McCutchen Mailday #27 & 28: 2015 Topps Is Here!!!

I'm going to be like Quentin Tarantino and go to the future and tell you the present before I tell you the past.  Did you follow that McFly?

2015 Topps has been out for a few weeks now and I managed to join a jumbo case group break for $20.  I didn't get any major hits, but did get a few parallels (including a rainbow foil Charlie Morton WOOT WOOT!!!).  I'll show them off in April most likely. Why not sooner you ask? Well because March is Going Green!

Back to the subject of this post...on the Cutch front all I got was the base of card number 127 along with the Inspired Play with Willie Stargell.

Cutch also appears on card number 271 for the Pittsburgh Pirates team card.

I don't consider that to be a Cutch card though because his name isn't on the front of the card.  Gregory Polanco and Josh Harrison join Cutch in the outfield celebrating a Buccos Win.

My Go Green Event starts tomorrow in which I will showcase only green, emerald, and lime cards leading up to St Patty's Day.  I hope you all are ready to "Go Green" in March.  Obviously I'm very far ahead of my goal to add 100 new Cutch cards to the collection since I have 28 new Cutches in my collection through the first two months (although only 18 have technically been shown off prior to this post).

The Final Card to the Reverse Box

I had committed $279 towards my 2014 National Treasures Reverse Box approaching my final card.  Each box of National Treasures features 8 cards for $425 with the guarantee of 4 autographs and 1 booklet.

I set out to do something incredible by not only adding some of the Pirates young future, but also remembering the history of the Bucs with Hall of Famers while keeping every card to less than 50 copies.

My latest on card addition is of future ace Gerrit Cole.  It's my 29th unique autograph of the former UCLA #1 overall pick.  It's my second Cole auto used in the reverse box so I kind of feel like I cheated a little, but my rules were simple.
1)Keep the box under $425 while following the standard National Treasures ratio
2)Every card must be a member of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club
3)Every card must be under 50 copies

Using those rules, I fully complied with what I set out to do and kept under budget by $131.

I will now use my $131 savings to see what else I can come up with.

EVERYTHING I HAVE ACQUIRED SO FAR CAN BE SEEN BELOW

Roberto Clemente bat relic 6/25

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet 7/10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey 32/49

Jameson Taillon Jersey Patch 2/25

Gregory Polanco Colossal Prime Jersey Patch 14/25

Bill Mazeroski On Card Autograph Hall of Fame 2/10

Paul Waner Diamond 12/20

Listen to this dog, it's mad!!!!

Bill "Mad Dog" Madlock was an incredible ballplayer in the 70s and  80s.  He was a member of the 1979 World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, but also said one of the dumbest things ever.

"Two grand slams in a week - man, that's seven or eight ribbies right there."

Topps produced a line of relic cards in their Bazooka series in 2004 and several Pirates have cards in the set.  I showed off the Willie Stargell 3 years ago which you can see here.  I grabbed the foiled version you see above numbered 19/25 for $12.  It's my 8th unique bat relic of the 4 time Batting Title champion.

McCutchen Mailday #18: 2014 Finest Competitors Red Numbered /10

The latest Cutch to the collection in my pursuit of 100 new Cutch cards in 2015 is a very low numbered red parallel from 2014 Topps Finest.

The Finest Competitors were one of the rarer of the inserts in Topps Finest with the red parallel being the rarest (only 10 copies exist) besides the Superfractor.  I really liked the design of the card and knew that I wanted to add it to my collection so I got caught up in a bidding war which rendered me a loss of $42 in my wallet.

The back of the card shows his most recent year's stats along with career totals which is a normal Topps standard. It also goes into detail about how good Cutch has been over the past 2 seasons (2012 and 2013).  If it were to discuss his 2014 totals, I would expect the numbers to be even better.

I may chase the rainbow of this card since their are several color parallels of it and I like the 1997 throwback design.

Tony Tuesday: I struck gold!!!

For under $2 I was able to win a low numbered gold parallel of Tony's 2014 chrome update card.

Couldn't be happier with this purchase.  I just don't know where Tony fits into the Pirates plans for the 2015 season.  With Spring Training starting up, maybe we will get some answers soon.

Remembering Oscar Taveras

I don't know why it has taken me so long to post this dual autograph of two of the NL's top outfield prospects heading into the 2014 season, but thought with Spring Training just around the corner it was now appropriate.  St. Louis announced last week that they plan to wear a number patch on their uniform in 2015 to honor the late Oscar Taveras.  Heading into Spring Training last year, both Taveras and Polanco looked like they would be competing against one another not only for top NL outfield prospect, but potential Rookie of the Year candidates.  Add in that they are division rivals and nearly the same skill set and age and it seemed like these young potential superstars could be forever linked to one another.

