Blogger Mail!

Since joining the blogosphere, my mailbox has been full pretty consistently, and my stacks of incoming cards never seems to go down.  But little of that has had to do with Battlin' Bucs, or any trades I've cooked up.

I've had a few trades here and there, but it's not something I actively seek out.  I write because I enjoy writing, and I write about cards because I enjoy cards.  Simple as that.  Anything beyond that is gravy.

But I got a nice surprise when Duff over at Bleedin' Brown and Gold posted that he had come across some old Topps books at his local library, and he was offering them up free to a good home.  I can appreciate anyone who has a colloquially apostrophized blog title.  And I do love adding oddball Pirates stuff, so I claimed the Bucs book.

Talk about awesome.  The book includes full color photos of the entire team set from each season up through 1987, and a short blurb about each year.

I have a photographic memory, so I'll probably spend a few minutes pouring over the pages before the next card show that will be vintage heavy.  Checklists are great, but I've quickly discovered I am far too unorganized and impatient to be flipping through my checklist every time I see a card I think I might have.  The book is a really cool oddball piece, but still serves some functional utility.  Win-win!




Duff also included a few Bucs cards in with the book, and while my commons needs are becoming increasingly fewer and farther between, he hit a couple nice additions.   The Presley card is my first from 2013 Series 2, though I finished off the team set with a flea market stop this weekend.  the Jay Bell Tombstone card is one I didn't know about, and furthers my belief that cards can still look nice without logos.  It also confirms my suspicion that cactuses and baseball cards do not go together.

I took the opportunity to clear out a few Pads and sent Duff a little thank you.

Ebay Robbery, Part 1

 A little backstory: on Easter there was a Pirate lot ending that was absolutely loaded.  The seller is a fairly well known Dodger collector, and had large, absolutely stacked, team lots for pretty much every other team.  I don't know if the cards came from case breaks, other lots that he broke up, or what, but I imagine he kept his team and was selling the rest with little regard towards profit.  The lot started at $25, and was listed in a way that I thought I had a chance at getting it for a great price.

I'm going to split up the lot additions into three posts, simple because the stuff in here is so good each card deserve its due appreciation. I've always been skiddish when bidding on higher ticket auctions, simply because my natural frugality often means I lose them.  But my late second snipe was actually well under what I was willing to pay on this lot, and I ended up getting the whole schabang for less than $60 shipped.  Normally I'd be hesitant to drop that much coin on one purchase at one time.  I'm a dimebox guy at heart, after all.  But...this was too good to pass up.

I think it's safe to say this post will be the least impressive of the three, but it should be enough to whet the appetite.  But enough of me, time for more cardboard.

If there was one knock against this grouping, it's that the cards all came from a pretty limited range of sets (2010-12 Topps and Topps Update), and there were quite a few dupes.  There were also a decent number of cards I already had, which I didn't scan, but I'll talk more about that later.

The theme here?  Topps Black.  The lot has given me a huge head start on the Black team sets.  I'll still likely never complete them, but it at least gives me some hope.

 I'm a bit sick of Neil Walker autos.  He's a solid player, and a local guy who is one of my favorite players.  But Topps seems to love including him in every autograph set.  Still, I'm a sucker for anniversary themes.

 Dana Eveland never should have appeared in the bigs as a Pirate.  But he did.  And Topps made a card.  So now it's in my collection.  Cool story, huh?

 Daniel McCutchen may share notoriety for both being the "other" McCutchen, and for having the slowest fastball of any player suspended for PED use.

 I had been kicking myself for passing on this card at a card show a few years back for $5.  It's now in my collection for an average per card under $2. 

 I only had one witty comment for a Daniel McCutchen card.  Sorry.

This card is one of my favorite Pirate photos from recent years, and it's one of a surprising number of Pirate outfielders making leaping catches.  I had been working on the Topps Hope parallels when the set came out, but the supply dried up quickly, and I've been sitting on about 20% completion for a long time now.  I doubt I'll ever finish the team set, but it's nice to add another card.