Happy (un) Boxing Day

Well guys.  This is it. We are officially moving into our new home today. 

We signed the paperwork earlier last week, got our keys, and have started to move some boxes here and there into the new house yesterday after we were done with some Christmas celebrations.  

It's going to be a long project to get things all set up. 

The last card purchase I had shipped to my dad's happened to be a holiday card which you can see below.

It is the 2021 Wal Mart Holiday Mega Box Santa Hat player worn relic limited to 75 copies. 

I can't wait to set up a table in my man cave basement so I can take pictures of everything and show off all the cool cards and memorabilia I have.

Here is the space that I'm working with in the basement.

As you can see it's a pretty big area and lends itself to a lot of options for how I want to set everything up.

The main basement area will be used as my Cutch Cave.

The former owner's had sectioned off 2 other rooms in the basement which I will also use to display my stuff.  The utility room will be just that, maybe a picture of Jack Lambert missing his teeth, but I don't want to put too much in that area.  The former play room area will be used as my other area for Pittsburgh sports franchises.

What do you all think? 

I'm going to paint everything before I get too involved in setting up the man cave.  I still haven't decided if I want to paint it a Pittsburgh sports theme or just keep it with neutral colors like greys and whites.

Falco Files: Stoned!

Each year during the month of October, I show off only pink (and shades of pink like magenta, peach, etc) to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, a leading cause of death for females in the United States.  

Due to my own financial situation this year I will not be able to make a donation for each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog.  Once things settle down on the home front though I will be looking to make a donation in 2022 based on the comments left during this year's event.  Hopefully together we can help at least one woman get a much needed mammogram.  Early detection is key!!!

If you want to make your own private donation please visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  There is a donate button on the main page and it only takes a minute of your time.  Every little bit helps.

I have focused primarily on cards that only feature Andrew McCutchen on the card, but in recent years have also featured cards with a cameo appearance (either being seen on the card or as a name cameo on the back of the card).  In 2019, I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will also be showing some Cutch's Crew cards that show pink cards of players that have played with Cutch on multiple teams. I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 5th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014).

I am always looking for new ways to incorporate new celebrities into the event so today I am presenting

Isla Fisher

She first got on my radar when she played a "stoner girlfriend" of Shaggy in the movie Scooby Doo 2.  Oddly enough her name was Mary Jane. Shaggy loved the name if I remember correctly.

As I stated earlier I am ALWAYS trying to think of ways to include the readers in participating in the event.  

The idea for this post has been nearly two years in the making thanks to Johnny's Trading Spot

Fisher also starred in Confessions of a Shopaholic

I think we can all relate to that in some fashion (no pun intended).

She played the "crazy" sister in the Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy Wedding Crashers

One of my favorite movie franchises which Fisher started, but ultimately left was Now You See Me.  

Fisher left the franchise when it was revealed that she almost died while filming.

One of her more recent movies was playing the character Minnie in the 2019 film, The Beach Bum, opposite Matthew McConaughy.  The film focus on the character Moondog (played by McConaughy) who is a stoner, but it also has a cameo of famed smoker, Snoop Dogg.

A part of my CollectingCutch collection is a mini collection of replacement players that have replaced Cutch either on a roster (trade, injury) or jersey number. 

Bryan Reynolds was traded to the Pirates as part of a package that sent Andrew McCutchen to the San Francisco Giants. 

He received a rookie cup card for his performance in 2019 and made the starting lineup in this year's All Star Game.

Bryan Reynolds debuted on 4/20 as revealed on the back of this 2019 Chronicles Spectra Pink Insert.  

420 is slang for getting high off marijuana.  Having never even tried smoking, I had no idea about the origin for this slang.  So I researched it and found this article.

CollectingCutch just isn't a blog for baseball cards and babes, it's a blog for research I never thought I would want to do.

Do you have any suggestions for who could appear this year?

Why does this exist? 🇬🇧

Baseball may no longer be considered America's top sport, but I have to believe it's popularity in the UK hasn't surpassed the USA.  

I will be very open and admit that I am not tuned into the culture of the United Kingdom.  Most of my knowledge resides from things like Doctor Who, Hayley Atwell, and 007 movies.  I just didn't think there was a big demand for Major League Baseball in London.

I am all for getting the game more global and having fans around the world know who Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Fernando Tatis Jr are, but this latest release by Topps has me scratching my head.

Topps UK is an online exclusive release using many of the same images as Topps Flagship Series 1 and 2, but with a small UK Flag in the corner.  

For five players the images used on their cards are from the 2019 London Series which saw the Yankees play the Red Sox in London.  JD Martinez and Michael Chavis represent the Red Sox lone London Series cards.  Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorious, and DJ LeMahieu represent the Yankees for the London Series images.

The set is limited to only 200 cards so it is basically only the best of the best in the league.

