Ugly

I thought long and hard about what I would enter for the ugly card contest Peter at Baseball Every Night is running.

I didn't want to make fun of somebody's looks...

And, sure, I could have gone with a terrible design...

or some really bad airbrushing....

but in the end I had to go with cards which are just in horrible condition. And the worst part of them is that...they are not duplicates. These are the best copies I have.

This Michael Waltrip card appears to have been used as a cutting board before I got it. The fact that it's a promo and not easy to replace makes it worse. Believe me, I've been trying for more than 15 years. I got it in a lot in (circa) 2000.

These Wild Card cards were victims of a basement flood, I cared so little for college cards that I hadn't even realized that I had put the box of them in the basement.

And then there's the victims of the flood of 2015. This is the most painful to me.

You can read more about it, if you can stomache it, here. This event has permanently damaged or outright killed my appreciation of some sets. I can't think of 2003-04 Topps now and not think of the flood damaged cards. It was my favorite Topps flagship before then. I've since replaced both of those Muggsy Bogues cards thanks to Trading Card Database members sending me replacements.

If I win Peter's contest, the card I'm going to choose is probably a replacement for the factory set Bosh rookie. It would be fitting, I think.