You like metal?

I've been showing off a bunch of Allen & Ginter cards lately and this will be my last A&G post for awhile.

I thought it would be fun to show off all my metal cards from Allen & Ginter

This is the only non Pirates metal mini I have. It's from 2019 and features him in a Phillies uniform. Strangely enough the 2019 versions didn't have the standard hand numbering that others have.

Above is the 2015 version. The 2015 Rip Cards weren't coated inside with the proper wax sealant which caused all the metal and art cards to get EXTREMELY scratched up.

This is the 2016 extended SP mini metal

And here is the base of which I own all 3 of the print run.

I've talked about being a metalhead on here a few times sighting bands like Vision of Disorder (V.O.D.) and Pantera being two of my favorite bands of all time.  

I am not up with bands post 2005 though.  I don't really have the time now to listen to music other than driving home from work on occasion. 

Having been in a teenage metal band, I think the sounds of guitars shredding, double bass pedal drumming, and deep bass lines will always be in my blood. 

Do you listen to any metal bands? 

WOOD you believe I forgot a 1/1?

A few days ago I showed off my wood minis of Cutch from 2015, 2016, and 2017.  

I forgot to show off my 2019 though.

This is my only non Pirates wood mini

The 2018 A&G wood minis never surfaced except for a few of the "extended" sp set.  Cutch was included in that set and I was negotiating to get it shortly after the release day, but when it was revealed none of the base set wood minis made their way into the set, the seller pulled the item and I have never seen it again. 

Do you collect cards of your favorite players in other uniforms besides your favorite teams?

Who WOOD believe this?

The Topps Allen & Ginter wood parallels 1/1 have long been some of the most sought after e on the after market.  

They are incredibly difficult to obtain as they are only made available inside a rip card.  Rip cards for those that don't know are cards featuring 1 to 2 different athletes/personalities that can be ripped to find bonus cards 3inside. The problem with this is that so many uj collectors and player collectors don't rip their rip cards because they want to keepg the wood parallels legacy, the 2018 batch went missing except the extended numbers.  G

I remember having an opportunity to buy the wood extended Cutch SP from 2018 A&G on release day and balked at the $150 price tag associated with i.  t.  This was before it was revealed that all other wood minis never made it into production.

I am forever kicking myself for not acquiring that card.

I have managed to get the 2015, 2016, and 2017 wood minis in my collection and have had several conversations over the years with the owner of the 2010.  

For now though it looks like these 3 will be the only ones in my collection. 

What cards do you regret not getting before knowing how rare they were?

Punk Rock Princess

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.  

Due to my own financial situation this year I will not be able to make a donation for each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog.  Once things settle down on the home front though I will be looking to make a donation in 2022 based on the comments left during this year's event.  Hopefully together we can 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).  In 2019, I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will also be showing some Cutch's Crew cards that show pink cards of players that have played with Cutch on multiple teams. I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 5th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014).

I am always looking for new ways to incorporate new celebrities into the event so today I am presenting

Yesterday John had suggested the Punk Rock Princess, Avril Lavigne, so I thought I would honor his request.

One of my favorite YouTube channels, PunkRockMBA, recently did a video about Avril where he looked at why the scene hates on Avril.  The channel's host, Finn McKenty, goes into a deep dive discussing her hustle and the amount of shows she did at a young age to become the star that she is today and how he absolutely respects her for that.

In the video he discussed how she helped influence an entire generation of young women with her look and attitude.

Lavigne had appeared on stage with country music artist Shania Twain when she was only 15 years old.  This lead to a 2 album recording contract. 

Some of her hit singles include Sk8er Boi, Complicated, and Girlfriend.

It looks like she may have gotten some plastic surgery.

Lavigne was born in 1984 and celebrated her birthday just a few weeks ago.

This 2019 Topps Mini pink parallel is based on the 1984 design and limited to only 25 copies, with this one being numbered 7/25.

Do you have a favorite punk band?

Have you ever tried skateboarding?

The Uncle in Ginter

I've been slowly trying to pick up the Andrew McCutchen Uncle Larry cards from 2021 Allen & Ginter, but I have also been doing it while staying in budget.  

When the cards were first starting to show up the prices were very high for the buy it nows on eBay. I maintained my diligence and patience and have been able to snag four cards so far.

Here are a few of the cards I have grabbed thus far.

Abive is the black border mini

This is the short print framed autograph limited to 25 copies.  When Topps announced Uncle Larry would be a part of the checklist and would have autograph cards I was hoping that he would have an unique signature for Uncle Larry instead of his standard ACutch auto.

