Miggy, Miggy, Miggy can't you see...

500 career home runs!

Congrats Miggy!

Which active players do you think will one day join the 500 HR club?

Keeping it streaky

There's still time to enter my contest for the Kelly Brook Autograph.  

On this day in 2013, Cutch began an on base streak in the Queen City, Cincinnati.

The streak also includes the 2015 All Star Game, where Cutch launched a home run.

Some people complain when a printing plate isn't in immaculate condition because it's a 1/1 and hate having a streaky plate.  Personally, I like seeing the wears and tears of a plate.  I don't understand why Immaculate contains the actual card backs on their plates or what happens to the printing plates used for card backs, but I am always happy to add a new 1/1 Cutch to the collection.  

Cutch SP Challenge Day 3: Immaculate Savings

Day 3 of the 2020 SP Cutch Frenzy Challenge delivered an awesome card for the Cutch collection that I didn't already have.  It was an immaculate haul and helped offset some of the prices I overpaid for the two 2020 parallels (vintage and fathers day blue) due to the relatively new release.

If you aren't familar with my 2020 SP Frenzy Challenge I took the funds available that could have been spent on buying the 2020 SP Cutch "swag" photo variant and instead used it to buy items I needed for my Cutch collection.  The real challenge was I could only buy cards at the height of the SP Frenzy when they were going for $200-$300 regularly.  This all occurred between the evening of June 27th to the morning of June 30th.  Roughly 48 hours was the stretch of this card going for on average $250.

I was able to knock out 1 card on my top 10 list during that time and also was able to add an on card autograph too.  These are both pretty sweet adds to the collection if you asked me.

I had the 1/1 version of the autograph you're going to see below, but being able to add another on card autograph with a print run of ONLY 5 COPIES to the collection seemed like a good move.

People can hate on Panini for not having logos, but when they choose images like this, it's not as noticeable as other images they choose to use. The piping is still noticable on the pants for the team colors and the helmet is turned at a way that you can't tell the "P" is missing.

The card was purchased through an eBay auction via Seven Out Cards & Collectibles

It came shipped incredibly well and I highly recommend them for any future auctions they have.

The card ran me $38.25 delivered.
This brings the totals for the SP Frenzy Challenge to $83.14

That may sound like a lot of money (and it is), but that is still only ONE THIRD the price the 2020 SP Cutch card was getting at the height of the frenzy.  I still had over $160 to play with for getting cards I need during the SP Frenzy Challenge.  I'm still waiting on my COMC order (obviously) and about a dozen other eBay purchases to roll in.

A New YouTube Channel To Watch

I don't have much of a social media presence despite doing nearly a daily blog post here.

I didn't join Twitter until last year.
My Instagram has 1 picture on it.
I sign in to Facebook maybe 3 times a year.
I don't use TikTok.
I don't post on forums.
I don't post content on YouTube.

However I do lurk A LOT.  I read a lot of blogs/forum posts and watch a lot of YouTube videos.

One person who I have recently added to my subscribe list for YouTube is TripleCrown24.

I began following him because he is a fellow Supercollector and I always enjoy learning of other supercollector and how they go about their collections.

If you can't tell by his username, JT is a Miguel Cabrera supercollector.

I have 4 cards featuring Miggy with Cutch.

Please give JT a follow on his YouTube TripleCrown24.  He is documenting his pursuit towards 3,000 unique Miggy cards on his YouTube.

1 more 1 of 1

Many athletes these days have unrecognizable signatures.  Often they will just do initials and even they can be questioned if those initials look like the player's actual initials. 

Cutch has a sweet looking autograph.
The A in Andrew is very obvious and rather than signing McCutchen he just signs Cutch, a portion of his name he has been known for since his debut.

Here's a 1 of 1 from 2017 Immaculate I have had for a few years, but never showed off.

It checks off two of my favorite parts of the Cutch collection

On Card Autograph ✔
1 of 1 ✔

This Immaculate Signature is number 15 in the set.

It's only 15 days until Opening Day.

I don't know about you, I'm feeling 22

Taylor Swift lyrics on a baseball card centric blog?

That may sound crazy, but Andrew McCutchen has actually had some interactions with Taylor Swift over the years.

In 2015 he reacted to a picture his wife, Maria Hansloven, posted on Twitter.

He also briefly used the song "Bad Blood" as his walk up song.

And of course his number that he has famously worn throughout his career is 22.  Taylor Swift had a song called 22 that climbed the billboard top songs.

So when I saw this 1/1 on card printing plate with a nice swatch of indicating it belongs to number 22 become available, I had to add it to my collection.

It's only 22 days until Opening Day!!!!!

Serial History: 1949 Phillies

It has been a long time since I featured a Serial History segment.  In case you have forgotten what Serial History is, it's a series where I look at the serial numbering of a card and look at how that serial number can relate to a player, team, year, area code, etc.

