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mrmopar
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- Jan 19, 2010
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I was organizing some stuff this past week and ended up putting away a dozen or so GU cards. These are mostly random cards that I win for one reason or another. Usually it's a certain player, team or set based design. I know that covers almost any possible card, but what I mean is that I might see a certain design I like and grab it because it is a Dodger or a player I kind of collect. I don't buy GU cards for the sake of them being GU cards. They simply are another level of insert to me now. Rod Carew is a good example. I can't afford to collect Rod Carew at the level I do Steve Garvey, but I will still grab a neat Carew here and there. Aside from my Steve Garvey collection, I have about 2.5 super shoe boxes filled with GU cards that I have collected since they began to insert them into packs. Most of them were obtained at least 10+ years ago. I have added very few in that same time frame.
Anyway, as I was putting away the new acquisitions, I was reminded of some of the GU cards I had picked up over the years and sort of forgot about. When GU cards first hit the market, I was pretty excited about them, as many others were as well. It was an amazing concept, owning a little piece of something your favorite player touched or wore. You couldn't afford the entire bat or jersey, but I small piece was almost as good! It was not too long after though, that not only were they being overproduced, but doubt was cast upon the entire concept. Were these small swatches of material and wood slivers ACTUALLY items not only OWNED by the player pictured, but also actually USED in a game. I mean, that was the huge draw, right? You could just as easily cut up 2x4s, firewood, old goodwill leftover clothes & little league uniforms and insert them into cards and consumers wouldn't be able to tell the difference. They would be meaningless at that point then.
When they were a new concept, my thought was that it would be cool to get as many different star/HOF and especially Dodger players on a GU item. I was never a huge fan of them outside of a few really cool designs and of course, the Garvey side of the collection. I would still grab a few here and there, but never went in for any at big prices. At some point, I just stopped looking for them at all. It would take something pretty special for me to take notice and try to buy one, so the collection slowed to a near halt. As I looked through them this week, a small spark lit. It is not something that I will begin to chase again per se, but it makes me really wonder what is out there that I missed. Much like certified autographs, which I am much more in tune with, I have no idea what is out there for GU cards in the last decade +. I don't buy wax anymore, so this is more of a guess on my part, but it kind of feels like with the exception of Leaf (another story all together!), a lot of manufacturers have backed off the concept a lot. They still issue some sets, but it is not like it was in the early 2000s, where there were multiple GU sets in every product. Autographs have seemingly taken over as the "go to" premium insert of choice now.
So I ask if anyone is still actively chasing GU cards in general? I don't mean player collectors, as that is a given. Team collectors are close to being excluded as well, because most hardcore team collectors seem to want anything and everything, so it is once again assumed that you are chasing all of the Dodgers, Yankees, A's, Brewers, etc. What I am really looking for are people that buy them as a primary focus? I'm sure there are HOF and AS subsets, but who is still scooping up GU cards of anyone and everyone to build their collections?
Feel free to share some of your favorite GU card designs. As much as the super elite, high end giant patch tag & button cards are amazing to view, they are not always anything special other than a huge pile of $$$. Here are a couple of those designs that really caught my eye. most are older, because I am not in the GU game any longer.
