New Year, New 1\1, New Contest!

Since yesterday was 1/1, I thought it would be appropriate to show off one of my latest 1/1s in the collection and compare the image to another 1/1 that I've had in my collection for a few years.

Above is my 4th Yankees 1/1 of Cutch.

It hails from 2021 Topps Dynasty and features Cutch in his clean shaven September 2018 look along with a nice laundry tag patch from the on base machine.

The back discusses how Cutch lead the Yankees in on base percentage (albeit small sample size) in 2018 with a .421 OBP.

The image used for the 2021 Dynasty Yankees card looks a lot like a 2019 Stadium Club card I have.

When this card was released I had a feeling it was photoshopped as there were only 30 games in Cutch's career that sported a clean shave look and they were all in New York.  The problem is I cant determine what game this is from.

As you can see from the back the Stadium Club Chrome card is a superfractor 1/1.  

I have a major problem with Superfractors in Stadium Club because a lot of times the image is a darker image used and the champagne circles used don't look good for Stadium Club cards.  The autograph Superfractor has been on eBay for over a year, but the price is too high.

If anyone is good at reverse image look ups and can identify what game this image was taken from I will give the first correct answer a prize (hint: it's a Hall of Fame autograph and he played on the Phillies).  Please provide source for the image so I can verify that it is in fact from that game.

You Got Wash?

My girlfriend Danielle lost a significant member of her family yesterday as her grandmother passed away suddenly from complications with pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

Over the course of the summer her grandparents took us in while we battled the housing market trying to get a house we could call our own home.  

It wasn't easy as we had boxed up our entire lives into a pair of closets and a storage unit, but those few months gave us time to save up for this new house.  We worked hard to get there and are really excited for our new place.

Of course Danielle has many more memories of her grandmother than I will ever have because her grandparents practically help raise her after her parents divorced.  I spent several lunches talking to her grandmother and grandfather over this summer about how they always brought Danielle everywhere they went when she was much younger.  It was fun to hear these stories of what a little trouble maker she was especially with her cousin.

Gram had life down to a series of repetitions that made it easy for her to still do everything for herself and others in her late 80s.  She also had a series of phrases that her sweet caring voice echoed practically daily.

"Help yourself"

That was a phrase I heard six days a week before I left for work.  She would be watching TV, pause it to say goodbye to me and point from her same spot on the couch towards the garage area where she housed snacks and sodas.  There were always tiny bags of chips and a soda ready for me to take on the long hour and half commute before work each day.  Every day I was blessed with the care of a snack for the long road ahead.

I began working 3rd shifts this year for less aggravation at work so when it was 8am and she spotted me in the kitchen she would let out the tiniest little startled gasp "oh. What are you doing up? Don't you have to go to sleep soon?"  This also was almost a daily occurrence.  I would repeat to her the same thing every time. "I'm normally up until about 10 Gram, then I go to sleep. Do you need anything?" "Oh no no. I'm good".  

It wasn't one no.

It was two. 

She wanted me to be very much aware that she didn't need any help and not to disrupt her routine.

But my favorite nearly daily occurrence was the phrase "You got wash?"  I'll be the first to admit it, we got spoiled living there.  You see Gram liked to still be active around the house and that meant keeping a very clean organized house.  The washer and dryer were used daily.  I usually let it build up for a few days then do laundry.  Not Gram though.  She wanted laundry done every 24 hours it seemed.  48 or 72 hours?  That got her itchy to throw something of mine in the washer.  When I would attempt to do it myself she would say, just leave it to which I would reply "I can do it."  This was usually followed by her sense of sarcasm by saying "No no. The machine does all the work. Go go."  

Again, not one.

TWO nos

Stubborn and convincing

Caring and optimistic.

That was Gram.

Typing these words is incredibly hard as I know these memories that I have from briefly living there are just that now; Memories.

I will miss the simple routine she laid out for each day.  After a half mini Portuguese roll it was time to make the bed and watch the news.  I can't believe she's gone so suddenly.

I am blessed to have shared some of these moments with her and I am happy that we got a chance to show her our new house on Christmas Eve before we started moving things over.  She kept telling Danielle and myself "you guys are going to be really happy here" and proclaimed over and over how happy she was about us getting a home that checked off all the boxes for what we wanted in our first home together. 

