2000 Topps Traded Tony Pena Jr.

Who is this? Braves shortstop Tony Pena Jr.

What is this? An autograph card from 2000 Topps Traded, card number TTA39.

Where'd I get it? Same eBay seller as the Klesko.

How much did it cost? $1.29

Why is this so special? This card kind of illustrates the danger in interweb shopping sprees. Ok, it's a Brave, he did actually have a cup of coffee with the team in 2006, I like his pop as a player, but good lord, it's Tony Pena Jr. Mario Mendoza is worried about losing his relevance with Tony starting in KC. To wit: Chipper Jones would have to go 0 for 331 in order to drop to Tony's batting average. Great Googely Moogely. Still, you have to be a pretty damn good player to keep your job while hitting about .150. Or maybe he has photos of David Glass shopping at Target, who knows. It was cheap, I like this autograph set, it's an on-card autograph, and most importantly, it's a Brave. Plus Tony can't his any worse this season, can he?

2000 Topps Traded Brett Myers

Who is this? Phillies pitcher Brett Myers.

What is this? An autograph card from 2000 Topps Traded, card number TTA25.

Where'd I get it? The same dealer in Pennsylvania as the Rico Washington card.

How much did it cost? Whatever the opening bid on the auction was. I want to say a buck, but it was 8 years ago and I don't really remember.

Why is this so special? This is that bum pitcher I only bought because no one else had bid on him and it was worth it for a cheap set and autograph. Hey, if I was any judge of talent, I'd be a scout. For a "last pickle in the barrel" type of purchase it was a good one. Back when Brett first broke with the Phillies, this card was booking for $50 and I think may have even been on Beckett's Hot List for a month or two. It's certainly cooled off since then, between legal trouble and the Phils bouncing him back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen like he's John Smoltz or something. Plus the only autographs anyone wants anymore are of prospects. Dude's like 27 years old! That's ancient for a prospect. Nevermind he's been pitching since 2002 and is the best pitcher on the Phillies' staff, he's not a prospect anymore so you can probably find this card for a buck somewhere if you look hard enough. I know it was worth 50 smackers at one point though and I bought it before it got hot. That means it's worth a big ol' bucket of pride to me. Like the Rico card, this is pretty sweet looking. I especially like how you can see Brett's grip on the ball right before he delivers to the plate. The signature is more like initials than an actual autograph, but it's distinctive and you can make out the B~ M clearly at least. There's even a little smear on the M to add authenticity. Also - no stickers! How the heck did Topps manage to do on card autos for all these cards back in 2000? It's a mystery.........

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.