Adrian Gonzalez, We Hardly Knew Ye - My First Ever Printing Plate

I apologize to all of my hockey card collecting friends and readers that the balance I usually try to keep between baseball and hockey card posts has swung so heavily in baseball's favor as of late.  With the NHL lockout looming on the horizon like a black cloud I'm so disappointed as a fan.  Just as the sport was truly starting to make a recovery from the last lockout, and had secured the TV contract here in the US that it had pursued for years, and now this.  I haven't read all the news, and I have no idea what the problem is here other than the vague concept of the argument over revenue split between players and owners.  Frankly, I don't care.  I can't imagine that two groups of grown men who are all making millions and millions of dollars can't find a way to keep their profitable arrangement running.  Whatever the details, whoever is to blame, one thing is for certain...everyone loses.  I'm just having a hard time getting enthused about hockey cards against this backdrop.

Anyway, enough about that.  This isn't a post about the lockout.  Today's post features a new addition to my recent quest to accumulate as many Adrian Gonzalez Red Sox cards as I can.  It's my very first printing plate, actually my first 1/1 of any kind.

This is the cyan printing plate used to produce Adrian's 2011 Bowman Chrome card.  I've always been more of a set collector, so I've never really pursued printing plates.  I guess I always assumed that as 1/1s they were incredibly expensive as far as modern cards go.  When I started seeking out 2011 and 2012 Gonzalez cards for this player collection on eBay I was surprised when I came across this one.  It was a buy-it-now auction, and I snapped it up immediately at an even $20 with free shipping.  Seemed more than reasonable when I thought about the number of blasters I've purchased at the same price that didn't yield much for my collection.

One thing I've learned in looking at a few of these recently is that a printing plate can look pretty bland if you get the wrong plate color and card combination.  I was very satisfied with this one, because despite the empty border along the bottom, you get a really clear idea of what the player photo looks like.  Although there's nothing on the front that references this as being a Red Sox card directly, you can clearly see the Boston letters across the front of Adrian's jersey (which I believe may be airbrushed on this particular card).

Here's a look at the back.  I've been collecting for the second time around for over 5 years now, so I guess a 1/1 was long overdue.  I really like the concept of these printing plates, I'll be tracking down more of them for sure.

Do you own any printing plates?  If so, does $20 seem reasonable for someone like Gonzalez?

Adrian Gonzalez Red Sox Cards - Count
Total Cards - 17
#'d /2011 - 1
#'d /999 - 1
#'d /60 - 1
1/1 - 1
Relics - 0
Autographs - 0