Diamond King Challenge

One of the fun aspects about our hobby is finding out about cards you had no idea existed. A few weeks back I made such a discovery and really cashed in on some unique cardboard. 

A set that I hold near and dear to my heart is the mid 2000's versions of Diamond Kings.  I'm a fan of canvas cards so that got me interested right away, but what set DK apart was that the checklist was Pirate heavy.  As many of these cards I purchased over the years, one parallel set flew under the radar until my recent eBay discovery.

Have you heard of the DK Challenge Factory Set? Apparently the first 450 collectors to send in the complete base set of 450 cards received a special DK Challenge factory set. Each set would also come with 4 printing plates and two random one of one inserts.  That was news to me. 

When browsing eBay I often look for DK cards and came across a seller liquidating a huge collection of the 1/1's from the challenge set.  I'm not sure if he had them all, but it was close.  I put all the Pirates on my watch list. 

If I recall correctly 11 Pirate 1/1's were listed and I managed to secure 9 of them. The Jason Kendall and Aramis Ramirez were the only ones I lost. High end Kendall cards sell well for whatever reason.   While it may look like I broke the bank, only 2 sold for more than $5 (Jack Wilson and Dave Parker).  Obviously some of the big names went for some huge coin, but overall some good deals were for the taking. I'm guessing the obscurity of the set scared some people off. 

The cards themselves mirror the normal DK cards minus the word "challenge" embossed on the bottom right.  You can't really tell from the scan, but you can notice what looks like some squiggly lines.  That's the work challenge. 

Here they are!

I'm most excited for the two Jason Bay cards.  I'm to the point where it is hard for me to find new ones and I was able to add two from the same seller. For appearance purposes the Cobra would be my first pick.  The guy just has a ton of good cardboard.

Did you know this set existed?

PS: If you want to join Secret Santa 2017 click here.

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Retail Only 1/1

2004 Donruss Team Heroes Craig Wilson Auto 1/1

This card popped up on eBay while I was at the beach. It was a straight BIN of $20 and I pulled the trigger. I'm guessing I slightly overpaid, but it wasn't enough to risk losing a 1/1 auto of a player I really liked. My guess if the card was on auction it would have sold in the $10 to $15 range, but you just never know on the rare cards.  

Team Heroes was a retail only set that featured an eclectic checklist.  You had stars like Arod and Randy Johnson, but since the set was so big (465 cards) you would find players like Craig Wilson. I love how the text on the back of the card said "success has come in streaks for the Pirates." I think that was Donruss's way of saying the Pirates are very shitty at this point of time.  

I can't remember the last time I added a Craig Wilson  so this was a very welcome addition to the collection. Long live obscure players!  The thing about Wilson is that I always thought he played about ten years too soon.  I think his skill set would have played better today being that he could play multiple positions (including catcher) and was a very high obp guy.  He still managed a 7 year career so I guess things worked out either way.  

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In the Studio

I was sorting through some cards this morning and discovered a huge pile that I had meant to post, but pushed aside.

Back in the early fall I discovered a Pirate collector looking to get rid of his collection. He was listing most of his auctions with the BIN function. After a little back in forth I was able to get a few hundred cards off of him. Most were parallels and mid 90's variants which made me extremely happy.

The most recent cards I received from him were some the mid 2000's Studio sets.  Here is some of the more notable 2005 versions.

I was happiest to secure the /10 proofs I showed first.  They don't pop up much so to get them from the same seller was a huge bonus. The Private Signings Jose Castillo is numbered to /50 while the bottom silver proofs are to /100. 

It is fun trying to chase obscure guys from the mid 2000's. While the likes of Kip Wells and Jose Castillo remind most Pirate fans how thin the organization was doing this time, I continue to try and fill loose ends from this time period.  Maybe to constant reminder of how bad these guys were help me appreciate how far the Pirate organization has come recently. 

Thanks for reading! 

