TEAM SET COMPLETED!

I bought a blaster today at WalMart on my way home from the hospital and as I'm flipping through I got very excited.  I completed my 2012 Pirates Series 1 Team Set of the base cards.  I still need the Maz Walk-Off, the Neil Walker auto, McCutchen relics, and darn near all the Roberto Clemente cards, but I felt relieved.  The missing card to my team set was Rookie Jared Hughes.  I had seen Jared pitch in AA in 2010 and AAA in 2011 and I knew that one day he would be make it to the majors.  Jared is a tall righty (6ft7!) that throws low to mid 90s heat.  It feels good to just enjoy opening wax now not needing to complete any Pirates team sets anymore.  Now I can start to send out some TTM with spring training so close.

The Jared Hughes wasn't the only card that made me happy while opening up the box though.  I also got this retired numbers card of one of my favorite players as a kid, Frank Thomas.  The Big Hurt was incredible early into his career.  After the Pirates started to fall apart post the free agency of Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, and Doug Drabek, I started to root for the White Sox and the hot corner duo of Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura.  To this day, the ChiSox are a close 2nd in terms of my favorite team. 

Here's some of the other gems of the blaster

 all blue parallels are available for trade

all cards except the JP Arencibia and 87minis are available for trade.

If anyone is looking for base, please let me know.  I am looking to unload all my nonPirates for practically nothing.

VINTAGE CARD PICKUPS FOR $5 OR LESS

Over the weekend, my local mall had a small baseball card show.  There was only 3 vendors there, but there was definitely some bargains to be had as I highlighted in 2 previous posts.  I have been slowly chipping away at my pre1975 Topps Pirates wants and this show definitely helped.  There wasn't a single vintage card in this post that I paid more than $5 for which is a bargain considering there was a handful of Hall of Famers Clementes, Mazeroskis, and Stargells.  In addition there was a 1952 Topps amongst other Topps cards from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.  I even got an Al Oliver rookie card for $1.  A fricking dollar for a guy that put up near HOF numbers.

I didn't have time to individually scan all the cards or take them out of the cases.  Many of the cards were just sitting in penny sleeves throughout the boxes.  I must have spent 2 hours going through boxes upon boxes of 70s baseball cards $1 and 60s baseball $3. The 52, 53, and 54 Topps were just sitting on a table unmarked.  I asked how much for those and he said. How about $25 for the lot.  Hmmmm.....let me think about that? DEAL!!!! $5 for a 1952 Topps card.  Um yes please. 

I was extremely happy when I found the Clementes though.  A 1971, 1972, and 1973 Topps Roberto Clemente for a couple bucks.  How could anyone pass that up? Seriously?????  That's a steal.

Overall I couldn't be happier and am now only 9 cards each away from completing the 1970 & 1971 Pirates Team sets.  I will update all my team set needs in the future.