It's Miller Time!!!!

Of the 4 major sports in North America, basketball is the one I collect the least of.  When I was younger, basketball was a clear number 2 behind only baseball.  For a brief time when the Dream Team 2 came out, it was my number one sports collection.

There were two players that I heavily collected in the early to mid 90s, Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and Reggie Miller.  I didn't have a favorite team although I did like the Magic a lot.

Back then Sega Genesis was the cool home gaming system and there wasn't any cooler basketball game then NBA Jam: TE.  I spent nearly a whole summer playing as Reggie Miller and Rik Smits defeating my cousins, brother, and friends.  For that reason, I began to follow the Pacers more heavily.

With the emergence of Paul George on the Pacers a few years back, I started to get back into following basketball more regularly.  I've been slowly adding to my Pacers collection here and there, but haven't added many hits to the collection.

Today, I'm showing off my second Reggie Miller hit.  It's a nice jersey relic from Upper Deck that even has a pinstripe from the Pacers Home Navy jerseys and only cost me $3.28.  Maybe in 2016, I'll focus more on my basketball collection.

The rarest Barry Bonds 1989 Topps you will ever see

1989 Topps isn't known for their scarcity.  That's a simple fact.  However, a few years ago Topps opened their vault to some error cards that were produced and Chris Henderson, who has worked for Topps on projects such as Allen & Ginter Highlight sketches got a large amount of the misprint blank front cards and has been doing sketches on them through his ebay site.

I've previously had Chris do several commission sketches for me (Morton, Marte, McCutchen) and thought this was a perfect opportunity to purchase an extremely unique (1/1 sketch) of the HomeRun king on his actual 1989 Topps card.

Here's the sketch Chris came up with

What a great image of a presteroids Bonds.

If you're interested in purchasing some of his work, please be sure to visit his ebay site

McCutchen Mailday #13: Tektonics Super Rare 1 per Case!!!!

The Quest for 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to my collection in 2015 has already yielded a nice dozen cards including a 1/1 and several very rare Allen & Ginter cards.  I've also added a new autograph to the collection /10 and a cool mini jersey.

My latest Cutch addition is an insert from Topps Tek called Teknicians that was inserted only 1 per case and numbered 24 /50.

The back of the card gets real deep into what makes Cutch such an offensive threat by calling his "hands ... crazy fast" and "seems to have no swing holes".  

Topps Tek wasn't meant to provide in depth looks like Bowman draft or Triple Threads.  It was meant to be a kick ass line with beautifully designed inserts and a bunch of short print parallels to chase.  Mission accomplished Topps!  

National Treasures Reverse Box Update #4: SICK JAMESON TAILLON PATCH!!!

I've been showing off my 2014 National Treasures reverse box eBay winnings a lot over the past 2 weeks.  I figured with only 8 cards per pack I should be on pace to show off the entire reverse box by the end of February without losing track of my other scheduled posts.

My most recent addition is

A very nice patch from Pirates pitching prospect Jameson Taillon numbered 2/25.  The above card ran me a winning bid of $2.99 with $3.50 shipping.  Considering that it came from less than an hour away, I wish I could have paid far less for shipping, but still getting this sweet relic card for under $6.50 very quickly put me in line to finish this reverse box with every card being a Pirate and less than 50 copies of each.

So far I have shown

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet /10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey /49

Roberto Clemente bat relic /25

This is going to a great reverse box when it's all said and done.  I will have relics and autos of HOFers along with autos and prime jersey pieces of the Pirates bright future. For the above 4 cards I have spent $173 on a $213 budget for being halfway done.  I know I can easily obtain another 2 autographs and 2 other cards for much less than $252.  

McCutchen Monday: A time to remember....

I recently just did a reverse box challenge for 2014 Topps Triple Threads and in my search of looking for some nice parallels, hits, and base cards I came across these two cards from 2013 Topps Triple Threads.  I grabbed the two cards of Cutch for $2.60 delivered.  Maybe I should do a reverse box of 2013 Triple Threads too?

My McCutchen PC page is for the most part up to date now.

A Pair of Grillis

My collection can be broken into a few categories
Flagship Topps Pirates 1952-2014
Super Collection: Charlie Morton
Player Collection: Andrew McCutchen, Jason Bay, Andy Van Slyke, Tony Sanchez
Pirates Autographs
Pirates Relics
Pirates smaller player collections
Penguins
Steelers
Pacers

When I am browsing the interwebs in pursuit of some new cardboard to add to the collection, I sometimes come across deals too good for me to resist, but deep down I know that I don't really need to add the card to my collection.  Such was the case for what you are about to see below.

Quite frankly I didn't need any more autographs of the former Pirates All-Star closer, Jason Grilli.  BUUUUUUTTTT this was toooooo good to pass up I said.

I already have a healthy amount of Jason Grilli autographs in my collection including the best on card inscription autograph of Jason Grilli ever along with a sweet sticker auto/jumbo patch numbered /10 for my Triple Threads reverse box.

Well for $7 combined and delivered I managed to add two more John Hancocks of Jason Grilli to my collection.

One is numbered /10 and features Grilli as I will always remember him (smiling and having a good time)

And the other is on card and numbered /40.

What do you guys think?
Was $7 worth it for more cardboard of a guy you don't really collect and already have in your collection?

Reverse Boxin Update #3: Gerrit Cole Auto/Jersey

Last week I showed off an awesome /25 Roberto Clemente bat that would lead to me doing a reverse box of National Treasures.  That bat relic set me back $62.  Earlier this week I showed off an amazing Cut Auto and Jumbo Bat relic booklet of HOFer Willie Stargell that set me back $81.  It looked like I didn't stand a chance at making a reverse box for under budget.  Well, the most recent week has been very kind to me and I was able to add this Gerrit Cole Jumbo Jersey/On Card Auto for only $23 and made some other purchases as well for well under budget.

I figured I have $53 to spend per card to reverse the box properly and so far I have spent $166 on a $159 budget for those three cards so I am a little over still.  Rest assured though that I should AND WILL get this box for much less than asking price and every card will be /50 or less (something National Treasures can't guarantee).

The 5 remaining cards will have to be a guaranteed 2 more autographs and a combination of 3 remaining hits (relic, gem, auto).  I have not seen any boxes busted that contain 2 booklets, but maybe they exist too?

On another note, every card in my box will be Pirates centered (either through playing with the team, drafted by team, or signed by team at some point during their playing career).