Vacation Mail

Annnnd we're back to our regularly scheduled program.  Kate and I were up in Boston enjoying a gorgeous fall weekend, some chowdah, and some of the most terrifyingly aggressive drivers I've had the pleasure to nearly wreck into.

Sorry for the lack of posts while I was away.  I had hoped to schedule some autoposts, but the time slipped away from me.

But fortunately there were some surprises waiting in the mailbox when we got home late last night.

Andrew Lambo spent most of the year wasting away in AAA, but that didn't stop him from being included in just about every product released this year.  But surprisingly, this is my first autograph of his.  I've been a big fan of Elite, and the decision to include it with this year's Donruss S2 made for a loaded break.

A couple of boxes of Donruss in group breaks didn't yield any major Pirate cards, so I decided to go the ebay route to meet my needs.  The Status die cuts have always been one of my favorites, and I think the die cut and color does nicely to distract from the pretty glaring lack of logo-age on this particular card.  Better yet, I snagged this for just barely under $4.  A pretty nice pickup, since I had been getting consistently outbid on the more common base (base insert?  how the heck is this set categorized???) auto around the $3 mark.

Oh, and for those wondering yes, Fenway was a must see on our trip.  I'll try to get some photos up later today.

Ooo, Shiny

 I typically try to stay away from picking up cards off ebay right around the street date.  I'm a bargain hunter.  Buying when prices are most inflated is not a bargain.

But sometimes things can work in your favor, particularly with Topps' screwy release calendar.  Topps Chrome and Triple Threads went live within a short timespan, and mostly containing the same players.  The result is a flood of new cards hitting the market for these players.  And while there are many collectors out there with deeper pockets than I, the big fish are bound to miss a tasty morsel or two.

I've become largely disinterested with Topps' refractor parade each year, as more and more "colors" are added to the Topps rainbow.  But there's no arguing that Bucco cards always look good in black and gold refractory goodness.  And with most of the collecting dollars chasing the hits out of TTT, it was inevitable that some gorgeous cards would slip through the cracks.

And quite honestly I'd rather have a nice refractor over a shrapnel card that contains a piece of jersey that may have been on the field, or may more accurately resemble one of the jerseys I wore to the Pirates games this past weekend.

I was able to snag both of these black refractors for a little less than $5 delivered, and I'm perfectly fine with that.  Lambo and Alvarez are both out of favor with both collectors and Pirates brass right now, but they'll find a good home in my collection.  And I really like the way the black border looks with the Pirates black jersey.  It's doubtful I'll be able to round out the black ref team set at prices I'm happy with, but I do need to get on adding some more Pirates refractors from this year.  The Bucs were woefully represented in Chrome for most of the past few years, so I need to take advantage of the variety while I can.