Chasing Unicorns among a Swag Frenzy

I have a few cards on my want list and I also have a few cards that I feel will never be attainable (2005 Bowman Chrome 1st Bowman Superfractor).

Last year I gave a list of cards that I wanted to focus on trying to get this year and I have been able to knock a few of them off in only half a year.  You can revisit that post here.

In the hours towards the end of the ESPN created Cutch SP Frenzy I had an auction ending.  I was able to secure a card that I coveted in my top 10 list and it ended for a very reasonable price.

Be hold, the glory of a Home Run Clear Vision card from 2013 Pinnacle.

Each positional player had 5 cards available for the Clear Visions Insert Set.

They varied in terms of rarity with Cycle being the hardest to get as it was a 1/1.  Singles are the easiest and fell in every couple packs (on average 1:5).  They got rarer with the more difficult a hit.  Doubles, Triples, and Home Runs round out the parallels to chase.  A Home Run parallel fell one per case on average.

This completes the non 1/1 rainbow.
Despite no logos I love this insert set and it has taken me 7 years to acquire the HR parallel which makes the hunt even more satisfying that it is complete.

I was able to get this card for only $14.55 during the late hours of the Cutch Swag Frenzy.

I will show off some other of my Frenzy SP Challenge cards tomorrow, but wanted to highlight this card in it's own post as it has been 7 years, a pandemic, and an ESPN tweet Swag SP buying frenzy to able to acquire and check it off.

Man am I super pumped about this card.

There aren't any other unicorns that I caught, but there are still plenty more awesome cards I grabbed in that crazy weekend of $250+ SP Cutch cards.

Some Rules Are Black & White

Andrew McCutchen opened up about his brief time in New York and said that their hair policy takes away players indivuality.  The article can be found on various platforms, but is available here via Fox Sports.

The Yankees have a very clear, no grey area policy regarding their hair policy. 

Even with the lack of his beard and shorter locks, Cutch made it known that he still liked having fun in New York.

He did say that he enjoyed his time in New York and considered it an honor to wear the pinstripes.

Cutch SP Challenge Day 3: Immaculate Savings

Day 3 of the 2020 SP Cutch Frenzy Challenge delivered an awesome card for the Cutch collection that I didn't already have.  It was an immaculate haul and helped offset some of the prices I overpaid for the two 2020 parallels (vintage and fathers day blue) due to the relatively new release.

If you aren't familar with my 2020 SP Frenzy Challenge I took the funds available that could have been spent on buying the 2020 SP Cutch "swag" photo variant and instead used it to buy items I needed for my Cutch collection.  The real challenge was I could only buy cards at the height of the SP Frenzy when they were going for $200-$300 regularly.  This all occurred between the evening of June 27th to the morning of June 30th.  Roughly 48 hours was the stretch of this card going for on average $250.

I was able to knock out 1 card on my top 10 list during that time and also was able to add an on card autograph too.  These are both pretty sweet adds to the collection if you asked me.

I had the 1/1 version of the autograph you're going to see below, but being able to add another on card autograph with a print run of ONLY 5 COPIES to the collection seemed like a good move.

People can hate on Panini for not having logos, but when they choose images like this, it's not as noticeable as other images they choose to use. The piping is still noticable on the pants for the team colors and the helmet is turned at a way that you can't tell the "P" is missing.

The card was purchased through an eBay auction via Seven Out Cards & Collectibles

It came shipped incredibly well and I highly recommend them for any future auctions they have.

The card ran me $38.25 delivered.
This brings the totals for the SP Frenzy Challenge to $83.14

That may sound like a lot of money (and it is), but that is still only ONE THIRD the price the 2020 SP Cutch card was getting at the height of the frenzy.  I still had over $160 to play with for getting cards I need during the SP Frenzy Challenge.  I'm still waiting on my COMC order (obviously) and about a dozen other eBay purchases to roll in.

Cutch SP Challenge Day 2

I got some more packages in the mail Friday and they all relate to the 2020 SP Frenzy Challenge.

I said I wouldn't go after the SP and pay $275 for one card that on average could be available 1 in every 7 packs.

Nope.

Not gonna do it!

I did grab a foilboard parallel from 2020 Big League release though.

It cost me $3.25

Did you know that only 100 of these Foilboard cards exist? Only 3 have sold.

Did you know that there is likely 2,000+ of the McCutchen SP out there?  87 have already sold on eBay

Which one should have the ridiculous premium attached to it?

I also grabbed the 2020 Topps Finest Bryan Reynolds "The Man" insert.  This insert card has a nice layer of pink which I think could come in handy for October.

It has an Andrew McCutchen cameo on the back.

