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.

McCutchen Mailday #115: Jersey King /10

I jumped at the chance to add a /10 Cutch Jersey Relic for only $10

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.

McCutchen Mailday #76 + 77: Production Line Parallels

It's looking like Christmas on the blog today and that's because I added a pair of 2014 Donruss Production Line parallels.

Expect more Donruss cards in the near future.

The Green is numbered to 25 for his HR total and the red is numbered to 83 copies for his RBI total.

I really like the Production Line parallels. It sort of reminds me of the Moments and Milestones set from many years ago, but without the craziness that caused super collectors.

Green Supreme Coffee

I just missed getting this card in time for my March failed Go Green Month.

With Opening Day tomorrow, many Pirates fans are hoping that former Top Prospect Gregory Polanco can take a big step forward and have a breakout season this year.

I will be in Pittsburgh rooting on the Bucs as they take on the rival Cardinals.

Let's Go Bucs!!!!

Hall of Fame Autograph /10 for under $15....um ok

This year I really wanted to increase my collection for non Pirates. I've been adding a lot of Pacers recently because despite making it to the Conference Finals twice in the past 3 years, no one really notices that they exist in the cardboard community. The team is filled with plenty of young talented fast defensive guys that can put up the points. This current roster with the additions of Monta Ellis, Jordan Hill, and rookies Joe Young and Myles Turner are a lot of fun to watch.

The Pacers don't have many players in the Hall of Fame. The most recognized from our generation is obviously Reggie Miller and his performance against the Knicks in the mid 90s is the main reason I root for the Pacers.

Mel Daniels was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012. He finished his career averaging double double stats in both points (18.4ppg) and rebounds (14.9rpg). He is one of only four players to have his number retired by the Pacers.

This 2013 Leaf Metal green parallel numbered 5/10 was acquired for under $15. The card features an on card autograph, which sadly isn't possible anymore. Mr. Daniels passed away last year from complications with heart surgery.

The Outlaw makes his appearance

I've been super busy with real life lately that I haven't had much time to blog. On top of that, my scanner is not functioning again.

Today kicks off NFL Free Agency which for football fans is the start of the 2016 season. The Steelers have already resigned some of their current team by restructuring contracts. In addition though, they lost a long time Steeler great when Heath Miller retired.

They will look towards young tight end Jesse James to take over the mantle. I'm not sure if he has the nickname, The Outlaw, officially but that's what I'm going to call him when I root him on.

I picked up my first (of hopefully many) Autographs of him recently for under $10.

It continues the All Green month

A cup of green coffee

I recently picked up this green parallel of Gregory "El Coffee" Polanco for $2.99 delivered. The 87/99 parallel from Finest is my first Polanco card I have acquired this year.

Jason Bay kicks off going green month

I couldn't have a color event without showcasing some Jason Bay cards.
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I will be showing green parallels this month.

Here is a few of my Jason Bay green parallel cards.

The only new acquisition of Jason Bay I have gotten this year is an Uno card from 2005.  I wish Topps wasn't the only license holder of the MLB.  These oddball cards were fun to collect back in the day.  The above card was snagged for 50 cents.

The others below are cards that have green in their designs or are green parallels.

McCutchen Mailday #23, 24, and 25: 3 More Strata Cards (All Parallels)

Today was a good mailday as I received 3 new Andrew McCutchen 2015 Strata cards.  This will likely be the last bunch of Strata cards I add for a while because I am focusing on some of the higher end stuff coming out of National Treasures.

This brings me to 7 total Strata cards in the collection which between the /25, /50, and /75 is only 3.5% of the patch print run.  I would love to increase that total, but considering that many of these go for $40 - $90 a pop it will be extremely difficult.

Chasing the Rainbow: John Holdzkom Edition

2014 was a memorable season for the Pirates as they set out to prove that their double decade long losing streak being broken in 2013 wasn't a fluke.  There was a breakout campaign by Josh Harrison as he came close to winning the batting title.  Andrew McCutchen had another monster year as he contended for MVP discussion again. 

One of the truly amazing stories though was career minor leaguer turned independent ball gamer to urban legend reliever, John Holdzkom. 

While watching him in his brief stint in the Pirates minor league system I grew a fascination to make Chuck Norris like jokes about how legendary he could become. 
Striking out 3 batters on 3 pitches. 
Batters don't swing the bats against Holdzkom in fear of embarrassing themselves

He instantly became one of my favorite pitchers on the mound.

When Topps announced that he would have an autograph in Series 1, I instantly knew that I had to add that to my collection.  When he was announced as one of the signers for Chrome, I kept my eyes open for any lower numbered cards, but never saw the Superfractor pop up for sale.  I wasn't going to overpay for the other parallels and patiently waited.  Waited longer.  And finally a lot of 5 became available for $20.

