Monday, March 4, 2013

McCovey Monday #32 - Leaf Limited Team Trademark Threads

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.

There haven't been too many new Willie McCovey cards entering my collection lately so I decided to flip through my binders and share some card from a few years back.  This trio of cards are some of my favorites and come from the 2003 Leaf Limited release and are titled Team Trademark Threads.  This isn't a completed "rainbow" as I am missing an autographed card serial numbered out of 5 but I still this this group is impressive.

 First up is the plain jersey card.  This is a fairly common picture used on McCovey cards but it fits this design nicely.  I really like how the cut out of the jersey swatches is his jersey number of 44.  The orange and black coloring scheme is also quite nice for a Giants card.  I actually think this black swatch is part of some trim or a patch as the jerseys were primarily grey around this time frame.

I thought I would include one card back to see the detail of the Certificate of Authenticity which actually states that this jersey was worn by McCovey in an official MLB game - pretty cool.  Prior to the scandal a few months back, these detailed COAs made me feel much more confident about the authenticity of the jersey.  As you can see, this is serial numbered 26/44 - I also like the numbering matching his jersey number.

Next up is the prime jersey version:
Same design but with a square window for a larger swatch that includes a sliver of the same black material as before along with an orange line and some of the grey jersey.  Even with the square window, I am still a fan of this design.  This card is serial numbered 04/25.

The final card of this trio is the prime autographed version:
Even with the sticker autograph, this is a very sweet design.  You still get a majority of Willie's picture.  The jersey window is shaped as a "44" and this card includes a fairly even mix of grey, orange and black.  This one is numbered 39/44.  Based on the quality of the swatch and the design of the card I do have to say this is one of my favorites in my McCovey collection.

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