The Dutch Card Guy

Jeroen aka The Dutch Card Guy surprised me with a nice package in the mail this week. Jeroen and I have swapped a few times since I started blogging, but have been on a short hiatus as I think we unloaded all the hits that fit each others collection last time around.

A nice bunch of this years Finest. If this would have come down a few more $'s I would have loved to open a box. The set has a cool 90s feel to it. The McCutchen is a refractor!

The CoSigners set was a bright spot in terms of Pirate cards back in the day. It featured a ton of autos of guys who didn't have much product on there. This Gorzelanny is a parallel /400.

If you get a photo of a backswing you can hide some licensing flaws. I'm hoping to have a good update on my quest for the Series 1 auto set that I'm going after. Made big progress this week. 

Some miscellaneous Pirate goodness!

Thanks for the nice surprise Jeroen. Here soon I will hit you up with another package.

Thanks for reading!

Cards From Cards on Cards

Right around Christmas time Kerry from Cards on Cards hosted a break of 2014 Topps Mini. All he asked in return was some cards in trade or a few bucks to cover a small portion of the box. This was a cool idea so I was happy to request my Buccos in exchange for some Cardinals I sent back Kerry's way.

Overall the box was actually pretty nice. It yielded a nice Tanaka relic that had a pinstripe in the middle and several big name parallels. While their were no Pirate "hits" it did yield me some of the base set. Also, Kerry was nice enough to throw in some cool extras.

This is a gold parallel /100 of former Bucco Zach Duke. It has been nice to see him revitalize his career as a reliever. He just signed a multi year deal with the White Sox this offseason.

 Cool card from the 2008 version of Stadium Club which fell flat.

 Here is the minis that Kerry pulled for me.

83 Donruss cards of some of the biggest names in Pirate history.

 Stickers.

 I can never have too many Cutch cards.

Josh Harrison was one of the coolest surprises in baseball last year. He went from being the 25th man on the Pirates roster to second most valuable player on the team. Without the emergence of Harrison the Pirates would have most likely not made the playoffs.

 The Classic cards always remind me of my childhood. I received them often as gifts growing up.

Finish up with some oddballs. The Madlocks up top are Purina and Drakes. Anytime I see Drakes I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode.

Thanks for holding the break Kerry and for throwing in all the extras. I hope my return package made it safely. 

Thanks for reading!

Vintage, Vintage and More Vintage

Whenever I receive cards from Mark Hoyle it has always followed the same protocol. It would be a bunch of awesome vintage in a well packaged PWE. This time around Mark threw me a curve and sent a bubble mailer filled with all kinds of goodness. Lately we both have been swinging for the fences sending each other big names. This time around was no different...

Start off with a bang. 67 Topps featuring Pops and Donn Clendenon. Awesome card that is in great shape.

The archetype of the modern closer. Elroy Face is still going strong today. 

 My favorite card of the bunch. 59 Mazeroski!!!! Thanks for sending this one my way Mark.

I've received a few of these old Topps gaming cards. I know Night Owl has talked about them a few times as well.

Mark has sent several 66's my way since I started the blog. I think the Veale might be one of my favorites.

I believe this is my first Sunoco card. Always fun to receive an oddball. Pretty cool they utilized the 94 Fleer card.

Jumbo 86 Tony Pena. The Pirates trade of Pena helped turn the early 90's Pirates into a powerhouse as it netted Van Slyke and Mike Spanky Lavallaire.

A nice mix of Swell, Sporting News and Ted Williams cards.

We end with the legend.

As always Mark thanks for the cards. I really look forward to our constant swaps. I'll try to think of something creative to send back your way.

Thanks for reading!

We Come From France

First off please follow Kevin who runs the great blog The Card Papoy. We've already made 3 trades so don't let the fact that he is overseas stop you. In fact Kevin wrote a whole post on how to ship cards to him. The last bunch I sent to him only took 6 business days.

I know Kevin's collecting habits very well now, but until I meet him in person I'm going to assume he has a conehead. 

Let's take a look at the latest installment from France.

