Daniel Delivers a White Whale

Might as well start big. Recently I shipped off some Dbacks to Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Cardshop and boy did he fire back. Man I love this card. Such a nice on card signature to go with a cool photo. Thanks for tracking this one down for me Daniel. I've probably lost this card via auction about 10 times.

Daniel wasn't done with just the Groat......

These Game Face Gear cards are huge. If I recall only Kendall and Giles were featured in the set. Great card!

I miss the dreads! That is what happens when you get married. Poor Cutch lost his calling card. At least it didn't effect his game. Superstitious Pirates fans were worried.

Jose Hernandez was your typical all or nothing hitter. He had great power, but boy could he strike out with the best of them. He was able to stay in baseball forever because of his versatility. The card above is a stat line parallel from 2004 Donruss. This is numbered to 251 which is Jose's career batting average.

The base parallels in UD were hard to come by. Glad to see Daniel sent me this Freddy from 2008 Series 2. These were numbered to 99

I'm a huge Diamond Kings fan. The Pirates were well represented in these sets. This is a parallel numbered to 100.

Thanks so much for the cards Daniel. The Dick Groat was such a nice surprise. I'm sure I'll have plenty of new Dbacks for you in the near future.

Thanks for reading.

Ultra Dilemma

You ever back yourself into a corner with some aspect of your collection? Player collectors and set collectors come to mind first. The insanity of chasing every card of one player boggles my mind. In terms of sets it would be the feeling of never being finished. The new sets have some many sp's that the dollar amounts to complete are going through the roof.  

I'm more of a team collector than anything. Part of the reason I do this is to not fall under the trap of feeling like I need to buy a card. This allows me to shift gears between WVU and Pirates without feeling like I missed something. 

My dilemma is how I protect my cards. Back about 5 or 6 years ago I made a purchase of an entire case of Ultra Pro One-Touch magnetic cases (I wasn't married yet so I made silly purchases like this). It was the standard 35pt and it was a great deal. The seller looked to be liquidating the contents of a card or comic shop. As it turned out the seller had multiple cases of different sizes. Once I had bought a few cases the seller contacted me and we made a deal for several more for one price. I was stocked for the long haul

Since I had so many at my disposal I was way too liberal on the usage of the cases. Hell, if I was trading with the Card Papoy back then I would have put the Bieber card in a one touch. Fast Forward to present day and I've finally begun to run out. 

This is how I store higher end cards

The first fix is going to be a full fledged review to see which cards are One-Touch Worthy. This should free up a good amount and allow me a little breathing room. My evaluation system before was "hey this card is cool" so I placed it in a One-Touch. Now I need to be a little more choosy. 

The hard question to answer is if I should continue buying the cases for future cards. I'm not the most organized person in the world, but this is one area I've been very consistent. Obviously the main issue is money. As most of you know these cases are not cheap.  Also, cards are getting very thick so I would need to purchase more cases that are 130pt or higher. As you go higher in thickness prices of the cases soar as well. 

A couple months back I made an eBay purchase of a big lot of pre-used cases. Some were a little scratched or had price tags on them, but the discount more than made up for the blemishes.  I'm thinking this might be the best course of action for the immediate future. If I can find one or two lots like this a year I should be fine. 

What this doesn't help with is the really thick cards. I never see lots for the 130pt or above cases and that is what I'm running out of right now. The way card companies are trending I'm going to need a bunch of this size. The easy answer would be just to start storing these cards another way, but I've been doing it this way for a long time and I really don't want to change. 

Glimmer of Hope

Albeit small, the Pirates do have a glimmer of hope for the division. According to Fangraphs the Pirates have about a 10% shot of winning the division. At the very least they control their own destiny since the margin is 3 games. The Pirates are entering a 3 games series with the Cardinals beginning tonight and finish with the Reds. If the Cards win the series it would mathematically eliminate the Pirates and we will be on a collision course with Jake Arrieta and the Cubs. Arrieta is very good at throwing baseballs that are hard to hit. I would much rather not face him.

2015 Immaculate Andrew McCutchen/Giancarlo Stanton Dual Patch /10

I've had a lot of success picking up cards from this years Immaculate. It had one of the better Pirate checklists of the year. I have a nice backlog of cards to showoff from this set, but I was really excited about this dual patch.

Obviously it is always a big deal to pick up a nice new Cutch, but being featured with Giancarlo Stanton made me want this card that much more. I'm a huge Stanton fan and could watch videos of him destroying baseball all day.

