New Dual

Last week I participated in Zippy's all auto team Blog Bat Around by using dual autos. I loved adding these cards over the years because it allowed me to collect non Pirate players I liked by using the Pirate player as justification for the purchase.  The other nice thing was that the Pirate player always drug the price down to a much more manageable amount.  You want a cheap Buster Posey auto, just throw Tony Sanchez on there! There is a Cal Ripken auto that I've been wanting to find for a long time that features former Pirate prospect Don Kelly.  That seems like a nice way to get a Ripken auto.

The golden era for me to add these type of cards was 2005-09.  They seemed to be plentiful and were added to sets that didn't cost $300 a box. Sets like Donruss Elite and Topps Co Signers were fun sets that featured tons of unique combos.

Today these combo Pirate autos just don't get made as much.  When Cutch became a bona fide superstar he stopped signing.  The only dual autos that feature Pirates seem to be prospect oriented. These type of cards tend to be in high end sets.  Time to play the eBay waiting game.

2017 Panini Flawless Josh Bell/Tyler Glasnow Auto /15

The above card is something I've had my eye on for a while.  I've been adding Glasnow cards at a vigorous pace since his market collapsed.  The issue with this card is that Josh Bell autos continued to sell at a high price.  Finally, between Bell's slow start and auto over saturation his cards have started to drop in value. I won this card for about $20.

Not a bad looking card.

Thanks for reading.

NOW or Later

Keeping up with the NOW releases is not very hard during the season.  I follow every move of the Pirates so when a unique moment happens I know to check the next day to see if a card is created.  The ones I struggle with are the releases during the offseason.  

I was caught off guard when Topps created cards for all the award finalists.  I knew Josh Bell had been nominated as a "finalist" for the NL Rookie of the Year, but didn't pay much attention because Cody Bellinger was going to be win in a landslide.  It never entered my mind that a card would be produced for the honor to lose to Bellinger.  

Thankfully I was tipped off by one of my buddies that a card was produced.  So thanks to him and Topps for having a longer purchase window.  This allowed me to snag it from my normal spot on eBay for the discounted price.  

Nothing really special about the card other than the fantastic throwback uniform.  This officially puts to bed my NOW buying for the year unless the Pirates trade a big name today or tomorrow. 

I haven't added things up, but I'm guessing the Pirates once again fell middle in the road in terms of overall releases.  I'm perfectly fine with this as it allows me to buy all the cards.  I don't see how Yankee collectors can keep pace. 

Thanks for reading.

Ebb and Flow

The Pirates broke the old compensation system in the 2011 draft when they picked Gerrit Cole in the first round and Josh Bell in the second. Altogether they spent 17 million in bonuses which destroyed the previous record set by the Nationals the year before. The system would change to the slot system shortly after.

Josh Bell was considered a top ten talent, but had a strong commitment to the University of Texas. He even went as far to instruct all teams not to waste a pick on him.  The Pirates disregarded Bell's request and offered him a 5 million dollar signing bonus which was astronomically high for a 2nd round pick.  Obviously it was an offer he couldn't refuse.

With that kind of background story you will have considerable hype in terms of cardboard.  Early on his cards were on fire and selling for big $ amounts. While I love collecting prospect cards, you can easily go broke if you don't set some ground rules.  I've often discussed that I assume every player will have some kind of lull in their minor league development that makes for a good time to go back and stock up.  You could have bought Aaron Judge cards for a couple of bucks two years back. Sure the Harper's and Trout's exist but they are definitely the minority.

Bell would go on and have several injury plagued minor league seasons that allowed me to go and find some nice cards. 

 The story has a happy ending though as Bell would regain his prospect form and make his debut in Pittsburgh in 2016 and capture the starting first base job in 2017.  Now his cards are much more in demand. I've only been able to secure a few "hit" based cards.

 

2017 Immaculate Collection Josh Bell Multi Jersey /25

As usual the non licensed stuff tends to stay in a price range I'm comfortable with. I picked this card up not long after Immaculate's release.  Normally this is not a good idea, but Bell started to really gain some secondary market steam soon after so it was good timing.  

2017 Diamond Kings Josh Bell Auto/Jersey /299

Brian pulled this DK auto for me in one of our box breaks earlier this year.  I was very thankful for that. 

In some ways I'm happy when a certain player becomes too expensive because that means he has had a successful transition to MLB. Hopefully Bell continues his success and becomes a true cardboard superstar like Cutch turned into. 

Thanks for reading! 

Hook Line and Sinker

For better or worse I've committed myself to everything Pirate related to the Topps NOW program. As a Pirate collector I've been pretty happy over the course of the two years.  The Pirates have been middle of the road in terms cards produced so the investment has been minimal.  In terms of the actual cards themselves their have been ups and downs, but the overall body of work has still been positive.  My biggest complaints have been some boring photos and the fact they've gotten a little walkoff happy.

Last month the NOW program went all in on the Players Weekend.  They produced a set for every team featuring five players chosen nickname.  It was a guaranteed purchase for me.