Going Beyond Looks

I'm actually caught up on trade packages! That was a nice stretch of showcasing 3 or 4 a week since mid December. If all goes well I'll be shipping out a good bit this weekend to start the process all over again.  Shoot me a message if you want to start trading.

Just some random ramblings.....

 2005 Diamond Kings Craig Wilson 1/1 Auto

You ever think about why you like certain sets so much? The obvious answer is that the set has an appealing design. Universally loved sets like Stadium Club come to mind. These are the sets that we all talk about at length.

Since I'm not much of a set collector I usually judge sets by checklists. A set may be a little on the ugly side, but if it features a first time auto of a Pirate I'm going to pull the trigger.  I think a lot of this stems from collecting the Pirates in the late 90's through the mid 2000's when companies would barely pay attention to the Pirate roster.  When a set gave some love to the Pirates I was instantly hooked. Such was the case with the mid 2000's DK sets.

My head about exploded when the likes of Craig Wilson signed for the set.  This card showed up on eBay a couple months back and I knew I had to have it.  Thankfully the bidding stayed reasonable. If memory serves me correct the final price fell right around the $10 mark.  

To this day I still have a habit of checking every new releases checklist for new Pirates. While I love guys like Cutch and Cole, seeing someone like Craig Wilson featured is more fun for me. The obscure cards tell better stories!

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Laundry Day

My eBay purchases have slowed down considerably over the last month because the 2015 sets don't have much in the way of new Pirate cards. I've been spending most of my time trying to locate some rarer cards of players like Jason Kendall, Jason Bay and Brian Giles.

A few weeks back I came across a seller who was liquidating a large Brian Giles collection. The majority were Giles featured as a Padre, but he had a couple of rare Pirate heavy hitters that I had not seen before. I only came away with 5 cards, but the last one packs a good punch.

 2005 Diamond Kings Bat Relic /200

 2005 Diamond Kings Jersey Relic /200

 2005 Diamond Kings Bat/Jersey Relic /100

The mid 2000's Diamond Kings sets were great for Pirate collectors. The checklist was vast in which I'm still discovering some variations to this day. 

 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings Patch

I usually don't buy cards featuring players in their non Bucco uniform, but with combined shipping and a nice low price I figured why not. At the very least I could flip this to Gavin or the Underdog. 

Now for the big one....

2005 Prime Patches Giles/Kendall/Wilson Triple Laundry Tag /10

I had no idea that the laundry tag variation of this card even existed. I knew several variations existed, but thought they were all jersey/logo patch based. Needless to say I was all in trying to buy this card. I spent way more then I normally would for a non auto card, but I didn't care. I'm happy to give it a nice home. 

Happy Good Friday!

Thanks for reading!

Back in Time

2004 Fleer Connexions Dual Auto Craig Wilson/Jack Wilson /25

This was one of the first Pirate dual autos in my collection.  I may have had a Stadium Club Co-Signers before this as some of these cards start to blend in together.  One things for sure is that this was one of my first ever eBay purchases for a sportscard.  I had been on eBay for a long time (2001) as I was really into Magic the Gathering and didn't have a local shop that sold MTG singles.  One of my friends owned a card shop until 2004 so eBay didn't serve a purpose for me baseball card wise until he closed his doors.  I'm always envious of people who still have a nice LCS to visit.

I always liked this dual as you can barely see the stickers.  It was rare for the Pirates during this time period to have high end releases so when I heard about this card I had to have it.  One of these popped up not to long ago and surprisingly still fetched a decent price.  Hard to believe this has been in my collection for over ten years.  

Jack Wilson played shortstop for the Pirates from 2001-09 and Craig Wilson was a utility player from 2001-06.  While no relation, both Wilson's were good players.  I think Craig's skill set would be a little more appreciated today as he was a high obp guy who could play multiple positions.  The Pirates for some reason cut ties with him for next to nothing in return.  Typical move for a mid 2000's Pirates team.  

Have a great weekend!