And...it only cost $2.65 shipped.

I also snagged another 2020 parallel I needed.

This is the gold parallel numbered to 2,020 copies (similar print run as the SP everyone is chasing)

This card cost me only $1.99

Yesterday's mail day cost only $7.89.  I feel like I got better value out of these cards than the father's day and vintage stock from Wednesday.

That brings the total to $44.89 for these 5 cards.  Not great, but the two best cards will really bring the prices down for the wntire project.

Happy 4th of July

I got quite a few packages in the mail yesterday, but unfortunately I am going to interrupt the Cutch SP Frenzy Challenge to show off one of the coolest On Card Autograph Patches I have in my collection.

It's America's Birthday so let's celebrate!

That is a 2019 Topps Tier 1 Prodigious Patches on card autograph of Cutch.

It is numbered to only 5 copies.

It features a game worn patch from the 4th of July game between the Giants and Rockies in 2018.

The Rockies and Giants were having a pitching duel and Rockies pitchers held the Giants to only 2 hits through 8 innings and only 2 walks during that time as well (one was McCutchen).  With the Rox winning 1-0 and with two outs in the top of the 9th up stepped McCutchen to rope a single and keep the game alive for Giants fans.

 Buster Posey then walked advancing Cutch to second base (I couldn't find any images of Posey's 9th inning at bat on Getty Images)

Ultimately Brandon Belt lined out to right field ending the game and pushing the Giants and Rockies into a virtual tie for second place in the division on the main summer holiday.

I have a few other jersey patches that show off pieces of this jersey, but this one is by far the biggest of them.  I like that you can see the grey away jersey along with the massive patch of Americana.

What kind of cards do you have in your collection that celebrate America's Birthday?

Any USA Cards, cards with 4th of July uniforms, any cards with big American Flags on them?  Show them off and leave a link to it in the comment section below.

Did I Do That?

While I was scanning in my first wave of the Cutch SP 2020 Challenge cards, I noticed something...different about the backs of the cards I had acquired on the same day.

This got me thinking back to a few months ago when Topps posted on Twitter about the vintage logo Topps currently used for their vintage parallel.

I doubt I changed the production, but feel like I may have actually made Topps aware of their laziness with my posts.

This was the original tweet.

It's actually a good question because in my research I dont see Topps using that logo for their base sets for any year.

I responded with why don't they make the vintage backs appear more vintage like when they were a Target exclusive.

Two other Twitter trolls tried to argue that they do make vintage stock, but I put them in place when I showed this picture comparing the backs which look identical sans a serial number.

I don't have any 2020 Series 1 to compare if the backs are the same colors for base and vintage, but I can confirm that they are different in Series 2, well at least Andrew McCutchen is.

As you can see the vintage design (on top) numbered to 99 copies is darker than the blue parallel (under) numbered to 50 copies.

This is what I was hoping for when I made those tweets.  Make the vintage have a more vintage, less glossy, darker card back than any of the traditional cards.



Does anyone know the history of the Topps "umbrella logo"?

What year was it actually printed on the cards?

The First Wave Arrived Today

Over the weekend sales of the McCutchen SP went from $60 to almost $400 in less than 24 hours.  It was absolutely insane to see the hype and frenzy that surrounded that card all due to ESPN, Cutch, and Dick Allen's tweets.

I never put much into social media influencers and thought it was all a scam, but damn if I didn't see something like it first hand.

The average price of the cards at their highest selling point was almost $275.

Similar pricing spikes occurred around Memorial Day for the Project 2020 cards.

I refused to pay over $200 and certainly not  $275 for a Short Print photo variant

For
A
Card
That
Comes
1:7 Packs

Mind blown!!!!

Rather than use that money to be caught up in the here and now, I used it to only buy Cutch cards I needed from COMC, eBay, sportlots, and artist sites.

Over the course of the next week (I'm guessing) I will show off the cards and items I bought during that 24 hour frenzy.

Some of them I have been after for a LOOOOOONG TIME.  I will provide screenshots of the receipts too.

One of the cards is a unicorn I've been chasing for 7 years!

Now let me preface and say that I overpaid for some of these cards.  This isn't how I normally collect, but I wanted the challenge to be genuine and only purchase cards over the weekend of the frenzy.

The first batch came today and it's a pair of 2020 Topps Series 2 parallels.

On the left is the Father's Day variant numbered to 50 copies.  I really like the baby blue color on this card in particular because it matches up nicely with the Powder Blue uniform of the Phillies.

Speaking of powder blue uniforms, I also got the vintage stock and logo parallel.

This parallel is numbered to only 99 copies.

First 2 cards
$37.00