Going Above and Beyond

Peter has been destroying my White Whale list the last couple of months. This marks the fourth card he has sent my way on the current list. That is impressive stuff.  You are now immortalized on my found white whale page. 

The current delivery is a Kevin Young card I had my eye on for a while.  I'm a sucker for the Ultra Platinum Medallion cards.  I have several Pirates in my collection but this one had avoided me for a long time. Between losing auctions and talking myself out of overpaying for BIN eBay versions, I decided to put it on the whale list.  Peter to the rescue! 

The card looks better in person than in scan. It has a nice shiny look to it.  These are numbered to 99 so they do have a certain amount of rarity as well.  These are some of my favorite cards to collect and thankfully the Pirates had no one of note in terms of card value so they are attainable if you are patient.

Peter even threw in some extras....

Always happy to see relievers get some love.

Peter even found some old Steelers.  Every old time football player looks 15 years older than their actual age.

Thanks again for finding the White Whale Peter.  I nominate you as king harpooner.

Thanks for reading!

Trust Traitors

This post is sort of an addendum to yesterday.  When I received 17 PWE's on the same day I had originally assumed that they were all from Wes.  It turns out two were from Peter Steinberg (Baseball Every Night).  I jokingly dubbed him Benedict Steinberg, but Peter's envelopes had two great cards with one being a white whale.  

1994 Action Packed has some great shots of Clemente.  These came out at a time when many people stopped collecting post junk wax era.  Add in the MLB strike and you have a perfect storm.

WHITE WHALE!!!!

My white whale lists aren't necessarily big $ cards, but can be a huge pain in the butt to find.  Big thanks to Peter for helping me with this one.  You shall be rewarded my friend.

I love collecting Pirates from the mid to late 90's.  Some really obscure parallels exist during this time so I've made it a project of mine of focusing on a set or two at a time and seeing what damage I can do.  Several of these cards including the Martin above make the white whale list because they can be sneaky hard to secure.  As most of you know parallels /150 in the 90's are not the same as they are now.

Although you have joined the dark side Peter I do thank you for helping me out here.  You are the most generous Sylvia Plath expert I know.

Thanks for reading.

Whale Hunting via Wes via Peter

So it begins.... For months Wes has been tormenting me on Twitter that he was going to devote all of 2018 destroying my poor mail carriers back. Little did I know that he also used this time to create cardboard alliances.  Peter from Baseball Every Night decided to join the dark side.

For the last couple of years I've kept a white whale list.  These are all cards I've tried to win on eBay, but have failed to secure on numerous occasions. This current list of 10 has been extra difficult, at least until Peter joined in the hunt. 

 I love this card.  More Pirate cards should have angry logos lurking over the players shoulders.  The silver spectrum parallels from 2006 UD are /99 and kind of a pain in the ass to find at reasonable prices because shipping costs dwarf actual card costs.  Thanks to Peter the hunt is over!

 Not an easy card to scan. As many of you know I love collecting Jason Bay cards.  No player is more represented in my collection that the former Bucco outfielder.  The main holes in my Bay collection are hard to find auto parallels.  I'm not sure where Peter found this 2006 UD Epic Endorsements auto, but I'm happy he did.  Always super exciting to add a new Bay card.

 This card has kind of pissed me off over the course of a year.  Bowman Chrome autos are always on auction on eBay, but yet I could not secure this one.  It was getting comical how many times I got sniped at the last second.  Peter to the rescue!  I'm a sucker for Will Craig cards since he played in Morgantown for the WV Black Bears.

Holy cow Peter, thanks so much for sending me these.  I'm sorry you are now associated with Wes, but I'm willing to let it slide.  Now I plot my revenge.....

The Wes portion of the trade will be posted soon.  In typical Wes fashion it was eclectic and hit based.  Don't think for a second I've been just sitting around not preparing for you....

I Now Own the Greatest Cheese Board Ever

I've been the fortunate recipient of some very unique and memorable gifts since I started blogging. A recent gift from Peter from Baseball Every Night may take the cake.....or cheese....