I'm happy that we got to have Christmas dinner together and share in some laughs and fun times even though we couldn't save the green bean casserole from being an absolute disaster of a dish.

Most importantly I'm happy for the way she helped raise Danielle into being such an amazing and awesome companion that I get to go on this life journey with.  

We will miss you Gram.

I contemplated not showing any cards in this post and was typing up this testament to her just to keep my mind full of all these good memories, but my dad came over today to help paint some interior trim for us and I have to say, even if you aren't religious, God most definitely works in ways that just seem to show HIS presence.

After we closed on the house I said to myself that I wanted to treat myself to a key card for my collection and I had one eBay purchase shipped to my dad's house.  I did this because I wasn't sure if we would finally be moved in or not yet.  When he handed me the bubble mailer it came in and said "you got a package sent to my place yesterday" I had to chuckle when I opened it knowing what was inside.

Of course the first day of Gram being gone I get a package in the mail containing a 1/1 Andrew McCutchen Laundry Tag booklet card.

Yes Gram, I have wash. 

It's Colossal

Well it's Thursday which means that Shark Week is getting closer to FINishing up.  Oh wow is that punny?!!!!

Even if you don't watch Shark Week and get excited for a week of documentaries like I do, I am sure that you have seen the image below.

Filmed in 2012 and featuring an iconic image for the Air Jaws documentary franchise, the image sees a 16 foot, 3000 pound great white shark breaching the water only 10 feet away from the Seal Sled filming.  The shark was named Colossus, an appropriate name for a fish that is the size of a Subaru Impreza.  I don't know about you but if I am in the open ocean and something that big comes out from under the sea with intents of killing a seal, I would probably have a heart attack from fear.

I like looking at the image of the great white shark named Colossus from afar.

Consequently, I like looking at my 2020 National Treasures Colossal card from up close

What a MASSIVE laundry tag patch embedded in this card.  The autograph only makes it more sweet. Limited to only 3 copies, this is one of my latest cards I "discovered" while going through some moving boxes.  

Have you seen Air Jaws (or any of it's sequels)?

What are some other items you can think of that are 14-16ft long to put into perspective how big the shark Colossus is?

Super Bowl Prediction Post

It's that time of year where I make my annual post about the Super Bowl and connect it to some cards depicting the cities involved.

Let's start with the defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs.  Similar to last year's post I can show off a card from the 2012 All-Star Game which was held in Kansas City.

Cutch participated in the Home Run Derby that year and Topps released a lot of cards from the annual event.  I already showed off my 2012 Topps Update Black parallel with a serial number prefix of 15 (Patrick Mahomes jersey number) last year.  

This year I am going to go with a much bigger card from the collection that I didn't own at the time of last year's Super Bowl.

Above is a 2013 Triple Threads laundry tag booklet card 1/1 featuring the jersey worn during batting practice and on field events for the 2012 All-Star Game, held in Kansas City.

Now for Tampa Bay.  The Buccaneers haven't been in the Super Bowl for nearly two decades.  Tom Brady left the New England Patriots last off season and there was many conversations about who was the most valuable asset to the New England Patriots dynasty.  Was it Tom Brady, the quarterback, or the mastermind coach, Bill Belichek?

Well, as the Patriots missed the playoffs and the Buccaneers are in the Super Bowl, it should be obvious that the guys who play the game often are the ones who win the games.  

This is true for nearly all sports.  In baseball, Joe Maddon In is often regarded as one of the most innovative and strategic managers in the game, yet he only won 1 World Series (thanks in large part to a late inning rainshower in Game 7).

Maddon got a lot of recognition for his time in Tampa Bay when he took a team with a bottom 5 payroll year after year to the Postseason year after year. 

Maddon is a Superstar coach and recognized a Superstar impression on the back of this 2013 Prizm Cutch card.

As you can see the Tampa Bay coach was impressed by another player.

I have a feeling another Tampa Bay will be admiring the player on the other side of the field today.

My prediction KC over TB 30-28

Celebrate 100 Years of Negro League Baseball

All across the MLB today teams will be wearing special patches on their jerseys to celebrate 100 years of Negro League baseball.  A lot of baseball greats that played in the majors began their careers in the Negro Leagues.  Players like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Larry Do by, and of course Jackie Robinson all began their professional baseball careers playing first in the Negro Leagues. 

