I'm a Hypocrite

I'm not really a hypocrite, but maybe a product of poor timing. Yesterday I featured a quad relic with the caveat that I don't shop for relics. Guess what came in the mail today!

I really should keep a log and compare nights my daughter is not sleeping with eBay spending. In terms of auction wins this has been the most successful week this year. With that being said my daughter and wife were both sick so I was up all hours of the night. I would say a reasonable hypothesis is that if Matt's family is sick he has way too much time to look at eBay. The good thing is that total dollars spent was reasonable and that I only bought what I consider two higher end cards (more than $20).

2007 Series 1 Topps Jason Bay Jersey and Bat

I tore up my stacks of Jason Bay cards thinking I had these, but I could not locate them. I'm sure they will pop, but for now we'll pretend these are new to my collection.

Jason Bay will forever hold a soft spot in my collecting heart. He was the first player that I could actively chase when I got a "real job." He was the first Pirate to get love in terms of autos and relics in just about every release. My collection reflects this a great deal as I have more cards of his then anybody else (McCutchen was gaining fast, but prices have made it hard to add).

2007 Series 1 Topps highlight relics had a nice checklist. Some players even had 2 variations like Bay. I tried finding if one is more rare than the other, but my half hearted attempt couldn't yield any odds. The main thing I remember about the 2007 set was the Jeter base card that had Mantle and George Bush airbrushed in.  This led to a lot of non collectors spending way too much on a Jeter base card.

Hope everybody has a nice weekend.

Thanks for reading.

A 1970's Flasback

After striking out on almost everything eBay related in March and most of April, I've started to win some auctions. As I've said before, I really haven't been chasing much in 2015 so my focus has been on the early 2000's. This time around I was able to nab this card which is full of star power.

2001 UD Decade Bench/Garvey/Stargell/Foster Bat Card

I rarely buy relic cards on eBay, but this one caught my attention. I have several of the single relics, but this is my first quad from this set. If I recall this set was more of a retail oriented set, but I may be messing that up with something else. 

This card cost me $16.50 shipped which is a little on the steep side for a relic purchase, but according to the odds these fell about 1:400 packs. You would figure they could find a color photo of Foster instead of making it look like he played in 1890. Other than that this card has a nice vibrant look. 

Hope everybody is enjoying some nice weather. 85 and sunny in my neck of the woods.

Thanks for reading.

Trade: Mark Hoyle

This has probably been the longest Mark and I have went without trading. He probably needed the time to tunnel out of 20 foot high snowdrifts and I needed time to recover from Hurricane JBF. Now that Spring is here and JBF is bombing Tony we can get back to our regular routine.

I love Sanguillen cards so I think this was my favorite of the bunch. I've been on a nice run lately adding him to my collection. This is a beautiful second year card of the former Pirate catcher.

It's a good thing Bill's Got IT! Catching is an essential aspect of the game. The catch seems to have Danny Murtaugh's approval. Nice timing as I posted a Virdon auto yesterday!

We should make blogger rookie cards like this.

Nice mix of 64's. More Murtaugh is always a good thing! It looks like Don Cardwell gets most of his height from his neck. He is part giraffe.

Three well known Pirate pitchers here with Law, Friend and Veale. Always easy to find a Veale card with the glasses.

Mark has hooked me up with a few Sporting News Rookie Stars cards over the past year. Also, Don Cardwell and his giant neck returns.

I always double take when I see a modern card from Mark. I haven't done anything with Gypsy Queen in 2015. Although I really like this card and the Starling Marte variation that features Cutch and Neil Walker.

Cutch has been in a huge slump to start out the year. Some say he is hurt, while he is claiming he has a mechanical flaw in his swing. I don't know what it is, but the Pirates just can't get off to fast starts.

Thanks for all the great cards Mark. I'm glad we can finally get going again. You should be getting a package in the mail tomorrow.

The Card Papoy Nets a White Whale

A few weeks back I created a list of cards I dubbed "white whales" which is found on the right side of the home page. The list wasn't necessarily a want list, but more of a challenge to find cards that have proved to be elusive over the years. Not all of these are rare, but after many attempts to acquire I've either moved on, or haven't found another auction to bid on.

Thanks to Kevin I can already mark one off my list!

2014 Topps Heritage Bill Virdon Auto

This card proved that in order to be elusive you don't have to be super rare. Kevin told me he found this  copy via the Buy it Now function on eBay. I need to make it more of a point to check the BIN function. When I search for cards on eBay I always sort by auction. This is a nice reminder that deals can be found in multiple ways on eBay.

When 2014 Heritage released I saw that this card was on the checklist and knew that I wanted it. While Virdon is a very active signer at shows he doesn't have much in the way of certified autos. I didn't think it would take this long to finally have the card in hand, but the search is over!

