Toys R Us purples

For the better part of the past decade the retail exclusive parallels have been known as fun ways to draw the hobby to the masses.  Sometimes these exclusives are so rare that go for mega bucks.  Look up the 2011 Topps Update Target Red Mike Trout for proof.

One color parallel that will likely no longer be a retail exclusive is the Toys R Us purples.  With this 2018 Opening Day purple, it's safe to say this will be the final Toys R Us purple exclusive of Andrew McCutchen in a Pirates uniform I will be adding.

I think in the coming years player collectors will have a hard time tracking down the TRU purples and they could command a big buck for star players especially rookie years. 

Green & Grey: Protecting You From Overpaying if Framed

While browsing for new Andrew McCutchen cards for the PC I came across 2 eBay auctions with very low BIN prices.  After flipping through my pages and double checking my spreadsheet I in fact was missing these two framed parallels from 2017 Diamond Kings.

I present to you Grey & Green.

Sounds like a law firm.
"If you've been framed, Grey and Green can help."

Fortunately this collection didn't cause me to overpay as I acquired them for $4 shipped.

There are 9 different parallels to chase of Cutch's 2017 Diamond Kings release.  6 are framed color parallels with red (/99), brown (/49), blue (/5), and black (1/1) being the numbered variety.  The grey and green parallels you see above are not numbered.  I have the blue brown and red frames also, but will likely never get the black frame (1/1) as it has been sold to another collector already. 

Stadium Club Fails

Stadium Club has long been known for having the best photography for cardboard.

However Andrew McCutchen's Stadium Club cards in the past have been rather dull.  I know that Matt from BobWalkThePlank will agree.

Rather than using an image like this

Or something like this

Or even this

Topps has used these photos for Cutch's cards in the past few years (images taken from google since I am away unable to do scans today)

I am not sure what image Topps will use for his first Giants Stadium Club card, but if it's not from this moment I will sure be upset.

What are some of your favorite Stadium Club cards of your favorite player?

Remember The Past, Honor The Living

Remember The Past,
Honor The Living!

Today many Americans will welcome in the summer with parties and bbqs, but it's important to remember what this holiday truly means.

Alejandro Villanueva did a segment for Sportscenter that summarized it perfectly.  Click here for the article and video.

Custom 1/1 Team USA

I have no artistic bones in my body. 
This leads me to sometimes overpay for things I consider are innovative and artistic.

Such was this case with this triple custom card featuring autographs of Adam Jomes, Christian Yelich, and Andrew McCutchen. 

I have a few Adam Jones autographs as he is a great role model and a very consistent ball player.  I have almost 150 certified autographs of Cutch, but didn't have an autograph of Christian Yelich.

One of my dream cards would be to have a booklet containing all the autographs of the 2017 WBC Championship Team USA.  Autographs of Cutch, Buster Posey, Nolan Arenado, Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Adam Jones, Eric Hosmer, Paul Goldschmidt, Alex Bregman, Ian Kinsler, Chris Archer, Andrew Miller, Brandon Crawford, Marcus Stroman, and the list goes on and on would be incredible for the collection.

The concept for this card was greater than the execution and had it not been so cheap after eBay bucks I wouldn't have even thought about it. 

From a distance it looks cool.  Up close....not so much.

Cardboard Cameos #9: Murcia!!!

Some supercollectors collect cardboard that features their player mentioned somewhere on the card.  Checklists, mentions on the back, a fan sign in the stands, etc.

Well, I am not that far into super collecting yet, but I did notice that one of my favorite current Pirates players, Felipe Rivero, now Felipe Vazquez, got an Andrew McCutchen quote on the back of his 2018 Topps card.

No heartbeat!

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Murcia!!!!

TEAM USA RELICS!

It's Memorial Day weekend and to celebrate I will be showing off some cards that represent the holiday in my eyes.

Up first is a blue parallel from 2017 Triple Threads numbered 3/3 (eBay 1/1)

I have previously shown off some of the other parallels on this blog, but the blue (sapphire) parallel really brings home the Americana feel to the cardboard.

