So, Mr. Eisner. Pleasure to meet you. Chris has informed me that I am now in charge of Topps Product Development. In fact, I'm the entire staff. Budget overruns, I suppose. Shipping costs on Transmogrifier redemptions were a little higher than you expected. Cuts had to be made. I understand, it's just business. So now you need a little expert consulting on Series Two.
Let's take a look at Series One first. Nice design. Simple. Elegant. Good photography too - I like that. Backs are nice. You can actually read the card number. Now about the inserts, there's a lot of them. It seems that everybody hates at least one of them. On the other hand, everybody loves at least one of them. Something for everyone, very good. You need to make changes next year you know. One more card history set and you'll be printing a 1987 Bip Roberts reprint before too long. Not that there's anything wrong with that. We'll worry about revamping the inserts next year. Right now they're good. Let's talk variations. You've gone a little overboard this year. Legends cards are nice. New uniforms should be saved for Series 2. I don't even know what you were thinking on the twinks. You know what? Just keep all that stuff in, no one cares about it anyway. I bet there's a couple hundred twink cards out there in dime boxes because no one notices something like that. Let some kid get a cheap thrill out of a dime box. In fact, We're going to do Series Two just like Series One. Same inserts, same gimmicks, same everything. Why the hell not. People are used to it by now, why upset them needlessly. What I want to discuss today is the base set.
Lemme talk about the base set. The base set is why we are all here. You are not your inserts. You are not how many hits you have in a box. You are not the jerseys you cut up. You are not the contents of your autograph lineup. You are the base set. Topps has always been about the base set.
Here are the rules of the base set:
The first rule of the base set is, you do not fuck with the base set.
The second rule of the base set is, you DO NOT FUCK with the base set.
Just remember that and you're golden. Now I'll just take my telephone, computer, fax machine, 52 weekly paychecks and 48 airline flight coupons and you get working on Series Two. Trust me, everything's gonna be fine.
Screw Eisner. His candy-ass wouldn't last a second Wednesday night.
Showing posts with label Bat around. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bat around. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Blog Bat Around - REA Shopping Spree
I am often a troublemaker. I can't just follow the rules, I have to twist them to my own ends. Gellman posed this question for the first Blog Bat Around of 2010: If you had 50 grand and fifteen minutes to go insane on eBay and buy what ever you wanted, what would you get? Well, I'll gladly take the $50,000. But there's no way I'm spending that money on the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is eBay. Between the fakes, the frauds, the crooks and PayPal, I'd be ruined - broke and homeless, naked in the street. No, there is no reason to jump into that mess especially when there is another, more reputable auction house currently running a sale.
This is the real stuff right here. Vintage out the wazoo. Actual provenance and integrity. No fake Adrian Peterson cards with an autograph in crayon on an Avery label and a manufactured patch swatch of Hagar the Horrible. This is the real good stuff. The stuff I can't even afford an opening bid on the cheapest lot stuff. I can dream though, and have an imaginary shopping spree and order a free catalog which is basically a textbook of baseball card history. Seriously, kiddos, these are free and wonderful. Robert can afford to send your broke repack box buying ass one of these to drool over, don't be afraid to ask for one.
I searched through their current auctions and picked out $50K worth of goodies. I've already broken the eBay rule, you knew I'd break the 15 minute rule as well. It took me about an hour to find all these things and tally up to prices. If I wanted to stick to the 15 minute rule I would have gotten this for whatever it ends up selling for. This is the actual ball Johnny Evers used to get Fred Merkle out in the "Merkle's Boner" game in 1908. I sort of doubt even with $50K I can wrest the ball away from Keith Olbermann, who is probably aggressively bidding on the ball (assuming he's not the one selling it). It's not only a truly historical item, but a reminder of the last time the Cubs won anything. I prefer to do my shopping sprees slowly and meticulously though.
There was no indication in the instructions on how to actually price things to make up the $50,000, and since these are all auctions the final price is going to be pretty volatile. I can't use the current bid, because someone else has already bid that. I could use the next bid, but these auctions close in two weeks so that would probably be exceeded eventually. Waiting for the end of the auction will put me way over tonight's deadline. For purposes of this experiment I used the "Set Autobid Limit" field on the auction when I clicked on it (about 2:00pm on Sunday the 18th) since that was significantly over the current bid price and was something I could track instead of just arbitrarily assigning numbers to the lots. Many of these items will likely go for much more than these prices in the end, but this is all a fantasy anyway. Here's what I picked out.
