A Sign of the Times

One of the things that really interests me about the hobby is the ebb and flow of hobby interest in certain players.  I've always shied away from paying market prices for just about...anything...when it first comes out.  I waited years to jump on  the flatscreen bandwagon.  I didn't buy a PS3 until the third or 4th wave of price drops.  Call me cheap (my darling bride certainly does).  Call me frugal.  Call me as you will.  I'm a bargain hunter - though not the the slightly obsessive, checking every flyer and coupon and spending my time on supermarket floors checking for dented cans ala the egg guy in Clerks.

Nah, I'm just a guy who likes getting the most milage out of my buck.  Which makes card collecting an interesting endeavor.

You see, it seems that many collectors have short memories.  Yesterday's star is today's quarter box find.  Sure, some of the upper tier superstars maintain a strong collector base well after their retirement.  But that second tier of guys?  They get forgotten about pretty fast.

As a Pirate collector, it's allowed me to put together some pretty nice collections of guys like Brian Giles and Jason Kendall over the past few years.  And I imagine Jason Bay will be added to that list pretty soon.

And it looks like that trickle down theory is making its way over to the autograph side of my collection too.  I was browsing for Pirate autos a few weeks ago when I came across a seller who had a few listings pop up.  I decided to check out his other auctions, and boy was I surprised.

It looked like the guy was a Boston autograph dealer, with a bunch of autographs listed from many of the bigger name players over the last decade or two.

Into the watch list they went.

I got outbid on some of the players I was after - Mo Vaughn, Curt Schilling, Tom Glavine.  The prices were good, but I have been overspending lately, so I let a few slip through my fingers at great prices.  Bad timing, I guess.  But I was able to snag these two for a mere $1 each, plus free shipping.

Beckett and Crawford have certainly seen their stock fall in recent seasons.  And perhaps the fact that both cards are in uniforms of the Florida teams that get almost no hobby love helped.  But for two guys still currently playing, I was pretty surprised to see their cards nearly end without a single bid.

Cross two more guys off the "players I'd love to have an auto of, but will never pay more than $3 for" list!

Moments & Milestones

No, not the set.  We mark our collections in ways that are in many ways arbitrary, but in our own individual world views makes perfect sense.  Set builders have relatively objective, concrete goals: get every card in a specific set.  But for the rest of us?  Collecting habits differ, and I think the blogosphere is a great example of that.

A PWE from Baseball Dad last week put me at exactly 11,000 different Pirate cards according to my excel file.

The card itself was rather pedestrian.  A 2003 Donruss Estrellas card of short lives second sacker Jose Castillo.  The card is unique in that I had no idea a 2003 Estrellas set was even released (I thought the 02 issue was a one-and-done set).  But otherwise it's...ordinary.  Not to mention it includes the same photo of Castillo Donruss recycled on about half a dozen cards between 2003 and 2004.

And in all honesty, the milestone itself is rather arbitrary.  For some reason we like nice round numbers.  And 11,000 cards is an impressive achievement.  But no less impressive than 10,999.  Or 10,964.

And even then, odds are that my excel count is off in some way, shape, or form.  Maybe a double entry of Bill Madlock's 1983 Fleer card (just checked, and we're in the clear on that one), or some 1995 Ultra common that stuck to the back of another card when I was cataloging them.

So arbitrary?  Yes.  But collecting is about the journey.  And in the past eight years, I've gone from exclusively a player collector, to trying to collect one certified autograph of every player to appear as a Pirate, to a team collector, to what would probably be described by my loving bride as an out of control super-collecting monster hell bent upon picking up every single Pirates card ever produced.  Those collecting evolutions get dropped onto the mile markers of my life over that time as I moved from high school student, wide eyed college student, grad student, dumped, dating, single, engaged, married, in shape, not so in shape.

And I think that's one of the interesting aspects of collecting.  I'm quite sure many of us can associate a specific card with a place or time in our lives when we added it to our collection.  Or a card that has special meaning as a gift from a parent, child, or partner.  Maybe not every single card.  But some of those cards take us on this weird, spiraling journey both to a different time in our lives and a different time in our recollections of and relationships to baseball or a specific player.

