A Fun Night in Morgantown

Tonight I get to attend one of the more highly anticipated WVU basketball games in recent memory. Two big factors are playing into this as WVU is riding its longest win streak since the late 80's and Oklahoma will showcase Freshman sensation Trae Young.  For those who don't follow college basketball Young is having a historical start to his season where he is averaging around 30 points and 10 assists per game.  His style mimics that of Steph Curry.  Both teams are in the top 10.

Big time college games are always fun just for the environment itself.  Being that the game was moved to a 715pm start it should help create a nice hostile environment.  Plenty of time for liquid encouragement!

Lets celebrate the big game with a card of WVU's most accomplished athlete.  This card comes courtesy of Dennis from Too Many Verlanders who absolutely blew me away with a mega trade package.  I'll show the whole contents of the mega package once my new computer arrives next week.  For now check this bad boy out.

2010 Ultimate Collection Jerry West Auto

This card was blanketed by a handful of 1/1's and a Clemente relic! Pure craziness from my buddy Dennis.  Also big props to Dennis for giving me some IT advice on my new computer.  You are the man my friend. 

Thanks for reading! 

Let's Go Mountaineers.  

Xmas Loot

Even as I approach my mid 30's my Mom is still adamant that I give her some gift ideas.  This year I was a little later than normal as I was out of town a good bit in early December. That actually worked in my favor as she approached my older brother for some ideas.  My brother is pretty in tune with what I like.  He avoids cards but is always finding great pieces of memorabilia.  

First is my brothers gift. 

Jerry West auto basketball! I have a few nice West pieces in my collection, but this is by far the nicest.  My brother even got a nice case for it.  He can stay my brother for now.....

This was a huge surprise.  Normally my Mom hooks me up with one cool Pirate piece a year, but this year she threw me a curve ball and went the WVU route.  The auto is of former Mountaineer great and NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff.  What a great surprise.

Back to getting caught up with all the great trade packages tomorrow.  Tonight I'm getting some sleep.

Old School Ballin'

My WVU collection is not near as large as my Pirate collection as the player pool is much smaller to choose from, and I had a later start (early 2000's) accumulating the collection. 

Lately our football program has been producing quite a bit of high end talent with the likes of Geno Smith, Tavon Austin and Kevin White, but as of now no one has been consistent enough to become an actual star in the cardboard world. Only Marc Bulger has put together a nice career in recent memory. While this helps in terms of picking up cards cheaply, it would be nice to see some of these guys make waves professionally. 

Basketball has been even more barren when it comes to collecting the Mountaineers. Only Joe Alexander, Da'sean Butler and Devin Ebanks have been drafted in the last 10 years, but both flamed out rather quickly. The one big exception has been Jerry West. If a new release basketball set has a legends component, in all likelihood it will have West on the checklist. Since his catalog is so extensive I try to limit myself to cards featuring him in the Mountaineer uniform. I'll happily take any Lakers cards, but they tend to carry more of a premium price on the secondary market.

2014-15 SPX Jerry West Jersey

I picked this card up for $7 back in April. The pose on the card is very similar to the one in which he is depicted on his statue in front of the Mountaineer Coliseum. 

I've been having fun the last few months adding to my Mountaineer collection. With most of the new baseball sets rehashing the same autos, I've been attempting to find some rarer cards of some of my favorite past Mountaineers. At some point I'll showoff some of the cooler ones. Helps break up the monotony of showing off 30 different Gregory Polanco sticker autos. 

Thanks for reading. 

The Madness

The Big 12 got punched in the mouth yesterday with Iowa State, Baylor and Texas all losing. I'm hoping for a nice rebound day as WVU plays Buffalo. Everyone should be rooting for the Mountaineers as Buffalo is coached by Bobby Hurley who was the point guard for the early 90's Duke teams. So essentially we are playing Duke, who everyone hates. If you are rooting for Buffalo you are a terrible person. I kid, I kid.....not really

Here are are some cool WVU basketball cards I've featured on the blog. 

WVU's most accomplished athlete.  Jerry West autos sell pretty well online. Thankfully anytime he is featured as a Mountaineer the prices drop to a much more manageable amount.

The main core of the 2009-10 final four team. I try to hoard these autos anytime they pop up on eBay. Make for nice gifts for my WVU friends.

I guess this counts as a dual WVU card as the logo is Jerry West's silhouette. A couple years back I was hearing rumblings that people were wanting to change to logo to Jordan's silhouette, but didn't seem to gain any traction. 

One of my favorite WVU cards in my collection and a blog debut. These were super tough to find at release and have only shown up a few times on eBay in the last three years. 

Let's Go Mountaineers! Avoid the 5/12 seed trap game. 

The Logo

Since my Pirates are struggling I figured it would be a good time to show something from my WVU collection.

2011-12 UD Black Jerry West Auto 19/60

Collecting the Mountaineers allows me to branch out and collect other sports. When I saw this card I pounced.  Jerry West autos are somewhat expensive when he is in the Lakers uniform, but when featured as a Mountaineer you can find a deal.  I've owned this card for a couple of years so I don't exactly remember the price, but I'm guessing it was below $50 as I normally don't make pricey purchases for my WVU collection.  

Jerry is a legend in Morgantown.  He is one of only two players who have their number retired (Hot Rod Hundley is the other).  A few years back he was immortalized with a huge statue in front of the Coliseum where the basketball team plays its home games.  West went on to have a hall of fame career with the Lakers and became one of the 50 greatest players of all time.  

I guess you had a successful career when your silhouette is used as the logo.  

Hope everybody has a good week.  Thanks for checking out the blog.