If I ever get a large pile of money and am instructed to spend it on baseball cards, the Hank rookie is always going to be the first thing I snag.
I originally saw this auction for the original artwork for Satchel Paige's card and I pyewped myself a bit. The artwork is one of the reasons I adore the 1953 Topps set and Satchel's card is my Holy Grail for that set. I was originally going to put Satch on my list when I did some searching and found that Eddie's art was up for sale as well. The '53 Eddie is one of the best looking cards in the hobby ever, period. I had to go with the painting of my favorite card from my favorite set instead, especially since it was almost 10 grand cheaper. Since this is from Sy Berger's personal collection, that's a double dose of cardboard history right there.
If I ever get a large pile of money and am instructed to spend it on baseball cards, the second card I'm going to get is any vintage Babe Ruth card as a Brave. There are only a handful of those cards and unfortunately I didn't see any of them in this auction. This lot is actually even cooler than any of Ruth's cards though. This is a signed check from Babe Ruth to the Boston National League Baseball Co. It is believed that this is the money Babe had to pay to get out of his contract with the Braves' skinflint owner. It's an amazing piece of baseball (and Braves) history. In real life I'd settle for a copy of the photo of a forlorn Babe in his Braves uni with a bunch of lollygaggers on the bench behind him. It could be the inspiration for Norman Rockwell's painting "The Dugout".
I'll be honest with you, while I would give up a testicle to have any original King Kelly cards, my preference would be for the Goodwin Champion or the Allen & Ginter card before the Old Judge. There were no Goodwin Kellys I could find (More on A&G later) so this Old Judge will have to do. Plus, I keep my testicle. Bonus! This card has a good clear picture and the "$10000 Kelly" label on the card which is veddy nice-a indeed.
There are many reason why I have to have this card:
Old Hoss is a Hall of Famer and prolific Tweeter.
It's an Old Judge of Old Hoss. Heh
Old Hoss is a Brave (or Red Stocking or Beaneater or whatever)
It's in almost perfect condition.
Old Hoss is flipping off the cameraman.
Radbourn is known as the first person to ever flip someone the bird in a picture and here it is in baseball card form. Awesome.
Set collectors gotta buy sets. Especially when there's no chance they'll ever be able to build the suckas.
I've already got a large number of '53 Topps cards so I wanted to make sure I picked up the particularly nasty cards like the Mantle and Mays cards I need for my set. There are lots with cards in better condition, but I chose this one for two reasons. First of all, it's cheaper and I'm not afraid of Tiptons with glue on the back. Secondly, since they are not graded I can spread 'em all over my carpet and play with a 1953 set like I was a little kid in the early '50s. That's the whole point of collecting these things, isn't it? Ok, ok, I'll finish up the set in the binder with the best cards and play with the duplicates.
I've always wanted a Ramly card and now I have 23 including several Hall of Famers in whatever alternate universe I got 50 large in. The combination of the black and white photo and the ornate gold frame has always appealed to me. I think there are a couple of Braves in there to boot.
This is the biggest chunk of change I spent in this activity and it's not even a complete set. I luuurve the Diamond stars set, so it's good enough. It gives me a challenge to complete it. Besides, the cards are in such high grade I could probably flip one of the better ones and use the proceeds to buy a set of Tiptons. Everyone knows what a Tipton is right?
Two of my favorite sets, both with notoriously difficult high series. No shame in knocking 'em out all at once.
One Thousand Three Hundred and Sixty Seven Topps cards from the '50s. I want to buy this just so I can throw them all up in the air and swim around in a pile of '50s ecstasy. This lot is basically a complete run of 1952-56 sets (minus the stupid '52 highs) that is missing only 28 cards. Granted some of those missing cards are real doozies. I could probably trade the '52 High Series cards for most of the other ones missing in the rest of the sets. This lot also has what would be my third 1953 Topps near set, but hey, why not? Combine all of em and pick the best card for the master set, then put the rest in the bicycle spokes.
