Some 2022 Cards of #22

Baseball will officially have a 2021 season and I have received 3 more cards for the Cutch PC this week. 

Nothing very expensive (all three cards cost $5 shipped), but they are welcomed additions to the growing collection. 

Mini Monday: Feeling blue

I have been purging a lot of my non McCutchen cards lately.  In a way it's awesome because I am selling things that don't spark a general interest in why I collect, but it also has really made me realize that I have way too many cards in my collection.

Thousands of cards exist in my collection that I just don't have a connection with anymore.  Worse of all many of them aren't worth a lot of money.  How many Evan Meek and Ian Snell cards do you have in your collection?  I have too many.

I have never sold my cards via COMC, I've only ever bought using the site.  

Have you had any luck with it? What's the process like?  

I've considered listing lots of Pirates autographs for $10 on eBay but the shipping might scare people away.

What are some suggestions you have for selling off a collection of mostly $1-$5 autos of former Pirates? I'm talking about guys that aren't active and were never big stars.  Guys like Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, Chris Duffy, Jose Tabata...

I really appreciate any help you guys can provide.

The cards I'm not worried about selling are my McCutchen PC because quite frankly, it's not going anywhere.  

The blue on this 2016 Topps Mini really pops in the background, I just have terrible lighting at the in laws house.

The blue Topps Minis were limited to only 10 copies.

Pretty cool company that Cutch put himself in when he was the first Pirate to go to the All Star game 5 consecutive years since Roberto Clemente.  If it weren't for an All Star snub in 2010, he would have represented the Pirates six straight years.  

Unfortunately Evan Meek was that year's representative.  Oh Evan Meek, you were a great middle reliever for one season.  Why did I buy so many of your cards?

Who needs Evan Meek autographs?

This Day in Cutchstory: Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there reading this!!!

Today's card is the 2011 Bowman Chrome blue parallel.

I chose this card because it features an image of Cutch wearing the blue wristbands from a Father's Day game played in 2010 against the Cleveland Indians.  

Coincidently Father's Day in 2010 was also on June 20th.  

The Pirates defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-3 at PNC Park.  Cutch scored the go ahead run in the 8th inning when he walked to lead off the inning and came around to score on a Pedro Alvarez sacrifice fly.  

At the plate, Cutch went 0 for 3 with a walk, run scored, and RBI.  

He finished the day with his triple slash line being .315/.392/.479.  It's a shame that Evan Meek was the Pirates lone representative at the 2010 All Star Game and that Cutch was snubbed from the game. 

Just Another Mini Monday

Last week I showed off a 1/1 Gypsy Queen mini and asked the question if I should show off some more mini cards from the collection.  

While there wasn't a lot of responses, I have always enjoyed the miniature sized cards found as inserts.  

Topps is often known for their 1952 set to the casual hobbyist, but it was their 1951 release that resembled a card game that helped to get them on the map.

Released in 1951 was a set of cards with players that you would shuffle into your deck.  Based on the card you drew that would indicate the action taken for your team.  

Topps has used this idea and even design many times since 1951 including the 2020 release by Blake Jamieson, one of the head artists for Project 2020 and Topps Project 70.  

In 2015, Topps released a set of cards containing 104 players.  It had a MSRP of $79.99 upon release.  In addition to a complete set for the (roughly) $80 purchase, the box also contained 21 color back parallels and 1 autograph.

The 21 parallels were seeded into the set by the following breakdown:

Red Back (10 per set)

Blue Back (5 per set)

Green Back (3 per set)

Black Back (2 per set)

Gold Back (1 per set)

As you can see from the below picture I have all the color parallels from this miniature release.

Do you have any 1951 Topps Game cards, either modern cards that use the old design OR any originals?

Last year of dreads, last year of prepurple

It was a week ago that Andrew McCutchen hit his 250th career homer.  I've shown off a few of my cards limited to 250 copies in celebration of this event.  

