Years ago, I decided I might like to give a shot at rainbowing Vladimir Guerrero, Sr.'s last playing-days flagship Topps card, a "highlights" checklist featuring a sweet photo thanking the crowd during his swan song in Baltimore. I picked up the parallels that were readily available at the time and saved a search for the rest. And then I waited. I specifically remember doing that at my old house, so that means I've been waiting upwards of 6 years for this orange parallel to pop up:
Great looking color match. It's serial numbered to /190, which isn't all that low-numbered for modern cards, but these were a 5-per hobby factory set exclusive, so a good percentage of them are still stored away in sealed sets.
The seller neglected to mention it (and it wasn't really visible in the listing), but it's the "jersey number" "ebay 1/1", number 27 in the print run, so that was a happy surprise.
After securing the orange parallel, I went to update my saved search and noticed I didn't do a great job with it originally. I wasn't as well-versed using TCDb at the time, I guess, and didn't have everything I needed included in the search. Plus I was apparently under the impression there was a Toys R Us purple parallel to hunt down, but upon further research, those seem to be Series 1 only that year (Vlad is in Series 2).
But I was able to clean up my search and soon land a couple more needs taking this rainbow to a probably-good-as-it'll-get place that's serendipitously 9-cards deep, making for a kickass binder page or 9-card display.
Haves:
base
gold [/2012]
gold sparkle
red [Target]
orange [/190]
black [/61]
blue [Walmart]
mini base
mini gold [/61]
Needs:
wood [1/1]
gold embedded [1/1]
platinum [1/1]
printing plates [1/1 x 4]
mini platinum [/5]
mini printing plates [1/1 x 4]
With only 1/1s (and a /5 mini) remaining for this 14-year old card, I probably won't be able to add any more to this rainbow ...unless of course we're talking homebrews of the CardArt variety.. and the thought has crossed my mind. I checked, and the "platinum" parallels that year are just a fancy name for "silver border" (which is itself just a fancy name for "grey border"), so other than the low serial number, they're not all that cool and I doubt I'll ever pony up for any of the 5 such minis or 1 such full-size, should any even pop up for sale. Also not much chance I'll ever wind up with the 1/1 wood, gold embedded, or any of the eight printing plates, either. But never say never, I suppose.
Even if my rainbow here isn't very likely to grow larger, I'm happy with it standing at an "even" page-worth of 9 cards and plan to display this up on the wall for a while. Let's hope basking in Vladimir's triumphant moment influences me to live my best life and take time for feeling gratitude. Thanks for stopping by.
