Pistol Pete

The Pirates were rained out for the second night in a row so lets showoff some vintage cardboard.  

1970-71 Topps Pete Maravich RC

I obtained this Maravich in a bulk deal from a friend of mine in college who owned a card shop.  He bought a huge stack of vintage NBA cards from someone who needed cash fast so he was able to pass on some savings to me. In 2010 I sold most of my high end cards to focus my collection on the Pirates and WVU, but thankfully decided to hold on to the vintage cards.  The Maravich has nothing to do with my collecting focus but I was always fond of it.  

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Top Ten List

Since the Pirates are off to a rough start I figured I would showcase some prospect cards.  Here is a visual top ten list of the Pirates top prospects.  I used the Fangraphs list as the reference.  Polanco looks to be the only one on the list that can have an impact this year since Taillon is having Tommy John surgery.  The system is a consensus top 5 in most publications and number 1 in Baseball America.  Another promising thing is that many of the guys that fall 11-20 would make most teams top ten, so that is encouraging for the future.  

10.  Luis Heredia

9. Harold Ramirez ( No Card)
8. Josh Bell

7. Reese McGuire

6. Nick Kingham

5. Alen Hanson

4. Austin Meadows

3. Tyler Glasnow

2. Jameson Taillon

1. Gregory Polanco

Young Guns

Gerrit Cole had several dual autos in 2010 Bowman Platinum. This one features Cole and A's pitcher Sonny Gray.  Both Cole and Gray look to be young aces in the making as both have had great success so far in their young careers.  I have several Cole dual autos from this set that I'll showoff down the road.  Most were purchased early on so the prices were more affordable.  This variation specifically has been trending up so I'm happy I pounced on it when I did.

Sorry for the short post tonight.  My little one is a tad bit more rambunctious than normal tonight and feels that Dad's blogging is getting in the way of her social plans tonight.

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The Logo

Since my Pirates are struggling I figured it would be a good time to show something from my WVU collection.

2011-12 UD Black Jerry West Auto 19/60

Collecting the Mountaineers allows me to branch out and collect other sports. When I saw this card I pounced.  Jerry West autos are somewhat expensive when he is in the Lakers uniform, but when featured as a Mountaineer you can find a deal.  I've owned this card for a couple of years so I don't exactly remember the price, but I'm guessing it was below $50 as I normally don't make pricey purchases for my WVU collection.  

Jerry is a legend in Morgantown.  He is one of only two players who have their number retired (Hot Rod Hundley is the other).  A few years back he was immortalized with a huge statue in front of the Coliseum where the basketball team plays its home games.  West went on to have a hall of fame career with the Lakers and became one of the 50 greatest players of all time.  

I guess you had a successful career when your silhouette is used as the logo.  

Hope everybody has a good week.  Thanks for checking out the blog.

Back on Track

Nice to see the Pirates remembering how to win a game this afternoon.  We are a little snake bitten right now.  Jason Grilli, Russell Martin and Wandy Rodriguez are all on the disabled list.  Hopefully the bats wake up and we can keep our head above water until everybody heals up.  Lots of time to right the ship,

Here is a nice Ralph Kiner auto from 2007 Triple Threads numbered 3/3.  Hard to get a good picture of this card as it has a shiny backing.  The Pirates are commemorating Kiner this year with a number 4 patch on their uniforms.  Looking forward to watching a special on Kiner that is going to air in the next week.  Really interesting guy who dated a lot of Hollywood stars when he was playing.  Should be entertaining.

Ask and You Shall Receive

This is my first post this week not having anything to do with a trade.  My poor mailman probably deserves a little break.  It was a blast getting all the mail and showing off the fun stuff everybody sent me.  Looking forward to starting the cycle over again.  Remember if you have any Pirates for trade, shoot me a message. I'm pretty stocked with trade bait right now!

Now for some fun stuff.  A couple weeks back I featured my new McCutchen Triple Threads All Star patch.  You can see it again here.  In that post I mentioned that my goal was to find the Joel Hanrahan version of the same patch after one had slipped through my fingers early this year.  Well luck and timing was on my side.  A few days after the original post a Hanrahan made it online and I was able to negotiate a price with the seller.

Pretty sharp card!  Maybe I can find another one if I continue to talk about it.....

On Thursday I decided that I would skip work to watch a little afternoon baseball in Pittsburgh.  I finished a huge project at work so I decided to reward myself.  Thankfully my good pal Micah is spontaneous and skipped work with me.

The Pirates got beat by the Reds, but who cares.  What better way to spend a sunny Thursday afternoon.

Hope everybody has a good weekend.  Thanks for reading!

Trade: All Trade Bait, All The Time

A couple weeks back Oscar from the blog All Trade Bait, All The Time had a collection of posts he titled Grand Salami of trade bait and featured a stack of cards from a specific team.  When he got the Pirates I pounced after seeing a nice Stargell bat card and a sweet Nate Mclouth auto.  Once we hashed out everything via email it turned out to be a mega trade.  Here is what I received.....

 Always love adding some Bonds cards in the Pirates uniform.

 Diamond Kings!

 Nice Topps Gold Jason Grilli /2014.

 McCutchen's are always appreciated!

 Love the Mclouth auto.  Sweet looking card.

The Pops bat card is what originally drew me to the trade.  This is from the Prime Cuts set and is numbered out of /99.

