One of the players that was in the envelope was this guy...
I had a few cards on my desk of his, and I had bandied about the idea of starting an Andrew McCutchen PC. I thought about it and decided that it might get too expensive, so I sent the few cards that I had off to Matt.
Not a week later, I hit the monthly card show and a box of cards that were 20 for a dollar. I sat down and took a long time going through these boxes, and sure enough, there was a stack of 22 McCutchen cards together.
It was as if someone was telling me something.
Finding cards like the Pastime's Pastimes insert from 2014 A&G for a nickel reminded me of what I really can do when I set my mind to it.
Be extremely cheap.
So after 2 weeks of sitting on this pile of 22 cards, I finally am making the commitment to adding Andrew McCutchen as my 4th player PC.
Why you ask? One, he's a helluva player. Two, he's a throw back. He wants to stay in Pittsburgh. He's always wanted to play for Pittsburgh. He says and does the right things. Most of all, he has fun while he's on the diamond. My wife and I have enjoyed watching him since his initial call up in 2009. Just because we've left the Pittsburgh area doesn't mean my wife and I will not be following the Pirates this year, and Andrew is a big reason why.
Now, onto my frugality.
Because McCutchen is a big time star, there are a lot of jersey cards/auto cards out on the market. That's a lot of $$ if you chase them all. So I don't destroy my wallet, I've decided to make Andrew a BPI collection.
Base cards, Parallels, Inserts. That's it. Manageable.
When I start finishing the vintage sets I've been putting together, maybe that will change. It's going to be a while before that happens, so keeping this PC on the cheap side will help.
Anyone else out there have PCs that they keep on the cheap? Would love to hear how you do it...
thanks for reading, Robert
Most of my PCs are on the cheap. About the only ones where I've actually chased relics/autos are Ryan Braun, Jonathan Lucroy, Robin Yount, and Paul Molitor. I've gotten relics and autos for others, but those four are the only ones that aren't "on the cheap" completely.
ReplyDeleteCutch is one of those guys that is extremely difficult to collect. I'm to the point where I'm only adding a couple non BPI cards a year. Always appreciate when people send me his cards. Good luck with your Cutch collection. If I can ever get organized I'm sure I will be able to help you out by sending you some dupes of mine.
ReplyDeleteI've got 50+ player collections from the 60's and 70's mostly, and their all BPIO too. Base, parallel, inserts and Oddballs. The only jerseys and autos I have are the ones I've obtained in person, and a few I've bought here and there. The whole stack of toploaders is only about ten inches total. It's more like I want one of each - jersey and autograph for each guy. Most of my guys are occasional All-Stars, but not necessarily HOF'ers, except for a few. For those, I might have half a dozen jersey cards since there are more of them, but the rest are onesie twosies.
ReplyDeleteHad to start a seperate binder for all the oddballs that don't fit in nine pocket sheets. It's easier to put all the same type items in two-, four, six-, eight-, or fifteen pocket sheets together.
Pretty much all of my player collections are BPIs, to borrow your term. I think you'll be amazed at how cheaply you can build a player collection via discount bins at card shows. I started my Cutch collection about a year or two ago and I'm already over the 100-card mark.
ReplyDelete