First Look at 2014 Topps with tradebait

I was in the mood for a $5 JanuarANY footlong at the subway near my house which happens to be inside of a WalMart and while there I decided to browse the card aisle.  I was surprised to see the 2014 Topps had just been packed out.

Here's some of the highlights of the blaster and hanger I bought.  With the exception of the Pirates, everything is for trade

First up is the Commemorative Patch I was guaranteed.  It's of the 2013 AL HomeRun champ, Chris "Crush" Davis.

Some cool inserts were found in the packs.  I purposely set the Big Papi 1989 mini crooked to give it that illusion of all those miscut 1989 Topps from our youth.

Because it's WalMart, there were blue parallels.

to go with the other color parallels

I'm not sure if every player in Series 1 has these parallels, but if they do, I will certainly be tracking down the Pirates team set.  Both of these are of the Pirates rival Reds.

And of course the mega hyped LA phenoms Yasiel Puig and Mike Trout

How did I do with Pirates in my Wal Mart adventure?

Well, I didn't strike out.
of the 4 Pirates I pulled, 2 were blue parallels (Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton)

I was f-ing pumped to see the Mortons!!!!!

Unlike previous years where sunglasses, celebrations, homerun robbing catches, and autograph signings are shortprints, this year they are part of the regular set.

McCutchen Monday: Cutch, Kemp, Victorino!!! Triple AUTO!!!!!!

My current favorite player in baseball is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

The Pirates are currently battling to advance further in the NL Playoffs being lead by their superstar centerfielder Andrew McCutchen.  The Dodgers are rallying to win their ticket to the NLCS without their star outfielder and former MVP candidate Matt Kemp.  The Red Sox are having a fantastic year with Shane Victorino handling the right field duties.  The card below shows all 3 of those players autographs on a 2012 UD Superstars Triple Auto numbered to 25 copies.

2012 UD Superstars Triple Signatures 19/25: Kemp, Cutch, Victorino

I've been after this card for a long time.  I always see it go in the $60-$80 range though and just never wanted to pull the trigger for a card with sticker autos and no images of the players for that price.  When I saw one listed with a BIN or Best Offer, I rolled the dice and asked if the seller would sell it for $40 shipped.  Less than 24 hours it was mine and on it's way to NJ.  For $13.33 an auto, I'm happy to add another certified auto of Cutch to my collection.

I think I may need to add some more Cutch autos to my collection.  I only have 68 so far.