Please Make Fun of me

The beauty about collecting cards is that no wrong way exists. Most are just bound by finances and time. People that worry about the way others collect have their priorities messed up. Sure it gets annoying seeing people on Twitter who PC Mike Trout, Bryce Harper and Steph Curry at the same time, but too each his own.  It's your money and if you want to collect the flavor of the week so be it. The unfollow button is just a click away if it bothers you.

My collecting style is all about variety. I like to jump set from set trying to accumulate cards that interest me. Every so often I go back and look at cards I've accumulated and one will pop out that leaves me with that "what the hell was I thinking" feeling.

Such was the case with this card.....

2014 National Treasures Flawless Honus Wagner Dumb as Shit Diamond Card /20

I'm probably one of the least critical people when it comes to card design. I often look past aesthetics if it is a Pirate that is rarely featured on a card or from an obscure set.  Sometimes a crazy look is what draws me to a set (like any 90's insert). These Flawless diamond cards are just too much for me. 

Maybe I had too many bourbon barrel stouts one evening and was trying to shop for myself and my wife at the same time.  /chugs beer "pretty diamonds....oh this Honus Wagner card is nice too." I remember finally getting this card in the mail and just shaking my head.  Usually I would showoff a unique Honus Wagner card, but the buyers remorse was just too much for me.  It had to be relegated to my basement for 3 years. 

Now I can at least look at this card more from a comical point of view.  Maybe even as more time passes I'll view it like some diecut, lightning bolt/hologrammed card from Pacific. Who knows, if times get tough I can pawn the actual diamond for the .37 it is likely worth.  Someday when I die my daughter will look through my cards and realize that the reason she couldn't go to a nice private college was that Dad bought cards with diamonds in it.  Sorry honey, hope you enjoyed your time at University of Northwest Southeast Delaware Trucker Tech.  

Alright guys let me have it.  

Football Pirates

Another busy weekend at Bob Walk headquarters.  The Mountaineers have a night game so that will make Saturday an all day party.  I'm hosting friends once again and often they like to pretend they are in school still by partying it up.  Good times, but extremely tiring.

Card wise I've been very productive lately.  I sent out 15 packages on Monday and have another 7 or so almost complete.  I'm on a personal no buy November, but I did make a few purchases to round out some trade packages.  Those should be in the mail sometime next week.

The last couple of months have been pretty barren in terms of new Pirate purchases.  Many great trade packages came in, but I really haven't chased anything other than a few 90's parallels.  It seems all my purchases centered around my Alma Mater.

This is probably the fanciest of my most recent purchases.  I think I won this card back in September.

Charles Sims only played one year at WVU but was an impact player right away.  He has shown some nice promise in the NFL, but can't seem to stay healthy.

Obviously this card is unique because of the patch.  The Bucs have some great patch cards out there. I'm hoping to one day get a similar card that has the pirate ship patch.

My WVU collection is perfect for me to chase these type of cards. A card like this for a decent Pirate rookie would be $100+.  Washed up or low end rookies in the NFL are very affordable and many of them get high end releases like National Treasures.

Enjoy your weekend!

Notable Nicknames are Complete

At least once a year I get smitten with a certain card or set. When I first saw that three Pirates (Polanco, Parker and Cole) were going to be featured in the National Treasures Notable Nicknames set I knew that I was going to chase them. I've featured the Polanco and Parker before, but I thought it would be fun showing all three together.

The Polanco was a redemption which really helped keep the price manageable. Once the card went live the price jumped up some so I was happy I acted early. Polanco is an active signer so I had no worries of the redemption going dormant.

I actually have two copies of this card if someone would like to trade.

Parker has had a ton of auto releases over the years which makes chasing his cards extremely affordable. He is probably my favorite of the 1970's Pirates to collect. This card was a little more expensive (~$20) than normal Parker's but I felt considering the set and the nickname inscription that is was a reasonable deal. 

Finding the Gerrit Cole proved to be much more difficult than I expected. The card is numbered to 25, but rarity really wasn't the issue. In my head I figured that around $40 would do the trick. Once the cards hit they were routinely going for $50-60.  That was just too far away from my comfort zone. I continued bidding on every one that hit eBay, but they consistently stayed around that price. In the end I probably put a bid on half the total print run. 

The plot thickened even more when Cole got off to a crazy good start this year. I was worried that I might get priced out of ever picking this card up. Fortunately my patience paid off as I was able to secure a copy a couple weeks back right at the $40 mark. 

I'm hoping the Pirates will be represented again if National Treasures decides to do the Notable Nicknames again. Lots of good options, but these are just begging to be issued....

Bill Mad Dog Madlock

John Candy Man Candelaria

Thanks for reading!

COBRA

I made reference in my post yesterday that the Notable Nicknames set has 3 Pirates in it and that I only needed the Cole.  I've actually had the Parker for a significant amount of time but wanted to wait and show off until I either got the Polanco or Cole.

It looks like the Cole is going to be more of a challenge than initially thought. I haven't seen one go below $40 and average price seems to be around $50-55.  That is a little out of my comfort zone for Cole.

Here is the Parker.

2014 Notable Nickname Dave Parker /99

The Parker is the cheapest of the three Pirates in this set, but it was my most desired one. Parker has a handful of cards that feature his nickname, but in my opinion this is the nicest version. On card and in bright blue ink, the card does a good job of making the nickname the main attraction.

One of the nice things about collecting Pirates from the late 70's is that all the guys are affordable and still very active signers.

Now I need to get that Cole....

COBRA!!!

Redeemed Treasures

Back before the season started I was adding Gregory Polanco cards as much as humanly possible. After he struggled at the end of the 2014 season the market cooled and prices were affordable. Two cards I added around the same time were redemptions from the National Treasures set.

I'm well aware of the horror stories with redemptions, but at least in my experience I've only had issues with Topps. Panini on the other hand has been smooth sailing. In the past year I've probably logged 7 redemptions onto the Panini website and have gotten all of them back within a couple a months, including one that was expired. Topps pretty much laughs at you when you have an expired redemption.

So when I cherry picked a couple of high end Polanco redemptions I figured it was highly likely that they would be filled. He had been an active signer for just about every major release and some of his autos were pack ready at the time of National Treasures release. Seemed like a pretty safe play.

2014 Notable Nicknames Gregory Polanco /99

Rookie Colossal Gregory Polanco Jersey Auto /99

While a little more time passed (3 months) than I would have liked, I finally received both of these on the same day last week. The Notable Nicknames set is extremely popular on the secondary market. In some ways I'm glad these were redemptions as it made the price much more manageable. Three Pirates were featured in the set as Poloanco along with Gerrit Cole and Dave Parker made appearances. I've probably tried 10 times to buy the Cole but it goes for $40+ every time. I'm a sucker for nickname cards. The Pirates just had so many cool ones like Mad Dog, Cobra and Candy Man. 

The funny thing is Polanco never really knew why one of his minor league coaches started calling him "Coffee", but it stuck. 

The second auto was more of an impulse buy, but the price was right and I can never say no to adding a nice on card auto. As the serial numbers get lower the jersey pieces become nicer. A couple months back I saw one that pretty much had the entire Pirate logo. Some people are still posting the redemption cards rather than logging them, so I may still have an outside chance to chase some of the lower numbered versions. Either way I'm pretty content with these. 

Thanks for reading!