When a card just grabs you for it's look!

This is a well discussed topic and everyone has their own factors that make a card special for them. I tend to be a very visual collector, that is I would rather buy cards that catch my eye instead of the "best" or "most valuable" version. Sometimes it is a card design, a color scheme or an action photo. I think a bigger factor with some of these cards is that I had either never seen them before or they are rarely seen even now, despite being more "common", making it that much more special to me.

One such instance is a 2006 Topps Update Signature Moves autograph of Julio Lugo. Lugo is hardly atop many folks' wantlists, but when I saw this card, I had to have it. I ended up finding one at a price I was comfortable with, although it was more that I expected to have to pay. Since then, I can't even find a photo of one of the internet to share with you. Lugo had joined the Dodgers and this may be his only certified Dodger issue. Perhaps the signatures were harder to pull from this issue or it was not as popular and many still sit sealed in foil packs? Who knows, but this card seems to be a bear to find. I absolutely love the look of it.

Another candidate recently showed itself to me and I almost missed it. it was listed for sale, but the listing ended. I am not sure if the time was just right or it ended early, but it caught me off guard. I then looked to see if there was another for sale somewhere and I failed to even find but 1 other photo of one. I eventually emailed the seller asking if the card sold and the next day it was resisted. I didn't miss my change a 2nd time. This is another lower end Topps issue and it also appears to be a bit tricky to find. It is a 2013 Topps Opening Day autograph of Hanley Ramirez. Once again, this is a somewhat harder to find Dodger uniform autograph for Ramirez, but the way the card looks to me just screams out "own me"! So now I do. I did screenshot this one so I didn't have to dig to scan it.

Most of my Admittedly unfocused PC is just cards I liked the look of, with a preference to die-cuts or a "clean" design...

I tend to gravitate to cards that have colors I like on them. Such as blue or green. I always wish topps/bowman low # refractors were blue or green instead of orange or gold/yellow

Yes, I have liked the fan favorite parallels recently, for example, when they are red, blue or purple. The golds did look great, especially the 1/1s this year, but silver not so much unless it is the right card. I really liked the 86 Topps reprints with colored borders. Same with the 83 T this year.

The red, white and Blue of this card goes well with the Dodger uniforms too.

psj said:

I tend to gravitate to cards that have colors I like on them. Such as blue or green. I always wish topps/bowman low # refractors were blue or green instead of orange or gold/yellow

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Staged or coincidence? I say staged...

BunchOBull said:

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I love 1999 Topps Chrome Refractors. The base cards are such a basic design, but I think that's why I like them. The inserts were killer too.

A few years earlier and wrong sport, but I pulled one of these (not Jordan) and wanted the Jordan so bad because of how cool I thought they looked.

The green....



Scott F

Yes! This was the way I used to collect back in the 90s.





Then I went to the dark side of the cardboard at the turn of the millennium trying to turn paper into gold.
It failed miserably for over a decade. So now I went back to my roots and went back to collecting for pleasure again.

Great thread! I hope to see more samples of what catches other people's eye.

I'm oogling this new dynasty release

I just love this card.