1999 Topps Stadium Club Kerry Wood Autograph

A little 90s goodness for your Tuesday morning.  I love finding cards from the late 90s and picked this card up last week.  The Stadium Club brand ran from the early 90s through the early 2000s with a brief comeback a few years ago.  The brand was initially billed as a premium card set and maintained it's focus on quality and great photography throughout its decade long run.  One of the features added to the set in the late 90s was the inclusion of autographs in the set.  The Co-Signers card were the most popular autographs in the set, but there were lots of good single signature cards in those Stadium Club sets too including this one of Cubs hurler Kerry Wood.

1999 Topps Stadium Club Kerry Wood Autograph

The most challenging aspect of hunting down the Stadium Club autographs is condition.  The autographed cards have the same high gloss finish that the base Stadium Club cards had making the autographs subject to smears, smudges, and fading.  Fading seems to be the most common problem, but they aren't as bad as the 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot set.  I was happy to see this Kerry Wood autograph and was able to swap out a few duplicate late 90s autographs for this card.  Kerry Wood was a good closer for the Cubs for several years and a great starting pitcher for a few years before injuries sent him to the bullpen.  He has several nice on-card autographs from early in his career, but his later autographs tend to be stickers. 

2001 Donruss Class of 2001 Bud Smith Jersey

I also picked up a cool Bud Smith jersey card in this trade.  I enjoy picking up Bud Smith cards which are really, really cheap.  If you look up his career numbers they are rather unimpressive pitching part of two seasons with a 7-8 record and an ERA of almost 5.  Bud Smith was also part of the trade that landed the Cardinals Scott Rolen from the Phillies and also did this: