A Thick Mini Dickey from eBay

This card popped up in my eBay feed a while back, and as soon as I saw it I knew I needed to try to make it mine. I was aware of the 1972-style minis in 2013 Topps, but I don't recall hearing much about the relic parallel. Only 15 of the 50 cards in the Series 2 version of the 1972 Topps Mini insert had these relic parallels, and PC guy R.A. Dickey was one of them. The bidding didn't go quite as high as I thought it would and I came away as the winner.

When the card arrived in the mail, I was surprised at how thick it is. The fact that it is a mini enhances that appearance, but it is also just a really girthy piece of cardboard. It's not quite as thick as one of those manufactured relic cards with the pins or medallions in them, but it's closer to those than it is to your standard relic card. I don't think there's any way Topps could have disguised these hits in a pack with their small length and height and their large width. This insert was pretty rare, with this one being card # 22 / 25 in the print run.

On an unrelated note, the other day I mentioned that I'd looked over the upcoming Allen & Ginter's checklist to see if there was anything non-baseball I should chase. At that time I didn't really see anything of interest to me, but Cardboard Connection made a page with a rundown of all the non-sports signers and there were a few things that caught my eye. My short-list includes actor/comedian George Lopez, football coach Jen Welter, swimmer Missy Franklin, basketball coach Nancy Lieberman, and Jersey Shore cast member Vinny G. None of them are autographs I feel very strongly about, but if I am going to chase anything non-baseball from A&G this year, those would be the ones. There were a lot of sports talk folks and some Field of Dreams actors on the list, but none of that really appeals to me.