Here is a nice sample.

This card cost me around $20 which seemed reasonable considering Cutch cards are through the roof. At least being unlicensed allows me to find a deal every now and again.

Thanks for reading!

Adventures in Ebay Packaging #2 (Toploader addition)

Another classic adventure in eBay packaging. Thankfully as was the case with my last adventure the card in question arrived just fine. I was a tad bit more angry about this one....

2014 Topps Finest Charles Sims Auto/Patch

Here is the card. Pretty nice looking card that cost me $2.99 + $3.25 shipping.  With a shipping charge of $3.25 as I buyer I have certain expectations. For one the card should be sent in a bubble envelope. Second the card should be in a toploader.

Well........

The envelope itself was more along the lines of something that would be sent interoffice mail at my job. It was folded in the middle and taped.  Very odd....but not as bad as this.

This is what was used in place of a toploader.  That is a napkin and two pieces of cardboard.  The card itself had the napkin wrapped around and was placed in the middle of the two pieces of cardboard. Blue painters tape was used to keep everything together. 

The seller has only 90 feedback, but it was all positive. My guess since the Sims card was so thick he didn't have a toploader that fit. I actually laughed when I pulled the card out. My first thought was that I was going to find a toploader that was too big, but quickly discovered no toploader at all. 

All that matters is that the card arrived safely, but for $3.25 shipping I think it is reasonable to expect a bubble envelope and a toploader. I probably deserve this for stating how lucky I've been with shipping lately.  

Let's Go Mountaineers!

Posing a Scenario

I've posed this question to a few my friends already, but figured it would be fun to ask the blogosphere since we all love baseball.

I'm using the Pirates as an example, but it is a question that could be posed for any team in a similar situation.

So the Pirates are in the wildcard game playing the Cubs. Both teams have their respective aces going (Cole and Arrieta). The Pirates find themselves down 1-0 in the bottom of the 4th. The bases are loaded with 1 out and Cole is coming up.  Cole has only thrown 60 pitches.  Do you let him hit?

Obviously their are a lot of variables at play, but the Pirates would have a complete bench so they could throw a left handed hitter out there to pinch hit. The other important note is that you are allowed a unique roster for the game. So the Pirates can have a slew of relievers at their disposal along with several guys capable of pitching multiple innings.

So does Cole bat?

It's Ok to Celebrate

The Pirates clinched their third consecutive playoff appearance last night when they defeated the Rockies. While the Pirates have an outside chance to still win the division, in all likelihood they are on a collision course to face the Cubs. Cue asshole fans and pundits....

The last couple of days their has been a lot of press on whether the Pirates should/how to celebrate clinching. So many people have been saying that they should "act like they've been there before", or keep it low key. What a bunch of shit.

Making the playoffs is hard. It would be one thing to keep it low key if you were likely to win the division. Since the division is unlikely for the Pirates I say celebrate like madmen. The same people who say keep celebrations low key are probably the same people who get bent out of shape when a guy stares down a homerun.

It should be a rule that you have to do a bat flip.  I would pretend the bat was a telescope after I launched one to get a good gauge of the distance.

Drink the champagne boys. You earned it! Who knows, you may have twenty straight years of losing in front of you.....

Thanks for reading.

Ice

I don't mess around much with Bowman parallels other than some refractor autos I have in my collection. While I'm not as much against parallel cards in general as some, I do think too many exist. Since so many exist I base my purchases on which parallels I find the most visually appealing. My favorites are the Topps acetates/clear cards that are numbered to 10 and the silver frames /20.

With that being said I will pull the trigger if the price is right. Such was the case with this AJ Burnett.

AJ Burnett 2013 Bowman Purple Ice /10

AJ still doesn't have a ton of Pirate cards. This makes finding some of his more limited releases tough as prices can be high. Thankfully I ended up spending more on shipping than the actual card itself ($2.25 + $2.99 shipping). Seemed like a reasonable price to pay for a card numbered to 10.

On a personal note I'm not the biggest AJ fan. He has been great for the Pirates, but something about him rubs me the wrong way. Must be his demonstrative style on the mound. He has an ultra competitive personality that sometimes can go a bit overboard when you can tell he is pissed at one of his teammates for not making a play. He is in the same mold as a John Lackey and Chris Carpenter. They just seem like miserable pricks on the mound.

