Getting Back Into My Flea Market Groove

A few years back, I had been in a nice rhythm.  We were stopping at local flea markets pretty much every weekend, which was a great way to bolster the collection.  But since buying the house and moving closer to the city, weekends have been eaten up by yard work, house projects, and seeing friends.  I think we went to two flea markets last year, which was a total that we would occasionally match in a weekend in previous years. 

But as I've hopped back into collecting, I realized I'm woefully behind on 2016 and 2017 releases.  And there's no better place to fill in team sets than an indoor flea market about 25 minutes away.  It's an movie theater that opened in the early 2000's that closed a few years later and then was turned into a flea market.  In the summer, they have vendors set up in the back parking lot.  But year round, there are permanent stands in the atrium, hallways, and what used to be the theaters.  And there's a card guy there that can always be relied on to have some Pirates, Steelers, and Penguin dime boxes that have cards from recent releases.

 

And this trip was no exception.  McCutchen cards have always been hard to come by, so it's always a plus to knock some of those off my list.

 

I posted a custom rendition of these 1989 Very Fine Juice cards earlier in the month.  But I found a couple of the real deals in the boxes, which I'll hopefully be able to get signed at some point.

 While the dime boxes are mostly base cards, I occasionally come across some low end inserts and parallels.  Nothing earth shattering, but a nice surprise.  As Bowman has cranked up the print run and checklist, refractors have gone from cards I absolutely love to a real pain.  They're tough to find at shows in this area, but too darn common to justify spending $.50-.60 per card on COMC.

In past years, the flea market was where I would go to find the cards I didn't pull in a group break or fill in team sets.  This time, it was where I went to figure out what the heck was released over the last year.  I'm always a fan of Archives, but it's nice to see the '92 design getting some love.  It's an underrated design in that middle era where production was still relatively high but inserts and parallels were starting to gain the hobby's focus.

I was able to figure out what set most of the cards were from pretty easily, since Topps isn't known for their creativity in the design or naming department these days.  But this one threw me for a loop.  I at first figures it might be from Leaf or a similar offshoot.  I was a little surprised to see a Panini logo on the back when I got home.  I've been a big fan of Panini's releases since they jumped back into baseball a few years back.  But this design just looks amateur and uninspired to me.  I found the three common base cards as well as a blue parallel of Gerrit Cole, but it looks like there are some serial numbered rookies I still need to track down.

I was a little pressed for time, but I couldn't resist grabbing a few Steelers and Pens cards as well.

My haul wasn't as large as I might have expected, but I was still about to find about 80 new cards.  I buy from the dealer pretty regularly, and I'm probably the only customer his dime box gets so he always knocks a few bucks off.  So I could have been out the door at a cool $4.  

...but what fun would that be?

 

I was browsing some of his other stuff.  He usually has a decent collection of bobbleheads and other SGA's.  Most of them I have, but every once in a while I find a gem.  Or in this case...a bear.

You can't see it in the photo, but underneath the arm tag is a Jack Wilson signature.  And that was enough for me to make what might be one of my oddest purchases to date.  To I'd like to introduce you to Jack, who is apparently a Build a Bear that was put together in 2005 for what was probably a lot more than the $10 I paid for it.  The bear was still in its carrying box, and didn't look like it had been loved, displayed, or any of the other things you would expect to do with a really freaking expensive teddy bear since 2005.

I have a hunch that the bear might have been signed because Jack Wilson was signing autographs at the Build a Bear store, but I couldn't find any news articles online to back that up.  Either way, I now need to figure out what to do with a large stuffed bear wearing a Pirates uniform.  The struggles of being a player collector, I suppose.

It was a lot of fun getting back to uncovering some hidden gems at the flea market.  I'm excited for the weather to start to warm up and to make it a more regular outing again this summer.

At Last

The dying days of Fleer were a wild ride.  Before the bankruptcy auction, unfilled redepmptions, and brief, zombie-like, resurrection under Upper Deck, the writing was on the wall. 

