Cue Sad Music

/Sara McLachlan plays in the background.....

I really punished myself with this purchase. I'm pretty deep in terms of collecting anything Pirate related that comes out of the Topps Now sets. I made my bed when I purchased cards of Pirate players that participated in the World Baseball Classic.  Guess I felt I was pot committed with the Cutch and Cole

The NOW program is very polarizing in our community, but I look forward to every year.  This year should be fun in that the Pirates could have several top prospects make their MLB debut.  Usually this generates a fun rookie card to chase. Hopefully I won't be buying any more TRADED cards before the season starts. 

On a much happier note I was able to spend a couple hours scanning cards today.  I'm officially caught up on all trade packages that came my way.  If you haven't seen a post featuring cards you sent my way it will be going live sometime this week.

Thanks for reading! 

The Boring Process of Winning an eBay Auction Made Better by Blogging

2017 Immaculate Collection Andrew McCutchen Multi Relic /10

When the majority of your collection comes via eBay auction you lack those unique cardboard obtaining experiences.  See card, like card, bid on card....hope for good deal.  I'm always envious of those that have access to weekly card shows or high quality shops.  When I was in Boston last year Mark Hoyle and Shane from Shoebox Legends tipped me off about a nice shop they frequent. I spent all afternoon digging in boxes and talking to the owner.  That experience was sooooo much more than my standard eBay auction win.  

Maybe this is why I like blogging so much. While not quite the in person experience, it adds an extra fun element. When I first started I mentioned that I was craving some interaction in regards to collecting.  You add blog post to the end of the eBay purchasing process and it becomes a little more enjoyable/personable.  

Obviously I'm aware that most don't care that I added a new Cutch card, but posts like this can tell all kinds of stories.  Maybe you completed a set, came across a card you didn't know existed or just got a crazy ass deal.  Blogging gives us a nice medium to give a virtual high five to one of your collecting cohorts or to learn something new.  Often when I see posts of new cards purchased I often look to see what Pirates are in those sets.  Don't be afraid of the "look what I just got" post. It may prove more useful than you think.

With all that being said this one card post probably won't be that useful :) 

I've posted several cards from Immaculate over the course of 2017 because so many bargains exist on the secondary market.  I paid $11.50 for this card right before Christmas.  The low price can  be solely attributed to the holiday season.  The same card sold for $45 in mid November.  I'll take it!

Thanks for reading. 

I Was There!

Back towards the end of September I hit my last Pirate game of the season. In turned out to be a good game as Andrew McCutchen had a night to remember.

Believe it or not McCutchen had gone his entire career without a Grand Slam.  It had gone so long that it was mentioned on a regular basis during broadcasts.  Thankfully he was able to cross that off the career milestone list. The night was far from over as Cutch would also hit a three run homer and have 8 RBI's for the night. He received a lot of love from the fans and took multiple curtain calls.

I'm thankful that Topps added a unique card back featuring one of the curtain calls. That has been a nice addition to the NOW cards this season and I hope it continues with next years installment.

Hope everyone is enjoying the World Series.  How about that crazy quick game last night? I don't think Rich Hill has that kind of efficiency in him so it will be up to Justin Verlander to keep things moving at a reasonable pace. 

Thanks for reading.

Hook Line and Sinker

For better or worse I've committed myself to everything Pirate related to the Topps NOW program. As a Pirate collector I've been pretty happy over the course of the two years.  The Pirates have been middle of the road in terms cards produced so the investment has been minimal.  In terms of the actual cards themselves their have been ups and downs, but the overall body of work has still been positive.  My biggest complaints have been some boring photos and the fact they've gotten a little walkoff happy.

Last month the NOW program went all in on the Players Weekend.  They produced a set for every team featuring five players chosen nickname.  It was a guaranteed purchase for me.

 I was kind of hoping to see a Felipe "Nightmare" Rivero, but overall it was a nice selection of players. The Bell makes for a unique rookie card so that was pretty cool.  Cards like these is what I like about the NOW program. 

Thanks for reading!

Don't Judge Me NOW

I always feel like I'm a Topps NOW apologist, but I've enjoyed the experience.  Obviously I'm only speaking as a Pirates collector so my views can be taken with a grain of salt if you collect other teams. Since the program started I could only think of a few moments that I thought would receive a card that didn't. 