I don't really let this personal bias effect my collection. The Pirates have had some well documented assholes over the years with the likes of Brian Giles and Jason Kendall coming to mind. Both are well represented in my collection.  For all I know Cutch and Gerrit Cole could be huge assholes. I don't know these guys personally all my opinions are based on what I see on the field.

MVP's (Harper vs Field)

An interesting article hit Fangraphs today discussing the NL MVP race. I find award voting in baseball equally fascinating and frustrating. This year will probably be more frustrating.

As you know MVP awards often become hot topics toward the end of the season. In years past voters would look more at counting stats rather than the overall body of work. The year Juan Gonzalez won the MVP is a great example as Griffey Jr was by far the best player.

In recent years voters have done a better job of avoiding the real egregious picks. Mike Trout could easily have 3 MVP's but it is not like it was some atrocity that Miguel Cabrera won the award. Cabrera was probably the better hitter, but Trout was hands down the best overall player. Personally I think Trout should have won, but that is a worn out argument. Overall the last handful of years has been much better.

The debate now is Bryce Harper. No statistical argument can be made which doesn't have Harper winning the award. He leads just about every offensive category you can think of by a considerable margin. What he doesn't have is narrative.

Voters love a good story. They want guys leading their team to the playoffs. Some voters will only vote for the best player that is on a playoff team.  If you Google 2015 NL MVP you will eventually run into articles making the case for guys like Anthony Rizzo, Kershaw/Grienke and Cutch.

As much as I love Cutch, he doesn't deserve the MVP. It just feels like everyone is over thinking it this year. It is not Bryce Harper's fault that the Nats underachieved. People put way too much stock into things the actual player can't control.  One of the years Miggy won the AL MVP a voter referenced the Tigers made the playoffs. Mike Trout's Angels actually had the better record.

The Fangraphs article I referenced plays devils advocate and trying to say Harper is more good than great when his team needs him the most. In low to medium leverage situations Harper is by far the best hitter in baseball, but in high leverage situations he is 70th. Guys like Rizzo and Cutch rated much higher. At the end of the article the writer said he would still vote for Harper. His point was basically saying context can and should play a small part in voting.

When it was all said and done you can keep drilling and find flaws in someones game. Basically it comes down to voting for someone who is having a historically great season, but on an underachieving team. To me MVP means best player. Bryce Harper is the best player this year. I find it odd that we can pick CY Young winners on bad teams (Kluber and King Felix), but the hitter gets docked for being on a bad team.

I think Harper will win, but it won't be the landslide victory that it should be.

I've blogged about this card before, but it is pretty much the only Harper I have and it features a Pirate!

Vote Harper!

Who's Your Favorite Little Rascal?

My wife was nice enough to give me a couple hours to sort some cards last night. Mainly this consists of me going through 5000ct boxes looking for cards to trade and separating out Pirates/WVU. As usual this process unveils some hidden gems.

2006 Fleer Greats of the Game Mike Spanky Lavalliere Auto

SPANKY!!!!!

Mike Lavalliere played before the relic/auto boom so as far as I know this is the only certified hit of the former Bucco backstop. While it is a tad bit disappointing that he is featured as a White Sox, the card is still awesome.

Maybe I should start a petition to make sure he gets featured as a Pirate in the Fan Favorites auto set. He played for four teams during his career, but by far his best years were in Pittsburgh. He proved to be a very valuable piece during the Pirates three playoff years in the early 90's platooning with Don Slaught.

This card has been in my collection for a long time so I can't quite remember how I acquired it. My guess would be COMC since it was boxed with a bunch of other cards that I know for sure were ordered from there.

Thanks for reading!

I'm in Deep

Last summer I opened the most boxes I had since the mid 2000's.  This was mostly due to the fact that I was recovering from surgery and it helped with the boredom. One set that went on super sell during that time was 2014 Donruss. Around the time of the 2014 National I believe Dave and Adams had a sale in which boxes were marked all the way down to the $40 mark. I opened a ton.

Since I opened a ton, I obviously accumulated a ton of cards.While a tough set to complete, the shear volume that I opened pretty much gave me a master set. A few eBay lots here and there helped cap off the base short prints and the majority of the remaining insert sets.

In terms of autos I decided I would give that set a run as well. The checklist was void of guys like Trout and Harper so I figured it was worth a shot. Each box yielded at least 2 autos so I was able to get a bulk out of the way quickly. Here is the checklist....

