No Way Home

I have done a few writeups on this blog about 🕷 Spider-Man 🕷 in the past.

Spider-Man is always a character I associate with my brother.  

When we were younger he had so many toys from the 90s animated series and displayed them along with the Daily Bugle plaster.  He also had some key first appearances of some of Spider-Man's most famous villains including Punisher, Venom, Scorpion, Carnage, Hobgoblin, and Black Cat. 

Yesterday I bought tickets to see the new movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home for a 5pm showing. Around 4pm I had something come up and had to cancel my tickets.  I likely won't be able to see the movie now until after Christmas because we are cleaning, painting, and moving into the new home. 

To pass what little time I have I thought it would be funny to show off some imagination for how the "nerdy" side of my brain works.

You may recall I showed off some cards featuring shadows back in July when I discussed having watched The Shadow starring Alec Baldwin for the first time in nearly 20 years. 

This is one of the cards I showed off.  

Do you see the image that resembles a shadow of Spider-Man swinging through the Big Apple or is it just me?

Happy Birthday Ms. CollectingCutch

My girlfriend and I have birthdays the same week.  Theyre seperated by a few years, but we typically celebrate our joint birthdays on the 3rd.

Her birthday is today.  We both have to work overtime and won't be able to do anything tonight.

My birthday is Saturday so it's more likely we do something over the weekend to celebrate.

Since she was born in 85, here are some 1985 inspired Topps (and 1 Donruss) designs.

2020 1985 Jersey Relic (prime patch) red parallel numbered to 25 copies

2020 Topps 1985 Jersey Relic (pinstripe)  black parallel numbered to 199 copies.

2020 Topps 1985 gold parallel numbered to 50 copies

2020 Topps 1985 design

This came courtesy of AJ from The Lost Collector

2013 Topps Archives (1985 design) Base, Gold Foil /199, Day Glow Orange parallel

2019 Donruss 1985 Relic

It is strange that Panini produced a card of Cutch in 2019 from his Pittsburgh days, but I'll take it.

That's all I have in terms of 1985 inspired designs sans one pink card I will be showing off next month...

Happy Birthday Ms. CollectingCutch

Last year of dreads, last year of prepurple

It was a week ago that Andrew McCutchen hit his 250th career homer.  I've shown off a few of my cards limited to 250 copies in celebration of this event.  

Today I will look at my 2014 cards limited to 250 copies.

2014 was the last year of Cutch having dreadlocks during a season and it would also be the last year before things were getting purply by Topps.

2014 Bowman Orange

2014 Triple Threads Emerald

2014 Bowman Chrome Blue refractor

I love that Homerun chart above.  I wish more cards had unique backs like that on a regular basis.

I have been dropping some trivia while looking at Cutch's career homeruns, but I think this next bit of trivia is awesome and really shows the power/speed combination that Cutch has shown over his 13 year career.

Since Cutch's 2009 debut there has only been 1 player in Baseball with 250 homeruns and 200 stolen bases.  His name is Mike Trout.  Cutch currently sits on 194 career stolen bases and 250 homers.  It is likely Cutch joins this generation's greatest player before the season is up. Granted Trout did all that before his 30th birthday, but who's keeping track of that?

Orange + Giants = Good Combo

I know there are more Dodgers fans that read this blog than Giants fans, but that's not going to stop me from showing off a few Giants cards that I like.

I recently picked up a Giants card that made me go back and look at some of my other Giants cards.

This is a 2018 Topps Gallery 1952 Heritage orange parallel.

It is numbered to only 25 copies.

I do have a few other orange parallels of Cutch

Some of these I have shown off in the past.

2 of them I showed off in 2018 when showing cards numbered 12/25.  

You can revisit those posts here.

And here.

I also showed off a cameo of Cutch in an orange parallel here.

Many of them I haven't shown, which you can see below.

Here are 9 other McCutchen cards in a Giants uniform for an orange parallel.

Are there any color parallels you get for specific teams?

So Many Factory Set Parallels

Did you know that Topps has made even more options for rainbow chasers?

Topps has added to their portfolio with more factory set parallels. 

In the past there used to be red parallels, but that parallel was given to Target with an exclusive in 2012.  Then Topps used orange factory set parallels beginning in 2012 until 2016.  In 2017 Topps introduced foilboard parallels that were serially numbered and available as a limited pack inside their factory sets.

Then 2020 happened and everything got confusing and screwed up.

There are now 6 (yes six) parallels to chase in factory sets.  

Topps introduced the Walmart Green box factory sets this year which could contain complete factory sets in a number of 4 different parallels.

The most common is the gold star (1 in 3 factory boxes will have a complete set with the gold star).  The others include (non serial numbered) print runs of 299 (blue) and 99 (orange).  There is also a 1/1 complete set, but to my knowledge that hasn't surfaced yet.  

Inside the retail factory sets are Foilboard card packs with a pack of 5 cards each serial numbered to 264 copies.

The hobby foilboards packs are similar looking and limited to 229 copies.

Below are the 4 parallels I have so far.

Only the foilboard is serially numbered on the back.  It has a print run of 229 copies.

I still need the foilboard numbered to 264 copies which is a retail exclusive.  

Have you bought any of these Walmart Green box factory sets? Did you open it to see if you had a parallel set?