I'm the kind of guy who would rather have a whole pile of neat stuff rather than one really good thing. With this in mind, here's some lots I found that have a lot of quantity while maintaining some decent quality.
Even though there are Hall of Famers all over this lot the main reason I chose this one was for the Mayo Cut Plug Braves cards. The Cy Young and Chief Bender and Three Finger Brown cards are happy bonuses.
A huge pile of Old Judges, Goodwin Champions and Allen & Ginters is pretty cool. I'm really interested in all the non-sport cards from Duke, Kimball and Kinney. The real gem though is an Allen & Ginter King Kelly card-like object that was cut out of an A&G Champions album. It's not a real Kelly card, but it's close enough for government work.
A humongous pile of vintage stars from the '60s. Just look through the list. Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Koufax, Banks, this is just sick. The Niekro rookie sealed the deal.
Finishing off with some non-sports stuff. The thing that caught my eye was the complete 1953 World on Wheels low series set, but there are a ton of other nifty things in here. The Beatles, Batman and Monster sets are ones I'd really like to see. This is a lot that I wouldn't mind just taking a day to shuffle through all 1,609 cards.
Think I can get all that shipped for $250? I might have to pick it up in person. Plus we're forgetting auction house fees which would probably bump this to over 60 grand total. I'd also be willing to bet that if I added up all the actual final values of these auctions we might hit six figures. I've screwed this exercise all up haven't I? Oh well, it's not my money, and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon while listening to the Braves on the radio. J-Hey!
Don't forget to request a catalog!
This is the real stuff right here. Vintage out the wazoo. Actual provenance and integrity. No fake Adrian Peterson cards with an autograph in crayon on an Avery label and a manufactured patch swatch of Hagar the Horrible. This is the real good stuff. The stuff I can't even afford an opening bid on the cheapest lot stuff. I can dream though, and have an imaginary shopping spree and order a free catalog which is basically a textbook of baseball card history. Seriously, kiddos, these are free and wonderful. Robert can afford to send your broke repack box buying ass one of these to drool over, don't be afraid to ask for one.
I searched through their current auctions and picked out $50K worth of goodies. I've already broken the eBay rule, you knew I'd break the 15 minute rule as well. It took me about an hour to find all these things and tally up to prices. If I wanted to stick to the 15 minute rule I would have gotten this for whatever it ends up selling for. This is the actual ball Johnny Evers used to get Fred Merkle out in the "Merkle's Boner" game in 1908. I sort of doubt even with $50K I can wrest the ball away from Keith Olbermann, who is probably aggressively bidding on the ball (assuming he's not the one selling it). It's not only a truly historical item, but a reminder of the last time the Cubs won anything. I prefer to do my shopping sprees slowly and meticulously though.
There was no indication in the instructions on how to actually price things to make up the $50,000, and since these are all auctions the final price is going to be pretty volatile. I can't use the current bid, because someone else has already bid that. I could use the next bid, but these auctions close in two weeks so that would probably be exceeded eventually. Waiting for the end of the auction will put me way over tonight's deadline. For purposes of this experiment I used the "Set Autobid Limit" field on the auction when I clicked on it (about 2:00pm on Sunday the 18th) since that was significantly over the current bid price and was something I could track instead of just arbitrarily assigning numbers to the lots. Many of these items will likely go for much more than these prices in the end, but this is all a fantasy anyway. Here's what I picked out.
Single Cards and Items:
$3250
If I ever get a large pile of money and am instructed to spend it on baseball cards, the Hank rookie is always going to be the first thing I snag.
$4750
$3750
$2000
I'll be honest with you, while I would give up a testicle to have any original King Kelly cards, my preference would be for the Goodwin Champion or the Allen & Ginter card before the Old Judge. There were no Goodwin Kellys I could find (More on A&G later) so this Old Judge will have to do. Plus, I keep my testicle. Bonus! This card has a good clear picture and the "$10000 Kelly" label on the card which is veddy nice-a indeed.
$6500
There are many reason why I have to have this card:
Old Hoss is a Hall of Famer and prolific Tweeter.
