What card made your jaw drop most when you first saw it?
 

In 2017, I was minding my own business, when pictures of the 1/1 Leaf Q Jumbo patch Jose Canseco showed up online before it was even signed. Though unlicensed, it was a card that made my jaw drop like no other. I can't think of a single licensed card that captured my attention quite like this one when I first laid my eyes on it.

[img]https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/leafqwithcereal-1024x863.jpg[/img]

Thus began a long struggle in my mind trying to justify how I could love an unlicensed card so much - after all, I'm *supposed* to like licensed cards more ... right?

It didn't matter. The more I looked at the airbrushed picture, the more the nostalgia bug bit me. It harkens back to the time when the game's biggest stars would make mom's grocery trips so much more exciting. You do remember that, right? Getting cereal, sausages, pepsi, mootown snackers etc., and finding your favorite player sans the team logo - did you care? If you were like me, you didn't. In fact, I probably cherished them more because they added variance to my meager collection.

[img]https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/cereal-1024x433.png[/img]

I remember those times well - they are bright spots in my childhood memories.

This card somehow perfectly captures that for me while also being everything you could want in a high end card. When I first laid my eyes upon it, the gold foil somehow seemed to shine brighter than other foil. The jumbo sleeve patch both pops and matches the theme of the card, while defying the logo licensing rules without actually doing so. To top it off, it has the most perfect signature on card, and the famed 1/1 serial numbering.

I remember when I was on vacation during thanksgiving at Legoland. Fun, right? Absolutely - maybe a bit stressful because I knew it was about this time the Leaf product was about to drop, so I had to keep my eyes and ears opened at all times. As I was obsessively checking my phone like a maniac at Legoland, it finally popped! I made an offer, but ended up just hitting the buy it now button, and the rest is history. PHEW! Here is a pic of my son and I back in 2017 enjoying some Legoland Apple Fries minutes after I won the card.

[img]https://tanmanbaseballfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/applefries.jpg[/img]

This card is one of the very few that survived by first big sell off and I'm so thankful it did! Eventually, I was able to complete the rainbow :)

[b]So that is the story of the single card that made my jaw drop the hardest when I first saw it. What is yours?[/b]

[IMG]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/480546353_10231843630406765_693999798666413586_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s261x260_tt6&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=bd9a62&_nc_ohc=eAOMDwb3F7sQ7kNvgFEqzQn&_nc_oc=Adi5nkIdbE4mEPhJFg7z92ByDNQD75_BgIPkGQT_87_2v4xKfd6EBywAQ9s5NQFVplzDUIoeLDfs0tFlg0CG5B2g&_nc_ad=z-m&_nc_cid=0&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.xx&_nc_gid=AlwZEvruYNuwNhfJu5xEPBW&oh=00_AYAFVWUJ8QaCwXL5BJPDcR_4q5Z6JO8fZHmJwOq_ry1f-Q&oe=67C3C17F[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Scarlet Knight;19827695][IMG]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/480546353_10231843630406765_693999798666413586_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s261x260_tt6&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=bd9a62&_nc_ohc=eAOMDwb3F7sQ7kNvgFEqzQn&_nc_oc=Adi5nkIdbE4mEPhJFg7z92ByDNQD75_BgIPkGQT_87_2v4xKfd6EBywAQ9s5NQFVplzDUIoeLDfs0tFlg0CG5B2g&_nc_ad=z-m&_nc_cid=0&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.xx&_nc_gid=AlwZEvruYNuwNhfJu5xEPBW&oh=00_AYAFVWUJ8QaCwXL5BJPDcR_4q5Z6JO8fZHmJwOq_ry1f-Q&oe=67C3C17F[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Tried to build the rainbow of that card. Now I'm broke.


For me...

At work so cant post the scan but the 94 UD Mantle/Griffey Dual Auto was the fist card to make me drool.

31 years later, I still drool over it.

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250225/fcbeef705a1ee2f7ad6ce16da66c1d83.jpg[/IMG]

Pulled this in 2012, still one of my favorite PC Cards

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250225/893514ff5e1d15baf98657ea8babd2a8.jpg[/IMG]


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Ok I'll be the first to make the joke:

2006 Evan Longoria Superfractor

I got to hold a 1933 babe ruth goudey at a local card store which was pretty cool

T206 Honus Wagner at the National in Chicago back in the early 90s.

