One of the ugliest autos in my collection

One of the spots in my collection that is sorely missing is truly attempting to complete all the different autograph pairings of Andrew McCutchen in the Just Minors releases.

The 2005 Just Minors autographs feature him with the Gulf Coast Pirates and feature really ugly stickers found on the cards.

TriStar as part of their 2012 Signacuts product release acquired some of these Just Minors autographs and turned the sticker autos into cut autos.

Above is the result.  Fortunately there was only 25 cards harmed in the making of these terrible cut autographs.

I got it for $10 so it's not like it cost me a lot of money, but this is one of the ugliest cards in my Cutch PC.

It may rival this dual auto of Jason Hayward and Andrew McCutchen from the same set.  I got that card for $7.83 as you may recall from this 2017 post.

I Love This Hobby

News broke yesterday from a 2019 Topps Luminaries booklet that had 50 sticker autos of some of the game's most popular living home run hitters from the 80s to current.  Johnny Bench and Carl Yaztremzki were also on the booklet.  It was a monster hit with names like Trout, Guerrero (both them), Griffey Jr, Acuna Jr, Ortiz, Otani, and many others.  I couldn't even imagine getting a hit like that.  It is probably worth 10s of thousands of dollars.

I recently hit a pretty big booklet card myself, by my standards.
2013 Topps Five Star booklet

It is a 1 of 1

Cost me $81 delivered for a pair of players that are legends in Pittsburgh.  It is possible that Cutch gets his jersey retired post playing career and Willie has already had his jersey number retired along with getting a bronze statue built outside PNC Park.

At the time of purchase the hottest name in the hobby was Aristides Aquino, who is nicknamed the Punisher.

I am not sure if Reds collectors are just over paying, but the concept of prospects demanding such outrageous prices is mind boggling to me.

At age 25, Aristides has 40 career hits, 15 HR, no All Star Games, and 38 career RBI.

His sloppy signature isn't rare and yet people are paying more for an autographed baseball of him than a baseball signed by any living Reds Hall of Famer.  It boggles my mind!!!!

Yes, he had a hot streak in his call up, but since then he hasn't done much of anything.
His most recent 15 games he has a .236/.263/.455 line which equates to an OPS of .718.  If his recent numbers were continue for an entire season he would be the 68th best in National League and not even break the top 125 in majors.

I know the hobby is always looking forward for who the next great superstar could be and maybe one day in 20 years we could look back at Aristides numbers and be amazed by the numbers he put up playing into his late 30s, but I highly doubt that will be the case.

To put into perspective, Willie Stargell a Hall of Fame power hitter already appeared in two All-Star Games, had 236 RBI, 343 hits, and 59 Home Runs by his age 25 season.

Another Pirates legend, Andrew McCutchen, had 2 All-Star Games, 293 RBI, 82 HR, and 694 hits by his age 25 season.  Cutch was on pace to beat Stargell's numbers over his career.

Thanks to all those in this hobby neglecting this amazing 1/1 early Five Star release booklet in favor of cards of 25 year old rookies.  I will gladly pay $81 for 1/1 cards like this all day every day.  People can enjoy their $260 autographs with print runs of over 1,000 of 24 year old Pete Alonso.

I will stick to cards printed with two players who represent nothing but class on and off the field for my favorite team, the Pirates.

The only problem?
This is the only dual signature of Cutch and Stargell ever produced.

Collect what you want, I will stick to Collecting Cutch.

Piece of that Pie

Last week I received one of my biggest purchases of the year.

A genuine 1933 Goudey of a Hall of Famer complete with a cut autograph of the greatest Pirates 3rd Baseman ever.

I've been wanting a Pie Traynor auto for a long time, but could never find a nice autograph that doesn't include something like "best wishes" or "To Jimmy" on it AND the card depicts him in a Pirates uniform.  This 2013 Historic Autographs accomplishes both.

$7.83 well spent

This card by TriStar Signature Cuts isn't very good looking.
It doesn't feature player photos.
It doesn't feature stats.
It doesn't feature team names.

It does feature autographs of two guys who have the following credentials between the two of them

2x Rookie of Year by Baseball America
1x National League MVP
6x All-Star appearances
5x Gold Gloves
4x Silver Slugger Awards
1x World Series Champ

 Jason Heyward and Andrew McCutchen  Dual cut autos

What did it cost?
$7.83 shipped.

The seller included the original box it came with also.  The checklist looks pretty strong, but if I spent $100 and this was my card I would be pissed.

For under $8 tho?
Yeah, I'll add that to my Cutch PC