Big thanks to Kevin for doing the leg work on this one. You shall be rewarded for your efforts! Perhaps I will send you my finest DONRUSS!!! and PRIZM!!! cards since you are a PANINI!!! super collector.

I've created a "Found White Whales" page in order to commemorate the glorious occasion of finding these pesky cards. 

Thanks for reading!

Trade: The Lost Collector Delivers Operation Shutdown

Today has been a good organization day here at Bob Walk the Plank headquarters. I was able to get 18 bubble mailers ready for shipment with another 4 just waiting for the final cards. Some of this stuff I had been sitting on for over a month, but Hurricane JBF hit me hard and took some time to dig out. Now I'm back to my normal flow, so mailboxes beware!

In the middle of last week I received a nice envelope of cards from my pal AJ, The Lost Collector. Always nice to receive some mail your weren't expecting.

This card can conjure up a lot of memories for Pirate fans. Derek Bell played for the Pirates in 2001 and had a terrible season. Coming into Spring Training 2002 he assumed he still had the starting job. Pirate management said his outfield slot was open competition which lead to one of the greatest sound bites in Pirate history...

Nobody told me I was in competition. If there is competition, somebody better let me know. If there is competition, they better eliminate me out of the race and go ahead and do what they're going to do with me. I ain't never hit in spring training and I never will. If it ain't settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain't going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I'm going into 'Operation Shutdown.' Tell them exactly what I said. I haven't competed for a job since 1991."

The Pirates would end up paying Bell 4.5mil not to play for them. He actually retired to a yacht in which local media dubbed him an actual Pirate.  He steals money and lives on a boat!

It has been a long time since I've seen an SI Kids card in person. My brother and I would fight over these back when we were young. 

Thanks for all the great cards AJ. I'll be sure to hit you up soon!

Thanks for reading.

Walk and Papoy Collaboration # 3

Kevin and I are moving right along with our box breaks. These have been working out nicely as it paces our back and forth trades to about once a month which seems to be working well. This time around it was my choice so I went off the grid a little by choosing 2006 Turkey Red Baseball. Steel City was running a good special plus I get the extra bonus of getting extremely quick delivery as I'm only about 75 miles from their distribution center. If I time it right and order first thing in the morning it can be at my door the next day.

The box as a whole was kind of a roller coaster ride of emotion. The biggest disappointment was that we were shorted a relic as the box promises 2 and only delivered 1. Our saving grace was that the black parallels run about 1 and 20 packs, but we managed getting 2. One of those black parallels was a big score for Kevin as he got the best player you could pull.

The box also yields one "cabinet card" which is a boxtopper version of the base set. Kevin also got this card and it was a good name as well. If you are sensing a theme, you would be right. Mr. Papoy was the runaway winner of this box. I'm happy as long as one of us does well.

Here is a small sample of my take.

The Pirate take was actually pretty good. My favorite card was the Sean Casey red. He had a short tenure with the Pirates so it was nice to get a parallel card featuring him in the black and gold. He was always a fan favorite being that he was from the Pittsburgh area.

This was my rarest pull that I got to keep. It was a black parallel of Sean Marshall. 

 Another sampling of reds....The fall about 1 a pack

 Here are the white borders. I believe these fell about 1 and 4 packs.

I like the Piazza Padres cards. 

Kevin will be able to show off a little more with his post once he receives his cards. This was fun to open as the break offers a little bit of everything. You have the color parallels, sps, relics and the chance for some huge autos. This might be a good option for us in a future break if the price stays manageable.

One thing I did notice when I was writing this is that the SP's are team variations such as normal Griffey shown as a Red while the SP is as a Mariner. Take note when you get your cards Kevin....I did not check for these.

Thanks for reading.

Autograph Evolution (Neil Walker)

This is the second time I've shown how autographs progress over the years. The first installment was Andrew McCutchen which changed quite a bit. Neil doesn't sign near as much as Cutch so the auto stayed a little more consistent. 

The first three autos were signed in the 2004-05 time frame. Not a bad signature as you can make out most of the letters.  Piazza is all over the place. If you are wondering about the combo on the triple auto, Walker was drafted as a catcher in the first round of 2004.

This is where the auto starts to get a little faster and sloppier. The rest of these autos were signed around 2012. You went from being able to make out most of Neil to only getting a the "N" and something resembling an "i". The Walker aspect gets longer than the earlier versions, but you can't make out near as much. Pretty much only the "W" and and "L" are legible. Neil was more established by this time and probably had a lot more autograph obligations.

Neil stayed pretty consistent on the higher end releases. Most are sticker autos so they were most likely signed at the same time.

I'm hoping Neil gets some new autos as he really hasn't had much since 2012. While his signature did get quicker I don't consider it terrible.  On the scale of Wil Myers to the perfect auto I would put Neil somewhere in the middle.

Have a nice weekend.