It's an Old Judge of Old Hoss. Heh
Old Hoss is a Brave (or Red Stocking or Beaneater or whatever)
It's in almost perfect condition.
Old Hoss is flipping off the cameraman.
Complete or Mostly Complete Sets:
Set collectors gotta buy sets. Especially when there's no chance they'll ever be able to build the suckas.
$1500
I've already got a large number of '53 Topps cards so I wanted to make sure I picked up the particularly nasty cards like the Mantle and Mays cards I need for my set. There are lots with cards in better condition, but I chose this one for two reasons. First of all, it's cheaper and I'm not afraid of Tiptons with glue on the back. Secondly, since they are not graded I can spread 'em all over my carpet and play with a 1953 set like I was a little kid in the early '50s. That's the whole point of collecting these things, isn't it? Ok, ok, I'll finish up the set in the binder with the best cards and play with the duplicates.
$4000
$11000
$1200
$1000
$2250
Weird Oddball Lots:
I'm the kind of guy who would rather have a whole pile of neat stuff rather than one really good thing. With this in mind, here's some lots I found that have a lot of quantity while maintaining some decent quality.
$3750
$1900
$1300
A humongous pile of vintage stars from the '60s. Just look through the list. Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Koufax, Banks, this is just sick. The Niekro rookie sealed the deal.
$1600
Total Damage: $49,750
Think I can get all that shipped for $250? I might have to pick it up in person. Plus we're forgetting auction house fees which would probably bump this to over 60 grand total. I'd also be willing to bet that if I added up all the actual final values of these auctions we might hit six figures. I've screwed this exercise all up haven't I? Oh well, it's not my money, and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon while listening to the Braves on the radio. J-Hey!
Don't forget to request a catalog!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Blog Bat Around 6 - (Not a) Last Minute Cram
Ok, I admit it. I flaked. I knew there was a Blog Bat Around coming, up, but I didn't check to see when the due date actually was. Well, not until about 15 minutes ago that is. So the post is now due in less than an hour and I've got a mostly blank page staring at me.
Hey man!
I can do this!
I'm a writer!
I got a college degree writing up papers at the last possible second.
Oh wait. Topic. I might need that.
All of the people who are participating in this have a blog, or at least something similar. For this question, I just want to know about the reasons you do what you do. Why do you blog? What made you choose Sports Cards as your topic of choice? What got you started? What has been your favorite post from your own work?
Got it. I can write this, no problem. Keyboard in front of me, beer inside of me and Smashing Pumpkins on the iTunes. Let's do this.
Why do I do what I do? Well, let's define what I do. I write on a blog. That's why it's called a Blog Bat Around. See this is easy! But why? Why do I blog? Let's back up first.
This is my first blog. It is called Fuuuuuuuture, give or take a U. The title is a reference to a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon where Squidward goes into the future to get away from Spongebob and winds up in a world full of robot Spongebobs. Upon realizing this, he has a nervous breakdown, curls up on the floor and chants "Fuuuuuture!!! Fuuuuuture!!!" over and over. I have felt like this many times, thus, the name. However... I changed the name only recently. It used to be called No Future, after the Sex Pistols song God Save the Queen. If you check the date of the first post, you'll get an insight into another reason I named it that. I'm not getting into that now though. Savvy readers know where I'm coming from, no need to antagonize people who didn't notice in the first place. The blurb under the title has changed several times but right now it is a reference to my favorite chartacter on my favorite television show. If you feel like checking the sidebar, it's a pretty good snapshot of what I was looking at in late 2005/early 2006.
Now some of you may feel compelled to go look through the archives. Go ahead, I'll wait for you. Finished? They're pretty much crap, aren't they? I never actually figured out what to do with the blog or the pent up frustration that prompted me to start it in the first place. It eventually turned into a place for me to post favorite songs, comics and general links that interested me enough to click on New Post. The readership is pretty much one, maybe two or three if a friend I sent the link to gets curious about an old bookmark in his favorites folder. That didn't bother me though, I had a blog and was reading other blogs which was enough. One of the blogs I read regularly was this one.