This year the Pirates seem to get cards in bulk.  Since I utilize the same seller I often get multiples in the same order.  Today I received a whopping four!

I know the ongoing joke on Twitter is that Aaron Judge gets a card for everything he does.  Judge hits homerun, scores game winning run, ties shoes...etc. Truth be told he probably deserved the attention since he basically turned into Babe Ruth for four months. If you break Yankees records you have to be doing something pretty cool.  Are his cards being produced to the detriment of some other big events.....maybe.  I'm sure Judge will get the benefit of the doubt for the foreseeable future judging by his sales. 

While this card isn't fancy it does prove one important thing.....CUTCH IS BACK! 

Josh Bell was the owner of my favorite NOW card from last year. Love the Cutch cameo. 

Any card featuring the gold jerseys is worth a purchase. The Polanco bear hug makes it that much better.

Another underrated NOW quality is that sometimes you get a card of obscure rookies!

Every time I post a NOW card I automatically want to post something from Spaceballs.

Thanks for reading!

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! 

Baseball is Fun Again

This is a nondescript card celebrating a walkoff win by the Buccos back at the end of May.  Not a whole lot to talk about in terms of the card.  Topps NOW loves their walkoffs.  I do like the cameo of Clint Hurdle in the background.

What is worth talking about is the major resurgence from Cutch! It was so depressing watching him struggle for the better part of last year and going into April this year.  While the Pirates have been treading water much of the season, it has been a joy having Cutch remind baseball that he isn't quite dead yet.

Obviously the negative side of things is that Cutch has made himself a more desirable trade target. While this seems likely to happen I'll still be depressed to see the face of the franchise on another team.  The only thing I hope is that the Pirates don't trade him within the division.  Cutch as a Cub or Cardinal would make me throw up.

Thanks for reading!

I Splurged

Team USA Topps Now Game Used Base /99

I actually don't regret this purchase as much as I thought I would.  When I saw this Team USA relic card get announced I kept telling myself I wasn't going to go after it.  Well as you can see I have little will power.  I ended up buying every Topps Now WBC card that featured a Bucco.  Thankfully it was only 4 and this was the only relic. 

As for the card itself it is nice enough.  Topps does a nice job shipping these out in magnetic cases and a custom Topps Now container. I also really liked the photo used of Cutch and Christian Yelich celebrating. I'm curious to see how the Spring Traning sets will be shipped. 

Big night of sports tonight with the Pens and Pirates both playing.  Enjoy all the games tonight.

Thanks for reading. 

A Possible Helpful Hint With Topps Now

As most of you know I like picking up Topps Now cards.  I soured on them early, but they recaptured my attention with better subject matter around the All Star break last year.  With a year in the books I've been reevaluating how I pick them up.

For team collectors it really doesn't benefit you to buy directly from Topps.  Even with new programs the bottom line price is still higher than most BIN prices on eBay. The big question now is to pay $6 or $7 bucks at release on eBay or roll the dice and wait and pick them up later.

For those who want to pick them up on eBay I recommend ebay seller spw2214.  He prices the cards at $6.99 when they go on sale and has a best offer function.  He recently accepted my $6 offer the other day.

One thing I did notice at the end of last year is that some sellers were dumping inventory and created some nice team sets of Topps Now Cards.  In hindsight this would have saved me a significant amount of money if I would have not purchased at time of release.  Many of these had BIN prices that would work out to be $4 to $5 a card.  It is probably worth watching out for if your team doesn't have a ton of sought after rookies.  Rookies seem to be the only cards that sell on the secondary market.

Hope this helps you save a few bucks.  Here are a couple of recent Now purchases.

Thanks for reading.

The Replacements

This is a story over 4 years in the making. ....

I've been a frequent purchaser of redemption cards on the secondary market. They have always been a nice bargain if you are patient.  Usually by the time I make the purchase I already know the cards are live and being shipped out. For some reason sellers don't research it, or are just lazy to redeem them personally. Whatever the reason it almost always benefits the buyer.....almost always

I've only strayed from my method twice, and it was on the same card. Within a couple of months I purchased two redemptions for an Andrew McCutchen auto /49 from 2012 Panini Signature. I can't remember what I paid for them, but I'm thinking at that time it was around $15 to $25 a piece.  Shortly after that time Cutch developed into a bonafide superstar and for whatever reason  stopped signing Panini products.

