On the Road to Pittsburgh : Card Purchases in the Steel City

 

I promise this will be the last one of these types blog posts for a bit.

            These look-what-I-got blog posts.

            But…HEY…LOOK WHAT I GOT!

            I kid.

            But over the last weekend, I got to go home and visit family, see a Pirates game, and, oh, yeah, do a little bit of card shopping at my favorite flea market and antique store. This blog post was supposes to have been about a combined trip to Buffalo AND Pittsburgh…but let’s just say that COVID-19 isn’t do with us yet.

            Buffalo will happen.

            First things first, my awesome brother gave me this.

            Just straight up gave it to me.

            I’m not an autograph collector…except in certain circumstances. And Pirates players from my childhood ARE those circumstances. Especially ones that I actively collect like I do with Dave Parker.

            On Sunday, Mother’s Day, I was up bright and early to hit my favorite Flea Market, Rossi’s, in the North Versailles suburb of Pittsburgh. Rossi’s has three main card dealers that I like to…um…deal with. If you read last week’s blog post, then you know I’m shifting gears into over-drive collecting cards from Pittsburgh major sports team. And there’s no shortage of Pittsburgh sports team collectibles at a Pittsburgh flea market

            The first vendor I went to had a big ol’ box of Pittsburgh Pirates cards from the 1950s on up to the 2020s for me to sift through. It was the kind of box a Pirates collector would want to buy en masse. And I probably should’ve taken the opportunity to have purchased some cards from the 50s and early 60s. But I had an agenda. And that agenda was to begin adding cards to my personal collection of Buccos.

            I added a few cards to my Manny Sanguillen collection.

            And my Andrew McCutchen collection.

            This vendor even had a 2021 BL Ke’Bryan Hayes rookie card. The first of any of the 2021 BL Cards that I’ve purchased.

            The next card vendor I went to is probably my favorite at the flea market. Not only does he have a large assortment of Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins cards, he has big bins of $1 cards, and three humongous boxes of 10-cent Pirates, Steelers and Penguins cards. I spent to bulk of my time sifting through the Pirates ten-cent box and came up with these.

            Some Tony Pena anyone?

            How about a little Teke?

            Omar Moreno your cup of tea?

            Got my fill of The Candyman.

            And the Hitman.

            Including his rookie card. 

            My lone Bill Madlock purchase.

            Then there were these guys.

            Yeah…I know…Dodgers cards. But these are Dodgers cards in name only. Sid Bream and R.J. Reynolds were major contributors to helping bring the Pittsburgh Baseball Club back to its winning ways in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I was a huge fan of both, so naturally I wanted their rookie cards. The vendor saw fit to include them in a 10-cent Pittsburgh Pirate box. So….

            And, no, we’re not going to talk about Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.

            Fun Fact: Sid Bream and R.J. Reynolds were traded to the Pirates for Bill Madlock.

            In my worldview…if you come across 10-cent Bobby Bonilla Rookie cards and XRCs…you buy them.

            So I did.

            And some other Bobby Bo cards as well.

            Let’s not forget Mr. Andy Van Slyke, the best centerfielder I’ve ever seen play the game.

            And while we’re reminiscing on the 1986-1992 Pirates, I grabbed myself some cheap-o 1993 Topps Jose Lind and Bob Walk cards as well.

            Not bad so far?

            But…but…

            Every team has a dark history. A period they’d rather forget. For me, that would be the 1993-2012 Pittsburgh Pirates. Twenty full years of losing seasons. To put that in perspective that era includes Barry Bonds leaving and Andrew McCutchen arriving. Let’s just say I watched a lot of bad baseball during that era. And I tend not to appreciate or really acknowledge the players I rooted for during that length of time, especially from 1993-2002, before I moved from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn, New York.

            But history is history, right?

            And time heals wounds.

            So, I’ve started thinking about players from that losing era I want to collect.

            I found these two guys in that 10-cent box.

            To be honest, it was nice to sit back and think about that time. Not the losing. But the hope that was always there.

            The hope that arrived with Andrew McCutchen.

            And these two guys.

            Yeah, Pedro Alvarez probably deserves his 10-cent status. Overall, he was a bust for the Pirates. But for a small window…man, he felt like the second coming of Willie Stargell.

            And this guy felt like the second coming of Dave Parker...but the Pirates traded him away.

The last thing I found via this vendor was this.

            I mentioned last week about collecting Steve Blass cards. Well, the 1965 card is his rookie card. To me, that was an amazing find for $3. In fact, when I brough my 10-cent haul and my Mr. Blass card up to the guy running the joint; he only charged me $3 for the whole lot. So, I paid for Blass card and every else was…free?

            Or else I was doing him a favor.

