The Original Digital Cards

Before the Topps Bunt app, there was eTopps.  Topps made online portfolios available to show off fans' collections.  Fans could then have the cards shipped directly to them for a fee.

One of Cutch's rarest on card autographs, this eTopps rookie was limited to only 50 copies

I am not sure what determined which serial numbers would be hard signed, but the original eTopps card is numbered 853/999.

June 4th: This Day in Cutchstory

It's no surprise that Andrew McCutchen's MLB Debut would get some cardboard blogging love as part of my This Day In Cutchstory segments.

To start things off, here is a ticket from Andrew's MLB debut game.

Now let's take a look at some cards that look at Cutch's MLB Debut.

Topps Unique was a set released in 2009 that was sold as a high end set.  Each base card was numbered.
Did you read Cutch's Unique Rookie Moment?  I bet you didn't know that prior to today.

Topps made an insert set last year to pay tribute to some of the best.  The cards were available in different color parallels (of course), a medallion coin, and a relic version also.

The color variations may be difficult to see, but this is the bronze and silver editions.

The back mentions his unique stat.

The relic is from a Homestead Grays throwback Negro League uniform.

The medallion makes for a very heavy card.

Today Cutch faced the same team he debuted against.  The only player still with the Mets organization that played with the Mets June 4, 2009 is David Wright.  On the 8th Anniversary of his debut, Cutch went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI, 3 Runs scored and his 9th HR of the season.  Even though he is having another down year he is still leading the Pirates in Homeruns and RBI.

The Lost Art of Bunt

AJ from The Lost Collector hooked me up with the base and blue parallel from 2017 Topps Bunt over a week ago.

I have some of the other parallels starting to roll in.

It's Ok To Be Last

Julie from the Blog A Cracked Bat is running a cool contest where Last Place is actually the Winner.

As a Pirates Fan, I know all about Last Place all too well.  The Pirates are currently the cellar dwellers in the NL Central, but are surprisingly only 4 games out of first as no one (including the defending champs) are running away with the division.

The last time the Pirates finished in last place they secured the #1 overall pick and used it to get Gerrit Cole from UCLA.

Sometimes it's great to come in last!!!

The contest winner is...

Back at the end of last month I ran a month long contest asking for people to show off their Top 10 favorite cards of a player they collect.

The main prize of the contest was this 2016 Topps Dynasty (on card) Autograph Patch of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio

Thank you sooooooo much to all those who participated.  We had 26 participants and some amazing cards and amazing stories about cards.

I was overwhelmed by how many people participated and will over the course of the next week be mailing out the prizes.

To recap here's the blog of who participated along with the PC player they chose.

There were 3 Hockey Top 10s and 1 Football.

This was definitely a lot of fun to review everyone's lists.

BobWalkThePlank - Jason Bay
The Lost Collector - Pacific Tino Martinez
Chronicles of Fuji - Tony Gwynn
Nachos Grande - Barry Larkin
Brad's Blog - Ryan Howard
Baseball Cards Come to Life - Mike Pagliarulo
All Cardinals All the Time - Ray Lankford
John's Big League Blog - Bill Freehan
Wrigley Roster Jenga - Mark Grace
Diamond Jesters - Ellis Burks
I Feel Like Collector Again - Andrew Shaw
Not Another Baseball Card Blog - Justin Morneau
5 Tool Collector - Brooks Robinson
Baseball Every Night - Darryl Strawberry
Sports Card Collectors - Ken Griffey Jr
Night Owl - Ron Cey
Raz Card Blog - RA Dickey
Its Like Having My - Paul Goldschmidt
Yadier Molina Cards - Yadier Molina
Infield Fly Rules - Todd Helton
Baseball Card Breakdown - Tony Gwynn Autos
Cardboard Catastrophies - Paul Blair
$30 Week Habit - Joe Sakic
Bump and Run - Barry Sanders
GCRL - Steve Garvey
PlaschkeThySweater - Ryan Getzalf

Without Further ado...I entered every person's name who entered into the contest based on their original comments.
Here are the results as entered by Random.org

Congrats to Raz for his R.A. Dickey entry.  It provided the win.

For everyone else who participated, if I haven't sent you a package in the past 3 months please email me your address so I can get some free cards sent out to everyone who joined this fun contest.

Send email with address and favorite teams to bstryker81 (at) gmail (dot) com

Finding Value in Lil Lots

My girlfriend and I sometimes go to Big Lots to get value for our dollar, but I have been getting pretty good value on purchasing little lots of Cutch cards on eBay recently because of Cutch's continued struggles at the plate.

Often times lots of Cutch cards don't do me much good as I normally have 75% or more of the cards listed in the lot.  This lot was for 3 cards all of which I needed.

You can see the 3 new additions to the Collection below.

2017 Bowman Green /99
2016 Optic /199
2016 Optic Diamond Kings /25 (Christmas edition)

I won the lot with a winning bid of $5.  The Black Optic Diamond Kings is a card I have seen go north of $15.

The announcement of the winner of my contest will be held tomorrow.

Walk It Off!!!!

The struggling Andrew McCutchen hit a line drive opposite field Home Run yesterday for a Walk Off Winner against the Diamondbacks.  It was Cutch's 6th Walk Off HR of his career, a Franchise Record tied with Hall of Famers Willie Stargell and Ralph Kiner.

I was hoping that the card was made into a Topps Now card as there were some other pretty memorable events yesterday too (Astros scoring 11, Benches Clearing in San Fran, David Price 2017 debut, Adrian Beltre 2017 Debut, another Aaron Judge HR, Hunter Renfroe Grand Slam, etc)

Thankfully Topps is making it into a Now card.

 I took a screenshot of it and will show it again once I receive it in person.

There is only a little over an hour to join my contest.  I will random off the Biggio Dynasty tomorrow.