 I was kind of hoping to see a Felipe "Nightmare" Rivero, but overall it was a nice selection of players. The Bell makes for a unique rookie card so that was pretty cool.  Cards like these is what I like about the NOW program. 

Thanks for reading!

Don't Judge Me NOW

I always feel like I'm a Topps NOW apologist, but I've enjoyed the experience.  Obviously I'm only speaking as a Pirates collector so my views can be taken with a grain of salt if you collect other teams. Since the program started I could only think of a few moments that I thought would receive a card that didn't. 

This year the Pirates seem to get cards in bulk.  Since I utilize the same seller I often get multiples in the same order.  Today I received a whopping four!

I know the ongoing joke on Twitter is that Aaron Judge gets a card for everything he does.  Judge hits homerun, scores game winning run, ties shoes...etc. Truth be told he probably deserved the attention since he basically turned into Babe Ruth for four months. If you break Yankees records you have to be doing something pretty cool.  Are his cards being produced to the detriment of some other big events.....maybe.  I'm sure Judge will get the benefit of the doubt for the foreseeable future judging by his sales. 

While this card isn't fancy it does prove one important thing.....CUTCH IS BACK! 

Josh Bell was the owner of my favorite NOW card from last year. Love the Cutch cameo. 

Any card featuring the gold jerseys is worth a purchase. The Polanco bear hug makes it that much better.

Another underrated NOW quality is that sometimes you get a card of obscure rookies!

Every time I post a NOW card I automatically want to post something from Spaceballs.

Thanks for reading!

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Josh Bell Topps Opening Day 1/1

I was hoping to show Dennis's of Too Many Verlanders trade package today, but the weather was way too nice to spend indoors.  I'll have to finish scanning tomorrow.  Sorry about that Dennis.  

Along with a couple great trade packages, I recently scored a couple high end Buccos that arrived over the weekend.  This Josh Bell kind fell into my lap via eBay auction.  I put a low bid on it and for whatever reason it ended up holding up.  The final tally was around $40 which seems pretty reasonable since this is an actual rookie card. Was I wanting to spend that much....no, but the price seemed more than fair so I'll just not buy as much the next month to justify to higher end grab. 

Bell has been super streaky this year and is showing all stages of rookie development. The biggest issue was his defense and that has been than average. His offense has shown more power than expected, but his plate discipline has faltered from last year.  If that improves over the second half of the season the Pirates will have to be thrilled with the overall development. 

Thanks for reading!

The Replacements

This is a story over 4 years in the making. ....

I've been a frequent purchaser of redemption cards on the secondary market. They have always been a nice bargain if you are patient.  Usually by the time I make the purchase I already know the cards are live and being shipped out. For some reason sellers don't research it, or are just lazy to redeem them personally. Whatever the reason it almost always benefits the buyer.....almost always

I've only strayed from my method twice, and it was on the same card. Within a couple of months I purchased two redemptions for an Andrew McCutchen auto /49 from 2012 Panini Signature. I can't remember what I paid for them, but I'm thinking at that time it was around $15 to $25 a piece.  Shortly after that time Cutch developed into a bonafide superstar and for whatever reason  stopped signing Panini products.

These redemptions sat to the point where I knew they weren't going to be filled. Late this past fall I tried on two occasions to call Panini and sat on hold forever.  I left my contact information, but never received a call back. On to Twitter......

I sent a Tweet to Panini's main account and their Customer Service account and nothing happened. A retweet of that same Tweet finally got a response and a message to send an email to a specific customer service representative. Finally some help!

The customer service rep looked up my account and noticed I had four pending redemptions (2 Cutch autos, Paul O'neil auto, Kevin Jones auto). I already told the customer service agent that my favorite team was the Pirates, but was informed they would be unable to provide me enough in Pirate cards so I told them Penguins and Steelers. About 10 days later I received these cards.

This Marte auto is numbered to 10!

I was happy that Panini tried to give me cards that best suited my collection, they could have easily went the way of how Topps use to do things and give some sticker auto that had nothing to do with my collection. In Topps defense they have gotten away from that recently. Nice to hear some good stories about redemptions.

The next question is do I feel the cards are worthy replacements to the originals? I think so. I realize that I'm leaving some eBay $ value on the table, but I got four nice cards for the collection. I'm not one to get too hung up on $ value.

The biggest issue is the shear fact Panini was unable to get me a Cutch auto.  It is also a little aggravating that I know they have Cutch stickers on hand because he has some high end autos in the new National Treasure set. Between that fact and the hoops I had to jump through even get to someone who would handle my case leaves a bad taste. My hope is that they continue to improve the redemption process for other people down the road.

Thanks for reading!

A Better Now

The first ten or so Pirate Topps NOW releases were a little on the boring side. Nothing more than a pitcher in a windup or a hitter in a stance.  Thankfully Topps has really picked up the photo game lately.  Here are two great Pirate releases.

This was probably the coolest moment of the season. The Pirates were in the midst of a winning streak right before the All Star break and they decided to bring up an extra position player to lengthen the bench. Josh Bell delivered in a big way.