Above is the hot box foil

And finally a relic card of Cutch featuring Uncle Larry

Have you ripped any Allen & Ginter this year? 

Don't be a poser! Set your milestones another night...aka Congrats Joey Votto...aka good luck tonight Miggy

I was really hoping that Miguel Cabrera would hit his 500th HR last night so I could show off some of my Andrew McCutchen and Joey Votto/Miguel Cabrera cards.

I have shown off my relic collection of Joey Votto when I discussed Players I shouldn't root for, but I do.  That post is 3 years old and I have added a very nice parallel to the card you see above to my collection.

Joey Votto hit his 2,000 career hit last night at the age of 37.  It is unlikely that he will get to 3,000 but he could be a favorite for MVP this year especially if the Reds make the playoffs.

I will save the Cutch/Miggy/Votto cards for another day, but here is an uncut sheet of Allen & Ginter minis from the Topps Vault that features Andrew McCutchen, Joey Votto, 

Max Poser set a record prior to 2010 for longest spiral of dominos to be toppled over (450 meters) and the most dominos stacked on a single domino (1,002).

With the 2,000 hits for Votto out of the way the dominos are set for more milestones of these 3 players to come to fruition tonight.

I predict Cutch will get to 1,800 career hits tonight and/or Miggy will get his 500th career homerun.

Let's see if I can predict the future again like I did back in 2017 when I declared Charlie Morton would be standing on the mound in Game 7 of the World Series for an Astros victory.

Mini Monday: Feeling blue

I have been purging a lot of my non McCutchen cards lately.  In a way it's awesome because I am selling things that don't spark a general interest in why I collect, but it also has really made me realize that I have way too many cards in my collection.

Thousands of cards exist in my collection that I just don't have a connection with anymore.  Worse of all many of them aren't worth a lot of money.  How many Evan Meek and Ian Snell cards do you have in your collection?  I have too many.

I have never sold my cards via COMC, I've only ever bought using the site.  

Have you had any luck with it? What's the process like?  

I've considered listing lots of Pirates autographs for $10 on eBay but the shipping might scare people away.

What are some suggestions you have for selling off a collection of mostly $1-$5 autos of former Pirates? I'm talking about guys that aren't active and were never big stars.  Guys like Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, Chris Duffy, Jose Tabata...

I really appreciate any help you guys can provide.

The cards I'm not worried about selling are my McCutchen PC because quite frankly, it's not going anywhere.  

The blue on this 2016 Topps Mini really pops in the background, I just have terrible lighting at the in laws house.

The blue Topps Minis were limited to only 10 copies.

Pretty cool company that Cutch put himself in when he was the first Pirate to go to the All Star game 5 consecutive years since Roberto Clemente.  If it weren't for an All Star snub in 2010, he would have represented the Pirates six straight years.  

Unfortunately Evan Meek was that year's representative.  Oh Evan Meek, you were a great middle reliever for one season.  Why did I buy so many of your cards?

Who needs Evan Meek autographs?

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.

This community is amazing!

So as many of you know, I am in the process of moving to what will hopefully be my final landing spot complete with my own man cave to display the Cutch goodies in proper displays.  

Because of living with the in laws as this housing market settles down and we can save some extra money, I have had my hobby mail go to my dad's house because I quite frankly don't feel like going to storage every few weeks.  He has basically become my personal PO Box for hobby related stuff.

Well about a month ago I got a Twitter message from the blogger "Rosenort" of the Rockies and Redskins based blog condition-sensitive.

He said he had a McCutchen card he didn't think I had in my collection and was willing to send it to me.

Bold statement as I have over 3,000 unique cards of Cutch, but awesome!!!!  I gave him my dad's address and had him send it to me.  

It's been a few weeks since I got the chance to catch up with my dad so over the weekend I stopped by after work to visit with him and he told me that I had gotten a few things since the last time I visited.

Cool.  I put them in my car and didn't think anything of it.

I opened up the package and found a Topps Now card holder inside,

instantly thinking it may be a parallel of a Topps Now card.

Some I have, many I don't. 

I opened it up and was immediately greeted with his signature card

which ranks up there with Fuji's for coolest blogging business cards.

Then I saw what he had sent me....

ARE

YOU 

FRICKING

KIDDING ME?

A 1/1 Andrew McCutchen printing plate from 2012 Topps Mini!!!!!

Yeah I am pretty sure I don't have this.

You win!!!!

For now

But rest assured I will find a way to repay you with a RAK (Random Act of Kindness)

In all seriousness, thank you so much to all of you who read this blog and think of awesome things like this to gift upon me.  It's amazing!!!

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?