I'm guessing a lot of you are familiar with that one. I read through some of the archives, checked on it once a week or so and left comments and bought a couple of Ben's hand made card Magnets. Jerome Walton and a 1981 Donruss Yogi Berra. I requested a Brave for the series 3 magnets, but alas, that series was never released. Long story short, I liked collecting cards and I liked reading about cards online and hey, wait... Why don't I write about cards?
So in late 2006, I decided I would write about cards. I was going to start a new blog for that though. I didn't want to mix my suck blog with the card blog. I decided on a title. Cardboard Junkie. My inspirations were an anti-drug message on a vintage 1990's wrapper (that I am still looking for), a Saul Bass title for a Frank Sinatra movie and my own crippling addiction to baseball cards. So I had the blog and the title, now all I needed were some posts. I wanted to do it right though and add pictures of the cards. I pulled out my scanner and... it was busted. I tried the camers, but the pictures didn't come out well and the batttery dies on me to boot. Luckily I had gotten a Target gift card for Christmas and bought an Epson scanner/printer/turnip twaddler with it. So now I was scanning and writing and posting.
The first six months weren't very prolific. I had one post in may 2007. All you bloggers out there who feel like giving up because they havn't posted in a while check out those archives and think about what you see. In July the posts picked up signifigantly. Why? Two words: Allen. Ginter. You see, I really liked that product. And I learned thatI really liked writing about a product I liked. So the post counts went up. And up. And up. Dang there's a lot of posts. Plus all the ones on the side blogs I had. But, hey, I enjoyed blogging so I blogged.
Then this year hit and things have slowed down a bit. The two side blogs have been ignored in one case and all but abandoned in the other. Posting has slowed a bit here too. I have a few ideas I wat to work on but sometimes I have a tough time finding the time or the energy to work on them. I'll be straight with you, I'm somewhat burned out at the moment. The last 6 months of '08 were basically all caffiene and adrenaline. I've also had some nassty shocks recently that have sapped my energy and creativity. Oh well, them's the breaks. I'll get past it eventually and besides, since I've started there's been a ton of other people out there who had that same revelation I had. The energy may not be there, but the passion still is.
I like cards.
I like blogging.
And my favorite post?
That would be the next one I write.
Heh.
Five minutes to spare, I told you I could do it.
Note: the deadline is actually next Thursday, May 21st. I clicked on the topic post, saw "next Thursday", looked at my calendar and saw Thursday and figured that was the next one. However, If I would have known that the deadline was a week away I would have blown it off and done the exact same thing a week later. So remember the guide and Don't Panic.
Hey man!
I can do this!
I'm a writer!
I got a college degree writing up papers at the last possible second.
Oh wait. Topic. I might need that.
All of the people who are participating in this have a blog, or at least something similar. For this question, I just want to know about the reasons you do what you do. Why do you blog? What made you choose Sports Cards as your topic of choice? What got you started? What has been your favorite post from your own work?
Got it. I can write this, no problem. Keyboard in front of me, beer inside of me and Smashing Pumpkins on the iTunes. Let's do this.
Why do I do what I do? Well, let's define what I do. I write on a blog. That's why it's called a Blog Bat Around. See this is easy! But why? Why do I blog? Let's back up first.
This is my first blog. It is called Fuuuuuuuture, give or take a U. The title is a reference to a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon where Squidward goes into the future to get away from Spongebob and winds up in a world full of robot Spongebobs. Upon realizing this, he has a nervous breakdown, curls up on the floor and chants "Fuuuuuture!!! Fuuuuuture!!!" over and over. I have felt like this many times, thus, the name. However... I changed the name only recently. It used to be called No Future, after the Sex Pistols song God Save the Queen. If you check the date of the first post, you'll get an insight into another reason I named it that. I'm not getting into that now though. Savvy readers know where I'm coming from, no need to antagonize people who didn't notice in the first place. The blurb under the title has changed several times but right now it is a reference to my favorite chartacter on my favorite television show. If you feel like checking the sidebar, it's a pretty good snapshot of what I was looking at in late 2005/early 2006.
Now some of you may feel compelled to go look through the archives. Go ahead, I'll wait for you. Finished? They're pretty much crap, aren't they? I never actually figured out what to do with the blog or the pent up frustration that prompted me to start it in the first place. It eventually turned into a place for me to post favorite songs, comics and general links that interested me enough to click on New Post. The readership is pretty much one, maybe two or three if a friend I sent the link to gets curious about an old bookmark in his favorites folder. That didn't bother me though, I had a blog and was reading other blogs which was enough. One of the blogs I read regularly was this one.
