I was furious when Topps left the Opening Day rookie class (Spencer Torkelson, Bobby Witt Jr, Julio Rodriguez) along with printing Cutch in a Phillies uniform again (he was removed from the 40 man roster in November 2021) for 2022 Topps Series 2.
I even considered not buying any new 2022 and beyond cards because I was so irritated by the lack if quality control, set planning, and executing of their products. I lost a lot of interest in the hobby.
Then Topps did something unthinkable.
They actually included all the RC Opening Day class as SSP and even included Cutch in a Brewers uniform as a photo variant.
Behold, the simple looking card that saved me from leaving the hobby.
This card has fixed my cardboard itch.
It's a simple design and features just a normal photo of Cutch at the plate in his Brewers attire.
It's perfect in everyday.
The back even features full career stats.
Have you ever had one card that brought you back into the hobby?
I see people post hash tags with IYKYK and I'm often looking at that saying IDK. This new social media talk has got me worried about the future where all vowels will be obsolete and many common phrases will just be abbreviated.
Anyway IYKYK means If You Know You Know. It's often associated with something in the hobby that is known to hobby collectors, but the common collectors may not be aware.
I recently purchased a card off eBay for under $5 that tends to sell for over $100. It shouldn't be valued that much, but the urban myths surrounding this card make it very very rare despite being serial numbered on back to 2013.
Unlike many cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, this card does exist and has been documented with proof of it's existence. That doesn't make it any less rare.
There were some posts on blowoutcards back in 2013 and 2014 about this rare card which you can visit here.
I contemplated messaging the seller about his very low Buy-It-Now price, but since I am a Super Collector and not going to flip it, I thought it would be ok to just take advantage of this good fortune. In addition I have a goal to display all my gold parallels of Cutch in a large frame once he retires so I couldn't pass it up.
The seller also included a very nice note thanking me for the purchase and asking for feedback upon receipt of this card.
I still can't believe I got one of these for under $5.
Have you ever told someone that a card you wanted to buy was way underpriced?
As a player collector, I am often looking for the rarest of items first rather than the more readily available items.
Yesterday I discussed passing up a grail item due to the large sum of money it went for.
For every 1,000 listings of 2020 and 2021 Topps Heritage cards (and all the parallels that coincide with it) there is maybe 5 listings for a 2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic card of Cutch.
As of today there are ZERO base cards of the SP Authentic card available for sale via an eBay auction.
ZERO!
The fairly recent release of 2021 Topps Heritage yields nearly 100 card listings for McCutchen.
I don't have to spend my money and time searching for those right now, they'll be readily available for bulk purchase on COMC in the months to come.
I would rather focus my efforts on the cards that don't pop up too often.
Back in February one of the rarest Cutch rookies appeared for sale from a company no longer attached to baseball cards.
I pulled the trigger.
2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic offered a simple design with a limited number of parallels to chase for each card in the 200 card set.
Gold /299
Copper /99
Silver /59
Titanium /19
I already owned the base, gold, and copper versions of this card. The next rarest was the silver limited to 59 copies.
I can cross that silver off the need list.
I am still messing around with the "scanner" on my camera phone as I threw out the old scanner as part of the temporary move.
How do the images look with the camera phone scanner?
Continuing the theme of drinking and St Patrick's Day is a look at the only ballpark currently named after an alcoholic drink.
I am talking about Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The ballpark is named after the Anheuser-Busch Brewing company from St. Louis Missouri, distributor of such famous brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Beck's. Anheiser-Busch also helps to distribute brands like Landshark, Shocktop, and Michelob Ultra.
The Pirates and Cardinals had some pretty memorable games between 2012 to 2015 when both teams were competitive, battling for the NL Central title. Oddly enough the largest attendance for a baseball game played at Busch Stadium was on Mother's Day 2019 when the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates came to town.
At the forefront of those competitive teams was a perennial MVP candidate, Andrew McCutchen.
In 66 Games Started at Busch Stadium, Cutch has a .275/.353/.408 triple slash line with 6 HR and 28 RBI over 262 at bats.
The cards pictured above are both short prints from 2013 Topps and 2013 Topps Chrome respectively.
Here is the original image used for this card, found on getty images
There are also images that Panini used for this attempted catch that were part of Panini's Elements insert set.
🍀 🍺 🍺🍺 🍺 🍺 🍺 🍀
Cutch also played at another ballpark named after an alcoholic beverage, Miller Park. However, Miller Park in Milwaukee is now called American Family Insurace Field
In 73 games started and one pinch hit appearance, Cutch had a .296/.358/.589 triple slash line good for a .948OPS. Cutch hit his 100th career Home Run at Miller Park and has collected 22HR over his career thus far.
This video here will show Cutch's mammoth 100th career HR (2:58 mark) along with some really awesome moments of Cutch during his Pirates career. I encourage you to watch it.
You can revisit my post about this image here, but keep in mind that post was written on 9/11 so there are some September 11th memories on that post.
I have also shown off a few other cards of Cutch over the years that the originally photography was shot at Miller Park.
The image above was used for the 2016 Topps Heritage (and it's many parallels). Below you will see the black refractor /67 copies.
There is a few other images of Cutch appearing at Miller Park from the 2015 season.
This image was used for Cutch's 2016 Gypsy Queen photo variant card, which you can see below.
