Nate Delivers an eBay 1/1

You may remember that last year Nate from Bucs Stop Here sent me a card that was a top 5 want list item.  I reciprocated with an epic mail day (his words, not mine).

Well...we are back at it again.
Nate sent me this Blue parallel dual jersey relic I needed for my collection.

It's an "eBay 1/1" (numbered 50/50)

Nate also included one of those Chipz that Topps produced.

Thank you Nate for the trade.  I sent yours out today so you should be getting it in the next few days.

Surprise Mailings

Sorry I haven't been reading many blogs and commenting or posting daily this month.  Life has been busy.  I don't think my Black History Month agenda has gone as well as I planned.  Due to a busy life schedule and some writer's block I haven't been motivated to make daily posts.

Fortunately a trio of readers have sent me some packages over the past few days.

It felt like Christmas getting all these fun packages I wasn't expecting.

I promise October will bring daily posts cause everyone likes that kinda thing.

Brad from Brad's Blog sent me a text about having an extra 2019 Chrome Sapphire Cutch.  He sent it my way along with a few Topps coins.

Look at THE SHINE on that sapphire!!!

Mark aka Fuji from Chronicles of Fuji

Fuji hooked me up with a bunch of awesome cards.
The Charlie Morton on top left is a card I needed.  I haven't been supercollecting Charlie like I used to because he is appearing in A LOT more products than he used to when I literally only needed 1 non 1/1 card prior to 2017.
He also included pair of Willie Stargell relics, a Ralph Kiner bat relic, a Starling Marte Holiday Relic.  I needed them all.

I love the Bobby Bonilla 1989 All Star card. I might send it out as a TTM.  The Bill Virdon is a card I never seen before.

The Clemente In the bottom right corner is a true 1/1 sketch by Jayson Johnson.

This is a 1963 Post Cereal topper of Don Hoak.  Don Hoak was nicknamed "The Tiger".  He is best known for committing a fielding error IN THE 13TH INNING of a perfect game when Harvey "the kitten" Haddix was on the mound.  Despite a .282 average and only 16 homeruns while committing 26 errors at third base, he actually was the runner up to the National League MVP award in 1960.

I love the old Kellogg's cards. Love them!!!
Pie Traynor is the greatest third baseman in Pirates history.  He is a Hall of Famer and his number 20 has been retired by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
(Here's hoping the Pirates retire 22 one day to keep 20, 21, and 22 in legendary fashion for years to come).


Unknown mailing
I seem to remember someone mentioning having the Gallery card for me, but I don't know who sent this package.  It didn't have a return address.

If you sent me this package please leave a comment so I can thank you properly.

Thank you everyone for the surprise packages.  It is VERY MUCH appreciated.

Nacho Nacho Man

I was blessed by a surprise gift from Chris at the blog, Nachos Grande.

I am not sure if Chris is aware of this, but whenever I see his blog title pop up in my reading list I think of this:

Anyway, Chris sent me this package in exchange for the prize pack and Cutchmas gift I sent his way.

 Chris sent me a lot of cards ranging from the 90s to current team.  Brian Giles was acquired for a relief pitcher (Ricardo Rincon) on the downside of his career and went on to have a very nice career.  Aramis Ramirez could be a 1st ballot Hall of Very Good candidate next year.  Jose Lind won a gold glove the same year he committed an error in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the NLCS.  The error ultimately lead to 20 years of losing records.  Carlos Garcia was with the organization for nearly those 2 decades of futility.

 I completely forgot about Don Kelly playing for the Pirates.  He just got hired to be the Pirates bench coach for the 2020 season.  The most notable thing I know about Don Kelly is that he married former Pirates 2nd baseman's sister.  Carrie Walker, sister to Neil, became a professional womans basketball player.

2 new Roberto Clemente cards?!?!!!!
Um yes please!!!

And to wrap things up an octaset of Cutch cards including a 2009 WalMart black card.  I stated I wanted to get more copies of Cutch's 2005 Topps Update and 2009 Topps Update cards for 2020.  Chris gave me a head start towards that goal.


Thank you for the surprise return package Chris.