It's a period I'd imagine few would reflect on fondly, and even fewer collectors even think of at all.  But Fleer was my brand.  While Donruss delivered the best value in my eyes, I loved Fleer's overall products.  Their designs were unique, never afraid to incorporate foil or color.  The cards has an element of whimsy that I loved, and while not perfect their embedded stickers were at least a step up from the silver rainbow abominations used by Topps and Donruss at the time.

And Fleer showed love for my favorite player, Jack Wilson.  Jack was coming off an All-Star year in 2004.  And while the Pirates weren't well-represented in card sets across the board at this time, Jack managed to fit his way into most of the Fleer releases of the day.  Better yet, they had included Jack in quite a few of their autograph checklists for the 2005 season, almost all of which were inserted as redemptions.  Donruss had some autos as well, but I believe those were reused stickers from his rookie year 2001 signing session.

So Fleer was it.  And the checklists looked glorious.  Autos, patches, high end cards to chase galore.

...except most of them never saw the light of day.  Most of those redemptions went unproduced and unfilled.  The company went under.  And my collector dreams were crushed.  For quite a few years, it was still hard to get a clear sense of what was or wasn't released.  Beckett's checklist continued to show cards that I was fairly certain were never produced, but could never be quite sure.

Fleer Authentix was right in the thick of the chaos.  Jack had an autograph that was inserted into products with versions /100, /40, /5, and a 1/1.  There were also supposedly patch/autos inserted as redemptions, which Beckett still shows on their checklists.  I've long assumed the redemptions never existed.  And I have a copy of the auto /100, so I knew that one made it out the door.  But the lower numbered autos?  I had never seen a copy.  A card /40 typically isn't impossible to find, especially when you've been regularly scouring online for anything and everything of a player for the better part of two decades.

But a few weeks before Christmas, I spotted a copy on ebay.  The price was a little high, but I had a $10 ebay coupon that made it a no-brainer.  Not bad for a card you weren't even sure existed.

Anyone else have any run-ins with the chaos of Fleer's dying days?

Oh, This Thing

Everybody handles stress differently.  Some rise to the occasion.  Others wilt under the pressure.  Me?  I'm a procrastinator.  And while I consider myself pretty good at coming through in the clutch, when there are also less urgent things doing on I tend to...well, ignore them.

And blogging sort of fell into that category for the last week.  Things have been crazy around here lately.  While I absolutely love my job, one of the drawbacks to working in the education field is that schools don't exactly work on a flexible calendar.

If it's not in the budget in February, you're persona non grata come September.  So you basically get to wait another full year before you try again.  So the last couple weeks were a whirlwind of driving around, meeting with school districts and trying to hammer out who was interested in working with us for next school year.  Add in the fact that PA has yet to pass the 2015 state budget (yes, you read that right), and that school districts may be shutting down since they can't make payroll and it's a heck of an adventure.

 Throw some house hunting into the mix in the free hours that remain, and yeah...I've pretty much started ignoring everything else.

 So when I had some free time this weekend while Kate was at a wedding shower, I made the most of it.  And by that, I mean I camped out in front of the computer and made baseball cards.

 Customs have increasingly become a larger part of my collecting identify.  But they've served another purpose lately.  I've tried to completely cut out any unnecessary (aka fun) purchases for the next few months until we find a house we love.  We're looking for something that has some older charm.  But that also means older...everything.  So I'm expecting that the extra funds will be needed for the less necessary but very desired renovations on this future house.  And even though I'm a low end collector, $3, $5, and $10 here and there adds up pretty easily.

 But I can't shake the collecting bug.  So I've resorted to making my own cards...you know, even more than I already did.  And while the photo paper and ink isn't free either, it's been a heck of a lot more cost effective.

 So I sat down and turned out a whopping 6 new designs today - 1964, 1988, 1992, 2006, 2007, 2008 Topps.  As frustrating as matching fonts and trying to get the look of foil just right can be, it's a bit of a stress reliever for me.

I'll be plugging away at more of my Topps Update Update sets and my quest to make my own Jack Wilson Archives set.  But in the mean time, I do have some actual baseball cards that have crept into my mailbox thanks to some great collecting friends.  Now I just need to clear my mad scientist card creating supplies off of the printer so I can actually scan them.

