Black Friday Decoys

Is it just me or has it felt like Black Friday has been going on for a few weeks already?  

It seems like everyone has been having Black Friday deals going on from electronics to furniture to appliances in stores like Kohl's, Target, and Home Depot.

Maybe this has always been the case, but it definitely feels more unique to this year than year's past. 

There are a few things that I will be picking up for the new house today, which I am really excited about. 

Above is the 2016 Panini Black Friday Decoy parallel numvered to 50 copies.

Have you notice a surge of pre Black Friday sales?

Weather You Like It or Not

I live in NJ, but work in the Philadelphia area.  One thing I try to do at work each day is catch the local news weather forecast.

My reason is simple, Monica Cryan is the most fun weather girl I have ever seen in my life.

Philly weather has never been portrayed any better.

I don't know What the weather forecast was when Topps chose this image of Andrew McCutchen for their Series 2 flagship release in 2020, but I will say the pink mother's day parallels leave a lot of cloudiness in the forecast.  Unlike many other of their bold pink parallels, the 2020 Series 2 appear to be more of a rose gold with a strong emphasis on gold than the traditional pink.

The back still shows the serial numbering to 50 copies.

Have you ever overlooked a parallel because it just didn't stand out enough?

Do you have any favorite news reporters local to you that you enjoy watching?

Rabbit season, Bucks season, Duck season?

If the title of this post makes you think of the Looney Tunes, it was done intentionally.  I just got done watching Space Jam: A New Legacy starring LeBron James and while I do have mixed feelings on the film there were several things I wanted to quickly throw out as my first impressions.

1) Settling the G.O.A.T. debate via comedy

When faced with the basketball game challenge LeBron James wanted to build a super team like he has done in Miami, Cleveland, and Los Angeles by trying to recruit Superman, Iron Giant, and King Kong.  Michael Jordan got the Looney Tunes who averaged in heights up to 3ft tall and requested comedian Billy Murray lace up his sneakers for 1 play.

2)The Looney Tunes are the greatest cast of cartoon characters ever assembled 

3)The lack of actual NBA players and references in New Legacy was kind of surprising for a game that has so many individual stars recognized world wide.  

The best player in the NBA, Gianis Antetokounmpo, reportedly turned down a part for New Legacy so that he could focus on his off-season training and not be involved with scheduling conflicts that may prevent him from being the best player on the court for the Milwaukee Bucks.  He now has a World Championship and Finals MVP on his resume. 

Congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks fans out there!

I am sure that Gianis will be adorned on many magazine covers in the near future  to celebrate the team's victory.

Oddly enough, the Greek Freak has only appeared on two issues of Sports Illustrated over his 8 year career.

April 8th, 2019 and January 9, 2017 are the only times Gianis has appeared on the cover despite world wide fame.

My favorite player, Andrew McCutchen has also appeared on the cover twice oddly enough they were printed exactly one year apart.

Details of the covers can be found on this 2019 Big League Baseball black and white parallel numbered to only 50 copies.

The back of the card gives a few bits of trivia that aren't exactly common knowledge.

Cutch has since surpassed Ian Kinsler for runs scored since 2009 and Ian didn't play in 2020 or this year.  Kinsler is going to be a participant in this year's Olympic games as he is representing Team Israel.  

Earlier this month he joined the Long Island Ducks to help get him prepared for the Summer Olympics.

Team Israel faces off against Team USA in the first round of play on July 30th.

Will you be watching any of the Olympics?

Did you watch any of the NBA Finals? 

What is your favorite Sports Illustrated cover?

Serial History: Unlucky 13

It has been a long time since I did a Serial History

As part of the move I have thrown out my old scanner and trying to "scan" my cards just using my phone.  I still have lots and lots of boxes in storage and am only in a temporary landing spot with the inlaws until our new home is settled upon. 

I think the camera scan above came out pretty cool.  It shows off the shine of this

2018 Donruss Optic Carolina Blue

very well.

The back as you can see is serially numbered 13/50

Since it is a Carolina Blue card let's look at some Carolina teams and see who has worn "unlucky" thirteen.