CARDBOARD Gifts From Gavin (Baseball Card Breakdown)

I had to use the word cardboard in this title to see if I can get some more views.

Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent me a trade package for some 12/25 cards I sent him.

Among them are a pair of Andrew McCutchen cards I needed for the PC.

A pair of Jack Wilson, the most underappreciated defensive shortstop of the 2000s, along with a purple Adam Frazier purple Chronicles parallel and a card of the Mayor, Sean Casey.

And to wrap things up a sweet purple parallel of Mitch Keller, Kevin Newman, and Austin Meadows.

(End)Game Changer?

So I saw Avengers:EndGame this morning at 2am.  I will not say anything about the movie and ask that no one reveal spoilers in the comments.

Instead I will show off some sketches of one of my favorite Superheroes, Tony Stark aka Iron Man.  About 5 years ago I got rid of all my sketch cards I had accumulated of my favorite characters: Gambit, Wolverine, Daredevil, Green Arrow, Flash, and Hawkgirl.  I held onto all my Iron Man sketch cards because...
Well you'll see below. They are ridiculously awesome.

This incredible sketch is done by comic book superstar, Jimmy Cheung, who cocreated the Young Avengers comic.  The sketch was done on Iron Man 2 stock.

I also have a pair of Iron Man sketches on Avengers: Age of Ultron stock.

There is a discussion about "character" collecting on a sketch card forum I frequent from time to time because I love looking at the artwork and it got me thinking about what character I would collect if I were to ever get back into it.  I gave it some thought and even though I love Iron Man, Flash, Gambit, Batman, Deadpool, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Wolverine, Venom, among many others I think I would probably super collect Daredevil.  Daredevil is just such a tragic character and I can relate to the man without fear thing.  Maybe I will start to look for some DD cards from old 90s sets...or maybe I will just stick to Collecting Cutch and the Pirates.

Oh and since this is a blog predominantly focused on Andrew McCutchen baseball cards here are some other heroic cards sent by a blogging hero, Gregory of The Collective Mind.

He included one of the most heroic players in Pirates history, a 1969 Bill Mazeroski.  I actually had this card, but listed it as a need on my vintage needs because mine is literally folded into quarters.  Greg stepped up in a heroic way and snagged this for me for only 3 quarters.

He also imcluded the Andrew McCutchen 2018 Update Salute card that is part of the Game Changers subseries.

Thanks Greg.  Trade package going out this weekend along with a bunch of other packages to other bloggers.

I have needed the base insert for a long time so I am ultra pumped about adding it to my collection.

I do have another Game Changer of Cutch, the signed version.

There is a red/pinkish parallel available, but I have yet to add that to the collection. Hopefully I can cross that off in the near future.

That ends the show for today. Happy Avenger Weekend to all of you planning to see the movie.

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.

Trade With It's Like Having My Own Card Shop

I will admit, I am difficult to trade with since changing my focus to solely be on Andrew McCutchen.  I have a lot of cards of Cutch, nearly 1700 unique cards.

Every now and then though someone will find a base card I still need or best case scenario, a low numbered Cutch.

Daniel came through in the clutch by getting me a Clutch Cutch.

Numbered 14/25, this 2016 Stadium Club celebrates Cutch's walk-off HomeRun against the Cardinals just before the All-Star break in 2015.  If I had to rank it amongst my favorite games of the McCutchen era, it would be my second favorite game only trailing the 2013 Wild Card Game victory.

This card is Clutch!!!  I had the base, but not the gold /25 version.

Thank you so much Daniel.  I hope you enjoyed your cards I sent in return.

PWE from the Lost Collector

AJ from the Lost Collector sent me an email with a picture of a 2017 retro McCutchen base card, wondering if I already had it.  I told him that I had a few of the parallels, but not the base.

A few days later I received this along with a 2017 Donruss Starling Marte.

This card goes nicely with my other parallels

From left to right
Season Statline (HRs)/24, Aqueous Test Back /49,Gold Press Proof /99
Silver border/199, Career Statline(OBP) /381, Pink Back

Thank you so much for contributing to the Cutch PC, AJ.  I have several packages going out this week and yours is one of them.