Who Else Remembers the Popular Baseball Card Plaques?

In today's world of baseball card collecting created cards which I posted about yesterday are one of the most popular ways to collect your cards and keep the damage free. Additionally, there was a time where baseball card plaques were equally maybe even more popular than the current phenomenon of graded cards.

Granted, plaques are not the best way to keep cards damage free. However, they were certainly more intriguing ways of collecting and storing your cards than simply putting a regular card out of a pack into a sheet or penny sleeve. Available for purchase at stores, the likes of which I’m not sure, baseball card plaques were a baseball card fad that I actually caught onto towards the end of the 2000’s and the very beginning of the 2010’s.

Given that I'm a die-hard Red Sox fan and at the time I collected plaques was at the very end of the 2000s, the two players that I was able to get cards of were ones who were very popular at the time, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury. At the time I bought these plaques Pedroia was just a couple seasons removed from his MVP year while Ellsbury was blossoming into an All-Star player. I can only assume that wherever I bought these plaques didn’t have any of David Ortiz because if they did, I’d definitely have one of these plaques of Big Papi.

Also, the original card for the Jacoby Ellsbury plaque was from 2008 Topps the same as Dustin Pedroia leading me to believe that I bought these in 2008 or maybe 2009. However, I removed the 2008 Ellsbury card the shot of him sliding into home plate because I wanted it for his player collection away from the plaque. So, I put a 2008 Topps Co-Signers card in its place.

Additionally, a couple years before I bought my two Red Sox plaques, my dad bought his own of two Red Sox players who could be seen as the Pedroia and Ellsbury of their time even though they only played a couple years before those 2 did. All-Star Slugger Manny Ramirez and team captain Jason Varitek were joined together on a two-player plaque that my dad picked up a year after the 2004 World Series champion team. I also recognize the two cards showcased on the plaque. The Varitek is from 2005 Donruss Team Heroes while the Manny Ramirez is from the 2005 Fleer Tradition set.

The final of the 4 plaques I own is actually the only one that does not feature a Red Sox player. This one features one of the greatest players in baseball history and one of my top 5 favorite players of all time. I'm talking about Roberto Clemente and this plaque that features a card of his from a set I'm not too sure about, though it features a gold stamp with Clemente’s name at the top of the card. Additionally, the card is in the 1969 Topps design and appears in the same style plaque as the one previously shown of Varitek and Ramirez. Therefore, it too is likely from 2005 which likely means the set is a Topps product.