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.

Pirate Autograph Project: #1

For me, becoming a team collector was actually a pretty long journey.  From "everything" collector, to Jack Wilson player collector, to Pirate certified auto collector.  But the jump between having a few hundred Pirate autographs and having 16,000 Pirate cards different Pirate cards, a wall of binders, and a mess that makes Kate consider murder every so often was a big one.  And the turn that took me down that path was when I decided to start my Pirate autograph project.

Instead of just collecting a certified auto of every Pirate who had one, why not get an autograph of EVERY Pirate to every don the stylized P?  That aspect of my collection has taken a back seat in recent years, but it's still one of the most enjoyable projects I can imagine.  Because alongside autos of Stargell or McCutchen I have guys like Mario Mendoza and Don Kelly, and they're all just as important to the project.

So while I've posted additions to the Pirate autograph project here and there throughout the life of Battlin' Bucs, why not go through and show off all 586 different Pirate players whose scribble I've managed to acquire.

I've made the arbitrary start date of the project players who played post WWII, to give myself a little more manageable goals.  But at about 56% completion, there are still plenty of autographs left to track down.

And what better way to start than with my #1 guy, Jumpin' Jack Flash.  Of all the Wilson autos I have, his signature on his rookies is by far my favorite before he switches to a less intricate and more loopy signature.

Over the coming months, I hope to get around to scanning and posting all 586 (and counting) autographs, and maybe even getting back to making a little bit of a dent in the project this year.  Hope you guys enjoy following along!

Another One Off the List

It's been slow goings for my Jack Wilson collection.  The number of cards I'm still chasing just keeps shrinking (not that I'm complaining).  And those that are still left on the want list are either mind-blowingly hard to find supposedly common cards or flat out rare releases.
But I was lucky enough to snag yet another of my needs from Jack's last release in 2012 Topps Update.  And while the Topps Silk cards aren't my favorite, I'm more than happy to add yet another limited release to the collection.

Bigger is Better

I was going through the piles of stuff that cover what I used to call a desk, and realized I had missed sharing one of my favorite new additions.  During one of my recent flea market hunts, I came across a vendor who had a ton of signed photos and cards.  She had owned a memorabilia store in a mall years back, but at this point was just slowly trying to clear out inventory.  I picked up a few cards that have disappeared into one of my many boxes.  But the real finds were the signed photos.

 I'm typically not a big fan of signed photos.  Cards are easier to store and I can slide them into my binder pages for easy access.  And while I could eventually see myself getting some of my nicer photos framed, the likes of Paul Maholm or Brad Eldred aren't really wall-worthy.  Still...nostalgia!

At 3 for $10, I ended up bringing home six signed photos.  Most were backup Steelers from the mid 00's.  But there were a few gems.  The top photo is former Steelers wideout Yancey Thigpen.  Thigpen had a couple of excellent seasons for the Steelers, but his career quickly fizzled out after leaving Pittsburgh.

 And how can you not love Kordell?  He was the player every kid in my area idolized, and I proudly wore my Kordell jersey while playing backyard football with my friends.  The signature looks like it is probably from earlier in his career, which would make sense with a photo from his Slash days.

 Jim Tracy doesn't exactly give me the warm and fuzzies, doing an atrocious job with some pretty bad teams.  But...2006 All-Star jersey!  Yep, I spent $3 cuse I like pretty jerseys.  Are you surprised?

And finally, one that might actually find its way to a wall.  I have a nice pile of Jumpin Jack Flash photos, but I really like the look of this one.  And you can never go wrong with an autograph of your favorite player.

Super Friends

I've been waiting to post these for about a week.  Over this past weekend, Kate and I drove down to Baltimore for the annual Team Collectors Convention.  No, it's not quite the National.  But the group of team collectors I'm a part of try to have a get together each summer for anyone who can make it.  And at a little over four hours away, it wasn't too far of a drive for us to go check out a city that neither Kate or I had been to since our middle school days.

Better yet, it meant a chance to clean out boxes and dump a bunch of cards on their respective team collectors.  But I wanted to go a little farther.  After all, my customs have opened up a lot of new possibilities when it comes to card giving.

