Twitter Hookups in Red & Gold

I got tagged in a few Twitter posts over the past month and it resulted in 4 new cards added to the collection all seen below, all either red or gold cards.

These cards were awesome to add to the collection with half of them being limited to less than 10 copies

Let's take a look at each one and I will thank them each

First up is a card I received PWE from our very own blogger Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop.  This is the red foil 2020 Topps Fire card.

This is the gold foil 2020 Topps Triple Threads numbered 7/9 and features Bat relics and road grey jerseys. Brandon sent me this for an incredible price. Check him out   @bfcoach22 on Twitter.

I will always have a soft spot for gold parallels of Cutch in a Pirates uniform. ALWAYS!  Getting this limited print run (50 copies produced) gold border 1983 design of Cutch from 2018 Topps for $3 via PWE seemed too good to pass up.  Huge thanks to John for the awesome deal and hookup.  Check him out @ _JjOoHhNnZz_ on Twitter.

Topps Chrome is pretty cool.

😎Topps Chrome red parallels of Cutch in a Phillies uniform are cooler. 😎

John aka JohnnyBones aka Dr.Booo hooked me up with this red parallel /5

His twitter is @JohnnXf

*********BONUS CONTENT*********

I received a PWE yesterday after I had already scanned the above 4 cards.

One of my favorite player super collectors is JT aka TripleCrown24.  He has a huge Miguel Cabrera supercollection (over 2500 unique Miggys).  His YouTube channel and good presence on Twitter @itstriplecrown make him a fun follow.

He sent me the above 2013 Bowman Platinum Sapphire parallel.

The back shows how ****ing good Cutch was in his prime.

So there's a few cards I got over the past few weeks all through Twitter.

Thank you to everyone involved.

The Private Signing Purchases

Back in October there was a private signing for Andrew McCutchen put on by Zac Signings and associated with Hunt Auctions.  I jumped at the chance to add some more autographs to the collection.

Zac was awesome to work with

and took pictures of each item being signed during the process.

Here are the closeups of the items I got signed

These are the Pirates related items.

A personalized replica full size helmet

A 2015 MLB All Star Game ball with inscription 1st All Star Game Home Run

A 16x20 photo of Cutch jumping over JT Realmuto

A 2013 MLB The Show Videogame for PS3 with 2013 NL MVP inscription

I will eventually get the 16x20 leaping photo framed along with this, my lone Phillies addition.

The most popular SP flagship card of 2020 in a 16x20 format.

Winning WARriors

The SaveSecondBase event takes a lot of research and planning.  In addition I normally work extra overtime the first few weeks of November (63 hours worked last week!!!).  It's because of these factors that I tend to not ship out prizes until things slow down a bit. I completely forgot to do the randomizer last Friday for the Lou Brock card so I did it today.  

If you remember, I asked everyone to name their favorite War movie to try and win the pink card with the late great Lou Brock.  I was surprised to find out that Lou Brock's WAR stat is basically the same as Andrew McCutchen's current level.

Before I get to show off the winner of the Lou Brock card, I want to show unique card 3,020 in the Cutch supercollection.

Topps has been putting these camo parallels in their sets since 2014.  Some Look better than others, but I have to say that the 2019 camo looks amazing in hand.  No pun intended, but many other years have the camo get hidden so they don't pop so much.  In 2019, the camo is featured all over the card, not just the right and bottom true borders of the card.

The cards were numbered to only 25 copies in 2019, making these one of the rarer parallels to chase from flagship.

All contest winnings will ship this Wednesday so please email me bstryker81 AT gmail.com with your address so I can get the cards to you.

Now to the Lou Brock autograph.

There were 21 valid contestants.

Cardinalsfan16 was on top after the first random

Diamond King was atop after the 2nd

Peter was on top after random 3

Night Owl flew to the top for the 4th random

Swinging in to the top spot on random 5 was Spyda-Man

But in the final random, number six, Jeff Laws rose to the top.

Jeff, please email me your address so I can get this to you.

Thank you to everyone who participated last month.

2 of my favorites: Now and Then

Gary Sheffield was one of my favorite players growing up.  Like him I played 3rd base.  Unlike him I didn't have the strength to put the bat over my head preswing or the bat speed to get the bat barrel to the ball during my swing.

His run at a triple crown in 1992 was so fun to watch the boxscores each day and when he eventually got traded to the Florida Marlins, a young expansion team, I was really taken with rooting for him.

With all the recycled designs these days for Panini Products and Topps products, I thought it might be fun to show off some "comparison time" of my All-Time Favorite player, Andrew McCutchen, and one of my first players I enjoyed collecting, Gary Sheffield.

Today I will look at the Select En Fuego inserts.

En Fuego was an insert from 1996 Select that featured a lot of etched foil with a flame like background and used technology similar to the Dufex stuff in Museum.

The insert series was resurrected in 2013 Select with some etching, a chrome printing process, and a bit of a Refractor look.  It also had 2 parallels to chase (Gold /25 copies and the 1/1 black)

The original 1996 Select En Fuego insert checklist had 25 cards as part of the set.

The 2013 rebranding had a checklist consisting of 30 cards. 

The back of the most recent design features an identical picture to the front with an inverted upside flame on the back.

The original has an additional posed photograph of the player with a flame that at first glance appears to be differwnt than the one used on the front.  The back also features a writeup by Dan Patrick of ESPN fame. 

I will continue with this series in future blog posts (maybe once a month?) if there is interest in it.

Here are some other cards I may look at in the future as I have both a Cutch and Sheff card of each:

Team Pinnacle

Team 2020 vs Team 2000

1991 Studio

1991 Topps

1992 Topps

1994 Topps Finest

If you have any Gary Sheffield cards that you don't want anymore, I will happily take them.

