I have mentioned a few times that innovation is the one thing that has fallen by the wayside as the industry has plowed forward. These cards from 2005 Exquisite were only produced once and I think are some of the coolest ideas for a card in a long, long time. They feature signed, game used pieces of shoulder pads and helmets, and they are VERY rare. The idea of using signed equipment had never been done before and has yet to be repeated, much to my dismay. The checklist was also pretty good to boot, but the concept was the best of all. The problem was that these were some of the most difficult and expensive cards to produce in the history of the modern era, which left this idea on the cutting room floor for 2006.

A notice to Topps and Panini: these cards feature HUGE windows for the signature equipment, yet still have enough room for a full size player picture and a nice and simple design. If only these would start coming back, I would be first in line.