2008 Upper Deck Ballpark Collection Quad Player relic

Card Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Card Set: Ballpark Collection

Year: 2008

Card Number: 204

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Quad Swatch Memorabilia

Card Attributes: Relic

Relic Type: Jersey

Note: Also featured on card, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, J J Hardy

By 2008 relic cards had become filler fodder for products.  Sure they were hits, but relics were and are now more than ever a dime a dozen.  Seriously you can find tons of relic cards in the dollar bins.  And quad relics can be hit or miss.  Usually it's a jumble of players from different teams sometimes united by a common thread like position, but sometimes it seems the card manufacturers just looked who they had the most swatches for and put them together.

With that being said, I think this might be one of my favorite relic cards in my Brewers team  collection and in my Yount player collection.  

Upper Deck's Ballpark Collection offered a lot of relics. Each box had 2 sometimes 3.

While quad player relic cards can be hit or miss they tend to work out great when the unifying theme is the team.  And this card works well because the swatches are all so different, well mostly.  I mean you get a pinstripe from the Hardy section and a nice gray piece of pants from the Yount.  And with Prince's swatch slightly askew it doesn't look exactly like Rickie's piece.  

I think the only thing that would have balanced out this card and made it better is if there was another retired Brewer on the card like Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, or Rollie Fingers.  That way you have the balance of old and new.  But I'm not complaining.

The Creme de la Creme - 2008 Topps Sterling Quad Relic Auto

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Sterling

Year: 2008

Card Number: 4CSA-126 

Player Card Number: RY88

Card Type: Insert Auto Quad Relic

Card Attributes: Autographed, Quad Relic, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 08/10

Relic Types: Jersey/Pants, Bat

I think for any player collector there are usually a few cards that define their collection.  I don't have a ton of Yount autographs in my collection, but I do have a few.  Back in 2008 or 2009 I had a pretty reliable desposible income and picked up a few higher end cards.  

2008 Topps Sterling was a pretty neat offering.  It featured HOFers and each box had 4 cards, plus a bonus mystery pack.  When I won this card it came with the original box, band, and the 3 other Yount base cards.  The base cards were only numbered to 250 and it took me a while to hunt down all 11 for my collection, but getting 3 with this deal was pretty sweet.

You couldn't tell what player was featured in the box, but lots of dealers opened the boxes to find out who was  inside.

The inner box was a cool white hinged box that held the cards and around the box was a band that had the name of the player featured in the box.

I put the card in a hard case and cut the foam in the box so it would fit. It makes for a really nice display. Even if the box was made in China.

It's a beautiful quad relic auto. It is kind of sad that this high end product used sticker autos though. All these relic auto cards were numbered to 10 or less, but to be fair Topps made hundreds of variations.  I do like that each relic is it's own piece, not like Triple Threads were they use a large swatch and cover it with multiple letters.