The Wasteland's 2009 Card of the Year

I acquired a lot of cards this year. I bought a lot (too many considering I was unemployed for six months), and picked up a bunch through trades. Out of all of these I have found one card that stands above all others. One card that makes all other cards gleam a little less.

Oddly enough, and unlike last year's winner, this card was not a 2009 release. I didn't pull it from a pack or out of a little, yellow, padded envelope in the mail. Nor did it come from a card show or eBay.

It came from the most American of market places - the flea market. To be specific Oldsmar Flea Market (The Mightest in the South!)The dealer we got it from isn't even around anymore, or at least he hasn't been there the last couple of times I've gone.

He had just a single case of cards on an old, beat up, folding table. There were about 15 cards in the case and all of them were either higher end relic cards or autograph cards. There were two or three Jason Bartlet auto's, something I considered but didn't feel like dropping money on.

After talking with the guy for about 5 minutes I realized that he didn't really know too much about cards. His prices seemed a little low for the quality of cards that he had, so I'm not sure where he got them from, not did I really care.

I finally spotted a card that I was interested in and asked him how much. He said $15.00, I countered with $9.00.

He accepted and this beauty below was mine.



A 2007 UD Black Quad Jersey-Auto Precious Materials Auto card numbered 45/50. The swatches are all white and as usual Carl's autograph leaves a lot to be desired but to me it's quite a fantastic card and the new centerpiece of my Crawford collection.