22 + 78 = 100 and it's awesome!!!

I spoke about these Elite before when I showed the 2014 counterparts.  You can revisit that post here.

I like die-cuts for baseball cards.  I'll admit it.

I also really like math.

Math is fun and these Elite cards prove it.

Elite has a pair of die-cuts that are relevant to the player's jersey number.  

In this case, Andrew McCutchen's jersey number is 22 so the "Status"  card is limited to 22 copies.

The "Inspirations" is limited to 100-player's jersey number.  This being 78.

22 + 78 = 100

The Status /22 is my most recent pickup of a card I have wanted for 5+ years.  I couldn't believe how cheap this low numbered card went for.

What are some of your favorite die-cuts ever made?

Have you been able to get any cards you've wanted for 5+ years recently for pennies on the dollar? Any bargains that have also been top 10 card wants? Share your stories below

Cyber Monday Buyback

It's Cyber Monday so I thought I should show off an extremely rare card recognizing Cyber Monday.

Two very important things become obvious after scanning this card.

1)My scanner bed is filthy

2)My scanner doesn't pick up foil cards very well

I decided to take a picture instead

This card is a limited buyback from 2015's Panini Cyber Monday exclusive packs.
Details of the set can be found here.

Falco Files: Happy Belated Birthday Sergio

During the off-season heading into the 2018 season, the Pirates made a bold move by trading theface of the franchise, Andrew McCutchen, to the San Francisco Giants along with salary for Bryan Reynolds, Kyle Crick, and some international spending money.

While details of every dollar will never be made public for how the Pirates used that international money, there are records of who the Pirates did sign using international spending money available from that off-season.

One such player the Pirates pursuaded was Sergio Campana.  Sergio just celebrated his 18th birthday a few days ago.  He is not ranked as one of the Pirates top 50 prospects heading into the 2020 season.

Campana spent his first year in professional ball last year as a 17 year old.  He plays centerfield and projects to be a toolsy outfielder.

In his first professional season at Gulf Coast League, Campana swiped 24 bags while batting .281/.362/.374.  Again he did that as a 17 year old.

Cutch played in 45 games as an 18 year old in the Gulf Coast League where he batted .297/.411/.430 while swiping 13 bags.

The numbers are comparable, but it is a small sample size for teenage ballplayers.  Cutch went on to finish in the top 5 NL MVP votes four years in a row, collected 4 silver sluggers, won a gold glove, and played in 5 consecutive All-Star Games.  Campana has a long way to go to match that.

Sergio does have autograph and jersey relic cards available in 2018 Elite Extra Edition.  They are extremely cheap at this moment (usually under $10).

Personally the signature isn't very aesthetic looking and the lack of team information makes it unappealing too.

But for $14, I took the chance on this future outfielder.

Details of the Pirates signing the toolsy teenage outfielder can be found here.

At what level do you start paying attention to the prospects in your favorite team's farm system?

A Few Slashers

Today would have been the 13th day until Opening Day countdown, but with the season temporarily suspended it looks like I need to find other things to blog about.

It's also Friday the 13th.

When I think of the saying Friday the 13th I immediately think about Jason Voorhees, the slasher from Crystal Lake.

So with today being Friday the 13th, I thought I could show 13 various DIE CUT cards.  It seems fitting to discuss on such a day.

I have a lot more rare parallels like Gold Prizm and relic die cuts, but if anyone has ever attempted to put a die cut card into a penny sleeve or top loader, you know they are difficult to get the right angle without dinging one of the many potential "corners".

So with that being said here are some of my lower end die cuts.

2014 Elite Aspirations Inspirations

The design for this card looks like it could be a logo for a intergalactic space police force.


2014 Stadium Club Triumvirate

The beehive honeycomb background on these Triumvirate cards looks so awesome.

2015 Stadium Club Triumvirate

The die cut pieces of this insert interlock with other players to form a full image.  Mccutchen connects with Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco.  Above are the luminous and luminescent variants.  The Illuminator variant is an acetate version and is a case hit.

2015 Elite

There are So many different parallels for this set (including some that include sticker autographs).

2015 Prizm Diamond Marshal insert

I also have the gold parallel, but this card in particular is one of the toughest to sleeve without dinging that pointy bottom of the "badge" design.  The base and prizm (Refractor) have both been scanned.

2015 Topps Chrome

This design reminds me of when I used to make paper snowflakes around Christmas time.  We would take a coffee can to make a perfect circle then fold it a couple times.  Then start just slashing.  When the paper would get unfolded it would have a symmetrical design with just random pieces missing.

2014 Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge Stars

This Bowman Platinum card would look amazing with an autograph on it.

2014 Bowman Platinum 5 Tool

This Bowman Platinum diecut insert gives me the impression of just cut out anything that would have the black border be part of a design.  There are so many edges on this card.

2013 Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge Stars

Another Bowman Platinum insert.

2015 Allen & Ginter National

As a precursor To Ginter X Topps produced some die cut cards that were distributed at the National to get fans excited about the 10th Anniversary of the product.