 Shiny, shiny possibilities.

 I held off on posting these cards until after the convention in case any of my team collector buddies read the blog.  It was fun making these customs, and experimenting with what designs and color combinations would look best with the Superfractor paper.

 As I mentioned in my last post, I tried a whiteout technique to make the image stand out that totally backfired.  And with all the packing, card pulling, and planning that needed done for the trip I decided to just go with a more basic look for the cards.  Still, I think they came out pretty well and I hope everybody enjoyed them.  Our Red Sox collector, who has a big Youk collection, even asked what set the card was from, and said he hadn't seen it before.  Then it hit him that it was a custom.

It was fun to put together a unique gift for my collecting buddies.  But let's be honest - the real reason I do these customs is to entertain myself.  And what fun would it be if I only used my newfound custom powers to do good in the world? (*insert evil laugh here*)  I had to make a few for myself as well.  This Jack Wilson is the second of what will probably be an entire run of Jumpin Jack Flash Supers.  Not that I'm compensating for the fact that I don't own a Jack Superfractor or anything...

And by far my favorite of the bunch, I absolutely love how this Clemente RC turned out.  Topps actually produced one in a reprint set last year, but from the scan I saw online I'm honestly partial to my version.  I think eventually I plan to have a full run of rookie cards for all the Pirate HoF'ers done in the Superfractor style.

I'll have a longer writeup on the TC Con later this week.  We broke a mountain of boxes, including a couple of monster pulls, and it was a great weekend just hanging around and bs'ing with a group of collectors with similar interests.

Jack and White

If you had told me 15 years ago I could buy a jersey card for $7, I might have told you that you were crazy.  If you had told me 5 years ago I would pay $7 for a jersey card, I would have told you I was crazy.  

But so is the life of the player collector.  A plain white swatch of jersey.  ...that some company decided to limit to 15 copies.  Insert rant about artificial scarcity here.  

But the really amusing part is that the card itself?  It's identical to the base card.  And the swatch, more or less, identical to the patch version.  The patch version numbered to 100.  Yep, somehow the patch is six times more rare than this plain 'ole swatch of fabric.
But with how infrequently I'm able to land new cards from the ever-shrinking list of Jack cards I need, I was happy to overpay to land this guy.  It's the only copy I recall seeing for sale, and it's not like people are rushing to ebay to dump their really rare plain white jersey swatches of middle infielders not named Vizquel these days.  But as for me?  I couldn't be happier with my plain white swatch of cloth.

Custom Creations

I've stalled out a bit on the custom making lately, but took some time this weekend to cross another one off my list of having a Jack Wilson card from each year of Topps cards.

Eventually I'm hoping to transfer this little Topps Archives project to one of the fancier processes I've been messing around with.  But for now I'm happy with the way this one came together.  It's tough to capture the spirit of many of the early Topps designs, since many used posed shots that just aren't as readily available as action photos.

Surprise, Surprise

See if this one sounds familiar:

You collect a player.  Some might call it fanatically.  You have an unhealthily large percentage of the baseball cards in existence.  Of those you don't have, they are few and far between, and only rarely come up online.

And then there it is.  One you don't have.  An autograph, no less.  A low numbered autograph!  You hoist the sails, ready the cannons.  You are going into this auction will all guns blazing.  You will not go home until victory is yours.  You set an early bid to kill the BIN, just in case someone is on to your ways.  You place a second bid, the proverbial skull and crossbones saying "None shall pass alive."  You set your snipe.  You set a backup bid, sitting and ready to go in your browser, just in case some smarty pants thinks he can steal this away from you.

Ready for a bidding war, you're prepared to pay well above what the card is really "worth."  You shall not be defeated on the open seas.  

Ten seconds left.  Nothing.  A sneaky enemy waiting until the very last second to pounce.

Five seconds left.  Wait for it, wait for it.

Three.  Silence.

Two.  Here it comes.

One.  Nothing.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Next thing you know, the card is headed towards your mailbox for $.99+ shipping.  

Hmm, maybe it was a cold war...  

