2015 trade package #12: reestablishing contact--er, contract--with Bob Walk the Plank

The last time I swapped cards with Matt from Bob Walk the Plank the calendar still said January.  Somehow between then and now neither of us managed to score enough trade bait to send to the other.  Fortunately that changed this week--I sent Matt a nice little package that arrived to him today (so watch for a trade post soon!) and then received a very cool one from him a few days ago.  He promised me something outside of what I usually collect, and I was definitely scratching my head when I found this in my mailbox:

A note further added to the intrigue:

"What the hell's in there?" I thought.  The answer:  two very unique somethings:

As many of you probably know, Topps has been selling their photo licensing contracts signed by the players, and Matt was cool enough to send me documents of former Tigers Bobby Higginson and Dmitri Young.  Higginson's was signed in 1996 for a three-year term while Young's was the same deal in 2004.  Unique is definitely a good way of describing these!  There's many things baseball collectors can acquire outside of cards--action figures, bobbleheads, jerseys, etc.--but being able to pick up the contract--a signed one!--a player signed giving a company the right to use his likeness on a card is something else entirely.  Unique indeed!

Here's a look at the back of Higginson's contract, including the Topps Vault hologram in the lower-right corner, plus the Topps Vault COA envelope and COA itself, with the serial number matching the hard-to-scan hologram:

We've made some doozies of trades, Matt and I, but I have to say I'm impressed with how much he surprised me with this one.  Thanks again, Mr. Scott, and enjoy your spoils as well!