Thursday, July 2, 2009

Worthless Triple Jersey Card

I'm in WalMart the other day and there's no new product. Feeling weak I purchased this:You've seen these. You've probably even bought one or two. This wasn't my first. I'd never looked closely at this package before. It's distributed by MJ Holding Company LLC. Their web site is www.beckettassociates.com. Apparently no relationship with Beckett Media, who publish the price guides. MJ Holding Company are the people who put baseball cards in WalMart and other big box stores. The cards that don't sell go into these packages, I guess.

In the package was a pack of 2008 Topps Opening Day, 2008 Topps Updates & Highlights and a fat pack of 2007 Series One Upper Deck. Nothing exciting in any of these. The relic card was this:
Wow! A Triple Jersey Card. Well, who's jerseys are these? We've got Gabe Gross (Blue Jays 1st round pick in 2001), Casey Kotchman (Angels 1st round pick in 2001) and Kenny Baugh (Tigers #1 pick in 2001). I might have been excited to have pulled this card in 2001 but these guys haven't exactly set the world on fire. Baugh hasn't even made it to the majors.

My next question is, where did this card come from? Beckett.com (no apparent relationship with Beckettassociates.com) came to the rescue. This card is a Heroes of Baseball Game Jersey Trio from the 2001 Upper Deck Prospect Premiers set. A set, buy the way, I never heard of before. There are 9 cards in this insert set, inserted at a rate of 1:144 packs. Since this doesn't sound like a set which would have sold millions of packs I'm thinking there are too many of these cards floating about. Beckett lists it a $10, which means it's worthless. Three cards from this insert set have Mantle jerseys, which would have been much nicer.

The next question is are these game worn jerseys or what? Here's what it says on the back (click on the image so you can read along):
"You have received a Photo-shoot Worn Jersey trading card from the Upper Deck Company, LLC. On the front of this card are authentic pieces of jerseys worn by Gabe Gross, Casey Kotchman and Kenny Baugh during a 2001 MLB Draft photo shoot. We hope you enjoy these pieces of baseball history as we at the Upper Deck Company LLC continue to keep you as close as you can get!"

Are they kidding me?
As close as you can get...to a photo shoot!?

7 comments:

Nachos Grande said...

I've managed to avoid buying those particular repack things at Wal*Mart (instead spending my money on Gems of the Game boxes)...but I can't say that your "pull" made me regret my decisions!

Steve Gierman said...

Wow... the photo shoot-worn uniform is a first for me. I guess Upper Deck will strive to take you closer to the publicity shots?

BASEBALL DAD said...

That's really reaching out for a jersey card.If you are not interested in keeping it though, I would trade for it to use in my sample collection.

dayf said...

I bought one of those things and got my fourth or fifth Dontrelle Willis jersey, so you didn't do too bad. Kotchman is doing ok for the Braves but he really needs to bring his average up if he's going to hit single digit homers. The defense is fantastic though, no complaints there.

dinged corners said...

a) They are not kidding.
b) At least we've heard of Casey Kotchman.

capewood said...

Although I think this card is ridiculous, I don't have another like it so into my reference book it goes.

Unknown said...

This to FanOReds: The Gems of the Game pkgs ARE MJ Holdings or did you miss that one? A for your trip jersey CC I'd have to agree with Baseball Dad. I have a TriStar Hidden Treasures Graded BCCG 1989 TOPPS 393 Gary Carter AS Graded 9 NrMt or better I'll tadja. I'll even pay the postage to send it out to ya. :) May we have the next box please...