The premise here is in the title, “Reflections,” which held two meanings here. For one thing all the cards were printed on foil board, so they’re all super reflect-y. The other meaning comes from the plethora of dual autograph cards to be had. Upper Deck put together some real monster pairings for this set. Jeter & Mattingly, Bench & Piazza, Brett & Molitor, Sandberg & Boggs, Nolan Ryan & Randy Johnson – honestly there are too many amazing pairs to list here.
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| My second-favorite pairing in the set |
The catch is that for every great pairing there are many more that are not so great. With such a massive checklist of signatures, UD had to enlist the pens of a lot of rookies and mid-level guys to fill it out. Currently there are several dual autos from this set on COMC listed for less than two bucks, and a whole lot for in the $5-$10 range.
This set shows off both the power and the dispensability of the sticker auto.
The result is a set that contains a few real gems and an astounding number of shiny, serial-numbered, dual-auto “meh” cards. I even bought a few dual auto's off COMC for a little over a buck just because I could.
But who cares about those when there are Griffeys to be had?
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections #28 |
The base cards are nice enough and come in an array of colors, the most common of which is this gold version. The entire base set and most of the inserts are vertically-oriented while all the autos and relics are horizontal. I’m willing to bet there are a few box breakers out there who went pack-by-pack, pulling out all the horizontal cards and disregarded the rest. Rascally hit-chasers…
For some reason I haven’t come across many of the numbered parallels, but I’m mildly interested in finding at least a few of them just for the colorful binder page they would make. I mean....
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections #28 Rainbow |
Somebody built this thing, and it sits on eBay for $2500 OBO as I write this. This is some sweet, sweet binderporn just waiting to happen.
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections #28 Platinum 1/1 |
Phew. Okay, on to the hits:
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections Fabric Reflections Jersey Relic #FR-KG |
We'll start slow with a simple, straight-up piece of pants. No bells or whistles here. Not even a slew of wacky colored parallels. Just some pants, baby. Grey-ass pants.
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections Fabric Reflections Patch Relic #FRP-KG #/99 |
Junior also got a patch version of the Fabric Reflections card which, honestly, doesn’t seem like it belongs in 2005 Reflections. Apart from being shiny and having the word “Reflections” shoe-horned into the insert title, isn’t this set supposed to be about dual autos and relics? Please don’t take this as me complaining – I have few patch relics and appreciate the hell out of every one I can get. This one is still weird to me.
There is also a #/50 auto version of this one, but again it's...ugh...solo Griffey. Don't waste my time.
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| Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG2 Red #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.) |
All of the dual relic cards used this same basic design and landed one per box. This one is special because even though it’s 2005 we get to see both Griffeys in Mariner blue. The card looks kind of funny being that it's the red parallel and they used Cincy relics, but that’s all part of the fun.
Just like with the autographs, while there are a lot of great pairings in this set, I think the Junior/Senior is far and away the coolest. I liked it so much I bought another while putting together this very post:
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| Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG1 Red #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.) |
And here they are as Reds. This explains a lot, too. Now we can see the GG1 dual-thingies have them as Reds, and the GG2's are Mariners.
See? That’s my favorite thing about 2005 Reflections: it filled the noticeable void of Junior/Senior auto and relic cards - and it even gave us options as to what team we wanted to see them on. This is a concept I might have pitched myself.
And it gets better:
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections Dual Signature Reflections Autograph #KGKG (w/ Ken, Sr.) |
Here is the dual auto design which was the same regardless of the pairing – these also fell one per box. Call me biased, but I think this is one of the greatest auto issues of all time. Sure, they’re sticker autos but the design is great as is the choice of photos, like history repeating itself. The only thing that could make this card better is if it was done up in Cincinnati red.
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| 2005 Upper Deck Reflections Dual Signature Reflections Autograph #KGKG Red #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.) |
Oh, hell yeah. I’ll admit it that while I normally don’t pay much mind to slightly rarer, differently-colored parallels of already-autographed cards, the color is what got me here. The price was right, too. I bought this thing knowing full-well that I already had the regular issue at home. An absolutely shameless move by yours truly…
Quick question, though: how did the autos here get an 8 from BGS? My other one got a 10. Did Upper Deck ever issue fake autographs? Is Junior's that sloppy? Something is fishy here.
