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

McCutchen Mailday #113: Gold Rush

The latest color parallel to be added to my PC is a 2014 Bowman Chrome gold parallel /50.

McCutchen Mailday #64-66: 3 color parallels

This is just a beautiful collection of colored parallels. The gold Finest Competitors helps me get closer to the rainbow of that insert and the turquoise museum is an Asia Exclusive. By far my favorite though is the white border of Cutch's 2005 Bowman Draft and Prospects.

I'm hoping to have 1,500 unique cards of Cutch by year's end. At the current pace, that goal is going to be little tough.

McCutchen Mailday #7: This card is rarer than you think

It's not often that a card numbered to 2013 is more sought after than a 1/1 or actually rarer than /62 blacks, but such is the case for this gold parallel of Andrew McCutchen from 2013 Topps Update.

What makes this card so rare?

Well, as legend has it, a large portion of the print run was horribly off centered and very few actually made it into packs.

I was finally able to add this slightly off centered gold to my PC.

It's not quite as rare as a No Name on Front Frank Thomas 1990 Topps, but in terms of my Cutch collection, it helps fill a two year void.

McCutchen Mailday #6: Gold and Red

All-Star stitches are year after year, my go to jersey relic for Cutch as he has appeared in 5 straight All-Star games and started in the past 2. 

I finished last year by adding almost 400 new Cutch cards to the PC. I think I will come close to that same total this year, which is just insane and awesome at the same time. Q

McCutchen Mailday #241-244: All about that Base (Parallels)

If you missed yesterday's card, please go back and check it out. Its one my favorite booklets I have added this year.

We're getting close to the end for my Andrew McCutchen additions this year.  I've recently grabbed 4 more parallels.

Included in the group was a gold parallel from 2015 Topps Stadium Contact Sheets, A Topps Heritage Archive Game (red back triple), Topps Tek Clouds Diffractor, and 2015 Prizm Black & White Checkerboard.

McCutchen Mailday #191 - 198: Some Massive New Additions to the Cutch PC

Here's a lot of some huge MOJO PC pickups. 

In my quest to add 100 new Cutch cards to the PC this year, I have become the go to guy for a person liquidating their collections.  This All-Star patch card from 2012 Triple Threads is fricking sick!!!!

In this lot is a group of jersey relics, triple threads relics, a rookie variant, a nice gold parallel, and this amazing manu relic from Gypsy Queen. 

How nice are these new additions?  If Harper becomes an MVP this year, it will feature the 3 most recent position players to win MVPs.  Braun 2012, Cutch 2013, Harper 2015?

I've been wanting to add a copy of this "Steel" since I saw it released in 2014, but never could acquire one cheap enough for my liking.

 Check out the tiny bit of yellow stitching on the grey swatch

My first die cut relic

Just your standard gold parallel from Topps Tribute.  This card looks beautiful in person. I'm going to build the rainbow of this card.

Another Cutch rookie parallel that I didn't have in my collection. This is the mahogany wood parallel from 2005 Bowman Heritage.

McCutchen Mailday #178: It's Happening!!!!!

I am going to build a rainbow!!!!

And I plan to complete it!!!

Andrew McCutchen is one of the representatives on this year's Topps Chrome Gallery of Greats.  It's clear to see how Cutch has become to be recognized as a Great in the game today. He has lead his team to the playoffs 3 consecutive years. He's made 5 consecutive All-Star appearances. He's one a Gold Glove and 3 Silver Sluggers. And he has won the MVP and had top 3 finishes twice.

Yes Cutch is a Great!
And that's why I want this to be my first ever completed rainbow.

A big part of this rainbow is on it's way, but here's the gold parallel numbered 35/50 of 2015 Topps Chrome Gallery of Greats.

I plan to add the other parallels of this to my PC before the year is up. 

McCutchen Mailday #115 and 116: En Fuego Gold & Black n White Stadium Club

I know I know...

I just showed off a gold parallel of Cutch last week, but these are so hot one of them is En Fuego!!!!

For $50, I added my 115th and 116th unique new additions to the Cutch PC this year.  They weren't purchased all from the same seller, but they did both arrive the same day.