1 Billy Hamilton
2 Dave Parker
3 Wil Myers
4 Jason Kipnis
5 Mike Zunino
6 Manny Machado
7 Bucky Dent
8 Kris Medlen
9 Chris Sale
10 Dusty Baker
11 Oscar Gamble
12 Willie Horton
13 Brandon Barnes
14 Martin Prado
15 Brandon Maurer
16 Alex Wilson
17 Andrew Brown
18 Starling Marte
19 Chris Rusin
20 Jordan Zimmermann
21 Evan Gattis
22 Mitch Moreland
23 Josh Donaldson
24 Bruce Rondon
25 Asdrubal Cabrera

26 Troy Glaus
27 James Shields
28 Jeurys Familia
29 Wilmer Flores
30 Didi Gregorius
31 Reymond Fuentes
32 Ivan Nova
33 Kevin Gausman
34 Jay Bruce
35 Michael Choice
36 Daniel Nava
37 Nick Castellanos
38 Lance Lynn
39 Taijuan Walker
40 Xander Bogaerts
41 Kolten Wong
42 Jurickson Profar
43 Mike Napoli
44 Zack Wheeler
45 Vinnie Pestano
46 Michael Morse
47 Jay Buhner
48 Oscar Taveras
49 Adam LaRoche
50 Miguel Sano

When I first decided I was going to go for all of them I knew some would be tough. The Hamilton, Marte and Gattis were redemptions and at the time of release Bogaerts and Taveres were sought after rookies.

I got lucky by pulling Boagerts, Taveras and Marte. Gattis and Hamilton were purchased off of eBay. Thankfully all three redemptions were executed by the player. I thought the rest would be smooth sailing......I was wrong.

Donruss didn't announce any official short prints, but you could see some shaping up over time. After some investigation it seems that at least 4 players were sp's (Glaus, LaRoche, Castellanos and Familia). This set has been saved in my eBay searches for over a year and I had never seen the LaRoche and Familia and only 1 a piece of Glaus and Castellanos.

Thankfully patience paid off last week when the Troy Glaus hit eBay. A few other people must have known this card was an sp as my winning bid was $15. Glaus autos usually sell for much cheaper. I probably would have went much higher so $15 was a small price to pay for a years long wait.

So as of now I'm only 3 cards short from completing the set, but who knows when they may show up again.

While these cards are not numbered my assumption is that they are rare. To not see something for over a year in a set in which a lot of people opened makes me think less than 20 were produced. 

This will be the last time I try completing something like this. I don't consider myself a set builder so this pursuit is way out of my comfort zone. Obviously I'm in too deep with this set now to scrap it, but it just isn't as fun as finding a random Pirate I need.

Thanks for reading! 

The F Word

I went to the second half of the doubleheader on Tuesday against the Cubs with one of my bosses. Our original plan was to see about half the first game, but work obligations kept us in Morgantown too long. Either way it was a perfect day for a game.

I was able to get really nice tickets for the game so the pictures are a better than usual. My favorite part of the evening was watching David Ross. Ross doesn't play too much for the Cubs. He is to the point where he catches Jon Lester and is a defensive replacement. Boy does he love dropping the F bomb. At one point in the game he was trying to get to third base on a sac bunt attempt by Lester. It was a close play but he beat the throw to third. He would score soon after and upon returning to the dugout he screamed to his teammates "how bout that fucking slide bitches." It was hilarious and he had his teammates cracking up. A few parents in the front rows were not pleased, but they are idiots for not expecting that stuff from a major league dugout. Personally I thought it was a nice fucking slide too.....

Nice picture of Cutch at the plate.

 I didn't realize I took some hipster black and white shot. Maybe I should do weddings.

 I was digging the Kang-Ho shirt. Little did I know that Kang's season would end with a devastating leg injury thanks to Chris Coghlan two days later. I'm not that mad at Coghlan as baseball allows the runners to do that for some odd reason. Just upset that the Pirates have lost arguably their second best hitter this year for the playoff run. I'm glad the Pirates didn't start some kind of bean ball war. Unwritten baseball rules are stupid.

 Nice view of the outfield. Like I said above, it was a perfect night.

 Javier Baez and Addison Russel coming out of the dugout.

Jon Lester on deck.

The Pirates would lose the game, but it was a great night. I was hoping the Pirates could get into the weak Cubs bullpen, but Lester was very efficient. It pays to have big time starting pitching and the Cubs have two really good ones on top of their rotation.

Thanks for reading!

Trade: HSCA Delivers Some Wow

This post was meant for yesterday, but the Pirates/Cubs extra inning game got the best of me. Oh Boy, Brian of HSCA fame sure outdid himself on this one. The bubble mailer had only 6 cards, but they packed a punch. Our blind trading has forgone quantity and went straight to the big guns.

