Jimmy Howard: Artifacts Gold

One of the things I love about player collecting is going after the always elusive complete rainbows. With my Jimmy Howard collection I've got a good start on several of them going back almost ten years now. One of my favorites is the Artifacts set from 2010-11.

Of all the artifacts designs from this past decade, the one that started it is probably my favorite. It has a simplified overall look and the old fashioned document looking background is a very nice touch. Another interesting thing with this design is the lack of an Upper Deck logo on the front of the card, which is actually really nice to see.

Onto the reason for today's post. It has been a long time since I added to this rainbow, so when I saw a copy of the gold version on eBay recently I had to have it. Luckily I was able to grab this one for less than $10 with shipping. This one is serial numbered 08/35.

As far as Howard rainbows go, this one is middle of the road in terms of quantity as there are only six total versions to chase: Base, Emerald (/50), Gold (/35), Silver (/25), Rainbow (/10), Black (/5). At least there isn't a true 1/1 in this case so that helps a bit.

Similar to my recent OPC Platinum post, I thought it would be neat to put together a visual checklist grid to keep track of these and to see them all at the same time.

As you can see, I've got everything but the Rainbow and Black versions. Knowing that this set is a decade old now worries me that these are going to be hard to find for a good price. I know there is a Rainbow on COMC right now, but I'd like the price to come down a bit.