2007 Leaf Limited Printing Plates Cyan #245 Biren Ealy

Today's card is the 2007 Leaf Limited Printing Plates Cyan #245 featuring Biren Ealy. I don't own many rare cards, but this one is actually in my collection. It is the only one of its kind, a 1 of 1.

For those who don't collect cards, printing plates are one of the rarest cards available. These really aren't cards. They are the plates used by the card manufacturers to print the cards. Instead of paper, they are generally made of aluminum.

Four different plates are used to create a card. There are cards to apply cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. For this reason, some people debate whether a printing plate is actually a 1 of 1 card or just four variations. In my opinion, as long as people are considering different color variations, refractors, superfractors, xfractors, etc as different cards, then each individual printing plate must be treated as a separate card since they do not look the same.

Some critics also say that printing plates aren't very attractive. They're right. Plates aren't as attractive as a well done card. But I must admit, knowing that I own a card that no one else in the world has is a pretty cool feeling.