(End)Game Changer?

So I saw Avengers:EndGame this morning at 2am.  I will not say anything about the movie and ask that no one reveal spoilers in the comments.

Instead I will show off some sketches of one of my favorite Superheroes, Tony Stark aka Iron Man.  About 5 years ago I got rid of all my sketch cards I had accumulated of my favorite characters: Gambit, Wolverine, Daredevil, Green Arrow, Flash, and Hawkgirl.  I held onto all my Iron Man sketch cards because...
Well you'll see below. They are ridiculously awesome.

This incredible sketch is done by comic book superstar, Jimmy Cheung, who cocreated the Young Avengers comic.  The sketch was done on Iron Man 2 stock.

I also have a pair of Iron Man sketches on Avengers: Age of Ultron stock.

There is a discussion about "character" collecting on a sketch card forum I frequent from time to time because I love looking at the artwork and it got me thinking about what character I would collect if I were to ever get back into it.  I gave it some thought and even though I love Iron Man, Flash, Gambit, Batman, Deadpool, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Wolverine, Venom, among many others I think I would probably super collect Daredevil.  Daredevil is just such a tragic character and I can relate to the man without fear thing.  Maybe I will start to look for some DD cards from old 90s sets...or maybe I will just stick to Collecting Cutch and the Pirates.

Oh and since this is a blog predominantly focused on Andrew McCutchen baseball cards here are some other heroic cards sent by a blogging hero, Gregory of The Collective Mind.

He included one of the most heroic players in Pirates history, a 1969 Bill Mazeroski.  I actually had this card, but listed it as a need on my vintage needs because mine is literally folded into quarters.  Greg stepped up in a heroic way and snagged this for me for only 3 quarters.

He also imcluded the Andrew McCutchen 2018 Update Salute card that is part of the Game Changers subseries.

Thanks Greg.  Trade package going out this weekend along with a bunch of other packages to other bloggers.

I have needed the base insert for a long time so I am ultra pumped about adding it to my collection.

I do have another Game Changer of Cutch, the signed version.

There is a red/pinkish parallel available, but I have yet to add that to the collection. Hopefully I can cross that off in the near future.

That ends the show for today. Happy Avenger Weekend to all of you planning to see the movie.

Merry Cutchmas! from my Secret Santa

It isn't often that Steelers fans and Browns fans can get along, but the joy of Christmas can bring out the best in everyone.

My secret Santa this year was Angus of the blog Dawgdaycards.

Included in the nice Christmas card he sent was also some impressive cardboard.

I waited until Christmas to open it and I was very impressed that he was able to add a Cutch card to my collection that I didn't already have.  Sweet score on that!!!

Also included were some Pirates All Time greats including a Kent Tekulve rookie card along with a sweet team card that I believe is the last team card to feature Roberto Clemente. 

A Roberto Clemente Ted Williams Etched in Stone card that I didn't own helps round this batch out.

A Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski from 1971.  Sweet!!!!

But as Angus pointed out these were printed in Canada.  Man am I happy to add this Canadian brethren to the Stargell and Maz binders. Oh Canada, Oh Canada!!!

And 4 oversized cards from Pirates alumni.

I have no idea what these are from. Anyone have any information about them?

What an awesome Christmas gift.

Lets Go Browns!!! Beat the Ravens!!!!

Secret Santa is aMAZing

My secret Santa went the vintage route in delivering me a truly aMAZing gift.

With so much focus on adding new Cutch cards to the collection and really starting to increase the number of my Clemente cards, I have completely neglected my vintage needs.

The beauty of vintage though is that for the most part, the cards will always be available to get.  You don't have to worry about missing out on that silver blue dress variant numbered to /25 copies.  If you collect vintage because of the nostalgia and not about the grades you can always find some great pieces of cardboard.

Kevin of Card Papoy hooked me up with two aMAZing cards that I needed.

Bill Mazeroski was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001 and while many question his validation of being a Hall of Fame player here is some interesting stats.

Only Roberto Alomar and Ryne Sandberg have more gold glove awards at 2B then Maz.

Sports Illustrated ranked the 1960 Walkoff HR in Game 7 of the World Series the 8th greatest moment in All Sports in their top 100 moments in sports history.

Bill James wrote an article in 205 about how elite Maz was on defense.  He truly was in a league of his own.

Now let's get to the cardboard.  Santa surprised me with two Bill Mazeroski cards.

1960 was a pretty memorable year for Maz.

1969 saw Maz on the twilight of his career, but still contributing to the team.

Thank you so much for this great gift Kevin.  I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas.

Miles From McCutchen

Mark of the many blogs Miles From Miller, The Yount Collector, The Rollie Fingers Collector, etc sent me a care package containingsome  awesome Pirates cards.

Up first the two newest Cutch cards to be added to my collection.  I still need a bunch of the parallels for this release so if anyone has them please hit me up.

Hall of Famers are always welcomed.  The Clemente I had, but the others are all new.

Next up are some current Bucs.  Because I only get the flagship Topps release each year I have been missing out on many of the other releases of Buccos.

Some former Bucs.  Jack Wilson was a defensive wizard that NEVER got the credit he deserved.

And some failed Bucs prospects

To finish off we have some color parallels.  I have never seen the unnumbered orange parallel that Neil Walker is on.  Anyone know about them?