New/Big Poison and a Reminder

I got sidetracked and lost track of time with the Pens game followed by a late 9pm WVU start. Solid sports night!

A few weeks back I made a fairly significant purchase of National Treasures cards. The lot was around 20 cards, but only three were for me.  This one was by far my favorite of the keepers

2016 Paul Waner National Treasures /25

Panini has made a lot of nice sets centered around old timers. Everyone loved the Cooperstown set and I was big fan of Classics.  National Treasures is more of a hit based set, but once again the checklist featured a bunch of pre war stars.

When it comes to the Waner brothers it is much easier to find good deals with Lloyd.  With that being said if you are patient deals exist for Big Poison as well. Lately Panini has produced a good bit of relics of both Waners so prices are reasonable.

In case you missed I'm holding a contest for my blogging birthday.  You can join here.

Thanks for reading!

Celebrating my Blogging Birthday

CONTEST CLOSED



Bob Walk the Plank turned 3 yesterday!

I like blog milestones because it gives me a reason to do a contest. Having a contest always motivates me to send out a bunch of cards. I'm sitting on a decent amount of trade bait, so depending on who wins the contest I may already have something to send.

I'll only choose one winner as my blogging birthday is going to be fairly close to my 1000th post which I have something bigger in scope in store. Like I said above I have so many cards right now that many of my regular trade partners will receive some sort of package no matter what. The winner will just receive something a little extra special.

As per all my other contests you just need to comment below.  You can tell a joke, leave a recipe, say hi or make fun of me personally.  It all works the same. No more than 1 entry. I'll end the contest on Friday.

Also, no need to promote the contest. It can be an intimate affair! Let's celebrate!

Reuniting

Back in the late summer I decided to join Twitter.  I figured it would be a nice spot to centralize my baseball news and follow a bunch of fellow baseball card collectors. Like all social media it has its annoyances but the experience has been positive so far.

A few months back I reunited with an old collecting acquaintance from Morgantown. Kin of Bean's Ballcard Blog is pretty well known on Twitter and saw me posting some WVU pictures. After a few messages we realized we knew each other and ran in the same collecting circles in the early 2000's. The power of social media! Recently Kin started up a blog to promote his personal collection. Check it out here.

A few weeks back Kin sent word that he was going to be shipping off some cards my way.  Sounds good to me! Little did I know it would resemble a Jaybarker Fan priority mail bombing.

 I'm such a sucker for stadium giveaways. Back when I was in banking my whole office was decorated in them. Now they play a prominent part in downstairs decor.

 Jason Bay kept me collecting Pirates when they were a laughing stock.

Here is a nice aerial view of all the cards Kin sent. I'll showoff some of my favorites below.

 This is the main event of the package.  Bautista only has a few certified Pirate autos so it is always nice to get one via trade. Joey Bats is the definition of late bloomer. He was useful as a Pirate, but obviously didn't come into his own until arriving in Toronto.

Kin is a WVU guy too so he is definitely dealing from his own stash here which I appreciate. The football version of Sweet Spot held up much better than its baseball counterpart. The only weird thing about this set is the limited autograph space for the signer. Makes for some crunched up autos.

 Even vintage found its way in the mix.

 Taillon had a nice season after missing most of the previous two. If the Pirates are going to content for a wildcard they will need the young pitchers to continue to get better. The only thing missing from his arsenal is a dominating third pitch.  If that happens Taillon could have ace potential as his command is already the best on the team.

 This man needs no introduction.

 Polis is sporting the same haircut as the villain from No Country for Old Men.

 I actually owned a similar jacket that Mad Dog is wearing as a child.

 The two Bay cards are the highlights for me. UD Masterpieces is one of the better sets in the last 20 years. Huge fan of the canvas cards.

Nice throwback photo on the Topps Unique card. In case you don't know Unique was one of those super premium sets that centered around mega hits. Quick story..

A couple years back a seller had a Nate Mclouth patch/auto that I wanted really bad. After a ton of negotiating he finally just sent me a message and said he had bought a case of Unique and was trying to recoup some money.  He basically said the amount the money I was offering was fair, but he just couldn't take that big of loss. Could you imagine your case hit being Nate Mclouth on a super premium case bust.....yikes. The card finally went off eBay after close to 6 months.

