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 #53, 54, and 55: A trio of shiny Heritage Refractors

The latest quest for 100 new Cutch cards yielded me a 3 package mailday all featuring the same card, but different versions. I went aggressive trying to add as many non base variants of Cutch's Heritage card as possible when Heritage was first released.  The refractor and purple refractors were won off ebay and the black refractor was purchased from someone on Blowout Cards.

The black is very low numbered (only 66 copies)

Cutch is still struggling in this early season and I really hope that he can start to turn it around soon.

McCutchen Monday: A time to remember....

I recently just did a reverse box challenge for 2014 Topps Triple Threads and in my search of looking for some nice parallels, hits, and base cards I came across these two cards from 2013 Topps Triple Threads.  I grabbed the two cards of Cutch for $2.60 delivered.  Maybe I should do a reverse box of 2013 Triple Threads too?

My McCutchen PC page is for the most part up to date now.

McCutchen Monday: partial rainbow

I've been adding a lot of Andrew McCutchen parallels over the past few months.  Amongst them are the 4 below parallels of 2013 Bowman Chrome.  The scanner is having a hard time picking up the difference between blue and purple lately.

The 4 Refractor parallels ran me $7.50 delivered for the following cards: Refractor, Purple (53/199), Blue (42/250), XFractor.  The four cards go nicely with my Magenta Refractor I showed off in October for Save Second Base charity event.

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.

McCutchen Monday: Diamond Dominance

I've been saving this card until I felt that the Pirates were actually dominating on the diamond.  The 2014 season has been a lot of win 2 in a row, lose 3, win 2, lose 1, win 1, lose 4, win 3 type of routine.  I hardly considering that dominating.  I barely consider it average.

Lately the Pirates have been struggling and it's due in large part to ....

This guy! Cutch has been out of the lineup for the past week.
The reigning NL MVP and 4 time All-Star, Andrew McCutchen has yet to be put on the DL.

The 2014 Purple Refractor Prizm Diamond Dominance is numbered 75/99 and ran me just .74.  Not a bad price to pay for a dominator of the diamond.

So Many Cards, So Little Time: The Sequel

Yesterday I showed off all the new additions to the blog for my 2013 Topps Update Charlie Morton additions.  Today, I'm going to show off some of the easier to find 2014 Topps parallels I have grabbed over the past few months.

The above 6 cards ran me $12.73 delivered which isn't terrible for 6 serially numbered or retail exclusive cards.

Up first is the Gold Parallel which came in at a hefty price of 6 cents which I smartly combined with a bunch of other cards to make the shipping free.

Of all the recent parallels that Topps has started to put out, I think this ugly shade of green is my least favorite.  Nothing about this card excites me......except that it's another card to chase of my favorite player.  It ran me $1.98 shipped and I am happy I won't have to type in Charlie Morton green into my save searches for the rest of the card season.

This purple variant ran me $1.26.  How did Toys R Us become the purple variant exclusive?  I get WalMart Blue and Target Red because their logos reflect those colors.

Can someone please point out to me what letter in their logo is purple because I sure as hell don't see it?

The Yellow retail exclusive was one of the more expensive cards to track down at $3.25.  Seeing how nice this card looks, makes me want to complete the team set for the yellow parallels.

The Camos were won around the same time and I put feeler bids in on both, thinking that if I lost one I could win the other.  I managed to win both these /99 parallels for a combined price of $5.98 (roughly $3 a card after shipping) 

Purple Rain from the eBay

No I'm not talking about a song from that formerly known as artist, I'm talking about a couple of baseball cards with purple variations.

2012 Bowman Chrome Purple Variant 186/199

Up first is my main man from 2012 Bowman Chrome.  This Cutch card is numbered 186/199.  This was had for a winning bid of .99.

2013 Topps Toys R Us Travis Snider 

Next up is a purple Toys R Us variant from 2013 Topps of Travis "Lunchbox" Snyder.  Snyder was once considered one of the top 10 prospects in baseball.  His career hasn't taken off the way many people thought it would, but he's still just 25 years old so there's still time for him to break out into a star like many thought he would.

The last card just might be my favorite.  The photo used for this Gerrit Cole card is great looking and gives an interesting perspective.  It's from the new 2013 Topps Chrome series which just hit shelves last week.  I may chase the rainbow of these Cole cards.