Delays, delays, and more delays

We have seen many delays occur over the past few years due to the COVID 19 pandemic that struck in 2020.  

When the pandemic initially hit there were delays with nearly everything.  Panini even made a toilet paper parallel in 2021 Optic to aknowledge the craziness that occurred. 

We continue to see shipping delays occur two years later.  

In the past few months of 2022 we have seen Topps finally distribute two products originally intended for 2021.

Up first is the 2021 Big League Baseball

This product was originally scheduled prior to the All Star Break 2021, but kept getting delayed until it finally came out in the late winter months of 2022.

I've collected most of this rainbow by getting the base, rainbow foil, blue, and orange.  There is a black parallel /15 that I just won an auction for coming my way eventually. 

It is odd to see 2022 cards feature Cutch in a Phillies uniform and I've discussed my disdain for that already. I am a sucker for these kid friendly products like Big League Baseball though.  I will definitely try to get the 1/1 red foil and the /25 blue foil.

2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary is another recent product released that had an original street date prior to the end of 2021.

Former Miguel Cabrera and hobby shop owner, JT of TripleCrown24 sold me these two cards.  Visit his eBay store here.

This set is loaded with many parallels with lots of shiny refractors to collect.  The set features current and former stars on the 1952 set.  It is a 700 card set and features 14 different parallels to chase.  When the set was initially released it had 33 parallels announced. 

Have you purchased cards of either of these set releases this year?

What non cardboard shipping delays are you aware of still going on?

All about that base, bout that base

Only 1 new Andrew McCutchen card has come in this week.  I told you I was slowing down with the Cutch pickups.

It's the base card from 2021 Topps Big League. I got it for less than $2 delivered.  

Last week I got a big lot of Troy Polamalu careds that pushed me near the 100 unique card lot.  I want to concentrate on only the great insert cards like the Kaboom and Downtown cards I showed off in my last post. I want to focus on unique images before I start venturing down the path of chasing parallels with Troy.  Prizm has included Troy in recent years as a legend player and there are over 30 different parallels to chase of that one image.  Some are great looking. Some aren't.  

Here are a few of my recent favorite base cards of Troy I have gotten including a 2003 UD Standing Ovation rookie. 

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?

Day 4 Mailings of SP Cutch Frenzy

I have been showing a lot of mail days relating to my Cutch SP Frenzy Challenge.

There are a few more PWEs that need to trickle in and obviously the COMC cards I purchased won't be here for many months at the rate things are going.

So let's get started with a classic card on CollectingCutch

The 2005 Topps Update draft pick card of Cutch.  I believe that 2005 Topps Update was the last Topps set to feature draft picks in their flagship release and we are all likely aware of what happened the following year with the Alex Gordon "Rookie Card".  I am always on the hunt for more 2005 Topps Update cards looking for them in the $3-$4 range.  The golds are numbered to only 2005 copies and I like to get them for under $20.

$17.98

I took advantage of the frenzy to grab another Big League card I needed.
This came via a PWE so I was able to save on shipping.

$1.99

A 1/1 for under $12?
Yup, I'm gonna do that all day.

Kyle Lohse gave up 3 homers to Andrew McCutchen in his career.  More on this in a future post.

$11.90


I thought I overpaid for this when it first hit eBay, but there were a few things going for it that I really liked.

It had a black border
It's got that great 1985 design
It has a pinstripe on the relic that is centered fairly well
It is numbered to only 199 copies.

As it turns out the average of this card is in the $20 range still with only a few having been sold or currently listed for sale.
$23.98


2020 Topps Series 2 has a great throwback image for Cutch's main flagship card and I went crazy grabbing as many parallels as possible during the buying frenzy for the SP. 

Unfortunately, my scanner doesn't pick up the foilboard very well.

$2.97

This brings the total for all cards purchased during the SP Frenzy in today's mail day to $58.82.  The collection added a limited print run gold prerookiecard, a 1/1, a black border pinstripe relic, and a few parallels.  This collection of cards cost only about 20% what the top rates were for the Cutch SP during the height of the frenzy.

Sales are starting to "settle down" on the 2020 Series 2 Cutch SP and the prices are typically ending up under triple digits.  I will continue to wait it out until they get under $40.

The Big Leagues are Back

Ok people can say what they want about the low value, "budget" set that Topps has been releasing since 2018 called Big League Baseball, but I am going to just come out and say it...

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS SET!!!

If you are looking for a return on investment you can probably get it immediately after release because many player collectors (like myself) will immediately but a single for .99 B-I-N with free shipping PWE.

Hobby boxes offer 180 cards (18 packs x 10 cards per pack) and theyes are extremely affordable at $35 per box average price.

The base set offers a vintage flagship style design that brings back all the joys of set building and nostalgia I have for card collecting.

The backs feature your standard player information (bats, throws, birthday, height, acquired) but it also has career totals and season totals (or 5 recent teams).  In addition to that there is a Did You Know segment that gets more involved with the player than your traditional baseball stats.

The borders on the back are in team colors.

I also grabbed my favorite player of the current Pirates roster.

There are also fun inserts and autographs to chase and of course parallels.  I will need any color parallels of Cutch or Bryan Reynolds.


How do you feel about this lower budget release?

Trying to keep up...

