Friday, June 10, 2011

Has Anyone Heard of Topps Stadium Club Triumvirate?

Sometimes you come across a card you not only have never seen before, but find that it is from a product you had no idea existed. That happens a lot more often for me than for many of you, as I did not get back into cards until last year, after a decade plus of not giving a damn about them.

So I have much catching up to do.

With all of that being said, I came across a Russell Martin card I had never seen before, found the price reasonable, and was fortunate enough to take it down via the ever-reliable eBay.

39/99

It's a parallel of some sort from Topps Stadium Club. Triumvirate. It was released in 2008. I was made aware of its existence three years later. After a bit of research, I found that these fell at a rate of roughly one per case. I added it to my budding Russ Martin collection (which is nearing 100 unique cards) for a paltry $6.75 delivered.

I've been trying and trying to figure out where the black jersey swatch came from. I'm sure I'm just missing something entirely obvious, but if someone has any idea, don't be a stranger.

It's moments like these that make me love eBay and the internet in general. Perhaps without them, I never would have come across this beauty. But because of the glorious Internets, I can add this card to my PC, and it fits in oh so perfectly.

Has this happened to any of you, finding a card that you had no idea existed, but realizing it fit in so precisely with your collecting interests that you just had to snatch it up?

Also, does anyone else own a Triumvirate triple relic/auto? And if so, of whom?

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Fuji over at The Chronicles of Fuji is holding a pretty sweet contest. Check it out and enter!

7 comments:

  1. I have some Tino Triumvirates from the late '90s. At that time, they weren't relics. They were usually like a three card group (obviously) and the cards fit together and created a super card. It was always confusing because there were different versions of each card - Illuminator, Luminescent and Luminous...and it was hard to tell which was what. I have a few and I still don't know which category they fall into. Cool looking cards though.

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  2. It's possible the black jersey came from an all-star game, especially considering Topps usually gets the game-used jerseys from the classic to be used in cards.

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  3. I own a triumvirate relic/auto. It's the card that you're showing right now.

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  4. Like The Lost Collector, I remember the 1990s Triumvirates. $7 on a case hit auto/triple relic isn't bad!

    And I'd go with All-Star or alternate jerseys. I think every team has played with black jerseys at some point as alternates by now.

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  5. *clicks on link to discuss weird late '90s plastic jigsaw puzzle insert cards

    *sees autographed Triple Threads looking thing, recoils in horror

    *checks comments, sees that other people know about those goofy die cut inserts and am happy again

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  6. I have a few Triumvirates from either the late 90's or early 2000's... but they don't have any relic swatches.

    Btw... thanks for plugging the contest and best of luck!

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  7. A.J.- That does sound utterly confusing. Good thing I wasn't collecting then haha.

    TCI- Yeah, I was thinking All-Star Game or something along those lines. It'd just be nice if they specified. But of course, this is Topps....

    Nightly Owl- I suppose it is only appropriate for fellow Gregs to own the same card.

    RyanG- True true, can't beat the price!

    dayf- Glad I could mislead you haha.

    Fuji- Thanks!

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