A Legendary Debut

Orange parallels make for interesting looking cards.

 The black parallel numbered 1/1 would be my top choice, but I liked this 2019 Inception orange parallel numbered to 10 copies enough to pick it up last year.

This is 1 of about 40+ autographs of Cutch that I haven't catalogued or shown off yet.  Yup, you read that correctly.

 I am considering making a YouTube collection channel to show off because I think it would be easier to say words and show cards under a light instead of scanning and typing.  Would you follow me on YouTube to view my collection?

The Road To Opening Day?

Opening Day was supposed to have happened a few months ago.  We should be talking about the All-Star game candidates at this point.

But.....
We're not....

There are some legal and financial issues that the MLB Owners and MLBPA will try to work out over the next few weeks as they target a July 1st Opening Day.

Since 2017, Topps has produced on demand Topps Now style cards called Road To Opening Day.  Team lots are available and depending on how the team has done you can receive bonus cards to highlight no hitters, cycles, 1st place finishes, etc.

There are also autograph parallels that can be had if you purchase an autograph team set.  Generally teams have 3 autograph subjects per team.  By buying into the autograph subject team set you also get a color parallel of a member of the team.

I have had a long time relationship with eBay seller known as Twinsjake.  I buy a lot of my online exclusive/on demand cards from him and messaged him about trying to get some of the color parallels of Cutch if he got any in his many shipments of the 2020 Road to Opening Day Phillies sets.

Fortunately for me Jake hit me up and offered me a pair of color McCutchen numbered to 5 (orange) and 10 (red) respectively.

I would still like to get the blue version numbered to 49 copies and of course the gold numbered to 1.

What are you most looking forward to if there is in fact a baseball season this year?

Cardboard Cameos: Something New and Shiny

Chris from The Collector clued me into this card even existing back in August of last year.  I was completely unaware of McCutchen appearing in a Giants uniform on a Dodgers card on a cardboard release the year that McCutchen played for the Phillies.  I am forever grateful that he pointed it out.

I am VERY SLOWLY trying to put this rainbow together.  I wanted to knock out my favorites first.

So I grabbed the pink and mini pink to use for my SaveSecondBase Event I do annually. 

I am now going after the Chrome Sapphire cards because that shine is amazing.

This is the orange parallel of 2019 Topps Sapphire numbered to 25 copies.

Thank you again Chris for pointing out this cameo.

Current needs for this card include
Flagship: base, black, fathers day blue, independence day, gold, Montgomery Club, vintage stock, platinum

Mini: Red, base

Sapphire: Superfractor, Red,

RBICru7 doesn't fool around

I have gotten two nice cards in the past month from the online dealer RBICru7.

When I saw this card listed with a Buy-It-Now for $10, I thought it had to be an Early April Fool's Joke.

Base copies of this card tend to sell in the $15 range so getting the orange parallel was a welcomed site for only $10.

The 2019 Topps Chrome Rookie Gear relic card is the orange parallel numbered to only 25 copies.

Orange parallels of Debut Gear relics fall 1:2,896 hobby packs.

That is roughly 1 in ever 10 cases.

The patch on the card looks to be from a Yankees jersey that Cutch may have worn in 2018.

I will show off the other card I picked up via RBICru7 later this month.

Cards Without Rhymes

Prior to the Coronavirus outbreak I picked up a pair of 2014 needs for a very cheap price.

Coincidentally they feature color parallels that are difficult to get true rhymes with.

The 2014 Opening Day purple was an exclusive to Toys R Us packs.

The 2014 Topps Orange is a factory set exclusive.  These are very rare because most factory sets remain sealed and those that are opened only contain 5 cards of the 660 card set to be the orange exclusives.

McCutchen along with Kershhaw, Cabrera, Trout appeared on the cover of the box set for the 2014 Factory Set.  I still want to get one of those for my collection.  Sealed factory sets are ranging in the $100+ market.

Remembering Kobe via Cutch Cards

News broke yesterday afternoon that Kobe Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash.  He was only 41 years old.  His 13 year old daughter was also aboard the helicopter.

The number of accolades and accomplishment that Kobe had on the court immediately puts him in discussions of being of the greatest of All-Time.

He is the first player to wear two numbers in his career and have both numbers retired by the same team.  While it may seem gimmicky, Kobe's numbers with the two numbers (8 and 24) are actually pretty comparable.

Read this article and you can see the crazy parallels of Kobe's number 8 and number 24 journey.

For those that don't want to click the article, here is a snapshot

Number 8
8 All-Stars
3 NBA Championships
16,777 points

Number 24
10 All-Stars
2 NBA Championships
16,866 points


He also won a scoring title with both jersey numbers.

Today I will look at 8 serially numbered 24/xx cards of Andrew McCutchen to remember the Black Mamba.

2017 Donruss Optic Black & Orange Parallels

Numbered 24/25 and 24/199

2016 Topps Pink

 Numbered 24/50

2017 Diamond Kings Blue Artist Proof

 Numbered 24/25

2013 Bowman Chrome Orange Parallel

Numbered 24/25

 2014 Topps Tek TEKtonics insert

Numbered 24/50

 2015 Bowman Best Orange Parallel

Numbered 24/25

2010 Topps Finest Gold Refractor

 Numbered 24/50