My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 2

I know, here we go again with the Pirates. I told you when this all started that it would be obvious who my favorite team is by the end of this countdown. I can also reveal that Andrew McCutchen is my favorite Pirate. He plays the game hard and with a smile on his face. There's nothing to not like about this guy.

The Pirates selected McCutchen with the 11th pick in the first round of the 2005 MLB Draft. McCutchen finally joined the Bucs in 2009 and immediately made a huge impact. He finished fourth in the ROY voting, too low if you ask me. He's batted .286 each of his two seasons. Last year he eclipsed 30 stolen bases (33) and continued to be one of the best centerfielders in baseball.

The card pictured is his 2005 Bowman Sterling Autographed Jersey rookie graded BGS 9.5 gem mint. This card will the void in my McCutchen collection until I get one of his 2005 Topps Chrome Update Autographs.

The nice thing about collecting Pirates prospects is that their cards are always cheap. If McCutchen played for the Yankees or Red Sox you'd never be able to pick up his cards at their current levels. The bad thing about being a Pirates fan is that McCutchen could end up on the Yankees or Red Sox when he becomes a free agent. Such is life.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 3

This card may look familiar to those of you that read the blog regularly as I just picked this card up within the last two weeks. As I've already stated, I'm a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I started my Jameson Taillon collection the minute the Pirates drafted him #2 overall in the 2010 MLB Draft. The Pirates haven't had a pitcher with this kind of talent in their system in a long time.

The card pictured is his 2009 Upper Deck USA Red Autograph numbered to 25. I try to pick one of these up for every prospect that I'm investing in. I know a lot of collectors/prospectors stop buying Upper Deck USA cards as soon as a Bowman card is produced of the player their collecting/prospecting. I continue to buy the USA because the prices on the base autographs drop significantly. Give me an autographed USA card over a chrome refractor any day of the week. The fact is, if the player becomes a star, the USA cards are going to rocket back up in value.

Baseball America doesn't release their Pirates Top 10 Prospects until January 12th. I'm guessing that Taillon will top the list. From all indications the sky is the limit for this kid and I can't wait to track his progress in 2011.

My 10 Favorite Card Purchases of 2010: Number 6

When I saw this card on eBay I just knew it had to be mine. This is where I'll give away the MLB team that I'm a fan of, that's right, the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's been a tough 18 years, but things are looking up because of recent draft picks like Stetson Allie.

The Pirates took Allie in the second round of the 2010 MLB Draft and Jameson Taillon in the first round. They were the two hardest throwing right handed pitchers available in the draft. The Bucs thought so much of Allie that they gave him a 2.25 million dollar signing bonus. Amounts like that are typically reserved for first round draft picks.

This card is Allie's 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Status Autograph. Only 50 copies were made and this one is graded BGS 9.5 gem mint.

Investing in high school draft picks can take a long time to pan out, especially if it takes the player a long time to adjust to the rigors of a full minor league season. In this case, Allie plays for my favorite team so I'm not worried about this one sitting on the shelf for a few years.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent 5/22/09
Date received: 6/6/09

Dick Groat is my fifteenth TTM return from the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. Groat played fourteen seasons in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants. He also played one season in the NBA for the Fort Wayne Pistons. Groat was a two sport star at Duke University, playing basketball and baseball. He went straight to the Pirates out of college, never playing in the minor leagues.

Groat was a career .286 hitter, finishing with 2,138 hits. He was a five time All-Star and won the league MVP in 1960. Groat was also part of one of the best double play combinations of all time with Bill Mazeroski.

Well, this was really the last realistic request I had out there. I'm going to consider this project completed. The others that I'm missing will have to come from in-person signings or off of eBay. It seems like I've been doing this forever but the first request went out only 41 days ago on April 27th.

The autographs I received during that span are R.C. Stevens, Roman Mejias, Roy Face, Hal Smith, Gino Cimoli, Bennie Daniels, Dick Schofield, Bob Skinner, Danny Kravitz, Dick Groat, Bob Oldis, Bob Friend, Vern Law, Bill Virdon and Joe Gibbon. I also purchased a Rocky Nelson signed '60 Topps card on eBay.

I don't know what my next TTM project will be. I'm open to ideas if anyone wants to leave one in the comments. I'm ready for a new challenge.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent: 4/27/09
Date returned: 6/5/09

Roman Mejias is one of the requests I had out there that I was beginning to wonder if I'd get it back or not. I'm very happy to get this one back.

