2011-12 Limited Phenoms Joe Vitale Patch Auto

Even though it hasn't been a huge part of my most recent Ebay purchases, I have never been shy about my love for 2011-12 Limited. I think the design is really clean, the inserts are pretty cool, and there are some really good quality hits to be pulled.

One of the things I have really enjoyed is their Phenoms rookie cards. Instead of just a regular piece of cardboard, each rookie card is just a simple border with a giant piece of fabric in the middle. This fabric has an embroidered team logo and the player's autograph on the white surface.

I picked up this Phenoms card of Pittsburgh Penguins center Joe Vitale (numbered 147/299) at a pretty good price, and I am very happy to be adding it to my Penguins collection.

This is actually my second Vitale Phenoms card. The first one I got as a redemption replacement from Panini, and is the Silver Spotlight parallel, which features an alternate logo. Here's a look at the two cards side-by-side.

Hopefully Vitale continues to be an important cog in the Penguins machine. He played in 64 games during the 2011-12 season, scoring  4 goals and 10 assists. We'll just have to see what happens when the hockey season eventually rolls around.