Do yourself a favor and check out Oscar's blog.  He is a very generous trader and super easy to deal with. Already looking forward to our next deal as soon as I accumulate some more Dodger swag!

Trade: Off Hiatus Baseball Cards

The Pirates and Brewers don't get along very well right now, but at least in the blog world there is peace and harmony.  A while back Tony from Off Hiatus Baseball Cards and I exchanged a couple of emails and we hashed out a trade for some cards.  Here is a sample of what Tony shipped my way.

I was a huge Joel Hanrahan fan, but the Pirates couldn't have picked a better time to trade him to the Red Sox last year.  The Pirates received Mark Melancon and Stolmy Pimental and Hanrahan ended up blowing out his arm after a handful of appearances.  Thankfully it looks like Hanrahan is close to making a recovery and has been having throwing sessions for scouts.

When I was kid it was a big deal to get those big head cards out of Score.  Always cool to receive a Bob Walk too!

 Some vintage Buccos including a nice Stargell!

 Snider is looking a little rough after the scuffle with the Brewers.  This is a cool Topps Black card /62.

Mccutchen looks like he is posed for Senior pictures.  Nice to add some Turkey Red.

Thanks again Tony for the trade!  Look forward to keep sending you my Brewers.

Thanks for checking out the blog.

Trade: The Lost Collector

I was able to make a trade with AJ from the blog The Lost Collector right before baby Lucy came into the world.  Knowing he was a big Yankees fan I shipped him off a care package of Pinstripers and he loaded me up with some Buccos.  Here is a small sample of the cards I received.

Every Pirates fan loves Andy Van Slyke.  Always nice to add some cardboard of one of my childhood heroes.

I've been to a few shows where John Candelaria was a featured signer.  He is always nice and has some great stories.  

 Really like the Chuck Tanner card!

AJ even added a WVU card of head coach Bob Huggins.  Huggins actually had a few autos in some sets the past couple of years.  I'll try to show some off down the road.

I try to add Gerrit Cole cards as much as possible.  This one is from Bowman Platinum and is numbered to /999.

Thanks again AJ for hooking me up with all the great Pirates and WVU cards.  Once things settle down for you (in about 18 years) we'll make another trade.  I'm a new Dad as well this year so maybe we can work on our next deal when the little ones are keeping us up in the middle of the night.

Trade: Yadier Molina Baseball Cards

I contacted Brady from the blog Yadier Molina Baseball Cards a couple weeks back to let him know that I had some Cardinal cards to send him.  Brady was nice enough to send me back a ton of Pirates.  Here is a small sample (he sent a ton) of the Pirate goodness I received.

I wish a set would come out with a Bonilla auto or relic in the Pirate uniform.  He was such a big part of the early 90's success that it seems weird he doesn't have anything.

 Nice mix of Topps parallels.

 Some awesome Allen and Ginter Bucs.

Love the vintage Blass card.  I think at some point Pirate vintage is going to be a project of mine.  I have a pretty extensive Steelers collection that I think I might sell sometime down the road.  My Pirates and WVU collection takes up to much time as it is.

 Cutch cards!  Always appreciated.

Tom Gorzelanny framed relic.  I always liked Gorzelanny and never really understood why we traded him away.

Thanks again Brady for the great trade.  I look forward to more deals.  I'll keep my eye out for good Cardinal cards.

Thanks for checking out the blog.

Trade: 2 X 3 Heroes

Last week I exchanged a few emails with Jeff from 2 X 3 Heroes after seeing a Freddy Sanchez All Star jersey in his trade bait.  I sent him a few White Sox autos and he hooked me up with some Pirates and Penguins.  Here are the pics....minus the Pens auto as I traded it to my buddy Micah for some help on some sets I'm building.

Thanks again Jeff and sorry for not posting the awesome Pens auto you sent.  It went to a good home as my buddy Micah is a huge fan of the Pens.  Look forward to future deals!

Box Break: 2013 Gypsy Queen X 2

Today my friends Micah and Keith (The Home Run Apple) came over to my place to open some Gypsy Queen.  Normal protocol is that we open a box a month but we got a little behind schedule so we each busted 2 boxes.  I actually did pretty well for a change and got the biggest hit of the 6 boxes opened.

 This was the big hit as it is numbered out of 5.  Weird card, but I'll take it.

My friends and I have each opened 3 boxes of 2013 Gypsy Queen and each of us has pulled a Matt Carpenter and Garrett Richards.

I guess this counts as half a Pirates auto since Brock Holt was traded last year as part the Joel Hanrahan/Mark Melancon deal.  He had the game winning hit for the Red Sox today.  I hope Anthony Gose becomes a superstar because I have some good cards of his.  He is one of those guys that follows me when I bust a box.

 Run of the mill Markakis jersey.

 Addison Reed and Buster Posey framed jersey.

 Dan Uggla and Jacoby Ellsbury blue parallels.

 Sabathia and Scutaro minis /50.  Josh Willingham /99.

Black minis including Ralph Kiner!

Pretty good break overall.  I also traded Keith and Micah some cards to get some sp's as I'm really close to completing the set.  I'm only about 10 cards short.  Keith also traded me two Pirate black minis (Walker and Martin).  Always a blast to get together and open some cards and talk baseball.  

Thanks for checking out the blog.