Kicking Off Flea Market Season

Saturday turned into my lame adult version of a whirlwind adventure.  I headed to bed pretty down Friday over a job offer that fell through due to some shady behind the scenes politics.  Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, and for the past 6 years it's been an annual tradition that we would go to a store south of Pittsburgh and meet up with a couple of my good friends from my time in Morgantown.

But Kate was in Chicago playing roller derby, and our West Virginia friends were in New York City for the weekend.  I had made tentative plans earlier in the week with my old roommate from college to go to FCBD, but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to feel up to doing much of anything when I woke up on Saturday.

I woke up Saturday feeling about how I expected, but figured moping around the house alone all day wasn't going to do much good.  So off to the comic store it was.  I wouldn't exactly call myself a comic book person.  I'm certainly not a collector, and just about the only single issues I own are the ones I've gotten on free comic book days.  But I enjoy reading the collected editions.  I enjoy some of the great sci-fi and horror comics out there, moreso than most of the superhero stuff.  But as a proper English nerd, I love good storytelling.  And comics open up some really interesting opportunities that just aren't there when you're working with just text. 

Plus I like supporting local businesses.  So my friend met me at the house around 10 and we headed off to the comic store.  As always it was a great time.  From what I've read, many comic stores let visitors pick one, two, or three free books.  The books are free to customers, but there's still cost involved for the stores.  And I suppose they don't want to be spending money on the many kids and casual readers who come out of the woodwork on FCBD.  But the store we always go to, Pittsburgh Comics, lets you take anything you'd like and puts out a lot of other promotional books in additional to the free comic day titles.  It's been a great way for me to discoverother titles I'm interested in, and the extra effort the store puts into FCBD to go above and beyond makes me happy to shop there year throughout the year.  In addition to the free books, I was able to get some great buy 2 get 1 free deals that made for an awesome day.

So you're probably wondering where the flea market ties in here.  We were headed back home after a great time at the comic store when I asked if my friend had ever been to the flea market that's a few exits away from the comic store.  He hadn't.  We were a good 20 minutes in the opposite direction, but what are two guys with nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon to do?  We headed to the flea market.

The weather was beautiful, but it was past noon by the time we pulled in.  From the parking lot I could see vendors already packing up or already driving away.  A rushed walk though didn't yield anything of interest for either of us.  But there's also an indoor section of vendors.  Many were already tarped over and closed up, but I spotted one card vendor.  I headed over to a box while my friend keyed in on some boxes of records the guy had.

My haul wasn't nearly as impressive as my takeaway from the comic store, but I was happy to add some new cardboard.

The gem was this Chris Duffy 2002 Traded black refractor.  Pirate black and gold refractors always look great, and the 2002 design may be my favorite.  The 2002 Pirates traded set was prospect heavy, and the Pirates had some surprisingly decent players in it.  Chris Duffy is the last of the significant rookies I needed.  I already have black refractors of Ryan Doumit and Jose Bautista (which I got long before he became a homer hitting machine), so it was nice to complete the trio.

What really drew me in was spotting cards I had never seen before.  It always amazes me when I see a card I didn't know existed.  I've been pretty involved in the hobby going back to the late 90's, and obsessively collecting Pirates since the early 2000's.  So what I see a card for the first time, it's an interesting experience. 

I don't mean have never seen a copy.  I mean full on "huh, never knew that set existed" sort of way.  The Classic Clippings die cut insert is really cool.

And the other cards are apparently from a Stuart bread release that came as a tri-panel card.  Jim Morrison is the third in the set, though he didn't make the scan.  It's my first time coming across either set, so they're welcome additions.

2001 Studio is a set I opened a few packs of in various repacks back in the day.  But I have one lone card from the set - the Jack Wilson rookie, which was nearly impossible to find.  It's a great design, so it was nice to find a base card.

For whatever reason, this particular flea market seems to be the go-to place for oddball cards.  I've seen quite a few different cards there that either were completely unknown to me or are typically tough to find.  The Giles card is apparently a Post Cereal insert from 2003 that I had never seen, and the Doumit is from a 2009 Topps Attax product I didn't know existed.  It's always fun to expand my hobby knowledge.

My haul was pretty modest.  I spent $7 at the flea market, and came home to discover that of the 25 dime cards I snagged I already owned 13 of them.  Oops.  My friend did a lot better, grabbing a nice stack of vinyl and a couple of Moby cassette tapes.  Apparently cassettes are an underappreciated format in his eyes.  I'm not quite sold on that argument, but we were both happy campers.