            The last vendor at Rossi’s is guy I’ve been going to, to complete some sets. He has a lot of boxes of commons from various Topps years. The last time I was in he helped me with my 1980 Topps set. This time I was looking to put a dent in my 1981 Topps set. Thankfully, the vendor had some 1981 Topps.

            Sadly, they were all out of order so picking through was kind of impossible. Thankfully, he was willing to sell me his whole lot of cards for a reasonable price. That means this weekend, I’ll be going through the cards and plugging in my missing spots.

            I’ll also be going through these bad boys.

            Found a 500-card lot of 1981 Fleer cards at The Hub, my favorite antique store, also located in the North Versailles suburb of Pittsburgh. I know I’ve been ragging on my set building here as of late. But you can’t look a cheap 500-card lot of Fleer in the face and walk away. So I bought them. And I’m going to make the set. Looking through the box, there are some doubles. But if I can get 200-300 cards into the set I’ll call it a success.

            I also came across this.

            It’s in pristine condition and there isn’t a single sticker in there.

            But I want there to be.

            I’m thinking of getting myself a box of 1981 Topps Stickers and putting the album together. That said, I am worried that, due to age, the stickers won’t stick. But, because I’m a part of the greatest and most helpful hobby in the world, I reached out on Twitter to some fellow collectors, and they were all kind enough to give me ideas on how to make this sticker book work even if the stickers don’t stick right.

            Thanks to all of you for that.

            If I build the 1981 sticker set, I’ll post updates here on the blog.

            Finally, no trip to Pittsburgh should ever happen without a trip to this place.

            Hands down the most beautiful Major League Ballpark in the country.

            Yeah...I know…I’m biased.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

 

NEXT FRIDAY:  Like I said, enough with the show-and-tell. Let's travel somewhere, shall we? Or should I rank something? Yeah....let's do that! I'm going to go over my head and rank Topps 1970s baseball cards from what I feel are best to worst. I know, I know...it's been done. But not by me! 

           

 

Coming Out of the Abyss : A Collector Begins to See the Light

 

So…

            I did one of those things.

            You know those things some collectors do?

            I’ll start from the beginning.

            Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote a blog post here saying that me and Topps Heritage cards were breaking up again? No…no…I didn’t break down an buy a hobby box of Heritage after all. Although I still don’t trust myself. I did receive a fat pack of them for my birthday, though. Thanks monkey! I even got an Acuna, Tatis Jr. and another Oneil Cruz rookie card in the same pack.

            Not too shabby.

            What I did is…you know those collectors, right? The ones who don’t buy the hobby box but then go on Twitter etc., and show you all of the cards that they bought for the same cost as said hobby box, and how much happier they are with that purchase?

            Those guys.

            Yeah…I’m going to be one of those guys this week.

            Look, I might’ve said I was breaking up with Topps Heritage. But I didn’t say I was going to not spend the money that I would’ve spent. That would be silly! Instead I decided to take the equivalent (or around their) and put them to some purchases that I really wanted and had been longing to make. At the time, Heritage presale hobby boxes were going for around $101.00. So, I used that number and factored in the $12 shipping that I’m usually hit with when I buy hobby boxes online. That gave me a foundation of $112.00 to work with.

            Let’s see how I did.

            I’m not one to beat around the bush, so here’s the big fish first.

            Pretty cool, huh?

            I’ve wanted a 1966 Roberto Clemente since I was a kid. I don’t remember what year it was buy Topps gave out a promotion at MLB games that was a booklet showing you teams base cards from every year Topps had produced them up to that time. On the cover of the booklet for the Pirates they used the 1966 Roberto Clemente card. I’d obviously seen the card before at card shows but seeing it on that cover made me really want the card for my collection.

            Fast forward some 35+ years later…

            And it’s in not too bad of shape.

            Or what I call affordable shape.

            The next thing I did was fill in some gaps I had for a few Pirates that I collect.

            Added some Al Oliver cards to the collection.

            Some Manny Sanguillen cards…including his awesome 1968 Topps rookie cards.

            And I added some cards for Ed Ott.

            In fact, between this and what I already had, I think I now have all of Ed Ott’s Topps Pirates base cards.

            And…yes…I’m aware that the toploaders are probably worth more than the Ed Ott cards themselves.

            I made sure to finally get myself the 1982 Topps Traded solo rookie card of Johnny Ray, who was my favorite Bucco from 1982 until he was traded to the Angels in 1987, and my world became about Bobby Bonilla.

            If you were a kid in Pittsburgh when you were my age, you were probably aware of how amazing Steve Blass was in the 1971 World Series. You were also probably aware of the fact that just a few seasons later, Blass found it next to impossible to throw a strike and was out of baseball before the end of the 1974 season. If you were a kid in Pittsburgh when you were my age, you knew Steve Blass as the funny, informative color man on Pirates TV and radio broadcasts from 1983 to 2019. A Pirate with 60 years in the organization and the announced inaugural member of the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame.