There are also countless numbers of players who never got to play in the majors but were all time greats.  Players like Judy Johnson, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell are just a few.

Over the years Topps has produced jersey relic cards of a throwback pinstripe Pittsburgh Crawfords jersey of Andrew McCutchen.  I've talked about it a few times while also discussing the Negro Leagues powerhouse Pittsburgh Crawfords here.

Above is a sample of a pinstripe jersey swatch on a card I have rarely shown off.  It is a jersey relic from 2016 Topps Laser booklet.

Panini has used old Negro League uniform swatches too though.  And it never crossed my mind until I came across this old game used jersey of James McDonald on eBay. 

I was always a big fan of JMac when he was pitching for those horrendous Pirates teams of 2010 and 2011.  He had a nasty curveball and looked like an early season All-Star in 2012.  Prior to pitchers like AJ Burnett, Francisco Liriano, Gerrit Cole, and Charlie Morton becoming part of a top 5 MLB pitching staff, the fans of the Steel City had James McDonald to cheer for and call their ace.

I wanted to get a jersey of his to wear around if I could find one cheap enough, then I stumbled on this.

I recognize that laundry tag.

I've seen that before on my McCutchen cards from Panini, but could never figure out what it's from.

With the knowledge of knowing that this is from a throwback jersey, I also was able to determine this cream colored jersey swatch with a blue patch is in fact from a 2012 Grays jersey worn by Cutch against the KC Royals.

I always wondered what this odd blue patch and cream jersey was from.

Now I know.

And Panini has used it on many of their products over the years.

Why bother grading a 1/1?

I've been reading everyone's "Things I like that you don't" blog bat around posts and I continue to see conflicting interests in the subject of graded cards.

Some people like them.

Some people don't.

I used to only like base vintage cards graded because it gave a sense of security for the validation of a card's authentic grade.  However with all the new card doctor reports surgically adjusting their cards and sending them in for consignment, I even question that now.

I no longer have an interest in graded cards.

Now that doesn't mean I won't buy a graded card.

As a matter of fact I have picked up two major additions to the collection because they were graded.  The cards both received grades below 9.0 which made them less desirable.

The best part to me is that they are both 1 of 1s.

Despite a low grading from Beckett, no one else could claim to have this type of card.

Back before all the crazy parallels made in today's current hobby, 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft had only a handful of parallels to chase.
Refractor (not numbered)
X-Fractor /250
Blue /150
Gold /50
Red 1/1
Superfractor 1/1
That means that there is only 456 cards that were numbered and only 1 of them has the red borders like the 7.5 BGS I now own.

Compare that to 2019 Bowman Chrome which has added the colors purple, green, and orange to the numbered parallels.  The reds have been increased from 1 to 5 copies and the refractors are now numbered to 499 copies.  The 2019 Bowman Chrome has 1,079 numbered parallels compared to 456 numbered parallels from 2005.

This 1/1 red Refractor is super rare.  It (along with the traditional 1/1 Superfractor) fell 1:6,609 hobby packs.


You may remember a few years ago that my brother got me a graded 1/1 from Cutch's draft year (see this post here about the graded 1/1 2005 Bowman Heritage Draft my brother got me).

He was able to get it for a big discount due to the 8.5 grade, despite being a 1/1.




In addition to the 2005 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor 1/1 I picked up in the past few months, I have also picked up the below laundry tag booklet.

The workout jersey cards for the All-Star games are used in various products following the All-Star game.  Topps Update is where you can typically find the small swatches (with very little patches available) and the following year's Triple Threads product often has laundry tags, sleeve patches, and huge patches from the All-Star Game.

This 2013 Triple Threads booklet features the laundry tag from Cutch's workout jersey he wore during the Home Run Derby in the 2012 All-StarGame.



All 3 of the above cards were picked up for steep discounts compared to similar players mainly because of the lower grade, despite all being 1/1s.  Had the cards remained in raw form, the seller probably could have gotten twice the price.


Would you buy a 1/1 card for a discount if the grade is below average for a modern card?

Burnout=Tapping Out

When it comes to collecting, I feel like I have no self control.  I want to be the best at everything I collect.