It was a slow start to flea market season, but for a day I hadn't actually planned on going to a flea market it was a great start.  I'm looking forward to getting out there in the next couple weeks and being able to spend a little more time.  But overall it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning and afternoon.

The Never Ending Trade

This is a story that would make Hunter S. Thompson proud.  Let's take some artistic liberties and assume it all begins in a smoky Mexico City bar over some tequila where a deal is struck.  It's May 30, 1997.  The Pirates just agreed to sign a 27 year old left hander from the Mexico City Reds named Ricardo Rincon.

Four days later, the lefty makes his major league debut.  A little over four months later, Rincon is part of a combined no-hitter with countryman Francisco Cordova.

Today Latin American prospects don't last to 17 let alone 27.  And they certainly don't head straight to the big leagues.  But this story is just getting started.

Rincon pitched well in his first major league action appearing in 62 games with a 3.45 ERA for the Freak Show team that nearly stole the division despite finishing under .500.  The next year, he followed up that with another strong season and sub-3 ERA.

The 1998 season wrapped up for the Cleveland Indians with a ALCS exit, following a heartbreaking Game 7 walk-off loss to the Marlins the year before in the World Series.  They had an embarrassment of riches, including young future All-Stars Richie Sexson and Brian Giles.  The Indians were anxious
for bullpen help, and the Pirates were looking to build an exciting offense as they got ready to enter a new ballpark in 2001.  Rincon was viewed as a potential setup man by the Indians, while the Pirates had lefty Jason Christiansen ready to take Rincon's place in their own pen.  The Pirates were pursing B.J. Surhoff, and probably envisioned a power hitting tandem in the middle of their lineup.  It was a win-win for both sides at the time.





Giles developed into a marquee player for the Bucs and one of the best players in the game, though his numbers flew under the radar on some terrible Pirates teams.

                                       
Flash forward to 2003, and the Padres are in a similar situation to the 1999 Pirates.  Preparing to open a new ballpark, they're looking for some name value.  And apparently when you want to put butts in seats, Brian Giles is your guy.  Original negotiations had Giles, a San Diego native, and Jason Kendall heading to the Padres for a package headlined by Xavier Nady and Oliver Perez (don't worry, much like the Mounties, Dave Littlefield always gets his man), but wind up being just Giles for Perez, Jason Bay, and a PTBNL.  The Pirates were in the midst of shedding salary like they were the 2018 Marlins due to some poor bookkeeping that put them in violation of allowed debt ratios.

Yet again, the Bucs would strike gold.  At least for a little while.  Jason Bay won the 2004 Rookie of the Year award, while Oliver Perez looked like a potential ace.  Throwing mid 90's heat as a lefty, Perez 239 K's with a 2.98 ERA in 2004 at the ripe age of 22

Perez would implode in 2005 before being traded to the Mets for Xavier Nady (see, I told you!).  Nady would eventually get flipped to the Yankees for Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen, and Jose Tabata.  The former three would eat up innings on some developing teams, while Tabata would stick around long enough to be part of playoff teams in 2013 and 2014.

But the more exciting story is with Bay, who would develop into a perennial all-star and a fixture in the middle of the Pirates lineup.

In a trade deadline shocker, Bay was traded to the Red Sox seemingly out of nowhere in 2008.  He still had a year and a half left on his contract.  Pirates GM Neal Huntington was in his first full year as GM, and basically got taken by more experienced executives as the vehicle to get the Manny Ramirez show out of Boston and into Hollywood.

The return?  A basket of supposed near-MLB ready prospects - Boston contributing 2005 1st round pick reliever Craig Hansen and (eventual) power hitting outfielder Brandon Moss while the Dodgers kicked in 2006 1st rounder Bryan Morris and top prospect Andy LaRoche.  Hansen, Moss, and LaRoche all flamed out amazingly fast with the Bucs given their pedigree.

Morris didn't develop as hoped, but made it to the majors as a reliever, putting up a 3.47 ERA with terrible peripherals for a 2013 playoff club.

But because this trade WIll.NOT.DIE, Morris was flipped to the Marlins early in the 2014 story for a newly-tradable Competative Balance draft pick.

That pick wound up being 39th overall pick Connor Joe, a college corner infielder with some pop who the Bucs were going to move to catcher.  He hurt his back shortly after being drafted, which canceled those plans.  The power never developed, and Joe had basically unanimously been labeled a bust.  And that is really, truly where this should have ended.  Joe spends another year or two in the Bucs system before leaving as a minor league free agent, and this twenty year odyssey comes to a close.

