I'm not really that big into game-used memorabilia cards and other relics. I have a few autographed cards (some that I pulled from packs and some that I wrote away to players to get), but that's about it. So then it totally surprised me how cool the new Upper Deck Premier set looked in its spread in the May Beckett. The base cards themselves look like a retread of other bygone heroes sets, and really I'm not so blind to see that even the jersey cards aren't a hark back to other jersey card inserts from other sets.

The one insert that really stands out for me is 'Premier Stitchings'. I'm not sure if the cards have autographs on one side and a patch on the other, but even if it's just a patch, they're pretty neat. I'm also not sure why Upper Deck would want to highlight the Rogers Hornsby card and claim he's a Cardinal, when the patch colors are so obviously the brown and orange of the St. Louis Browns.

Anyway, when I saw this spread, I knew that I had seen these patches somewhere else. Their creator has his own blog on Art Backwash, and showcases all his designs there. They're very stripped-down, iconic and graphic; the two things they remind me the most of are Old Navy 4-color newspaper circulars and 1994 Upper Deck Fun Pack.

Patches-O-Plenty