I've also had my George Witt and Don Gross requests out there for about the same amount of time. I don't really expect to get those back as the reported successes for those two are very low on sportscollectors.net. Hopefully I'll be able to pick those up in some other fashion.

Roman Mejias played six seasons for the Pirates, never getting more than 276 at-bats in any of those. He went to Houston in 1962 and finally got a chance to play full time. He batted a respectable .286 with 24 home runs and 76 RBI. He was the first Latin American player in Houston franchise history. In 1963 he left to play for Boston and retired after the 1964 season.

I found an incredible stat while researching Mejias' career. He's one of 336 major league players to hit 3 home runs in one game. No, that's not the incredible part. The incredible part is that he did it in 1958 when he only had 5 home runs the entire season. That has to be the lowest amount of home runs in a season for a player that had a 3 home run game.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Success

Date sent: 5/26/09
Date returned: 6/2/09

This is my thirteenth return from the 1960 Pirates. This is also another one that came back in one week or less. I actually just went back and checked the numbers, ten of the fourteen have been returned in one week or less. That's amazing.

This return is from Bob Oldis. He played in the majors from 1953-1955 and 1960-1963. He was a backup catcher that played for the Washington Senators, Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies. He amassed only 236 at-bats over his career, batting .224. He still works as a scout for the Florida Marlins.

Well, There are only five more living members of the 1960 Pirates that I need. Four of those requests have been sent. The other one, Joe Christopher, is not worth sending as he doesn't sign TTM. There's going to be a 1960 Pirates reunion in Pittsburgh next year so I'll catch him then.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Vern Law
Date sent: 5/26/09
Date returned: 6/1/09

R.C. Stevens
Date sent: 5/22/09
Date returned: 6/1/09

This are my eleventh and twelfth TTM successes in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all living members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Team. My original plan was to complete this and give it to my Dad for his birthday but it's on Wednesday. This will have to be a gift for another occasion as it's not going to be completed in time.

These two returns are from Vern Law and R.C. Stevens. Vern Law came back in less than a week. I've been impressed throughout this whole project at the speed of some of the returns. Stevens took a bit longer but still came in under two weeks. You can't ask for more than that.

R.C. Stevens only played in the majors for four seasons. His career high in at-bats was only 90. That was in his rookie season of 1958 with the Pirates. He played for the Pirates through the 1960 season and was traded to the Senators after season. He played in Washington for one season which would be his final in baseball.

Vern Law played sixteen seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates accumulating a 162-147 record. Law won the Cy Young award in 1960 going 20-9 with 18 complete games. He topped that off by going 2-0 in the World Series. Law is currently the head coach of the Provo High School varsity baseball team in Provo, UT. His son, Vance, also a former major leaguer, is head coach across the street at Brigham Young University. Law was credited with saying "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."

Hopefully I'll be reporting a few more returns in the near future.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Rocky Nelson was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1959-1961, retiring after the 1961 season. He hit a two run home run in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, later won on Bill Mazeroski's home run the bottom of the ninth.

The most amazing stat I could dig up on Nelson is that he won the Triple Crown twice (1955 and 1958) while playing in the International League. Yes, it's the minor leagues but winning the Triple Crown is quite an achievement at any level.

Rocky Nelson passed away in 2006 at the age of 81. I hadn't originally planned to try and add deceased members of the 1960 Pirates to my collection but couldn't pass up this card when I saw it on eBay.

I had a tough time when it came down to bidding on this auction. I had no idea what a card like this would be worth. It's not like you can obtain Nelson's autograph anymore. Plus, I'm only collecting these autographs on 1960 Topps cards. What are the odds that I would ever find another 1960 Topps card autographed by Rocky Nelson? How many could there possibly be?

The auction was only at $1.75 with 10 minutes left when I sat down to think about what I would pay for the card. With a couple minutes left I decided to bid $30.00 for the card. I just couldn't pass up the chance as I didn't see how another one of these would be popping up on eBay any time soon. I ended up getting the card for $6.01. I consider that a heck of a bargain for a 1960 Topps card in reasonable condition autographed by a deceased player.

I'll keep my eyes open on eBay now. Maybe I'll be able to add more cards to this collection that I didn't think I'd have the chance to.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent: 5/16/09
Date returned: 5/22/09

This is my tenth return in my quest to get 1960 Topps cards signed by all living members of the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates.