Today I will look at my 2014 cards limited to 250 copies.

2014 was the last year of Cutch having dreadlocks during a season and it would also be the last year before things were getting purply by Topps.

2014 Bowman Orange

2014 Triple Threads Emerald

2014 Bowman Chrome Blue refractor

I love that Homerun chart above.  I wish more cards had unique backs like that on a regular basis.

I have been dropping some trivia while looking at Cutch's career homeruns, but I think this next bit of trivia is awesome and really shows the power/speed combination that Cutch has shown over his 13 year career.

Since Cutch's 2009 debut there has only been 1 player in Baseball with 250 homeruns and 200 stolen bases.  His name is Mike Trout.  Cutch currently sits on 194 career stolen bases and 250 homers.  It is likely Cutch joins this generation's greatest player before the season is up. Granted Trout did all that before his 30th birthday, but who's keeping track of that?

ICYMI : The Magic of 250

In case you missed it, Andrew McCutchen hit his 250th Career Home Run on Wednesday night.  

Here is a breakdown of his 250 HR by team

203 Pirates

15 Giants

5 Yankees

27 Phillies

I wanted to show off a few of my cards that were serial numbered to only 250 copies and decided to start with 2016 and 2017.  

My reason for those years?

Well, that's around the time I changed my focus from collecting all things Pittsburgh to be mostly just CollectingCutch

So without further ado, here are a few of my serially numbered cards to 250 copies

Now I should warn you all that if you have allergic reactions to the color purple, it is best to change the general direction of your eye gazing.

Let's begin with the year 2017

Bowman Platinum purple holofoil

Bowman's Best purple refractor

Topps Gallery 1951 Bowman Heritage green

Gypsy Queen purple border

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ 

Now we will travel back to 2016

Bowman Chrome purple Refractor

Bowman purple

Bowman Platinum purple

Bowman's Best Blue

Topps Finest purple

Gypsy Queen purple

Triple Threads Emerald

I do plan to make more posts celebrating Cutch's 250th career Homerun and will be taking a deeper dive into his homers.

Don't forget to head over to topps.com and purchase yourself a copy of the Topps Now card. I secured myself a copy of the base and the red parallel autograph limited to 10 copies.

Got more Anrew

Last Wednesday I posted about getting my Topps Now Road to Opening Day Phillies team set and inside I had gotten a red Zack Wheeler parallel numbered to 10 copies as my exclusive parallel.  You can revisit that post here.  I was a bit disappointed that I had also gotten an Anrew McCutchen card instead of an Andrew McCutchen card.  I can understand spelling his last name wrong as only 2 players in MLB history have had the last name McCutchen (coincidently they were Pirates teammates), but Anrew isn't a real word or name so how did something like that get by Topps Quality Control.

Fortunately Topps spelled the name correctly on the back. 

Well, like Topps I must have made an error because I actually ordered two sets.  I didn't even know I did this, but sure enough a week apart from my initial order I placed an order for a second team set when buying some Project 2020 cards.

And oddly enough it showed up a few days later than the first set.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got a blue parallel of my main collection player's alter ego, Anrew(?) McCutchen.

Speaking of alter egos...

Something awesome is coming my way very soon and it will definitely achieve the "something nice to hang on walls" want list item.

It's Opening Day!

Happy Opening Day!!!

Above is the Opening Day Stars insert from 2018 Topps.

They were released in Series 1 packs and came in 4 additional color parallels (blue, black, gold, and red)

I am still on the hunt for the red /10 and gold /50.

What are you most excited about seeing from your favorite players and teams this season?

For me, I'm excited to see a full season of of Ke'bryan Hayes and some of the Pirates prospects make their debuts for a glimpse of the team's next core of promising players.

For Cutch, I am excited to see him return to being a great leadoff hitter in a stacked Phillies offense.

Hey! Can you give me a hand?

