Ahhh, relics. Is there anything sweeter than an envelope full of relics in your mailbox? How’s about an envelope full of relics that only cost you 29¢ a pop?

Or how’s about a relic of a probable first-ballot Hall of Famer? Who happens to be one of the all-time greatest players to ever play for your favorite baseball team?

I had never really seen these 206 Relics, but I really like them. Thanks to Allen & Ginter, I’ve grown to really love the whole framed relic concept. I touched on this in some post somewhere, but it’s almost like a relic within a relic. The jersey bit, or bat bit or whatever, is a precious little relic encased in this card, which become a precious little relic encased within another card.

Topps did a much better job designing the frames for the A&G cards, but there is something to be said for the simplicity of this design. I initially didn’t take much of a shine to the pastel blue frame. When I was doing a bit of research about the 206 Relics however, I discovered that there was actually 3 series of them, and each series had a different  colored frame. A pastel yellow frame, this pastel blue, and a pastel pink. I’m not 100% sure why, but somehow knowing that made me like the color choice. Maybe because faced with the other possible frame colors, pastel blue suddenly didn’t seem so bad.

When I looked at the back of the cards I noticed some interesting things.

First off, the backs look good. The fancy framing on the card itself is nice, but not too fancy as to be distracting. I also like that you can see the back of the relic swatch. I know on Ginter relics, the back is covered over, and I’m 99% sure it’s the same on most other relic cards.

One strange thing I noticed was that on the Penny and Helton cards, it says specifically “Game-Worn Jersey Card”, whereas on Mikey P’s card, it claims to be a “Game-Worn Uniform Card”. Is that to imply that it’s not a jersey? In which case, is it a pants swatch? In which case, why don’t you just say “Game-Worn Pants Card”? I’d have to double check, but I thought that other relic sets specify pants if it’s pants. What’s the deal here?

And by the by, if there’s any Rockies fans or Marlins fans out there, the Helton and Penny cards are up for grabs for other relic cards, preferably Metsies. I really just got them because I was already getting the Piazza from the same seller, and how could I possible pass them up for 29¢? How I ask you?

Tags: 2002 Topps 206, Brad Penny, Mike Piazza, relic, Todd Helton
Filed Under: It Came from the 'Bay by slangon
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