Trade: Jaybarkerfan

This marks the 25th time I've received cards from supertraders creator and certified crazy man Wes of Jaybarkerfan fame.  I'm sure I could have a wing in my house dedicated to the items he has sent me in my two years of blogging. It has been fun trying to keep up with the madman and I look forward to the next 25 swaps.

The latest installment was a nice mix of cards that fit all my collections.....

 Might as well start with the big card.  This is a Leaf Trinity printing plate auto of Pirate prospect Connor Joe. The cool thing about receiving this plate is that I already have one of the auto plates in my possession. I'm halfway there!

I talk about Trinity all the time, but it is a great way to secure prospect autos without having to get a second mortgage on your house like Bowman Chrome will do.

This was the card Wes pulled for me in his Museum Collection break.  If you are going to pull a Pirate Cutch is a nice one to get!

It is always nice to get the base cards and parallels from these high end sets.

 Another Pirate prospect from Bowman Chrome mini. The Ramirez is /15!

 When it comes to my WVU collection these are the types of cards that have been the hardest for me to fine. Parallels of the base sets just don't pop up too much and when they do they are always for a price to makes you second guess yourself.  Thankfully Wes was able to locate this Kay Jay Harris /50. Great card and an extra bonus for him being in his Mountaineer uniform.

 I'm always like the Status diecuts. I went through a phase where I accumulated a ton of the early baseball versions. When they first came out they were kind of an afterthought because everyone was auto/relic crazy.  Now they have become quite valuable. Great looking card!

 The scan didn't come out too well, but this is a Press Pass card of Jerry West /25! I love chasing West cards, but his Laker issued cards are very expensive.

 This is a card that I've only seen showup once....can't remember if it was COMC or eBay. These End Zone parallels are like finding a unicorn because they are /6! What an awesome card!

 Landry Jones actually got some playing time this year. Museum Collection relics are awesome.

 I thought the Steelers were going to be toast when they lost Bell to injury but Deangelo Williams had a great year.

 The Candy Man might be the second best cardboard hero in Pirate history behind Teke.

 It was cool to see Dreamius Smith get a few cards this year.

Wes even threw in a hockey relic of former star winger Martin Straka.

 I always feel obligate to show any Masterpieces card received via trade.  Man I love that set.  Also, a very cool rookie of Aramis Ramirez.

 If you look to close at the Steelers bumble bee throwbacks you might have a seizure.

Some minis round out the trade package.  Only Jordy is left from this bunch.....

You cease to amaze me my friend.  It was a ton of fun going through all these. I'll make sure to also forward the Blue Jays for Kevin very soon. I'll have to come up with something for our next trade.....

Thanks for reading!

T206, Oddballs and a Walk

Richard who runs the blog Toronto Blue Jays Collection recently approached me about having a few Pirate cards to send my way. What I didn't expect was how these cards would blow my mind.

 I'm getting a bit spoiled with this blog thing. I think this marks the 4th time I've received a tobacco card via trade. Talk about making an impact. Thanks so much Richard!

George Gibson hits close to both Richard and I. Gibson has a pretty illustrious career as a player and a manager. So much so he is in the Canadian Hall of Fame. Gibson both played and coached the Pirates.

I won't get too wordy here, but Gibson is an absolutely fascinating guy. He also had the Pirates first hit in Forbes Field.  Here is a link to his SABR page.

 This card had me stumped.  I admit I'm pretty terrible at recognizing some oddballs.  Thanks to Richard he was able help me to understand the card after a few emails back and forth. This is a 68-69 SCFC of Honus Wagner.

Here is what Richard sent about the card....

The set is referred to as 1968-69 SCFC, even though the copyright dates
range from 1968 to 1970. It stands for Sports Cards for Collectors; for
some reason you'll sometimes see them referred to as SCFS.

It's an 82-card set, 78 cards and 4 checklist.

Last but not least is the legend. Richard said this is his only Walk card. Must be nice to ship off $10000000 cards like they are nothing. This will put my kid through college! In all seriousness I really enjoy getting all the Walk cards out there. My goal is to someday get the legend to mention me  during a Pirate broadcast.

Thanks so much for the cards Richard. It was so much learning about George Gibson and the oddball Wagner card.  I look forward to hitting you back shortly. Maybe I can find a cool Joe Carter.

Thanks for reading.

A Highly Subjective Perspective

I almost don't know what to do with myself. It is Friday night, I'm home and I get to mess around with some cards. It is the little things in life, right!

Brian of HSCA fame is one of my frequent and favorite trade partners. Our normal schedule is to line up our trades with our box breaks, but he went the extra step to send out all the supertraders a pwe. What makes Brian such a good trader is that he really puts the extra thought into a trade package.

The Perspective cards are one of the best things to come out of 2016 Topps. Robert hooked me up with the Polanco just the other day and now Brian took care of the Kang. I believe only Cutch is left for the Buccos in the set. Man, I really dig this card. Jung Ho was a huge surprise last year for the Buccos and quickly became a fan favorite.

 I've been going to WVU games most of my life and have a ton of great memories. The thing I remember most about Kay-Jay Harris was him torching East Carolina for over 300 yards rushing. Always fun when a card can jog a memory.

 This is really cool because I hardly have any vintage Steelers. I didn't know anything about McClairen so I had to look him up. His pro career was fairly non descript, but he long stretches of coaching Bethune Cookman's football and basketball teams.

 Topps Gallery was very fancy pants when it first came out. I don't think I have this Clemente in my collection so it was awesome for Brian to send it my way. Very cool card.

 Tavon Austin and Bruce Irvin are the most notable active WVU players in the NFL right now. Hopefully Kevin White can join the mix next year as his rookie year was lost due to injury.

 I say it everytime, but vintage hockey is so cool!

Paul Big Poison Waner sporting the awesome old school flip glasses. I really hope that Jeff Gyorko does well, but I hate the fact he is on the Cardinals. Man, those bubble bee throwbacks are something.....

This was a great surprise Brian. So many great cards that hit all my collections. The good thing is I have two cards that I'm really excited to send your way.  Once I take my turn busting some boxes I'll be hitting you back.

Thanks for reading!

Walk, Papoy, HSCA Collaboration #12

I'm still licking my wounds from that Topps Supreme box so what better way to move on than open a package from my pal Kevin. This time around it was Kevin's turn to pick a box and he went with the familiar Panini Classics. For the price and distribution of hits and makes a pretty safe pick.  Usually one of us ends up with a good hit.

This time around Kevin pulled a 1/1 Marcus Semien for himself, but we all did fairly well.

Nothing too special about the relic, but getting a Red Sox makes for good trade bait. Extra bonus for being one of the more popular guys. I'm sure it would be hard to find a taker for Panda or Hanley.

Heaney was a busy man last year. He was traded to the Dodgers in the Dee Gordon deal and then the Dodgers flipped him to the Angels for Howie Kendrick.  He pitched pretty well for the Angels in about half a seasons work last year.  He is going to be leaned on heavy this coming year.

 Vazquez probably needs to have a big spring for him to break camp with the Red Sox. Teams seem to like veterans as backups so Ryan Hanigan will probably win the job. Blake Swihart seems to be destined for the starting gig.

The checklist in Classics is one of my favorites in the last couple of years. I just wish Panini would have paid a little more attention to detail. Unfortunately the set was one and done. 

It is not a break without extras! Kevin always finds good stuff.  First a cool Clay Holmers Elite card. Holmes had decent pedigree as the Pirates talked him out of a college commitment, but he still hasn't had a breakout season. 

 I should build a special wing in my Polanco collection featuring cards of his that Kevin sent my way. He knows I have a man crush on the Pirate right fielder. Awesome on card auto!

The always tall 54 Bowman of Max Surkont. I think I may have only one other 54 Bowman card so this is a pretty cool addition to the collection.

As always Kevin thanks for the break and the extra stuff. I really appreciate it.  Brian just finished his break last weekend so a new box break post shouldn't far behind.

Thanks for reading.

Supertrader Box Break

As I said on my post Monday I ordered a box of 2015 Topps Supreme.  Supreme is one of those one pack, boom or bust type of products. While I would consider the box a bust, both cards are going to claimed teams.

Congrats to CaptKirk here. He is our designated Orioles collector.  Gausman has the high end prospect pedigree, but has yet to reach his potential. The Orioles are going to have to lean on him a lot this year.

Always happy to pull a card for my good buddy Kevin of Card Papoy fame. I actually think I may have traded him this card, but I guess you can never have too many Roberto Osuna autos.  In all seriousness he is a really good young pitcher, but doesn't get the press of Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez. 

All in all not a very good box, but we at least hit claimed teams.  The 2015 Supreme set is actually very nice as both autos are on card.  

I have a few more things in mind for the group, but that will be down the road. My mission now is to send out a bunch of trade packages to all of you.  Time to get to work.

Thanks for reading. 

