Super Collectors Helping Out

By large I consider myself a player collector more than anything else when it comes to this hobby.  I feel like I have always been a "player collector" since taking up hobbies as an adult.

I've talked before about my collections I have had over the years from 80s toys to comics to sports cards.  

In looking back though I was always a player collector and super collector in the mindset.

The weird thing is I was never invested in the upper tier of collecting.

When I was collecting 80s toys I was focused on Voltron and Thundercats.  Neither of those toy lines had the sports player mindset, but I was obsessed with getting everything that had Voltron on it.  If it had 5 robot lions on some licensed merchandise I needed it for my collection.  Children sneakers in size 3?  Yup I was buying them.  Pencil pouches and folders for my school supplies at age 25?  Yup...I needed them.  

Voltron and Thundercats both had loyal fan bases, but they fall into the second tier of great 80s cartoons behind things like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fast forward to my comic book collections.  Growing up my introduction to comic books was the 1992 X-Men cartoon and my two favorite characters were the mutant couple Gambit & Rogue.  Once I got into reading comic books I was hooked on the Flash and Daredevil.  I began buying every comic that featured those characters.

Again, great characters but definitely not top tier like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, or Wolverine. 

In 2005 I attended a baseball game for the first time in a decade and decided I was going to root for the Pittsburgh Pirates and began following the career of that year's draft pick, Andrew McCutchen.

For a three year run, many could argue that Cutch was top tier in the league as he was basically the National League version of Mike Trout.  Unfortunately he didn't sustain that level of success for decades like some of the all time greats like Pujols, Jeter, Griffey, etc.

My Cutch collection has been my longest tenured collection in any hobby I have ever been a part of.  It has outlasted everything I ever collected and in the span of over a decade and half of collecting his cards I have made some pretty awesome online friends because of the collection.  

About a month ago I received an awesome random act of kindness from another player collector via Twitter.  

As many of you may be aware Blake Jamieson kicked off his Project 70 checklist with a Cutch card.  Well dmoose8 on Twitter received a signed black ink (not numbered) autograph from Blake and he chose to send it to me.  I've had a few interactions with him and his dad on Twitter over the years.  He collects Erik Moustakas cards to the supercollector level and his dad has a fully finished Man Cave of Steal dedicated to Rickey Henderson.

This hobby is awesome!

I love seeing these super collections and being known for my Cutch collection.

Blake Delivers a Gem

Project 70 is an art project collector set that Topps is doing this year based on last year's success with Topps Project 2020.  This year the artists will all be doing their take on players of their choice to all 70 years of Topps Baseball cards.

Card number 10 which was made available on Topps.com is none other than Andrew McCutchen and it is drawn by Blake Jamieson.

Blake was one of the most popular artists on Project 2020 because of his super fan friendly personality and constant interaction with fans and artists alike.

I have a few Blake Jamieson splatter cards in my collection already, but the coolest one is this 2020 Topps Series 2 Photo Variant.

Blake offered it up for sale in September and I snatched it up immediately.  It features spray paint on the front of the card along with a gem 💎 stencil.  A beautiful blue paint pen auto is on card and it was encased in one of Blake's signature tamper proof foil stickers atop.

A certificate of authenticy was place with the card.

Will you be buying any of the Project 70 cards?  I already got the Mookie by Ben Baller and Fernando Tatis by Ermsy.

Not sure how many of these Cutch cards I'll grab. I'm thinking 10?

Flippin

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.  For each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog I donate a dollar to hopefully 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).  Last year I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 4th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014.)

So let's look at a celebrity and see if we can connect her to an Andrew McCutchen baseball card...

Today's subject is

Yaani King

Yaani was born in Flatbush, NY in 1981 and has been acting since 2002.

She is best known for her role as Neely Lloyd on Saving Grace, but has also lent her voice to videogames and animation.

Her most recent acting stint was on a Netflix series called Sneakerheads.

It is a comedy about the sneaker culture.  It shows the addiction of flipping for the hobby and also for the thrill of the hunt.

Topps dove into the sneakerheads mindset and really tapped into the flipper hobbyist with their Topps Project 2020 cards.