I am a huge fan of Stadium Club.  The orange black and white parallel is just awesome looking!!!!

My primary focus this year has been adding as many Cutch cards to my PC as possible.  I surpassed 100 a long time ago and I don't want to spoil too much, but wait until some of the stuff I've recently acquired. The next few McCutchen Maildays are big ones!!!!

McCutchen Mailday #114: 2015 Bowman Gold /50

This 2015 Bowman Gold was an overpay ($10 delivered) and I regret the amount that it cost me, but it does bring me my 114th new Andrew McCutchen to the PC this year.  My goal on January 1st was to add 100 new Cutch cards and I am blowing that away with nearly 4 months left to add cards. I have even made arrangements to purchase large lots of Cutch cards from a seller. 

McCutchen Mailday #90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97 A NEAR RAINBOW!!!!!

In my Quest to add 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to the PC, I knew I wanted to grab some parallels that I never had acquired before.  I never expected to be reaching the 100 card goal so early in the year and definitely didn't think that this would be my 7th and 8th 1/1s.

Did you see the 2 new 1/1s added to my collection in the scan above?
Need a better closeup?

I have already shown off 

#85: Letter "C" from Cutch's Jersey in 2015 Five Star

#73: Laundry Tag from 2015 Museum

#52: Letter "E" from Cutch's All-Star jersey in 2014 Topps In the Name

#47: Letter "N" from Cutch's All-Star jersey in 2015 Topps In the Name

#46: Original Sketch by Chris Henderson from Leaf Legends of Baseball Artist Proof

#12: Red Paper 2012 Bowman  (damaged by post office)

I am nearing my goal and actually have a bunch more cards due to arrive soon.  I can't wait to show them all off.  Some of these are absolutely sick!!!!

Like many of you I was a big fan of the silver frame parallels

Here's the rest of the near rainbow

McCutchen Mailday #86 & a new AJ

Tonight is the All-Star Game and the Pirates will be well represented with 4 participants. Andrew McCutchen is making his 5th consecutive All-Star game (2nd starting) and is batting leadoff.

Gerrit Cole will be pitching the 3rd and 4th innings with AJ Burnett scheduled for the 7th.

Mark Melancon isn't scheduled for a full inning, but will be ready to come out of the bullpen should anyone get in trouble.

To honor the participants, I'm going to show off a pair of cards I have recently picked up.

Up first is a low numbered 2015 Prizm Gold parallel (3/10) that I snagged for $20.

For $4 delivered I also grabbed a new AJ Burnett card. As a reminder I am looking for any and all AJ cards.

Morton on the Mound: 1st colored parallel of 2015

I have a near complete rainbow of Charlie Morton's 2015 Topps baseball cards.  I need all four printing plates

This card was purchased for $1.

Charlie pitched 7 scoreless innings last night in his first minor league rehab assignment.

McCutchen Mailday #30-39: Card Show Pickups

I grabbed 10 new Andrew McCutchen cards all from one location last month.

For a combined $12, I walked away with a pair of numbered Opening Day blue parallels from year's past, a trinity of 2012 Topps Gold Parallels, a 2015 insert, and some vintage designs in recent years.

Overall it was a very good haul for me at that show because I also snagged a bunch of vintage cards that I will show off in the very near future.

The Quest for 100 is getting close to the halfway mark and the year isn't even a third of the way complete.

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.

The First Charlie Morton Post of 2015

I can't believe it's already been almost three months since I last showed off a Charlie Morton card on the PTR.  With Morton expected to miss his first couple starts of 2015 due to the hip surgery he received, you can still expect about 30 new Charlie Morton posts this year once he recovers.  I've got a small stack of 2014 cards left over from last year that will need to still be posted.

2014 Topps Mini Gold 62/63

This gold parallel from 2014 Topps Mini ran me just shy of $6 delivered.

2015 Topps hits shelves soon and it looks like Charlie is part of Series 1. Oooohhhh parallels, here I come.

McCutchen Monday: a pair of Triple Threads

Last week I showed off a Jason Grilli Triple Threads patch and auto and stated that I would do a reverse box of Triple Threads this year before the year is up.  Here's a base card and parallel for the reverse box.

