Emeralds

I'm always excited to add new cards to my collection. The day I'm not excited probably should be the day I stop. With that being said I'm always a little more excited when I can add cards of Pirates from the mid 2000's. Players like Jason Bay, Freddie Sanchez and Jack Wilson hold a special place in my heart. The teams were terrible during this time period, but this was peak card collecting and game attending for me.

When I see cards like this I always get a little more excited then seeing any of the modern Pirates.

 2005 Leaf Certified Jack Wilson Emerald /5

While I wasn't a super collector of Jack Wilson like Mark from Battlin' Bucs I have a pretty complete collection. Pretty much most of my holes consist of high end parallels and odd ball releases. When cards like this pop up I get tunnel vision and want to win them no matter what. Fortunately this parallel didn't have much action and I was able to secure it for for around $8. Hopefully this wasn't one Mark needed. 

Thanks for reading! 

This Doesn't Look That Bad

2015 Panini Prizm Starling Marte Auto /10

For a non licensed card this looks pretty good. The all black Bucco uniforms work pretty well when showcasing the player in his hitting stance. The obvious issue is the helmet, but at least it is black. 

I'm one of the few people in the blogosphere that like Prizm. The checklists are always solid and the price point is very affordable. In the 2015 version they added more on card autos which was nice. I added this Marte for around $13 which was a nice deal considering the card is numbered /10. 

On a side note I was happy to see the Blue Jays win today. I'm pulling for them as I think they would make for a more entertaining world series. I don't really care what happens in the NL as either team would make for an intriguing matchup with the Blue Jays. I have nothing against the Royals, I think deep down I'm just hoping for more Bautista bat flips.....

WAR Games Update

In cased you missed it here is a link to a game called WAR Games my buddy Micah and I created using baseball cards

We are about ten days into the competition and this is a very difficult game. The $10 limit becomes quite a detriment when balancing the specialty card needs. As we speak I've found four cards with my strategy being to focus on the auto/relics/parallels. You also have to deal with some buyers remorse because as soon as you commit to buy something sure enough a better player at an even better deal will pop up.

While the $10 limit is challenging it is also the funnest aspect of the challenge. This forces you to think outside the box when purchasing. In your mind you may think that you can just scour eBay and look for free shipping auctions, but it is hard to find good cards with free shipping attached. Obviously the holy grail would be to find one good seller, but our chosen year for cards is 2005 so that really limits the choices.

As of now we feel that the only thing that will need tweaking is the scoring system. We are thinking that if you don't at least complete the specialty card portion you are automatically disqualified. The bonuses/penalties will most likely be adjusted some as well.

Once the trial run ends I think I'm going to create a tournament style blogger competition. So far it has been a lot of fun.

The Art of the Blind Trade

Blind trades are sometimes kind of difficult to explain, but I love them. It may be weird to some to shop for other people just for the hell of it, but it is a unique way to facilitate great trade partnerships. I've been doing so many of these deals that I pretty much associate every team/player with certain bloggers. 

One of my longest ongoing blind trades is with my good buddy Dennis from Too Many Verlanders.   Dennis and I have the common bond of collecting pretty much the exact same way. Dennis even has a site devoted to his Michigan portion of his collection. We've traded so much that we are pretty in tune with each others collections.

Lately I've been hitting Dennis with more Tigers than Wolverines. Dennis is very active with the Michigan aspect of his collection so I always worry about doubles. Generally speaking securing unique Tiger cards is much easier. In response to my lastest mailing Dennis went for the jugular. 

The following pretty much nailed every aspect of my collection. 

The 1970 Pops is kind of a cool candid shot from what looks like spring training. Nice way to start a trade package!

This is another guy that gets my attention. Clemente has such a huge following that I rarely shop for his cards. I would say 90% of the cards I own are from blog trades.

Dennis always jokes with me because whenever I talk about Frank Thomas it is always prefaced "The Real" or "The Original" Frank Thomas. The reason I do this is that he would actually sign many of his items like that. This is a 1954 Bowman in nice shape!

This is just the start of great Pops cards. This is the 74 Topps version which is nice with the black and gold trim.

The archetype of the modern closer Mr. Roy Face. 

Maz hasn't been as active with the Pirates in recent years. I hope his health is ok. This is a cool shot from the 70 set.

How about some more Pops!!!!

A much younger Maz in the 1960 Topps. Little does he know he will hit one of the most memorable homeruns in baseball history at the end of the season. 

I love the 53 set and the old time Pirates logo! 

That was the vintage portion of the trade. Plenty of wow in that bunch with the likes of Pops, Clemente and Maz. Let's see the collegiate portion.

These Gold Zone parallels can be a pain to locate. I was happy to see this one. My Slaton and Pat White collections are by far the biggest in my WVU collection so parallels like these are where most of my focus is. Great addition.

Your head might explode trying to locate all the parallels in SPX. The /199 version has a nice patch that is very cool. I'm sad that Slaton didn't get to stay in the NFL, but at last check he is still going strong in Canada and even was featured in the last CFL card set.