These redemptions sat to the point where I knew they weren't going to be filled. Late this past fall I tried on two occasions to call Panini and sat on hold forever.  I left my contact information, but never received a call back. On to Twitter......

I sent a Tweet to Panini's main account and their Customer Service account and nothing happened. A retweet of that same Tweet finally got a response and a message to send an email to a specific customer service representative. Finally some help!

The customer service rep looked up my account and noticed I had four pending redemptions (2 Cutch autos, Paul O'neil auto, Kevin Jones auto). I already told the customer service agent that my favorite team was the Pirates, but was informed they would be unable to provide me enough in Pirate cards so I told them Penguins and Steelers. About 10 days later I received these cards.

This Marte auto is numbered to 10!

I was happy that Panini tried to give me cards that best suited my collection, they could have easily went the way of how Topps use to do things and give some sticker auto that had nothing to do with my collection. In Topps defense they have gotten away from that recently. Nice to hear some good stories about redemptions.

The next question is do I feel the cards are worthy replacements to the originals? I think so. I realize that I'm leaving some eBay $ value on the table, but I got four nice cards for the collection. I'm not one to get too hung up on $ value.

The biggest issue is the shear fact Panini was unable to get me a Cutch auto.  It is also a little aggravating that I know they have Cutch stickers on hand because he has some high end autos in the new National Treasure set. Between that fact and the hoops I had to jump through even get to someone who would handle my case leaves a bad taste. My hope is that they continue to improve the redemption process for other people down the road.

Thanks for reading!

VIP and the Baseball Void

Giving my scanner a little break from the onslaught of JBF to showcase just one card today.

2015 Panini National VIP Patch /25

The overly excited kid always comes out in me when I get to add a nice new Cutch card. Almost all Cutch cards I receive these days are in trade. Obviously I would like to add more, but the going rate for the higher end stuff is past my comfort zone.  I'm to the point now where I only look if I have some Xmas money or eBay gift cards. As far as I'm concerned I have a pretty complete Cutch collection so anything else I can add is just gravy.

Price wise this card was purchased for around $10 bucks. If I recall the only reason I came across it was that I was trying to secure an auction for a card that I thought Too Many Verlanders would like back in mid October. I lost that auction, but a three color Cutch jersey is an OK consolation prize. Don't worry Dennis, I just found something even better for you. 

On a a side note it always feels like it takes me a couple of weeks to get adjusted to baseball being over. I'll be winding down my daughter and following a game on my phone, or sorting some cards with the game on in the background. I guess my wife and I need to find a new show to watch in the offseason.  Any new favorites that you guys would recommend? 

Thanks for reading. 

Red Hot Bunting

I don't like bunting in baseball games, but the act of bunting makes for some great cardboard. It is always fun to have bunting cards of guys where it doesn't really fit the player profile. Such is the case with Andrew McCutchen.

Baseball reference has Cutch listed as having 3 sacrifice bunts in his career. Even when he first came up and was batting leadoff, Cutch was swinging away.  That is what makes this card so great.

This card isn't all that rare.  This Topps red hot redemption's were common in 2009.  I would say I probably see 2 or 3 of these hit eBay every month and most seem to sale in the $5-8 range. My copy sold for around $6 shipped.

For the longest time I thought I owned this card.  That is the problem with eBay sometimes.  You get use to seeing certain cards that you begin to think you own them.  I'm sure my office will yield another one of these as I continue the never ending struggle to organize.  Either way this card is one of Cutch's more unique offerings and I'm glad to know I at least have one of them.

Thanks for reading.

Topps Now, But Later Once Again

I continue to search for the Pirate versions of Topps Now cards on eBay.  As of now I believe their are 6 Buccos.  I was able to secure Jung Ho Kang's at a discounted rate a few weeks back.  The Cutch initially was still selling at the $10 mark, but after a few weeks of it being live I was able to purchase it for about $6.

2016 Topps Now Andrew McCutchen

Last week I finally broke down and purchased my first card on Topps.  I'll show that card as soon as I get it.  From what I've seen so far most of the cards sell below the $9.99 asking price after a few weeks on the market. The main exceptions seem to be high end rookies and the usual star players.

I hope all the Dad's out there are having a relaxing day.  My wife and daugher hooked me up with a nice Pirates winter jacket and some baseball and beer oriented books. My hope is to hit a Black Bears game tomorrow and a Pirates game Thursday to round out the Fathers Day festivities.

