Twenty years ago relic cards were pretty popular. Half-inch swatches of swatches of bats and jerseys that may or may not have been worn or used by a player during a game. At some point there was a huge scandal with these cards, which I am not going to rehash in this space, and they have slowly disappeared over the last few years.
I have boxes full of these bat and jersey cards. I am not sure what to do with the relic cards at this point, other than to pull them out and look through them. I don't think they are worth anything and I do not know anyone who collects them at this point.
Still, there are some of these relic cards that are still really fun and unique.
One of my favorite all-time relic sets was the Stadium Club game-used dirt inserts, which were in the 2000 set. Still pretty popular cards, so I understand why Topps has recreated these cards and put them into Opening Day the past two or three years.
I don't do much with Opening Day, but I really like the dirt relics.
The player choice was a no doubter, although Jack Flaherty also has a game-used dirt card. That might be a card that I had to my watch list.
I am 100% that this game-used dirt was likely never touched by Blake Snell or even his cleats. I am basing that statement on the disclaimer on the back of the card.
I am just going to ignore that statement. I am a fan of the game-used dirt.
I have one of those game-used dirt cards from Stadium Club that was sent to me by a fellow blogger. It's awesome! And easily the coolest Vladimir relic sitting in my collection. I've always been a fan of memorabilia cards... and still am. But they've definitely been overshadowed by the rookie card hype.
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool! If the Stadium Club dirt cards weren't all $30+, I might try to put together a set of them. Wish I had jumped on these awhile back.
DeleteI still collect relic cards...as long as I'm not paying more than about $3 a card. Actually just bought a relic of Dillon Gee off the Bay this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteJust want to know precisely when they hold all these non-specific games, events, and seasons.
Dillon Gee. There is a name I have not heard in a long time. I saw him in Triple A when he was coming up through the Minors. Nice pitcher at that level. I like the idea of knowing the details behind the game-used whatever too. I thought that the early 2000s Playoff brand products did a good job of this with the pictures of the items. I didn't guarantee they were used, but some clearly were from the pictures on the back. Topps has done better with some products by putting stickers on jersey swatches. I found a couple cool cards out of Strata a few years back that were game used and the player did something cool during the game. Home run, multi-hit, good start, etc.
DeleteI like dirt cards as well. I haven't picked one up, but I appreciate more and more anything that isn't a plain swatch.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. Swatches got boring, which is another reason I think they dried up. The more unique or creative, the better.
DeleteGeez, Topps might as well have just said "Here's some random dirt to go along with a player of our choosing".
ReplyDeleteI really have little interest in knowing much about the production of baseball cards, but I would love to know the back stories on these cards. Just a guess, but I bet Topps did not send a representative to each stadium featured on a card in this set to pick-up a pile of dirt. Could easily see some team employee take some soil out of the flower bed in front of their house and mail it in.
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