Picture and Patch Don't Match

Even after all of the bad press surrounding relic cards, I still have a certain fondness for them, especially over autographed cards.  I like that little piece of colored cloth snugly fit into a cardboard window.  There are some exceptions, such as the destruction of historical artifacts to create a card, like destroying a surviving Babe Ruth jersey to make cards.  However, one thing about patch cards I don't understand is how hard is it to make the picture and the patch match.



I bought this card on eBay a few weeks ago, because I am Penguins fan and am a big fan of offensive-minded defensemen.  It's the only Larry Murphy card I own and despite being a Hall of Famer, there does not seem to be a tremendous variety of relic cards available.  Looking at the card, Murphy is in Penguin Black and Gold on the picture, but the relic itself is red and blue.  Based on the teams Murphy played for in his career (Los Angeles, Washington, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Detroit), the relic itself almost certainly is from a Washington Capitals jersey, unless of course there was a season where the Penguins wore completely non-traditional Washington Capital colors, which I sincenrely doubt.

Given the limited amount of game-used equipment that exists, there could be some difficulty in obtaining a Pittsburgh jersey.  However, it is not a problem to find a picture of Larry Murphy in a matching jersey.  There are countless Murphy photos in Washington red and blue, yet somehow, it was decided to put him on the card in a Penguin uniform.  It makes no sense that Upper Deck in this instance couldn't spend the additional five minutes to make the cards right.  Even looking on eBay at other, similar cards, all of the other cards have the same jersey cut up.  Unless you buy one with an all-white patch, there is no way you would think this was a Penguins jersey to match the picture. 

It's the little things that make the cards work, like making the picture and patch match.