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 Maiday #388: Happy New Year Y'all!

I didn't have time yesterday to show this off, but I managed to get in another Andrew McCutchen card as the year came to a close.  Here is the final Andrew McCutchen card from 2015.  This card arrived 4 days before expected delivery. 

In addition to that, I managed to get my scanner fixed so I am reshowing the cards I posted on Wednesday.

2015 was the most successful year in my cardboard collecting days.  I'm really looking forward to see what I can come up with in 2016 as my Cutch collection grows even more and I continue to knock off vintage needs.

McCutchen Mailday #380-387: Sick Sick Patches!!!

I got in 8 packages today loaded with some sick amazing patches of my main PC player. I also added 2 more 1/1 printing plates.

This concludes all the McCutchen cards I was expecting to receive by year's end. I set out with a goal to add 100 new Cutch cards, but in the end, it ended up being nearly 4 times that. 

Unfortunately, my scanner isn't working so I had to take a picture with my phone. I will provide actual scans next year once I can get the scanner working again.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year. My girlfriend and I are living above a pub now so we can save up for a house. It's a little noisy, but at least we should never get in trouble driving from a bar.

I will post a recap of how I did with my 2015 goals tomorrow, but it was a successful year for my cardboard collection.

McCutchen Mailday #248: Who's the Best????

Andrew McCutchen
Mike Trout
Jacoby Ellsbury
Adam Jones

Who's the best all around centerfielder in the game today?
In 2014 Topps Museum begged us to ask that question when they placed these stars together on a single piece of cardboard.  Trout is by far the best with Jones and Cutch 2A and 2B if you ask me.  Adam Jones is a very under rated star in today's game.  His numbers have been consistent with Cutch's numbers each year, but for some reason more fans think that Cutch is significantly better.

The main reason I finally decided to pony up on this card was the patch for Cutch.  I've seen a lot of versions of this with Ellsbury patches, but rarely does a Cutch patch pop up on this card.  Since he's the main player I collect, I needed a nice version of black and gold on it.

In terms of contracts, it appears that the Pirates got the most value for their buck in extending Cutch before the 2012 season.  Here's a breakdown of the players depicted on this card current contract status.

Andrew McCutchen thru 2017 (6 years/$51mil) team option 2018
Adam Jones thru 2018 (6 years/$85 mil)
Jacoby Ellsbury thru 2020 (7 years/$153mil) team option 2021
Mike Trout thru 2020 (6 years/$144mil)

McCutchen Mailday #172: It's Real It's Real

I've been wanting to add one of these since the product was released earlier in the year and I made my large Cutch collection purchase from someone selling a bunch of their PC.  When it comes to jersey relics, I like for them to fall in one of the following categories before I purchase it.

It's super cheap that I want to purchase it

It features the Jolly Roger logo

It features a nice black and yellow patch

It has the MLB authentication number on it.

The latter was the reason for buying this quad relic of the Bucs superstars.  While the nice bit of patch on Cutch is nice, the MLB authentication hologram for Gregory Polanco was the main reason I wanted this card.

So after getting it in my hands, I did what any other person would do, I researched what jersey I had of Gregory's.

Actually it's not a jersey at all

I have a piece of Gregory Polanco's pants used on June 28th against the New York Mets. 

Gregory was 0 for 5 that day with 2 strikeouts.  This game marked the return of Gerrit Cole from the DL and he pitched awful in the first two frames, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks, a wild pitch, and several stolen bases.  After the 3rd he started to settle down, but not before recording his 4th loss on the year. 

Football Sunday: Troy Time!

Topps Museum is consistently one of my favorite releases each year for on card autographs for the Pirates.  When I heard that Topps was going to be doing a football release last year, I looked at the checklist and saw that one of my all time favorite Steelers had a framed autograph.

This marks my first Troy Polamalu card autograph. It is beautifully placed inside a silver frame and has a great on card silver autograph.

Not seeing Troy play this year is still kind of strange, but with each passing week its getting a little easier.

McCutchen Mailday #158: Museum Gold Frame Auto /10

I've shown off quite a few Andrew McCutchen autographs that I have added to the PC this year
2012 National Treasures Button 1/6
2012 Triple Threads "Pirates Pride" 3/18
2014 Topps Power Players Auto 20/25
2012 Prime Cuts 7/25
2011 Triple Threads Unity Relic/Auto 98/99
2014 Donruss Elite (not serial numbered)
2012 Allen & Ginter RED Auto 1/10

Being able to add 5 Andrew McCutchen autographs serially numbered less than 25 would make any collector happy in a calendar year, but I'm becoming a true super collector of Cutch and adding one more /10 to the PC just seemed fitting.

Topps Museum Framed Autos have long been one of my favorite releases year after year.  I have even started to add the Football Framed Museum Autos to my Steelers PC.

This has been on my wants list for a loooooooong time and I am glad that I can finally call it mine.

It only took 4 years, but this 2011 Gold Frame On Card Auto is
Mine
Mine
Mine
Mine

McCutchen Mailday #144-149: High End Low Numbers!!!!

Tribute, Museum, Triple Threads?

These are some of the highest end products released each year by Topps.
Add in some low numbered parallels from Panini and you have my latest lot of Cutch's I've purchased.

 Look how shiny they are!!!! 

Not a bad group of cards for only around $20
These 6 pieces of cardboard bring my yearly additions of Cutch to 149. 

More Museum relics

Here's some more of my recent 2015 Topps Museum cards I have picked up on the secondary market

Check out that sick quad relic of Jose Bautista I snagged for under $20.  The Jays are steamrolling through the American League now with their intense power hitting mashing offense. 

Here's a jumbo jersey of Neil Walker that I got for under $8

Neil is set to become a free agent after next season.  I suspect that "The Pittsburgh Kid's" days are numbered in the Burgh.  With cost controlled infielders Josh Harrison, Jung Ho Kang, and Alen Hanson all set to be on the roster at some point next year it's likely that Walker has only about 200 games left to try and win a World Series for the team he grew up rooting for. 

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.