One of the most popular and fan favorites of the 20 artists is Blake Jameson. Blake has found a way to interact with his fans on a nightly basis (10:23pm on his YouTube) and has been leading the charge for more art based projects at Topps.

Early on in the project, Blake was trying to get known investor Gary Vaynerchuk aka Gary Vee to join the project and support it.  One night he opened 3 boxes of Gary Vee's 2019 National card sets and spray painted all over the cards asking for Gary not to sleep on the project.  I reached out to Blake's rep and a few days later had these three McCutchen cards in hand.

You can see gold, pink, yellow, and blue on the cards.

Have you bought any Topps Project 2020 cards?

Are you into the Sneakerhead culture?

The Art of Staying Awesome

When Project 2020 first came out and I saw the checklist of iconic Topps cards that would be produced I knew I wanted to collect all of the Roberto Clemente cards.

If you've been following this blog (and my previous incarnations of it) for nearly a decade there are 3 things I really enjoy discussing: Pirates baseball cards, original artwork, and a cure for cancer.  This project offered an opportunity to boost my Clemente collection while still allowing me to look at artwork from different artists tackling the same subject matter.  When I collected original comic book art and would get commissions I would always get the artists to draw the same character (Gambit of the X-Men) so I could see how they would draw my favorite character.  If I had a chance to get another sample of the artist I would venture off to other favorite characters like Flash, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Iron Man, or Rogue.

I love baseball cards and I love art.

This project would be fun.

However, prices last weekend made me consider selling the 3 cards I have on hand to buy a vintage 1955 Clemente.

I ultimately decided not to sell at the absolute height the cards were selling for.  I could have turned a 3 card $60 investment into a grail card of a Clemente as collectively those 3 cards were selling in the $1.2K range at the height prior to last weekend.

Another reason I didn't want to sell them off is because there are a few artists I am really looking forward to seeing their rendition of The Great Roberto Clemente.  I always envisioned getting all 20 cards and having them grouped together on a bookshelf.

Of the 5 Clemente cards produced so far and seeing the different interpretations I would say 3 of the 5 artists to work on Clemente are on my bottom 10 list.  That's not a knock on them, but I am really looking forward to cards by Ben Baller, efdot, Sofia Chang, King Saladeen, Andrew Thiele, and Blake Jamieson.

The last artist, Blake Jamieson, has become one of my favorite artists on this project and it has been really fun to see his journey of Project 2020.  Shortly after the Project kicked off he followed me on Twitter (most likely because I liked the Mister Cartoon Clemente that Topps showed off).

I have logged into his YouTube Live stream almost daily each night at 10:23pm EST.  Link to his YouTube is here.  It is an awesome Live stream that gives something to look forward to each night.

During the journey I have also talked to his PR rep, Tony, who oddly enough a few years ago lived in the same town as me and knew of one of my coworkers.  Small world, right?

With everything that is crazy and weird going on in the world we live in today, it is an absolute blessing that Blake (and his crew) has given me a nightly outlet of a few guys just hanging out talking sports and art.  We can get away from talks of COVID and riots and injustices and just talk about guy things.

The excitement that Blake has for this project is contagious.

A few weeks ago Blake tried to get Gary Vaynerchuk (aka Gary Vee) to jump aboard the Project 2020 bandwagon and did some art on 3 sealed boxes of Gary Vee's 2019 card release.  Upon opening the cards Blake painted all over them and some of the cards became Card Art for viewers on the stream.

Tony sent me a trio of the McCutchen cards that Blake had splattered paint on.

This is the "cleanest" of the cards that still shows McCutchen's face on the front.

What I find to be really cool and unique about this Mccutchen card is that it mentions that Andrew McCutchen is a "doodler" himself.  Cutch is actually a pretty good artist and I have an original piece of art by him.  I'll show that off in the future.

You can follow more of Blake on his IG, website, or Twitter all below on his business card.

Thank you Blake and Tony for the incredibly kind package.

Thank you for the daily dose of positivity you share.

Thank you for being an inspiration for so many others.

I will leave with this...
#STAYAWESOME!

Be sure to log into the Topps site today (after 1pm) and buy the Mike Trout card drawn by Blake Jamieson.  It also features a border by Ben Baller, one of the most popular artists on the Project.