Since 2000 here are some things that I have collected

2000 to 2002 Thundercats

I collected all things Thundercats.  The original figures, the mini figures, carded figures, loose figures, prototypes, comics, vhs videos, vehicles (box and loose), bedding, baby shoes, party goods.  If it had an eye of Thundera on it, I owned it.

Then I sold EVERYTHING!!!

Went full steam ahead with Voltron and Transformers.

Rinse and repeat as seen with Thundercats above.

Sold everything except a 3 foot prototype for the Voltron3D toyline.

Got into comic books

Had a complete run of X-Men begining with Giant Size #1 to present (stopped in 2010)

Had complete runs of The Flash begining in 1981 to 2010

Sold the comics to focus on original art

Focused heavily on my favorite character, Gambit.  Would attend about 5 to 8 comic book conventions each year.  I commissioned hundreds of artists to draw my favorite comic character.  I even built a website and had a blog detailing my collection.

In 2005 I attended my first baseball game in over a decade.  It was a Pirates vs Phillies game.  I liked the Pirates as a kid.  Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla, and Doug Drabek were on the verge of entering their primes when they were dominating the NL East in the early 90s.  I thought there would be several Hall of Famers on that team.  Unfortunately none of them were involved with the Pirates in 2005.  I thought about collecting Brad Eldred (who was the first player I saw hit a HR in person for over a decade), but I realized he wasn't going to be any good.  Instead I decided I would follow this kid Andrew McCutchen who drew comparisons to Marquis Grissom.  I saw a few minor league games and grabbed a few cards, but I wasn't having the cardboard crack addiction....yet.

Well I stopped being as obsessed with comics around 2009 when a certain Pirates rookie made his debut.  I began selling off my comic collection and growing my baseball card collection.

Baseball cards specifically 1987 Topps is what started it all for me after all.  Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Barry Larkin...that set was loaded with future Hall of Famers rookie cards.   Well???? Maybe not in the eyes of those voting for the Hall of Fame.  That set was iconic to me.  I had thousands of 1987 Topps all sorted by team in a binder and some pages had 4 or 5 of the same card shoved in each pocket.  I was 6 years old then. Condition meant nothing to me.  I wanted to get back into the card hobby, but all my favorite players were retired or on the verge of it.

I decided I would collect (not at a super level yet) the player the Pirates drafted in the first round the year I got back into attending baseball games.  That McCutchen fella.

My cardboard collection quickly grew to be all things Pittsburgh.  I was grabbing autographs of Ian Snell and Evan Meek and seeking out parallels of Robinson Diaz for the baseball front.  Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall became a staple in my growing Steelers collection as my favorite football player (Jerome Bettis) was long retired.  I was spending money on junk!

Around 2015 I stopped focusing on all things Pittsburgh and began focusing on just Andrew McCutchen cards while still building the Topps flagship team sets each year.  I became laser focused on adding and collecting all things Cutch.  I saw my collection grow by nearly 1,000 cards in two years.  I was getting a card a day on average.

I was addicted and COMC and eBay became my dealers.

Winter 2017 my favorite player of my favorite team gets traded.

Summer 2018, I realize that I am watching more Giants games than Pirates games and debating if I am collecting for the joy of the hobby or obsessing over false idols.

I have nothing to be ashamed of if I stop collecting Andrew McCutchen cards.  My collection might be the biggest in the world.  I have so many cards I could post a single card a day of Cutch for nearly 8 years without showing a duplicate.  

I mentioned that I wanted to get back on track with my other blog Chasing 3,000 (my Roberto Clemente collection) and I think this will be a good opportunity for me to slam the brakes on buying more cards and appreciating the cards I have more.

Instead of daily "show and tell" posts, I will be providing more content to both this blog and Chasing 3,000 as I will no longer be exhausting unnecessary energy in searching for more cards to buy and appreciating the cards I have.  I hinted at it yesterday when showing a 2018 Series 2 insert card.  There are just way too many parallels to try and collect now.  The thrill isn't long term.

Cutch has appeared in a handful of insert cards for 2018 flagship so far including a 1983, 1983 All-Star, Salute, Superstar Sensations, Opening Day Stars, and Legends in The Making.  That is 6 different insert sets.  Don't get me wrong, I love the exposure that Cutch is still getting despite his career numbers taking a dip over the past three seasons.  The problem with each of those inserts is that there is 4 different parallels to chase (base, red, blue, black). Instead of 6 cards that's 24 cards I would need to add to my collection.  That can be exhausting both in terms of money (although many do go fairly cheap) and time.

