The View From Wisconsin

I'm going into my fourth decade of collecting baseball cards and other sports card memorabilia. Over the years, I've collected a LOT of cards. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, movies, television, comics, military (Operation Desert Storm), and even music cards.

I've collected many different types of cards, too. Along side the regular cards out of a wax pack or "cello" pack, I've collected:

• the Hostess premium "cut out" cards;
  
• the Kellogg's and SportFlics "motion" cards;
  
• a couple of hologram cards (yes, most of them from Upper Deck);
  
• oversize cards;
  
• 3-D "relief" cards (Topps made a set of plastic with a photo on top that looked like those relief maps with the bumps for mountains that you used to see in elementary school);
  
• cloth cards, sticker cards, and cloisonne "pin" cards;
• miniature baseball, football and hockey jerseys (that weren't "cards", per se); and
  
• even playing cards with baseball players on them.

And then, of course, there came the "special inserts". First it was autographed cards - not the "facsimile" ones, but real ones signed with Sharpies or with pen. Then it got complicated:

• The authentic jersey card - cut-up patches of a historic or game-worn jersey;
• the autograph card, both of the sharpie type and of the "tape-on" type;
• the "double jersey" card (two pieces of jersey from the same player, or two teammates);
  
• the rookie redemption card;
• the "short prints" or "variation" cards (thanks to Topps' Cracker Jack series);
  
• the "patch" card, with either the piece of a patch or letter from a jersey;
• the "leather" or "bat" or "slat" card, with either a piece of a glove, a slice of a baseball bat, or a sliver of the seat from a departed ballpark;
  
• the infamous "biological insert" card (Washington's hair, for example - something I never got, thankfully);
  
• the "faux" letter card, with a cloth letter "embossed" into a card (a recent Topps innovation); and
  
• the sketch card.
  

It is this last one which gave me the so-called "holy grail" of cards - the "One of One" card. A card so unique that it is the only one out there. And, this past April, I got an insert in my Topps Baseball Series One pack with a redemption code for a special "one of one" Artist's Sketch card.

After waiting for months and months to receive the card (and a phone call or two to Topps HQ), I finally got my card via Certified Mail. It is a sketch of David Wright by artist Brian Kong. Initially, I wasnt' very impressed with the card (no, it's not the one that is seen on his page, by the way). However, after looking at some of his body of work, my opinion has changed a bit. I guess I'd be more gung-ho about it if it was a player I cared about - say, Prince Fielder, of course - but the card is a nice piece of art and, of course, it's unique.

I'm still in a bit of a non-plussed stage over the card, but I think I'm going to drop Brian a line telling him that I got the card. It's a bit hard, though, to think that I got something "unique" without it being more connected to the sport than just a drawing of the Mets' 3B.