Hmmmm. Okay, fine. 8 it is.
It wasn’t until 2009 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection that we would see another dual-Griffey (and you better believe I have that one, too). Frankly we are overdue for more.
That was all the Griffeys I have for 2005 Reflections which means we are at the part of the post where I list all the remaining Griffeys of the set in question. Well, I’m sorry to say that coming up with a complete Griffey checklist for this monumental set has been a pain-and-a-half and the primary reason this post has sat incomplete in the wings of my Blogger dashboard for so long (like literally half a decade. Seriously). My go-to online checklists are incomplete, so I’ve had to cobble together what I could from examples I’ve found elsewhere online. Here is the most accurate checklist I could muster with the Griffeys I have in bold:
#28
#28 Purple #/99
#28 Red #/99
#28 Blue #/75
#28 Turquoise #/50
#28 Emerald #/25
#28 Platinum 1/1
Super Swatch #SS-KG #/50
Super Swatch #SS-KG Red #/25
Super Swatch #SS-KG Blue #/10
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-BG #/225 (w/ Carlos Beltran)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-BG Red #/99 (w/ Carlos Beltran)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-BG Blue #/25 (w/ Carlos Beltran)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-BG Platinum 1/1 (w/ Carlos Beltran)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-DG #/225 (w/ Adam Dunn)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-DG Red #/99 (w/ Adam Dunn)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-DG Blue #/25 (w/ Adam Dunn)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-DG Platinum 1/1 (w/ Adam Dunn)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG1 #/225 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG1 Red #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG1 Blue #/25 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG1 Platinum 1/1 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG2 #/225 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG2 Red #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG2 Blue #/25 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC-GG2 Platinum 1/1 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC- #/225 (w/ Sammy Sosa)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC- Red #/99 (w/ Sammy Sosa)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC- Blue #/25 (w/ Sammy Sosa)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Jersey Relic #CC- Platinum 1/1 (w/ Sammy Sosa)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Patch Relic #CCP-DG #/99 (w/ Adam Dunn)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Patch Relic #CCP-CG(?) #/99 (w/ Miguel Cabrera)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Patch Relic #CCP-GG1 #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Patch Relic #CCP-GG2 #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Patch Autograph #GG1 #/25 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Cut From the Same Cloth Dual Patch Autograph #GG2 #/25 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #BWKG (w/ Billy Williams)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #BWKG Red #/99 (w/ Billy Williams)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #BWKG Blue #/35 (w/ Billy Williams)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #BWKG Platinum 1/1 (w/ Billy Williams)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGKG (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGKG Red #/99 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGKG Blue #/35 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGKG Platinum 1/1 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGMC (w/ Miguel Cabrera)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGMC Red #/99 (w/ Miguel Cabrera)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGMC Blue #/35 (w/ Miguel Cabrera)
Dual Signatures Dual Autograph #KGMC Platinum 1/1 (w/ Miguel Cabrera)
Fabric Reflections Jersey #FR-KG
Fabric Reflections Patch Autograph #FRP-KG #/50
Fabric Reflections Patch #FRP-KG #/99
I’m pretty certain there are a few Griffeys missing from this list, but which ones? And there are also a few spots where I don’t have complete card numbers. Any corrections you may have are welcome in the comments of this post. Don’t be shy. We're in this together.
As for all those other Griffeys, yes, I totally want them. The numerous colored parallels don’t provide a lot of value over their less-rare, unnumbered counterparts which is a help. Except in the case of those Platinums. I'm just going to ignore those altogether.
When card companies nail down solid pairings like Junior and his father, combo cards are cool. But in general I'm not a fan, because often you get weird pairings that don't even make sense or they're a huge stretch. As for your autograph grades... welcome to the world of grading. As much as I enjoy collecting graded cards, I don't put a ton of faith into the actual grades themselves, because they're inconsistent at best.
ReplyDeleteWhy does my Ken Griffey Jr 2005 reelection Reflections card have ud promo on it
ReplyDeleteYou may have a promo there. I don't know offhand how scarce it might be, but later promos and samples aren't usually too pricey...
Deleteemail tideh21@gmail.com
ReplyDelete