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A completed set 10 years in the making: 2001 UD Gold Glove “Slugger’s Choice”

Posted in Newspaperman with tags Barry Bonds, baseball, baseball cards, Beckett, Sammy Sosa, Slugger's Choice, Upper Deck on October 4, 2011 by Cardboard Icons

For 10 years I’ve had a thing for batting glove cards. We’ve all seen thousands of Game Used Jersey cards, and probably just as many bat cards. The popularity of these items really has come and gone. But all along, I’ve had an obsession with game-used batting glove cards. Why? Because of the 2001 Upper Deck Gold Glove “Slugger’s Choice” set.

In 2001 one I bought pack after pack of this product seeking something of great value. In the end what I wound up pulling was a sweet looking, albeit relatively worthless, Ivan Rodriguez batting glove card.

Over the last decade I’ve had a ton of game-used cards pass through my collection, yet the one that I could not barter with was the Rodriguez. Why? Because the card has so much character.

The mere existence of this card in my collection set me into a frenzy over the last six months trying to complete this Slugger’s Choice set on the tenth anniversary of this sets release. The checklist consists of 25 cards, although over the years the official checklist seemed to be a tad unreliable. Initially there reportedly was a Jason Isringhausen card in this set, but that turned out to be false … even if it is STILL listed in Beckett.

So here we are, in October 2011, and my set is complete. Some of these are more common than others, and some cost a pretty penny, but in the end they are all part of a completed set that was 10 years in the making.