Printing Plates are Awesome!

I found a plate that helped make this 2009-10 Black Diamond Rookie Gems card!

2009-10 Upper Deck The Cup Rookie Masterpieces Printing Plate (Yellow) 1/1 – Black Diamond Rookie Gems – Jhonas Enroth

The 57th 1/1 is a big one for the collection, and something I don’t see pop up too often. A rookie-year printing plate!

For those who may not be aware, printing plates are thin sheets of metal that were used in the production of the card during the initial printing stages. In the card world, if they are released, they are usually split into four cards within the product, all being represented as a 1/1. The four coloured variations are as followed: Black, Cyan (Blue), Magenta (Pink), and, you guessed it, Yellow. 

Printing plates are something I always like adding to the collection. Big or small, I feel like these are the types of cards that help really help roundout a collection as a whole, especially if you’re focusing on a player collection like I am. 

Besides being a rookie-year plate from one of my favourite rookie cards (Big shoutout to the “old” Black Diamond Rookie Gems), it also highlights something Upper Deck does so well with their The Cup Masterpieces sets… the border! 

Traditionally, printing plates are released as a standalone piece with no additional attribute, but The Cup’s printing plates can potentially come with an autograph. Even though this piece doesn’t have an autograph, the way Upper Deck builds the card stock around the printing plate itself makes these things take on a life of its own, truly seperating them from the rest of the pack… literally! 

After a quick overview of my collection from 2009-2010, it looks like I’m only missing at least one printing plate from just two sets that Enroth had the printing plates for, which are his O-Pee-Chee Marquee Rookie and SPx Autographed Memorabilia Rookie card. If I were to acquire at least one printing plate from each of those two sets, I would have a small piece of the production from each of his main rookie cards, which is pretty dang cool. I’ve seen plates from these key sets pass me by over the years or belong to other Enroth collectors, so while this task is unlikely, I suppose anything is possible.

Until next time, 

– Aaron / crease