More Party Favors

I already showed off one of the 1/1s of Cutch given out at the Transcendent Party in Las Vegas.  If you don't remember it you can click here.

Someone posted a handful of their cards aquired at the party for sale on eBay and I noticed a certain Pittsburgh Pirate in the background. I inquired about if the Cutch was for sale too and got a message back with a price.

SOLD!

You can see the close up of the 1/1 and 1-18-17 Topps Trancendent Party Logo above.

My quest for more 1/1 party favors wasn't done.
The same seller also had pulled a 2016 Sapphire 1/1 from his Silver Party Pack.
 I asked about that as well and ....

SOLD!!!!

The backs of the cards look identical to the regular versions as these are basically over priced 1/1 buybacks.

I don't think there is any more of these McCutchen cards to chase from the Topps Transcendent Party.

It's official!

Gerrit Cole has been announced as the team's Opening Day starter.  For the first time in 3 years I won't be going to see the Pirates on Opening Day, but.... I will be seeing game 2 of the 2017 season in my first trip to Fenway Park.  I am pretty excited about that.

Here is one of my older booklets of Cutch with a jumbo jersey swatch of both Cole and Cutch.  It's numbered to only 5!!!

I have a few other low numbered Cole/Cutch combo cards.

I will show them off in future starts by the Cole Train.

Ooooooh you almost had it...

I am sure everyone knows that commerical where the guy says "oooooh you almost had it. Gotta be quicker than that."

Well, after winning my most recent 1/1 bringing my total to new heights (over 120 now) I began thinking about the missing 1/1 from my collection.

This isn't the first time I have managed to grab 3 of the 4 plates.  I will show some of the other near complete printing plate runs in a future post.

In 2014 both Andrew McCutchen and Josh Harrison were competing for the batting title, but Walt Weiss, the Colorado Rockies manager was sitting Justin Morneau a lot down the stretch (he did the same thing this past year with DJ LeMehau).

I am still seeking a few of the parallels (black 1/1 plate, pink,blank back 1/1)

The back shows just how close Harrison and Cutch were.
Makes me wonder what the 2014 Pirates season would look like with Morneau at 1B all season instead of that Jones/Sanchez platoon.

A Variant of the Second Kind

Topps Heritage is my favorite release year in and year out.  It offers the vintage designs with today's stars.

Recently Topps has been producing Action Variants where the player is featured in game day action instead of a staged photograph.

Cutch has had an action variant every year starting in 2013.  I've had that for awhile.

The Black Back Venezulan variants are very tough to come by.

I can cross that off the list though.

Time to do some Laundry

I hate doing laundry. It's a fairly simple process. Put clothes. Put detergent in. Press button. Walk away.

Not that complicated.

But for some reason I despise it.

And yet, I love getting cardboard laundry tags of my favorite athlete, Andrew McCutchen.

National Treasures typically cuts up the tags into smaller pieces unlike Topps which keeps them whole as 1/1s.

I will continue to seek out the other 2 copies of this card.

The Biggest Patch I own: 1/1 Nameplate Ginter Cabinet Card

A few weeks back I hinted at something big was coming.

Well...

Here it is!

BOOM!!!!!

This oversized boxloader Nameplate card is a 1/1 that was found inside a 2016 Allen & Ginter box.

I think it lasted on eBay for less than an hour before I was able to negotiate a best offer for it.

This card easily goes into being one of my top 10 cards I own.  I don't even know how I would be able to rank my top 10. Maybe I will attempt to make a list like that at a later date.

My Newest Logoman

When Topps became the exclusive licensed trading card product of the MLB, a set was released to celebrate the partnership.

A limited number of MLB Logoman Manufactured patches were released as well. I have had the base for years, but just recently picked up the manupatch.

It looks very similar to a real logoman, but obviously feels slightly different.

Here are the manupatch and base together

And their backs.

You'll notice that it states the 50 card set highlights the top 50 players in MLB history.  Well....if that's the case, Cutch better prepare his Hall of Fame speech the minute he retires.

And here are all my authentic logoman cards that I have shown off on my previous blog, Pirates Treasure Room.  I think these 3 below are a bit better than the manufactured logoman above.

First up all three together

And their backs

Then each seperately

Prayers for Chris

Back on my old blog I showed a number of Chris Henderson sketch cards I had commissioned for the 2014 season.

It brings me great sadness in my heart to inform you all that Chris is currently battling colon cancer and will be undergoing extensive treatments to cure him of this terrible disease.

Please pray for Chris and post a comment below for God to touch him and heal him.

Thank you and God Bless!

Below are the 3 sketch cards that I have of Chris' immense talent of my favorite athlete, Andrew McCutchen.

My most recent is actually the oldest drawn of the bunch.

Hailing from 2009 is a pack inserted sketch of Cutch

Next up is a 2014 Leaf Legends of the Diamond Artist Proof that I had purchased directly from Chris back in 2015.