Let's begin with the Carolina Panthers

For the Carolina Panthers there has been only three players to wear #13.  This article discusses Kelvin Benjamin and Ken Walter (punter 1997-2000) and was written in 2017, prior to Jarius Wright playing for the team.  Kelvin Benjamin is eighth all time on the Panthers all time records for receiving yards despite just playing 40 games with the team.  He connected for a touchdown 18 times and had a 53.5% reception rate.

Moving on to the basketball side of things, we have the complicated history of the Charlotte Hornets.  The Charlotte Hornets eventually moved to New Orleans and a new team took over in Charlotte, owned by Michael Jordan.  The team went by the name of the Bobcats until the New Orleans Hornets became the Pelicans.  The Charlotte Bobcats changed their name back to the Charlotte Hornets following the name change started in New Orleans.  The original Charlotte Hornets had some pretty good players on their team and two of them became famous in the original Space Jam (Muggsy Bogues and Larry Johnson).  You can't talk about the original Hornets teams without mentioning Alonzo Mourning, Dell Curry (father of Steph), and Kendall Gill.  

Gill came onto the season in a big way after being drafted 5th overall by the Hornets in 1990.  He made the All NBA Rookie 1st Team and averaged nearly 20ppg as a sophomore.  He would go on to play for several teams over his career including stops in New Jersey, Seattle, Charlotte (twice), Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota, and Miami.  He was named to the Charlotte Hornets 30th Anniversary team in 2018.

Another Hornets player to wear number 13 is Bobby Phills.  Phills was the first player to have his number retired by the organization. It was due to tragedy that Phills had his number retired when he crashed his Porsche while driving recklessly over 100MPH.  He was pronounced deceased at the scene and the other party involved in the accident was fortunately able to survive.  In 1996 Phills was named to the NBA All Defense Second Team.  He averaged 11ppg, but was known for his defense.  In 1996, Michael Jordan claimed that Phills was the toughest defender he faced.  Following his death, the Hornets retired number 13.  

Moving to the collegiate side of things we have the North Carolina Tar Heels.  This is the team most likely associated with "Carolina Blue".  Like thr Hornets, the Tar Heels have honored number 13 in the rafters.  However, the jersey number hasn't been retired.  

John "Hook" Dillon was the shooting guard on the team's first Final Four appearance.  He played for the Tar Heels from 1944 to 1948.  He was twice an All-American.

One of the most recent and successful players to wear #13 is Cameron Johnson, currently a member of the Phoenix Suns.

Johnson is a stud! He played only two years at UNC after transferring from Pittsburgh and had the second most three pointers in a season and ranks 18th all time in threes.  He is a versatile defender and can match up against any position.

It doesn't have to have ties to the Carolinas, but who are the players you think about first when you see number 13?  

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day

Here are some Mother's Day parallels from Donruss and Topps

Only 145 more days until October 1st

Scripture Sunday: John 11:25

✝Happy Easter Everyone✝

With it being Easter Sunday, I thought it was appropriate to show off some cards of Cutch that show him wearing his cross armband over the years while playing for 4 teams.

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. 

What are your Easter Sunday plans?

A golden opportunity

After nearly a decade of feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, I have decided to take a step back at my job.  Working over 50 hours with an hour commute both ways on top and getting at best only one day off a week has broken me down mentally.  I took an opportunity to take a slight pay cut but relieve myself of all the stress that has been building up inside and at the same time get a piece of mind.  

I am also planning on moving in the next few month's so it seems like a perfect time to take a step back so that I can move forward in life.  

Call it a golden opportunity.

On a personal level it's more golden than this 2018 Topps Update gold parallel of the 1983 insert set.  

This change in life style is certainly more limited than the 50 copies of this card produced too.

But at the same token, it presents a far more greater possibility of what may come in the future.

Cheating on my goals?

Last week I showed off a COMC mailday featuring some of my Pirates uniform cards I acquired in 2021 of Cutch.  I set a goal to acquire 50 new Cutch cards from his Pirates playing days (2005-2017) this year.  I wasn't going to count the COMC cards purchased as going towards the goal because I had technically bought all those cards last year, but it was COMCs slow processing that forced the cards to arrive several months after being ordered.  I never logged these cards into my spreadsheet and obviously didn't have a physical copy in hand to cross reference.

