Just another Mini Monday

Well, it's been a busy day so I had to post this card in the final minutes (posted 11:45pm) to get the Mini Monday streak started again.

Today's mini is a 2014 Bowman Chrome mini die cut Refractor

Numbered to only 150 copies

The back of the card mentions Cutch's attempt to get a third straight OPS over .900.  Cutch would not only be successful in hitting that mark, but he would actually lead the majors with a .952 OPS and again finish 3rd in MVP voting behind Clayton Kershaw and Giancarlo Stanton.

Die cut cards are awesome!

I love die cut cards

2021 Stadium Club finally provided me with a new die cut card of Cutch to add to the collection.  There were no die cuts of Cutch (to the best of my knowledge) produced in 2020.  Of course there are a few parallels to chase after.  So far I have gotten only the red parallel.  

I wish there were some sort of technology involved with the design.  I seem to recall the Triumvirates in the past having some sort of holofoil technology, but maybe I'm thinking of something else. 

I like the image chosen for Cutch and when you collect the Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm you can interlock them all together.

The back discusses that only 5 active players have gotten more than Cutch's career offensive WAR.  

Awesome!

Mike Trout is the only outfielder among the five.  His career offensive WAR is 73.7.

The others include three first basemen

Joey Votto 55.9 oWAR

Miguel Cabrera 79.2 oWAR

Albert Pujols 85.5 oWAR

Do you have a favorite die cut card in your collection? 

What are some of your favorite die cut designs?

The Sheff's Menu: 1989 Topps

By now you all should know my appreciation for Gary Sheffield and how he was a favorite player of mine growing up.  The bat speed, strong arm, and angry swagger made me really like him in my little league days and early teen years at high school.  I only got to see him play a few times as a member of the Florida Marlins when the fish came to visit Philadelphia.

I took a long break from baseball and got back into the game in 2005 when the Pirates drafted a highschooler named Andrew McCutchen.

My all time favorite player is obviously Andrew McCutchen.

I am going to try to show off a card of Gary Sheffield that has also had the design used for an Andrew McCutchen card.  You can view all items on the Sheff's Menu by clicking here.  (Title for this subject to change)

My very first Gary Sheffield card was 1989 Topps.  1987 Topps was the first set I collected and my dad and I put together the set.  My grandfather helped me build the 1989 set and one of my favorites was Gary Sheffield.

The gold chain, the "grill" with his initials, the Future Star logo, the pin stripe jersey

This card was cool!!!

The Sheffield has been used in several other releases over the years as both a reprint and buyback formats.

Here is the Sheff on top of a 2014 mini of Andrew McCutchen

As you can see by the size of the card, the mini is also a die cut format as the white border of the card has been completely removed.

The back of the minis are slightly different as well.

The pink is more pronounced on the mini back

The stats for the mini contain only the most recent season and major league totals while the original contains more in depth stat totals

The monthly scoreboard on the original is completely gone from the mini

There were two different minis produced of Cutch in 2014

The 1989 design was also used for a Chrome version in 2014

The backs as you can see feature the same problems as the mini

Interesting to see that MLB Network's Dan Duquette signed Gary Sheffield.

I also have the Superfractor of the Chrome version which I have shown off a few times.

I also have a stunning patch card of Cutch produced using the 1989 Topps design

It is limited to only 25 copies and is also a die cut

Do you have a favorite 1989 Topps card or any memories from the set?

Amazing cards, great prices

2020 has been a brutal year. I don't even have to talk about pandemics or political agendas (from either party) or racial injustice to say that this year has sucked.

One thing that hasn't sucked is the BOOM! in the card industry.  While there have been plenty of abnormal prices with many other players, Cutch's older cards have actually remained very cheap.

I may have over 3K unique cards of Cutch, but there are still plenty more for me to collect (especially cards from his post Pirates career).  

This is my latest card that I got really excited about.

This is a 2012 Topps Triple Threads sapphire parallel numbered to only 25 copies.  These older Triple Threads parallels are getting really tough to come by, especially these sapphire cards.

