What eBay Hath Wrought 131: Danica Patrick Upper Deck 25th Anniversary

I saw a couple of these pop up on eBay a little while ago, and I wasn't really sure what they were or where they came from. After some information gathering, I determined that Upper Deck released a special set of cards for their 25th anniversary, and to get the special packs the set was distributed in you had to spend quite a bit of money. I am not sure if the distribution method was controlled by Upper Deck or by individual retailers, but you had to buy Upper Deck products by the case to get these packs. There may also be cards associated with an industry summit in Las Vegas. I am not sure how they are tied together, though. Probably with twine. Most of the cards I've seen with the industry summit markings on them are the autographs, and they are expensive. The big ticket autograph is Michael Jordan, and then there are some hockey stars who command pretty big prices. I have also just discovered that there is a parallel to go along with this base card I picked up, a Silver card numbered out of # / 250. 

I was able to grab one of Danica Patrick's base cards from eBay to add to my collection. Press Pass has the NASCAR license all tied up, so it is rare for Danica to show up in another company's products. She has relics and autographs in Goodwin Champions, some older cards from her IndyCar days, and a few other odds and ends.

This is a pretty cool set, with a lot of resemblance to the Upper Deck sets of the early 90's. It all feels familiar to someone who collected cards back then. It does kind of stink that Upper Deck reused the picture from the front of the card for the back, but that's my only real complaint about this card.

There are only a couple more races for the NASCAR season, and about the only driver I care about in playoff contention at the moment is Jeff Gordon. He'd probably have a better shot at winning if he brought back the mustache look, but he's got a decent chance of getting through to the final race anyway. Although I suppose it's not great to have drivers punching each other after races, it does make for exciting television. Gordon's little punch-up with Keselowski last week was pretty good, and there is a lot of bad blood between the Chase drivers. Hopefully there are some good highlights from the race. I doubt I will watch it, as I've got a couple of midterms plus regular homework to get through, but I will certainly watch the highlights and pull for my favorite drivers to do as well as they can whether they are in Championship contention or not.