Yes, Paul Skenes is a pretty good young pitcher. But any of you old enough to remember Dwight Gooden’s first two years of baseball might have a bone to pick. Gooden was the single most dominant picture I’ve ever seen for about two years. Had he kept his nose, clean and out of trouble he might have a storybook hall of fame career… But he did not. Still his wall control, power, and down for those couple years was historic and fun to watch. Now, you can still pick up insanely cool cards, including this dual game worn patch autograph from Flawless for pennies on the dollar.

For all the challenges in card production, I will give credit when credit is due! The Flawless brand may be my favorite product from Panini. The dual patch autographs of the Flawless Greats in all sports looks fantastic! The dual patch windows and color in-game photograph on a simple white stock gives a clean and bold look. The dual patches frame the blue, clear autographs perfectly. The choice of simple blue sharpie tends not to streak and sticks out on the white background. Additionally, in this card specifically, the blue sharpie, and the red foiling on this ruby version really makes the red white and blue from the uniform pop out. It may be a perfectly designed card!

One of my favorite Marshall Faulk cards is this game-used dual Flawless Greats patch auto. He was one of the top 3-5 all-around offensive pass-catching RBs the NFL has ever seen. He was pure electric on the field, first with Peyton Manning and later with Kurt Warner and the “Greatest Show on Turf” and the Rams.

Well… It’s Kobe Bryant day after all. 8/24. The date that signifies both the jersey numbers he wore during his illustrious NBA career. This is in my top two or three favorite Kobe cards that I own. The design is beautiful, and the patxh windows have Three color, chunky patches and the autograph is clean, crisp, bold, and then blue with a good deal of negative space to highlight the picture, the patch windows, and the autograph. Yes, I wish it was a gem grade, but I’m still pretty thrilled with this one. As a Celtics fan, I hated Kobe, but God did. I respect this game, his drive, his hustle, and his mentality. He was exquisitely fun to watch and taken too soon.

Note: this is not my card. I saw this one recently and it is being shared with permission. This is a Topps Dynasty, dual autograph of Elly de la Cruz and Olympic great, sprinter Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive. Well, some people think Elly is the fastest man in baseball, I think Chandler Simpson of the Tampa Tampa Bay Rays might be faster! Still, this is a super cool, unique, dual autograph out of Topps Dynasty.