Today would have been Prince's birthday. I was never a fan of his music with the lone exception being the soundtrack to the 1989 "Michael Keaton/Tim Burton" Batman. That soundtrack was Prince's 11th studio album and is celebrating the 30th anniversary this year.
Prince is mostly remembered for Purple Rain and as such is commonly associated with the color purple.
I wanted to show off only my 22 favorite purple parallels, but I realized many of these have never appeared on this blog.
So with that being said here are (more than) my 22 favorite Cutch cards in the shade of purple. Besides the first one I am going to show off, they are not ranked by preference.
Let's begin with the centerpiece of my Andrew McCutchen as a member of the Phillies collection. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I preordered a /99 or less autograph from Twinsjake the day he listed this Road To Opening Day. I received the lowest number he had.
Now for some others...
This gets some more high preference too because it is jersey numbered (22/xx).
The final Opening Day card of Cutch in a Pirates uniform (even though he actually appeared on the Giants Opening Day roster).
The patch on this card is awesome. The fact that it has a sticker to research what game it's from is awesome. My only problem with the card is Topps says this is a purple parallel, but it looks more blue than purple.
2015 Topps Tek was a lot of fun to collect. I can't imagine what it must have been like collecting the original set with over 90 patterns and two different parallels.
Cutch purple parallel Toys R Us exclusive from his MVP season? Yes, please.
Toys R Us purple exclusive parallels will surely be missed in my collection going forward. I know that there is another retailer taking over the purple exclusives, but I don't have any Meijer near me.
Anyone else like Heritage? I fricking love the set!
I am going to group all three of these Prizm together. I love the Prizm color parallels.
Another Panini logoless product, but the triple parallel for batters is a pretty tough pull despite not being numbered. The left side of the card is made of acetate, hence the Clear Vision name for this insert set.
I showed this die cut off when discussing the unique numbering of these cards by Elite. The purple cards are all numbered to the players jersey number.
The following year, the purple diecut represented the other side to make 100 (100-jersey number) when the Inspirations Purple was changed to 78 for Andrew.
Chris from The Collector hooked me up with this purple parallel from 2017 Triple Threads.
Here is another trio of high end purple parallels.
2015 Tribute (/10!!!), 2015 Triple Threads, 2014 Triple Threads
Topps Chrome 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015. I am missing the 2014 Purple Chrome, but do have the Toys R Us exclusive from the Series 1 Flagship
These two are pretty neat from 2015 Bowman. The purple ice on left is produced at only 20% of the base purple on right.
Another TRU exclusive, featuring the batting leaders for the 2014 season. It contains all former Pirates. Just a personal opinion, but how nice are purple parallels featuring Rockies players?
A trio of Bowman Chrome with decreasing print run numbers.
Let's finish with a bang!
Not that kind of bang. I'm talking about the kind that leads to parties.
As in Transcendent parties with Topps. The highest priced box of all time for baseball can get you a chance at a purple Transcendent frame auto. Every box granted the purchaser an invitation to attend the Topps Transcendent party with past special guests being Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, Hank Aaron, and Shohei Otaku.
I have always been a fan of framed Museum quality cards. They are heavy and look like true pieces of art.
Topps Transcendent was released about a month ago and featured a box value of nearly $25,000 each. Included within the box was an invitation to meet Mike Trout along with 50 autographed cards. Only 83 boxes were produced. Among some of the autograph subjects were Hall of Famers, Fan Favorite Legends, Young Stars, and of course Veteran Stars.
This was the first extremely high end set that Cutch had ever signed for.
And the cards look awesome!!!!!
There are two different versions to chase.
I have grabbed the emerald vertical numbered to 15.
In addition I have gotten the "base" version of the horizontal numbered to 25 copies.
I think I like this version more as it provides an in game photo.
Where were these cards when Cutch was a member of the Pirates?