Gold numbered 2/9

Emerald numbered 4/18


I still need the ruby 1/1 along with the /27 and /36 parallels for this particular rainbow.

Card #2,222: A New Milestone

Andrew McCutchen has over 4,000 cards produced including 1/1s and a bunch of Just Minors sticker autographs.  While I have been knocking out a few of the Just Minors, I am still very far away from collecting all those 1/1s.  There's just waaaaaaay too many printing plates to chase.  On top of it, Topps has wisely begun producimg cards of different sizes for the player collectors to try and chase down.  It's no longer about having the standard size cards.  Beckett has checklisted all the 5x7s, 10x16s, and mini size cards that Topps offers through their online shop.

To put into perspective how insane the sheer amount of parallels has gotten in recent years, 24 year old Tyler Glasnow has nearly 1,700 cards produced.  He has pitched 109 innings with a 6.52 ERA.

I will never collect 100% of all the Cutch cards, but when I can look at multiple pages on eBay or COMC that aren't 1/1s and say I have them I feel I have done a good job of Collecting Cutch.

Since arriving to the majors in June 2009, Cutch has worn #22 so I am proud to show off my 2,222nd unique card of Cutch.

I am a big fan of the 2017 Definitive release.  Every card has an MLB authentication sticker so you can research the game the jersey was used.

In addition, the design is just beautifully crafted.  The textured layers of purple background on this particular card numbered 2/5 really make the card pop.

Big Patch!!!

What's this?

Just another 1/1 colossal patch of the 2013 NL MVP

No big deal

1984 Produced One Of The Greatest Year of Movies

I picked up a 2018 Donruss printing plate of the 1984 design and was looking for something to link my random baseball card to pop culture.

I definitely was too young to remember these movies in the theatre, but there was some amazing movies that came out that year.  They were so good they have inspired sequels and even TV series.

Let's run through the list....

Gremlins

Karate Kid

Ghostbusters

The Terminator

With so many great franchises created in 1984, it's hard to pick a favorite.  I would have to go with Ghostbusters as I loved both the original two movies, the cartoon (both versions), and even the all female led recent movie.

That being said, if you haven't watched the first two episodes for free on youtube of the Cobra Kai series, shame on you.  What an awesome concept for a TV show and it is beautifully done.  I just can't commit to YouTube Red to watch the rest of series.


By the way I am at 196 different Cutch 1/1s.

Welcome BACK JHay

Last week I got in another new addition to the ever expanding Andrew McCutchen collection.  For a mere $30 I added an extremely rare (ONLY 10 PRODUCED) 2015 Topps Heritage Blue Back League Leaders card.

The card looks identical on the front

But the back features a blue back

Compared to the standard base color

With so many Heritage completists out there and the fact this card features 3 players, I wasn't sure if I would have to wait another 3 years or more before one resurfaced again.

It's good to have JHay back in the lineup.

2018 Topps Update First Look

An early preview of 2018 Topps Update was revealed yesterday.  As a Cutch collector, I suspect that there will be lots of goodies to chase in that upcoming release.

Early previews show the gold parallel of Cutch's Giants flagship debut in addition to a 1983 autograph, the first time Cutch has signed for Topps in several years.

I will definitely be chasing as many of these parallels as I can get my hands on.

For more info on the 2018 Topps Update release click here.

Only A Select Few Can Be Golden

The title says it all

Panini may get a lot of hate for their logoless baseball cards and the problems that football and basketball fans have towards their products, but honestly they know how to make color parallels better than anyone.

The Select product lasted just one year in their recent production of cards, but the Gold parallels are beautiful pieces of cardboard to have.

With only 25 copies produced it is extremely tough tracking these rare parallels down for the unlicensed product from 5 years ago.

Two have surfaced recently and I was lucky to make a bid for one of them.

This Day in Cutchstory: Where we're going we don't need roads

So yesterday was May 17th and I completely forgot to highlight one of those most important events in Cutchstory that can be found on cardboard.

Come with me BACK TO this post where I said in THE FUTURE, I would highlight this card.

