2001 Upper Deck Legends - Legendary Game Jerseys Relic card

Card Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: Upper Deck Legends

Year:  2001

Card Number: J-RY

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Legendary Game Jerseys

Relic Type: Jersey

I remember the early 2000's really well. I won't say I got out of collecting, but it definitely was not one of my priorities. Having moved from Wisconsin to Alaska and spending the majority of my time in remote locations working really doesn't lend itself to card collecting.  Coupled with that I was pretty much homeless living out of  my suitcase, or duffel bag.  But right around 2002, I started settling down and spending more time in civilization. It also happens to be the time I found ebay and started buying cards.  So I missed the Relic revolution, but I caught up pretty quick.  And this was also the time that Upper Deck, Topps, Fleer, and Donruss all started putting out HOFer and retired stars cards. 1999 marked the year that Robin would be featured on baseball cards again. It had been 3 years since he had had any cards issued with his likeness, but getting into the Hall of Fame will change that. The early 2000's were littered with relic cards for Robin.  Of course sets featuring retired players and HOFers were all the rage too like the Upper Deck Legends set.  In the early days pieces like this that had some color were a premium, of course if you got a piece of patch, holy moley! But any kind of color that helped the card stand out from the thousands for plain color swatches was pretty cool.  Those first few years on of my ebaying I really went a little crazy, but I added a lot of great Yount cards to the collection.  

Of course now we have to wonder if this is actually a game worn piece of jersey, but honestly that's not what draws me to the card.  It's the man featured on it and even if it was categorically proven that the swatch was fake I would still want this card in my collection.