I haven't updated my spreadsheet in almost 9 months.  During that time there has been so many high end releases to finish out 2018 along with a small sample of cards for 2019.  It is a goal of mine to eventually get caught up and I am hoping that maybe around July I will have a fully functioning checklist of all the cards in my collection.

Another item I have been trying to keep up with is Cutch 1/1s equal to homeruns he had with that team.

Here is how the homerun tracker breaks down
PreMLB debut 43
Pirates 203
Giants 15
Yankees 5
Phillies 10

He also hit a HR in the 2015 All-Star Game

Here is another one of my 1/1 cards of Cutch so far as a Phillie.

This is the 2019 Big League Baseball Blank Back Topps Vault 1/1

The Irony Of It All

Andrew McCutchen will be going in for surgery today. Prayers for a speedy recovery so that he may recover and be ready for next year's Opening Day.

Lots of players with torn ACL have been making headlines lately.

Alex Morgan scored 5 goals for women's Team USA versus Thailand in the World Cup.  The US Women's team completely dismantled Thailand in a 13-0 routing.  Morgan, the team's most famous player had torn her ACL several years ago.

Golden State Warriors superstars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson both suffered injuries in games 5 and 6 of the NBA Finals. Both are expected to miss most of the 2019-20 season.  Durant confirmed he has a torn ACL.

Mike Moustakas hit a game winning homerun for the Brewers in the 14th inning versus the Astros a few days ago.  He is having a career season this year with 21 homers already and 2.4 WAR.  He had missed most of the 2016 season with a torn ACL and has had his best seasons of his career since returning.

Despite missing the past week and half, Cutch is still in second place for National League in walks.  It's doubtful he will finish in the top 10 with missing four months of the season, but that just shows how good his eye and plate discipline was prior to the injury and likely that won't change after he returns from the injury.

I received this 2019 Topps Top of the Class insert in the mail yesterday and since it is graduation weekend for most of the schools in my area, it makes sense to show off this card.

The back reveals a rather ironic name in a fact about how good Cutch has been at the top of a batting lineup since his 2009 debut.

Ian Kinsler is the only active person to score more runs than Cutch since his debut.

Of course Ian Kinsler is the player who intentionally dropped Jean Segura's pop up so that the Padres could start a double play which lead to Cutch tearing his ACL.

The Topps of the Class is a rather neat looking set if they were all horizontal like this McCutchen card.  Most of the cards I have seen from the set are vertical though and are not nearly as good looking. 

Go Red For Women

The first Friday in February every year is National Wear Red Day.

JediJeff asked if I could tie in some breast cancer awareness cards with my week of 1/1s in Giants uniforms.  While I can't do that I can show some lovely ladies wearing red for this great cause and awareness day.

By wearing red today you are helping to bring awareness to cardiovascular disease.

I have used this National Awareness Day since making the blog to show off some of my red Andrew McCutchen cards.
Below is the past two years I have shown off.
2018-National Wear Red Day ptDeux
2017-National Wear Red Day (Must See!)

This year will be no different.  It just so happens to fall on a week that I am only highlighting Giants 1/1 cards featuring Cutch.

Big League Baseball red foil 1/1 (bad scan, centering is perfect but won't pick up the left side)

For those that may not know much of Big League Baseball, it was a budget friendly set that took the place of Topps Bunt this year.  It featured a really nice design both on the front with easy to distinguish color parallels.

The back also features a very clean almost retro design.

The stats feature the five most recent seasons along with career totals.

It also has a trivia fact about the player in the Did You Know block.

I will show off other parallels in the future.

As a reminder with my Save Second Base month long awareness event I run every October, please visit the website and help raise awareness for Cardiovascular Disease.  Wear your red proudly today!

Thanks to Jason, I'm Hoarding Cardboard again

Things have been quiet on the mail front for the past month here as I haven't been buying as much cardboard as I once did.

Fortunately for my Cutch Collection, Jason at Hoarding Cardboard hooked me up with a pair of cards I needed for the PC.

Jason sent me two 2018 cards that I previously didn't have.
First up the gold parallel from Topps Big League, a budget friendly set geared to set collectors and younger collectors.

The back which has a vintage look to it provides us with the Did You Know trivia which I think everyone knows about already.

The other card Jason sent was a 2018 insert in the design of the 1983 All-Star cards.

This is the second time that Cutch has received the 1983 All-Star design.  The other you can read about here when I highlighted Steve Garvey.

Jason, thank you so much for your generosity and kind words about my collection.

I will get some Redlegs out to you soon.

They already ate the cake?

In case you may have missed it...

The Dodgers and Giants got into a brawl Tuesday night.

Andrew McCutchen took to instagram Wednesday to describe it.
You can read the article and hear his instagram play by play of the whole thing here.  It's well worth the click to hear Cutch get animated about the event and say things like:

I looked around and it was like a tornado, but it was just the bullpen running in.

I decided to join them and start running.

I thought about doing a karate pose...but I didn't.

Being in the outfield during a brawl is like a kid showing up to a birthday party late.  It's like you're coming in all excited, and they went and already ate all the cake.

Cutch is a funny dude.  I miss his personality in the clubhouse for the pregame and postgame interviews and features.

The only new card to the collection of this bunch is the Big League Caricature.  I got it for $1. The others were all scanned as part of a future post I am working on and they helped tell the story of what Cutch was talking about on instagram.