McCutchen Mailday #380-387: Sick Sick Patches!!!

I got in 8 packages today loaded with some sick amazing patches of my main PC player. I also added 2 more 1/1 printing plates.

This concludes all the McCutchen cards I was expecting to receive by year's end. I set out with a goal to add 100 new Cutch cards, but in the end, it ended up being nearly 4 times that. 

Unfortunately, my scanner isn't working so I had to take a picture with my phone. I will provide actual scans next year once I can get the scanner working again.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year. My girlfriend and I are living above a pub now so we can save up for a house. It's a little noisy, but at least we should never get in trouble driving from a bar.

I will post a recap of how I did with my 2015 goals tomorrow, but it was a successful year for my cardboard collection.

Just a pair of random relics as the year draws near the end

2015 is coming to an end and I have drastically cut down on my cardboard spending during December.  All said though, i managed to grab some incredible cards this year including nearly 40 1/1s of Cutch, several handsfull of Charlie Morton cards, and even some nice vintage i needed.

Here's a smattering of random relics I picked up recently. It's nothing special, but I do like the unique batting practice cap of Jason Kendall.

Purple Rain!!!!

I purchased a pair of PC additions to the Ke'Bryan Hayes collection by grabbing these purple parallels from 2014 Leaf Perfect Game numbered 2/10 and 8/10 respectively.

The pair cost me $35 shipped.

I still haven't added any of the Bowman Chrome draft autos yet as they're still over priced in my mind.

McCutchen Mailday #379: The Show must go on...

In my quest to add 100 new Cutch cards to the PC this year, I went a little overboard by adding nearly 400 unique cards of the 5x All-Star and current face of the Pirates franchise to the collection.  Nearly 10% of them were 1/1s and nearly 20% were relics/autos.  That's insane numbers for any PC.

With less than a week left and a handful of cards still expected to arrive, I may come close to hitting 390 cards by year's end which will put me within 10 cards of 1,000 unique cards of Cutch.

My most recent addition is a sick patch of Cutch from 2013 Triple Threads numbered 1/3.

The card says "The Show" which Cutch was the cover star for the 2013 video game.

Merry Christmas to All!!!!

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends out there.

I didn't get a lot of cardboard for Christmas this year, but I did get this awesome booklet card of current Penguins defenseman, Olli Maatta.  Olli is quickly becoming one of my favorite Penguins and I had not had an autographed card of him until today.

Thanks to my lovely girlfriend, I now own an autograph and sweater swatch of the young upcoming Dman.

Again I wish everyone out there a Happy and Safe and Merry Christmas!

McCutchen Mailday #375, 376, 377, and 378: Some early gifts

Here's some recent early Christmas gifts to myself

All three are low numbered parallels.  The Orange Factory Set cards are extremely tough to find despite being numbered to over 200 copies.  Many collectors don't open their sets to discover who is in their mystery orange pack

I also received this jersey relic for being a good customer to an ebay seller this year

Freddy makes it official

It's been a few days since my last post and that's because I have been super busy getting caught up on everything going on for the holidays, recovering from a car accident, and just dealing with many hours of work that were needed to get back on track.

It was announced today that Freddy Sanchez has officially retired. He last played in a game back in 2012 so this is clearly just a formality.

I thought it would be proper to highlight a few of my cards of the former NL Batting Champion and 3x AllStar

When I first got back into collecting, I thought the card above with Nate McLouth and Freddy Sanchez was the coolest thing ever. Now I can find cards like that for $1. Oh well....at least the patch of Freddy is cool on the Topps Unique.

McCutchen Mailday #254-374 over 100 new Cutch cards in a single mailday

I took advantage of many sellers discounts for Black Friday thru Cyber Monday and added over 100 new Cutch cards in a single purchase.  In addition to adding all those Cutch cards, I grabbed a few Kent Tekulve oddball cards, a few AJ parallels and the biggest Charlie Morton card in my collection (a 5x7 red 2015 numbered /10)

My goal for 2015 was to add 100 new Cutch cards to the PC and I absolutely destroyed that goal by almost quadrupling it.  I managed to grab 100 new additions on a single day for around $1.20 a piece.  While none of the new cards added were big dollar "hits" I did add a few really nice ones.