It was originally sold on Topps UK site with a strong intention of not being sold to North American buyers.  

The set does have some exclusive inserts and of course there are parallels to chase. 

First up for the parallels is the most defining image, Big Ben.  The Big Ben parallels are limited to 99 copies.  

Other parallels involve colors such as blue (/75), purple (/50), gold (/25), red (/5), and platinum (1/1).

As you can see above the imagery for the parallels looks very standard to what you may find from a United States release, but with the Union Jack in the corner.

The back designates that it is a UK Edition above the card number.  Cards marked with a serial number are identified under the card number.

Among the inserts are historical figures and iconic British landmarks.  These appear 1 in 4 packs and have color parallels to chase like Gold, Red, and Platinum.

There are also 10 players with sticker autographs in the set with a print run of 10 on average per player.  Some of the names to chase after are Judge, Bellinger, Acuna, and Trout. 

🇬🇧What do you think about Topps UK?🇬🇧

🇬🇧 Would the set have had more appeal on the secondary market if it was truly limited to only those living "across the pond from US"? 🇬🇧

Is there really gold at the end of a rainbow?

The amount of parallels in today's collecting world is insane.  I don't use TCDB, but the site lists that Andrew McCutchen has 5,902 cards to collect.  That is a lot of baseball cards to collect for a guy with just barely over a decade of service time in the majors.

I only have about half those cards. 

While I do like to chase after many many rainbows, there are a few that I focus on more than others.  Prizm and Bowman Chrome have traditionally been my favorites to go after because of the amount of shine and refracting looks.

I have been looking at Topps Fire 2018 as another set I would like to eventually chase the entire rainbow for.  I feel like Fire has improved every year since it's initial release. 

2018 Gold Label is a release that I am getting very close to completing as well.

 Gold Label is a set that I see improvements for each year as well. 

There are 4 different colors to collect in addition to the base (pictured above).  As you can see in the picture above for the base version there are 3 different pictures to the left.  These help to distinguish, yet another parallel besides the color of the card.

In addition to the different colors, there are different classes.  Three to be exact. 

Class 1 is your traditional easy to find class.  Class 2 is the next tier up (think of it as a SP).
Class 3 is the top tier and the hardest to chase after (a SSP)

The 4 different color borders to chase for each Class have unique numbering and rarity.

All the Gold Label Golds are 1/1s, regardless of Class.

The Reds are the next rarest of the color parallels.  They are numbered to 75 (Class 1), 50 (Class 2), and 25 (Class 3) respectively.

The blacks, like base cards, aren't numbered but follow the same form of rarity in terms of Class 3 being the rarest.

The blues are fairly common parallel and oddly enough the easiest one to complete and yet the only non 1/1s I havent completed.  They are numbered to 150 (Class 1), 99 (Class 2), and 50 (Class 3).

As you can see from my page that I scanned in I still need the blue Class 1 numbered to 150.  It's on my wishlist for Santa this year.  I feel confident in saying that 2 years after release I will be able to knock out all the cards that aren't 1/1s to complete most of this rainbow.

However....
I also still need all 3 of the different classes Golds that are all numbered to 1/1.

I thought this particular set would show how crazy supercollecting a star player is in today's collecting market.  So even though I still have 11 cards of one player from one release, I still only have 73% (11 of the 15) for this particular release.

Agent Carter Saves The Day

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Visit the official site here.

Breast Cancer will be detected in one of eight women in the US each year.

It is the second leading cause of cancer death among women each year.

On average every 2 minutes a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer and every 13 minutes one person will die from breast cancer.
There are currently 33 million breast cancer survivors in the USA.

It's important to support the research for cancer.  Breast Cancer is often associated with the color pink so I will be showing off some pink Cutch cards.

In addition, you can expect to see some boobs with each post.  Who doesn't love boobs?

So let's start with what we're hoping to save!

Hayley Atwell

Atwell has appeared in many different commercials, TV shows, and movies.

Her first break was a Pringles commercial.

She has also appeared as Cinderella's mother in the live action Cinderella movie.

Her biggest role thus far has been,playing Captain America's love interest, Peggy Carter.

While Hayley portrays a love interest of a famous American superhero, Atwell was born in London where the biggest fictional hero is James Bond. 

While Captain America (and Peggy Carter) face off against the terrorist organization Hydra, James Bond faces off against the organization Spectre.

Cutch appeared in this year's Spectra insert set of the 2018 Panini Chronicles release.

The pink parallel is numbered to 75 copies and discusses how Cutch saved the day with his early season heroics against the Dodgers by going 6 for 7 including a walk off extra inning homerun.

A Tiny Tribute

I got a new 2013 Topps Tribute card in, bringing my rainbow to 5 cards.  I still need the Red /5 and Purple /1.

For now I am happy to knock off another nearly completed rainbow.