Since Gary Sheffield played on so many teams in his career (many teams with strong followings too) what are your thoughts on him? 

Never Saw It Coming

Justin Verlander had to prematurely end his season in 2020 after pitching only 6 innings and will likely miss all of the 2021 season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

JV has been a workhorse since his debut.

In his 16 year career there has only been 4 seasons he hadn't pitched over 200 innings.  His rookie year he was just a September call up and pitched only 11 innings.  His "sophomore year" he pitched 186 as a 23 year old and won the Rookie of the Year because he still qualified as a rookie under MLB status rules.  In 2015 he appeared on the DL and logged just over 130 innings and ultimately this season he pitched 6 innings of 2 hit, 7 strikeout ball.  

He has solidified himself as a Future Hall of Famer with his consistent approach year after year.

I never saw his injury happening, much like the picture you see below.

I love when athletes do photos like this, taking selfies of themselves without the person wearing their jersey being aware of who is behind them.  The little kid in the picture didn't see it coming.

I had a similar situation pop up in October when I joined Mercari because two people I follow on YouTube had suggested there were great deals on the online marketplace.

I didn't expect to find anything of need because let's face it, I already have over 3,000 unique cards of Andrew McCutchen.

Finding a rare card I didn't have for a reasonable price wasn't something I truly expected to happen. 

Well, like the kid wearing the Justin Verlander tshirt above, I never saw this JV coming into my possession.

Topps Heritage Dual Stamp cards with print runs of 50 copies from a decade ago never pop up for sale on eBay anymore.  

They certainly don't pop up for Justin Verlander and Andrew McCutchen. 

THE LAST RECORDED SALE VIA EBAY SOLD IN 2013

I was very happy when I grabbed a Kendrys Morales stamp with Cutch back in 2018 and that cost me more than this card. 

I didn't think this would hit the market because it applies to so many different collections (player, team, vintage style, set, Heritage master set builders). They certainly wouldn't pop up for $30 delivered either on eBay.

I am very happy with my first Mercari purchase and have used the app to add a few more items to the collection, which I will share with you later.

Adding a 2nd year low print run card of Cutch and a Future Hall of Famer is a pretty awesome 1st purchase. 

Have you used Mercari?

If so have you gotten any rare items that don't pop up on eBay or other frequently used marketplaces?

Let's talk about another pair I saved in October

Allen & Ginter has long been a favorite product for me.  I love the quirkiness of the product by combining baseball players with other celebrities and complete randomness (egg, bitcoin, etc).  It also always has fun inserts to chase that aren't baseball related like historical buildings, ancient animals, political figures, and so much more.  It is a fun product.

By far though, I love the minis and the multiple parallels the most.  

There are still a few parallels that I am chasing, but during the month of October I was able to grab a pair (no pun intended) of Allen & Ginter red backs hand numbered to 25 copies.

2014 was my favorite year for Ginter.  The design is awesome and the image used for Cutch is Cutch in his prime.

2017 should look kinda familar too because just over a week ago I showed off the magenta printing plate for this card.

The back is a very classy looking design as well.

Remember, Remember the 5th Of November

I am a comic book fan, not an advocate for starting any political debate.  

I had never heard of V for Vendetta or Guy Fawkes prior to the release of the movie in 2005.

The movie starred Natalie Portman (Evey) and Hugo Weaving (V) and takes place in a future dystopia.  V is a vigilante with terrorism attacks on his mind to try and change how things are.  The movie is based on the 1982 British comic book by creators Alan Moore (famous for creating The Watchmen) and David Lloyd.

Furthermore I had never read V for Vendetta until I had a rare opportunity to have dinner with one of it's creators, David Lloyd.  He was visiting the United States to promote his upcoming graphic novel and a local comic fan and friend of mine was hosting his visit to New York.  My then girlfriend and I met up with David and my friend and we went to a restaurant in NYC.  David was kind enough to draw the lead character for me (and my then girlfriend) a sketch using only the crayons provided at the table.  

The character V wears a Guy Fawkes mask. 

In the United Kingdom, every November 5th is celebrated as Guy Fawkes night.  Guy Fawkes was arrested in 1605 for guarding explosives that were placed under the House of Lords. People celebrated that King James had survived the attempt on his life by lighting bonfires throughout the country.

I never learned about (at least I don't remember it anyway) any of these gunpowder treasons or assassination attempts when I was in school.  It was only through the movie V For Vendetta that I even heard of Guy Fawkes.  The graphic novel/movie both bring and recite a famous nursery rhyme "Remember, Remember the 5th of November"

I may not know the backstory of Guy Fawkes or the real inspiration of V For Vendetta, but I do know about another Vee Has An Agenda.

Gary Vaynerchuk, or Gary Vee as he is more well known, is a famous investor in sports cards.  He has been hyping some cards up for the past few years and has gone on to predict that the sports card market would see an incredible boost in the next few years.  If this year was any indication, he was right.

I have a few Gary Vee signature cards because he put Andrew McCutchen in as an insert subject for the Topps Direct set made last year around the time of the National.

I was able to get this quick Gary Vaynerchuk Sharpie signature from a reputable source of the McCutchen card.

The back of the card talks about Andrew's love to sketch and draw.  I actually own an original Andrew McCutchen that was done for a celebrity sketches charity a few years ago. I'll have to show it off sometime.

I also own this pair of Topps Certified autographs of Andrew's insert in the set.  The base isn't numbered, but trust me when I saw it is extremely rare.  The red is also very short printed with only 10 copies produced.

Are you familar with the story of Guy Fawkes?

Have you seen V For Vendetta?