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Up for sale is a 2010 Panini Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade dual PRIME game-worn card of Clinton Portis of the Washington Redskins, card number 30, hand-numbered 29/50. It carries two separate memorabilia windows, both marked PRIME, and it is photographed here front and back exactly as you will receive it.
Serial numbered 29/50. The number is printed in large silver figures at the lower left of the card back: 29/50. Fifty copies exist anywhere in the world. Tools of the Trade runs in several versions with different combinations of material and different print runs; this is the dual Prime at fifty, and the word PRIME is printed vertically beside each window on the card front so you can confirm it for yourself in the photograph.
What Panini certifies. The card back carries this line, quoted word for word: “The authentic Game-Worn Memorabilia is guaranteed by Panini America, Inc.” That is Panini’s guarantee that the material is genuine game-worn memorabilia of Clinton Portis. I will note honestly that this particular back uses Panini’s shorter formula — it does not go on to name an official NFL game the way some other Absolute inserts do. It says game-worn and it says guaranteed, and that is what I am repeating; I am not going to stretch it further than the card does.
Two windows, two entirely different materials. This is where the card earns its name. The left-hand window holds a piece of bright orange pebbled leather — that is football, not jersey, and the pebble grain of a game ball is unmistakable in the photograph. The right-hand window holds jersey: deep Redskins burgundy running into a band of gold, with the gold stitching that joins them clearly visible down the right edge of the swatch. A two-colour jersey cut and a piece of a football, side by side, each one flagged PRIME. The legend running down the right edge of the card back lists the four material types the set draws on — JERSEY, FOOTBALL, PANTS, CLEATS — and this card takes the first two.
No autograph on this card. Tools of the Trade is a memorabilia insert and this version is unsigned. It carries no signature, and I would rather set that out plainly than let anyone assume otherwise.
The look. A landscape card built to look like a piece of equipment. The right three-quarters is a near-black panel finished in a rainbow foil that throws pink, green and gold as the card turns, laid out with technical hairlines, crosshairs and bracket marks like a schematic drawing, with TOOLS OF THE TRADE stencilled across the top and the Redskins logo ghosted in below the windows. The left quarter is a full-height cut-out of Portis in the white road jersey, ball under his arm, over the silver Absolute Memorabilia 2010 shield. The reverse carries the same dark technical treatment with a wireframe player diagram, his vital statistics and the material legend. It is one of the more distinctive designs Panini put out that year.
Clinton Portis. Portis came out of Miami, where the card back notes he set a freshman record with five hundred-yard games, and Denver took him in the second round in 2002. He was an immediate problem: 1,508 rushing yards, fifteen touchdowns and five and a half yards a carry as a rookie, which took Offensive Rookie of the Year, and 1,591 the following season. Washington traded Champ Bailey and a second-round pick to get him in 2004, and he spent the next seven years as the centrepiece of their offence, running for 1,516 in 2005 and 1,487 in 2008 and making the Pro Bowl twice. He finished just short of ten thousand career rushing yards with seventy-five touchdowns on the ground, and he remains second on Washington’s all-time rushing list behind John Riggins. He was also, for several seasons, the most entertaining man in any press room in the league, turning up in a succession of wigs, sunglasses and invented alter egos; people who watched that era remember him for the running first and the performances a close second.
About 2010 Panini Absolute Memorabilia. Absolute was Panini’s memorabilia-led flagship, built on a long list of named insert sets — Tools of the Trade, Ground Hoggs, Star Gazing, Marks of Fame, RPM — each with its own design and its own ladder of parallels. Almost everything in the product is serial numbered, and nearly every insert exists in a standard version and a scarcer Prime version carrying patch, numeral, leather or multi-coloured material. Tools of the Trade is the set’s equipment concept, pulling from jersey, football, pants and cleats, and the dual Prime combinations are the ones worth hunting: getting both a genuine two-colour jersey cut and a piece of game football on one card numbered to fifty is not something that happens often.
Condition. This card has been inspected front and back under direct light and is in excellent shape. Corners are sharp, the edges are clean, the surface is free of creases, dents and print defects, and the memorabilia window is flush and fully intact with no lifting. It has been stored in a penny sleeve inside a rigid top loader and has not been handled outside of protection. Please study the photographs closely — they are of the exact card you will receive, not a stock image, and they are the most accurate description of condition I can give you.
Shipping. Your card ships free. It travels in a penny sleeve inside a rigid top loader, secured against a stiffener, sealed in a team bag and sent inside a bubble mailer with the corners protected. Orders placed on a business day go out the same day or the next; weekend orders go out on Monday. Tracking is uploaded the moment the package is scanned. I ship every card the way I would want a card of mine to arrive.
About this listing. Top Shelf Trading AZ is a one-person operation in Arizona. Every card is photographed by hand, examined under light, and described by someone who has actually held it. If you have a question about this card — condition, the numbering, the signature, anything — message me and you will get a real answer from a person. Offers are welcome. Thanks for looking.