But nope.

On August 5, 2017, the Pirates traded for former Buc Sean Rodriguez, a utility player making $5.7M in 2017 AND 2018 hitting .162 at the time of the trade.  And the "return"?  Connor Joe.

So here we go, folks.  Will Sean Rodriguez bring a trade return this year, continuing this absurd adventure into its 4th decade?  Or will he merely leave as a free agent after the season, letting the trade of Ricardo Rincon finally rest in peace?

A Rare Mailday

Mail days have sort of become a rare thing around here.  As we go into full househunting mode, my buying has been scaled back almost to zero.  After all, there are more than enough cards to pack up here when the big move comes as it is.  But I was treated to a pleasant surprise by one of my team collector buddies, who sent along a nice array of Pirates goodies.  

This is easily the biggest single addition to my collection so far this year, and the package was jam packed full of serial numbered cards and inserts.  Better yet, every single card was brand new to me.

Panini's entry into into the prospect game is never quite as well received as the Bowman sets, but I've always been a fan of Elite Extra Edition.  Elite was one of my favorite releases when Donrss was still around, though the Extra Edition was a bit misleading for quite a few years when the standard Elite was MIA.

 It's been almost a year since I've been to a card show, and it's definitely having an impact on my collection.  My 2015 binder is super thin, and aside from the base sets I only have a scattering of parallels here and there.  I've always sworn that one of these days I will complete an entire team set of Topps Gold cards.  And since I'm now at exactly 1 2015 Gold after this package, my bet is that if that ever does happen it won't be with 2015.

 I always love a good oddball card, and this Drabek takes the cake.  It screams Desert Storm.

 My team collector buddies have also been passing along some Marlins cards my way, which have quickly grown to needing their own box.  I have no idea why Jeff Conine has a tennis racked.  But I'm glad he does.

 Getting a package in the mail is always a bit of a reality check for me.  I have north of 16,000 different Pirate cards.  As the mess surrounding me will attest, it's a crapload of cards.  So I'm always taken back a little bit when I see how many cards - parallels, oddballs, and even sometimes entire sets - that I had no idea even existed.  This Pro Sigs card?  Never seen it before.

 Same goes for these two Cutch parallels.  Even though they aren't particularly low numbered, finding almost any McCutchen cards is mission impossible around here.  Add in the fact that these blue framed parallels look awesome and it's just icing on the cake.

While I'm sure it will still be a good while before the mail is regularly flowing into my collection again, it's always great to add a wave of new cards.  Now the cataloging, sorting, and adding to binders?  That part is a little less fun.

It's the Big One, Elizabeth

I'm not someone who considers myself to have much of a want list.  When it comes to my team collections, it's more about finding a card I don't have at a price I like.  There just aren't many cards out there that I'm actively prowling for that very card specifically.

So the few true "wants" I have?  They're kind of a big deal to me.

In the days before half the products being high end releases, it was touch to find higher end Pirate cards even worth chasing.  Multi-player autos of multiple Pirates players were exceptionally rare.  So when I first spotted this quad auto in 2006, I just about lost it.

And then I realized that Perez and Casey were both listed playing for other teams.  Both players had been dumped mid-season (Casey on his own bobblehead day), but Upper Deck was notorious for being slow to update player movement.

Just not when it benefitted the Bucs collectors.  Somehow the team at UD managed to change the design and photos to accommodate the move to larger market clubs.  Meanwhile, they would still be releasing Adam LaRoche Braves cards two years into his Pirate tenure.  But I digress...

For years, this was a card I desperately wanted, but refused to add to my collection due to the team switcharoo.  But time and general disinterest in current products heals all wounds.  And this card shot back near the top of my want list over the last couple years.

At 25 copies, it's not the easiest to find.  But I was thrilled to find one on ebay from a Canadian seller (Bay is Canadian, and had a pretty strong collector base up north at the peak of his career), and won the auction for about $7.  Even though I'm sill a little salty over the non-Pirates, I'm thrilled to add this one to my collection.

And if snagging one card off my want list wasn't good enough, how's two?  While this looks like just an ordinary Jack Wilson card that doesn't scan particularly well, it's long eluded me.  This is supposedly the common, unnumbered version of this auto that also has a blue parallel /15 and a gold parallel /10.  But as was common with Donruss' autograph inserts, the number of cards for each player was often pretty irregular, depending on how many stickers they had available.