Not to get too waxing and philosophical.  At the most basic level...11,000 unique cards is a pretty cool (and insanely frustrating to organize) accomplishment.  Especially since my goal for this calendar year was 10,000 (I think I was at about 8,700 on New Year's day).  And while it's quality, not quantity...there is something magical and exciting about each and every one of the cards in my collection.  Even those hideous 1995 Fleer cards.

So here's to all of you moving ever close to those ever changing collecting goals.  After all, it's the thrill of the hunt that's half the fun.

Mail Call!

A few weeks ago Baseball Dad commented on an oddball Nolan Ryan prototype I posted.  I ended up with a stack of various players in a lot I picked up a few years back, and was thrilled to find a good home for one to decrease the pile ever so slightly.  I threw in a few other Tribe cards, because single card packages look pretty lonely.

I found out that we didn't live all that far apart when I was living in Lima.  And by not that far apart, I mean that in western Ohio, the smallest towns and villages are 30 miles apart, and the roads get such esteemed and thoughtful names as County Road 371, or Bluffton Road, which would, amazingly, go to Bluffton, Ohio.  So we were practically neighbors, and I wouldn't be surprised if our paths crossed at some point at one of the many card shows in the area.

While I was just happy to give some cards a good home, I certainly couldn't complain when a PWE arrived last week with some fantastic Pirate cards.

Jason Kendall is one of those guys whose early career greatness is overshadowed by a lengthy career that just sort of...exists.  Kendall was a perennial all-star for the Bucs (admittedly not a tough task for most of the 90's when there were really no other deserving candidates on the team).  But his time in Oakland, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Kansas City after leaving the Burgh were far less memorable.  Still, this card is an awesome minor league issue I've never seen before.

Speaking of the minors, I'm a little irritated with Topps' parallel-a-palooza the last few years.  The Bowman Toys R Us Purple parallel is just one more headache to chase.  Toys R Us?  Really?

As my anger with Topps grows, I've become increasingly appreciative of Panini's releases.  I know many aren't for one reason or another.  Well, two reasons, really.  No logos.  Boxes that don't come close to delivering their SRP value.  No logos.

But I like 'em.  But with the limited number of parallels that I'm seeing listed, I imagine there is a ton of unopened Panini product these days.

And now we have our MVP of the PWE.  Gerrit Cole cards in my collection are few and far between right now.  I think I have his base Bowman and possible a Chrome rookie, and one of his cards from Topps Heritage.  So I guess my Cole Train just added another car.

There was one last addition to my collection in the PWE, but it deserves its own post.  This package was a ton of fun to open, and I'm sure we'll have to strike up a bigger trade in the near future.  I had been stockpiling Indians, Reds, and Tigers cards in preparation to do a show right before we moved out of Ohio, and I'm getting really sick of finding stacks of Victor Martinez parallels in my card boxes.

Marital Bliss

Well, my grand schemes of posting some of my new mail throughout the day blew up in my face pretty fast.  We spent the morning trying to restore order to the chaos of dirty dishes, fridge full of wedding leftovers, and piles of new gifts (all in unnecessarily large boxes) from the wedding.  And then my parents popped in unexpectedly for a visit and then a trip up to the nearby outlets.  Add in a trip to the gym, dinner with the folks, and poof!  there goes your day.

So tomorrow shall be mail blog-a-palooze.

But I wanted to take a minute to show off one of the cool pieces of art one of my good friends did for us during wedding week.  He came up from West Virginia to help us with wedding preparations, and of course the most logical thing to do when you have a professional artist held captive is put them to work.  Glenn was completely game for whatever we were up to (I'm not sure who was more terrifying, groomzilla or bridezilla).

We had a large, rustic venue, and wanted some things to take up space on the walls and over the fireplaces in each room.  So things worked out great, and now we have some amazing art for the house.

