Bat Around Addendum: 2007 Sweet Spot Classic Jerseys

   Someone mentioned the 2007 Sweet Spot Classic jersey inserts in a comment on another blog the other day.  (Can't remember where it was.)  You could lump them into my "Craploads of other set builds" category in my Bat Around post, but they are one of the rare game-used or other "hit" collections that I have actually pursued.  I did finish the 2002 UD 40-Man wooden Lumber Yards a few years ago.  The only other jersey set I've done is 2006 Flair Showcase Stitches football.  I should fill in the scans on the database for these...

'07 SS Classic is one of those high end products with a serial numbered (/575) base set.  I'd love to find a starter of those somewhere for less than a buck a card.  The only ones on eBay are listed singly and are priced way over that.  Classy Upper Deck design with great photos.

The Classic Memorabilia inserts are single jerseys from mostly HOF and superstar players.  There are also multiple series' of signatures on ball and glove leather, as well as bat barrels.  A lot of the ball leather ones have faded over time, from what I've seen in sales and auctions.  The single jerseys (Classic Mem's) are the prettiest jersey cards, like ever.  They use photos you don't commonly see of players that have a lot of representation on cardboard.

The only caveat is that there is no disclaimer that the swatch is from a uniform (or bat) of the pictured player.  It says you have received a Joe Shlabotnik Game-Used baseball card.  On the front is a "piece of memorabilia that has been certified to us as having been used in an official MLB game."  By that player??  Yeah, it's a So-and-So card, but that doesn't mean it's a So-and-So relic.  Especially since a lot of the swatches don't match the pictures.  They are all plausibly from that guy, albeit on another one of his teams, but it doesn't say so.  It's his picture - and a swatch - but the two aren't concretely tied together.

But either way, this is a nice set.  So much so that I made my want list graphical.  The names are on my site, but I have a printout with the images of the ones I still lack.  The images are mostly from eBay, and there are a couple I had to mock up because I've never actually seen them.  I use a base card image for some of those.

It looks like a lot, but there are 95 of these in the whole thing, so I'm just under 75% done.  Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio are going to be the toughest ones to find cheap.  I see Brock all the time, and everyone has the other Mattingly and Reggie, but not the two shown here.  There are multiples of several players that show them on different teams.  A few guys just have two different photos.  Sometimes I'll see bat relics on certain ones instead of jerseys.  Again, the question is, are the relics associated with the guy pictured for sure or not?  But hey, they look good.

Here is my collection so far.