This is Blog is Now a Bryan Reyolds Fanpage

For someone who has never considered himself a collector of one specific player, I'm definitely starting to look like a Bryan Reynolds superfan. As I was preparing this post, I realized that four of the seven cards that I'm planning to show are from one player.

It got me curious to check some stats on my Reynolds collection. According to TCDB, which I update religiously, I have 23 unique Bryan Reynolds cards. I also learned that my collection ranks as the fourth largest quantity on the site. There are two other collectors with 24, and the largest collection sits at 31. As I continue to seek Reynolds cards through trade and the occasional purchase, I might be gunning for that #1 spot. 

Here are some pickups from the week, starting with TCDB trades:

Bryan Reynolds - 2016 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects

This came in from California, where a SF Giants send me this card in return for two Giants cards. This is actually the first copy the "1st Bowman" I've gotten my hands on in the "paper" version. Topps used the same image on his autograph card in the set, which I have a few of. 

(L) Mitch Keller - 2019 Topps Gallery

(R) Bryan Reynolds - 2019 Topps Gallery

For someone who buys a decent amount of retail cards, I'm a little surprised that I've never picked up any Topps Gallery. These are the first Galley cards in my collection. The artwork truly is impressive and they look great in-hand. I swapped these two cards with a Braves collector in Georgia.

Chris Archer - 2020 Topps Rainbow Foil

Stephen Strasburg - 2020 Topps Gold Parallel #/2020

These two cards have a cool story behind them. A collector in Pittsburgh contacted me on TCDB and offered the Archer rainbow foil in exchange for a handful of random basketball and baseball cards. It turns out that he's working on a project where he's putting together packs of cards of athletes from Pennsylvania. He then donates the packs to his local Ronald McDonald House, where they are added to a prize locker for teenagers. Inside the pack you'll find the cards and you'll be encouraged to log onto a website associated with the cards where you can learn about your home-state legends. 

Once I learned about the project, I offered up several more cards of PA-born athletes - names like Neil Walker and Marvin Harrison. The trader was gracious enough allow me to add in the Strasburg parallel. I feel like this card encapsulates the 2019 World Series very well. 

(L) Bryan Reynolds - 2019 Topps Gallery Autograph

(R) Bryan Reynolds - 2019 Topps Now Rookie Cup

We'll wrap up with my two eBay purchases on the week. The Topps Gallery auto is... the base card with an autographed sticker on it. Very on-brand for Topps!

The Topps Now card is the first I've ever purchased. I've never been too interested in the set although I think it's a cool idea. This particular card drew me in for a few reasons - it has print run of just 376 and it has both the RC stamp and the gold cup. Lots to love. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Mailday: Bump and Run

In April I posted about joining TCDB and how I've been having a lot of fun with it early on. I've been a member for about two months now and I've already completed eight trades. All of the trades were PWE swaps and almost all of them consist of me sending a set-builder some set needs, and them sending me Pirates rookies in return. In a nutshell, TCDB has become a way for me to hoard Pirates rookie cards via trade and I'm totally cool with that.

After seeing my April post, Trevor at Bump and Run Cards shot me a note about trading for some of my 2020 Opening Day cards. He came across me on TCDB and we worked out the trade through there, which saves us a ton of back-and-forth emailing. He helped me continue my journey in hoarding Pirates rookies but moreso helped me add to my Steelers PC.

(L) Le'Veon Bell - 2016 Score

(C) Le'Veon Bell - 2017 Panini Prestige Phenomenal Athletes Insert

(R) Le'Veon Bell - 2013 Panini Prizm RC

Lots of great to stuff to unpack from the cards above. I'm still a Le'Veon Bell fan and I still collect him. I'll admit that I was annoyed by his contract shenanigans two years ago... then Antonio Brown happened and it made Le'Veon look like saint. How quickly we forget. I was shocked to see that his Prizm rookie card was from 2013 - I can't believe that he'll be going into his seventh year in the league this year. That flew by. I think he still has some juice left in the tank but he plays for Jets, where careers go to die.

(L) T.J. Watt - 2018 Panini Rookies and Stars RC

(C) Terrel Edmunds - 2018 Donruss Elite Terrell Edmunds RC #/699

(R) Bud Dupree - 2015 Donruss RC

I picked off another three rookies from Trevor's For Trade list. While Watt and Dupree are the stars, my favorite card here is the Edmunds card. It's short printed to 699 and has a really nice foil finish to it. I'm still high on Edmunds, although after two years of mediocre-at-best performance, he's entering potential bust territory.

Trevor is the opposite of most of us: A football collector with a side collection of baseball. It seems that it's usually the other way around. Judging by these two cards, he still rips some modern baseball products and I'm happy to be on the receiving end of another pair of Pirates rookies.

Thanks for the trade, Trevor!

Anyone Familiar With SGC Grading?

We'll get to that question in a minute - first some PC adds. Over the past month or two I've spent a lot of time searching for, purchasing, and showcasing the Pirates gold refractors. While the gold has been flowing in and that's my top collecting priority, I'm also constantly on the hunt for black refractors as well.

Mitch Keller - 2019 Topps Update Silver Pack 1984 Topps Baseball Chrome Black Refractor  #/199

This came to me through through a recent PWE swap through TCDB. I must say, as a newcomer I'm really enjoying trading on the site. Even though I'm not a set builder, I'm a team collector, and I'm finding that it's a really great way to turn unwanted cards into wanted Pirates cards. The "cost" of acquiring this card was a Miguel Andujar base rookie, a 2018 Mike Trout base card and a few other commons. My trade partner also sent me two Bryan Reynolds rookie cards and another parallel that I'll highlight in a future post. This card would run me $5-$10 and chances are I would have eventually bought it - so this a big win.

(L) Cole Tucker - 2014 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Chrome Black Refractor #/75

I wish someone had this available for trade too, but the black refractor on the left is my most recent eBay pickup. Two weeks ago I spotlighted the same card but that was the gold refractor (pictured right). This is the first "black and gold" combination I've acquired. 

Gerrit Cole - 2013 Topps Chrome Black Refractor #/100

On to my SGC question.

I've been keeping my eye out for this card for a while. It's been the most difficult component of the 2013 Topps Chrome black refractor Pirates team set, which consists of four other cards - Andrew McCutchen, Russell Martin, Startling Marte, and Justin Wilson. I don't own that many graded cards. Maybe 12-15 total - but all of the ones that I own are either from BGS or PSA. In fact, I'd never even heard of SGC until I saw this card, so needless to say this is the first SGC in my collection. I wasn't searching for a graded copy. In fact, if I had my pick I would prefer this card raw, but the price on the card was the same as the raw cards have gone for. So I pulled the trigger. The condition of the card isn't of terrible importance to me in this case.

I am curious, though. I see that it is "Mint" and looks to have received a grade of 9 for *something*, but also a grade of 96. Is that a scale of 1-100? If so, what's the 9 under Mint for?

Has anyone reading ever graded with SGC? Any and all advice is appreciated...