Sunday, December 4, 2016

Art of shameless promotions

I mentioned a few days ago that I was doing away with this blog as I am only going to be collecting Andrew McCutchen cards (and misc items) and filling in my vintage needs going forward.

If you havent already added my new blog Collecting Cutch please do so now and read about my journey to collect all of Cutch's parallels, autographs, relics, magazines, etc going forward.


Friday, December 2, 2016

Time to move on?

It's been a long time since I made a post.
There are many reasons for that, mostly my collecting habits have grown stale. I am no longer looking to add as many Pirates parallels, autographs, and possibly worn relics I can find.

It used to be fun for me to prospect the Pirates, find loads of Evan Meek cards and Ian Snell autographs. It's not fun anymore. Austin Meadows and Kevin Kramer low numbered autographs are selling for more than a Robrrto Clemente rookie. That's stupid!

Collect what you want to collect, right?

For a longtime I considered myself a Supercollector of Charlie Morton. While my Morton collection is still very strong, I lost a lot of interest once hewas traded to the Phillies.

In the absence of grabbing EVERY Charlie Morton card, my collection has almost exclusively shifted to adding new Andrew McCutchen cards. Cutch is the single most defining player I have ever collected.

To put into perspective how intense my Cutch PC has gotten over the past several seasons, I now have more unique cards of Cutch (1,380) than he has MLB hits (1,304). If he wasn't a 5 time All-Star, 4 time Top5 MVP candidate, 4 time Silver Slugger Winner, 2013 MVP, 2012 Golden Glove Winner, 2015 Roberto Clemente Award Winner, etcetc etc I would say it's no big deal.

But here's The Truth!

Cutch is a big deal.
He will return to being an elite player next season....in a Pirates uniform or not.

I stated above that I am changing my collecting habits and because of that I am doing away with this blog.

Please follow me at my new blog Collecting Cutch. That is where all my future posts will be made as I am strictly looking to only Collect Cutch going forward and maybe one day fill in the holes of my vintage needs.

Below is my most recent Cutch addition

 Triple booklet, jumbo patch 1/1 with 2 Team Logo sleeve patches of Jung Ho Kang and Gerrit Cole along with the P from the Pirates 71 Throwback jerseys.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #137-142: 3 more relics, 2 minis, and a color swap

On the 12th day of April, the mailman gave to me...
3 Jersey Relics



2 tiny minis


And a Color Swap from Her-i-tage

I'm still so far behind with updating the blog as you can clearly tell by this late post.

I never expected to be this far behind with updating the blog. Nearly 4 months of Cutch cards have to be updated still.


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #135 + 136: Case break results

I joined a case break of 2016 Gypsy Queen and received a base card of Cutch along with a photo variant mini.

I also grabbed several other cards including several photo variant minis.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #130-134: more rookies, relics, and photo variants

I joined a Gypsy Queen case break in hopes of hitting some Cutch parallels or maybe a big Clemente hit. Neither happened so I ended up using some extra eBay bucks on the cards you see below.

Up first is this 2005 Heritage red back mini.

Next up is the 2016 Gypsy Queen photo variant along with the Copper parallel of MLB Debut and a Spring Fever card from 2016.

The final card received is a Donruss Bat Kings relic from 2015.

As I type this on the 102nd day of the year (April 11th) I am on pace for hitting the 400 mark of adding new Cutch cards to the PC.
As you can see I will be very far behind with my blogging as life gets in the way.

I am 4 months behind posting. While I have definitely slowed down with buying Cutch cards, I have still added over 225 new cards to the PC so far this year with some big ones recently added (8 new 1/1s and more on the way).

Monday, August 8, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #129: It's Majestic

It's not everyday that a Majestic jumbo relic of Cutch pops up, but when one does, I try to not waste time.

Very excited to add this to my Cutch collection.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #127 + 128: I struck gold!!!

I've shown off a few Topps Tribute Forever Young relics recently.
This gold /15 is my most recent
I also grabbed another parallel for 2016 Donruss

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Starling Marte Kanji

This is just an awesome looking card.

I have been wanting one of these Asia Exclusive Kanji cards.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Another Ryan Doumit 1/1 Frenzy

 
For whatever reason, Ryan Doumit was one of my favorite players during the late 2000s before leaving to join the Twins.  He always seemed to hit clutch when the Pirates were playing meaningless baseball in June because the team was already on their way to another 90+ loss season.

This lot of cards was purchased for $30 and includes a rare 1/1 plate. Most plates of Doumit don't make it to the secondary market for whatever reason. This might be the 4th I've seen since I began collecting him in 2009.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #116-119: A bunch of low number relics and parallels

I love nice looking color parallels from Topps Tribute. Seeing these two /35 and /25 for around $30 was just too nice to pass up.

I've been grabbing Heritage parallels so I snagged a blue back 51' Collection for a couple bucks.

I love minis and getting mini parallels of Cutch continues to be one of my big goals for this year.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #114: Black is Back!

Like I said last week, I have been buying up Cutch parallels from Heritage like crazy. The latest addition is this black chrome from 2014 Heritage. I had made arrangements to buy this from a Blowout forums member, but the deal fell through. Thanks to a bunch of eBay bucks, I grabbed it when the member listed it for less than the price we were trying to negotiate for.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #108-112: Heritage Lot

I couldn't believe that I won this lot for only $8 delivered a week after Heritage was released. It features both the base cards of Cutch and Pitt Power (which I showed off in a previous post).


In addition to that though I got the 67 disc, the retail stand-up, the purple chrome, chrome (77/567) and the Clubhouse Collection Jersey Relic.

Friday, July 29, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #107: Blue Titan!!!

I like the title of this post. It sounds like a superhero. My Cutch PC makes me feel like I'm a superhero, or at the very least a crazed super collector.