I'm guessing a lot of you are familiar with that one. I read through some of the archives, checked on it once a week or so and left comments and bought a couple of Ben's hand made card Magnets. Jerome Walton and a 1981 Donruss Yogi Berra. I requested a Brave for the series 3 magnets, but alas, that series was never released. Long story short, I liked collecting cards and I liked reading about cards online and hey, wait... Why don't I write about cards?
So in late 2006, I decided I would write about cards. I was going to start a new blog for that though. I didn't want to mix my suck blog with the card blog. I decided on a title. Cardboard Junkie. My inspirations were an anti-drug message on a vintage 1990's wrapper (that I am still looking for), a Saul Bass title for a Frank Sinatra movie and my own crippling addiction to baseball cards. So I had the blog and the title, now all I needed were some posts. I wanted to do it right though and add pictures of the cards. I pulled out my scanner and... it was busted. I tried the camers, but the pictures didn't come out well and the batttery dies on me to boot. Luckily I had gotten a Target gift card for Christmas and bought an Epson scanner/printer/turnip twaddler with it. So now I was scanning and writing and posting.
The first six months weren't very prolific. I had one post in may 2007. All you bloggers out there who feel like giving up because they havn't posted in a while check out those archives and think about what you see. In July the posts picked up signifigantly. Why? Two words: Allen. Ginter. You see, I really liked that product. And I learned thatI really liked writing about a product I liked. So the post counts went up. And up. And up. Dang there's a lot of posts. Plus all the ones on the side blogs I had. But, hey, I enjoyed blogging so I blogged.
Then this year hit and things have slowed down a bit. The two side blogs have been ignored in one case and all but abandoned in the other. Posting has slowed a bit here too. I have a few ideas I wat to work on but sometimes I have a tough time finding the time or the energy to work on them. I'll be straight with you, I'm somewhat burned out at the moment. The last 6 months of '08 were basically all caffiene and adrenaline. I've also had some nassty shocks recently that have sapped my energy and creativity. Oh well, them's the breaks. I'll get past it eventually and besides, since I've started there's been a ton of other people out there who had that same revelation I had. The energy may not be there, but the passion still is.
I like cards.
I like blogging.
And my favorite post?
That would be the next one I write.
Heh.
Five minutes to spare, I told you I could do it.
Note: the deadline is actually next Thursday, May 21st. I clicked on the topic post, saw "next Thursday", looked at my calendar and saw Thursday and figured that was the next one. However, If I would have known that the deadline was a week away I would have blown it off and done the exact same thing a week later. So remember the guide and Don't Panic.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday Links
So much time, so little to do... Wait, scratch that. Reverse it.
Once again, in lieu of actual content here's some links to other people creating content. Gotta have something to get you through this long Monday.
But first...
The 6th Blog Bat Around has been announced:
It's back home on Sports Cards Uncensored, so check it out and get your entries in.
A Pack To Be Named Later
A pack ripping blog with the ambitious goal of ripping one pack of every product ever made. And they mean everything.
Maddux Glavine Smoltz
I think the awesomeness speaks for itself on this one...
Yount vs. Molitor
This is kind of the Brewers version of the previous link.
Uncle Moe pulls an 83 Fleer project and blogs about his attempt to get every single card from 2008 Topps (Series 1, 2 and U&H) autographed. Good luck my friend...
1988 Fleer
Ben's '89 Bowman blog has rebranded to 1988 Fleer.
A brand spankin' new blog from an aficionado of punk rock and roller derby. I love the roller derby pinup cowgirl astronaut logo.
Fun links are sparse today due to time contraints, but here's a few things that might be relevant to your interests:
The Dugout Cards & Collectibles has cards up for sale and apparently offers up a bunch of commons to help finish your set. I have had no time or money to actually verify the inventory or judge the purchasing experience, but anyone offering a 1987 Topps Ed Lynch for sale online is worth a look see at any rate. As always, caveat emptor.