That is a customized Bob Walk cheese cutting board.  It might as well be covered in diamonds with the Walk card being built into it.  If they bring back the show Cribs and I happen to be on it, you bet your ass I'm showing this off first.  Nothing says opulence like a Bob Walk cheese cutting board.  It will only be used when I acquire the rarest cheeses in the world.  Maybe I'll have my pal Kevin send me some French cheese, but that may not be rare enough.  It would have to be cheese from a one eyed pygmy goat made by monks. Get on that Kevin.

Now that I own this work of art, I wonder what else I can throw a Walk card in to make it better. Maybe all my formal dinnerware should showcase the greatest athlete of all time. I feel like I'm on to something here. I'm going to call a patent attorney...go about your business. I thought of it first, or I guess second. Thanks Peter!



Thanks for reading.

Baseball Every Night

A couple weeks back Peter of Baseball Every Night decided to hold a Series 2 break and was nice enough to reserve the Buccos for me.  It was a cool gesture because Peter is also a fan so he could have easily kept those for himself.  I'm guessing he just kept the 1/1 cut auto of Honus Wagner and gave me the rest.  Don't lie to me Peter, I know you have it.

If you look like an actual Pirate you get coveted number 1 picture slot. 

 Love the Sunday throwback uniforms. Gerrit Cole has had a really weird year.  Awesome the first handful of starts, then he pitched like butt for a while....now he is good again.

 It makes me so happy that he is playing well again.

 Peter pulled me a rookie!

 Jung Ho Kang is stuck in Korea because he is a dumb drunk.  At least this is another cool shot of the throwback uniforms.

I'm a big fan of team oriented cards. A couple years back I chased some of the parallels of the Pirates team card.  This year I'm happy with just this one.

Nice to see a Pirate card of Felipe Rivero.  He is well on his way to earning an All Star nod. If you haven't watched him pitch he has been one of the best relievers in baseball.

Adam Frazier is declaring himself number 1. I would agree that a game 7 walkoff is memorable.

Thanks for the break Peter!

I'm a Dirty Cheater

Yesterday I posted a fancy Jason Bay card as my entry to Peter's contest.  It seems that Peter had made a rule that I overlooked in that the card needs to be worth no more than $15.  As much as I pride myself on being able to find deals, that card cost more that $15.  So lets try this again....

Jason Bay Sweet Spot Signatures Red Ink /35

I'm sure this card will eventually fade like many other Sweet Spot autos, but for now I can still enjoy it. This set had a ton of Jason Bay cards in it.  Of the lowered number parallels this one took me the longest to find at a good price.  I want Upper Deck to get a baseball license so bad. 

Peter, I hope you are not trolling me.  I better not see that post say less than $5 tomorrow....

My Favorite Baseball Card of My Favorite Baseball Player

My good pal Peter from Baseball Every Night just recently turned a year old.  In honor of the occasion he is forcing everyone to write a blog post.  He has that kind of power.

For those who follow my blog, I often talk about how I enjoy collecting obscure sets and accumulating weird parallels of long forgotten Pirates.  That is probably the portion of my collection that is closest to my heart. The thing is though is that my favorite player Jason Bay doesn't have many of the cards I enjoy chasing.  So I just decided to pick the one that has the most Wow factor. If he had a Circa Rave card or a Skybox Premium Rubies, that would have been my choice.

Jason Bay's tenure with the Pirates started right at peak relic/auto craze. So I don't have a ton of fun parallels to chase, but plenty of hits.  Bay was the first active Pirate to get cards in just about every high end release. Such was the case with this Ultimate Collection triple auto in which Bay is by far the successful player of the three.  An oft injured outfielder and a bad defensive shortstop is no match for the pride of Canada.  :)

Happy one year Peter.

A New Kind of Trade

When you constantly talk to other bloggers you begin to learn about other interests beyond cardboard.  Just off the top of my head I know we have artists, music lovers, literature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. While we all can talk about the intricacies of 90 Donruss with ease, it is easy to see we are all much more than just cards.

Beyond cards and live sporting events it is travel and craft beer for yours truly these days.  Before my daughter was born I was knocking out books and hunting new music all the time, but certain hobbies had to be prioritized. Today if I'm not talking sports, I'm talking travel and beer. To me nothing beats exploring a new area and the food and drink it offers.  When I travel I often accumulate local beers for my tasting group in Morgantown.  It has been a fun venture that has yielded some great brews.  We call it beer evangelism.