Recently another Supercollector, Tanner Jones, who had one of the most impressive Jose Canseco collections in the world decided to give it up and sell his Canseco collection.  Tanner is selling his collection not so much because of being burned out, but because of personal reasons and feeling that it is something God wants him to do.  I respect this decision a lot.  I wish I had a stronger relationship with our Lord.  I have faith, but it's not as clear to me what my path is as what Tanner has recently experienced.

Back when I used to have my Gambit art collection I created a website to showcase it all off.  It was fun and I was able to continuously view the collection even after I sold everything off.  Consequently I sold the address and it now belongs to some company in Japan that has nothing to do with the X-Men character Gambit.

I have been buying so much cardboard that I literally am about a month late with just updating the spreadsheet.  Moreso, I haven't been taking the time to truly enjoy each card.  They just keep getting added to the stack.

I am going to make the decision to slow down with this cardboard addiction I have and instead of buying 4 different parallels of a Topps Museum card all with the same four boring white swatches I will focus more on quality instead of quantity as I continue to Collect Cutch.

There is PLENTY more for me to write about and I am going to try and continue to post as daily as possible.  But, after reading about Tanner's decision to quit cold turkey, I reevaluated my hobby habits and life priorities.  I have never met him in person or even talked to him other than to congratulate his work on a custom card or a recent pickup via FreedomCardboard.  I think it makes sense for me to focus my energy on appreciating what I already have instead of needing to have more.

A perfect example is this 1/1 Laundry Tag.  I forgot I had it as evidenced by not including it in my post featuring the Logoman cards I have and that it was never inputted into my spreadsheet. It had fallen by my desk and I never noticed it until I was reorganizing today.  A 1/1 Laundry Tag that I wasn't realizing I was missing?  Yeah I got problems!

Thank you for the inspiration Tanner.  Hopefully I can get my website, CollectingCutch, finally up and running now that I won't have to always be searching for more new cards.  I did some general layout and design in February, but never did anything else with it.  Looking at so many great player collectors' sites online really makes me want to get mine up and running so that I can appreciate it more and not always be looking for the next "high" of getting more cardboard in the mail.

Who knows, maybe one day I can get a custom card from you containing the likes of Cutch, Clemente, and Bonds.

God Bless and I hope everyone enjoys the content I have going forward.

Number 192!!!

Yesterday I showed off my 191st 1/1 of the 2013 NO MVP.

It was slightly majestic.

Today is slightly more majestic.

Welcome number 192

Here's another example of taking advantage of eBay bucks and savings.  This one was a 20% off coupon that I used on my winning bid.

My favorite card of 2017

Tom is doing his Favorite card of the year on his Blog again.  I encourage everyone to check out the cards posted.  There's some great ones out there.

I'm going to talk a little bit about mine now.

Panini has been the only manufacturer producing autograph cards of Cutch for the past two years.  Topps has stuck to giving us just patches and swatches of the former MVP.

Last year's National Treasures release had a few booklets with sticker autographs.

This year NT provided more sticker autographs, but there was one card that really stood out to me.

The same day I saw this and was already negotiating arrangements to get it into my possession a few of you reached out to make me aware of it's existence.

This card is a monster addition to the PC.

Jolly Roger sleeve patch -CHECK
Laundry Tag patch -CHECK
QR code - CHECK
1/1 -CHECK
On Card Autograph -CHECK

The only thing missing from the card is a Pirates "P" team logo helmet.

Tag You're It! : $14 Laundry Tag

Topps Museum has been producing some gorgeous cards over the past few years.  Even the higher numbered (/75 and /99) have had nice patches on them.

Getting a part of a laundry tag on a /99 card for $14 was a no brainer for the collection.

Shhhhh....speak softly....There's something majestic here

This might sound creepy or weird, but whenever I can add Cutch's laundry to my collection makes me a happy Supercollector.

This pickup features 3 nice swatches of jersey piping along with the Majestic Laundry Tag.

But wait....

It's also numbered to his jersey number (22/25)

This was a nice one to add to the collection.
It's probably not going to make the cut for my top 200 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.