In the decade plus of looking for this card, I had only seen one copy.  And that one was in the collection of a fellow Jack collector.  It's "common" status was pretty misleading.

I already have the blue parallel, and still need the gold to complete the run.  But I was thrilled to land this one for just $5.  It's been slow goings adding to the Jack Wilson collection in recent years, but that just makes each new find that much more enjoyable.

Catching Up

Last week was a whirlwind, with some pretty big life changes in Battlin' Buc land.

I had an interview for a job on Thursday.  I felt like things went well, but was pretty shocked when they called 45 minutes after I got out of the interview to offer me the position.  I'll be taking on a management role with an education non-profit that work with at-risk youth.  It's a big step forward both for my career and for our bank account, and I'm really excited to be heading to an organization that I can genuinely see myself stick with for a good while.  I've tried to avoid letting work interfere with the card blog, but the last year has been a rough one on the work front and I don't think it's much of a stretch to admit that has had a huge impact on my quality and consistency of writing on the blog.  Lots of stress, long commutes, and uncertainty knowing what career direction I wanted to move in.

So I'm excited about having some more free time (and less stress) to get back to enjoying reading and writing about cards.

These cards were waiting for me in the mailbox the other day.  I won them both on ebay for a total of about $3.50.  At one point, buyback cards were the hottest thing in the hobby.  As people started to realize they're basically glorified IP autos and many of the Topps ones could be easily faked, the market has cooled considerably.

But Bay was one of my favorite players to watch, and I can't pass up on two autographs at that price.  Fun fact: his 2002 rookie cards in Topps products feature him as an Expo, Met, and Padre.

By the way, if anyone else has interest or questions about the team collector group I wrote about last week, don't hesitate to leave a comment or shoot me an email.  I saw we had a couple new signups - hope to hear from you guys soon on the Team Collector forum!

 

Budgets? Who Needs Budgets?!?!

I almost stayed within budget.  Almost.  It ended up being a pretty crazy three days at the Robert Morris show, and I'll try to get a few posts up over the course of the week.  Originally I had only planned on attending Friday and Saturday, hoping to spend a little time at home (aka not on my feet on a hard concrete floor).  But the best laid plans are set to fail.  As I was getting ready to head out the door Saturday, a deal caught my eye that was enough in and of itself to pull me back for a third day.

Over the last few years, I have been progressively less impressed with the show on the whole.  Last year, Modern era cards were nearly impossible to find, and there wasn't a single dealer stocking cards from the latest releases.  It wasn't radically better this year - I picked up a few Gypsy Queen minis, but still need entire team sets from 2015 Bowman and GQ - but there were a good number of dealers offering cards from cards that didn't predate the Carter administration.  I jumped in, filling holes in my collection at any turn possible.  There weren't any new Jack Wilsons to be found, but there was some 90's gold to be found in quarter boxes.

 The haul from the show was the best I've had in terms of quantity and range.  I have probably about 1,000 new cards to sort through between my various team collections and odds and ends, covering everything from serial numbered, autos, and a nice stack of minor league team sets.  But the best part?  It was unquestionably the chance to catch with some collecting acquaintances.

 It was a great chance to catch up with folks I've met over the years.  Some I expected to be there, and a couple others were chance encounters.  But collecting is just so much more enjoyable when you have somebody to share your experiences with.  Kate is more supportive of my hobby than I could ever ask for, but she just can't get the excitement over adding a Bob Veale autograph to my collection the way a fellow longtime season ticket holder can.

 It's that sense of collecting community that I enjoy the most, and I probably spent as much time just standing around and shooting the breeze with dealers and buddies as I did actually digging through boxes this year.  One meetup that sadly fell through was finally getting to meet up with Matt of Bob Walk the Plank infamy.  Matt and I lived within walking distance of each other at one point long before either of us started blogging and collect pretty much the same things, so it's a shame our paths have never crossed.  But sadly he had a full plate during the weekend, and the meetup will have to wait until my next visit to Morgantown.

The big event of the weekend was Tom Barrasso's first US autograph signing since his playing days.  Barrasso has a reputation for being one of the least friendly human beings this side of the Gulag.  And while I ultimately decided not to spring for his autograph, I heard from a few people that he was actually quite pleasant.  I'm guessing the obscene amounts of cash he made over the weekend may have helped.

 The best part about a show this size is that you literally never know what you will find.  The state and zip code parallels from Hometown Heroes have been incredibly tough to track down for me.  And obviously Andrew McCutchen would presumably be the most expensive.  I nearly pulled the trigger on this card on COMC for about $2.50 earlier last week.  And of course there was a copy, sitting in a quarter box on Friday.  Yes, please.