In disappointing news, the formerly awesome T206 Museum turned out to be a possible front for someone doctoring Old Mill overprints. The site ironically used to my preferred reference guide for judging T206 fakes as well as general T206 info and has now been taken down and completely flushed of all information.
As if to make up for this loss of intersting info and restore balance to the web, Mark's Ephemera pointed out something absolutely wonderful last month: Vintage Weekly World News on Google Books! Now that will certainly help you get through a long Monday.
Once again, in lieu of actual content here's some links to other people creating content. Gotta have something to get you through this long Monday.
But first...
The 6th Blog Bat Around has been announced:
It's back home on Sports Cards Uncensored, so check it out and get your entries in.
A Pack To Be Named Later
A pack ripping blog with the ambitious goal of ripping one pack of every product ever made. And they mean everything.
Maddux Glavine Smoltz
I think the awesomeness speaks for itself on this one...
Yount vs. Molitor
This is kind of the Brewers version of the previous link.
Uncle Moe pulls an 83 Fleer project and blogs about his attempt to get every single card from 2008 Topps (Series 1, 2 and U&H) autographed. Good luck my friend...
1988 Fleer
Ben's '89 Bowman blog has rebranded to 1988 Fleer.
A brand spankin' new blog from an aficionado of punk rock and roller derby. I love the roller derby pinup cowgirl astronaut logo.
Fun links are sparse today due to time contraints, but here's a few things that might be relevant to your interests:
The Dugout Cards & Collectibles has cards up for sale and apparently offers up a bunch of commons to help finish your set. I have had no time or money to actually verify the inventory or judge the purchasing experience, but anyone offering a 1987 Topps Ed Lynch for sale online is worth a look see at any rate. As always, caveat emptor.
In disappointing news, the formerly awesome T206 Museum turned out to be a possible front for someone doctoring Old Mill overprints. The site ironically used to my preferred reference guide for judging T206 fakes as well as general T206 info and has now been taken down and completely flushed of all information.
As if to make up for this loss of intersting info and restore balance to the web, Mark's Ephemera pointed out something absolutely wonderful last month: Vintage Weekly World News on Google Books! Now that will certainly help you get through a long Monday.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Blog Bat Around #5
The extra day was worth it as I got one more post in under the wire. It's time to post the results of the fifth Blog Bat Around so the night owls can read tonight and the cube dwellers have something to get them through their Friday. Great stuff all around, so get a-readin'!
Rain Of Error
Mad Guru recalls many of the times he was able to pick up a special card for his Dave Righetti collection and lets us know what eventually became of them all.
White Sox Cards
Steve talks about his friend Tony and the value of a really good hobby shop.
David does some serious detective work tracking down the place where he bought his very first Tribe cards.
Sports Cards Uncensored
Adam recalls camping out for a chance to get autographs from some Twins stars, and ended up getting a bonus signature out of the deal!
Baseball Cards Come to Life!
Bo is a big fan of the interwebs, plus he tips me off on a place to check out the next time I visit my in-laws!
PunkRockPaint
Travis proves that when looking for a good deal it's not how much money you have, it's whether you know a good contact on the inside.
Stats on the Back
Mark shows off some goodies bought at his first card show in 1985.
Paul's Random Stuff
Paul is true to the title of his blog and tells about his very first Met, a few sets, his first TTM auto and two cracked bats.
Hall of Fame Cards
Jeremy recalls a childhood memory where he met a hero, and a more recent memory where he got back into the hobby.
The Other World
Dan relates four tales of cards that brought him joy.
Jim, has three stories: One about Rose, one about Garvey and one that reminds me of an underrated Dead Milkmen album.
Night Owl
Greg once had a whole mess of vintage card fall right into his lap.
Mark's Ephemera
Mark fools us with a no look pass and tells a story of a basketball player and his favorite book.
Cheese & Beer
Dubbs' 100th post tells the story of how he got his first MLB baseball at his first MLB game.
Wrigley Wax
Paul shows off the very first ten card he ever got, including his first Cub.
Cincinnati Reds Cards
Joe remembers the generosity of others in times of trouble. I want to hear about Johnny Bench and The Chicken though.