Above is a 2018 Donruss 1984 Retro Game Day Stat Line card.  The game day stat lines are incredibly rare as they feature an extremely limited number produced based on a stat line for that game.  In this case, only 2 were produced to highlight Andrew McCutchen's 2 Stolen Bases that day.

I wrote about this great game by Cutch exactly a year ago which you can see here.

The significance of the 1984 design? Back to The Future was being filmed that year for a 1985 release date.

So now that we have traveled to the past and the future, hows the Delorean Doc?

From the back of the card I posted on May 7th 2018 referencing the events of May 17th 2017.

Flawless

Quickie for today as I didn't want to go another day without posting.

From 2016 Flawless here's the ruby parallel numbered 4/15

Cheap Tricks

First off Congrats to Cutch for his 1,500th hit last night.  I am wkorking on a big post for that this week. 


We now return to tne regular scheduled programming...


I am not very good at photoshop.

Edward Vella claims these are not photoshopped.

Others say they are.

For $6, I don't mind adding essentially what is photoshopped limited print of iconic images of Cutch to my collection.  I have a few others of his already added to the collection anyway so why not keep adding them as they pop up for that cheap.

Truth be told I would much rather add an original hand drawn sketch by Juan Rosales, Chris Henderson, Darrin Pepe, or Brian Kong anyday.

Those guys got serious skills of an artist, unlike Strongbad

A Big 1/1 Arrives

Yesterday was one of the rare occurences where I didn't have a post ready to go.  Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

While I was away in Pittsburgh over the weekend, I received a handful of packages on Friday and Saturday.  Included in the bunch were 3 new 1 of 1s.  

This one is technically my biggest 1 of 1 in my collection, a 5x7 Blue Parallel of Cutch's 2016 Topps card.

I put a standard size Topps Chrome card next to it for comparison purposes.  

The back of the card is the same as the regular issue.

Throughout the rest of this week, I will show off some of the cards I got over the weekend.  Two things I picked up this weekend will have to wait until my October Save The Boobies event I do every year.  

Where's My Auto?

Remember back in February when I found an unknown printing error for a card designed to have an autograph on it?

Well...I got another one and have been holding onto it for a few months. I think I will use today's post to recap my adventure in Pittsburgh yesterday first though.

It's a six hour drive out west and I didn't think in advance to bring my car charger for my phone.  Shortly after arriving at the stadium at 5:35, I discovered I didn't have much juice left.

That kind of stunk because as I walked towards my seats in section 109 behind the Giants Dugout I encountered a small but growing crowd of people getting autographs.

This isn't anything new for fans to try and get autographs from the visitor team.

Well....except this visitor was Andrew McCutchen.

It was getting closer to 6pm and you can tell that Cutch would have loved to sign for anyone, but he wanted to start his pregame routine.  I overheard someone say he started signing as soon as the gates opened at 5pm.

When I first started Collecting Cutch and attending Pirates games I would have been pushing my way towards the front of the line.
Not this time though.  I was letting younger fans through.  Older women trying to get stuff signed for their grandkids.  There was so many cool stories I heard about as Cutch just kept signing balls, cards, photos, hats, jerseys, bats, etc.

The joy on their faces as they got his autograph.

I didn't go to the games this weekend to try and hound for autographs.  Sure if one fell in my lap, I wouldn't complain, but as I said to Matt from BobWalkThePlank via text, I already have 160+ different things signed by him.

Cutch is a visitor now in Pittsburgh.

I thought I would treat him like a guest and let the rest of the city get an autograph for what he did to this town that forgot what good baseball looked like.

I didn't need an autograph yesterday.  I could have easily gotten one, but I felt a greater sense of joy watching others get theres.

Maybe today I will actually try.

I didn't bring many options to have signed.  A few base cards to choose from and obviously my ticket stubs.

I wish I had brought my unsigned error card from Panini's 2017 Chronicles release.  The autographed version was listed as a SSP and for good reason.  Only one of each (signed and unsigned) has hit eBay since December which I proudly own both.

 The unsigned version has a more Prizm refractor look, but both feature the same backs.

I previously showed off the autograph version in December.