            Yet I didn’t have a single card of his in my collection.

            Well…I changed that.

            And I also added some rookie cards to some Pirates who had a real impact on those playoffs bound 2013-2015 teams.

            And let me introduce you to the founding set of cards for my, and I promise, promise, promise Pittsburgh Penguins ONLY Hockey card collection.  Anyone who’s read THIS blog post will question my sanity.

            And, of course, because I like it when players appear on designs that they shouldn’t have been initially on…I had to get these two.

            That said, had Fleer been allowed to produce the entirety of their 1963 set, Willie Stargell could feasibly been a part of it.

            That Bobby Bo card is the first one I have of him in a Dodgers uniform.

            And then there’s this card.

            A long while ago I wrote a blog post on Curt Roberts who is often, even officially by the Pittsburgh Pirates, listed as the first Black player in Pirates team history. BUT…and there’s a BIG but here...that distinction could very well go to Carlos Bernier. Bernier, a player from Puerto Rico, played one season, 1953, in Pittsburgh. Because he was of Puerto Rican descent, the Pirates did not consider him either white or Black. Although, it should be noted, Carlos Bernier considering himself to be Black.

            That being said…look, Charles F. Faber at SABR can do a MUCH better job with this than I can.

            I got Carlos’ card, one I could afford, and the ONLY original era Bowman cards (1954) that I currently have in my collection, because I wanted to celebrate both him and Curt Roberts, whose cards I did previously have in my collection.

            Last but not least…I went outside my Pittsburgh box once…I present to you Mr. Dick Allen.

            I recently finished reading Mitchell Nathanson’s fantastic bio on Dick, God Almighty Hisself: The Life and Legacy ofDick Allen, and found myself enthralled with the man depicted in the book. Let’s just say Dick was a true original in baseball during an era when an original was hard to come by. And he was his own man. Back when we were kids, Dick Allen was the type of older player whose cards some of us actually had because they were affordable. When I got back into collecting, I knew that I wanted Dick’s cards in my collection. Most of what I had previously were the cards from the tail end of his career. This is the first time I’ve ever had anything of his from the 1960s, and Allen’s tumultuous, and believe me when I say tumultuous time in Philadelphia.

            So…was it worth it?

            Buying these cards instead of that Heritage hobby box?

            100% yes.

            In a more direct way, buying these cards, Dick Allen cards aside (although he is from a small town less than 100 miles from Pittsburgh), has helped sharpen my focus as to where I want my collection to go. And that’s…well…home. Pittsburgh. I could feel it happening slightly. I tend to write on here about Pittsburgh players. A lot of my card examples are Pirates and Steelers. Building sets is one thing. Or not building sets if you read my post last week. Building on history is another.

            What I’m trying to say is I want my card collection to focus more on the teams from the city of my youth. The place I still call home. Pittsburgh. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this ComC purchase reflected exactly that. I’ve been thinking an awful lot about this. And instead of building sets, save a few, I’m going to be focusing my collection on all things Black and Gold. Putting together team sets from years gone by. Putting together a PC of Pirates, Steelers, and I guess now, Penguins players who’ve meant something to me. And Not just the Clementes, Stargells, Bradshaws, and Mario Lemiuexs. But players like Ed Ott. Johnny Ray.

            Maybe even this guy.

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

NEXT FRIDAY: I'm going to add some fuel to this week's fire....Pittsburgh sport team card pick ups from my trip to Pittsburgh and other Pittsburgh sports related goodies!

Into the Abyss : A Collector Sifts Through the Darkness

 

You remember being young, right?

            A young collector?

            If you weren’t a young collector, don’t worry, this blog post will probably relate to you too.

            But do you remember? Being young? Being a young collector. Finding packs of cards nearly everywhere you went. Racing into your local LCS. The card shows that seemed to happen almost weekly. Ripping endless packs of wax. Even if you didn’t have much in the way of money, you could still build a collection because the cards were so damned cheap back then.

            Try and remember.

As I’m getting older, I feel like I remember more about being young. Like time is more elastic now than it’s ever been. It could be the fact that I’m starting to look back more than I am looking ahead. Which isn’t necessarily healthy, mind you. Or it could be the fact that I’ve spent the last three years of my life reengaging with a hobby that was very, very important to me from the ages of 6-18.

            6-18 seems a long time.

            But it isn’t.

            36-48 is the same span of time.

            36 feels like it happened yesterday.

            Ugh…enough staring into the abyss!