I sent three more requests today. Those went to Dick Groat, R.C. Stevens and Joe Christopher. Stevens and Christopher do not have 1960 Topps cards. I got a 1959 Topps of R.C. Stevens and a 1961 Topps of Joe Christopher.

Cards that have already been sent but have not been returned are George Witt, Don Gross and Roman Mejias.

The requests that have not been sent yet are Vern Law and Bob Oldis. I purchased those cards off eBay and they should be here any day now.

The only living player that doesn't have a card is Dick Barone. He only played one season in the majors, that was 1960. I'm not quite sure what to do for his autograph. Maybe I'll just send an index card.

CheckOutMyCards.com is worth a look

Earlier this week, Mario over at Wax Heaven posted about purchasing some cards for his Canseco collection from CheckOutMyCards.com. I joined the site about three months ago and have been meaning to post about it. Mario's post inspired me to do that.

I've purchased and sold cards on CheckOutMyCards.com. I actually started out selling cards on the site before I ever made a purchase. I'd been thinking about it for a while and initially tested it out by sending 10 vintage baseball star cards that weren't in great shape. I was quite pleased when they all sold within a week of being posted on the site. I set the prices a bit higher than what I could get on eBay and had no trouble getting it.

Since then, I have sent over 1,000 cards to be added to my account. I've sold 45% of those cards to date. I price my cards anywhere from 50% - 95% off of Beckett book value.

The beauty of CheckOutMyCards.com is the process of adding your cards to the site. You package up your cards and send them off. That's it. They scan the front and back of your card, look up the book values, add credit to your account when they sell and ship them out. It's so easy. They charge anywhere from 15 cents to 50 cents per card to add them to the site, depending how fast you want them added. Once your cards sell, you can use your credit to purchase other cards or cash out. You can request a check or a Paypal payment. They take 20% off your payout if you choose to cash out. When you consider eBay fees + Paypal fees + your time, this is not a bad deal.

The great part about this site is that you can sell cards that don't traditionally sell on eBay. True collectors seem to be a large part of the purchasers. I've noticed that I'll sell multiples of the same player to the same buyer or multiple cards from the same set. The best part is that there's no rush to sell your cards, they can just sit there until they sell.

I'm thrilled with the site so far and will continue to use it for selling and purchasing cards. In fact, I'm sending off another shipment of 150 cards tomorrow morning. I've also made a couple purchases in the past two weeks. I found some 2009 Topps Heritage SP singles that I needed and I got some 1960 Topps Pittsburgh Pirates cards for my autograph project.

Shameless plug: my cards on checkoutmycards.com

The site has a "make an offer" feature, just like eBay. Feel free to make me offers on any of my cards. The prices are low but can always go lower.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent: 4/27/09
Date returned: 5/14/09

This is my ninth return out of twelve in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all twenty surviving members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team.

Gino Cimoli came over to the Pirates in 1960 from the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, you can see he's in his Cardinals uniform on his 1960 Topps card. Gino is probably most famous for his lead-off single in the bottom of the 8th inning in game seven of the 1960 World Series. The Pirates trailed the Yankees 7-4 entering the bottom of the eight and lead 9-7 after the 8th. Cimoli's hit started the rally and he later scored on Dick Groat's single.

I just received a few more cards in the mail this week from eBay purchases so I'll be sending those out to be signed by the weekend.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent: 5/2/09
Date returned: 5/8/09

This is my eighth return out of twelve in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all twenty surviving members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team.

This return made me think about some of the posts I've seen on the sportscollectors.net bulletin boards from members that send a sharpie with their request. You can see from the picture that Danny Kravitz signed the card in ballpoint pen. It would look much nicer if it were signed in sharpie. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to get another card back regardless of what it was signed with. It just made me think that I may want to send a sharpie with future requests to see how that works out.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Well, today was another great mail day for my 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM project. I got returns from Bob Friend, Hal Smith and Bennie Daniels. I sent the Friend and Smith requests on Saturday, May 2nd and got them back today. That's a total of five days. If you recall, my returns from Roy Face, Dick Schofield and Bob Skinner also came back in 5 days. The other return I received today was from Bennie Daniels. That request took a total of 10 days to come back.

This puts me up to seven of a possible twenty autographs from the 1960 Pirates team. I still have only sent a total of twelve cards out. I have a few more cards sitting on my desk that I still have to write letters for and mail out.

