Just Because It Glitters Does Not Mean It Is Gold

A bit of a back story on today’s post.

After I began to collect again in the early 90s I came back full force and by mid-decade I was collecting all sports. Around 2000 Pacific began including hits in every pack of some of their hockey products like Titanium and Vanguard and I was digging it, I still look back at these products fondly.

I once pulled one of the double jersey cards which had one swatch on each side of the card. It was a double Red Wings card with Yzerman on one side and I believe the other side was Lidstrom and they were both basic white swatches but what made the card awesome was that the Yzerman swatch was covered in blood. How freaking cool is a card with blood on it? Very cool, not as unique as the Manny Ramierez corked bat relic card that Pacific packed out but still unique

But about 6 years ago I went through a purge because I felt my collection was getting out of hand and I pulled aside a couple of hundred autographs, relics, patches and limited # cards and tossed them in to two different lots and sold them each for around $200 on eBay. I included some cards I now wish I had not, including that specific Yzerman/Lidstrom card, but hindsight is 20/20 and I am out of luck.

 

Now, last week I was scrolling through some Gary Payton cards and I came across a listing for a 2000-01 Fleer Game Time Uniformity Payton jersey relic with what appeared to be a splotch of red across the white fabric. Could I have found a Gary Payton jersey with blood?

 

 

I didn’t stop to second guess it and just purchased it for the $5.99 BIN. The card comes in, I am happy but once I have the screwdown in my hand I notice that something is not as I thought it was. I remove the card from the screwdown and slide my finger over the red and no big surprise here but it was a piece of fuzzy red fabric.

 

This one is totally on me, the image is a bit blurry and I could have sent the seller a question but I went total Great White shark and once I saw blood I was in a frenzy. On a slight positive side there is a dark red thread running under the white swatch that comes from the brick red piping near the jersey edge so it is sort of a two-colored swatch… ok that is a stretch.

Wait, If I Squint I Can See It

Only in this hobby can a company get away with creating a memorabilia card with no relic and somebody turning around and spending $100 on a memorabilia card without a relic in it.

Normally I am not a fan of manufactured relics but I am a fan of the Cryptozoic Totally Fabric relic cards because they are based on comics, even though I am not willing to pay the prices that people are asking for the DC versions, but you have to admit including a piece of Wonder Woman’s invisible plane is a stretch.

Around 13 years ago I pulled a 2002 Fleer Showcase Baseball’s Best Vladimir Guerrero bat relic card where the bat piece fell out before it was packed out leaving just an empty hole in the card for me when I pulled it from the pack. A Guerrero fan bought it from me, I think I got about $5 for it, but maybe I should have held up and sold it as an invisible bat card.