The recent Cutch to join my PC is a 2014 Blue parallel from Tribute Titans. It features a nice black swatch and is numbered 18/50.

Friday, July 22, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #105 + 106: a pair of Heritage Minis

I've been on a big Heritage parallel kick lately, trying to track down color swaps, Chromes, different backs, etc.


My latest batch of Cutch PC additions included red and green backs from the 51' Collection. Also included in the recent purchases was a Starling Marte red back.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #104: Little C

My latest addition to the Cutch PC is another 1/1 letter from 2014 Topps Five Star. This marks the 3rd letter from that set I have purchased in the past year.
The Pirates have been doing some dance move rituals before every game this year. I bring that up because Lil C is a dance choreographer.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #103: This will pair nicely with my Superfractor

Remember when I got that Superfractor Rookie Card of Cutch?

This will go nicely with it.

Since May 2nd, I have only posted 3 times. I'm hoping to get back on track and maybe in doing so Cutch can get back on track to his career levels.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Jameson Taillon Debut Patch

I've been waiting almost 6 years for this day to come.  I remember sitting in my small apartment on my busted up chair using my PC to watch the 2010 MLB Draft as the Pirates had the number 2 overall pick.  The 3 big names of the draft were all prep athletes.  Two of them have already become All-Stars (Bryce Harper and Manny Machado).  The third was the hard throwing highschool pitcher Jameson Taillon.  Man am I excited to see Jamo finally pitch in the big leagues.  I've had this card since August of 2013 patiently awaiting for his big debut to debut it.

This beauty was had for under $20!!!!!
2013 Pro Debut Patch 1/5

It features a large patch of the Jolly Roger from his 2012 All-Star Future's Game sleeve.  From the box score, Taillon didn't have a good outing.  He pitched 1 inning and gave up 2 hits (both doubles), allowing 1 run.  He didn't walk anyone, nor did he strike anyone out.  However he did throw 12 of his 17 pitches for strikes.  I remember watching the game and thinking damn, this kid is gonna be awesome in a few years.  He did an amazing job mixing up his speeds on his 4 pitch arsenal.

The back of the card has the normal small print text about not being from a specific season, blah blah blah.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #102: Another Manurelic?

I'm getting tired of all these manurelics that Topps keeps producing

Yet for some stupid reason, I keep buying these things for $1.75 and $2.50 shipping

Monday, May 2, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #101: Opening Day Photo Variant

When Cutch received the Roberto Clemente award, I was really hoping that Topps would make a card showing Cutch with the prestigious award.

Unfortunately for my wallet, it came as a short print photo variant in Opening Day

Sunday, May 1, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #100: The Biggest Addition is the Smallest

I'm trying to add as many unique cards to the Cutch PC as possible this year and when I saw this 2015 Allen & Ginter Mini Mini show up, I had to have it.  These were found in specially marked Rip Card Minis.  As a result, you could get a mini mini inside.  This tiny beauty is numbered 1/2

Here's all the cards side by side to show just how small this card is compared to your standard mini or even the base
mini mini, standard mini, base card

mini mini and standard mini


Friday, April 29, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #98 & 99: Two Low Number Parallels from 2010

Chrome cards of Cutch from 2010 don't pop up very often, but when I saw both of these hit and end within minutes of one another, I knew that I had to try and win them both so that I can add them to my latest batch of Cutch PC additions in 2016.

Mission accomplished.

The scan on the Orange Bowman Chrome refractor kept cutting the card off because of the way that year's release warped.  I assure you the card is perfectly centered (9.5 easily)
Both parallels are numbered to only 25 copies.  The Bowman Chrome was purchased for about half the price of the Red Refractor Topps Chrome.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #97: SICK ALL-STAR GAME PATCH

This post is very well timed after Cutch's 3 HR performance last night. What better way than to pay tribute than to show off a Triple Threads patch?

I love All-Star Game Patches from Triple Threads and over the past year I have put a lot of focus on adding nice Cutch patches from the game.  My most recent addition hails from 2014 Triple Threads and has a nice prime patch from the 2013 All-Star Game
2013 All-Star Game from 2014 Triple Threads

Cutch has appeared in 5 All-Star Games in his 6 full seasons since making his debut June 2009.  When Triple Threads comes out this year and has a nice prime patch from the 2015 All-Star game, you can be certain that I will add one to my collection.
Below is the other's that I have from previous All-Star games

2012 All-Star Game from 2013 Triple Threads
2011 All-Star Game from 2012 Triple Threads

2014 All-Star Game from 2015 Triple Threads

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

McCutchen Mailday #96: WalMart Delivery

Cutch is part of this year's WalMart Pizza card set, but I haven't come across any yet.  On a side note, I added this blue Wal Mart parallel to my collection for $1.
For a recap of all the Cutch cards I have added to my collection this year, check out the link here.

Monday, April 25, 2016

Pops, Mad Dog, the Cobra, and the R-O-Y

If only it could have been Teke or Omar Moreno that appeared on this card instead of Jason Bay


Don't get me wrong, I love Jason Bay, but adding someone else from the 1979 We Are Family Pirates would have been a lot better.

This eBay 1/1 or as normal people should call it 100/100 was purchased using some eBay bucks a few months ago.

The problem I always have when adding multiplayer cards I collect is who to file them under. Normally it goes into this kind of ranking
1)PC player (Cutch or Morton)
2)Hall of Fame credentials (then by Year of induction)
3)Number of MVPs or Cy Youngs
4)Number of All-Star Games
5)Pick a player, any player

So since this card doesn't feature Cutch, I filed it under Pops because he was inducted into the Hall of Fame and the other 3 players have not (although Dave Parker could arguably be considered since his stats are nearly identical to HoFer Jim Rice).