John Sends Pieces of Flair....and Donruss and Upper Deck

I'm very thankful that I have been a recipient of John Miller's generosity over the years.  He always sends great cards, many of which are from that late 90's early 2000's time frame that seems to always have holes in my collection. Last week I received another massive envelope with a small note that said Christmas in July.  It was indeed a Christmas like cardboard haul.

 This was the first card to catch my attention in the five team bags worth of cards.  I'm a sucker for sketch cards.

Reggie Sanders only played a short time for the Pirates so he only has a few cards out there. 

 Lots of great names here. Rob Mackowiak was a big time fan favorite during his Pittsburgh years.  He could play every position.

 Another Sanders card! I've always loved that Craig Wilson shot. Chrome cards never scan well.

 Kevin Young just started to do some analyst work for the Buccos.

 2002 Donruss always looked like an outline of playing cards.

 Like I said, John always hits on some often forgotten sets. These Topps Stars cards are a perfect example. I feel like Brian Giles has about 400 different cards featuring him in his follow through.

 Always a sucker for canvas cards. Kip Wells looks like he is prepared for a mugshot.

 Underrated Ultra! Greats shots of Kendall (as always) and Polcovich.

 Mike Williams with pitcher play at the plate!!!!!!

 Gold medallion Ultra cards.

 See what I mean about Giles swing pose....

 At least it is a different view here.... Cool shot of Jack Wilson. He was a guy known for his defensive acrobatics. I'm actually a little disappointed he doesn't have more unique cardboard out there. Sometimes that happens when you come of age in the relic/auto era.

We close things out with some current Buccos.  I guess semi current since Jung Ho is basically stuck in Korea and Glasnow is in AAA.

As you can John included an absolute ton of cards.  I just showed off what I thought was a nice sampling.

Thanks for all the great cards John.  I'll be hitting you back with some cards soon.

Thanks for reading.

GCRL Sends Suds and Cards

My long standing trade with Jim from cards as i see them has been chugging along nicely. Recently we have even dipped our toes into beer trading.  Minnesota has a lot of good beer that I've been wanting to try and Jim was nice enough to send a few cans on separate occasions. Now I'm on the clock to hit him back.

Looking forward to these!

Of course Jim didn't stop at beer. He always has a full arsenal of Pirates to send my way.

 This is a great in person signature of Manny Sanguillen.  I love that it is on an MCI Ambassadors of Baseball card.

 John Smiley was a nice addition to the Fan Favorites set this year.  My work on earth won't be complete until we get a Bob Walk. Thanks for sending this one my way.  I will always love the Fan Favorites set, but they really tested me this year by putting Skip Bayless and the guy who fights for baseballs at games.

 The Mercer card was one of the better Pirate cards from last season. Nice cameo from AJ Burnett too.

 Nice to see Adam Frazier get a card.  He was a guy that wasn't thought of as much of a prospect but hit at every level of the minors.  His rise through the system was much like Harrison.

The surprise of the package was some Steelers with the big highlight being these Polamalu cards. When I was actively adding Steelers to my collection in the mid 2000's Troy was probably only second to Hines Ward in personal favorites to collect.  The main issue with Troy is that he came at a premium price.  During his playing days he was a notorious hard guy to get an auto of so collecting him came at a big price.  Man, he was fun to watch play.

Thanks for the cards Jim.  I'm definitely on the clock to get you some beer!

Thanks for reading!

The Look

1971 Topps Super Luke Walker

I was doing a little organizing and came across this gem today. One of the better shots you will find. It looks as if something got Walker's attention right as the photographer snapped the photo.  Whatever the reason, the moment captured is cardboard gold.  

Back to organizing... 

A Vast Array of Parallels and Inserts: Cutch Happens

I stopped shopping for Andrew McCutchen cards a long time ago.  Once he officially broke out as an MVP level player his card prices went through the roof. I'm lucky to add one or two a year now.  I'm sure I can speak for Brian of Collecting Cutch fame that if you wanted a complete collection you had to buy in early.  Parallels of some of those early rookie cards are very expensive now.  Cutch also stopped signing several years back so that added to the value of some of those early releases.  

The other side of the coin is that since Cutch did stop signing it made it easier for super collectors like Brian to fill in holes.  While Cutch cards always carry a premium it is much easier to buy a /99 parallel than looking for a /10 patch auto.  Brian is such a big collector of Cutch that he ended up with some doubles of higher end parallels that he shipped my way as part of a contest win. Our community is the best! 

Check these out. 

I only have a few Gold Label cards from the recent versions of the set.  The late 90's version was always one of my favorites. This card is gold framed and has a considerable amount of weight to it.