Brian Giles was a crazy productive player for the Pirates. From 1999-2002 he never had less that 5 WAR.  When he was dealt to the Padres the Pirates received Jason Bay so he as the gift that kept on giving. The only downfall to Giles was that by all accounts he was an asshole. Thankfully a lot of the Sweet Spot autos from this set are not fading like some of the later editions.

This is no run of the mill Leaf card. Kevin surprised me with a buyback from Leaf Memories which is low numbered to /5. Awesome card!

This was the other big surprise. Not everyday you get a 51 Bowman in a trade.

Developing shortstops has been an issue for the Pirates. I'm hoping that guys like Cole Tucker and Trae Arbet can stick at the position and develop enough of a bat to make it to the big leagues. One things for sure is that Trae doesn't take too much time with his autos. It is very Wil Myers esque.  Either way this is a cool addition as I'm always happy to add autos of the young Buccos.

I think my favorite card of this bunch is the Rob Mackowiak 2003 Topps. The serial numbers were so freaking big on the back that you would have to be blind to miss them. 

Kevin's final card was.....wait ....freaking Just Bieber nooooooooooo! Forget all the nice things I said about Kevin. Unfollow and don't you dare send him cards. He is a troll.

On second thought he can send me as many Bieber cards as he wants as long as he keeps sending great cards like the ones above. Time for me to start looking for more Blue Jays. 

Thanks for reading.

Routine Changes

I think yesterday was the first time I've ever missed posting on a Monday. My normal posting schedule is always based around my daughter. Once my wife and I get her to sleep for the night I'll hit the computer and type something up.

This week my little one has a sinus infection. It is really not effecting her day time routine, but at night it gets a little rough. With all the sinus drainage she really can't be on her back or else she coughs and cries all night. Needless to say I've had a little one attached to me the last few nights, thus no night time posts.  So here is a rare daytime post!

2007 Ultimate Collection Jason Bay/Carlos Zambrano Dual Auto /38

A few days back I mentioned it was hard to be surprised when the majority of you collection is built through eBay.  To me the only surprises were finding cards you didn't know existed or one that has been elusive for a long time. 

This dual falls under the elusive category.  I would venture to say no Pirate is represented more in my collection than Bay. For the longest time he was the only Pirate having cards made on a regular basis. So needless to say a lot of my focus went to adding as many of his cards as I could.

I've seen this Bay/Zambrano numerous times over the years, but could never seal the deal. I guess patience and persistence paid off because a few weeks back the card showed up on eBay and I won the auction for a shade below $10.  It had been a while since I added a new Bay auto so I was excited.

Thanks for reading a daytime edition!

Trade: Tony's Sports Pub

Last week I posted the results of a Bowman Chrome break in which I pulled a Travis d'Arnaud numbered refractor. This caught the eye of Tony from Tony's Sports Pub and a trade was born. Tony was super quick sending me some great Pirates. The stacks were pretty significant so I didn't scan everything, but here is a sampling of my favorites.

No such thing as a bad Pops card. That's right Pops you are number 1!

 Two trades in a row in which I received Masterpieces. I love the Mazeroski.

Some rookies including Jose Tabata as a very young Yankee. I had such high hopes for him when we traded Xavier Nady to acquire Tabata, Jeff Karstens and Ross Ohlendorf. For some reason Tabata seemed to peek early.

Skinny Bonds! Put this guy in the hall already. I hate the Hall of Fame voting process.

The entire 2001 Fleer Tradition Pirates team set! This team was very top heavy with talent. Premier talents like Giles, Kendall and Aramis Ramirez and flame out prospects like Adrian Brown and Warren Morris.

 The Bob Walk tax was paid!

 I'm always a sucker for the older Finest cards. They just don't scan very well.

I miss the Bazooka cards. Always a fun and affordable set to open.  Be nice to have something like this to go along with Opening Day as an economical bust.

Tony even threw in the entire album to place the Bazooka stickers in. Now I feel obligated to chase them.

To wrap things up here is an awesome shot of Mclouth making a diving carch.  The Neil Walker prospect card showing only two people in attendance at the game. Tony did his homework by throwing in a WVU guy in Gyorko. 

Thanks for all the great cards Tony.  You will be getting a package from me either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Looking forward to the next swap!

Thanks for reading.