Sadly in late October the link between Taveras and Polanco was broken when Oscar passed away from a car accident resulting from him being 5 times the legal alcohol limit while driving.  I'm torn on if honoring Taveras is the right thing to do.  His untimely death appears to be self induced and because of that he took the life of his teenage girlfriend as well.  

Polanco has been given the right field job when the Pirates traded away Travis Snider in the offseason.  I suspect that Gregory will be a good rightfielder, but I truly think that Andrew Lambo is going to be the breakout star for the Pirates in 2015.  

The dual autograph represents my only Oscar Taveras autograph in my collection and it was purchased the day of his passing with a best offer in the $50 range.  I wasn't a big fan of Topps Supreme, but using these two subjects on the card together was a good idea by Topps.  National Treasures has also since linked these two players together for their dual jumbo patch booklets.

I recently grabbed another card featuring both players at a local mall card show.  I snagged it for $2 which I thought was a pretty good deal considering how much these things go for online.

From 2014 Bowman Chrome is a Dual-ing Die Cuts.

I got a (spring) Fever and the only cure is....

BUY MORE MCCUTCHENS!!!!
I plan to add many more over the coming months as I approach my Quest for 100 new Cutch cards to the collection.

This 2014 Spring Fever ran me $1 last year, but I've been waiting several months to show it off because quite simply I needed to get in the spring mindset.

Welcome Back Baseball!!!! I've missed you...

A Real Diamond Gem in my Reverse Box

I've been showing off some incredible cards for my 2014 National Treasures Reverse Box.  The card I'm going to show off today is a true gem though (pun intended).

Randomly inserted in packs of 2014 National Treasures are gem cards of some of the game's greatest ball players of All-Time.  Each card features an actual diamond or emerald inside the card.

For $45 I grabbed a Paul Waner diamond numbered 12/20.

The back of the card authenticates the diamond as real so I may have gotten a major savings on that.  LOL!

This marks my 7th card of the reverse box and brings my box total to $279.  That leaves $146 for the remaining autograph of my reverse box. HINT: I'M WAAAAYYYY UNDER THE AMOUNT.


Other cards I have shown already in my reverse box of /50 copies and all Pirates include
2 Hall of Famer autographs (Stargell and Mazeroski)
1 Hall of Famer bat relic (Clemente)
1 Hall of Fame jumbo bat relic (Stargell)
2 patches of the Pirates youth movement (Taillon & Polanco)
1 Jumbo Jersey Relic and On Card Autograph of one of baseball's top young pitchers (Gerrit Cole)
EVERYTHING CAN BE SEEN BELOW

Roberto Clemente bat relic 6/25

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet 7/10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey 32/49

Jameson Taillon Jersey Patch 2/25

Gregory Polanco Colossal Prime Jersey Patch 14/25

Bill Mazeroski On Card Autograph Hall of Fame 2/10

McCutchen Mailday #17: 2012 Topps Chrome Dyanamic Die Cuts

One of my 2015 collecting goals was to add 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to my collection that I previously didn't have.  In order to achieve this goal, I would have to add an average of 8.3 new Cutch cards to the collection each month.  I am ahead for the goal and actually have several more already scheduled for post in March's Go Green month.

The latest die-cut to join the Quest is a 2012 Topps Chrome Dynamic Die Cuts that ran me $2.20 delivered.  The card is certainly a Die Cut, but I wouldn't classify the design as dynamic.  It looks more like randomly cutting edges for no reason.

The back of the card discusses many of Cutch's tools.  It notes him being a 20-20 player with good speed and some pop, and the ability to play great defense (lead all NL outfielders with 414 putouts in 2011).

McCutchen Mailday #15 & 16: A Pair of 2014 Topps Chromes

One of my 2015 goals was to add 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to my collection.  In my quest for 100, I have been snagging some pretty cheap parallels online lately.  My latest is a pair of 2014 Topps Chromes that cost me $6 delivered for both.

The Orange isn't numbered, but the blue is numbered to 199.

With just over a week to go for February I am hitting my target of adding on average 9 new Cutch cards to the collection each month.

On Card HOF AUTO: National Treasures Reverse Box Update #6

For the past month I have been showing off my reverse box of 2014 National Treasures and I have already shown some incredible cards.  I will recap them all at the end of this post.

My latest addition of National Treasures is an on card autograph numbered to 10 of Hall of Fame Second Baseman and the only player to ever have a walk off Home Run in Game 7 of a World Series, Bill Mazeroski.

I've shown a handful of Maz autographs on this blog before with my most recent being a sketch card autograph last November.  The last On Card Auto I showed of Maz was from way back in 2013.

The back of the card talks about his dramatic World Series Home Run.