 Who would have thought a few years back that Mark Melancon would have one of the richest reliever contracts in baseball history.  Good for him.

 I'm a big college sports fan so I naturally gravitate to college cards in my WVU collection.  With this bunch Kin has helped me do the same with my Steelers collection. The Polamalu was my favorite.  When I was actively chasing Steeler cards he was one of the hardest to accumulate. He had a big following.

The Slash Metal card and the Le'Veon Bell are my favorites here. 

 I'm a huge Pens fans but never really accumulated much in the way of cardboard before blogging. Now I have a nice collection thanks to some generous folks. The Sid Prizm and Barrasso UD choice are my favorites.

To finish things off is a nice bunch of WVU guys.  I know Kin doesn't actively collect his alma mater like he used to, but it is still extremely generous for him to send these my way.

It was really cool to see Gyorko have a nice balance back year with the Cardinals last year. That power and position flexibility will keep him in the league a long time.

Really appreciate the generosity Kin. I will try and find good homes for the other stuff you sent my way that wasn't Pirates/Pens/Steelers/WVU.  I'll have to think of something unique to hit you back with.

Thanks for reading.

Night Owl Sends His Snow

I live in an area that sees its fair share of snow, but nothing compared to Night Owl territory.  One winter of constant lake effect snow would likely have me heading south for good. A few weeks back I decided to help Greg with his surplus of snow....cards that is.

 Are these silly....sure, but for whatever reason when Greg put this Cutch on his blog I was interested. Do you think once spring comes around they will replace snow with flowers? That would be funny.

I'm always appreciative when I can get help with retail cards that interest me. Night Owl being the nice guy he is decided to throw in some cool extras!

 Here is Gregory Polanco pulverizing some snow with his bat. I still feel like Polanco has a lot of room for growth.  Already a good player, but an All Star level player is well within his ceiling.

 Let it snow!

 This is a cool night shot.  I'm hoping for a revamp of Opening Day soon. The last couple of years have been rough. The best part of that set is the mascot autos. That is not a good thing when it is a budget set. At least Topps Bunt was cool.

 I need to do a battle royale between Kent Tekulve and Jason Kendall cards.  Obviously Teke has the million dollar look, but for photo choices Kendall is top notch.  For whatever reason I've received a ton of Kendall cards the past month. No complaints here!

 Mitch Keller is the fastest rising prospect in the system. The Pirates have had a lot of luck developing pitching lately.  Hopefully that trend continues. It is possible that 4 of the 5 starters could be home grown this year.

 Double Pops! Any set celebrating the 70's will have a lot of black and gold.

 I heard that Mr. Mint Al Rosen passed away a few days back. I'll never forget his adds in Beckett. I'm pretty sure he sold his share of Wagner cards over the years.

It always kind of cracks me up when players are featured in poses that I would have done in Little League.  I wonder if Brian Giles mom bought the platinum package that came with a bunch of wallet size pictures like my mom did of me.

Jerry Reuss looks a lot like one of my uncles. That same uncle even had that moppy blond hair look.

Thanks for the Cutch snowflake card and all the extras Greg.  I'm sure I'll find something for you soon. Hope you are not getting pounded with snow this weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Let's Have a Drink

I'm hoping to have a big card day tomorrow, but since it is Friday let's have some beer. By the way if any of you utilize the App Untappd let me know. We can become digital drinking buddies.  It is like Facebook without all the kid pictures and politics. A utopia of hops and barley.

This evening my beer tasting group experimented with some new scotch/wee heavy beers. They were all delicious.

 Olde Hickory is a small brewery in North Carolina that does some amazing things. I'm a big fan of imperial stouts and barrel aged beers and they have quite a nice lineup.

I was a little nervous about this beer as it was one of the more expensive ones I've purchased. Scotch ales normally are fairly affordable, but Olde Hickory went fancy pants and got a hold of some Highland Scotch barrels and aged the beer.  The result was fantastic. A perfect blend of sweet and smokey.

 Boulevard is a brewery that is mass distributed to most major metro areas so they are reasonably easy to find. This one was the only one of the bunch that wasn't barrel aged, but instead oak aged. You lose the bite of the barrel so the abv is lower, but you gain a nice sweet/smooth taste.