2012 Topps Chrome Dynamic Die Cuts

Holy cow do the colors on this thing pop!!!


2013 Bowman Chrome Fit The Bill

This design clearly took a silhoute of Abraham Lincoln's favorite headgear and modernized it into a shiny baseball card.

2012 Faces of Franchise

This is my favorite "oddball" card I have of Andrew McCutchen.  The card was designed to be part of the autograph subject line, but Topps never put the stickers on the cards or foil stamped it.  It is believed that only 15 were produced and with no major markings besides the tiny print certified autograph issue it is very likely that the other 9 are somewhere in a quarter bin.

The Artist Formerly Known As...

Today would have been Prince's birthday.  I was never a fan of his music with the lone exception being the soundtrack to the 1989 "Michael Keaton/Tim Burton" Batman.  That soundtrack was Prince's 11th studio album and is celebrating the 30th anniversary this year.

Prince is mostly remembered for Purple Rain and as such is commonly associated with the color purple.

I wanted to show off only my 22 favorite purple parallels, but I realized many of these have never appeared on this blog.

So with that being said here are (more than) my 22 favorite Cutch cards in the shade of purple.  Besides the first one I am going to show off, they are not ranked by preference.

Let's begin with the centerpiece of my Andrew McCutchen as a member of the Phillies collection.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that I preordered a /99 or less autograph from Twinsjake the day he listed this Road To Opening Day.  I received the lowest number he had.

Now for some others...

This gets some more high preference too because it is jersey numbered (22/xx).

The final Opening Day card of Cutch in a Pirates uniform (even though he actually appeared on the Giants Opening Day roster).

The patch on this card is awesome.  The fact that it has a sticker to research what game it's from is awesome.  My only problem with the card is Topps says this is a purple parallel, but it looks more blue than purple.

2015 Topps Tek was a lot of fun to collect.  I can't imagine what it must have been like collecting the original set with over 90 patterns and two different parallels.

Cutch purple parallel Toys R Us exclusive from his MVP season?  Yes, please.

Toys R Us purple exclusive parallels will surely be missed in my collection going forward.  I know that there is another retailer taking over the purple exclusives, but I don't have any Meijer near me.

Anyone else like Heritage?  I fricking love the set!

I am going to group all three of these Prizm together.  I love the Prizm color parallels.

Another Panini logoless product, but the triple parallel for batters is a pretty tough pull despite not being numbered.  The left side of the card is made of acetate, hence the Clear Vision name for this insert set.

I showed this die cut off when discussing the unique numbering of these cards by Elite.  The purple cards are all numbered to the players jersey number.

The following year, the purple diecut represented the other side to make 100 (100-jersey number) when the Inspirations Purple was changed to 78 for Andrew.

Chris from The Collector hooked me up with this purple parallel from 2017 Triple Threads.

Here is another trio of high end purple parallels.
2015 Tribute (/10!!!), 2015 Triple Threads, 2014 Triple Threads

Topps Chrome 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015.  I am missing the 2014 Purple Chrome, but do have the Toys R Us exclusive from the Series 1 Flagship

These two are pretty neat from 2015 Bowman.  The purple ice on left is produced at only 20% of the base purple on right.

Another TRU exclusive, featuring the batting leaders for the 2014 season.  It contains all former Pirates.  Just a personal opinion, but how nice are purple parallels featuring Rockies players?

A trio of Bowman Chrome with decreasing print run numbers.


Let's finish with a bang!

Not that kind of bang.  I'm talking about the kind that leads to parties.

As in Transcendent parties with Topps.  The highest priced box of all time for baseball can get you a chance at a purple Transcendent frame auto.  Every box granted the purchaser an invitation to attend the Topps Transcendent party with past special guests being Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, Hank Aaron, and Shohei Otaku.

Now that's a party, man (Prince pun intended)

100-Jersey Number = X

Elite has a really cool parallel where they make the purple status pararallel numbered to the player's jersey number and the blue inspirations limited to 100-jersey number

By now everyone on here should know that Cutch's main jersey number since breaking into the majors is 22.
Thus....
78

+
22

=100

That is a pretty cool idea that Panini did

The backs are identical

The two prefix numbers on the serial numbering 20+14=34

Who has the most memorable number 34 for you in any sport?

The National Exclusives 2012

The National Sports Convention just ended and I considered making a set of posts about all the National exclusive cards I have of Cutch, but then the Pirates made a blockbuster trade for Chris Archer and I went out to Pittsburgh for his debut.

So rather than grouping all the cards over a series of consecutive posts I will just randomly show them off over the course of time (or maybe all next year for the Convention time frame as I haven't quite decided yet).

Cutch began gaining superstar status in 2012 following his first All Star Game appearance in 2011 and an extremely hot start to the year in 2012.

Through June 2012 he looked like the clear cut MVP as the Pirates were battling for 1st place in the division and at one point in July Cutch had reached a season average of .386.

As part of the National circuit, Panini made a series of restamped cards including the Elite Extra Edition you see below.

This would have been a good Star Wars Day card as it is numbered 4/5 and I celebrated May the 4th this year with cards all numbered 4/5.