The above low numbered logoless on card autograph ran me $42 delivered which was under budget and brings my total to $234 for the $425 box.  I need 1 more autograph and 1 more auto/relic/or gem hit to complete my 8 card reverse box.  As previously stated once I complete the reverse box, I will just pick up cards I like until I reach the $425 limit.

Other cards I have shown already in my reverse box of /50 copies and all Pirates include

Roberto Clemente bat relic 6/25

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet 7/10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey 32/49

Jameson Taillon Jersey Patch 2/25

Gregory Polanco Colossal Prime Jersey Patch 14/25

"The Greatest Day" STARRING RUSSELL MARTIN!!!

The best words a baseball fan can hear "Pitchers and Catchers report today"

Russell Martin, despite having only a short term part of the Pirates history, may be easily one of the top 5 catchers the organization has ever known.  Manny Sanguillen and Jason Kendall will obviously be above him and a lot of fans have fond memories of Tony Pena and Mike LaVaillere, but in a very short time (2 seasons), Russ helped to reunite an entire city with their love of baseball.

I'm going to miss not seeing him be the backstop for the black and gold this year.  I purchased the above printing plate earlier in the year for under the price of a blaster.

It goes well with my Tony Sanchez black printing plate I showed in January.

King Kang is Coming!!!!!

When it was announced that the Pirates had won the exclusive right to negotiate contract terms wtih Korean baseball megastar, Jun Ho Kang, I immediately started my research into the card industry to see what was out there.

Wouldn't you know that 30 minutes from my house, a seller was selling some cards of the Korean star in lots for around $8 each.  I thought hell yeah!!!! I'm gonna add me some of these even if they aren't official.   I wanted to be one of the first to show them off.

Well, here they are!!!!

Baseball is literally just around the corner this week.

McCutchen Monday: Getting Tek'd out again

Earlier in the month I showed off a very rare Andrew McCutchen 2014 Topps Tek Tektonics card that I purchased in 2015.  Also this year, I showed off 3 Gregory Polanco Topps Tek cards I purchased.  Here's the card that I fell in love with at the end of last year that started my Topps Tek short lived craze.

I don't know what it was about this card, but when I first saw it on ebay at the end of December I knew it had to be mine.  I received it on New Year's Eve and have been patiently waiting to add it to the blog until I thought the time was right.  Since I don't want to show off any of the major purchases yet of the other Cutch cards I've had in my possession before 2014 ended, I thought this was an appropriate time.  WOW!!! That was terrible English.  Oh well...enjoy the card.

McCutchen Mailday #14: 2009 Topps t206 Bronze

The Quest for 100 carries on as I have begun to fill in some older holes in the Cutch collection by adding this 2009 t206 Bronze card to my collection for $1.99 delivered.  Not a bad price to pay for a rookie card of one of the best outfielders in the game today. I almost forget what Cutch looked like predreads.

The front and back of the card feature many of the old printing techniques that Topps has used recently with their Gypsy Queen, Allen & Ginter, Turkey Red, Heritage cards.  They are printed on non glossy stock with a vintage feel.

The back of the card discusses McCutchen's debut in the majors when he hit .329 and hit safely in 18 of his first 20 games in 2009. The "stain" on the card can be seen on all versions of the card.

Keep snowing!!!

Just a random LeSean McCoy 2014 Father's Day Elements card for another snowy day in New Jersey.

Stay safe!

$5 gamble? Dual Auto of Austin Meadows and Reese McGuire

I normally don't buy non certified autographs online unless they come from a respected source that I have personally dealt with in person.  However, when the Pirates two 1st Round draft picks of 2013 ended up on the same card as in person autographs for $5 I just couldn't pass it up.

The seller lives not too far from me and claims that he got both of them at a West Virginia Power game.  That makes sense as their are several teams that play the Power within a two hour drive.

I seriously think the autos are real, but even if they aren't it's a nice looking card with some cursive writing and nice pen marks of two of baseball's top prospects.  I'll take that gamble every time for $5.

Reverse Boxin: Update #5 SICK SICK PATCH OF GREGORY POLANCO

I just showed off a nice 2 color jersey from Jameson Taillon, but it fails in comparison to this colossal jersey of sophomore right fielder Gregory Polanco.

The above prime jersey patch of "El Coffee" ran me under $19 and brings my total for the reverse box to $192 with 3 cards left in the reverse box (2 more autos and 1 more auto, relic, or gem hit.)  The prime jersey patch looks like it could be part of the number 5 which would be awesome!!!!

I think that once I complete the reverse box I will just continue adding cards of players I like until I reach that $425 limit ignoring the under 50 rule.

To recap my other items in the reverse box featuring only Pirates and only cards numbered to 50 or fewer copies see below

Roberto Clemente bat relic /25

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet /10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey /49

Jameson Taillon Jersey Patch /25