What could be more amazing than those oceanside beach competitions where artists work feverishly to create gigantic, elaborate palaces made only of sand, only to be judged, and be obliterated by the tide–the artistic masterpiece never to be seen again. The same effort and brief life is shared by ice sculptures and the butter cows each year at the Iowa State Fair.
Some art is created to stay the test of time. Michelangelo’s ceiling paintings. The Pyramids. The Statue of Liberty. Mount Rushmore.
Then there is the surprising. An ancient bronze coin depicting the new emperor and that emperor’s symbol of his reign, still firmly stamped and present more than 2,000 years later, accessible to anyone today for less than thirty dollars. Cheaper yet, Victor D. Brenner’s sculpt for the 1909 Lincoln penny, the most reproduced–and small-sized–three-dimensional work of art ever created, several scattered throughout every U.S. household for more than 100 years.
In trading card collecting you can find more pocket-sized art, and not just duplicate prints, but one-of-a-kind original artwork. Like the sand castles, sketch cards are sprinkled across mass produced box sets of both sports and non-sports trading card sets. Often limited in availability, a sketch card if commission by an artist, it is then randomly placed in a pack or box, and if that box remains sealed forever, no one will ever see that one-of-a-kind artwork. A sketch card is as rare as it gets and in a new baseball card deck produced by In the Game, Inc., sketch card artists Nathen Reinke and Keven Reinke have produced a limited edition of 150 sketch cards featuring baseball legends. All that detail in less than two inches of space. The images are simply brilliant.
A complete collection of sketch cards is nearly impossible, unless you’re willing to pay a premium and search the Internet for sellers willing to sell, and then only if all cards surface. Even a single original sketch card is hard to come by for single pack collectors. In fact, one of the Reinke brothers’ cards, for Barry Bonds, is selling on eBay for nearly $275.
A complete unopened box set of the cards is available at this link at Amazon.com for just under $170. Only available since late April, the box sets won’t be around for long.
Here is the brochure advertising the card sets:
How are the Reinkes able to draw these miniature works of art so true to these legendary baseball stars? They have had plenty of practice, drawing original sketch cards for Topps for years now, known well for their many Star Wars cards.
Grab these cards while you can!
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