[QUOTE=JohnnyAppleseed;19827803]Ok I'll be the first to make the joke:

2006 Evan Longoria Superfractor[/QUOTE]

You joke but it exists and he owns it (confirmed talking with him at a Bar while he was rehabbing with the Biscuits years ago)

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250225/d3d6a09d1ec724743fa456c5dbc1447a.gif[/IMG]


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T206 Wagner. I held one at a local card shop when I was probably only 10 years old. Owner pulled it out of the safe, handed it to me and then told me the story* of how he and his partner got it.

Jaw dropped and pants schitt.




*I still remember that part really well too. Even though I was only 10, I was able to discern that these guys essentially stole it from an old widow. Ninety percent of the story was how they were totally acting on the up-and-up, they gave her 500 bucks for it even though they could have given her much less, not sure if you heard us clearly but we were totally acting fair with that old lady, no really that lady insisted we give her nothing but we still gave her the money, etc.

The 1993 Finest refractors, after someone showed me the difference between it and the regular cards, as I had no idea they existed (no mention on the wrappers).

Been hooked on them ever since.

1993 Finest Chris Webber RC refractor

Yes there is a story (I’ll be brief on my phone)

I was 12 at the time. I had collected since 1986 but those were just packs here and there at the grocery store. A box for my birthday

1991 UD basketball blew my mind and the a Shaquille trade card? Equally mind blowing

But I pulled a Chris Webber refractor at an actual LCS. Didn’t even know it was a refractor

And anyone that collected in 93? Especially Baseball? Knows that was a big deal for the first ever Finest Basketball set

Abbreviated version

Slightly off topic, but the player with the biggest jaw drop on a card must be MadBum in several of his 2007 RC releases...

[IMG]https://www.cardboardconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2007-Bowman-Sterling-Madison-Bumgarner.jpg[/IMG]

The first 1997 Finest gold embossed refractor I held in person...it was a McGwire

[QUOTE=stevebay;19827939]Slightly off topic, but the player with the biggest jaw drop on a card must be MadBum in several of his 2007 RC releases...

[IMG]https://www.cardboardconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2007-Bowman-Sterling-Madison-Bumgarner.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]


[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250226/e602c1db7dc614def8342763dd13581a.jpg[/IMG]
MadBum-in-action is pretty from any angle.


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Easily this one. Collectors who lived through the strike and Ripken’s consecutive games record probably remember just how scorching hot this card was. At one point it booked for $2700 and was the 2nd most valuable postwar baseball card behind the ‘52 Mantle. It’s since been passed by the Nolan, Griffey, and possibly Bonds, but at one point it was THE card

I was blown away the first time I saw one in Collector’s Sportslook

[img]https://i.ibb.co/jkXB1sQJ/IMG-5443.jpg[/img]

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250226/9c5f493e30a3231ecb9558c3906b54ce.jpg[/IMG]


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Opening packs from 7-Eleven as a kid and seeing this:
Clemente had died months earlier and the card back had his career and final stats - 3,000 hits.
It was a card that you just stared at in disbelief that he was gone. :(

[IMG]https://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/TScollectibles/72/744172/H22549-L324116998.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=corndog;19828250]Opening packs from 7-Eleven as a kid and seeing this:
Clemente had died months earlier and the card back had his career and final stats - 3,000 hits.
It was a card that you just stared at in disbelief that he was gone. :(

[IMG]https://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/TScollectibles/72/744172/H22549-L324116998.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

This is one of my favorite cards of all time.

[QUOTE=seanbros55;19828206][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250226/9c5f493e30a3231ecb9558c3906b54ce.jpg[/IMG]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

Control your urges.

71 munson, i believe

1968 Topps Koosman/Ryan RC. Had bad corners and a few creases and it was absolute perfection in my eyes.

[QUOTE=PuddleMonkey;19828303]Control your urges.[/QUOTE]
[B]
Keeping the mouschi and seanbros theme :D[/B]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/FGToiCYh.jpg[/img]

But for me, this is truly the one that was just bad ass

[img]https://i.imgur.com/bl3fRHvh.jpg[/img]

Seeing this as a 16 year old for the first time blew my mind. Seeing it in my collection blows my mind over and over...

[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250226/281ffe21918e489ca710e0bc84096909.jpg[/IMG]