A Not Vintage Card.
May 18th, 2010 by slangon

Way back in January, I declared that 2010 would be “The Year of Vintage” and I’ve pretty much stuck to that declaration full bore. Outside of completing the first series of 2010 Topps and a random pack here and there, every new card that’s appeared in my collection so far this year has been old. I took a second off from vintage to look for something else.

I’m not sure what sparked this particular thought train, but I was realizing that since I was absent from collecting from the early 90’s until 2008, there’s a boatload of cool cards that I didn’t have from that time frame. I was specifically thinking about guys who are stars right now who had their rookie cards released during that period. These days I’m not so into the whole rookie card thing, but during my first foray into collecting when I was a kid I couldn’t get enough of them. I was absolutely certain that that Dante Bichette Rookie I had was going to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams. When I dug up my old card binder a few years ago, which had a lot to do with me getting back into collecting, it was chock full of multiple copies of rookie cards of guys likeĀ Pete O’Brien. Even though I’m not tripping over myself to run out and get a Heyward of Strasberg rookie, I still thought it would be cool to have some nice cards of some big name guys I like from when they first came up. What better place to start than the face of my favorite team.

2002 Bowman #381 David Wright

The first thing that jumps out at me with this card is David’s jersey number. It’s funny how particular athletes become so identified with a certain number. I honestly got this vague, slightly uncomfortable feeling looking at Number 5 wearing number 2. It’s weird, I know. The second thing that struck me was that with card companies recycling designs from the past so much these days, it was nice to see someone give 1985 Donruss some love.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever publicly complained about it on this blog, but the whole “Rookie Card” logo that started popping up on baseball cards in 2005 or 2006 always sort of irked me. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that when I did get back into cards, I was much more into the retro sets than any of the more modern looking sets. Having that logo on a really nice, old looking card just seemed like an eye-sore to me and I always kind of hated it. Once I started to look around for rookie cards that were put out before that logo was instituted, I gained a whole new appreciation for it.

When I looked up “david wright RC” on Beckett.com for instance, it lists this 2002 Bowman card along with a few other Bowman and Topps products. Nowhere in the results does it list the 2001 Upper Deck Prospect Premiers card. When I look in the Standard Card Catalog however, it says that the 2001 Upper Deck card is his rookie, not this Bowman. When you look up the Upper Deck card on Beckett, it lists it as an XRC.

At this point I’m a little confused as to whether or not I actually own David Wright’s rookie card, but I do know that I now own another awesome looking card of one of my favorite players.

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