2012 Topps Pro Debut Tim Beckham Patch Card

One of the most underrated products put out by Topps the past three years has been the Pro Debut set.  It's the second minor league based set issued every year by Topps and has also been joined by the Topps Heritage Minor League set.  While the Bowman set features minor league prospects on the cards, the pictures of the players are all of them wearing their major league uniforms.  The Pro Debut set and the Heritage minor league cards feature players in their minor league uniforms and borrow the card designs from the current year's Topps design for the Topps Pro Debut set, and the current year's Topps Heritage design for the Heritage Minor League.

One of the coolest features in this year's Pro Debut set was the inclusion of manupatches.  The patches featured the cap logos of various different teams throughout the minor leagues.  I was excited to see a Durham Bull's player was included in the set earlier this summer and quickly set out to add this card to my collection.  However, once I started looking for the card I found only a small supply of the cards and learned that Topps set the insert ratio for the manupatches at roughly two per six box case.  Tough odds to say the least.  I set out to win this card in an auction or trade for one.  The trade market however was dry and the bidding was competitive and often stretched to the neighborhood of $20 which is pricey for a manupatch.  I decided to be patient with the card and wait until I found the card on my terms which happened last week when I found the card on COMC for $5.