This piece was definitely my favorite.  It's a caricature of us as the pierogis that race during Pirates home games.  If you aren't up to speed on what a pierogi is, it's basically a stuffed dumpling - commonly mashed potato or sauerkraut, though Kate's family recipe uses dried cottage cheese.  They're a huge regional dish in Pittsburgh, and the race is a nice between innings tough that the crowd loves.  Though I must say the true awesomeness of my beard didn't fully translate in pierogi form.

Catching Up on the Mail, Part 1

As a kid, I was raised on some combination of cartoons, Nickelodeon cinematic brilliance like Pete and Pete and Keenan and Kell, and PBS programming.  The results were, I like to think, fairly positive.  The programs I grew up on felt real, and tackled issues that I may have been slightly oblivious to at age 6 or 7, but watching the shows now I realized left an imprint on me when they mirrored my life 5 or 10 years later.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood held a special place in my heart now and then; Fred Rogers grew up about 30 mins away from where I lived, and the Pittsburgh centric episodes made me assume that the show was made just for me.  Probably my favorite character on the program was Mr. McFeely, the mailman.  He was just a warm character that always brought some piece of news or interesting information on his visits.

Our own mailman may not have been quite so exciting, but the mail was always something that excited me as a young kid.  You know, back when people actually used to send letters.  Or postcards.  Or anything more personal than a hastily typed email expunging any attempts at proper capitalization or punctuation.  But I digress.

In 2004, I started sending out requests for autographs through the mail after reading a thread about it on the now un-readable Beckett message boards (remember when Beckett was actually relevant?).  Suddenly the mail took on an entire new significance - each daily arrival could hold a new surprise inside an envelope.  Would it be the HoF'er I just mailed to, or some up and coming prospect in AA?

I don't mail as many requests as I used to, but the daily trip to the mail box is still a point of excitement, hoping for packages from ebay, group break shipments, or some mail from other bloggers.

Which I guess is the long way to say I'm pretty far behind on incoming mail from last month.  I'm going to make an effort to get caught up today, to check back for a few more posts on the exciting additions that have made their way into my mailbox recently.

I'm leading off with a package from my good buddy Mike at Tromps Sport Cards.  He updates his site pretty much daily, and has great prices on his cards.

I picked up a few Pirate cards I needed, and threw in some other Pens and Steelers cards.  But the Pens cards stole the show.  My hockey collection is sadly lagging behind the other sports, but this package added some nice star power.  And shiny!

Call me shallow, but one of my favorite aspects of my growing Steelers and Pens collections are that there are so many products in those sports that never had a baseball counterpart.  When I collected baseball and football in the 90's, it was usually safe to say that most products released in one sports would come out in the other.  Most manufacturers had licenses in multiple sports, and the products usually translated well.

With the Topps monopoly running full steam towards boredom and repetition year after year, it's been really refreshing for my collection to see some of the unique cards in other sports.  I don't know what this Malkin card on the right is, but the ruby background looks great in person, and the card has some kind of weird perforation on the right edge (I assume intentionally).

The other thing I like?  Star power.  Well, kind of.  On the hockey side, guys like Lemieux, Crobsy, and Malkin have mostly priced themselves out of my ballpark.  I add a few cards here and there, mostly of the dime variety, but even their mid range inserts are usually more expensive than I want to pay for what is really my third or fourth tier collection.

But what do I really love about my new collecting interests?

Jerseys!  Or I guess they're sweaters in hockey.  The Pens have a pretty fun uniform history - and for someone who likes pretty jerseys, that's a major plus.  This Gold Label Milan Kraft auto had been on I had been on the hunt for pretty much since I started collecting hockey last year.  It looks amazing in person, and is a beautiful on card signature.  The ice pattern in the background is one of the more impressive things I've seen on cardboard.  And of course a level of effort Topps wouldn't dare consider today.

I'll be back later today with some baseball pickups, and of course the obligatory Sunday Steelers additions.  But in the mean time, perhaps it's time for me to go turn my attention to hockey as the season gets under way.

Back in Black

I swear it was unintentional, but with today's black and white themed posts, I'm finally back blogging full steam.  At least for now.