Charles Sims only played one year at WVU, but you could tell he was an NFL guy. Right now he is seeing 20-25 snaps in Tampa and has done some good damage receiving the ball. He looks to have a nice career ahead of him.

Big fan of the Ultra sets. Get a nice shot of the mid to late 90's WVU uniform. I have a lot of fond memories of Bulger putting up huge numbers while I was in junior high/high school.

Stat line parallels are always cool. 

I'm always taken back to my elementary school years when I see sets like K'mart. My mom would often buy me these as gifts for birthday's and Xmas. Did any of you have Ames stores!

Oliver Perez rocketed onto the scene for the Pirates and fell back to earth just as quick. He has reinvented himself as a reliever.

I love this on card signature. Ultimate Collection was another parallel crazy set, but all the autos were on card and awesome looking.

This is a new parallel from the Panini Cooperstown set which is /75. The set is awesome and I hope to maybe open a box if the price drops some.

I have a few variations of this card, but this is the nicest patch of all of them. Looks like part of the name. Stedman and Tavon are getting more and more involved in the Rams offense which is nice to see. 

Now for the main event.

Oh yeah! A 1/1 printing plate from 2015 Gypsy Queen. Dennis warned me in his note that this trade package really POPS. It was a nice play on words into this great Stargell themed package. 

Looks like it is my turn again Dennis.  I have already accumulated a few things, but nothing that really stands out as of yet. Rest assured I will return the favor. Thanks so much for putting together such a well thought out trade package. 

Thanks for reading. 

JUST Because

2006 Just Limited Andrew McCutchen Auto /25

You can go crazy trying to find all the parallels from the Just sets. I don't scope them out, but if one seems to be at a good price I'll take a stab. Such was the case with this variation which I won for around $20. 

Always interesting to see the evolution of a superstars signature. I wrote about Cutch's here. For the most part his penmanship has remained solid, but the autograph has become much shorter. Seems reasonable since demand went way up. 

My hope is that Cutch will take the time to sign some more in the upcoming years. He still has several redemptions pending with Panini (I have 2) and other than a few stickers here and there, he has been absent for the last 3 or so years. 

Big thanks to everyone who commented on the beer post a few days back. Always fun to take a break from cards and go off the beaten path every once in a while. Cheers! 

Making the Most of it

Today was a fun adventure. My brother and I hopped in a car and went beer distributor hopping in Pennsylvania looking for new beer. I also had a significant list from co workers looking for specific beers. We didn't find anything to rare, but hit a lot of stuff you can't find in WV. Founders, Ballast Point, and Deschutes were all available. I will be very popular at work on Monday. Also met a nice guy who said he would be happy to order some of the harder stuff since I bought so much today.

Boy oh boy did my Mountaineers take a beating. Baylor learned from their mistakes last year and came out with a masterful game plan. They ran tons of qb options that opened up huge running lanes. This has been a brutal stretch  as WVU has had to play Oklahoma, Ok State, Baylor and TCU. The last two are rated 2 and 3 respectively.

2014 Immaculate Collection Andrew McCutchen /10

This is one of those cards that I really wasn't interested in, but the seller had a ton of stuff I wanted so I talked myself into putting a bid because of the huge shipping discount. My streak of adding a ton of Pirate Immaculate cards continues. I miss the dreads... Don't remember the exact price, but I think this was less than $10 which is not a great deal, but that is the price you pay for Cutch these days. 

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Thanks for reading. 

Beer

I'm caught up with trade packages so lets talk about beer!

I don't have many hobbies outside of my love for baseball and cardboard. My wife and I like to travel, but our days of taking long trips have been put on hold until our daughter gets older. Right now I have to settle for wherever work might take me and some long weekend getaways.

The only other activity/hobby that has been a consistent part of my adult life is beer. Now I'm not talking about drinking a 12 pack of Keystone every other day, but enjoying a nice craft brew. The days are long gone of college style partying so my beer choices need to emphasize quality over quantity. I'm far from someone who can break down a beers taste to excruciating detail, but I know what I like. Seriously, have you read some of the beer reviews on beeradvocate.com? Beer snobs are just as bad as wine snobs.

I'm very fortunate to have friends who enjoy beer so it makes for fun outings when we are all together. My big disadvantage is being in West Virginia. While things are getting better in terms of beer distribution, WV still has trouble getting some of the higher end beers on the shelf because of archaic laws and taxes. Fortunately I'm only about 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border and 25 from Maryland. Both states usually have top notch variety. My other perk is that two of my friends are from DC and NJ which have nice options as well.

One thing I've been doing lately has been organizing beer tastings on Friday evenings. This has allowed me to try a ton of beers that wouldn't have even been available to me before. Being that I work at a University many people that participate are from all over the US and often contribute beers from their area.

So with that being said, do any of you have a favorite go to beer? What about harder to find high end beers? Here are a few of my favorites in no order...

Founders Breakfast Stout
Dogfish 90 Min
Bells Two Hearted Ale
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Mothman Black IPA (my favorite WV beer)

Has anyone ever traded beer? I have a friend that did this, but it seems like pain in the butt.