Describe The PERFECT Card

[mouschi]

Every now and then I'm asked "What is your favorite card?" I am split in my mind 6 ways. Is it my knob auto? Dynasty logo patch? Red Crusade? My custom that Jose personalized to me? 89 Topps gold border? Wood Museum auto? I've narrowed down my absolute favorite to a little under items in my collection seen here: http://www.tanmanbaseballfan.com/my-...age_number_0=1 LOL

This got me to thinking. What would be the absolute perfect card? I guess for me, I don't really know. I have some ideas though.

Back story - A card with a fabulous back story is hard to beat. I love the stories on the 89 Blue Chips, 90 Aqueous, 88 Topps Cloth, 90 UD Buybacks - any card with a mysterious / good story & history can many times beat an autograph or patch card in my mind.

Design - While a story completely trumps this for me in terms of desirability, the design is huge for me. Ever since I have started creating my own cards, I've been more inwardly critical of cards that hit the market. I sometimes look at cards now and say "UGH! Why did/didn't they put foil on those cards?" or "What a horrible cropping job! What were they thinking?"

Photography - This is especially true for cards nowadays when retired players oftentimes have the same picture over the course of 20 different cards. A great, unique picture makes a card more appealing to me.

Scarcity - Having a feeling of being a part of an exclusive group (or the only person) that owns a certain card adds tons of desirability. Like it or not, knowing that a card is coveted by others helps.

Player - (DUH). It would be hard to call any card of Mickey Hatcher better than any card of Mickey Mantle....UNLESS you are a die-hard Mickey Hatcher collector. In that case, the perfect card for you could definitely be a Mickey Hatcher card, when put up against ANY Mantle.

Autograph - In a world where players are paid to pump out hundreds of autographs on cards and stickers, some can get sloppy and thus affect the sale value of a card. I've seen a wide swing of sales price between two cards just because a part of the signature was slightly off the sticker, (or heck, on sticker as some hate those), streaky, etc. A good, clean autograph looks great, while a junky one can ruin the aesthetics of a card.

Relics - A nice patch can really set off a card, as can a nameplate, bat knob, etc. These pieces can really make a card stand out nicely, compared to regular bat chips & plain swatches. The whole idea of having a piece of a jersey or bat embedded into a card gave us collectors a feeling of being closer to the game. When the market was flooded with them, the premium patches/knobs/etc. gave many of us the same feeling again ... though at a much heftier price tag.

To me, the backstory and relic pieces used are most important, I think. Unfortunately, these cannot be married together, as time is needed for a backstory and the premium relic pieces are fairly new to the game.

What is most important to you? What would absolutely make you melt? Describe your perfect card!

[bravos4evr]

My perfect card right now is my T206 Rube Waddell portrait!

It's perfect because he's my favorite old time player, It's a little worn which kinda symbolizes the age of the card, the era and the man himself, and it comes from perhaps the most iconic set in baseball card history.

I think that even when I finally get a red or green Cobb that I will still hold that Waddell as my favorite and thus most "perfect" member of my collection.

[nat]

I have a 1956 Ernie Banks that would probably grade to VG/EX -ish condition, except that it's got a pen line between the hitting and fielding statistics. The reason that I like this card so much is that the guy I bought it from had lots and lots of 56 Topps cards, and all of them had a line between the hitting and fielding numbers. Which means this collection belonged to one kid who, in 1956, said to himself "they really should have done more to show people that the numbers on the left side of the card are very different than the ones on the right", and who then took a pen and made sure that nobody was going to confuse hitting and fielding numbers in HIS card collection. I really like it that I can figure out what some kid was thinking back in 1956 from this card (and the others that were for sale), and that the card tells me about how someone appreciated it before I owned it.

[mouschi]

Love it! Great responses.

[ooo-ribay]

I'm not really into cards.

[BearBailey]

The t3 Turkey reds. The colors, size, player selection, and how you had to get them is pretty cool to me. Throw in the different backs and how many were taped or tacked to walls, only so many left. Obviously the t9s as well.

[Exhibitman]

[mike drop]