Ray Lankford From The Vault Part 1

I have done several posts about the Topps Vault before in the past, but this week I have two really awesome items to post.  I am not sure whether these are my favorite two items I have ever picked up from the Ebay Store run by Topps, but if they are not they are really high on the list.  Obviously I have never really posted about items that I have lost on the Topps Vault, but I have missed out before on a few cool Cardinals items here and there over the years.  However, I have never seen an item posted of my favorite 1990s Cardinals player Ray Lankford.

This past week so that change when the Vault listed two Lankford items.  I was worried that I would miss out on the items.  One of the last rare Lankford items I needed for my collection, a 1998 Donruss Red Crusade card sold for almost $200 last night, so I was anticipating something crazy with the items last week.  As much as I love collecting Ray Lankford cards I have a price point at which I will walk away.   In this case my fears about the items becoming overly expensive never really became a reality and I paid less than $25 for both items including shipping.  Tonight is the lesser of the cool items.  Here is my new Ray Lankford card......

This card is in a sealed snap down case and is a 1/1 card.  If I am understand the card manufacturing process correctly this card serves as sort of a proof in the pre-production process.  The back is on another card which has not been offered for auction yet, I think, but Topps does have card backs floating around on the Ebay store from time to time.  I like Lankford's 1994 card.  It's not the best card design, it's not the worst either, but I like that the card features an action photo of Ray running the bases in Wrigley Field.

Let's take a look at the back of the item......

Again, the back is blank, but you can see the hologram on the bottom right corner of the card.  The hologram matches a corresponding certificate that Topps mails out with all of the items they sell on the Topps Vault.  The certificate is shown below.  Kind of reminds me of a Merit Award they'd pass out in a Middle School......

Since most of the Lankford cards were issued before the proliferation of printing plates, this is as good as a 1/1 card for my player collection of the former Cardinals outfielder.  If you have not spent a little bit of time exploring the Topps Vault take a few minutes and flip through the items listed on the page.  Sure, some of the items are rare and expensive, but you never know when you will stumble across something unique and inexpensive for your collection.