Baby, you're a firework...

I don't like pop music, but this time every single year I hear a song sung by Katy Perry and am reminded of how beautiful America can be, or at least how beautiful Katy Perry is.  Lol! 

Katy Perry is the only one I know of that could pull off a look like this

Or this

Or this

Regardless, she makes the American flag look fantastic.

One of her most popular songs is Firework and it plays constantly during this time of year.  Personally, I'm more of a Springstein fan with Born in the U.S.A.

Here's a card to celebrate fireworks

It's a 1/1 Black Finite Prizm Fireworks

🎆 🎆🎆 🎆

What are some songs you think of that show American pride?

Enter The Multiverse

Now that Spider-Man: No Way Home is available for digital download I thought it would be fun to discuss the multiverse of card collecting.

If you are into the Marvel movies, go watch Spider-Man: No Way Home!!!

It's Amazing (no pun intended)

It's no secret that Topps and Panini have been pumping out dozens of parallels over the past few years.  Sometimes they may look similar to one another, but very often there are bold enough color changes that you can tell a magenta speckled from the standard pink refractor

 or differiante the lime green donut circles from the forest green flash variants.  

Every now and then though they release these variants (Loki reference) that look a lot like the original.

Right before the holiday season I was able to grab a pair of Superfractors that look nearly identical.

These Superfractors look nearly identical, right?

Well, if you turn them over you will see the only difference of these 1/1s.

One is the standard Topps Chrome Update Superfractor and the other is the Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Superfractor.

We are probably all familar with Topps releasing value boxes that contain a chrome pack with their Update release each year.  These Topps Update Chrome parallels are often very sought after as they were produced in very limited supply.  

Topps has been making a product called Topps Sapphire since 2016 and has recently made a Topps Update Sapphire addition as well.  Oddly enough this Topps Update Sapphire edition doesn't always follow the same numbering as your standard Topps Update set or Topps Update Chrome edition.  

All these parallels and multiple issues are getting tough to keep up with. 

Do you think Fanatics will continue the parallel trend that Topps and Panini has been building upon over the past few years? 

Retail Madness!

First of all, my photography skills with my phone are some of the worse on a blog.  I'm sorry. One of my purchases I plan to get next year is another scanner or some kind of lightbox so I can take better pictures.

One of the few purchases I made over the past few months is a card I have looked to acquire since 2013.

Yup, 2013!

Panini Prizm has always been one of my favorite card releases because of how bold the color parallels are, see below for an example.   

Recently the product has gotten a little silly with nearly 30 different parallels to chase after like lime green donuts, zebra stripes, etc but early Prizm was stunning.

Look at the group of parallels above that I scanned and showed off a few years ago.

Man, do those colors pop!

Pictured above is my latest pickup for the rainbow, a 2013 Target red exclusive coupled with my green retail exclusive. 

I always liked that Topps and Panini would do exclusive parallels to chase with some of the retail stores (Wal Mart, Target, Toys r Us, Meijer, Walgreens, etc).

Do you like the store exclusive parallels?

Despite not being licensed, do you like the Prizm brand?

Do you have any recommendations for taking pictures of baseball cards?

To err is human

On the front is an Andrew McCutchen 2019 Prizm base card, albeit slightly off center.

On the back is a Pablo Lopez 2019 Prizm very off center and upside down.

Here is a picture of me holding it up in the mirror to show how strange this card is.

What kind of error and severely miscut cards are in your collection?

6 years, huh? ok....I'll take it

I made one of my 2021 Goals to add 50 NEW Cutch cards to the collection from his Pirates playing days (2005-2017).  That equates to roughly 1 new pre 2018 Cutch card each week.  I have been (barely) keeping pace with that strategy.  

Supercollecting a player that made his MLB debut in 2009 doesn't sound like there should be too many rare cards that don't pop up.  That's not always true though as every now and then a card pops up for sale that I haven't seen show up for a long time.

This 2014 Prizm Red Prizm card is a short print that doesn't pop up very often.  As a matter of fact it is the first one that has popped up for sale in six years.

The red prizms are limited to only 25 copies.  

The Prizm brand is more popular now than ever and it is based mostly on basketball sales going up to new heights almost hourly.   

It ran me about $12, which isn't bad for such a short printed card.

Have you noticed the prices of earlier Prizm cards go up? 

From One Supercollector to Another

The baseball season is officially underway.  The best image from Opening Day was Miguel Cabrera after his sliding into second base then slow trot around the bases for a homerun in the middle of a snowstorm.  What a fun moment for baseball.  A complete breakdown of that at bat can be found on the always entertaining Jomboy's YouTube page.

