National Sunglasses Day

Since breaking into the league in 2009, Cutch has always had a sense of joy and swag wherever he played.

Here are a few cards featuring Cutch wearing sunglasses.

First I am going to show off an original piece of artwork by the extremely talented artist Josh Trout

2022 has seen my favorite low budget insert in a long time. Check out those shades!

2021 had an insert set called Stars in Service showing athletes in the community.

It also had a base card featuring Cutch sliding to make a catch for his base card in Series 2.

2020 introduced the world to a worldwide pandemic and the coolest sports card ever produced.

2019 Stadium Club had a photo variant of Cutch 

2016 Topps Triple Threads featured images of Cutch at the 2015 All Star Game

This is an original art card by Brian Kong and was used to produce the Museum Canvas Collection reprints from this original artwork. 

2014 Topps Archives 

2013 Topps Archives All Stars

2013 had photo variants of the top stars sporting their sunglasses.  The most famous is the Yu Darvish card featuring a pair of sunglasses that should be sent back in time.

2012 had a photo variant of Cutch at the All Star Game

2011 Tier One had an autograph with Adam Jones where Cutch is sporting shades atop his cap.

2005 Bowman Heritage saw him sport a pair of shades on his cap for the base, mini, and mahogany parallels.  It is strange That the photo variant doesn't feature sunglasses on the cap as it was likely from the same photo shoot.

It also saw the 2005 Bowman Heritage Signs of Greatness autographs to feature the sunglasses on the hat.

2005 Topps Chrome saw Cutch wearing the shades atop his head.

Do you have any sunglasses cards to show off? We could do a blog bat around if so.

Pop Star?

A Youtube Channel I watch (Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer) published a video a few months ago discussing the top rookie cards from 2000-2009.  Autograph cards were not included, it was strictly based on base cards from Topps Flagship releases (S1, S2, Updates).

You can view the video here. 

Andrew McCutchen sits 14th on the list and he discussed the very low Gem 10 PSA pop count for Cutch.  

Here's a snapshot from the video

As you can see Cutch's PSA 10 pop count is very very low compared to more modern guys like Vlad Jr, Tatis, Acuna, etc.

I currently have 2 of the 72.

I remember picking these up prepandemic for about $40ea. 

If Cutch gets to around 2,200 career hits I think he will have a serious shot at HOF considering the era that he played in.  

Even if he doesn't get to be in the HOF, I'm still happy to have these two rare cards in this high of grades.

In addition to these two graded copies, I also have 52 raw copies. 

Do you have graded cards in your collection?

✌ I'm at peace ✌

On Saturday night at 1130pm a grail card was ending on eBay being sold by PWCC Vault and it was already graded as a PSA9.  

PSA, 1/1, and PWCC tend to be a mix for very high sales

Now when I say grail card, I literally mean THE CARD that any Andrew McCutchen fan would want to own.

Above is the Superfractor 1/1 from Andrew McCutchen's Bowman Chrome draft year (1st Bowman)

Would it be nice to add such a legendary card to the collection?

You bet your ass it would have been awesome.

6 months ago, I probably would have gotten into a bidding war for it even though it is being sold by PWCC who is known to be involved in graded trading card scandals over the past few years.  

Not today though

Because here's the thing...

as I was packing and preparing to move I came to a very zenful moment regarding my collection.  

I'm at peace with my Cutch PC.

I have acquired over 3,000 unique cards of Cutch including over 20 1/1 cards that use the Superfractor technology (this includes Bowman Platinum Foilfractors and Panini Gold Vinyl cards)

In addition to those Superfractors (and similar style technology) I also have the 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft Red Refractor, which just happens to be a 1/1 also.  I wrote about it just over a year ago here.

The 2005 Bowman Draft Chrome release had 6 1/1s available for each card produced when you take into account the 4 printing plates, Superfractor, and Red Refractor.   Having bought the red 1/1 for 10% of the Superfractor is fine with me.  I don't need to drop THREE GRAND on a card to prove I have the best McCutchen collection, grail card or not.

