Pirates players of yesteryear.  I will try to keep things interesting going forward and focus on more obscure players if possible.

Card Show Pickups pt2: Vintage Edition

Yesterday I showed off some very cheap cards I was able to grab for under $1.

I was able to continue my success to one of my favorite parts of the hobby, VINTAGE!!!!
Nothing excites me more at these local card shows than digging through 50% off vintage and 5 for $10 bins.  I came away with a few steals in my search which I will immediately show off.

Up first are my $2 Roberto Clementes, I found in the 5 for $10 bins.  $2 for vintage Clemente????!!!! Hell yeah!!! Who cares that there is a major crease on Hank Aaron.  I sure as hell don't.

Next up are 3, yes 3 vintage Willie Stargells I grabbed for $5 each.

A trio of 1963 Topps I grabbed for $60 including a really nice looking Clemente

To finish up is four 1964s and four 1969s I grabbed for a total of $12.

2014 Topps Series 1 Inserts: #BUCN style

I have really been watching my budget more closely in 2014 than in previous years.  I used to feel the need to buy every single auto, relic, black parallel, gold parallel, insert, shortprint, etc from the Topps Flagship launches.  This year, I'm sticking to just the base, the "cheap" inserts, the Charlie Morton parallels, and maybe one relic or auto just to say I have it.

The Pirates have several players appearing in the 2014 Topps Series 1 Inserts.

 Up first is one of the greatest right fielders to ever play the game as pictured in 2 of this years inserts (Upper Class and Before they were Stars).  Roberto Clemente was signed by the Dodgers, then drafted by the Pirates in the old version of the Rule 5 draft.

Gerrit Cole, last year's flame throwing rookie pitcher, was featured on the 50 years of the draft.

Similar to year's past, there are inserts were you enter codes online to win prizes.  The fronts of the cards look exactly like the base cards, but have the Power Players logo.  The backs have online codes. 2013 All-Stars Andrew McCutchen and Jason Grilli represent the Pirates in Series 1.

My favorite inserts from 2014 are the 1989 minis.  I had ripped so many of these 1989 packs back in the day, that this is still sadly one of my favorite designs.  Cutch and Clemente are the Pirates representatives for Series 1.