I don't have many relics of Andrew McCutchen in a Phillies uniform.  I was hoping that maybe he would get a Heritage High Numbers relic with Bryce Harper, but that didn't happen.  I have a Santa Hat relic that was worn for a Spring Training photo shoot which I showed off here.  If you're into 1 of 1 bat barrels, well I have one of those too which I showed off when declaring my first Twitter purchase.  I also have a 2019 Panini Immaculate Collection jersey relic numbered to 49 copies.

This particular copy is numbered 19/49.

I thought it would be fun to look at the Phillies franchise in 1949.  The 1949 Phillies showed a step forward for an organization that had only 1 winning since 1917.  Yes you read that correctly.  From 1917 to 1949 the Phillies had only one winning season in 1932.  Much of the early unsuccessful years came on the heels of trading star pitcher Grover Alexander and running the team cheaply.

Future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts made their MLB debuts in 1948 and would help propel the team to an 81-73 record.

The following year saw the dubbed "Whiz Kids" lead the Phillies to the NL Pennant.


This card has been sitting around for a few months along with a rather large pile of cards waiting patiently to be shown off.  I grabbed it for under $5 back in September.

The design of Immaculate is really nice although it is extremely difficult to determine what year each card is from.

The back of the card discusses  Cutch hitting a leadoff homer on Opening Day (his very first official at bat as a member of Phillies).

Heinie Mueller (what a name that is) was a member of those terrible Phillies mentioned above.  Unfortunately his career lasted only 4 seasons from 1938 to 1941.  After the events of Pearl Harbor he joined the Army and served until 1945.  He rejoined the Phillies for Spring Training in 1946, but was released prior to the season starting. In 1949 he became a player-manager of the Muskogee Reds.

How I got a black and blue eye

Well...not really...

I didn't get a black and blue eye. Instead I haven't been sleeping much at all and have been helping out a coworker by basically working doubles for the past week.  

The paycheck right before Black Friday will be very nice!

In the very little free time I have had in the past week I have been going through my countless number of cards not scanned to show off for my 1,000th post here on Collecting Cutch.

This card was referenced as "on it's way" way back in 2017.  You can read that post here.

Kinda makes you wonder what else I may not have shown off over the past 2 years, huh?

He's Still Very Good

So many hobbyists look at the "decline" of Andrew McCutchen and have basically written his career as being over.

With my recent extended stay on vacation I was browsing some sold items on eBay that I missed out on and am shocked at how cheap some of these cards had sold for.

One Prime Example is a pair of Chrome cards that sold for less than $10 combined
2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Gold/50
2018 Topps Chrome Red /5
2017 Honus Bonus HomeRun Date 1/1

Back in 2013 these cards would have pulled in roughly $30 to $50 each.  Now they can be had for under $5.  While I missed out on all of these auctions I did enjoy my time in Florida and have not been as obsessive about trying to acquire every McCutchen card on the planet especially since he no longer plays for my favorite team.

That being said, when I see that black and gold (yellow) appear on cardboard I really want to add it to the collection.

Such was the case with this Immaculate Patch On Card Auto numbered to 5 that I purchased before my vacation.

On Card Autographs of Cutch are tough to find as many of his early autos with Topps were sticker autographs.  I think that is why I have been so excited about the 2018 Archives Buyback Autographs as they are all 1/1s and are all On Card and are all Pirates uniforms.

My question to those in the hobby is why is collecting Cutch getting so much cheaper?  I understand he isn't a top 5 MVP candidate anymore and doesn't have his signature dreadlocks, but he is still a star in the game.

He is still having a better batting average than Rhys Hoskins, Bryce Harper, and Kyle Schwarber for the year.  Given the choice of having to put them in a corner outfield spot, I have more confidence in Cutch making the play than the other 3 although Harper is right there with Cutch in my opinion.

With so many players hitting homeruns these days, did you know that Cutch will soon be in pretty exclusive territory of having 8 straight seasons of 20+ HR?  The only other player to hit 20+ HR in the most recent 8 seasons are Giancarlo Stanton (9 straight seasons) and Jose Bautista (with 8 more HR he will have most recent 9 seasons so it is very unlikely he gets to 9).  Other stars either don't have the length yet or have had injury plagued seasons (Pujols).  Cutch only needs to hit 1 HR in next 14 games to achieve that feat.  Seven of those games are held in New York with the remaining seven split between Tampa and Boston.

So as the market for Cutch continues to shift to cards being cheaper, it's good to know that he is still one of the game's best despite being on "the decline".

Researching the Relic: 1/1 Bat Knob

I love alliteration.  It's fun for making catching titles.

A few weeks ago I showed a bunch of manufactured bat knobs, bat barrels, and fielding gloves.  I said that it was a sneak peek of something big to come.

So here's the thing.  This card was listed with an eBay reserve and 9 day auction.  That time felt like forever to end.

I love this card!  Even without logos, it's still one of my favorites in my impressive collection of over 1,400 unique cards of Cutch.

You may notice that the bat knob has a PSA/DNA sticker on it.  This makes it easy to research the relic.

Here is the PSA link authenticating the bat.  If you don't want to view the link, here is the image of the bat authenticated by PSA.

I wonder if a bat barrel nameplate will be made in the future.