That doesn't mean I won't be adding new Cutch items to the collection.  I am most definitely not done CollectingCutch.  

I'm just changing my mindset on how I am going about adding new things to the collection and the prices I am willing to pay.  I got more of an adrenaline rush adding the foul ball hit before his EPIC walkoff homer in 2018 than any 1/1 Superfractor could bring.

Card prices are stupid right now and that's why I'm changing it up a bit

I will share a top 10 list soon...

Gettin' Rich

Everyone wants to get rich with this hobby, right?  Well I literally did get Rich.

Rich Molinelli, that is. 

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that my profile pic/avatar is a sketch card of Andrew McCutchen.  That card was drawn by Rich Molinelli almost a decade ago.  

I wanted an updated version and requested Rich draw him in a Yankees uniform because quite frankly I just don't have enough Cutch Yankees cards.

This is the result of what Rich came up with.

It rocks!!!!  I love the #26 pinstripe jersey, the clean shaved Cutch, and the unique design he threw into the background.

Best of all, it was done on a 2021 sketch card, making this my first of the new season.

If you want to follow Rich here are some of his links

Twitter @RichMolinelli

Website www.richmolinelli.com

Now for some "get rich" puns

I am always looking to add gold border 2005 Update cards to the collection

I currently have 7.  I've gotten them as cheap as $5 and have paid as much as $20 over my collecting career.

I am shocked at how much these are going for in this crazy hobby world we live in today

$46-$56 is an insane price for these if you ask me, but I guess with a Trout base rookie selling for $600+ regularly now it only makes sense.

Red Ink Autos

Topps Heritage, Bowman Heritage, and Allen & Ginter have some of the most elusive and most sought after cards in the hobby with their red ink autographs.

Often times these are extremely limited print runs and the red ink usually stands out on the cards that Topps chooses.  I have 3 red ink autographs in my collection.

The oldest red ink autograph in my collection goes back to Cutch's draft year, 2005.  The 2005 Bowman Heritage cards were made to resemble 1951 Bowman in a more modern twist.  

Moving on from Bowman Heritage to Topps Heritage is the 2012 Topps Heritage red ink numbered to 63 copies.

I love the 1963 Topps design and this card pays homage to the set both in design and limited print run (only 63 copies produced).  My only complaint with this card is that the red ink doesn't pop as much as the other two red ink autographs in my collection.

We close out with my favorite red ink autograph, 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter limited to only 10 copies. 

That is how a low print run, alternative ink (red) autograph should look.  The red ink on the plain white design POPS!  The mini card nestled inside the framed border looks really nice. 

Do you have any red ink autographs in your collection?

One of the ugliest autos in my collection

One of the spots in my collection that is sorely missing is truly attempting to complete all the different autograph pairings of Andrew McCutchen in the Just Minors releases.

The 2005 Just Minors autographs feature him with the Gulf Coast Pirates and feature really ugly stickers found on the cards.

TriStar as part of their 2012 Signacuts product release acquired some of these Just Minors autographs and turned the sticker autos into cut autos.

Above is the result.  Fortunately there was only 25 cards harmed in the making of these terrible cut autographs.

I got it for $10 so it's not like it cost me a lot of money, but this is one of the ugliest cards in my Cutch PC.

It may rival this dual auto of Jason Hayward and Andrew McCutchen from the same set.  I got that card for $7.83 as you may recall from this 2017 post.

It's Draft Day

Were it not for COVID and labor disputes, the MLB would be nearing the halfway point of the season.  As it stands, fans will be lucky to get a half season this year.

Instead of the traditional MLB draft with 40 rounds, teams will only get 5 rounds this year. 

The MLB draft is going to be live on the MLB Network and ESPN tonight at 7pm. 

I have quite a few of Andrew McCutchen's 2005 Draft Pick card from 2005 Updates.

I am always looking to add more, but like to get them for around $3 per card. 

Bargain shopping

In case you haven't noticed prices on 1980s baseball cards have been going bonkers lately.