The low numbered gold parallel ran me $7 delivered with the base.  I might actually try to make 2 boxes using the funds it would have cost to make 1 box with the amount of great cards I have been able to pick up reverse boxing it.

So far I have been having good success on this reverse break
For $48 I have grabbed
a very low numbered auto/jumbo jersey relic (/10) Jason Grilli
a pair of gold parallel /99 cards (Alvarez and this McCutchen)
an Amethyst /325 parallel (Alvarez)
an Emerald /50 Triple Relic/AUTO (Andrew Lambo)
3 unique players base cards (McCutchen, Cole, Alvarez)

That leaves me $101 to track down 3 more base cards, 1 more parallel, a Jumbo Relic, and a triple relic.  I have tracked everything down and I must say I did very very well.

Reverse Boxin' TTT

No today's post isn't some new sport featured on ESPN, it's another step closer to doing a reverse box of 2014 Topps Triple Threads.  Last year I started with a reverse box of 2013 Topps Tribute and continued that to this year with a 2014 Topps Tribute which I completed in October with 2 pink parallels (Didi Gregorious and Jason Heyward).

Earlier in the week I stated that I would reverse box a 2014 Topps Triple Threads starting with my Jason Grilli Jumbo Patch Autograph numbered to 10.  That card ran me $15 so if you're keeping track that left me $135 to go after the remaining 13 cards.  Not bad odds for completing a reverse box.

Well as I was browsing ebay I came across a seller who had several Pirates base cards, 2 Pedro Alvarez parallels, and an Andrew Lambo triple relic autograph numbered to 50.  What the heck...why not go for this large lot to help knock off some of the cards.  It ended up costing me $26 delivered but brings me to need only 2 base cards, 2 parallels, and 2 more hits with over $100 to spare.  Needless to say though I will likely take away a Pedro Alvarez base as I hopefully will not pull any doubles in a box that contains only 14 cards.

Here's the lot

2014 Triple Threads 8/50 AUTO/RELIC

Despite seeming like Lambo has been in the minors trying to break through for that breakout season at the major league level, Lambo is still just 25 years old.  I have high expectations for Lambo and think that he could be a better defender and contact hitter than Pedro Alvarez at 1B, plus he can play a corner outfield position.  I think that he will most certainly make the team next year and will likely win the starting 1B role midseason similiar to how Josh Harrison won the 3B role when Alvarez struggled.  Does this mean that I am giving up on Alvarez in the organization?  No actually.  I think Alvarez will return to 3B and Harrison will become a super utility guy again.

The other base cards in the lot were 2 Alvarez, 1 Cole, and 1 McCutchen.  As I said above I think I will most certainly replace one of the Alvarez base with either Polanco or Clemente.

2014 Triple Threads Gold 96/99 and Amethyst 236/325

As for the parallels I added the 2 Pedro Alvarez parallels because they were part of the lot.  Again though, expect one of these to not count towards the reverse box because even though it's a different parallel (amethyst and gold) I would like to get different players parallels too.

I got Locke-y with this penny deal

I've been showing off a number of cards that I won ebay auctions from the same seller for only a penny recently and here is another fine example.  It's a 2011 Topps Pro Debut Gold Parallel of Jeff Locke numbered to 50.

Jeff was an All-Star in the 2013 season when he posted an incredibly low ERA through the first half and crumbled in the second half.  He's still a very serviceable arm in the back end of the rotation, but he depends so much on painting the corners that if his command is off slightly, it becomes a walk-a-thon or batting practice.  Regardless of what Jeff's 2015 season looks like, I couldn't pass up this golden opportunity to add a low print run card of his for only a penny.

With the announcement yesterday that his mentor, AJ Burnett, is coming back to Pittsburgh it will be interesting to see how Locke does next year.

I struck gold for a penny!!!! Tony Tuesday

I won the above card for only 1 cent!!!! 1 fricking cent combined with several other items that cost me a grand total of $6 delivered for 10 cards serially numbered 62 or less.  What a fricking steal!!!!

Best of all it's an ebay 1/10.  Do the math and you'll see what I'm talking about. LOL!!!  Next Tuesday I'll show off another Tony Sanchez that I won for a penny.