Crossing Another One off the List

It's rough goings right now in the world of player collectors.  Not much is catching my eye among current products, and older stock seems to have dried up.  But it's a glorious, glorious moment when I'm able to make a new addition to my Jack Wilson collection.  Playoff Prestige wasn't a set that got a lot of love, and the parallels from the sets are deceivingly difficult to come by.

Cross Another One Off the Want List

My Jack Wilson pickups are few and far between these days.  I struck out finding any cards I needed at the National, and most of my needs are either high numbered parallels that never surface, or low numbered stuff that...never surfaces.

But I was lucky enough to snag a new addition the other week.  These Heritage Box Toppers aren't the flashiest of cards.  Heck, I don't even know if they'd really be considered cards at all.  But this is only the second time I have seen one of these (the other being an insanely overpriced copy on COMC), so I wasn't going to let it pass me by.

While the front of the card is identical to the 2009 Topps Heritage base card, the back contains advertising text for the set rather than the usual back.  I wouldn't mind finding a second copy to hand cut the cards and slot the Jack into my binder.  But for the time being I'm just happy to cross one more card off my list.

Regrets, I've Had a Few

I made an interesting little discovery today while browsing COMC.  They added a new feature at the bottom of the left hand navigation bar allowing users to search for "sold out items."  This is obviously a big step in their move towards offering comprehensive pricing.  But what does it mean for me?

It means I missed out on some really hard to find Jack Wilson cards, mostly at dirt cheap prices.  I came across about half a dozen cards that I haven't seen before, mostly numbered between 50-200.  The real kick in the junk?  None of them sold for more than $5, most well below that. 

I started using COMC around late 2010 or so, my first real splurge in grad school.  I've been pretty diligent about checking the site regularly since then.  But I'm sure a few of these either sold before I found out about the site, or may have been gobbled up quickly after going live.

Either way, it's a bit of a bummer since my Jumpin' Jack Flash additions are few and far between these days.  Hopefully the National will yield a find or two.

Team Set Singles: The Bane of Player Collectors

One of the more irritating common needs from my Jack Wilson collection is the array of Topps Team Set singles from various years.  I've snagged a few here and there, including a Mariners team set that she surprised me with during her time living in Seattle.

But in general, I find it tough to justify paying a few bucks for what amounts to an over-glorified base card, particularly when the team set card contains the same photo as the Flagship card.  But I'm a little more willing to make an exception if the photo is unique.  It's almost like a different card entirely, rather than just the same ole same ole with a different number on the back.

I was doing some late night ebay browsing the other night and doing my regular Jack Wilson search.  Right at the top of the newly listed auctions was this guy, at a very cheap BIN price.

The card is from the 2010 Mariners team set, and is a card that I can't remember seeing before, even at an insanely high BIN price.  For a little over $1 delivered, I couldn't hit the BIN fast enough.

While it isn't the greatest photo, and actually pales to the photo on the Flagship card from that year, it's one of only a few M's cards that featured Jack.

Regular 2010 Topps Jack Wilson

The real crazy thing?  I'm more excited about this new pickup than any auto or insert I've added to my collection in recent months.  The team collector in me may never be satisfied, but the 13 year old player collector in me couldn't be happier.

Throwing the Budget Out with the Bathwater

Any regular readers know that when it comes to collecting I'm a bit thrifty.  Thrifty.  Stretching the budget.  Frugal.  Fiscally responsible.  Yep, those are the terms I prefer.  Kate has a different verb: cheap.

And to be truthful, there are few things I enjoy as much as digging through dime boxes.  But sometimes life gives you a large room full of sports memorabilia.  And sometimes, just sometimes, when things fall just right you find a dealer or two who are selling mindblowingly amazing items at great prices.  And as they say "when life gives you fantastic prices on sports memorabilia, make financially questionable decisions."

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to break up the posts of my haul from this past weekend.  Honestly, a few posts of some baseball cards won't even tell half the story.  Oddball memorabilia.  Action figures.  Bobbleheads.  And high end sports memorabilia that would be worthy of any man-cave.  My dime box finds are getting left in the dust this week.