            There’s a point here and the point is…I’m confused. Or the kid collector in me has finally confounded the more responsible adult collector. The kid has taken control of the collecting, and has run amuck. The kid is ripping wax left and right, old wax, new wax, while the adult collector is standing in the doorway saying, um, um, um…something has to be done about all of this!

            It’s like there’s a great divide that takes place between the past and present.

            Something split that exists inside of me.

            First, I present the card area.

            Then I present my case.

            Yes, on the surface, this just looks like a part of somebody’s collection. Some sets he’s put together. Some sets he’s working on. Some sets he's bought. But look deeper. 1991 Fleer? 1988 Donruss? 1988 Fleer? 1989 Score? WTFF?

            I promise I’m not here to slag off Junk Wax.

            I frickin’ love Junk Wax.

           (is 1986 Junk Wax.? The eternal question)

            (and notice I didn't say book about 1989 Donruss)

             But…

            You see, when I was a kid, I collected three ways. One, I had the star cards and the cards of the players I liked. Two, I had my Pittsburgh Pirates cards. Three, everything else that went into some random boxes, placed in the closet in my room, not to be seen again until next baseball season when I began the process of sorting that year’s product.

            I was not a set builder as a kid.

            I only ever put together 1988 Topps.

            As an adult, at times, I feel like a reluctant set builder.

            That’s because adult collector in me feels that I have to be more responsible. Sure, I found a wax box of 1991 Fleer for ten bucks. Sure, I found a rack box of 1989 Score for twenty bucks. Good deals for some cheap thrills, right? And boy were they fun to sit there and rip through! But the adult collector in me says that something has to be done about this fun. The adult collector is the conscience to the kid collector’s ego and ID. Can’t just rip this stuff, grab the cards I want, grab my Pirates, and then shove all of the rest into a random box.

            I can’t.

            Can I?

            So, I build sets.

            Or I put these cards into set order, in boxes, and then don’t think about them again.

            I’m 20 cards away from finishing 1988 Score

            I’m 54 cards away from finishing 1988 Fleer.

            I’m 63 cards away from finishing 1989 Score.

            …And I don’t know if I even want to.

            That’s not to say as an adult collector that I’m not a set builder. Or I’ve grown into one, happily, if it’s the right product. I’ve built Topps set from 1984-1992 since I’ve been back in The Hobby. 

I’m one card (Damn you John Elway rookie) away from finishing the 1984 Topps football set. 

            I’ve built the 1987 Donruss set, and I can wait to finish the 1987 Fleer baseball set. I’m still a bit away from finishing 1980 and 1981 Topps baseball, but somewhere down the road I know I’ll be putting the finishing touches on them as well.

            I even bought a 1982 and 1983 Topps baseball set.

            But these other sets?

            I guess 1991 Fleer is...nice?

            I don’t feel a pleasure in putting them together. I feel a responsibility. I’m like the guy at the end of a party who feels like he has to clean up the room, when I think about completing some of those sets. The person with intense guilt over a one-night stand. Ripping wax can’t just be about the fun. It has to be functional now as well. Christ…I wish the kid collector would take over with these sets at times. Take those white boxes. Pull the star cards. Pull the Pirates. Be done with the rest of them.

            The kid collector in me wouldn’t worry about building 1989 Score.

            But alas.

            Do any of you feel this way?

            I’ve gotten better. I don’t buy nearly as much, old or new, wax like I did three years ago. I’m starting to visualize the collection I really want (which we’ll discuss in some detail next Friday), and it’s been nice to start off in that direction. But those boxes of uncompleted sets. They’re just sitting there, taunting adult collector me. They’re with me when I’m sorting cards. They’re staring over my shoulder when I’m making a purchase on SportLots. They’ll be with me when I go to a few familiar spots in my upcoming Buffalo/Pittsburgh trip, where I’ll visit some LCS and be sure to run into their brethren.

            They’ll be waiting on me when I get back.

            Truth is, I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. It seems silly not to buy the 60+ common cards I need to complete the 1989 Score set. It seems silly to complete the 1989 Score set. Of course, the true humor in this is that it’ll ultimately cost me more to hand-collate these sets then it would’ve been to just have bought them outright.

            But that wouldn’t have been fun, right?

            The kid collector in me is still in it for the fun!

            The kid collector just wants to buy a $10 wax box of Junk Wax and rip away to his heart’s contentment, without the worries over set building and being responsible for what’ll happen to the rest of the cards.

            But the adult collector has to worry about shelf space.

            The adult collector looks at $10 differently than the kid collector.

            The adult collector is ultimately the one who’s making the decisions here.

            It…it would just be nice, sometimes at least, for someone to come along and pull the adult collector out of the room.

            Let the kid have some fun!

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

 

NEXT FRIDAY: Coming out of the abyss: A collector begins to see the light.