Amongst them were two manurelics from 2015 Topps.
The First Home Runs medallion and MLB Logo Pin

I also added my first Asian exclusive Topps Museum card which is the Turquoise variant numbered to 50

A few more 2009 Bowman Chrome rookies were added including the XFractor.  I also couldn't pass up adding the Polar Bear back T206 Mini to the collection

All in all, 39 of the new acquisitions are of the numbered variety.  Overall, it was a terrific haul of cards that puts me with sites of 1,000 unique Cutch cards being an early goal for 2016. 

The Force Treys Back

In honor of Star Wars opening today, I did my part to contribute a Star Wars theme title (even though it doesn't make sense).

 

 

Late last night the Pirates announced that they had acquired Jason Rogers from their division rivals, Milwaukee Brewers, for two minor league players Keon Broxtron and Trey Supak.

I quickly looked up Rogers numbers because I had only briefly heard of him. His numbers, while a small sample size, aren't that bad. He looks to have good plate discipline batting .280 - .300 over his career in the minors and brief stint in the majors. He's a Cardinals killers. And best of all he has limited versatility in the field being able to play 1B, 3B, and LF. The Pirates shouldn't ever need to play anyone besides Marte or Harrison at LF next year and 3B has some good depth with Kang, Harrison, Rodriguez, and likely Hanson. First base however is just a placement holder until top position prospect, Josh Bell makes his debut midseason.

 

In giving up Broxtron, the Pirates lost a valuable 4th outfielder who plays solid defense at all 3 outfield positions and runs like a gazelle on the basepaths.  I doubt he will hurt the team much for the competition.

 

The unproven early round 2014 draft pick Trey Supak, is what could potentially hurt the Pirates long term. As a 19 year old making his pro debut last year, Supak pitched to solid results. I quickly set out to grab a few of his Bowman Chrome autos graded 9.5 and hold them hoping he might blossom into a Tyler Glasnow, Noah Singergaard type pitching prospect. In the midst of all the Cutch cards I added to the PC this year, continuing the rainbow fell apart.

 

After seeing this trade, I'm glad I didn't pursue any others.

 

Good luck to Trey and Keon in their new organization, but I hope they're both terrible against the Pirates for many years to come.

 

As for Mr Rogers, I hope he's in the neighborhood of being above average until Josh Bell is ready to win the NL Rookie of the Year.

 

On a completely other note, the Pirates announced that they have signed free agent pitcher Ryan Vogelsong to a one year contract.  The deal was for $2 million with up to $3 million being available in incentives.  I think that this could be a stellar signing for the Pirates. 

 

The additions of Rogers and Vogelsong on paper don't look to be better than what the Cubs have done by adding Zobrist, Heyward, and Lackey but the Pirates and Neal Huntington have proven that you don't win games by splashy off season moves. 

Eh, what's up Dock?

I purchased an IP auto of Dock Ellis

It was purchased from a stadium vendor the same night as my birthday bash in Bradenton back in September.

If you haven't seen No-No: A Dockumentary on Netflix, I strongly suggest you check it out.

McCutchen Mailday #251, 252, and 253: 3 MORE 1/1s

I have already added an insane amount of Andrew McCutchen cards to my collection this year.
I've even added almost 40 1/1s to the PC this year.  That would be exciting for any collector.  However, I really think that I have outdone myself with this recent group of cards I have purchased.

I got in contact with a seller who has dealt me some nice Cutch cards in the past that he's won in group breaks and beaten me on eBay a few times.  I was trying to win a triple booklet of Cutch's All-Star sleeve from 2015 Triple Threads but ended up losing it.  Patience proved to be a virtue as after a few months, I was able to acquire from the winning bidder.