Topps did make a Topps Now card and it is amazing!!!

I bring up Miguel Cabrera because my friend and fellow supercollector JT is a Miguel Cabrera supercollector.  He has various social media that you can follow him regarding triplecrown24, but he also has an online eBay store that sells sports cards and will even do consignment for collections.  

I recently made a purchase of over 20 cards from him and among them was this Andrew McCutchen 2017 Optic Prizm.

The Optic Prizms are Panini's answer to Topps Chrome Refractors.  Topps being the flagship and Topps Chrome being the chrome version are exactly like Donruss being flagship and Optic being the chrome versions.  Much like Topps Chrome refractors, Panini puts out a "silver" prizm technology that really makes the cards pop especially with Panini's use of etching in their products.  I got this delivered by JT for just about $2 and am stoked that I can cross another card off the want list.  Plus it helps get me closer to my 2021 goal of adding 50 new Pirates playing year cards to the collection.

Notice the Prizm marking in the bottom right corner, similar to Topps putting refractor on the back of their cards.

You can purchase cards from his eBay page itstriplecrown. Let him know CollectingCutch sent you to his page.

I have shown off some of my other Miggy cards and cards that JT has sent me here and here.

Have you been watching any baseball games yet this year?

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

National Wear Red Day

Over the past few years I have had a month long event every October trying to raise money for breast cancer awareness by showing off only pink baseball cards.

Another of my yearly events is to show off only red cards on the first Friday in February.  The Wear Red campaign is to bring awareness to women heart disease. That day is typically reserved for which you can make a donation to the American Heart Association here.

You can revisit all my other Wear Red Day posts here.

Show off that Red today!

Help bring awareness to women's heart health!

Bringing awareness helps save lives!

Today I will show off some red cards I own of Cutch.  I could go through my collection and easily come up with 100 cards that are classified as red parallels, but I want to mostly focus on my Phillies collection because red just looks so good as a parallel for the Phightins.

Let's begin with a pair of Phillies cards that look eerily familiar to each other.

Topps Total is a release built for the old school fan that loves to build sets and collect as many of their team's favorite players.  It is an online exclusive release, which hurts the mass appeal and keeps production numbers fairly low compared to flagship.  But if you're a fan of the smaller market teams and like to get cards of those middle relievers and utility player "taxi squad" type guys this set is for you.  The designs are simple and basic. 

Plain borders ✔

Player name clearly across bottom using a standard easy to rease font ✔

Team logos clearly pictured ✔

Brand name top corner ✔

It's a simple set.  My only problem is that the picture used for McCutchen looks eerily familar to the previous year release.  You can tell that they are from a different game because of the arm sleeve, batting gloves (more on this in a future post), and way the pants/socks are worn.  The pose is nearly identical and it's the same alternate home jersey worn in both photos.

Andrew has had a few autographs with Topps that are red parallels.  

By far my favorite (even though it's a sticker auto) is this 1984 Silver Pack Mojo Refractor of Cutch numbered to only 5 copies.

Another favorite is from the 2019 National Gary Vee Topps X set.  Gary selected a handful of players to discuss their hobbies and reflect on it.

One of the players he selected was Cutch for his artistic talent and how he likes to draw to help out local charities.  You may recall that I own an original piece of artwork by Andrew, which I showed off here.

I also have a 2019 Road to Opening Day ON CARD autograph of Cutch numbered to only 10 copies.

The red background with the Phillies classic pinstripe uniform really stands out.

Not to be out done (but it clearly is overmatched by it's predecessor) is the red "border" of the 2020 Road To Opening Day parallel.  The pose is better, but the design is a let down compared to the 2019 version.

From the memorabilia standpoint, I have one ruby parallel from 2020 Topps Museum that has a nice chunky three color patch.

I got this serially numbered card to 10 for a quarter of the price that the emerald to 25 was consistently selling for.  This hibby sure can be strange at times.

And even though Museum is a higher end release, this 2020 Topps Flagship red parallel 1985 design KICKS...IT'S...ASS.... on the cool factor scale

What an awesome looking card and a perfect way to marriage the nostalgia and modern collectors.

Black History Month needs to be talked about at some point this month and I have a post in the works to discuss the Negro Leagues.

This 2020 Topps Now red parallel to 10 copies is a card that honors the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues.  Of course Cutch hit a homer on the day.

My favorite new parallel to the Topps portfolio was the UK Edition Big Ben parallel.

While I thought the UK Edition release was a lame excuse to make more of the same card, I think they nailed the red Big Ben parallel.  Time will tell how they utilize this platform in the future.

