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?

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?

Who's The Rookie?

Cutch's rookie year in MLB was 2009.  He came up sporting dreadlocks and some stylish facial hair. 

It's been a long time since we saw Cutch without facial hair.

Gotta go back to his draft year 2005 when he was fresh out of high school and selected in the 1st round by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This is just strange.

13 years have passed since these images took place.

In case you missed it Cutch was traded to the Yankees.

0 for 10, but still a victory

My job had recently hired 10 new associates to fill some holes in the store.  Zero of them are left.  We terminated half of them and the other half determined that this wasn't a career they wanted to continue.  Oh well, back to the drawing board.

About a month ago I saw a deal that was too good to pass up.  8 prerookie cards of Cutch were listed for $6.99 with $3 shipping.

There was ZERO time wasted in my haste to hit the buy it now.  While I technically didn't need any of the cards, I couldn't let these go for $10 to anyone else.

Here's the lot as a whole

The card on the 2nd row is a SP photo variant that I only had one copy of graded.  I had been wanting to get an ungraded version for my binder.  Mission accomplished.

The SP photo version usually goes for about $7 delivered by itself.

The mahogany Bowman Heritage is another card that can sell for about $10 by itself.

None of the other cards command value by themselves to just flip, but most sell for $3-$6 no problem.

I didn't need these, but I felt for $10 it was still a victory.
Anyone need a Cutch prerookie card?

A brother's love is brother's love

One of my family's favorite movies is Nic Cage's Gone in 60 seconds.  My father, brother and I often quote it when we get together for family events.

The line "a brother's love is a brother's love" really came true when just weeks before Christmas my brother won two auctions for me that are both 1/1s.

I was gifted with them on Christmas.

Andrew McCutchen was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2005.  That same year Bowman Heritage would release the first on card autographs of the future superstar.

The red parallel numbered 1/1 was inserted into packs at a rate of 1:1,374 packs for the 350 card set.  In order to guarantee getting the Cutch 1/1 parallel you are looking at 480,900 packs to open.  Anyone want to bust half a million packs?

He didn't stop with just the 1/1 red though.  He also snagged this 1/1 yellow printing plate.

Thanks Lil Brudder!!!

More Bowman Heritage Autos

A few days ago I showed off my Buyback Bowman Heritage card

Here are my other two oncard  Bowman Heritage autos of Cutch.  There is a buyback with the short print photo variation that I am still in need of, but I don't know if I will ever be able to add that to the PC.  Very few were made.

 The Red Ink was numbered to only 51 copies to represent the 1951 Bowman design

Here's the back.

Buyback Heritage

Another of my recent purchases as I continue to buy out a former Cutch collector's collection.

Extremely rare buyback that shows the begining of Cutch's shorter autograph

Check out the  back

Cutch was dominating Gulf Coast League before he was even an adult.