A high end Cutch to start things off. I've done pretty well adding cards from NT the last year, but strike out when it comes to Cutch. Very thankful to receive his cards via trade.

I hear this Clemente guy was good. Here I am thinking that Cutch can't be topped and this card pops out. A 69 Topps Deckle is a nice trade piece for sure!

 Now the big guns are out. The photographer of this card probably had to shoe off thousands of women waiting to meet the legend. Little does he know the greatness that is in store for him.

One of my prized Cutch autos is the eTopps variation that are almost impossible to find. With that being said I did not own the base which is /999. These rarely pop up anymore and seem to be having a little resurgence on the secondary market. 

Old school sticker!

I smiled pretty big when I saw this card. This  is one of my white whales and has been one of the more illusive cards for me to secure. Over the years I've lost a handful of auctions for this card. Thanks to Brian I can retire this from the list. 

Thanks so much for the great cards Brian. I have a blast swapping back and forth with you. I'll continue my hunt for unique Twins! 

Thanks for reading. 

Remember the Alamo

I'm a notoriously bad photographer. I've been fortunate enough in my life to visit some unique places, but if not for my wife they would be just memories . Thankfully when I travel by myself she will send texts to remind me to document the trip. My recent trip to San Antonio is a little light on pictures because I had been there before and my free time was limited.

Here are the few that I have.

The funny thing about the River Walk is that their is no shortage of food choices, but well reviewed restaurants are hard to find. So after asking around and searching on Yelp and Trip Advisor, a consensus favorite was a place called Bella on the River. It was great! This was the view from that dinner.

Seafood paella was the main attraction at this place and it didn't disappoint. 

Nothing says San Antonio more than a drink with Jameson in it! I'm more of an IPA guy, but I felt something stronger was needed after long airport delays. This drink was called the Bloody Irish and had muddled jalapeno in it. Normally chain hotel bars are the worst, but this bar had a little bit of everything.

Sometimes the good restaurants are the ones that can take something so basic like chips and salsa and make them unique. These were awesome! I didn't like the white sauce, but the verde was fantastic.

The Alamo! I did a quick lap my last day just to snag a couple pictures. Some crazy guy was preaching that we were all going to hell and that we don't love God enough so I kept it quick.

Kind of cool shot with the Texas flag.

My biggest regret on the trip is not making time to visit a big card shop that is in the San Antonio area. I would have had to take a cab, but from the website this place would have been worth it. Terrible weather and work issues kept me past the stores closing time.

I'm heading to the Pirates/Cubs game tonight. Today is actually a doubleheader. A few weeks back I went to the game that got rained out so my tickets were good for the 1:35 start, but I exchanged them for the 7pm. This is a big series that will go a long way to determine who the home field team will be for the wild card and whether the Pirates or Cubs will make a final push for the division. Man, it would be nice to win the division. Wild Card games are nerve racking.

Thanks for reading!

Adventures in ebay Packaging

Right before I left town last week I was opening some cards I had got in the mail to sort and scan. One of these cards was my newest addition to the Andrew McCutchen collection. I purposely left out discussing the packaging of this card because I thought it was good enough to warrant its own post. Check this out....

So the actual card was sandwiched between a thick piece of cardboard and an empty top loader. The card itself was also in a top loader. Oh the tape......so much freaking tape. 

 I mean seriously....I think the seller wrapped tape around about two thousand times.

 Poor Cutch is suffocating from all the tape......

This is a great case of over protection. I left the seller positive feedback because the card arrived in great shape, but his methods seem to be without much thought. For one that looked to be a rather cumbersome process to ship one card. Also, the biggest risk to the card was unpacking. That should never be the case. 

I probably should tell the guy a simple top loader and team bag would suffice. If he wants to go the extra mile some blue painters tape would be great for the extra security. This card could have probably survived a bucket of water, but it was 50/50 that the scissors or razor blade could have clipped the card. Tape residue could have been an issue as well. 

When its all said in done I would much rather have a card packed like this than some crappy scotch tape on top of the case and a top loader that is too big. It just made me laugh when I took it out of the bubble mailer. 

Thanks for reading!

Optical Illusion

2009 Ballpark Collection Jason Bay Laundry Tag /5

Sometimes I can suffer from eBay tunnel vision. I get fixated on a card and do whatever I can to win it. So was the case for this Bay laundry tag card.....

