[CobbSpikedMe]

While I tend to agree that cutting up significant vintage/prewar items to put pieces in cards is a bad idea, I actually like the jersey/bat cards of modern or postwar players that are much more plentiful and not nearly as historically significant or rare.

I find the modern cards with swatches of jersey or slivers of a bat a more attractive card than the regular base cards. I don't collect any modern sets, so I only pick up cards of players that I like or watched as a kid and I prefer to get a game used card than some random card from a set that I'm not collecting.

I think you need to have some faith that the jersey or bat is what the card company says it is and it's genuine. I wouldn't drop big money on one of them, I usually pick up lower dollar cards that I like the look of. I don't care if it's low numbered or some special color refractor either so there are tons of cards for me to choose from in my price range these days. You can go to a show and find a dealer with thousands of game used cards to choose from for under $20 and find some great players cards.