The cards that are still out there are George Witt, Gino Cimoli, Danny Kravitz, Don Gross and Roman Mejias.

I'm thrilled so far with the returns from the members of this team. You'd never see this from the modern players.

Contest! Free Autographed Card

I'm going to run a contest for a free autographed Bill Virdon card. Mr. Virdon was nice enough to include an extra signed card of his with my TTM request. Since I'm only collecting signed 1960 Topps Pirates cards for this project, I figured it would be nice to send this card along to another collector that will appreciate it.

Just leave a comment below on this post to enter. The deadline will be noon tomorrow. I'll select the winner by using the random number generator at random.org and will announce the winner tomorrow night.

Good luck and thanks for reading!

Update - 1960 Pirates TTM Project

Date sent: 4/27/2009
Date returned: 5/4/2009

This is my fourth return out of twelve sent in my quest to get a signed 1960 Topps card of every living member of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates.

Bill Virdon was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1956-1965 and 1968. He was known as a premier defensive center fielder, winning a gold glove in 1962.

Virdon was also a manager in the major leagues from 1972-1984, amassing a 995-921 record. Virdon managed four different teams (Pirates, Yankees, Astros and Expos) in his managerial career. He managed those teams to the NLCS three times, losing all three times.

This was a very quick return and another key addition to my collection. I hope to report some more returns soon.

Update - 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

Date sent: 4/27/2009
Date returned: 5/2/2009

Yesterday was an awesome mail day for my 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Project. I got returns from Roy Face, Dick Schofield and Bob Skinner. I had just mailed them out on Monday of last week. How often do you send a TTM request and get in back in the same week? How often does that happen with three different players? The one that really amazed me was Bob Skinner. He lives in San Diego, CA and I'm in Alexandria, VA. He must have put the card back in the mail the same day he received it. I'm thrilled with these returns.

I mailed out seven requests on 4/27, so four of those are still out there. I sent out another five yesterday. There are twenty surviving players from the 1960 team. Sixteen of those players are highly reliable TTM signers, four of them are tough. I've sent a total of twelve cards out. I plan to get the next eight out within the next two weeks.

I still need to purchase cards of Joe Gibbon, Vern Law, Bill Mazeroski Bob Oldis and Dick Groat. There's a member on eBay that broke up a 1960 Topps set and the auctions are ending today. I plan on picking up a few of these from those auctions.

1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM Project

My father grew up in Western Pennsylvania and rooted for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He raised me to be a Pirates fan even though we lived in Northern Virginia, within one hour of Baltimore, MD. It's been tough being a Pirates fan over the last sixteen losing seasons but it will make their resurgence that much sweeter whenever that day comes.

My father always told me stories about the 1960 Pirates team when I was growing up. Most of the stories were about Roberto Clemente but the best stories were about the 1960 World Series and the Pirates' improbable victory over the New York Yankees.

The name Bill Mazeroski always brought a smile to my father's face. About 10 years ago I dragged my father to a baseball card show with me, not telling him that Mazeroski was there signing autographs. He wondered what we were standing in line so long for but understood once he could see who was sitting at the table at the end of the line. I think it's the only time in my life that I saw my father in awe of something or someone. We both got baseballs autographed and my father traded a couple of stories with Mazeroski. Mazeroski couldn't have been nicer. It was a really special moment to share with my father.

I've been sending autograph requests through the mail for a couple months now and I was running out of ideas for new requests. Last weekend it hit me. I'm going to try and get every living member of the 1960 Pirates team on their 1960 Topps cards. I checked success rates on sportscollectors.net and it seems like this is a realistic project. There are only four players with low success rates, the rest are 80% or above. There are three players that didn't have a 1960 Topps card so I'll have to find another card for them.

I'm still trying to think of ways to display this but gathering all the cards and sending out the requests is my main focus right now. Once completed, I'll give this to my father as a gift. His birthday is in June so I'm really hustling to get all the cards and get them in the mail.

I will update my successes as they come in. If anyone has any cool ideas on how to display the cards I'd love to hear them. Leave them in the comments.

Pedro Alvarez makes his debut

The top pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2008 Draft made his debut tonight for the Lynchburg Hillcats.

He went 3 for 4 including a 2B, HR and 4 RBI. That is a nice debut for one of the most highly touted hitting prospects in recent memory.

Box Score: click here