Pops, Mad Dog, the Cobra, and the R-O-Y

If only it could have been Teke or Omar Moreno that appeared on this card instead of Jason Bay

Don't get me wrong, I love Jason Bay, but adding someone else from the 1979 We Are Family Pirates would have been a lot better.

This eBay 1/1 or as normal people should call it 100/100 was purchased using some eBay bucks a few months ago.

The problem I always have when adding multiplayer cards I collect is who to file them under. Normally it goes into this kind of ranking
1)PC player (Cutch or Morton)
2)Hall of Fame credentials (then by Year of induction)
3)Number of MVPs or Cy Youngs
4)Number of All-Star Games
5)Pick a player, any player

So since this card doesn't feature Cutch, I filed it under Pops because he was inducted into the Hall of Fame and the other 3 players have not (although Dave Parker could arguably be considered since his stats are nearly identical to HoFer Jim Rice).

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 #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.

REVERSE BOXIN' 2011 TRIBUTE

I've been struggling to update my blog for the past week as my scanner hasn't been working. All my posts in the past few weeks were previously written and scanned.

For the past few years I have been doing reverse boxes on Topps Tribute. This year Topps recalled the product shortly after it's release. Because of that I decided to look at past year's Tribute products and make reverse boxes from 2011 Tribute.

I was fortunate to find this Willie Stargell dual jersey/facsimile auto for only $4.25.

McCutchen Mailday #50: Pops & RunPMC!!!!!

One of my collecting goals for 2015 was to add 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to my collection that I previously didn't have.  I thought this would be a tough task as I would need to add a new Cutch before every fourth day.  I have kicked that goal's ass!!!!  I'm typing this on March 16th (but didn't post until April 29th) and have already added fifty!!!! Yes 5-0!!!!!  It's going to take me awhile to catch up on all these cards I have acquired in the past month using only 1 post per day.

So far in my quest for 100, I've added a handful of 1/1s, a plethora of parallels, and even a handful of autographs!!!!

To celebrate #50...you gotta party!!!!
A Marte Partay seems appropriate!

2015 Heritage Clubhouse Collection 7/10 (Stargell, McCutchen, Marte, Polanco)

Let's welcome Pops and RunPMC (Polanco, Marte, Cutch)

What a sweet piece of cardboard!

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.

McCutchen Mailday #27 & 28: 2015 Topps Is Here!!!

I'm going to be like Quentin Tarantino and go to the future and tell you the present before I tell you the past.  Did you follow that McFly?

2015 Topps has been out for a few weeks now and I managed to join a jumbo case group break for $20.  I didn't get any major hits, but did get a few parallels (including a rainbow foil Charlie Morton WOOT WOOT!!!).  I'll show them off in April most likely. Why not sooner you ask? Well because March is Going Green!

Back to the subject of this post...on the Cutch front all I got was the base of card number 127 along with the Inspired Play with Willie Stargell.

Cutch also appears on card number 271 for the Pittsburgh Pirates team card.

I don't consider that to be a Cutch card though because his name isn't on the front of the card.  Gregory Polanco and Josh Harrison join Cutch in the outfield celebrating a Buccos Win.

My Go Green Event starts tomorrow in which I will showcase only green, emerald, and lime cards leading up to St Patty's Day.  I hope you all are ready to "Go Green" in March.  Obviously I'm very far ahead of my goal to add 100 new Cutch cards to the collection since I have 28 new Cutches in my collection through the first two months (although only 18 have technically been shown off prior to this post).

Throwback Thursday: 1970 Willie Stargell Scratch Off

I am not a completest when it comes to my Pirates collection.  I don't intend to have every card ever produced with a Pittsburgh baseball club logo (or lack of logo for that matter).  However, when cool things like this 1970 PlayBall Scratch Off end up being buried in a stack of cards for 10 cents, I have to jump on it.  Cards like this help balance out the Willie Stargell card I showed off yesterday.

It lacks mint condition.  It lacks multiple colored parallels.  It lacks a lot of resale value.  BUT....one thing it doesn't lack, is that vintage smell and feelings of being a young kid collecting cards because it was fun.

I think with all the instant gratification in the world today due to technology, many of us forget those times when we had to actually work hard to find the cards we wanted aka busting packs after packs.  Then if you wanted rare giveaways by the companies you had to buy cereal, win scratch offs, save lots of wrappers.

I miss those days.

This is what a high end Hall of Fame Cut Auto should look like...