The back features a pretty cool fact about Cutch.  In only his second full season, he was able to become the 8th player in Pirates history to have a 20/20 season.  He would go and repeat that feat for four seasons.  The third fact about his mother, is the really cool one.  I knew she could sing as she sang the National Anthem at a few Pirates games, but I never knew that she was a top volleyball player.

I am really happy I was able to get this card for my collection.

I was able to get this card (and 3 others) for only $7.99

Here are the other cards in the collection including an amazing die cut refractor from Topps Chrome.

Here are the other two cards in the lot.

I have both of these chrome base cards, but never showed off the back of either.

Check out that spray chart for Cutch's homeruns in 2013:

A lot of players tend to hit the ball pullside and very few connect for all fields.

This is Cutch's HR chart over his career.

Talk about a thing of beauty...

On The Verge of Greatness

Rickey Henderson

Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs

Honus Wagner

Willie Mays

Tris Speaker

Roberto Clemente (who's birthday would have been yesterday)

and Brian Stryker (picture below is from 10 years ago) when my journey began

Yup, I am on the verge of chasing a great milestone just like the above individuals.

With my recent mail day I am only 3 cards away from 3,000 unique cards of Andrew McCutchen.  It has been a wild and crazy decade long journey to get to this point, but with 5 incoming cards between eBay and Twitter I know I should hit the mark in the coming week.

What is card 2,997?

It is one of the shiniest cards in my collection.

2015 Prizm Diamond Marshals die cut

Flash Prizm /100

I have been after this card for 5 years and when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped all over it.

I am excited to see where the collection goes in the future, but thank everyone who has helped contribute to it over the years.

An Offer That Can't Be Refused

When it comes to CollectingCutch there are a few boxes I like to check off with each purchase.

Andrew McCutchen ✔
Shiny ✔
Pirates uniform ✔
Dreadlocks era Cutch ✔
Die-cut or unique design ✔
Game worn patch relic ✔
Autograph

I love shiny die cut Pirates cards of Andrew McCutchen sporting dreadlocks with patches.

This crosses off all the boxes of Cutch Collecting except the autograph.

I mentioned wanting this card back in December when I created my New Want List.  You can revisit some of those cards here.

I previously lost a version of this card over 9 months ago when it sold for a ridiculously silly price of under $5. 

Recently another one became available for sale so I messaged the seller about my collection and offered the above screen shot as a reference point for pricing.

He obviously wanted to get maximum value and didn't think the $5 price was a fair price to sell his copy at.

I refused to let this card get by me again (knowing that there is less and less of these existing on the secondary market) and offered a price he couldn't refuse.

I paid 5x what it would have cost me last September, but this is one of those cards that I really needed to add to my collection.

We are nearing the halfway point of the year and I have picked up a few additional cards off that most wanted list.

First up is probably going to win my card pickup of the year

2019 Museum Collection 1/1 Jackie Robinson Patch Autograph
This card crosses off the "any autograph I don't have" category and also the "unique game used patches" category.


Another pair of cards I have picked up, but haven't shown off yet relate to the winter holidays.  You'll have to wait another 6 months to see those.  Sorry.

I have gotten a pair of unique memorabilia items in over the past few months as well.  The lineup card from Cutch's 1st HR and the foul ball hit right before an epic 12 pitch walkoff HR from 2018 highlight the memorabilia front.

Stay tuned as there is more cool things coming in as well.

Black Diamond Digging

Each year Topps has done a different method of promoting their flagship cards.

This year the theme has been about the decades.  With it being a new decade, Topps is focusing on previous decade best players and teams.  Last year Topps focused on 150 years of baseball.

There have been "chasing" and "golden" events that Topps has promoted, but my favorite gimmick was in 2011.

2011 is kind of an iconic set now thanks to the great rookie class available in 2011 Update (Trout, Altuve, Goldschmidt, JD Martinez).

