It's been a while since I've really really wanted an Upper Deck card. Each year since they lost their baseball card license I've given Goodwin Champions a try and it's rarely satisfying. But I've always admired the Entomology cards that they have produced but I've never really thought pulling one or tracking one down would be possible as examples regularly finishing above $100 on eBay.
This weekend my wife and I were at a weekly artist market in my city of Kharkiv, Ukraine and as we came around one corner...
I came upon this...which puts those Upper Deck cards to shame. I couldn't really get a close up photo without attracting too much attention and seeing as I speak about 20 words in Russian I'm not anxious to start haggling with the seller. I took a moment or two to look at them and my wife asked how much the green butterfly at the top was. The seller said it was 150 hryvnia which in U.S. dollars was about $19. I nodded my head but kept moving down the lane...it's important to not show too much interest as I was intending to come back when we finished taking a look at everything and making an offer at a slightly lower price.
Fate was against me that day though as the seller had packed up and left the scene when I returned. I'll try again next week after I take a look at U.S. customs rules on bringing back dead insects into the United States.
Here's a closer look at what he had to offer [and I'm sorry about the quality as I was never able to get a close up shot]. There's not way in hell I'm ever going to be able to get a beetle or spider past my wife and so I think a butterfly is the way I'm going to go. What would you pick?
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But if I had to pick a butterfly, I'd go the bright blue one at the top.