McCutchen Mailday #213: LOOK AT THE SIZE OF IT!!!!

This is just a beaut of a card.

Numbered 5/5, this marks my 213th addition to the Cutch PC this year.

It looks to be part of Cutch's 22 found on the back of his jersey.

McCutchen Mailday #207: Trip Trip Triple Threads

My quest to add 100 new Andrew McCutchen cards to my PC this year was surpassed at the season's All-Star game.  I added another 100 new Cutch cards over the course of 3 months after it thanks to some large lots. 

I absolutely love the design for 2015 Triple Threads and I have been adding as many as possible to the PC. If I show off only 1 Cutch card that I've purchased in 2015 each day, it will bleed into 2016. I am very proud of how much my Cutch PC has improved this year.

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 #160-165: Logoman 1/1 MOJO!!!!! and a bunch of /25 cards

I've been adding some ridiculous 1/1 cards to my Cutch PC this year, but this is my very first 1/1 Logoman added to my collection. 

Some of the other cards I bought from the guy selling his collection include several /25 relics.  Not a bad haul, I'd say. 

Gonna be a Marte Partay

So...remember way back when I was making arrangements to buy some major mojo cards from a guy who hit big with the Pirates in Topps Museum.

Well, I added some more cards to my collection thanks to him being a generous guy and shipping this as a bonus card for buying so much from him.

I will take this all day, every day...

Thanks to Starling's walkoff Homerun last night, the Bucs magic number for the Wild Card game homefield advantage is down to 1. 

Let's Go Bucs!!!!

Everything is bigger...

In the USA!!!!!
I hope everyone is celebrating Labor Day safely and having fun.

To celebrate the holiday, here's a jumbo size Team USA relic of Ke'Bryan Hayes.

I wasn't going to pass this up for the $4 delivered I spent on my latest Ke'Bryan Hayes PC addition. 

Ke'Bryan just got promoted to Morgantown to play with the Black Bears a little over a week ago.

He hadn't shown much power in the Gulf Coast, but hit well enough to get the promotion after slashing .333/.434/.375 over 44 games and collecting 7 stolen bases in the process.  At age 18, he becomes the youngest player on the West Virginia Black Bears. 

MAJOR MARTE MOJO!!!!!!

On Card Autograph
The letter "T" from Pirates
Numbered to only 10!!!!

Major F-ing mojo with this bad boy!!!!

Strata Redemption received!

What a crazy 24 hours it has been for Pirates fans!

Early Sunday morning, the Pirates came back in 14 innings to beat the Cardinals thanks to a walkoff 2 run homer by Andrew McCutchen.

24 hours later, the Pirates staged a 2 out rally to plate 3 runs in the bottom of the 10th. Sophomore right fielder delivered the walkoff on the first pitch he saw off Cardinals closer, Trevor Rosenthal.

This is just a badass card and its my latest Gregory Polanco autograph.

I didn't want to remove it from it's protective home so it didn't scan very well. The 2014 Topps Strata features a massive jumbo patch and on card autograph.

Sick Jumbo Patch Autograph of Gregory Polanco

Couldn't pass this up a few weeks ago.

Polanco has been having a lot of late inning heroics in the recent games.

McCutchen Mailday #84: Cole & Cutch booklet 1/5

Whaaaaaaat!!!!????? Another booklet?????!!!!!

I couldn't resist adding this 1/5 booklet from 2014 Museum to my collection featuring the top pitcher and position player in the Pirates new millenium.

It's my first DUAL relic booklet of Cutch I have added this year in my Quest to add 100 new Cutch cards to my PC in 2015.

Reverse Boxin' Museum Collection

With the complete debacle that was 2015 Topps Tribute being recalled, I quickly decided that I wasn't going to reverse box Tribute this year like I have done in the past.  Instead I chose to do another reverse box of 2014 National Treasures and 2015 Topps Museum.

National Treasures, despite not having a license, has been my favorite set to reverse box (as you can tell by all the posts I've made about it).  Topps Museum has been one of my favorite sets to chase high end cards on the secondary market year after year.

Museum had a large selection of Pirates to choose from in their product this year.  Due to overspending on some other high end items from the line, I went for the cheap route for these three cards you see below.  I managed to win all three for $38 delivered in separate auctions.

SICK ON CARD AUTO & PATCH OF POLANCO!!!!

My latest addition to the National Treasures bonus reverse box I grabbed is a stunning ON CARD autograph and HUGE 3 color patch of Gregory Polanco.

What I like the most about this card is the extension that Gregory did when signing the card.  It will likely cause BGS to grade the auto less than a 10 because it's out of the allowed box he was supposed to sign, but I like that kind of stuff.

Check out this sick patch!!!  And AUTO!!!

The 2 for 1 Reverse Box Challenge continues...

With only $37 left to complete my hotbox of Pirates from 2014 Triple Threads I happened to grab another Jumbo Relic/Auto.  It's not nearly as awesome as the patch/auto of Grilli numbered to /10, but it features a 5+ WAR outfielder who is on the cusp of having a breakout season soon.

