Even More Goodness from the Topps Vault

I go shopping at the Topps Vault every once in awhile. It's got some odds and ends and sometimes you cannot find anything to your liking. Other times something catches your eye and you have to pounce. Some of the items end up being a little too cool and the bidding goes far beyond what the budget allows. Other times the gate swings the other way and I am amazed at a cool item I can find for little money and little competition. Last week I saw a listing for a Willie McGee color negative from his 1990 Topps card.  It looked something like this...

I was intrigued by the item and won the auction for a little more than $10. While the card is advertised as a proof for his 1990 Topps card, it does not actually match up to McGee's card in the set. The only common thing going on with these two cards is that both pictures are taken in Shea Stadium.  

The 1990 Topps cards have no player pictures on the back, so the photo proof I picked up from the Topps Vault was just apart of the set of photos Topps likely took of McGee in putting together their 1990 Topps set.  The item was still used by Topps in their 2003 Fan Favorites set which features the picture from the slide on a 1990 Topps inspired card. 

The actual photo proof looked a little bit different than what I anticipated it looking like when I bid on the item.  I was thinking it would likely be similar to a photo slide, but it was surpringly pretty close to a regular baseball card in size. 

You can from the slight white border around the card that the photo proof is just a tad bit short of being a standard baseball card. The photo proof was also really dark.  When my new computer is in two next week I will repost this card as a scan, but I think this picture paints a pretty fair picture. 

The McGee photo proof also included the usual Topps Vault certificate and matching silver identification sticker on the item.  Really excited to add this cool piece from the Vault to my collection and will keep my eyes out for a few more in the near future.