Separation Anxiety and Flashback

Today my wife left for a trip to London with her Mom.  This will mark the longest she has been away from our daughter so she is having a bit of separation anxiety.  She claims this is not for lack of faith in my abilities, but just motherly nature.  I think deep down inside she is worried what I can teach her during my time alone with her.  She is only 3, but I have her saying Go Buccos and McCutchen. She is in good hands! 

Last night I was organizing some scans of cards and thought I would share my favorite purchases so far in 2016.  One theme that I really noticed was that I've been staying away from active Buccos. I don't think it is from lack of trying, but more from just the amounts auctions go off for.  Guys like Marte and Polanco are having career seasons and the Pirates have graduated quite a few high end prospects which always creates a price jump. 

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Kent Tekulve is cardboard gold.  He has several variants of these Topps buyback autos and I always try to keep my eyes peeled for them.  This is one of my favorite autos in my entire Pirate collection. 

I don't show a ton of my WVU cards on the blog, but I've every bit as active with the Mountaineers as I am with the Pirates.  The main difference is collecting philosophy.  With WVU I almost never buy new releases unless the cards are below the $10 mark.  Both NFL and NBA first rounds picks are notoriously overpriced and hardly ever hold their value.  For every one Andrew Luck their is 50 Geno Smiths.

Joe Alexander was a lottery pick and one of the bigger busts in recent memory.  Being that he was picked so high means you get high end card releases.  This has allowed me to pick up cards like the one above for pennies on the dollar.

This release kind of sums up my collecting theme this year.  I've made it a mission of mine to accumulate as many of these late 90's early 00's parallels as possible.  The Pirates didn't have any high dollar players so these are pretty easy on the wallet.

Gerrit Cole hasn't been his dominant self this year and card prices have reflected that recently.  Mix in the fact that his draft is full of pitchers who have flamed out has caused a buyers market for Cole. Cards like this cost less than the price of a blaster. 

 I love silver frame and acetate parallels.  This one is special because it is the biggest name Pirate I've found recently.

 Just look at these bad boys!

The first cards featuring players in the WV Black Bears uniform were guaranteed chase cards for me. I'm glad I jumped on the Kevin Newman plates early as his prospect status has been elevated some and is being fast tracked through the system.  The best find though was the Kevin Kramer true 1/1 on Just Commons for only $20 bucks.

I was getting a little bored with the Topps Now Pirate cards as the photos just weren't that exciting.  If you are going to charge $9.99 the picture should at least be unique. Thankfully the last handful of Pirate Now cards have been fantastic with this Bell being my favorite.  Also helps to purchase these Now cards on eBay for about a $3 discount.

Happy Friday!