Wedding week was pretty much a lost cause - without a smart phone (yes, I'm quite possibly the only 25 year old sporting a flip phone) I didn't even have a chance to check email or facebook, let alone browse ebay.

Still, I was able to sneak in a couple purchases before things got crazy.  Consider it a wedding gift from me to me.

I long ago gave up any hope of completing entire team sets of the Topps Black parallels.  From any year.  Ever.  They're just too tough to chase, and I'm never willing to shell out the big bucks at release to try to fight off set collectors, player collectors, and team collectors.  I love the look of the cards and pick them up when I can.  But there are perhaps two dozen total in my collection.

As I mentioned in the post earlier today, I haven't really felt attached to any specific player since Jack Wilson left the Burgh.  But if I had to pick a guy, Neil Walker would probably be at the top of the short list.  He's a Pittsburgh native, former first round pick, and perhaps most importantly was drafted and developed by the Bucs.  I just hate having early-year cards from a guy in another uni, which has been the biggest reason I never took any major steps towards a Jeff Locke collection.

I have a decent array of Walker cards, but on the whole my collection from the last few years has been sadly lacking.  There have just been too many high end products released that I have no interest in chasing, or cards that are more than I want to pay.  And as you all know by now, I do love the 90's.

But this Walker was just too sweet to pass on, especially when I was able to win it for .99+shipping.

I've noticed a lot of the Pirate photos from recent seasons have been at Wrigley.  I know we play the Cubs quite a bit, but I wonder if there's a larger connection.  I honestly have no clue, since the process Topps uses to get their photos nowadays is equally mysterious.

Either way, this is a sweet shot of Neil turning two, prominently featuring the Chuck Tanner patch on the sleeve from 2011.  The colors really pop with the yellow near the text and the ivy backdrop.

My only complaint?  I wish Topps would have replaced the Pirate logo in the lower corner with the simple Pirates P that the team has been using as their primary logo for the past few seasons.  But with a new logo coming in a couple months, hopefully we'll have something less dated to look at.

White Whale, White Wedding

The wedding daze is wearing off a bit, and now I can finally turn my attention towards some of the mail that came in while I was a zombie.  I was going to do one megapost with all the new arrivals, but this one warrants special attention.

I've discussed how Jack Wilson's arrival in the bigs as a light hitting, slick fielding rookie coincided, and probably helped develop, my renewed interest in baseball and card collecting around 2001.  He will forever be my favorite player, and I don't think I realized just how significant that was until I have been unable to find any single player I really wanted to focus on collecting since Jack left the Bucs.

2001 was a magical year for baseball, for collectors, and for me personally (well, other than the broken arm I got that year).  With a strong rookie class, every product seemed like a can't miss.  And near the top of that list was 2001 Fleer Platinum.  As the anniversary theme was in full swing, all three major manufacturers (Pacific would be out of the game early in the year) had anniversary themed sets.  But Platinum was by far my favorite (in retrospect, breaking a few boxes of 2001 Heritage may have been the wiser decision).

One of the rough things about being a super collector of a non-star player is that the good ole supply and demand curve doesn't work too well.  The demand is...me.  The supply is...buried in $.50 boxes somewhere in Nebraska.  I'm at about 70% completion, and new additions have slowed to a trickle of 4 or 5 new cards a year.  Everything else I need is either really high numbered or really low numbered.  Either way, they don't see the light of day often.

In some cases, never.  You see, 01 Platinum had a really annoying parallel.  The cards looked exactly like the base cards, except the outline of the logo was in silver foil, and the cards were numbered on the back.  Base cards were numbered to 201, while rookies were to 21.  And the cards were so drab that I had pulled one of Tim Redding in 2001, and didn't realize it was a parallel version until 2003 or 2004.

The Wilson foil version was a card I had never seen before, and one of only a handful of 2001 RC's I don't have.

And then one landed on ebay just a couple days before the wedding.

Did I overpay?  Maybe.  But $15 is a small price to pay for a card that I had never seen before, and may very well never see again.  Now it's back to playing the waiting game to see when the next card I need will surface.