Random Ray - 2001 Upper Deck MVP

This week's Random Ray is one of the last Ray Lankford cards as a Cardinals player. He was traded during the 2001 season to the Padres, so all of his 2002 cards are all with San Diego.  I believe he might have one card as a Padres player in 2001.  That's for another day.  

This week I am going with an Upper Deck MVP card. These were inexpensive cards that were sold at a lot of big box retail stores.  I believe it is supposed to be a notch up from the Collector's Choice cards.  Collector's Choice were inexpensive cards for kids and MVP were inexpensive cards for adults.  Something like that. I liked Collector's Choice better, but that's just me.  

This is a pretty standard MVP set design.  It's clearly made by Upper Deck, even if there was not an Upper Deck logo in the top left-hand corner, its just got that look.  The pixels on the left actually have the word "Lankford" hidden in them running top to bottom.  Sneaky, Sneaky.  

The picture is decent.  Clear action shot of Ray playing a game in Busch Stadium.  I wish the catcher was visible in the picture rather than having the pixels on the side.  It would be fun to see who they were playing here.  You know I am a big fan of figuring when pictures were taken on baseball cards.  

Back of the card.  

The little photo in the top, right-hand corner is a little odd.  It's off center and the background is really dark.  Ray is sitting in the dugout, which was painted dark green in Busch Stadium.  We can do better.  

The stat line is pretty simple, but also standard for Upper Deck baseball cards.  The write-up is a little odd being split between the top and bottom of the card.  However, I do like that they mention he is the career home run leader at Busch Stadium II.  Albert Pujols did not catch him before the stadium was torn down after the 2005 season.  

Overall, this is a decent baseball card.  I am not going to tell you I love it, but Upper Deck MVP was a solid product considering it cost roughly $1 per pack.  

Old School Junior

I know that not many people hold much value in ordinary looking relic cards, but this is actually a really cool card that I picked up really cheaply this past week.  The card comes from the 1999 Upper Deck MVP set, which was a low end retail set back in the day.  The packs were a little bit more than a dollar and were mainly just a source of an inexpensive set.  There were some cool relic cards in this set every year starting with this set of bat cards in 1999.  These cards actually sell really well Ebay.  Sure, common cards of players like Mo Vaughn can be found for a few dollars, but some of the bigger names in the set can easily go north of $10.  High end they are not, but they have also held their value much better than their modern equivalent.  

2002 Topps Barry Bonds Autograph

I have some really good autographs rolling in this week from a few different trades.  I worked hard on a big one last night that netted me a really special card that I will share later in the week.  In the meantime, I found an outstanding autograph a few days ago that a collector was eager to unload.

2002 Topps Barry Bonds Autograph

I can completely understand why some collectors hate Bonds, but steroids or not, the guy is still an incredible talent.  Probably the best left-handed hitter that I ever watched in person.  I really like the fact the autograph is signed on card and that the design allowed the player to sign in a clean white area of the card.  I picked up two other cards in the trade pictured below.          

   

The first is a 2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Bonds bat card.  Bonds has a jersey and a bat card in this set, and while I already had a copy of this card, I am not going to say no to the words "throw-in".  I also picked up a 2000 Upper Deck MVP Javy Lopez batting glove card.  Three really good additions to the collection.  

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Bonds Bat Card

2000 Upper Deck MVP Javy Lopez Batting Glove

2000 Upper Deck MVP Ken Griffey Jr. Batting Glove

I picked up a really cool card this weekend that I was excited to share on my blog.  The person trading the card wasn't asking for much in return, but I used to love this set back in the day and had to get this card.  It's a 2000 Upper Deck MVP Ken Griffey Jr. Batting Glove card.

2000 Upper Deck MVP Ken Griffey Jr. Batting Glove Card 

Scratches are on the screw down case, not the card

Upper Deck MVP was about the cheapest pack of cards available about ten years ago and they were pretty much exclusive to retail stores.  They had a few autographs and the what not, but I always thought this was a cool idea for a relics set.  If you search for these cards at your local store, Ebay, or trading partners they are very reasonable in value, but offer a cool and unique piece of memorabilia.  I actually own several of these cards and love the unique textures, cool colors and patterns, and genuinely used look to the relic.   Great pick up for any collector at an affordable price.