Behold the start of my John Holdzkom 2015 Topps Chrome Rainbow.

 Refractor (463/499) Blue (137/150)
Purple 206/250) Green (80/99)

Base

McCutchen Mailday #215-219: 5 more parallels of Cutch

Today was another good mailday as I got in 5 more Cutch parallels including

2015 Donruss 1981

a pair of Elite Die Cuts from 2011 and 2014
a pair of Chromes (2008 Bowman Chrome and 2009 Heritage)

McCutchen Mailday #167-170: A few more Chromes and Triple Threads

I showed off a 2015 Topps Chrome Pink parallel that I recently purchased for a very low price.  Today, I'm showing off 3 more 2015 Topps Chrome Cutch cards along with a 2014 Triple Threads parallel.

This lot didn't cost much compared to the 1/1 logoman lot I showed off last week.  I think this was around $8 delivered if I remember correctly.

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.

McCutchen Mailday #69, 70, & 71: A Trio of Museums

When I had made arrangements to purchase a few high end 2015 Topps Museum cards from a seller, he generously included these 3 parallels of Cutch's 2015 Topps Museum base card.

Museum has the best base cards year after year.  These new additions in the Quest for 100 bring me nearly three quarters complete as of typing this (April 29th).  Adding another 30 cards by December shouldn't be an issue at all.

Starting on Sunday I will be showing off some key items in my collection that I have recently acquired.  One of them will be a 1/1 bat barrel.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the best St. Patrick's Day Insert Ever!!!

When I was looking for my National Treasures cards for a reverse box, I came across this Xander Boegarts card.  I knew that I had to have it.

There were initial reports in 2011 that the Red Sox were interested in trading for Joel Hanrahan and there was even some speculation that Xander Boegarts could be traded 1 for 1 for the Hammer.  Hanrahan would eventually be traded to Boston along with Brock Holt for 4 players including 2013 All-Star Mark Melancon.

The back of the card is actually interesting...check it out

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY EVERYONE!!!

McCutchen Monday: An Ebay 1/1

I never seek out "ebay 1/1s".  These are the first or last cards in a print run or the player's jersey number.  However, when an opportunity presents itself to snag a jersey numbered card of my favorite player for a reasonable price I will jump at it.  I managed to grab this Green parallel of Cutch back during COMC's Black Friday sale.  I'm about 3 months behind schedule with my posting of that lot.  Rest easy though followers, you will see some of them this month as part of the "Go Green Initiative" for St. Patrick's Day.

2014 Topps Finest was a great product.  I felt it was the best the company has put out in recent years.  It featured a fun amount of parallels, some great inserts, and of course those 1994 throwback inserts.

Go Green: More PG Greenies

January and February brought me some fine additions to my slowly growing PC of PG (Paul George).  The latest additions were cheap buys and features green yet again.

George will most likely miss the entire 2014-15 season after injuring himself during an intersquad game for Team USA basketball.  Because of this, the Pacers seemed to be destined to solidify a top 10 pick in next year's draft which I was hoping will be one of Kentucky's many young future stars and elite defenders.

However recent play has the Pacers 13-2 since February 1st and the #8 seed for the weak Eastern Conference.  IF PG is able to get healthy for the playoffs, I'm going to get very excited for another deep NBA playoff run for the Pacers.

The back of the card compares Paul George to Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen.  The serially numbered to 199 card was purchased for $3.

If PG turns into a Hall of Famer, I'll be a very happy Pacers fan.

McCutchen Mailday #21: Second Auto of 2015 added

I may not only add 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to the collection by the end of the year, but I may come very close to reaching 100 unique certified autographs of Cutch by year's end as well.

My latest addition in the quest for 100 is the unnumbered green parallel Turn of the Century from 2014 Donruss Elite.  Cutch doesn't sign much anymore and it appears that he only has a handful of releases with Panini each year that he signs.  Last November I showed the gold version of this card /50 that I picked up for $50.  This green parallel ran me just $38.

I still miss the days when I could grab Cutch autos for $25 or less, but $38 seems fair for one of the top players in the league (even if it is a sticker auto)

Going Green: Nick Kingham Autograph

My optimism for Nick Kingham might be higher than others in the sports card collecting world.  Maybe it's because I own his Superfractor or it's because I've seen his stuff in person and it is incredible stuff, but I think that Kingham will be a key piece to the Pirates success in 2015.

Nick has a unique signature which is actually kind of cool.  Check out this numbered to 100 sticker auto to see what I'm talking about.