Game Used Cards (Relic Cards)

No less than 15 years ago there was no such thing as game used or relic cards. Now a days, if its not a RELIC card, its a common. If you followed the insert craze that started in the early nineties you could almost see this coming. Card companies continuously trying to out do the others by coming up with the hottest new insert. First there was the holograph, then the die cuts, then the transparent, then the autographed, and then sometime around 1996 when Upper Deck released a sub set of 10 cards called Game Jerseys. Leave it to Upper Deck to lead the way in this hobby. After Upper Deck's success the other manufactures slowly followed suit and this year (2003) every single card manufacturer has some sort of game used insert set.

Game used Jerseys are the most common but anything and everything a player wears on the field and everything on the field including the field is fair game to the card companies from cleats, socks, shoe strings, hats, pants, baseballs, grass, dirt, stadium seats, bats and bases.

Some of the nicest game used cards are from Hall of Famers like Babe Ruth and Lou Gerhig. Companies have been scrambling to secure memorabilia from some of baseballs greatest players so they could chop up the item and include it in a baseball card. Some baseball purest would probably shriek at the idea of cutting up a Babe Ruth game used baseball bat or Jersey but to the average collectors who would NEVER have been able to afford the entire piece, but now have a chance to pull these cards from wax packs, its a dream come true.