The best Pirates alternative road uniforms of the past ten years wwre captured at Miller Park after Cutch had a strikeout.
It is the throwback jersey variation in 2017 Topps Heritage.
If you were to drink a beer, would you choose a Miller or Busch product?
I missed a month long opportunity to highlight some of my Negro League throwback cards to celebrate Black History Month.
I promise I will swing for the fences next year. In the meantime enjoy the whimsical short print from 2012 Topps featuring Cutch and the Pirate Parrot playing wiffleball in the old Homestead Grays uniforms made famous by guys like Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, Cool Papa Bell, Smoky Joe Williams, and Buck Leonard.
You can revisit some posts I paid tribute to those guys by clicking on their name in the links above.
I made It clear I wasn't interested in overpaying for the Andrew McCutchen SP photo variant found in 2020 Series 2 Topps Flagship.
The weekend around release the card was selling for as much as $350 and averaged around $250 for about 72 hours. Talk about insane prices for a card that is only a SP with an insert ratio of 1:7 packs.
I waited.
And spent my money on other things.
And I waited.
And spent more money on other things.
Then I continued to wait...
Until I was able to secure both the SP and SSP photo variants for only $75 combined.
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
I now own the most swaggy card ever made of Andrew McCutchen.
It is just shy of becoming my 3,000th unique card too as these cards bring my total to....
2,998
AND
2,999
Yup!!!
Thanks to this Twitter purchase I am 1 card away from the milestone 3,000 unique Andrew McCutchen cards
Nathan at Bucs Stop Here is running a contest to predict the division winners.
So like Jay-Z said when I was in high school, I'm gonna get "Big Pimpin"
Head over to Nate's blog and submit your picks and you could win a blaster of Series 2 Baseball which may have a chance to win the most swaggy card ever made by Topps.
I'm still in need of the SP from 2020 Topps Series 2, but did receive this 11x14 Topps online exclusive yesterday.
Back before the 4th of July and before the Cutch SP Frenzy and even before Memorial Day I purchased
Not 1
Not 2
Not 3
But 4
new additions to my Cutch PC and they all consisted of Allen & Ginter mini cards.
4 Small Additions that look standard on the front, but flip them over and you see the true awesomeness of these additions.
From left to right the new additions include
2010 Extended Number SP Photo Variant
2010 No Number
2015 Extended Number SP Photo Variant
2011 Bazooka Back numbered 23/25
A few people have already tagged me on Twitter regarding the 2020 Topps Series 2 photo variant Short Print of Andrew McCutchen. A few coworkers who are also into cards text messaged me about the card too.
If you haven't already seen it I advise you to put on some shades because this card will blind you with it's swag.
The card community has gone absolutely nuts over this card and prices have varied from $12 to $100.
Many current auctions are in the $70+ range with days left.
The announcement that the season is moving forward and an extremely unique photo variant on a brand new release are definitely driving the price on this card.
I'm going to sit this one out for now though. I'll let the prices drop back to the $10-$20 range which is where this card's value should be.
ESPN thinks it's a pretty cool card and I agree, but I can't pay those wild prices.
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?
First of all, in a completely unrelated post, Congratulations to Adrian Beltre on his 3,000 career hit yesterday. He continues to get better as he gets older.
Speaking of older...
My old blog showed a 2005 Bowman Heritage photo variant where Cutch had a bat resting on his shoulder. We were all taught as young athletes to keep the bat off your shoulder.
Many times players will pose with a bat on their shoulder for a photoshoot, such was the case for that 2005 Bowman Heritage.
Rarely do you see unposed game action photos by Topps with a bat on their shoulder.
2017 Topps offered a photo variant of Cutch.
This time, it has him walking in the dugout with 3 bats on his shoulder. This card would be perfect for Daniel's multiple bat collection. It is also perfect to show off today as Andrew hit 3 homeruns in a game for the 3rd time in his career.
These SP parallels are strange entities. They go as cheap as $35 and as high as $90. I was fortunate to grab mine for just over $40.
Hopefully Cutch will get a Topps Now card to celebrate his Home Run victory.
To close out today's post here is the original 2005 Bowman Heritage photo variant I referenced above.
The issue I had when cataloging this particular card, was the spelling of it.
I always spell it grey, but Topps labels it as a Gray back. Cardboard Connection has it listed as a Gray Back also.
In doing some quick research, both Gray and Grey are acceptable ways to spell the neutral color.
Despite the confusion with the spelling, I am extremely happy to cross this off the list. I only need 2 chrome versions (Superfractor 1/1 and Purple Hot Box refractor).
Spider-Man came out over the weekend and as is customary for me to do on Wednesdays, I will be going to my $6 matinee. I have stayed away from all the spoilers and am really looking forward to seeing how this movie ties in with the other Marvel films.
Here's a card of Cutch showing some wall climbing abilities
I have the base, but also the Superfractory version of this Black Friday Elements card numbered to 10.
It even references Spider-Man on the back
Here are a few others of the Cutch doing his best Peter Parker impersonations.
Up first is one of my all time favorite images of Cutch on cardboard.
Next up are a pair of cards from 2013 Chrome and Flagship.
Both are SP photo variants, but the chrome version carries a substantially higher secondary market.
As I look through my binders I will see if there are any other webhead wallcrawler references.
