It was a cerebral evening in the land of Major League Baseball, even though the game itself was a tad bit on the depressing side thanks to multiple tributes to tragic losses of life and Joe Buck's apparently virus-stricken pipes. (No, apparently he doesn't always sound that way.) Nevertheless, I figured this was as good of a time as any to break out a few gems I had been holding on to for one reason or other.
The card at the top of the post is just my second "1 of 1" that I've managed to get my hands on. It's almost hard to remember the crazy Albert Pujols card I pulled in a group break awhile back. I'm not even going to link to it because for some reason I think it has prevented me from ever participating in a team-based group break ever again. This quirky little Chris Carpenter gem, upon first glance, looked like 2008 Goudey. I did not recall that set having printing plates, however.
It turns out that this design is actually something Upper Deck had visited just two years previous to that Goudey release, even on down to the "Ken Griffey Jr. says..." thing on the front. 2006 Fleer Tradition has been a staple of the repack game for awhile now, but I had never seen or heard of the Goudey Greats inserts that were apparently a pretty tough pull in their own right. If you remove a couple of the design elements, you basically have the same set. How strange. If you haven't guessed by now, this came to me as part of the Smed's Spring Cleaning extravaganza. I think I need to find out how I can live in a place where I find diamonds in my couch instead of pocket lint and pennies when I'm doing a little cleaning of my own.
Another quirky card was included in the lot that I overlooked the first couple of times I laid my eyes on it. This is a 2002 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion insert of brief star Bud Smith. Gold parallels are pretty familiar to the Fleer Ultra brand, but apparently this year the prospects cards were also serial numbered to 100.
This one is clearly strange, however, as there is no number before the "/100" on the back. Has anyone else run across a weird numbering gaffe like this? The only other example I could find on eBay of a prospect Gold Medallion card from this same set had normal serial numbering.
Finally, in the spirit of the All-Star Game, here's a card that I am trying to make myself feel better about overpaying for. It's one of your garden variety 2008 Upper Deck jersey cards, but it's Yadier Molina so it's automatically awesome. Don't listen to the haters out there (you know who you are, you Braves-loving blogger types.) Yadi is great. Despite coming off of the bench in the big hype fest of a game, he was the most visible Cardinal and got the most playing time of the three representatives. I snagged this particular card at a card shop because I felt weird about going there for the third time and basically not buying anything besides supplies yet again. The place is just not very inviting for someone like me who likes to dig through boxes and search for bargains and buy cheap packs. Oh well... whatever pays the rent.
It turns out that this design is actually something Upper Deck had visited just two years previous to that Goudey release, even on down to the "Ken Griffey Jr. says..." thing on the front. 2006 Fleer Tradition has been a staple of the repack game for awhile now, but I had never seen or heard of the Goudey Greats inserts that were apparently a pretty tough pull in their own right. If you remove a couple of the design elements, you basically have the same set. How strange. If you haven't guessed by now, this came to me as part of the Smed's Spring Cleaning extravaganza. I think I need to find out how I can live in a place where I find diamonds in my couch instead of pocket lint and pennies when I'm doing a little cleaning of my own.
Another quirky card was included in the lot that I overlooked the first couple of times I laid my eyes on it. This is a 2002 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion insert of brief star Bud Smith. Gold parallels are pretty familiar to the Fleer Ultra brand, but apparently this year the prospects cards were also serial numbered to 100.
This one is clearly strange, however, as there is no number before the "/100" on the back. Has anyone else run across a weird numbering gaffe like this? The only other example I could find on eBay of a prospect Gold Medallion card from this same set had normal serial numbering.
Finally, in the spirit of the All-Star Game, here's a card that I am trying to make myself feel better about overpaying for. It's one of your garden variety 2008 Upper Deck jersey cards, but it's Yadier Molina so it's automatically awesome. Don't listen to the haters out there (you know who you are, you Braves-loving blogger types.) Yadi is great. Despite coming off of the bench in the big hype fest of a game, he was the most visible Cardinal and got the most playing time of the three representatives. I snagged this particular card at a card shop because I felt weird about going there for the third time and basically not buying anything besides supplies yet again. The place is just not very inviting for someone like me who likes to dig through boxes and search for bargains and buy cheap packs. Oh well... whatever pays the rent.Here's to a huge "second half" where a certain team donning the Birds on the Bat gets to make good use of the home field advantage gained by their league tonight.
Whoa, that Bud Smith is odd. I've never had a card that looked like that, so it's new to me!
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