A look back at 2020

2020 was a miserable year.

It started off with my grandfather having a stroke on New Year's Day

Then COVID hit

Then sports were cancelled

There were fires and riots and looting in our country

It wasn't a very good year.

It wasn't all bad though as I added some really amazing pieces to the collection.

I got an incredible sketchcard by Ken Karl which got the attention of Cutch himself

Topps retweeted my collection of Topps 1/1 cards which lead to me getting about 300 more followers in a month

I was able to get some nice cards via Twitter and bloggers

This came courtesy of Daniel of Its Like Having My Own Card Shop

Blake Jamieson and his PR guy, Tony Bianchi, sent me some splatter paint cards of Cutch no charge in the first week of Topps Project 2020.

I added this to the collection, which is an incredible patch from Jackie Robinson Day 2018.

And then there was the chaos of the Series 2 short print.  The weekend after release Dick Allen (R.I.P.) tweeted out that it was his favorite card of all time.  This caused a frenzy on the secondary market with cards reaching up to $350.

I put out a challenge to see how many cards I could buy up to $250 in 48 hours.

I got some awesome cards including some autographs, 1/1s, and relic cards.  By far though, my favorite pickup was a top 10 coveted card, 2013 Pinnacle Clear Vision Home Run.

Among all the chaos of this year I reached the 3,000 marker for unique McCutchen Cards.

I also grabbed a pair of 1/1s that were fairly cheap because they had subgrades

On the non cardboard front I picked up some game used baseballs.

My first homerun ball, which I showed off just a few days ago

Also the foul ball hit before his EPIC 14th inning 12 pitch at bat walkoff homer

I also have picked up a charity art auction that featured Cutch's drawing of the Pirates "P" logo.

I also added the game used pants from the game where Cutch's swag photo variant card originated

I took part in two private signings and got a helmet, jersey, pair of 16x20 photos, baseball, and video game signed.

There are lots more cards and oddball licensing things I picked up this year, but these were some of my favorites.

My absolute favorite item is the lineup card from the dugout where Cutch hit his 1st HR