Finally is a PSC (personal sketchcard) that Chris drew for me back in 2014.

A New Rookie

My favorite cards like many of us who grew up collecting cards in the early 90s were Upper Deck cards.  I wish that Cutch had more than just a handful of Upper Deck cards available before they lost their license.

I have been wanting this Upper Deck rookie of Cutch for several years, but never pulled the trigger on it because it goes for more than I have ever been willing to spend.  It tends to go for $30+ on comc and eBay.

Fortunately there was one ending at an off hour that I knew I must win.

And win I did.

I am so glad I can finally cross this off the wants list.  Now if I can just add a 2009 Bowman Sterling and all of the many parallels, I will have the complete rookie run.

It's The Battle of Planets

Anyone remember the tv show Battle of The Planets, G-Force, or Gatchaman?  It was one of my favorite cartoons growing up.  Basically it was a team of teenagers (from the 70s) who had to fight an evil space race using a weapon and vehicle for support.  It lead to the sentai movement we saw in live action dubs like Power Rangers many decades later.

If you have a love for 80s cartoons like myself you should defi itely check it out.  You won't be disappointed.  Or maybe you will.  I won't take responsibility for that.  It was recently released on DVD about 5 years ago and the OVAs from the early 2000s are absolutely amazing!

Anyway, the back of my newest card reminds me of the awesomeness that was Gatchaman and seeing the Flying Phoenix blaze through the skies to defeat the enemy.

See what I mean?

It's the super rare Topps online store exclusive 2015 Topps Fire Metal hand numbered to 10.

The scan doesn't do it justice for it's Armageddon inspired design.

I'll have to show off the 5x7s in a future post because they resemble Star Wars designs.

Thank You Canada!!!!

It's not often that I come across a card that I didn't know existed, but every now and then I get surprised.

A few weeks ago, I got surprised when I saw a Canadian listing for a 2015 Topps Bunt Crossover card.  I didn't know these things existed.  Maybe it's because it was only limited to 25 copies.

If anyone can help me find more details about this card, it will be greatly appreciated.  You can see the back below.

If you know where these were inserted leave a comment.  Also let me know if there are parallels that I should be chasing.

Pleasedon't forget to enter my contest.  I only have 2 name suggestions and one person who pimped it.  I need YOUR help.

A Pair of Printing Plates Never Seen Before

I have been seeking out some more 1/1 plates of late which has lead me to find these.

To be honest, I don't know what came over me.  I'm not a huge fan of Just Minors and all of their sticker autos from 2006 to 2009.  A seller on eBay seems to have come across a large amount of inventory from the defunct company.

With such stars as Cole Hamels, Colby Rasmus, and Hunter Pence appearing on these cards at that moment I submitted a pair of best offers for the group.

Unlike other printing plates which clearly have distinct coloring between magenta, cyan, yellow, and black these Yellow and Magenta plates look oddly similar in color.

Despite not being licensed and being uncirculated printing plates these cards are still registered on Beckett, thus they count towards my new 1/1 total climbing to 121 and 122 respectively.

What's your high school picture look like?

Today in the world of Social Media it's Throwback Thursday. I find my newest Cutch to fit that perfectly.

I just got this 2017 Bowman Then & Now card which I won for $0.82.  I felt it was a worthy price to pay to add my 1,450th unique Cutch card to the collection.

The front of the card features Cutch virtually just out of high school having been drafted just a few month's prior to the card's release and comparing it to his current look.

The back of the card mentions both his Aflac Promotional Use Only card and his 2005 Bowman Draft card.

Here are the backs of the cards it references.

And here are the fronts of his first Bowman cards side by side.

In a future post I will show off some of the parallels I have of these. While I don't have any of the 1/1s I do have some of the lower numbered ones.

As a reminder, DON'T FORGET TO ENTER AND PIMP MY CONTEST.

Sorry Nic Cage, you're not in this National Treasures sequel

National Treasures, despite the lack of logos, is traditionally my favorite high end release each year. I have been fortunate to grab some nice buttons, patches, and laundry tags in past releases.

When Panini showed their designs for the 2016 version, I initially thought "meh". As the cards started to appear in my mailbox due to an uncontrollable nature of Pokemon style baseball card collecting (gotta catch them all) I began to warm up to them.

One card that caught my attention was the camo jersey & (sticker) autograph booklets numbered to 5.

The reason why I was so excited about this card in particular is that at best Cutch will have 20 autographs hit the market each year.  I'm not talking about different releases, I'm talking TOTAL autographs.  Since 2014 Cutch just doesn't sign anymore. A few sticker autographs numbered to /10 or less is the best you can hope for.

Well, I snagged the above booklet auto....

Then got this because I had placed a bid on it the same time as the best offer was submitted...

So now I have 2 of the 5 printed.  I am willing to trade one or can seek out the remaining 3.