My first Pirates card purchase – Roberto Clemente pin card

guy88 — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:06:58 +0000

Even though I’m a relative new fan (or follower) of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I think everybody knows at least something about Roberto Clemente. Actually this isn’t my first Clemente card; my very first group break online (years ago now) netted me a Roberto Clemente bat card relic. And I sent that card along to my dad, since the patriarchs of my family always followed Clemente in years long past. So to have this card is a fitting start to any future collecting of Pirates cards, or at least Clemente cards.

This card is actually pretty cool. For a manu-patch-esque creation, this actually works for me. To me, manu-patches are inherently trying to be deceptive. This pin is artsy, but it isn’t trying to represent itself as something game used. It’s simply commemorative, and that’s ok.

I paid $15 for this card to get if off a guy at work who’s also a collector. And by the market on these cards, it’s safe to say that I got a friendly discount to the tune of 5-10 dollars in savings. The card has some theft, has a good put-together element to it and actually commemorates something worth commemorating. Win.

Rethinking busting cases

guy88 — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:28:34 +0000

It may well be said, that even as a grown man, I’ve been influenced by hype, marketing and….peer pressure. I really was going to bust an entire case of 2012 Topps Heritage to start my collection. That’s 10 boxes that only yield a single ‘hit’ a box. And Heritage is not a product that sells hits unless you get a super-rare auto.

What was I thinking? I could just as easily bust two to three boxes, and spend the rest of what I was going to use to buy up relics, autos and chrome cards – and still have money left over. I’d love to bust a case someday, but only if the product makes sense. Heritage doesn’t make sense to bust a whole case. Again, what the hell was I thinking?

It’s ok though. I’ve come to my senses. And I have to say, it feels like a huge weight has been taken off of me. I didn’t realize how stressed out I was getting about busting a case of this stuff. I guess that should’ve been my first sign. There’s no way that I’m financially so far ahead that I can bust a case and eat the entire cost for just collecting. Someday I will be, but not yet.

In search of a good Sanchez

guy88 — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:13:58 +0000

In preparation to begin following a new team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, I obsessively look for a young player to follow through the ranks. In the past, I’ve followed mostly pitchers when trying my hand at “prospecting”. And what I learned is that pitchers are traded in and out in a blink of an eye – so don’t get attached to a young pitcher from your team. Secondly, I learned that prospecting is really just rookie card hoarding with the hope of a future payout. Seriously, who has the time or the space to hold on to that many prospect cards for a few years to see if these kids end up being big league ball players?

This time around, I’m looking to follow a young position player so I went to the Pirates website along with baseballprospectus.com to get a good feel for who’s coming up in the Pirates system. First thing I noticed, their most obvious stat is their DOB. I feel old now.

But in a stroke of luck, the Pirates have a young catcher coming up named Tony Sanchez. And he was born in ’88 (totally random Batum connection). Sold. Now, I’m not going to go off the deep end and start to buy up cards of this kid quite yet. I’ve yet to see him play. But I have a starting point.

Sanchez isn’t quite yet on the 40 man roster, but he’s listed on Pittsburgh’s website and Baseball Prospectus website as having an ETA for this year. With any luck, I’ll have a chance to see him play sometime this year. And let’s face it, one of the Pirates catchers is Rob Barajas who turns 37 this year. I’m actually guessing I will get to see young Tony this year.

But being the kind of person that I am, I had to go luck up a few cards of his just to see where the market stands. Actually his stuff is pretty affordable. Hell, if it’s this low now, what would it hurt to snag a card or two?

Man, I am ready for baseball to start.

Obsessive Rec begins anew

guy88 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:47:44 +0000

This article really should’ve been put together on January 1st. You know, new year and all. But I put this back a couple of weeks to make sure that I had a good idea of what I wanted to do in this site. In case you’re wondering why this is different all of a sudden, you may want to look at the previous post. What’s old is now done, and I’m now looking to take this in a direction that I’ve wanted to go in for a very long time.

Without copying my “About this site” space verbatim, I’ll just say that I’m ready to take on baseball with a very concentrated hobby and personal effort. My life is at its most enjoyable when I’m fully embracing baseball. It sounds odd, but a good summer of family, cookouts and baseball is the pinnacle of success for me. Sure, there isn’t a bigger Nic Batum fan than me. You’d be hard pressed to find a bigger stateside Everton honk than me. But when push comes to shove, I HAVE to have baseball in my life.

And since my beloved AAA Portland Beavers have been taken out from beneath me, I’ve had to look elsewhere for my baseball needs. And I’ve landed on my crazy connection with the city of Pittsburgh to round out a sporting trifecta. Whether my kids know it or not – or whether they’re old enough to understand it or not – I’m going to be fostering some Pirates fandom in this house. They’re already watching Steelers ball and Penguins hockey with me. Hell, I think the four year-old might think we actually live in a place called Portland Pittsburgh. Transitioning to Pirates baseball should be easy.

I’m in the prime of my life, and I’ve never lived in a big league MLB market. It’s time to settle down and grow with a team.

And how better to do that than with a good old fashioned card collection? This will be the summer of 2012 Heritage baseball. And in the offseason, I imagine I’ll be taking a good hard look at starting a 1963 Topps collection. And I plan on really integrating baseball into my life. I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines.

In addition to collecting, I’m going to drop some weight and really get to the batting cages so that by next year, I’ll be able to join a soft ball league – I’ve tentatively title this endeavor Operation: Soft Balls.

Really, I’m good at this blogging thing. I can’t get away from it. So my goals are really pretty simple for my 30′s – build sports card sets and play ball. And raise some kids. Hopefully people will continue to tune into my crazy little blogs. Obsessive Rec is once again open for business.

Obsessive Rec bids adieu

guy88 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:24:17 +0000

I leave this post here as a link to what Obsessive Rec used to be. This blog space was used once upon a time for comic book nerdiness. TJ and I had a good summer of blogging on this space.

And do you know what we learned? A couple of things actually. First of all, comic books aren’t as popular in blogging communities as sports cards are. Cultivating an audience was really hard to do. Could more have been done to further our blogging agenda? Maybe. But comics are limited in that they don’t have inherent investing value. Really, all that happens with comics is that people like to chime in on storylines once in a while, but there isn’t the additional factors that cards bring to drum up more interest.

Cards, by nature, are meant to be traded, given and sold. Comics are pretty singular in what they’re used for. But that’s ok. We tried. TJ has a kid on the way (serious congratulations, by the way) and I had to scale my comic books back to only 10 titles a month – not really ideal conditions to foster a strong blog presence.

So there you go, that’s where the blog used to be. Now, I’m taking it in a different direction. I’ll still have my comics in the closet that I add every week, but I’ll save those conversations for twitter.