This card (along with it's custom case I will never remove it from) is now the highlight of my Cutch collection.

Behold the beauty of a 1/1 triple booklet All Star Sleeve patch!!!

The customized red case really makes this card pop.

This is what it looked like before putting it in the custom case

Also from the same seller were two other nice 1/1s including only my 2nd button in the collection

Oh and another letter...

McCutchen Mailday #250: Another Logoman!!!!

I started the year with 0 Andrew McCutchen logoman cards.

I will end it with 3, maybe 4 depending on the expediency of holiday shipping.

The first two can be seen here and here

Throughout the year, I have managed to grab some absolutely astonishing cards of Cutch and I think that my PC of Cutch may be one of the best out there. 

Unlike the other Cutch cards I have, this one we do know where the relic is from.

Be sure to check out the rest of my Cutch pickups I will be showing off this week. With only a bit over two weeks left in the year, I am finally almost entirely caught up with the Cutch cards I have received this year.

McCutchen Maiday #249: The Card I have always wanted produced is finally mine

Over the past few years, the Pirates have been sending multiple players to the All-Star game.  Topps usually produces cards with multiple players from the same team as a part of their Update series getting the All-Star relic treatment.

This year alone, I have acquired some of those cards.

Cutch with JHay (Tony Watson and Mark Melancon were both All-Stars too)
Cutch with Grilli and Alvarez (Jeff Locke was also an All-Star)

There has never been a card produced that featured all the players (Clint Hurdle isn't a current player) on the same card with a jersey relic until...well, they still haven't!!!!

Even without Mark the Shark Melancon on this card, it still rocks!!!

Cutch, AJ, and the Cole Train all together with images from the All-Star game and AJ's photo from when he was announced at PNC Park that he was going to the 2015 All-Star game.

These three guys (and of course Charlie Morton) are my favorite Buccos.  I am so happy to have a card that features all of them together with jersey relics that match their 2015 Warmup threads.

A few more Ke'Bryan sticker autos

Here's a few more Ke'Bryan Hayes sticker autographs I grabbed about a few months ago.

Not too shabby for about $20 for the lot. Bowman draft just came out and I will be seeking to add the rainbow to my collection.

A Small Piece of me died today

I have been a Charlie Morton super collector for about 6 years now.

I had the chance to go to PiratesFest today, but didn't want to make the trip as there was only one autograph session that struck my fancy and that one include Josh Harrison and Charlie Morton.  A few minutes after the doors were opened to the public, it was announced that Charlie Morton was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for a 34th round 23 year old who struggled in A ball last year.

I have been a huge advocate in trusting Neal Huntington's plan and none of the prior trades quite stung like this one. I lived through him trading Jason Bay, Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, Jose Bautista, Joel Hanrahan, Jason Grilli, etc.  All of those guys were some of my favorites.

This one stings bad though. 

I don't imagine many Pirates fans are upset nearly as much as I am.  Charlie wasn't the best player on the team.  He finished his Pirates career with replacement level numbers.  The Pirates have a trio of young pitchers in AAA that are recovering from injuries and will look to have some impact on the Pirates season next year. 

Two weeks ago on Black Friday, I made a large purchase on COMC for a ton of Cutch cards I needed along with a few Kent Tekulve cards, but quite literally the biggest purchase was a 2015 5x7 Topps Red parallel numbered 8/10 that I bought for $7.  A few days later I located a Topps Mini Black parallel numbered 10/10 that I snagged for $5 delivered.

The size difference between these two cards didn't matter much to their asking price.  I imagine that Charlie will still get some Topps love in 2016 Topps Series 2 or Update wearing a Phillies uniform.

Today though....

It feels like a part of my collection is dead.

Let's remember Charlie's time with the Bucs with some of my better Charlie cards (all the 1/1s I have)