Framing Marte and Back from San Diego

I'm finally back from San Diego.  Looking forward to being back in the loop of baseball cards. I should have most of the day tomorrow to get caught up as my wife is taking my daughter out of town to visit a friend. FREE DAY! I'll have plenty of pictures to share soon.

I've been active adding silver frame and acetate cards since early last year. What has been lacking was finding a good deal on a more prominent Pirate.

2016 Topps Series 1 Starling Marte Silver Frame /16

This was an exciting addition.  I used my eBay Bucks to pay the majority of it so the cost out of pocket was less than $10 bucks. I had pretty much wrote off the likes of Marte, Cole and Cutch, but like most parallels the prices can be all over the place. 

I was a little pissed I missed out on a Cutch that went for a reasonable price this weekend. The selling price was right around $40 which is way too much for a parallel, but I had a gift certificate for $25. That would have been a great opportunity to snag a card I would normally not even try for.  It will pop up again....hopefully.

Thanks for reading 

Team Effort

Today is my fantasy draft.  In order to keep things interesting we do things a little different. We have an NL and AL only league. This came about because we were always having trouble finding enough people to join the league and once they joined, stay engaged.  This has worked out much better as you only need 5 people to make it work.

2016 Topps Series 1 Pirates Team Card Silver Frame /16

What looked to be a slow process has really picked up steam the last couple a weeks. I don't like the team card as much as last years version, but still pretty cool nonetheless.  It always helps when multiple listings of these type of cards hit at one time.  

I'm digging the cameos of Marte, Cervelli and Sean Rodriguez. Kind of a unique shot with Josh Harrison being right in the center. This Silver Frame ran me about $18 shipped.  Not to bad! 

Thanks for reading.  Let's hope I can Trout and Harper in the draft.  

Second Tier

Hope everyone is having a nice Easter weekend. Pretty nice day in Morgantown as the sun was shining and the temperature was in the mid 60's. Actually heard some lawnmowers today.  I'm guessing people didn't look at the extended forecast as it looks like it might snow next week. Yuck

A new silver frame!

Mark Melancon 2016 Topps Series 1 Silver Frame /16

I'm always excited to add a new silver frame. I would love to add some of the bigger names like Cutch and Cole, but the prices are outrageous. Fortunately the second tier guys can still be had for good prices. Such was the case with Melancon. This one cost right around $15.

Melancon is one of the games more dominant relievers but he gets the job done in a much different way. Instead of blowing fastballs past guys he relies on a cutter that he learned from Mariano Rivera. Pretty good teacher. This plays in perfect with the Pirates shifting their infielders as the cutter induces weak contact. If you are going to beat Melancon you will have to string together several hits in a row. In his three years as a Pirate he has only given up 7 homeruns.

Thanks for reading!

Sunday Funday

Today is the first day I haven't worked in two weeks. It was nice to have a day of nothing whatsoever going on. So after vegetating on the couch for a few hours I have moved to messing around with my cards. I've been scanning like a madman to get trade posts ready for a bunch of you.  So many great cards came in this week!

In other news a buddy of mine and I booked a trip to San Diego to watch the Pirates/Padres series. We have been trying to book a road series for quite sometime, but finally this year the stars aligned and it worked out.  We will be going to all three games and should be able to hit several breweries. I'm pretty excited.

2016 Topps Silver Frame Josh Harrison /16

I've received a good bit of 2016 Topps via trade, but this Harrison is only the second card I've purchased myself. The first being a silver frame of Neil Walker. Of course my two favorite Topps parallels are two of the hardest to secure in the silver frames and clear acetate.  For some reason Topps lowered the print run on the silvers 20 to 16 which has been noticeable in the final price. 

Now even the role players and bullpen guys will go off for more than $20. As usual with eBay though, persistence/patience pays off. I was able to purchase this Harrison for around $14.  The last card I would really love to have out of Series 1 is the Cervelli silver.  I let two out of my grasps because I forgot to put bids on and of course both sold for less than $15. With cards numbered this low sometimes you can go several months without seeing another one hit. Hopefully I'll be more on the ball.  

Thanks again for all those who have sent cards this past week.  I think I'm holding stuff from GCRL, Play at the Plate and Too Many Verlandrs. They arrived safe and sound and will be posted this week.  

Thanks for reading. 

Shocker.....2016 Topps

I don't really have anything earth shattering to say about 2016 Topps.  I'm a lot more liberal in my card collecting ventures. Very few sets exist that I loathe and very few exist that I'm shouting on rooftops confessing my love.  Like most sets 2016 falls somewhere in between that scale.

The first thing that catches my eye about a new product is the checklist. If I see a new Pirate in the set that usually gets my attention. It doesn't matter if it is unlicensed release or a Topps card. From there I'll explore a set for more ascetically pleasing cards of the more established Pirates.

I knew Series 1 was pretty light on new Pirates so I decided to pass on box breaks. Like last year I knew I wanted to grab a couple new silver frames with Neil Walker and Francisco Cervelli being at the top of the list.

For some reason Topps decided to make the silver frames even more rare this year lowering the number produced from 20 to 16. Early on prices are reflecting that. Just last night a Cutch version went off for $90......Yikes!

2016 Topps Silver Frame Neil Walker /16

The last couple of years Walker didn't get much love from the card companies so parallels of base cards were the only chase cards on the market. Also, being that Walker is from Pittsburgh he has a decent amount of collectors chasing his stuff.  This causes card prices to shoot up. 

Last year I watched the 2015 versions sell consistently in the $30-40 range. I snagged mine for shade under this threshold. Unlike my post yesterday about the mini parallel  I was happy to pay this amount as it will likely be the last flagship card of the now former Pirate. Plus, I really love the silver frames and have accumulated a nice collection of various Buccos. 

If any of you happen to pull a silver framed Pirate I'm your man! 

Thanks for reading.