2001 starts with a bang - more sheets from the steve garvey binders

sheet 30 of the steve garvey binders contains nine cards from just three different 2001 releases, and only one of the cards is a base card. have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2001 donruss signature series autograph milestone marks autograph
2. 2001 donruss signature series autograph team trademarks autograph
3. 2001 donruss signature series autograph team trademarks autograph (master series signatures)
4. 2001 donruss signature series autograph milestone marks autograph (master series signatures)
5. 2001 fleer greats of the game
6. 2001 fleer greats of the game (printing error)
7. 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph
8. 2001 fleer greats of the game dodger blues relic
9. 2001 fleer legacy hit kings short prints bat relic

you may notice that one of the sticker autos has the '6' inscription on it. i don't know if donruss used a similar sticker for any of the other garvey cards, or if they used a sticker without the inscription on other milestone marks.

as for the printing error card, i actually had the good fortune to pull it from a pack.  what are the odds?  the error is in the fact that the greats of the game foil logo is missing.  well, not really missing, as you'll see in a moment.  one more note before i flip the sheet over - i don't know why the first four cards are in that order - i usually put the parallel cards after the non-parallel cards, but in the case of the donruss autos, we have the serial numbered ones first, as you can see by their backs:

the donruss parallel autos are limited to 175 and 182 copies, respectively, while the greats of the game auto was issued as a 400-count short print, without a serial number.  and, do you see?  there's the greats of the game foil logo - on the back of the card!  other things to note here the first garvey relic cards, one each of jersey and bat.  there was not a cooler insert relic set than the 2001 fleer greats of the game dodger blues set.  it's too bad that 3 (roy campanella, jackie robinson, and duke snider) cards of the 15 cards in the set are short printed and pretty tough to find these days.

sheet 31 is one of my favorites in the entire collection, so stay tuned for the next installment of my trip through the garvey binders!

a condor and some pigeons

continuing with the st. patrick's day/green thing...

quite a while ago, i commented on the apparent scarcity of shawn green certified autos when compared to the availability of shawn green relic cards by saying something along the lines of shawn green certified autos : shawn green relic cards : : condors : pigeons.

to illustrate, this is the only shawn green certified auto i have in my collection - it's from 2002 topps gallery, and it's on-card

it's better looking than a condor, actually.  but the point is, there don't seem to be too many of these things available, and when they do pop up, they usually fetch a decent sum.  green's relic cards? those are a dime a dozen. or at least in the 3 for $10 range at your local card show.  here are just a few (and i mean just a few) of the shawn green bat and/or jersey pieces in my collection

this bat piece comes from 2000 fleer mystique

and this jersey is from the aptly named 2001 upper deck sp game used edition

not to be outdone, here is a piece of a bat from 2001 upper deck sp game bat edition

and another bat piece from 2001 fleer legacy

this next one is one of my favorite green relic cards.  it comes from 2003 ud authentics

i like it because it features green taking cuts at vero beach, but mostly because tommy lasorda is lurking in the background.  hello tommy!

this one is from 2002 fleer authentix (they spell things differently than upper deck did).

yes i am aware that fleer was playing off of the sometimes accepted abbreviation of 'tickets' for this release.  the card includes a facsimile of a ticket to the 2002 season opener between the good guys and the bad guys. the ticket features maury wills to boot.  for the record, green was 1 for 4 in the game.  the dodgers lost, and were, in fact, swept by the no-cals in that 3 game series.

moving on, here's a jersey card from 2002 playoff

and here's another shawn green jersey card, sharing time with jim thome's bat courtesy of 2002 fleer hot prospects

neither of these guys were prospects at this point.

next up is another dual bat/jersey card although this one is green's alone.  it's from 2003 donruss timeless treasures, and it actually features a patch

it may well be a fake, although that is part of a patch that the dodgers wore on their sleeves in 2002.  i bought this one well before i started reading about fake patches on scu.  the saving grace is that the card is numbered to 25, so it's possible that they used a premium swatch.

the last one of green's relic cards that i will show (there are plenty more, believe me) is from 2002 fleer showcase, and is also low numbered.

i'm a sucker for the red number on dodger jerseys.  even on st. patrick's day when i should be wearing green.