I grabbed this emerald beauty for $13 last year and have been waiting until my Go Green month to show it off.

The 2 for 1 Reverse Box Challenge for 2014 Topps Triple Threads is complete.

Base Cards
Alvarez, Cole, McCutchen, Polanco, Piazza (ok technically I didn't complete the base card challenge, but I'm sure I can find some cheap base cards to say I did it if I really wanted to spend the money just for trade bait.)

Parallels:
McCutchen (emerald /250)
Clemente (emerald /250)
Polanco (gold /99)
McCutchen (Gold /99)
Alvarez (Gold /99)
Alvarez (Amethyst /325)
*Cole (gold /99)
*Cole (amethyst /325)
*The Gerrit Coles will be shown off in a future post after "Go Green" month is complete

Rookie Autograph
Polanco (/100) 

Triple Relic:
Beltre/Alvarez/Sandoval "Hot Corner" /36
Cutch/Bautista/Cespedes "Pure" /27

Triple Auto/Relic:
Lambo (Emerald /50)

Autographed Jumbo Relic
Marte (this post)
Grilli (prime patch /10)

Unity Jumbo Relic:
Cole /27 & /36

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

Reverse Boxin Update #3: Gerrit Cole Auto/Jersey

Last week I showed off an awesome /25 Roberto Clemente bat that would lead to me doing a reverse box of National Treasures.  That bat relic set me back $62.  Earlier this week I showed off an amazing Cut Auto and Jumbo Bat relic booklet of HOFer Willie Stargell that set me back $81.  It looked like I didn't stand a chance at making a reverse box for under budget.  Well, the most recent week has been very kind to me and I was able to add this Gerrit Cole Jumbo Jersey/On Card Auto for only $23 and made some other purchases as well for well under budget.

I figured I have $53 to spend per card to reverse the box properly and so far I have spent $166 on a $159 budget for those three cards so I am a little over still.  Rest assured though that I should AND WILL get this box for much less than asking price and every card will be /50 or less (something National Treasures can't guarantee).

The 5 remaining cards will have to be a guaranteed 2 more autographs and a combination of 3 remaining hits (relic, gem, auto).  I have not seen any boxes busted that contain 2 booklets, but maybe they exist too?

On another note, every card in my box will be Pirates centered (either through playing with the team, drafted by team, or signed by team at some point during their playing career).

Beats by Dri for $1.29, The Next Episode ALREADY

Last Sunday, I posted my reasons for not wanting to continue Football Sundays since my Steelers were eliminated, however....

2014 Bowman Inception Jumbo Patch 19/25

I came across this Dri (pronounced like Dray) Archer for $1.29 and instantly listened to a classic rap song, the Next Episode by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.  For the low price I couldn't ignore the massive jumbo patch and in the words of the original Dre "YOU KNOW WHO'S BACK UP IN THIS MUDDAFUCKAH"

The rookie special teams/back didn't do a lot for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense which set some NFL History records with Big Ben, Antonio Brown, and Le'Veon Bell.  I suspect that Dri will be used a little more in the 2015 season.

241 Tuesdays: Why buy 1....when you can get 2 for the price of 1????

In my continued pursuit to build a reverse box of 2014 Topps Triple Threads, I won these two Gerrit Cole Unity Jumbo Relic cards for $6.54 delivered.  You just can't beat that with a baseball bat.  These 2 cards completed my reverse box which I successfully built for nearly half the price of a box.

Each different version of the parallels features a different image of Cole on the front

6/27

20/36

Along with a different blurb on the back.

My running total for the Reverse box challenge of 2 for the price of 1 currently sits at $83 after purchasing
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) including doubles of McCutchen and Alvarez and a free throw in of Mike Piazza
a Gregory Polanco base and amber parallel

2 boxes of 2014 Topps Triple Threads would include
2 Triple Relic/Auto (currently at 1)
2 Auto/Jumbo Relic (currently at 1)
2 Jumbo Relic (currently at 2)
2 Triple Relic (currently at 1)
12 base cards (currently at 7)
8 Parallel cards (currently at 4)

I successfully built a box for almost half price.  Now the challenge is can I build 2 for the price of 1?

Football Sunday: Dri Archer Auto/Jersey

It's Sunday and that means football!!!!!

I'm going to be heading out tonight to see my mom and celebrate her birthday.  Because of that I'm just doing a real quick post today of the Steelers rookie back/receiver/special teams Dri Archer.

McCutchen Monday: IT'S JUMBO SIZED!!!

It's Jumbo Sized!!!!

Yeah that's what she said....

For my 71st certified autograph of Cutch I recently picked up off ebay a 2013 Topps Museum Jumbo Jersey swatch and auto.  The low numbering (6/10) helps offset the sticker auto in my opinion.

Another auto that wasn't cheap to add to the PC, but needed a good home.  Please keep me in mind if you have any McCutchen cards in 2014.