Lost and Found

The cards featured in this post all come from Adam (Arpsmith's Sportscards Obsession) that arrived right before Christmas.  Usually I'm much better at posting trade packages in a timely manner, but I really messed this bunch up.  

Adam sent some cards my way as a thank you for being the middleman on his secret santa gift to Kevin from The Card Papoy.  I placed my stack with Kevin's away from all my normal mail and forgot about them until last week.  My bad Adam.

I will talk about Jason Kendall cards until I'm blue in the face.  He just has so many great ones.  You would be hard pressed to find someone to match his cardboard credentials.  Obviously being a catcher gives you an advantage, but even his non catching cards are awesome.

 I'm always excited to see Bazooka cards because for whatever reason they don't seem to be traded a ton in our community.  My guess is most people were out of the hobby in the 2003-2005 time frame.

Kris Benson's career was a pretty big disappointment considering the hype after he was drafted.  His first two seasons were great, but injury and inconsistency derailed his career.

The year of the sideways nameplate! Nice Sosa cameo on the Womack card.

Don't stare at the Morris card too long or else you will be transported into an alternate universe. Sets like Donruss Elite helped keep me busy in a time where new release Pirate cards were few and far between.  The set had about 435,303,312,333 parallels in in.

Some strong mustache game in the Madlock/Boggs batting leaders card.  I'm a big fan of the hefty bag undershirt Madlock is wearing too.

Looks like Tom Prince is still wearing his uniform on a Caribbean getaway.

Archives was once a set that I would open a box of every year.  Once they started adding the likes of Will Ferrell, Major League and Bull Durham autos the price got to be out of my comfort zone.  So I'm always extra appreciative of people sending the base cards my way.

Speaking of Archives....This man needs a Fan Favorites auto.  I would take a second mortgage on my house to accumulate all of them.

I hope a new knuckle baller establishes himself soon in the MLB.  With the likelihood of RA Dickey retiring we are heading into Opening Day with only Steven Wright throwing the pitch.

Thanks for all the cards Adam.  Your package to Kevin is in transit to France.  Sorry about the delay!

Thanks for reading.

Trade: ARPSmith Dug Deep

Set collecting is something I enjoy, but at the beginning of the year I decided that I would take a break from starting new ones. I feel the money is better spent on the Pirate and WVU needs.

With that being said I still have several loose ends to finish up from the last couple seasons. I added a set needs tab on the blog with the hope of finishing up the remaining sets. Stadium Club has been going pretty well, but I knew the Panini products would be a challenge as most people don't like Donruss and Prizm.

Thankfully Adam of ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession came to the rescue. He sent me a surprise package last week full of cards to help me get closer to finishing the sets.

First, he hit me with some fancy Buccos.

 The original closer of baseball games!

 It will be weird seeing Pedro play for another team this year, but his defensive woes were too much for the Pirates to handle. He is still a free agent, but likely to sign with an AL team. Given enough at bats he will always be good for 25-30 homeruns.

Cole took a nice step into ace status last season. His continued development will be key to the Pirates success this year as starting pitching depth at this point leaves something to be desired.

 I've been adding a good bit of Hanson cards lately as he'll likely make his debut this year and has an outside chance to break camp with the team.

Set needs.

 The Rated Rookies were a pain in the butt the accumulate as they were short printed. I was much wiser for the 2015 release and looked for lots, but for 2014 I've been having to cherry pick.

Seeing Taveras cards is always depressing. Don't drink and drive.

 Nothing new can be said about TSC. They are awesome. I'm very close to finishing the set now.

Prizm is a set I started chasing by default. When I was actively opening boxes with my friends in town, Prizm was a frequent choice.  The autograph checklist was great for the price point. Some of my better hits the last few years came from Prizm sets. I've pulled hot rookies like Machado, Buxton and Sano and veterans like Bagwell and Biggio.

I really appreciate you helping me out Adam.  I'm sure I have some cool Giant cards around to send your way soon.

Thanks for reading!

Trade: Arpsmith Delivers a Superfractor

Adam form Arpsmith's Sportscard Obsession and I went big for this trade. A couple months back Adam commented on a box break of Donruss in which I pulled a Madison Bumgarner patch. This quickly got a trade brewing. The other big card in the mix was a Jason Schmidt patch card that had a good chunk of the MLB tag. This card had been in my possession for a couple of years since Schmidt was a former Pirate, but he was featured in the Giants uniform. Adam would provide a better home.

This past week I received the return envelope and boy was it loaded.

