Nice Card File - 2005 Prime Patches

This set was produced by Donruss in 2005. There are 89 cards in the base set. There are 209 different insert sets amounting to another 4,345 cards. The inserts all have either autographs or game-used material or both. They are all serial numbered. I never saw a pack of these cards in the wild but I image they were pretty expensive since each pack had 2 inserts. They are pretty easy to find on eBay, which is where I got these. With the exception of the J.D. Drew card, which I got about a yer ago, I acquired all of these in the past 3 weeks.
Mike Schmidt (Prime Patches Hall of Fame Materials Double Swatch Prime). I'm pretty much a sucker for Mike Schmidt cards and I paid more for this ($14.32) then I normally would for a baseball card. It has a game-used stirrup and jersey. The jersey has two colors, which is a bonus. On the card it calls the jersey piece jersey-prime. I don't know what the prime notation means. I might mean that the piece is a 'prime' piece, in that it comes from a specific part of the jersey. It must be from the edge of the wide red stripe on the shoulder. The card is #54 of 65.

J. D. Drew (Prime Patches Major League Materials Triple Swatch). There are several basic designs for the inserts. The Schmidt card was the Hall of Fame version, this is the Major League version. If has pieces of a game used bat, jersey and shoe. I believe it's the only card I have with a shoe piece. I paid $4.99 for this in July 2007. The card is #7 of 150.

Tony Gwynn (Prime Patches Portraits Jumbo Swatch). This is the Portraits insert set. The jersey piece is huge, the biggest I've ever seen. Tony is a surefire Hall of Famer, so I think $5.28 for the card was a good price. I actually have another of these cards coming from eBay with a white jersey piece. This card is #268 of 499.


Jim Thome (Prime Patches Portraits Team Logo Patch). Another future Hall of Famer, I paid $6.62 for this. The card features a portion of the team logo from a jersey. Like aboriginal peoples who kill a large animal, no part of the jersey went to waste in this set. They have cards with buttons, logo patches, name plates, number patches and laundry tags. This card is #21 of 150.


Moises Alou (Prime Patches Portraits Triple Patch). Another variation on the Portraits theme, this time with 3 pieces of game-used material, 2 jerseys and a bat. Alou's last year with the Astros was 2001. I guess Donruss had some old Alou stuff laying around in the warehouse. I paid $6.20 for this card which is numbered #80 of 150.

Jeromy Burnitz (Prime Patches Portraits Quad Swatch Prime). Yet another variation of the Portraits theme with 4 jersey swatches, from at least 3 different jerseys. The upper left swatch is labeled Prime, I'm guessing because of the small piece of a patch included. I have found that game-used and autographed cards are plentiful on eBay, if you're not to picky about who you get. I'm not a particular fan of Burnitz but, for $6, the card was a good price. It is numbered $64 of 75.