In my endless journey to collect every single unique Redskin card that man, woman and child has ever made, i have to understand my limitations. Whether they are due to fiscal inability or levels of rarity that would make winning the lottery easier, i must pursue, pursue, pursue…or collect, collect, collect! What that means is when i have the chance to pick up a card that is rare…10 copies or less…maybe, actually 5 or less…i gotta do it…assuming I can afford said card. The real issue comes in to play when the old printing plates cross my eyes.
Printing Plates are annoying. I would venture to say that most of us would wholeheartedly agree to those four words. They are FREAKIN’ ANNOYING!. At first i thought they were a cool little insert in packs and something that was part of the card production process. A truly unique, one of a kind insert. But now, there are multiple printing plates for multiple card sets each year, and as a team collector it makes me feel the need to put them on my checklists…knowing good and damn well that i won’t ever get the majority of them…or possibly any of them. They are One of One after all. Last Saturday though, I had a chance to pick one up from Kim at the show and this was it.
It’s from the 2013 Panini National Treasures set, card #100 of Robert Griffin III. Now a former Washington Redskin(s). The thing that’s baffling to me and printing plates is their price. This card you see here was marked at $20 and i probably got it for around $10 (bought a bunch of cards so it’s hard to say exactly). Now, i’m no economics expert, but neither is your President of the United States…but i would think that a second year card of an NFL QB that is the only one of its kind in the entire world would fetch upwards of $100. Possibly even more, tens of hundreds maybe, but no, not today, not at this show.
Now, i get that RGIII isn’t the same RGIII in 2017 as RGIII was in 2012…or 2013 RGIII. But it’s still a 1/1 card! I feel like a fool for complaining about this pick up, but it just seems really odd to me and my marginal understanding of basic economics. Regardless, i now own it and am pretty pleased with the card. it is quite lovely and has a nice weight to it. It’s thicker than most of the other plates that i have, which is great because most of those are dinged or dented or bent(ed). This one just has some printer roller streaking, maybe that’s RGIII fleeting career moving past him quickly and on to the next guy, not quite sure.
Another thing that i think is a little crazy about these printing plates is that i normally end up with the Black versions, not the Cyan, not the Magenta and definitely not the Yellow. I may have a couple Cyan and Magenta ones…but i don’t believe i have any Yellow plates. Could it be that the Yellow Uno/Uno plates are even more rare? Maybe the rarest of them all?
Idiotic, i know…there’s one of each of the CMYK printing process plates randomly inserted in your packs, boxes and cases…but it just seems odd to me. Cue Rod Sterling…
…That’s all i got for today
I saw The Founder tonight with Michael Keaton, he wasn’t physically there, he was on the screen, but it would have been pretty cool to see the movie with him. I have a couple questions about Mr. Mom and Gung Ho i’d like him to answer anyways. Getting back on track…It’s the story of Ray Kroc and how he brazenly took the McDonalds model nationwide worldwide and became a billionaire of the seemingly kind McDonald brothers. (Nick Offerman is a man crush of mine.) It was a good movie, not epic, but entertaining. Watch it if you get a chance!
Here’s a one of a kind from Slug and Ant…AKA Atmosphere.
I for one am glad printing plates of lesser desired players are affordable as it has allowed me to add a few to my Braves and Carolina Panthers collections. Funny though you should mention the yellow plates because that’s all I basically have. In fact I recently picked up a very nice yellow printing plate of Panthers TE Greg Olsen.
one day i will find a yellow plate…
kinda sad for me that RGIII is now a lesser desired player, but such is life!
Values of printing plates have boggled my mind too as of late. I recently picked up an autographed printing plate of Brooks Robinson for $25 and was left scratching my head. I know his signatures aren’t exactly expensive, but how does a one of a kind item sell for a little over the price of a blaster box? It’s crazy. I guess it comes down to supply and demand. Maybe there just aren’t a lot of Robinson or Griffin collectors competing with us for these printing plates.
Brooks Robinson auto plate, awesome!!!! An autographed plate is not something that i’ve acquired yet, soon i hope.
Totally agree on the scratching head over costs of these things…just seems incredibly odd to me. Especially since they are pretty cool artifacts.
It’s almost like plates are getting to be like jersey cards – ho hum seen it before, what else ya got? Blow ’em out cheap cuz nobody is looking for them since they’re so rare.
When I’m compiling a want list, I always cut and paste all the 1/1’s (and sometimes the 1/5’s and lower) to the bottom of the list and grey them out. Getting one would be a nice bonus, but they’re not anything I’d pay more than $25 for, and it’s ludicrous to expect to pull one from a pack. The ones I have found came cheap. I hope they continue to fall, honestly.
same here with the checklists, like to separate the cards that will most likely not end up in my collection from those that hopefully will. I do try to pick them up when i can though!
Congrats on the pickup!
I like printing plates, but yeah, they’re annoying if you’re a completist about it. Like for the 2014 Bowman Gavin LaValley rainbow I’m working on, there’s like 12 plates I need (4 each of base, chrome, and mini). Funny you mention yellows being rare, because I find them to be the easiest to find (I have all 3 of the LaValley yellow plates, the only color I’ve “finished”).. it’s probably my least favorite color of plate since it’s the lightest and often hard to see the image.
thank you…plates are always a nice pickup no matter the color of the plate. i am a completist so it’s tough to not get those items even though i may never ever find them…much less afford all of them.