We start off with a bang. I believe this is the first Superfractor 1/1 that I've ever owned. Colton Cain was a highly touted prospect when he was drafted out of high school in 2009. That year the Pirates gave crazy bonuses to a bunch of higher draft picks to convince them to forgo their college commitments. The gamble proved to be unsuccessful as most of the guys drafted fizzled out in AA. Cain was traded to the Astros in the Wandy Rodriguez deal two years back. Nevertheless I'm very happy to own this card because these just down hit eBay very often and when they do they go for high $ amounts no matter the quality of the player. Adam was even nice enough to send it in a one touch magnetic. It is so sparkly!

I love to hoard Willie Stargell autos. He has to be one of the leaders in odd ball autographs. This Front Row card is a nice example.

Funny story about this Zach Duke patch. I've been slowly working on a list of cards that for some reason seem to avoid me when I try to win them on eBay. This just happens to be one of my white whales. This card has popped up on eBay a few times in the past couple of years and for some reason I never win it. I've always been attracted to this card for the red patch. So Adam little did you know you knocked off a big card for me.

Owen Schmitt is a legend in Morgantown. His physical running style made him a fan favorite from the first day he played a game. I love the Donruss Elite auto featuring the all gold Mountaineer uniform.

 This oddball is labeled on the back "Junior Watson Trophy Dinner 1983." Awesome card!

 More Front Row Stargells!

I was so pissed when Walt Weiss sat Morneau a good part of the last week of the season in order to help him win the batting title. Harrison's chances were slim, as he slumped a little the last two weeks, but it would have been nice if Morneau actually played his way to it. Freaking Rockies should worry about the product on the field rather than helping a veteran back end himself into an award.

I was really excited to see this Unique Unis card from Topps Unique. I have a few "hits" from this high end set, but don't have many of the inserts. Great addition to my Cutch collection.

Pirate legends!

Thanks for the great trade Adam! Looking forward to our next swap.

Thanks for reading.

Trade: ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession

I've swapped cards with Adam from ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession a couple times now.  A while back I pulled a few Giant hits from a box of Gypsy Queen that Adam didn't have yet so I shipped them off to California.  On Saturday I received a nice bubble envelope full of Pirate goodness.  Take a look....

Jason Kendall was a unique talent when he came up with the Pirates.  He mixed speed, high obp and a little pop.  The bonus was he did all this while handling a heavy catching load.  A gruesome ankle injury zapped a lot of his power and speed.

Jack Wilson made one All-Star appearance in his career.  The Pirates are still having trouble stabilizing the position since Jack was traded to the Mariners.  This is a pretty sweet jersey from his one appearance!

 A nice Melancon black refractor /63 leads this nice crop of shiny Pirates!

Neil Walker was well on his way to his first All-Star appearance until a June DL stint cost him some valuable time.  I think he was second in WAR among NL second baseman at the time of the injury and dropped to fifth by the time he came back.

Really appreciate all the great cards Adam!  I'll keep my eye out for more Giants.

Trade: ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession

I received an awesome package in the mail from Adam from the blog ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession.  A few weeks back I had contacted Adam to let him know I had some extra Giant cards so we agreed to a blind swap.  Here is a sample of the Pirate return package from Adam.

 Nice to get a Gaby Sanchez card featuring him in the Pirate uniform.

Really like the Johnny Ray card.  I recently purchased the Van Slyke auto from the Hometown Heroes set that I'll have to feature in a future post.

The other day I was looking at some Jay Bell cards and realized that he doesn't have a certified auto.  At least I don't think he does.  Seems like he would be a good candidate for the Fan Favorites set in Topps Archives.

 Gotta love Metal!  The Al Martin in the forest card is a classic.

Nice mix of mini cards.  Lyle Overbay had only a brief stay with the Pirates so anything featuring him in the Pirate uniform is greatly appreciated.

Andrew Lambo 2014 Series 1 auto.  It looked like Lambo was going to be the left side of the first base platoon this year, but he could never get going during spring training.  He was also one of the few guys on the team who still had minor league options.  It will be interesting to see if his power will ever come through at the major league level.

Jason Bay holds a special place for most Pirates fans as he was one of the few guys who were productive in the mid 2000's.  The teams were so bad, but he actually gave us fans something to root for.  Always nice to add a relic of Bay.

Thanks for all the great cards Adam.  I'm already working on a return package for you.  The Posey you asked about is already set aside and I have a few more Giants coming in on another trade.  If anybody has some Giant cards they need to get rid of do yourself a favor and contact Adam.

Thanks for checking out the blog!