2000 Topps Traded Rico Washington

Who is this? Pirates second baseman Rico Washington.

What is this? An autograph card from 2000 Topps Traded, card number TTA47.

Where'd I get it? Some dealer in Pennsylvania off of Yahoo! Auctions.

How much did it cost? More in shipping than for the card.

Why is this so special? I specifically remember a dealer on Yahoo! auctions back before the auction site went belly up. They were located in Pennsylvania and you could get good deals if you were willing to get jacked on shipping charges. And I mean GOOD deals. I think I got this card and the entire Topps Traded set from that year for something like a 2 dollar bid. '00 Traded is the one with Zito, and I think it's retained its $2.00 value even opened without the one-per-box autograph. The seller had a ton of these sets all up for bit at the same time and each one had been opened to see what autograph was in the box. I'm not sure who was the huge pull at the time, but they certainly searched for it and dumped the rest of the sets on their auction site. I looked through all the possibilities and chose Rico. How could a guy named Rico Washington not hit the big time? Well he did hit the big time this year as he was on the Cardinals' opening day roster after 11 years in the minors. He was back in Triple-A before April was out, but he made it! His MLB "Rookie" card just hit in Topps Series 2. Thank goodness we can finally have a card of Rico to collect. I'm proud of Rico though, I knew he would make it some day. I also bought another set from the dealer at the same time as this one. I didn't really care for the autograph, it was some pitcher for the Phillies I didn't think would do anything at all. It cost only the minimum bid because no one else wanted it either so I got it anyway. I'll post that card tomorrow.