Thanks for reading!

Marketside Stupidity

I had no intentions of heading to Walmart to buy the Marketside pizza in order to get the cards. It is not that I had anything against the pizza, it was just that the Pirates only had one player on the checklist (McCutchen).  Being a former college student and bachelor through most of my 20's frozen pizza was an essential part of the diet! Now my wife makes sure I eat healthy.  I try to tell her Pizza Rolls are an essential part of the diet, but I don't think she bought it.

So as with most of my card purchases these days I started browsing eBay. Being that the card was not all that rare it could be had for a couple of bucks. So why did I title this Marketside Stupidity.......????

Why is this card in a magnetic one touch you ask?  Because I'm an idiot, that is why.  This is not your normal Marketside card.

Yes, this is a Topps Blank Back 1/1.  I'm pretty sure the only reason these cards exist is to drive player collectors bonkers.  I wouldn't say I despise these cards, they are cardboard and I like cardboard, I just could have probably better utilized the funds.

When I noticed this card on auction my initial thought process was "hey this would make a cool oddball even cooler." When I got the card in hand I was much less enthusiastic about the purchase. In theory the price was great for a Cutch 1/1 (around $25), its just that I like more pizazz with my 1/1's. You like for rare cards to standout and this card is pretty plain Jane.

Later this week I will be showing a few of these blank backs that I actually do like and serve a much better purpose in my collection.  For now feel free to make fun of this purchase in the comments section. I'm sure I'll agree with everything you say.

Thanks for reading!

Card Shaming

I've been good lately about not getting trapped into buying a card I really didn't want. I'm sure many of you have had that moment when you put in a bid and instantly regret it. Well a couple months back I had one of those.  In the grand scheme of things it wasn't a ton of money, but just enough to get mad at myself.

One of my favorite cards of 2015 was the Series 1 Pirates team card. I wasn't chasing a rainbow, but I made a conscience effort to accumulate the parallels that I enjoy like the silver frame and clear acetate. Well in early December this card popped up.

2015 Topps Mini Pirates Team Card /10

Obviously I like this card, but I've made it kind of an unwritten rule to not go crazy on parallels that aren't the silver and acetate variety. Obviously if I'm showing the card you know how the story ends. I ended up paying over $25 for this card. The price was really not too far out of whack, but it was the lack of discipline that pissed me off. For the most part when a card gets over the price of a blaster I usually stop and ask myself "do I really want this card." Instead of waiting I got sucked into the moment and overpaid for a card in which I could have done without.

This use to be a lot more common occurrence when I was younger and single. Now the goal is to make sure money is going to a card I actually enjoy and not blindly accumulating cards for the hell of it. Lesson Learned.....

Thanks for reading. 

Have no Fear

A few months back Zach "The Underdog" participated is some random group breaks in which his designated team was the Pirates. Being a cool dude he contacted me about a trade. I was able to find him a few high end Padres in order to secure these beauties.....

This is kind of a crappy scan, but this card was the main attraction. 2014 National Treasures was a great set for Buccos. This Cutch is /99 and features his nickname to go along with a jumbo jersey piece. Awesome! 

 I can remember if Bowman Sterling was part of the break or if Zach had this one put aside for me. Either way I'm happy to add McGuire cards to the collection.  Reese is a high end prospect in which the Pirates drafted along side Austin Meadows in the first round a couple years back. Most prospect evaluators loved what the Pirates did that years as both McGuire and Meadows look to be top talents.

 The other high end card of the trade is this Gregory Polanco auto jersey. Obviously I'm a huge fan of Polanco as he has high ceiling. Even with his bat still trying to adjust to major league pitching his defense and baserunning allow him to be a very valuable player. If he learns to hit a little more he would be a comparable to someone like Alex Gordon but with more speed.

 Some GQ Buccos. I was a fan of the Walkoff winner subset. The card featuring Walker was a walkoff homer opening day.

 It is looking more and more like Josh Bell might play a significant role in Pittsburgh next year at first base. Always exciting when the home grown players make their debut.  If all goes well Top 10 prospects Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, Josh Bell and Alen Hanson should debut.

Some of the hardest cards to get my hands on are commons from the high end sets like Museum Collection. Always thankful to receive those in trades!

Thanks for the trade Zach. I'll be sure to hit you back in the near future. I've been accumulating some trade bait since our last deal.

Thanks for reading.