Kin Picks me Up

I'm seeing the finish line after a long stretch of extended work hours. That alone puts me in a better mood, but the generosity of some of my cardboard buddies has really put it over the top. This most recent installment is from fellow WVU alum Kin.  He also included a nice letter which was a cool touch. 

Steve Kline played his college ball at WVU and is probably best known for his tenure in St. Louis as a left handed reliever in the early 2000's. He is more famous in our community for this great Ultra card.  I actually have a Steve Kline story.  A bunch of my friends went to a Pirates/Cardinals game in Pittsburgh while I was in college.  We jokingly yelled Let's go Mountaineers to him and he came and signed a bunch of stuff for us and chatted for a minute.  Cool guy for sure. 

Again I apologize for the odd looking scans.  With my crazy long work schedule I haven't had much time to at least attempt to fix my main home desktop computer.  Lot's of phone pics and scanning apps. 

I've never met a Jason Bay auto I want/like.   Kin knows my weakness for Canada's greatest export.

When this card first came out it was among the hottest Pirate releases of the year.  Both guys had considerable prospect pedigree so prices weren't exactly cheap.  Bell had a pretty good rookie year and looks to be a nice piece in the years to come.  Glasnow is more of an enigma.  The guy has dominated the AAA level, but has yet to show anything at the MLB level.  He is a tall guy (6"8) so according to scouts he has a hard time repeating his delivery, thus his command turns to shit.

Prime Patches is one of those sets that when you think you have everything under the sun a new card pops up.  I bet there is something like 30 variations of Bay cards in the set.  I love all of them.  I have a sickness and Kin is an enabler.  

My NFL fandom dwindles some every year.  I enjoy watching the Steelers when time permits, but I really don't care if they win or lose.  Even after the controversial call in the Patriots game on Sunday I just kind of laughed and went on with my day.  With that being said I do enjoy watching videos of fans absolutely losing their shit when stuff like this happens.  That is always worth a laugh.

Collecting wise I still enjoy receiving as many Steelers cards as I can.  I like seeing the different football sets.

A touch of gold on the "S" makes this a two color patch!

Artifacts was a fun Upper Deck set.

Morozov and Lang were both members of the Pens when I would take advantage of their student rush program.  Basically you paid $25 bucks and got the best available ticket.  Sometimes you could get lucky and get some really nice seats.  One time we had 8 people in our group thinking we would have to split up, but the Pens gave us box seats.

LOVE these autos!!!  The Lang especially as he had some crazy good years with the Pens.

Jason Kendall and Brian Giles are often my only options when looking for Pirate hits in the late 90's early 2000's. EX seemed to fancy and unattainable when it came out.  Now my cardboard friends just send them to me out of the blue.  What a world!

Here is a card right in my wheelhouse.  Just the other day I was showcasing a Sean Casey printing plate featuring him in the Pirates uniform.  I'm such a sucker for short termed Buccos.  Kenny Lofton played awesome during his half season as a Bucco.  He only has a few cards that document his stay.  This 205 relic is one of the best.

Some numbered cards of current Steelers including superstars Bell and Brown.

Nice that Kin sends me WVU cards being that he collects them himself.  I think I may be the benefactor of him narrowing his scope which I'm completely fine with.

I'm not one of those people that think the old way of doing things is better than any recent version, but with auto cards it may be true.  Early autograph sets seemed to go with the less is more mantra which you don't see much in current auto sets.  Early sets like this SP auto, Donruss and Leaf were all top notch.

Kramer played in Morgantown as a Black Bear two seasons back and Gyorko is from Morgantown and a former Mountaineer.

Also, I love the Martin Donruss Studio card.

Man that Jose Guillen card was a must have back around his debut time for the Buccos.  He would go on to have a pretty nice career, but the Pirates called him up too early.  He would be up and down several times which most believe stunted his development.  My favorite thing about Guillen was his absolute cannon of an arm.

Kin comes in strong at the end with two great Bob Walk's.  Little known fact is that Bob Walk ended Desert Storm on his own.

Thanks for the nice surprise package Kin.  I'll need to think about how I'm going to hit you back.

Thanks for reading.

Rapid Fire

Kin from "I Feel Like A Collector Again" hit me with another bubble mailer this past week. I've been working on a return package, but now feel like I need to find a few more things for him.  Don't worry Kin, I'll hit you back soon enough.  I already have all your missing cards from your 86 Topps set.  So that is at least finished! I might have to go Andrew Shaw shopping or something....

Now for the cards Kin hit me with.

 1996 Collectors Edge President's Reserve is a fancy looking set.  All the base cards are numbered to 20k and have an acetate look.  Fun to see some of the mid 90's names from the Steelers like Bam Morris and Levon Kirkland.  These were a cool surprise Kin, thanks for sending them my way.

 A lot of Mountaineer fans were upset when Wendell Smallwood decided to leave school early for the draft. It probably was for the best as his skill set would have never warranted a top round draft choice. He ended up getting drafted by the Eagles and saw a fair amount of playing time and helped return kicks.

 Kevin White was a beast in college, but just can't stay healthy in the pros.  He has already lost the majority of his first two seasons.

This cool relic is from the Panini Black Friday promotions.

Crosby is having his best goal scoring season of his career.  The overall points battle should be fun to watch as Crosby fights with Connor McDavid.

Thanks so much for the cards Kin.  These were a nice surprise. So cool seeing that old Collectors Edge acetate set.  It had been a while.

Thanks for reading!

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.