Every now and then I pick up an item for my Cutch collection that goes beyond cardboard and I get really excited about it.  I've shown off some pretty cool items in the past which I may go into a recap post in the future, but below is an item that is a first for me.

Above is my first pair of game used batting gloves.  They were both autographed by Andrew McCutchen and both have a game used inscription by Cutch.

They come certified by Hunt's Auctions.

Best of all though you can see Cutch wearing this style batting glove on a variety of his Phillies cards from 2019 to 2021.

2021 Topps 70 Years of Topps 1955 design insert

2020 Topps Fire green parallel

2019 Topps Heritage Throwback Uniform 5x7

2020 Topps Big League blue parallel

2020 Topps Series 2 Independance Day parallel

2020 Topps 1985 Patch relic red border

2020 Topps Museum

2019 Topps Tek purple

2020 Topps Triple Threads "Getting Started" gold triple relic parallel

How would you display an item like this? Shadowbox? Frame?

Both showing the signed side or one side,showing the game use? Should I put some 5x7s inside it? 

Give me your thoughts...

Cheating on my goals?

Last week I showed off a COMC mailday featuring some of my Pirates uniform cards I acquired in 2021 of Cutch.  I set a goal to acquire 50 new Cutch cards from his Pirates playing days (2005-2017) this year.  I wasn't going to count the COMC cards purchased as going towards the goal because I had technically bought all those cards last year, but it was COMCs slow processing that forced the cards to arrive several months after being ordered.  I never logged these cards into my spreadsheet and obviously didn't have a physical copy in hand to cross reference.

Above is just a sampling of some of the cards I got in that COMC package.

Getting 50 new Cutch Pirates cards this year is the goal.

That is basically 1 new card a week all year long.  

It doesn't sound like a lot to add 50 new cards of 1 player in a year, but keep in mind I have over 2,300 unique cards of Cutch in a Pirates uniform already.

Now before I get into today's post, I want to share with you some comments made on that COMC purchase post.

Both Chris and Brett Alan stated (and I will paraphrase) they believe a card produced in 2018 with a team designation of Pittsburgh should count as a Pirates playing days card because at the time of production of the product, Cutch was a member of the Pirates.  

I think with this interpretation, I should count my 2018 Donruss 1984 retro Artist Proof /10 card as a Pirates playing days card acquired in 2021.

The problem is that I already stated I'm not going to count any of those COMC cards delivered this year towards my total because they were purchased in 2020.

Well...as luck (or rather the lack of organization) would have it I can say that I acquired a 2018 Donruss 1984 retro Artist Proof in 2021.

This is may look very similar to the card I already showed in my COMC purchase 

And you would be correct

I got a 2nd copy (by accident) for a ridiculously cheap price.

I won it for under $2, which is a great price for a card limited to only 10 copies.

By my processing despite what others are suggesting, I don't know if I can qualify this as part of my Pirates playing days card goal.

He has a few releases in 2018 (and beyond) that feature him in a Pirates uniform, but I am only looking to add cards of Cutch from 2005-2017 in a Pirates uniform or Pittsburgh noted city affiliate. 

So is this cheating?

Should I count all cards I get in 2021 of Cutch in a Pirates uniform towards my 50 card goal?

If so, I could probably get half of that with just crossing off the 2020 Topps Update cards I need as he appeared in an insert card (with many parallels), a base card (with many more parallels), a retail exclusive Chrome card (with many parallels), and a Topps Update Chrome Sapphire (with more parallels).

I recently added the blue border Decades Best insert from 2020 Topps Update to my collection.

I also added a 2020 Topps Update Chrome Gold /50 and a 2020 Topps Update Walgreens Yellow Foil to the collection.

Both feature him in a Pirates uniform, but Cutch played the entire 2020 season with the Philadelphia Phillies. 

This post contains quite a few Cutch cards in a Pirates uniform that I received in 2021, but ZERO of which I think should count towards my 50 card goal because the product wasn't released during his Pirates playing years.