 The show started pretty innocently Friday afternoon.  I got there right around the time doors opened, and immediately followed my usual show process of scoping out the room and prioritizing deeply discounted and modern tables.  It yielded early successes, including some heavily discounted vintage cards.  I'll get back to that stuff later, though.  After hitting all my "target" tables, I wandered around to see what I may have overlooked.

I noticed a dealer with two monster boxes of Pirate cards that hadn't been there when I first scanned his isle a few hours earlier.  It happens - deals are made, items are flipped, and new inventory is put out throughout the weekend.  The boxes looked like a lot of overproduction wax, but I figured I'd at least ask a price.  In a thick Bostonian accent, the dealer replied " how about .02 a cahd."

Wait.  Two cents?  You didn't get the decimal place off there, pal?  I started my dig, pulling out about 300 cards (50 or so ended up being doubles once I got home and checked my spreadsheet).  But here's where things got good.  While I was penny box digging, this dealer was wheeling and dealing with his other customers.  The guy is an excellent salesman, and I knew he'd be trying to sell me on some more stuff once I finally came up for air from penny heaven.

What I didn't realize is that he would actually have things I would want!

Fast forward an hour and all of that pile was coming home with me, mostly at dirt cheap prices.  The guy is a dealer from Boston who deals in wholesale oddball memorabilia.   And the prices were just too cheap to pass up.  I don't even drink more often than a casual drink a few times a year...but now I'm the proud? owner of three Pirate shot glasses, including one from the 1994 All-Star game.  At a buck each, why not?  Sure, let's throw in a 94 ASG hat.  And a commemorative pin set from the early 90's?  Never saw that before.

The Red Man tobacco ad featuring Ralph Kiner is a fairly racist piece of advertising memorabilia.  The two baseballs pictured were the real gems of the day (bonus points to anyone who can correctly guess what the balls are!), but they deserve their own post down the road.  I was ready to call it a day and head home with a decent chunk of my budget for the weekend gone.  But my new friend Jim had one more trick up his sleeve.

 I had been looking to pick up a '79 World Series program for a while now, but most copies on ebay go for more than I was willing to spend.  But seeing a copy in person...the book is in great shape with pretty sharp corners and minimal wear along the binding.  And my bundle price?  Well, it came in much lower than the cover sticker.

 And then dropped some more when I saw these two.  The 1994 All-Star game program features a pull out tab with the league uniforms on it.  It's actually a really cool program, and I've been compiling a pretty nice collection of 2006 and '94 ASG memorabilia in recent months.

 But I'm saving the best for last.  While my collecting interests continue to go all over the place, at heart I'm still a player collector.  Jack Wilson will always be "my guy," and with card additions coming in few and far between, I've turned my attention to expanding my collection a bit.  I had no idea until a few months after the game that the 2006 ASG program featured the '04 and '05 Pirate representatives, Jack Wilson and Jason Bay respectively.  It's one of those oddball pieces I love to have, but I had never seen a copy in person.  The only one I had seen until Friday was one an online friend got signed at Piratefest some years ago.  Into the bundle it went!

 Heading out to the car Friday night I was seriously considering just calling it a show.  I spent a decent chunk of change, picked up some great new items, a few hundred new cards, and was more than content with my purchases.

But when I got home I found out Kate had made plans to spend Saturday to go outlet shopping with her mom and sister, figuring I would be spending the day at the show.  So go to the show I did.  And the results?  Well, you'll have to check back for those.  But let's just say I have a new centerpiece to my collection.

Game Used Gold

 My collecting habits have tailed off across the board of late.  But one of my favorite elements of my growing collection has been my array of game-worn jerseys.  I've largely focused on more unique pieces - throwback jerseys, commemorative patches, Jackie Robinson Day.

But a trip to the flea market last weekend caused me to stretch my collecting scope a bit broader.  While digging through a dime cards of one vendor I regularly buy from, I ran into a box right in front of me.  A sheet of paper on top said Pirate Jerseys - $30.

