Pineda 1/1 Patch!

The card above is now the centerpiece of my Michael Pineda collection!

A while back, Chris over at Stale Gum found some discounted packs of 2012 Topps baseball. I believe those were the first ones he bought.

He happened to pull a Topps All-Star Game 1/1 Letter Patch of Michael Pineda. Being a Pineda collector, I needed it!

Chris was kind enough to trade it to me for a bevy of cards from his want list. I love it! Woo!
I've been wanting to add a Pineda 1/1 to my collection, and this is a great addition. I noticed a couple of interesting things when the card arrived that I didn't notice the first time around when I was drooling over the card on Chris' blog.

First off, the card is crazy thick, which is to be expected. I'm curious if packs containing these cards felt differently?

Second, there is no jersey! It's just the letter glued to the cardboard backing. Not sure why, but I expected a red jersey swatch around the letters. I found that to be interesting. I just figured that Topps would snip the jersey along with the letter. It looks a little odd and empty. Just a letter stuck on cardboard. I would have at least colored the cardboard instead of just sticking it on the brownish piece.

Either way, very cool. I hope it is, in fact, from the All-Star Game workout jersey that Pineda wore. I'm thrilled to finally have a Pineda 1/1, and thank the infamous Stale Gum for the trade.