Another parallel that I like to go after is the Triple Threads Ruby parallels.  These are all 1/1s and tend to be fairly pricy (as you'll see in a card at the bottom of this post)

Talk about a great design and great way to use color parallels and foil stamping.  Far too often, Topps will put the foil stamping on a dark part of the card, which makes it tough to scan.  Here they bled out the red and kept the stamping area very light almost white.

Panini has gotten into the red game also with their Prizm release.

Prizm has been a favorite set of mine for many years even though Panini doesn't have team logo rights, they make the card designs and parallels POP!

If Panini ever got an official license, National Treasures baseball would destroy Topps Museum and Triple Threads.

Look at that patch!!!

Remember Sweet Spot?  

Remember how all the autographs faded over time?

Let's hope Panini learned from Upper Deck's mistakes and these autographs stick around.  In addition to standard red laces there were also green (why?), blue, and red/white/blue stitching.

So there's a few of my 2020 Red Parallels (with a 2019 card thrown in to compare here and there).

Because of the low numberings of red parallels (almost always numbered to 10 copies or less) I haven't been able to get every red parallel this year that features Cutch.  Some were out of my price change and some just haven't surfaced.

There was a red parallel card that I didn't win last night.  While the Pirates days of Cutch will always be my most memorable, I can't get passed the fact that Topps spelled Andrew wrong.  

What the heck is an Anrew?

I own the sapphire (only 3 copies) because a Twitter follower offered it to me for a tremendous price.  Quite frankly I don't have much desire to complete this rainbow or even chase after the other cards.  Andrew is my favorite athlete ever and his name deserves to be spoken in similar fashion as Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh, but Topps can't spell his name right so I can't proudly display the cards.

 

Besides, look at the ending price of this thing!  If a $700 Anrew McCutchen card doesn't prove the hobby is strong right now, I don't know what does. A 1/1 Clemente bat swatch wouldn't fetch that kind of coin and there are plenty of Willie Stargell patch cards featuring the black and yellow.  I was in for this auction up to about $100.  I am shocked how much it went for. Shocked!!!!

Are you going to wear red today?

Do you like to get color parallels to a certain team?

Which of the above cards is your favorite?

"Silver" Savings

With the Black Friday madness (or lack there of) behind us, I can get back to reporting about my collection additions big and small.

I know with a collection of over 3,000 unique cards of a single player the obvious reaction is likely one of these scenarios "I didn't know he had that many cards" or "You must have every card made".  

Both above statements are very false assumptions.  Andrew McCutchen has 6,254 unique cards according to TCDB.  If I ever actually spend the time to complete my checklists on their website I would have only roughly half of the produced cards of my main player collection.  To put into perspective, Mike Trout has over 14K cards and Fernando Tatis Jr has over 4K cards already.  

I am very content with my player selection and with each new card I add to my collection that adds roughly a hundredth (yes 0.01%) to the percentage owned.  

Simple math lesson, I need to add 62 new unique cards to the collection to make a 1% increase to the number of cards I own vs the cards produced.  

There are cards though that become available that I get really excited to add to the collection.

This is one of them.

Not only did I purchase it with a winning bid of only 49 cents, it also helps cross off a format of cards that I always covet when making my McCutchen purchases.

Shiny refractor ✔

Dreadlock era Cutch ✔

Pirates uniform ✔

Cards identifying his MVP season ✔

In the football and basketball world, Prizm silvers are the kings of collecting.  They are the equivalent to Topps Chrome Refractors, but with some amazing etching on the cards as well as some shine that really pops.  

Here they are side by side on the scanner, which never captures the refractor quality very well.

And here they are with a phone flash.

I can't take pictures of Refractors very well and my scanner does them ZERO justice.

What tips do you have for showing off the shine of those Refractor and Prizm cards?

On The Verge of Greatness

Rickey Henderson

Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs

Honus Wagner

Willie Mays

Tris Speaker

Roberto Clemente (who's birthday would have been yesterday)

and Brian Stryker (picture below is from 10 years ago) when my journey began

Yup, I am on the verge of chasing a great milestone just like the above individuals.

With my recent mail day I am only 3 cards away from 3,000 unique cards of Andrew McCutchen.  It has been a wild and crazy decade long journey to get to this point, but with 5 incoming cards between eBay and Twitter I know I should hit the mark in the coming week.

What is card 2,997?

It is one of the shiniest cards in my collection.

2015 Prizm Diamond Marshals die cut

Flash Prizm /100

I have been after this card for 5 years and when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped all over it.

I am excited to see where the collection goes in the future, but thank everyone who has helped contribute to it over the years.