A couple weeks back I was having two separate conversations with fellow bloggers Oscar of All Trade Bait, All the Time and Peter from Baseball Every Night. Oscar and I have talked beer for a couple of years now.  Recently he was at his local brewery and sent me a picture of the tap list. He told me to pick a couple and he would send some samples my way.  I was so excited.  It reminded me of looking at the old JCPenney catalog to make my Christmas list.  Here is what arrived at my door a few days later.

The picture is probably not doing the size of these cans justice.  The brewery calls these bad boys Grumblers. They are 32 ounces of adult beverage goodness.

 The first one up to bat was a gose named Santa Muerte.  For those not familiar with gose beers they are best described as crisp and a tad bit salty.  While it sounds weird they are often very refreshing and make for great summer beers.  This one was outstanding!

 I was most excited for this beer as "Fat Henry" is a barrel aged imperial stout.  This one was aged in a Jack Daniels barrel. The bourbon taste was prominent but not overpowering. The finish was quite smooth.

Thanks so much for the beer trade Oscar.  I look forward to sending you a well curated selection!

Next up is my pal Peter.  Both Peter and I are frequent users of the Untappd phone app that tracks all the different beer you consume. We often comment on each others beer choices.   A couple weeks back Peter and I were emailing back and forth discussing some breweries.  One such brewery was Trillium that happens to be in Peters backyard. Long story short Peter volunteered to send me a sample.

 Here is the haul from Peter!

My daughter appreciated all the bubble wrap.

 Trillium's specialty is the NE style ipa that is super hazy and utilizes a ton of hops.  The taste was very citrus forward.  It was delicious.

 Scaled up kind of looks like urine, but it tastes delicious.

Saison's are a unique in that they taste a tad bit peppery.  I like them, but they are very much an acquired taste.

The only one I have left to try is a Boston style stout.  Looking forward to it!

Big thanks to Oscar and Peter for sending me a taste of LA and Boston.  Such a fun treat to sample these small local breweries.  Keep an eye guys because I have some fun stuff in store for each of you.

Thanks for reading!

Baseball Every Night

A new trade partner! Baseball Every Night is a relatively new blog started by Darryl Strawberry fan Peter. A couple weeks back Peter commented on one of my posts saying that he had many of the Pirates from this years Topps. Being that a supply safe haven to any Buccos card a trade was born.

 Man, the Neil Walker trade has been a huge bust for the Buccos. The Bucs took a gamble and traded Neil Walker who had only one year of control left for Jon Niese who had a year left on his deal, but had two team options. The Pirates figured if that they could fix Niese they would have three years of control at a very team friendly price.  In theory it was a worthwhile gamble.

Long story short is that Niese has been terrible. He has already been taken out of the rotation and could be dfa'd before too long. In a candid interview Pirates GM Neil Huntington said the trade has been a disaster. He said that options were limited trading Neil Walker in that the return could have either been low profile prospects or low upside veterans. Huntington said they took the gamble on getting someone who could help right away, but it backfired. The ebs and flows of being a major league GM....

Of the actual cards the Marte is my favorite!

 Play at the plate cards are always top notch. I've found a few of the parallels for the Cervelli card. One of these days I hope he gets a certified auto in the Bucco uniform.

I was really happy to see Feliz and Stewart on the checklist for Series 2. I love me some Cutch, Marte and Cole, but it is refreshing to see some more of the unheralded guys on the roster.

 I've commented several times on Topps using the less than flattering picture of Maz at the end of his career. Seems like their should have been hundreds of better choices.

The Perspective cards were really cool. Very Stadium Club esque.. Reprint or not Clemente cards are always awesome.  He would be a shoe in for the Mt. Rushmore of cardboard. Right up there with Bob Walk!! 

Thanks for all the great cards. I'll be sure to come up with something to send back your way soon. As for everyone else please give Peter's blog a follow. 

By the way Peter I'm going to start sending you to Pirate games as you have a much better track record.  I'm freaking 1-6 this year. 

Thanks for reading!