Freedom!

I spent some time this weekend tackling the massive undertaking of migrating my 13,000+ Pirates cards from boxes to binders.  The good news is that most of the work is done - I'm down to a 4 row box and two shoeboxes.  The bad news?  That also means most of the "easy" put-aways (base sets, inserts/parallels that I have a large number of) are already done.  The resulting mess is a pile of one-off sets, sets with only one Pirate card in them, oddball releases, and base sets that I might have 1 card in the entire 9 pocket page.

But I decided to slowly chip away at it again this weekend after taking a month or two break.  And one thing that quickly bugged me: Topps Uncirculated cards.

Remember the uncirculated fad, when Topps tried to cash in on grading without actually...grading anything?  The cards were distributed - usually as a boxtopper - in a hard plastic case sealed with a Topps holo-sticker.  The idea, supposed, was that these cards had never been circulated, going straight into the case from the factory.  Therefore, or so the logic goes, they are more desirable, or valuable, or higher grade.  Or some jazz like that.

The real end result?  Lots of pretty cards sealed behind a thick layer of plastic that was easily scratched, scuffed, and dinged.  And a card that had way too much room to move around inside the holder, and probably would have been better off inside a penny sleeve and toploader.

But ignore the Uncirculated holder for a minute here.  These are some cool looking cards!  But with my incessant need to keep cards in their original state, I had left the half dozen Uncirculated cards I own inside their holder.

If you're keeping score at home, the holders do not, in fact, fit inside a 9 pocket page.  Clearly something must be done.

 Part of the reason I hadn't made an effort to jailbreak these bad boys before was that Topps had done a pretty good job of making a case that was a real pain to open.  But a little online digging revealed that the pros at this suggested using a penny to wedge the case open, at which point the snapping tabs on each side would release.

 And the results were certainly worth the scraped up fingers that resulted.  The cases really put a damper on the refractor effect of the cards, presumable because less light is able to pass through the plastic case.  In particular, the 2004 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractors look amazing.  I've been a big fan of the blue ref since it was introduced into packs in 2005, but this 2004 version may actually be my favorite.

 And the end result?  A win for card collectors everywhere, and a carnage of plastic cases.  As you can tell, the bulk of plastic majorly outweighs the actual amount of cardboard it was protecting.

Now there are some great looking cards safely at home inside their binders, and I managed to clear out a few inches of space in those remaining boxes in the matter of a few short minutes.  All around a job well done, if I do say so myself.

Minor Matters: Brad Corley - The Player Collection That Never Was

Once upon a time, I was a player collector first and a team collector second.  My progression of player collections has pretty exclusively featured light hitting middle infielders: Warren Morris, Lou Collier, and then a super-collection of Jack Wilson.

As my collecting interests grew, I thought it would be fun to take on a new player collection.  What better way than to dig deep into the minors and catch a guy as he started his pro career.  Coming out of the 2005 draft, I didn't have the pockets to pursue first rounder Andrew McCutchen.  But slugging second round pick Brad Corley seemed like the perfect fit - a power hitting college bat with only a few cards, it would be the perfect start to a super collection.

I probably don't need to say much about the McCutchen guy.  Corley on the other hand...he put up nice power numbers, slugging 16 homers and 100 rbi's in his first full pro season in 2006.  But that line was capped off with an unsettling 109 K's and a hollow .438 slugging percentage.  As he rose through the minors, the K's got worse, batting average slumped, and the power never went from above average to exceptional.

By 2009, Corley was out of baseball at age 25, topping out at AA.

I built up a nice collection, including all colors of refractors, a few press plates, and some newfound player collecting wisdom.

Browsing ebay last week, I noticed an auto of Corley from 2006, when his promise still seemed strong.  I always enjoy minor league cards, even if the players don't quite make it all the way.  For $1 and free shipping,I got myself a nice reminder of why I have 8 Blue Refractors of a guy who never made it above AA.