McCovey Monday #12

 My favorite player of all time is Hall of Famer Willie McCovey.  I have amassed a collection of over 1100 different  McCovey cards since I started collecting him in the late 1980s.  I will show off one of my favorite cards every Monday.  Stretch was one of the most feared hitters of all time and I am excited to show off my collection.

I recently picked up an interesting card to add to my McCovey collection in a large group of Giants I bought from someone on SCF.  I will start by showing the back:

Not too interesting really.  Just a Congratulations! and a certificate of authenticity of a Willie Mac auto out of 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends.  I like the picture on the back but as you will see, the same picture appears on the front and back. It would have been nice to mix it up a little.  Typically when seeing this card back you would expect this when you turn it over:

This is not a new card to my collection, I have had this a number for years.  I have been trying to hunt down the gold version which has a gold hued background instead of this silver and is serial numbered to 100 copies.  I have seen some gold ones pop up on eBay but they have gone for ridiculous prices. This card was produced in 1999 and I only have 3 older certified autos in my McCovey collection.  There were 3 autos produced in 1998 which I believe were McCovey's first.

 So what does the front of my new card look like:

 It is a card with a large redemption sticker on the front.  In order to exchange this card for a signed McCovey it had to be postmarked by 12/1/99 and received by 12/31/99.  Since this was a 1999 release I have to think that was a pretty short window and must have hurt the value of these boxes.  I am not sure how many of the other autos were redemptions.

These must be fairly common, although I haven't seen one before.  They are listed in Beckett as a separate entry and have a book value of $5 compared to $40 for the auto card and $80 for the gold version for those who are interested in values.  For me, I am just happy to add another unique card to my McCovey collection.