The best part of the card is Cutch just taking it all in on the right side.

Walk offs make great Topps Now cards. I like how Polanco can just carry Josh Harrison like a little baby.

I'm sure people that are completing the entire Topps NOW set are happy to see Topps giving bundle deals each day.  This doesn't really help the team collector, but at least Topps is trying.

Thanks for reading

For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Pirates continued the youth movement this afternoon and called up Josh Bell who will likely be starting at first base tonight against the Cubs. Bell has been killing it in AAA so it was just a matter of time before he forced the Pirates hand.  While the Pirates have been getting average to slightly above average numbers from John Jaso/David Freese, the ceiling is much higher with Bell.

The Pirates 25 man roster is going to look a whole lot different after the All Star break.

Let's Go Bucs! Beat the Cubs.

Hexagraph Auto

2012 Bowman Platinum Hexagraph Zimmerman, Rendon, McCutchen, Bell, Baez and Castro /10

This is one of those cards that kind of speaks for itself.  I purchased this card back around the holidays (merry Xmas to me).  The seller had this copy for sell with a high buy it now price or best offer.  After several rounds of negotiations he finally caved and sold me the card for a fairly reasonable price considering the scarcity of the card and having 6 autos.  Around the same time I almost won another hexagraph auto featuring Gerrit Cole.  It would have been one of those oh sh*t moments when you win an auction and automatically regret it.  I was having one of those eBay weeks where you have way too much time on your hands and was winning way too many auctions.  

The first picture is a stock picture I found on the Internet as this is a hard card to take a picture of.  Below is my copy in the Ultra Pro magnetic book case

I have a nice showcase in my basement where I display some of my prized cards with this one being one of the centerpieces.  It took me a while to get over the sticker price (even if it was Xmas money), but I'm happy to own it as I haven't seen another hit eBay this year.  I have more luck with best offer prices when dealing with high end McCutchen cards.  Auction prices for his high end cards are through the roof right now.  The biggest McCutchen fan of them all at Pirates Treasure Room has mentioned several times that he has been thinking about adding other players to his PC list as the prices are just not doable anymore.  I couldn't agree more.  I'm a team collector so I usually just treat my purchases like stocks and try to buy low.  I only add McCutchen's on special occasions and usually with someone else's money.

Thanks for reading!

Top Ten List

Since the Pirates are off to a rough start I figured I would showcase some prospect cards.  Here is a visual top ten list of the Pirates top prospects.  I used the Fangraphs list as the reference.  Polanco looks to be the only one on the list that can have an impact this year since Taillon is having Tommy John surgery.  The system is a consensus top 5 in most publications and number 1 in Baseball America.  Another promising thing is that many of the guys that fall 11-20 would make most teams top ten, so that is encouraging for the future.  

10.  Luis Heredia

9. Harold Ramirez ( No Card)
8. Josh Bell

7. Reese McGuire

6. Nick Kingham

5. Alen Hanson

4. Austin Meadows

3. Tyler Glasnow

2. Jameson Taillon

1. Gregory Polanco

Cole Train

I really like this card.  Don't get me wrong the lack of a license is annoying, but I think the uniforms at least resemble Pirates colors.

I purchased this card off Ebay a few weeks back for around $40.  Cole autos are getting expensive and look to be even pricier if he builds on his rookie campaign.  It is so nice to have a homegrown power pitcher in the rotation.

I've touched on Josh Bell on some earlier posts.  The Pirates broke the bank the sign Bell out of high school in 2011.  Injuries plagued Josh early in his career and his prospect stock took a hit.   Thankfully he rebounded last year and has been a trendy breakout for the Bucs system this year.

Enjoy March Madness and have a good weekend!

The Future is Bright

It wasn't long ago when the Pirates had absolutely no minor league depth.  If you go back 5 or 10 years any player that was worth anything on the big league roster was not homegrown.  Players such as Jason Bay (Padres), Freddy Sanchez (Red Sox) and Jack Wilson (Cardinals) were developed by other franchises.  It was the perfect storm of poor scouting, cheapness and no international footprint.  How times have changed.

When the new front office took over in 2007 an emphasis on putting together a winner through internal player development was made.  The Pirates began drafting players whom they would normally had passed on.  The results were slow, but the Pirates are reaping the rewards now.  Of the projected starters, 5 of 8 were developed by the Pirates. 

The Pirates farm system is a consensus top 5 in every major publication and Baseball America has them number 1.  The reasoning was high end arms and overall depth.  Plus they rated our 2013 draft as the best in baseball.  The pipeline is strong. 

This card is from Bowman Platinum and numbered to 10.  Josh Bell was a high school draft pick who the Pirates gave 5 million dollars to give up a strong college commitment.  He lost his first pro season due to injury but rebounded last year.  If healthy he should regain his top prospect status.  Alen Hanson is a shortstop prospect signed out of the Dominican Republic.  He has been a top 100 prospect each of the past two years.  Gregory Polanco is the Pirates highest rated positional prospect and is most likely going to take over right field at some point this year.  He was another international signing.