Evidently with people being stuck at home and no sports, people are going down the nostalgia road aboard the crazy train.

Ever since it was announced that there would be a documentary about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, prices on all the key rookie cards (in high PSA grades) from the 80s have nearly doubled in the past two months.

While others are spending hundreds of their dollars on stars from the 80s and 90s I have been bargain hunting more McCutchen cards.

This white parallel 2005 Bowman 1st Year card in a PSA9 slab was picked up very cheaply.

Only 225 copies of this parallel exist.

Overall, I am pretty happy to add this slabbed draft parallel to the PC for $8.50

Yup, for less than a Chipotle burrito, I grabbed this early Cutch card.

I talked about some McCutchen rookies I got a few days ago for only 38 cents a piece.

Keep enjoying those 1987 Jose Canseco cards folks.  I'm gonna keep grabbing cards like this while I can.

Now with all that said, I completely blew an opportunity to pick up a card I needed for my collection.

Damn I wish I grabbed this.

38 cents a rookie?, why not...

I like Andrew McCutchen cards from his draft yearmore than any other cards.  This is because that is the year I started following the Pirates again and started to collect baseball cards again after nearly a decade away from the sport entirely.

So when I can find cards of Cutch for Bowman, Topps, Just Minors from 2005 and they are reasonably price I tend to snag them up like Cookie Monster at the Keebler Factory. 

I added 4 more single copies of his 2005 Bowman Heritage card to my collection.

Top Row: Base and Mini
Bottom Row: Photo Variant and Mahogony Parallel

Not bad for 38 cents a card!

Why bother grading a 1/1?

I've been reading everyone's "Things I like that you don't" blog bat around posts and I continue to see conflicting interests in the subject of graded cards.

Some people like them.

Some people don't.

I used to only like base vintage cards graded because it gave a sense of security for the validation of a card's authentic grade.  However with all the new card doctor reports surgically adjusting their cards and sending them in for consignment, I even question that now.

I no longer have an interest in graded cards.

Now that doesn't mean I won't buy a graded card.

As a matter of fact I have picked up two major additions to the collection because they were graded.  The cards both received grades below 9.0 which made them less desirable.

The best part to me is that they are both 1 of 1s.

Despite a low grading from Beckett, no one else could claim to have this type of card.

Back before all the crazy parallels made in today's current hobby, 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft had only a handful of parallels to chase.
Refractor (not numbered)
X-Fractor /250
Blue /150
Gold /50
Red 1/1
Superfractor 1/1
That means that there is only 456 cards that were numbered and only 1 of them has the red borders like the 7.5 BGS I now own.

Compare that to 2019 Bowman Chrome which has added the colors purple, green, and orange to the numbered parallels.  The reds have been increased from 1 to 5 copies and the refractors are now numbered to 499 copies.  The 2019 Bowman Chrome has 1,079 numbered parallels compared to 456 numbered parallels from 2005.

This 1/1 red Refractor is super rare.  It (along with the traditional 1/1 Superfractor) fell 1:6,609 hobby packs.


You may remember a few years ago that my brother got me a graded 1/1 from Cutch's draft year (see this post here about the graded 1/1 2005 Bowman Heritage Draft my brother got me).

He was able to get it for a big discount due to the 8.5 grade, despite being a 1/1.




In addition to the 2005 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor 1/1 I picked up in the past few months, I have also picked up the below laundry tag booklet.

The workout jersey cards for the All-Star games are used in various products following the All-Star game.  Topps Update is where you can typically find the small swatches (with very little patches available) and the following year's Triple Threads product often has laundry tags, sleeve patches, and huge patches from the All-Star Game.

This 2013 Triple Threads booklet features the laundry tag from Cutch's workout jersey he wore during the Home Run Derby in the 2012 All-StarGame.



All 3 of the above cards were picked up for steep discounts compared to similar players mainly because of the lower grade, despite all being 1/1s.  Had the cards remained in raw form, the seller probably could have gotten twice the price.


Would you buy a 1/1 card for a discount if the grade is below average for a modern card?