 Immaculate is one of the best sets you can buy on the secondary market. Of the non licensed sets it is in my top 3. It is hard to see but this a very nice parallel /25.

Sets like Heritage is where I would probably lose all interest in being a super collector.  Brian probably needs to take on an employee just to keep track of all the variations every year. Trying to find parallels of cards that are already short printed has to be maddening.

Optic is another set I haven't done much with so getting this Diamond King of Cutch is really cool. I don't know why Panini doesn't try to get more shots of guys in plain clothes or more head shots without hats or helmets. Panini products have great value and checklists, but for whatever reason they are just happy to airbrush something out.

This card is a much better non licensed cards.  You still have the blank helmet, but this looks like a Pirates card with limited airbrushing.

It is always awesome to receive high end base parallels. To this day I've still only opened one high end product and I just didn't enjoy the process.  Thank goodness for blog trades and eBay!

Catching a batter in midswing helps hide a lot of licensing issues! Prizm is a set I opened a lot of a few years back.  To this day I've still haven't seen a set have such a great auto checklist for the price of the box.

Another high end base card!

Now this is a good looking card.

Thanks for all the Cutch cards Brian! I'm in awe of your collection and appreciate you sending some extras my way.  You are the craziest Cutch collector I know! Are you aware of any other Cutch super collectors that are on your level? 

Thanks for reading! 

World Cup of Trading

My arch rival JBF is going into trading retirement in the near future.  In typical JBF fashion he decided to go out with a bang by bringing back the World Cup of Trading. The whole idea is that Wes posts a bunch of cards that we can claim.  Based on those claims we send Wes a return package full of cards that better fit his collection.  I'm hoping to defend my 2014 championship. I know your jealous of that trophy.

Since I think Wes has already traded me every Pirate card in Alabama the WCOT was void of Buccos.  What it did have though was some exciting hockey cards.  I don't actively buy hockey, but like to trade for them when I get a chance.  I claimed three Pens cards from Wes.  Of course he threw in a ton of extras as well.

 This was the big card I claimed.  I don't have many Crosby cards so this was a nice get.

 Bad scan, but a cool card of super Mario

 Cup Winners!

 I love this Pops card.

 Now we mean business.

 I don't think I've ever seen the /10 parallel autos from Turkey Red.  Very nice low print run of the former Mountaineer.

 More Pops

 More Stedman!

 Goodwin Champions always cracks me up.  These Crosby cards are kind of weird, but not as bad as some other Goodwin cards.  Take a look at the Pete Rose cards if you get a chance.....yikes.

 The Gold Medallion Hermansen is just fantastic.

 Not all Goodwin's are bad.  The Geno Smith is a cool card. A nice collection of former Mountaineers.

 SLASH!!!!

 I think I pretty much super collect the Pirate Parrot.  I love mascot cards.

I didn't even notice the serial number until I scanned this card.  Nice addition to my modest Steelers collection.

Thanks for hosting the second World Cup of Trading Wes. I know this has to be a lot of work.  As always your generosity knows no bounds.

Thanks for reading.

Potpourri

I've been gone the better part of the last two weeks so I feel like I'm about a month behind scanning and organizing cards. So if you sent me cards in the last couple of weeks I'll be getting things scanned and posted in the coming days. Off the top of my head I know I have stuff from GCRL, Bo, John Miller and JBF. 

This post will feature some more great cards from Brian (Collecting Cutch).  Brian sent me a great sample of cards that I had to divide up in multiple posts because of the shear quantity.  This batch is the potpourri section as it features a variety of hits of well know Pirates. 

The Pirates somehow managed to keep their heads above water while Marte served his 80 game PED suspension.  Since his return they have been playing very good baseball. I have a weird obsession with All Star relics so this is a welcome addition.

The Pirates struck gold with Melancon in a variety of ways.  When he came as part of the Joel Hanrahan trade he was thought more as a throw in, but he had a big time resurgence.  After three and a half years with the Buccos he was traded for the Nats for Felipe Rivero and Taylor Hearn.  Rivero has developed into one of the best relievers and baseball and Hearn prospect status has really risen since the trade.  

I love the Nashville Sounds uniform!

Last, but not least is a low numbered auto of Gerrit Cole.  Lots of rumors of Cole being a big trade candidate at the beginning of the year, but with the team playing better it is hard to imagine the Buccos trading him away.

Thanks for all the great cards Brian.  I'll sprinkle in a couple more posts here soon to finish out all the great cards you sent my way.  

Thanks for reading!