Day Twenty - 2003 Topps 206 Framed Mini Relic Doug Mientkiewicz #TR-DM

Day 20: A Favorite Parallel*

Taking the lead from Tony at Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards this will be the twentieth of 30 posts, using the prompts provided. I won't necessarily post one every day, but I will do one for each card, toss in a few "insights" (as insightful as I can be, anyway), and usually include an honorable mention or two, just because I'm like that.

*based on the Parallel, not the player 

Here's my pick - I have a love/hate relationship with minis. They are a great idea, but I don't have a good system for storing them, different brands and sets have different sizes, so I generally end up with a bunch of tiny dinged corners. Put a mini in a frame and you've got the best of both worlds! This isn't the most elaborate design as it is a pretty early example, but Allen & Ginter's as well as Gypsy Queen have put out some very flashy, ornate, and creative frames over the years.

Since these are basically one card posts, why not show the backs, too? A little hologram of authenticity, and away we go! This one happened to be the most conveniently located framed mini, but it didn't have to be a relic card or an auto to get my attention.

Some Honorable mentions:

The Topps Gold "Winner *" is especially appealing to me if it is a Minnesota Twin, as they were coming off a World Series win. The Pinnacle Dufex technology was mindblowing to me as a kid. Paper Framed cards can be a mixed bag, but if you can find a good combo of border color and a Team's primary jersey color, the results can be quite nice. I hesitated about including Topps Clear as they are not very easy to come by, but they are very cool. Still Looking for the 2015 Kennys Vargas Topps Clear...