 As a team collector, I love the out of town dealers who roll in with massive rows of quarter boxes are always the best.  I ended up adding about 60 Topps parallels from the past two years, all at roughly a quarter a piece.  When living in Ohio a few dealers always had tons of Wal Mart and Target parallels, but those areas of my collection have been nearly nonexistent since moving back to PA.  I don't think I quite completed the team sets, but I must be darn close.

 I was actually surprised how much trouble I had finding blowout game used and autographs at the show.  Large shows are usually a great place for high quality $1/$2 autographs.  But aside from the Bay and Woodley in this post, which I picked up for about $3 each, there was very little in the way of lower end hits.  It seemed a little strange to me, but I guess it just depends on who sets up and what they bring.

 The score of the day Friday was definitely this Clemente Kellogg's 3-D for a quarter.  It's pretty badly cracked.  But it's Clemente.  For a quarter.

 After being basically MIA at least year's show and the National, I was able to score some decent McCutchen cards this year at what I considered good prices.  This Prizm insert is /99, and was an easy add to my pile for $2.

 It was interesting that my pacing and buying was radically different across the three days.  All these cards in this post came from dealers on Friday.  I was on a buying flurry, spending about $20 with three different dealers and scoring a bunch of nice lower-mid range cards.

 Saturday was a little slower on the card front, and had a lot of standing and chatting.  And Sunday was more or less dominated by memorabilia, and while the additions weren't as jaw dropping as last year, I can't wait to create space for my newest additions.

 Overall the show was a huge win.  I'll be slowly posting over the next few days as I get everything scanned and organized.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

I'm pretty proud of the Pirates collection I've amassed.  At times collecting can feel overwhelming.  At times I wonder if I might be sliding down a very weird compulsive slope when I realize I checked COMC for new cards twice in a day.  But at the end of the day, I just simply enjoy the cards I've accumulated...even if I am always on the hunt for more.

But that collection isn't simply thanks to some great dime bins and way too much time shopping on the internet.  I've been fortunate enough to come across some really great people while collecting.  Whether it's trades or folks simple sending me a card because they know it would have a good home in my collection, some of my favorite cards are ones that came to me from another collector.

But it comes down to more than just cardboard.  I've met some really great people through collecting.  And right at the top of the list are my group of Team Collector friends.  I know I've been mentioning the group a good bit lately.  I swear this isn't just a cheap plug for our upcoming Heritage/Donruss/Opening Day break, which we still have a few slots open for.  Ok, maybe that was.  It's a genuinely great group of people, who I genuinely consider among my group of friends.  We even try to get together once a year for a Team Collector Convention.  Not bad for a bunch of guys (and a girl) from across the country who started out just trading baseball cards.

So for me, any cards I get from the group hold a little asterisk in my mind, right up there with cards that came as a gift from my parents.  

So I was pretty excited when I had a box waiting for me the other day.  See, the way the group works is that there are Tier 1 and Tier 2 collectors.  The Tier 1 guys all trade with each other.  By the time I joined the group, the Pirates had already been claimed, so I got slotted in as a Tier 2.  I round up stuff for the other 29 teams, send it to the Tier 1 Pirates guy who dishes it out among the group, and then sends me his Pirates doubles.

 Doubles might not be the right word.  Barry, the Pirates Tier 1 collector, is a great guy.  He has a ton of cards, but I'd guess not alllll of these were doubles.  The package he sent me was absolutely loaded.  The Luis Heredia card is an X-Fractor /25.  It graded well, but I'm tempted to crack it free and slot it into my binder where it belongs.

 And while Kenny Lofton's stay in Pittsburgh was short, he was really exciting to watch.  While perhaps not the dynamic player that sparked the Cleveland offense a few years earlier, he was still near the top of his game.  And he brought an electricity to PNC Park that I hadn't seen again until the last couple years.  But he has tragic few Pirates cards.

 And what package would be complete without some mid 00's Bucco love?  The Pirates haven't fared too well in home run derbies.

And don't even get me started on Oliver Perez.  Even though his career in Pittsburgh fizzled quickly, he was still one of the more exciting pitchers I've watched between 2004 and 2005.

The cards are great, and welcomed additions to my collection.  But collecting is about more than just the cardboard.  My collection wouldn't be anywhere near where it is without the great folks I've met along the way.  And that's worth way more than the value of some ink, cardboard, and pieces of fabric.