 Another NC brewery! Sheaf Toss is a great name for a beer. This one mirrored the flavor of the Wavell Gunn beer but was a tad bit thinner. It was outstanding.

Later this evening my brother stopped by so we broke open a 2016 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout. The beer is a barrel aged is packs a punch at ~14 abv. It is probably the most famous barrel aged beer along with Founders KBS and one that helped pave the way for the craft beer explosion. It has been around for a long time, but it is still among the best you will find among barrel aged beers.

Cheers! Thanks for reading.

Baseball Trip and Walmart Exclusives

My wife and I both like to travel.  Right now our daughter is still a little too young to make many trips so often we divide and conquer. We also think it is good for our sanity to some activities away from each other. Last year I took a baseball trip to San Diego and she went to London with her Mom. Our trips together are usually the long weekend variety.

Today I started to plan my 2017 Pirates baseball trip!!!!

The main requirement is that I visit a new stadium. Next is finding dates that work, which is the most difficult task. Last year for San Diego I could only find one person to go with me as many of my friends are of the age where having kids is the thing to do.  Thankfully this year seems to be coming together a little easier.

This year the winner looks to be Chase Field in Phoenix. It is a 4 game weekend series in mid May so it can accommodate a lot of schedules. Maybe I'll see if Daniel can meet up with me. Might be as many as five people on this trip!

How about a new card....

2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary Edition Kent Tekulve Auto

This card sold for cheap because the auto is not the greatest of quality.  I didn't care because it is Teke and all Teke cards need a good home. The final price was around $5 shipped. 

I couldn't bring myself to open one of these because the Pirates in the set could be had for less than the going rate of the box. Just need to find the Vern Law now. I also hate shopping with a passion so the hatred of going somewhere like Walmart usually wins over blaster boxes of cards.  The true test will be if Walmart had some type of guaranteed Kent Tekulve hot box.  I'd probably bite on that....

Thanks for reading! 

Cardboard Therapy

The dreaded first day of work after vacation.  People shouldn't be allowed to contact you at all while you are gone.  Maybe I'll leave an out of office reply next time that each question via email is $20 and voicemail is $50. That way only the really important ones get sent. I swear some people I work with have some kind of upcoming vacation sonar where they will try and track you down right before you leave or right when you return. Can't a guy just ease back into his routine.

You know what makes things better...Cards!

Right before I left Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot hit me with a bubble mailer packed full of great Pirates.

What makes John's trade packages so fun is that he often hits that mid 90's to early 2000's time frame that has so many holes in my collection.  I even collected actively during that time. Must be all the new sets that started up including many that only lasted a year or two.

The first cards that caught my eye were of Jason Kendall. To me Kendall has the best cards of any Pirate in the last 20 years.

 I don't remember much about 93 Score.

 The papery 1996 Fleer Update set

 This is about as subtle of a Kendall photo you will find, but the gold background makes it all so fancy.

 92 Front Row Kendall > 92 Front Row Jeter

 Kendall has to be among the leaders in cards featuring a catcher camping under a fly ball.

 A favorite budget set of mine back in 2000.

 See what I mean....

 and more.......

 If you are not familiar with the Ovation set, yes it does feel like baseball stitching.

 Finish off the Kendall portion of the show with the rarely seen Skybox Dominion set.

 The mustache game was always strong with Jeff King.

 I always liked the look of SP Authentic, but the picture choices for the most part were super boring.

 If I recall, Topps Gallery was one of the first high end sets I ever opened. I was a sucker for the Portrait cards I guess.

 The Van Slyke UD card is pretty well known, but I still get a kick out of it every time I see it.

 This card was probably my favorite of the whole bunch. Love the early parallel cards that were numbered.  Check out the back.

 1 of 1975!

 Some fancy Select and Pinnacle. My favorite is Charlie Hayes since he was a short stay Pirate and cards of him featured as a Bucco are limited.  His son is a high end prospect in the Pirates system today. Time to feel old.

 Nice refractor rookie of Pirate first baseman Josh Bell.  His defense is still a work in progress, but it will be fun to watch him hit since his approach is considered top notch.

 For whatever reason I always loved that Doumit mini.

End with the legend. The hair was feathered and lethal that day.

Thanks so much John.  These were a blast to go through. So many sets that I haven't thought about in years.

Thanks for reading.