This week has been a powerhouse week at the PTR. Dont believe me? Go back to Sunday to see how it started.

Last week, I showed off a Roberto Clemente bat relic numbered 6/25.  It was my 15th bat relic of the Hall of Famer.  I stated that I would do a reverse box of 2014 National Treasures this year and will likely have a lot of fun tracking down these high end cards.  The Pirates Pittsburgh Baseball Club is well represented in 2014 National Treasures with current players and Hall of Famers.

One such player that has some great looking Cut Auto Booklets /10 is Hall of Famer Willie Stargell.  Known to the fanbase as Pops for his leadership role on the 1979 World Series Championship team, Stargell has a great signature and for the most part it's also very affordable.

I've seen a handful of Stargell's booklets from National Treasures end up in the $125+ range, but I was fortunate to win this auction for only $81 delivered.  Now you're probably thinking $81 is a lot to spend on one card when you're trying to do a reverse box....and you're right.

I'm currently way over budget at $145 on two cards that my budget for said cards was $106.  I have a lot of ground to make up as I accumulate the remaining 6 cards of my reverse box.  Honestly though, I can't complain about having a HOF cut auto and jumbo bat relic numbered /10 along with a Clemente bat relic numbered /25 for the prices paid though.  I know it sounds crazy to think two cards for $145, but for these two beloved Pittsburgh icons, that's a great deal.

With 3 more guaranteed autographs, and a combination of gem, relic, auto left I know that I will be able to complete the remaining 6 cards for less than $280.  I am allowed to spend $46 per card to finish under the allowed amount.

Savings Start Now!

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.

$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

Throwback Thursday: I completed a 69

If this title doesn't draw you in, maybe these two sweet 1969 cards of Hall of Famers Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski will.  The former Bucs greats were the last two cards I needed to complete my 1969 Topps Pirates Team Set and it ran me just shy of $18 to do so.

Both cards are in beautiful shape and feature no major creases, chipping, or writing.  Absolutely awesome deal I got for these two at my local sports collectors show at the mall.

Cooperstown Gum Caps

In 2013 Panini put out a series of cards celebrating the enshrined members of Cooperstown in the Baseball Hall of Fame.  One of the more unique inserts they had was "gum caps" that resembled Pogs.  The front of the "cards" look like what you see above.

Many know of Pops and Goose, but not many people know of Waite Hoyt.  To be honest I had to look up his stats myself.

In looking up his stats, nothing really stood out to scream Hall of Famer.  He finished a 21 year career with 237 Wins and 182 Losses (winning percentage .566).  Over the course of 3762 innings he only struck out 1206 batters and had a 3.59 ERA.  Again, not very dominating numbers.  I thought that maybe he didn't allow many walks or hits and that's why he was elected, but his WHIP was 1.34.  By today's stats, there are a lot of guys who would be elected in the Hall of Fame if those were the standards for enshrinement.

Does anyone know what impressive stat Waite Hoyt may have to be considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time?  If so, please let me know cause I am failing to see it...

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.

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.

Hey Topps! You SUCK!!!

I understand it's hard to get new images of retired or deceased players.

Wanna see the same of image of Pops from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013?

I get it...there's no new photos of Willie to be found, but do I really need to add a Willie Stargell to my collection every year with the same image?

2010 Topps, 2011 Topps 60, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen, 2013 Topps Museum

I don't!!!!

And that is why the only retired player cards I'm buying from now on is straight up vintage.

Don't get me wrong, if I see a card that completely blows my mind, I will probably get it and I will never turn down Stargell, Kiner, Mazeroski, or Clemente cards in trade packages, BUT I am done buying new cards with the same images reused over and over and over and over again.

You Complete Me: 1972 Topps

My brother got me several hands full of Pirates Topps baseball cards from 1954-1973 for Christmas and I have finally gotten around to crossing off the cards I needed from my Topps Flagship needs.

Amongst the 44 cards were several 1972 Topps I needed including two of the most beloved Bucs of all time, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell.

 The cards are all in fairly well condition.  They all have soft edges, but with the exception of the Clemente they have no noticable creases.  All worthy of going into the binder and stored safely.

With the addition of the high numberes Davalillo, Virdon, and Hebner along with the 2 Stargells, Roberto Clemente, and In Action Bob Robertson I can now cross these off my needs.  This marks another Goal of 2014 complete and we are only a few days into the new year.