I really liked this card except for the fact that it says Boston Red Sox in huge font right in front. When I initially put the bid on the card my eyes saw a nice low numbered Bay card that I didn't have. I placed my bid and moved on. When I got a notification that I won the card I was happy, but noticed my error right away. 

Normally I stay away from non Pirate issue cards after a guy moves on. This is more for monetary reasons than bitterness as I have better ways to allocate my money. 

Either way I'm still happy to own this card as it is getting harder and harder for me to add Bay cards to my collection. I think I still count it as a Pirate.....

College Football Mini Rant

Been a whirlwind (but fun) 24 hours for me. I got home around 1am this morning from San Antonio. The bad thing was I pumped myself full of caffeine to make the drive home from the airport that I had trouble winding down. After a nice early wake up call from my daughter I prepared for the WVU football game at 3pm against Liberty. After the WVU game I went immediately home so I could watch the Pirates/Brewers on TV. Since the Cardinals have decided to go on their worst stretch of the year it has allowed the Pirates and Cubs to make a run at the division. A fun day for sure that was only made better by a WVU and Buccos win.

Minor rant....

I find myself getting more and more tired of the in game experience at college football games. There is nothing worse than having some drunk idiot screaming his lungs out about play calling and screaming "Tackle" at the top of his lungs on every defensive play. The crazy thing about it is this game was never really in question and our quarterback only threw a handful of incomplete passes. My favorite moment was at the end of the game when we were running the ball to eat clock and "drunk coach" wanted us to throw the ball. We ended up running again and scored a touchdown. He almost acted dejected that we scored. No reasoning with drunk idiots.

2009 Exquisite Collection Pat White Quad Patch /35

Last week I had another drunk idiot behind me who couldn't let go of the fact that Pat White is no longer our quarterback. WVU is running a good bit of read option this year with our new quarterback to a decent amount of success so far. Obviously drunk idiot wasn't impressed as he would say "Pat White could do it better" after every run. Ugh.... 

What better way to introduce my newest Pat White card! This card is very colorful. One thing about the Dolphins is that their jerseys can make some sweet relics. I don't quite recall the price of this card, but I think it was around $10-15. White was a bust in the NFL, but his cards still sell well on the secondary market because of his college success. 

Thanks for reading. I'm sure Pat White could have wrote a better post......

Trade: The Card Papoy

Since Kevin and I had a significant gap in between our box breaks he decided to hook me up with some Pirates he had accumulated.  Kevin always finds great stuff for my collection and this latest package was no different. It was almost all hits! 

Cue tons of pictures....

A motto to live by brought to you by the Biebs.

Immaculate has featured a ton of Pirates the last couple of years.  Pimentel was part of the Melancon/Hanrahan trade a few years back. While his numbers weren't terrible he was dfa'd during spring training as the Pirates bullpen was deep.

I remember seeing a meme with Gorzelanny and Sloth side by side. The internet is mean.

Gerrit Cole is getting a little extra rest before the end of the season. Right now it is looking like we are on a collision course with the Cubs in the wildcard. 

Frame relics always look nice.

I don't have many parallels from Archives so getting these from Kevin was very appreciated. The Kiner is numbered to 199 and Marte to 50.

Freddy was always one of my favorites. The standing ovation he received in the 2006 All Star game was one of my favorite sports moments. You could tell he was overwhelmed. 

Kendall is still in baseball helping out the Royals instructing catchers. It was cool to see him in the Fan Favorites set this year. Have to wonder how good his career would have been had he not destroyed his ankle.

Some black parallels of Cervelli and Hart. Cervelli has been great this year while Hart has been hurt all season. Have to think that Hart's career might be over.

Nice on card Heritage auto of Brian Giles. Even if he was an asshole he was awesome for the Buccos. 

More Cole goodness!

I wonder if the Pirates gave Rick Rhoden a world series ring since he pitched in 1 game in 1979.

I like the Ovation autos. Kevin and I opened a box of this stuff and we both enjoyed it.

Stadium Club Cutch always steals the show!

The Pirates uniforms are one of the easiest to get around the license issue. Marte signs a good bit, but his cards still demand a good bit on the secondary market. When I saw this in the bundle I was pretty pumped. A great addition to my Marte collection!

Kevin knows how to finish off a trade strong with the legend himself. While clean shaven Walk might not strike as much fear as the full mustache version, he still has the mullet.

As always Kevin you outdid yourself.

Thanks for reading.