Above is just a sampling of some of the cards I got in that COMC package.

Getting 50 new Cutch Pirates cards this year is the goal.

That is basically 1 new card a week all year long.  

It doesn't sound like a lot to add 50 new cards of 1 player in a year, but keep in mind I have over 2,300 unique cards of Cutch in a Pirates uniform already.

Now before I get into today's post, I want to share with you some comments made on that COMC purchase post.

Both Chris and Brett Alan stated (and I will paraphrase) they believe a card produced in 2018 with a team designation of Pittsburgh should count as a Pirates playing days card because at the time of production of the product, Cutch was a member of the Pirates.  

I think with this interpretation, I should count my 2018 Donruss 1984 retro Artist Proof /10 card as a Pirates playing days card acquired in 2021.

The problem is that I already stated I'm not going to count any of those COMC cards delivered this year towards my total because they were purchased in 2020.

Well...as luck (or rather the lack of organization) would have it I can say that I acquired a 2018 Donruss 1984 retro Artist Proof in 2021.

This is may look very similar to the card I already showed in my COMC purchase 

And you would be correct

I got a 2nd copy (by accident) for a ridiculously cheap price.

I won it for under $2, which is a great price for a card limited to only 10 copies.

By my processing despite what others are suggesting, I don't know if I can qualify this as part of my Pirates playing days card goal.

He has a few releases in 2018 (and beyond) that feature him in a Pirates uniform, but I am only looking to add cards of Cutch from 2005-2017 in a Pirates uniform or Pittsburgh noted city affiliate. 

So is this cheating?

Should I count all cards I get in 2021 of Cutch in a Pirates uniform towards my 50 card goal?

If so, I could probably get half of that with just crossing off the 2020 Topps Update cards I need as he appeared in an insert card (with many parallels), a base card (with many more parallels), a retail exclusive Chrome card (with many parallels), and a Topps Update Chrome Sapphire (with more parallels).

I recently added the blue border Decades Best insert from 2020 Topps Update to my collection.

I also added a 2020 Topps Update Chrome Gold /50 and a 2020 Topps Update Walgreens Yellow Foil to the collection.

Both feature him in a Pirates uniform, but Cutch played the entire 2020 season with the Philadelphia Phillies. 

This post contains quite a few Cutch cards in a Pirates uniform that I received in 2021, but ZERO of which I think should count towards my 50 card goal because the product wasn't released during his Pirates playing years. 

President's Day

Happy 3rd Monday in February everyone!!!!

Today our country is celebrating President's Day, which means that many people got a three day weekend.

Not me though.

The reason there is a President's day is because it falls in between Abraham Lincoln and George Washington's birthdays and they are often heralded as two of our country's greatest presidents.

Oddly enough when I think about these deceased presidents, I think of the Draft Kings commercial that depicted Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in more modern times.  

I want to keep this post free of politics and free of sports betting propaganda.

So in honor of President's Day, I thought I could show off some cards of Cutch that depict a former President.

Here are all my coin cards of Cutch

Let's begin with our 1st President, George Washington

This card should look familiar as I showed it off yesterday.  Nothing further needs to be said of it.

Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd United States President. He was also the country's 2nd Vice President.

Topps Heritage has been producing coin cards in their products almost since the product began being released.  Contained in this 2018 Heritage card is a 1969 nickel. 

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th US President

Lincoln is famous for abolishing slavery during the Civil War and being the first President to be assassinated.  This Gypsy Queen mini 1/1 was purchased from a fellow McCutchen collector.

Moving on is a card that appears similar to the first card depicted in this post.

Lincoln has been turned into a pop culture phenom with films like Lincoln in 2012, which won some Accademy Awards for Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal.  That same year the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was released.  It should have also won some awards.

Note: Franklin Roosevelt is on the dime, but for some very odd reason I thought it was Alexander Hamilton, which makes no sense whatsoever....

And to wrap up is a coin card featuring the only active person on a coin that was never a President, Alexander Hamilton

Hamilton served as part of the US Treasury under 1st President, George Washington.  He is a founding father of the United States and has been turned into a Broadway play.

For those that were off today, I hope you all enjoyed the day. 

Anyone know why these Presidents are depicted on the coins they represent?