Topps Retired Triad: Refractorless Edition

Time now for another trio of Topps Retired pickups. Often when I do one of these "Triad" posts, it consists of 3 refractor autographs. But no rainbow shine this time-- heck, this first one isn't even an autograph, if you can believe that! lol

I generally haven't bothered going after the non-auto parallels of my beloved Topps Retired Signature Edition, such as the black borders from 2005. But if the price is right and they catch my eye-- like this nice color-matching Bo Jackson-- I might take a run at it.

Numbered 44/54 on the back. 

Though I hope to upgrade to a refractor someday, I went ahead and snagged this base Lou Brock auto from 2003 Retired recently.

While not serial-numbered, it has a print-run of 76 ("Group B"), so it doesn't pop up too often.

And now we close out with my first backdoored Retired card.

While Andy Van Slyke has a base card in 2005 Retired, he's absent from the (Chrome) autograph checklist. Turns out Andy didn't get around to returning the signed cards to Topps in time. In fact, looks like he never returned the cards to Topps, but has just this year begun occasionally sending them out in autograph-request returns to lucky fans. At least 3 or 4 of those have made it to eBay so far and I landed one for a decent price. (Glad I didn't jump at the first over-priced example to pop up.)

"Not valid without (hologram) sticker" keys you in to something being off. Validity aside, I think this is a damn cool addition to my Retired auto hoard.

Just the fact that I own this unreleased card gives me hope that maybe someday my dream Retired "ghost whales" could surface. I'm talking about the Kirby Puckett auto from 2003 and the Dick Allen auto from 2004 (listed on early checklists, but ultimately not packed out). You gotta think they exist, maybe in storage somewhere.. waiting to possibly see the light of day again someday. 
Hey, never say never... as Andy Van Slyke here can tell you.