#supertraders

The Burbs

Tony Burbs of Wrigley Roster Jenga and I finally broke the trading ice.  Whenever I hear Burbs my mind goes straight to this...

I have a soft spot for Tom Hangs movies like Big and The Burbs.

Let's get back on track.  Tony contacted me saying he had been accumulating some Buccos and asked if I was interested. Of course I am! We are always commenting on each others posts so it makes sense that we start sending cards. I trade with a decent amount of Cubbie collectors, but the way they are populating checklists these days I shouldn't have a hard time finding enough for everyone.

These cards came via two PWE's. One was categorized oddballs and the other traditional. I mixed and matched the scans.

I think this playing card of former Bucco Tim Wakefield was my favorite.  The knuckler burst onto the scene the last year of the early 90's playoff run. King Knuckler!

Showdown cards were pretty common in the early 2000's, but now they are a little harder to come by. Seeing the Mike Benjamin variation made me laugh. Benjamin was the ultimate defense first type of bench player that was common in the 90's. He was a terrible hitter throughout his career, but did enough with the glove to stay in the league for parts of 13 seasons!

You really don't see players like this much anymore. More times in not guys with similar profiles of Benjamin are more of the AAAA type of players that teams use in case of injury. Rarely do they stick with a club all year. This is probably the most anyone has wrote about Mike Benjamin since 2002.....

Panini with a license! Bonilla is a guy I always hoped would get some love in more recent card sets, but I assume he is sitting on a tropical island collecting that deferred Mets money.

Conlon cards are always fun and one of the few oddballs I remember accumulating as a kid.

This marks the second time in a week that I'm got a Vince DiMaggio reprint. I've tried on several occasions to win the real deal, but it sells well on the secondary market. What a cool reprint!

Thanks to my blog friends I haven't had to work too hard to get the 2016 Topps Buccos. I like the Cervelli card, but it feels like the shot could have been closer for the Harrison.

The Pirates have had some of the more cardboard friendly players over the years. Guys like Teke, Parker, Clemente, Pop and BOB WALK come to mind right away. Cutch is the active player who has the best cards. He just exudes coolness.

Man I love this card!

A bunch of minor league Buccos to go along with a Tony Plush.  Ronny Paulino was quite a tease.  He had a very nice rookie season and then for some reason forgot how to catch. The Pirates really struggled to fill the gap between Kendall and Russell Martin.

What is the story behind the Clemente on the top left? 

It never gets old watching the Maz homerun in the 60 World Series. Most have probably heard the story of the lost tapes found in Bing Crosby's home, but if you haven't please take a minute and read the short report from ESPN.

We finish with a beautiful 58 Topps Vern Law.  Thanks so much for including this one Tony.

This was a fun bunch of cards to go through Tony. I'll be hitting you back soon.  Thanks a ton!

Thanks for reading!

Supertraders and Whales

Today I purchased a box of 2015 Topps Supreme for the Supertraders group. It will yield only a couple of cards but we have a decent chance of getting something worthwhile. Let's just hope we avoid the unclaimed teams. I ordered it from Steel City so I should have it by Wednesday.

I've been working on getting all my trade posts caught up.  I'm still sitting on 6 or 7 envelopes.  Off the top of my head I know I have stuff from Tony Burbs, Wes, Brian, Card Papoy, Nick and Jedi Jeff. Expect lots of trade posts this week.  

Tonight I will be attending the Big Monday game featuring WVU and Iowa State.  Should be a fun atmosphere as the 9pm games usually create a raucous atmosphere. 

Now for something I'm really excited about.  When I created my white whales list most of the cards featured were somewhat attainable and not priced out of this world. The one card on my list that I knew was going to be expensive and hard to find was the 2001 Topps Base Hit auto of former Pirate manager Gene Lamont.  

I'm not exactly sure how many of these are around, but I've only seen 2 on eBay in probably 5 years. 

2001 Topps Base Hit Gene Lamont Auto

Last week a seller put this on eBay as a BIN or best offer.  His buy it now price was a very reasonable $45. If I recall the last one I remember seeing on eBay sold for over $60. I was able to get the card for $38. Is that expensive for an obscure Pirates manager.....it sure is.  I was so excited to see the card I would have probably paid double. 

Another way this auto helped was that it allowed me to further my Pirate manager autograph collection. 

The Murtaugh is the prize of my collection. I'm not sure of any other certified autos since he passed away in the mid 70's. Neil Huntington is current GM of the Pirates. 

Thanks for reading!