I quickly took a glance at the box, expecting to find some China knockoff jerseys or at best some jerseys of guys who left Pittsburgh that the vendor was able to score on clearance elsewhere.  I was quite surprised to find a box full of Spring Training jerseys complete with MLB hologram and decent signs of use.

I flipped through the box, but no players stood.  Lots of non-roster Spring cannon fodder - Brandon Boggs, Rick Vandenhurk, Logan Kensing.  I already have more stuff than I can display, so I figured best to just get my $5 in dime cards and be on my way.

And I did, all the way to the parking lot.  Until I made an abrupt U-turn.  These gold ST jerseys are by far one of my favorites from recent memory.  They only lasted for a couple seasons before being phased out by a black on black abomination this year.  For a mere $30 I'd be kicking myself for passing on these jerseys somewhere down the road.

Another dig through the box found the best of the bunch - Jeff Clement, who appeared in 23 games for the Bucs in 2012 late in the year.  And heck, he's only one letter off from a much more famous Pirate.  But the icing on the cake?  Clement came to the Bucs as part of the Jack Wilson trade with the Mariners, so there's a semi-valid connection there.

One jersey closer to acquiring an example of every jersey style the Bucs have worn during my lifetime.  And still a long, long way to go.

On the Road Again

Finally!  After a month-plus away, I'm back behind the wheel of my beloved blog.  The last month or so has been pretty hectic.  My hour drive each way to and from work each day has really taken a toll on me, and it feels like I've been living out of my car.  Not literally of course - my card collection would never fit. 

But stacks of paperwork, arts and crafts projects, food wrappers, and empty water bottles have made my backseat look frighteningly similar to the contents of an adopt-a-highway cleanup day.  And doing some cleaning over the weekend I discovered some long forgotten (and assumed mailed) trade packages.  I think one of them dates back to last calendar year (sorry Jeff!).  Hopefully the contents will more than make up for the sun-faded ink, long waits, and occasional pizza grease on the packages.

The flip side to some more disposable income has been...a complete and utter disinterest in collecting.  No, I'm not hanging up my toploaders.  Not by a long shot.  But there just isn't much in the hobby keeping my interest.  COMC is a gutted and unsearchable shell of itself.  While I like some of the low-mid end releases Topps has put out this year, I'm still not going to tempt restarting my wax addiction.  And new Jack Wilson additions have crept to maybe one card per quarter over the last year or two.

But that doesn't mean I've given up completely.  I had a few packages come in over my collecting lull, there were a few fantastic ebay purchases, and flea market season is getting in full swing.  So I hope you all will forgive me Houdini act for the umpteenth time and I'll jump right back into the madness.

I've bemoaned how tough it has been to find new Jack Wilson cards over the last few years countless times.  The life of a no-name player supercollector is a hard knock life, after all.  So when those big scores do come in, it isn't always through the most conventional means.  I was at home finishing up some paperwork a few weeks ago when I got a text.  It was from Brad, a Sean Burnett collector I've cyber-known for almost a decade but have never actually met in person, asking if I needed a 2005 Leaf Certified Materials Emerald Jack Wilson.  For some Jack cards I'll have to double check my master checklist - but no such need on the Mirror Emerald.  Its absence in my collection is seared into my collecting memory.

I few quick texts directed me towards a thread on Blowout's forums with the card for sale for a mere $8.  Only problem?  I didn't have a blowout account.  Or if I did, the username and password are long lost to my memory.  I quickly registered for an account, only to be informed that I would need to wait for moderator approval to actually be able to post.

The better part of the next 24 hours were spent repeatedly refreshing my email waiting for activation and refreshing the thread hoping nobody would snag what was to me the deal of the year.  Key word: to me.  In reality, I had little to worry about.  When my account was finally approved, there wasn't even so much as a nibble on the Wilson - a card that I would have gladly bid significantly more than $8 for on ebay.

The LCM sets are among my favorites (though I'm partial to Jack's '03 card over the '05), and the Mirror Emeralds are tough finds at only 5 copies.  I believe I recall one or two collectors working on the set around the original release date, so the cards are particularly scarce.  I don't think I have ever seen the '05 Emerald previously.

Hopefully it won't be another month until my next post!