The local card show last month didn't bring any Linden cards, didn't bring any goalie mask stuff. It didn't even bring in any base cards for my One Sheet, One Set project.
What it did bring in were a few cheap jersey cards to fill in some holes for some memorabilia editions of the project.
Jersey cards for a dollar (or less) are still a mind boggle for me. Sure the players might not be big names (or names at all) but they serve the purpose for my project. In fact, I prefer it. To be able to snag a card with a chunk of a jersey from an NHLer for less than a buck...sign me up. I'll buy them all day.
So here's one of the sets that got finished off.
2005/06 Upper Deck MVP
MVP Materials
These cards were a longshot pull (compared to jersey cards found these days in packs). At one jersey card every 24 packs and the fact that MVP is not a heavily busted product, you'd think these would hold more value.
The player selection is what kills the value with an emphatic squash.
It's a 42 card set and is straight forward with its upside....what you see is what you get.
To me, the front of the card looks really good. The overall design makes it very eye-catching and it sticks out in a crowd. These are good things in this instance.
One of the first things I noticed was the matte finish on the card front except for the player. The player cutout has a gloss to it. It's a subtle effect, but very cool. I really like it.
I ended up seeing a lot of non-white jerseys in my cards. I don't know if that is the norm, but it's a heck of a lot nicer than a bunch of white swatches.
Believe it or not, I like the 'wood panel' look on the sides. I don't know why. It just works. The drop shadow to the center of the card really gives it depth. The shape of the jersey cutout works really well with the rest of the design. I don't know what you call these things '{' and '}' but again...nice.
The middle of the card is broken into thirds with the jersey in the middle third surrounded by a gray textured line pattern with a grayscale logo in the middle of it. A black strip with the word 'jersey' finishes it off. The black strip could have been better thought out, but it's not too bad. I think the logo might have been better off on the player side of the card a little more.
The top and bottom thirds feature a gradient texture featuring the team color. It looks really good when it's a bold color like red or blue, but doesn't work when it's black or gray (or whatever color that's supposed to be). The MVP logo is boldly placed in the top third and the team logo follows suit in the bottom third. Simple and effective.
The player cutout is a bit of a miss for me. The full body shot is not as appealing to me as a half body shot would have been. Some of the players are so far off to the left of the card because of the pose that it makes the card seem off center. And some of the photo selections are just poor. Tom Poti is the best example of this.
To finish off the front, the player name is on the left (not a great font style choice) and 'MVP Materials Memorabilia' is on the right (a bit better selection). A puck in the bottom right with the position (not bad at all) and we're done.
The back of the card follows a lot of the style and design of the front.
The wood panel, the '{', the font style of the player and product name, the MVP logo and yes, the same player photo.
The photo bothers me the most. Here's where a half body shot would have eliminated the need to awkwardly place the cutout into the small window available (and there could have been more area to place the photo to begin with). The desaturating of the pic places it more in the background - still doesn't work for me.
It's a very dark background for a card that has a lot of punch on the front. Not too much color. It's really too bad. I think that Upper Deck could have made the back of the card a lot more exciting.
One thing I've noticed on the back of a lot of memorabilia cards these days is the omission of statistics. Instead, it's a 'Congratulations' message. I like to call it the legitimacy quote...."On the front of the card is an authentic piece of a INSERT TEAM NAME HERE jersey worn by INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE in an official NHL game." It's too bad you have to put this on the back of the card. It should be a given. But with the advent of 'photoshoot' jersey cards, 'warm up' jersey cards, 'alumni' jersey cards and so on it becomes a necessity.
The lack of any pertinent information on the back just turns this card into half a card. Does anyone look at the back of jersey cards anymore?
The text on this card is black - on a dark background. Further darkening the whole look. I'm at the point where I'm ready to turn the card back over at look at my fourth line player.
The one thing this card back has that I like is the smaller amount of space taken up by the logos at the bottom. Not too bad at all.
Overall, it's a half-and-half feeling. The front half is pretty nice, the back half needs a lot of work. The front half holds a little more weight since, well, that's the side you look at most. With the player selection being what it is, I'd suggest passing on building this set unless you can find them in the dollar bin (or less).
3 out of 5
