Who is this? A's outfielder Travis Buck.
What is this? An autograph card from 2007 Sweet Spot, card #139.
Where'd I get it? In a trade with The Nennth Inning.
How much did it cost? Got it in a trade.
Why is this so special? I like Travis Buck. Mainly because in almost every photo I've seen of him he has this great big goofy smile on his face and his hair is flying all over the place out of his cap. His 2007 Bowman Heritage card is an excellent example of this. He missed a lot of last season due to injuries, but he's having a good spring training so maybe he'll have a bounce back year for the Athletics. I want to see Travis have many more cards featuring unkempt hair and goofy grins so I'll be rooting for him. I got this card from Bailey at The Nennth Inning in exchange for some Tim Lincecum cards he needed. I think I sent him about 8or 9 Lincys for two Sweet Spot autos and two jersey cards. You can get good deals from player collectors blowing out excess inventory.
These Sweet Spot prospect autos are pretty neat looking. I think they were modeled after the rookie helmet autos in Sweet Spot's football product, but the concept didn't transfer over very well. The most obvious difference is that the signature is on the card and not on the helmet. This might be because fothe weird way the helmet is in the card. The card itself is really thick, but about 2/3rd of the card is hollow. The helmet itself is a square piece of plastic molded to make the helmet part be raised in 3D. The plastic would still look like a square with a bump in it, so the plastic is placed inside the hollowed out area and the front of the card is die cut in the shape of the helmet. You can see the indentation on the back for the hollowed out part and the die cut on the front is just hanging above the helmet so you can see inside the card at the rest of the square. This gives ample opportunity for damage and the point next to the thing that is supposed to look like an earflap is pretty trashed on this one. It still looks good enough though, and I don't really care if autographed cards are beat up. The design on these cards are pretty nice as long as you don't mind the recessed plastic bump helmet motif. The entire card is very glossy except for the dark wood area at the bottom right corner for the signature. It's not the biggest area for the signature, but it's bigger than the helmet and has a matte finish for good signing. Travis' auto looks great, with his T~ Bk sig fitting perfectly inside the signature space. I like the card weirdness and all, and I'll have to keep an eye on Travis so see if he can produce in the outfield for the A's.
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