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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Gimmicks Galore

For the first time ever I went to a postponed Pirates game. I've been to quite a few rain delays, but the torrential downpours and lightning was too much to overcome. The game was called after 4 innings. Hopefully the makeup game will be at a convenient time. I did manage to snap a few pictures in between getting soaked.




Cubs fans always travel pretty well to Pittsburgh. They might be my favorite visiting fans as 100 years of losing usually keeps you pretty reserved. Pirates fans can relate to them very well since we had our own unique losing streak. 

Now for a little cardboard. 

My basketball card purchases are few and far between these days. The desire is always there, but WVU just hasn't produced any NBA talent. Devin Ebanks and Joe Alexander have a fair amount of releases, but I've been able to pick up most over the years for just a few bucks. Other than that I usually come across a few Jerry West cards I like and that is it.

That leaves higher end/obscure cards to track down.  Last year I found this odd combination on eBay.

I may be the only person in the world that chased this card because of Joe Alexander, but I love it! The set this card came from is 2008-2009 Topps Treasury.  This set was full of weird gimmicks. It had rip cards, minis and every parallel under the sun. Complete craziness, which explains why the set had a short life.

When examining the checklist further I did notice that their were Larry Bird variations of the card above. Well, a year later I found the Bird/Alexander
2008-09 Topps Treasury Larry Bird/Joe Alexander Auto /39

It had been a while since I've added a new Alexander card so I was pretty excited about this purchase. The extra bonus is that it was a neat way to justify a Larry Bird auto. I wish I could say I got this for a great price, but it still ran me about $45. That is about an average cost for one of his autos with similar numbering. I was hoping that the complete flame out of Joe Alexander's career would yield a greater discount.

One of these years I hope that Bob Huggins can develop some more NBA talent. I would love to be more of an NBA fan, but this won't happen unless I have a vested interest in a player. Until that happens I'll still be stuck searching for obscure Joe Alexander autos....

Thanks for reading.


6 comments:

  1. Sorry for the cancelled game. Hope they gave you a voucher to another game or something.

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    1. The tickets we had will be good for whenever they decide to make it up. From the looks of the schedule it will probably be sometime in September.

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  2. Those are some pretty sweet Autos - Bird and Magic were the best in the 80s - they were somehow both "my favorite player" until the league expanded to Minnesota.

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    1. I was happy to find the Bird/Alexander auto. I'm to the point now that I only see a handful of cards a year that I need. Most are dual and triple autos with marquis players. Joe Alexander was drafted the same year as Derrick Rose, Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook, so some of the combos can be expensive.

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  3. I like to wear Cubs garb when I'm in a different city, whether the Cubs are playing or not. For the most part other fans are pretty accepting of my team of choice, but you'll always run into someone who's a little abrasive. I guess that's the price you pay for showing you allegiances.
    You're right though, we're a pretty reserved bunch for the most part . . . unless you're in the bleachers at Wrigley!

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    1. The worst I saw on Monday was some girl screaming at the top of her lungs "lets go cubbies" for every Cub coming up to bat. It was pretty annoying. You should be allowed to cheer as much as you want, but you could tell she was trying to be noticed. The guy she was with was in a Pirates jersey and looked embarrassed. I hope he saw his future and ended it right there.

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