The theme that Topps used in 2011 was their Diamond Anniversary, 60 years of collecting.

Within the packs of flagship you could get a Diamond Card Giveaway code that was inserted 1 in every 4 packs.  Once unlocked you could "dig for diamonds" and unlock cards from 1952-2009, die cut diamond cards (not numbered), die cut Black diamond cards (numbered to 60 copies), or the ultra rare 1/1 diamond embedded base card.  (I will show mine off again in a few days so if you haven't seen it already, I will revisit that awesome card).

More details about the diamond card giveaway can be found here.

I was fortunate that I grabbed one of these black diamond cards a long time ago.  They all have a protective layer on top of the card (that's the wrinkles you see on the card below) that can be peeled off to really make the card refract light better.

The black diamonds are the rarest among the diamond die cuts and can often cost $30-$100 depending on the player.  Of course a Derek Jeter is listed on eBay at this moment for over $400 at this current time.

There is also a base diamond card available (pictured above next to the black diamond).

Wal Mart also has an exclusive blue diamond 30 card set.  Pedro Alvarez represents the Pirates in that set.

The backs are colored appropriately on the border to match the diamond on the front.

Do you remember digging for diamonds in 2011 Topps?

A Few Slashers

Today would have been the 13th day until Opening Day countdown, but with the season temporarily suspended it looks like I need to find other things to blog about.

It's also Friday the 13th.

When I think of the saying Friday the 13th I immediately think about Jason Voorhees, the slasher from Crystal Lake.

So with today being Friday the 13th, I thought I could show 13 various DIE CUT cards.  It seems fitting to discuss on such a day.

I have a lot more rare parallels like Gold Prizm and relic die cuts, but if anyone has ever attempted to put a die cut card into a penny sleeve or top loader, you know they are difficult to get the right angle without dinging one of the many potential "corners".

So with that being said here are some of my lower end die cuts.

2014 Elite Aspirations Inspirations

The design for this card looks like it could be a logo for a intergalactic space police force.


2014 Stadium Club Triumvirate

The beehive honeycomb background on these Triumvirate cards looks so awesome.

2015 Stadium Club Triumvirate

The die cut pieces of this insert interlock with other players to form a full image.  Mccutchen connects with Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco.  Above are the luminous and luminescent variants.  The Illuminator variant is an acetate version and is a case hit.

2015 Elite

There are So many different parallels for this set (including some that include sticker autographs).

2015 Prizm Diamond Marshal insert

I also have the gold parallel, but this card in particular is one of the toughest to sleeve without dinging that pointy bottom of the "badge" design.  The base and prizm (Refractor) have both been scanned.

2015 Topps Chrome

This design reminds me of when I used to make paper snowflakes around Christmas time.  We would take a coffee can to make a perfect circle then fold it a couple times.  Then start just slashing.  When the paper would get unfolded it would have a symmetrical design with just random pieces missing.

2014 Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge Stars

This Bowman Platinum card would look amazing with an autograph on it.

2014 Bowman Platinum 5 Tool

This Bowman Platinum diecut insert gives me the impression of just cut out anything that would have the black border be part of a design.  There are so many edges on this card.

2013 Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge Stars

Another Bowman Platinum insert.

2015 Allen & Ginter National

As a precursor To Ginter X Topps produced some die cut cards that were distributed at the National to get fans excited about the 10th Anniversary of the product.

2012 Topps Chrome Dynamic Die Cuts

Holy cow do the colors on this thing pop!!!


2013 Bowman Chrome Fit The Bill

This design clearly took a silhoute of Abraham Lincoln's favorite headgear and modernized it into a shiny baseball card.

2012 Faces of Franchise

This is my favorite "oddball" card I have of Andrew McCutchen.  The card was designed to be part of the autograph subject line, but Topps never put the stickers on the cards or foil stamped it.  It is believed that only 15 were produced and with no major markings besides the tiny print certified autograph issue it is very likely that the other 9 are somewhere in a quarter bin.