Dinged Corners
Lunchboxes, autographs and a Moose.
Achiever Card Blog
Why am I not surprised that Mr. Kramer wrote about the time he almost had his toe cut off? (read for the toe, stay for the 1st edition mint in box OH MAH GAWD)
A grand story that can be summed up thusly: The quest for Al Kaline’s Autograph.
Maddux Glavine Smoltz
Chris remembers grocery bags full of cards and the time he spent sorting them with his father.
The Easy Life
Steve describes this better than I could - "this is just story of a high school boy meeting the girl of his dreams... and he was too chicken to tell her he's seen her naked."
Bonus: The longest anonymous spam post EVAR
When mothers trash their sons' treasured card collections, sometimes they go to people like Jeffrey.
bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog
Jaybee spins a bittersweet tale of a Friendly card shop.
But Dayf, where's yours? Sorry I got caught up in reading all of these and forgot to write it. Maybe this weekend. Anyone wishing to host Bat Around #6, shoot me an e-mail.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
LATE
But I'll still take Blog Bat Around posts. What can I say, I'm pretty easy going about that kind of stuff. I could post the actual article at any time in the next 24 hours so don't wait too long. For all you good, responsible bloggers out there who have already done your post, here is a completely random card:
I'm not sure who gave this card to me or why it was in my images folder. Or why my descreening wasn't on so I got the funky pattern in the scan. But it's on the blog now at any rate. Enjoy! (and get writing you slackers*)
* Note: I have not actually written my own post for the Blog Bat Around that I'm hosting and even thought up the question myself yet
I'm not sure who gave this card to me or why it was in my images folder. Or why my descreening wasn't on so I got the funky pattern in the scan. But it's on the blog now at any rate. Enjoy! (and get writing you slackers*)
* Note: I have not actually written my own post for the Blog Bat Around that I'm hosting and even thought up the question myself yet
Monday, March 16, 2009
Fifth Blog Bat Around
Ok, it's that time again. The Fifth Blog Bat Around is ready to roll. If you aren't familiar with the Bat Arounds, here are links to the first four:
Inaugural Event
Bat Around Part Deux
Third Time's A Charm
Once... Twice... Four Times a Lady
Ok, look over those and read every single post because this material will be on your final exam. Once you're done with that, you can check out the topic for this go around:
What is the best experience you have had acquiring cards or memorabilia?
I've left this one purposely vague so you all can riff on it. I'm basically looking for those times and places where you've really enjoyed picking up some cards/a card/an autograph/memorabilia/whatever else you collect. You can focus on your most favoritest memory or write about a whole bunch of different times. Doesn't matter when or where or how, it could be any of these examples:
That junky hobby shop with the old dude who called you 'Skippy' and would give you a Coke to drink while poring over his common boxes
That time online where the dude from Taipei tried to snipe you but you totally sniped him back with 1.8 seconds to go
That TTM letter to your boyhood hero that came back 17 years later
That time you chased down your favorite player in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen and he traded you his jersey for a Peanut Buster Parfait
That time at the flea market where that dude was selling vintage stuff he cleaned out of his barn dirt cheap
That birthday gift from auntie Helga where she threw in uncle Shlomo's card collection along with the bushel of socks that she normally gave you
That amazing deal on a case you got at AmazingDealsOnCases.com that was even more amazing than normal
That one time where you slipped a pack into the jacket pocket of a pack searcher at Target and hung around so you could watch the security alarm go off
Or any other time where a prized collectible fell into your lap. This is more about the whole acquisition experience rather than just an individual part in the collection. Write as much as you want, post it on your blog and paste the link in this post. (or you could e-mail me instead if you're a brave soul) The more memories the better, feel free to rattle off a 20-pager like I normally do. And now the fine print:
Here are the rules established by Gellman, which Dave modified slightly, and then were subsequently cut and pasted by me:
- This is an open forum, and anyone can participate at any time. I will not discriminate, nor will I leave you out if we don’t agree. Heck, even the bloggers at Beckett can participate if they want to!
- Please make your post at least semi-relevant to the topic. You can be as creative as you want, but keep the general topic in mind. You don’t need to answer all of the questions in the topic, but your post should address what kinds of products you’d like to see the card companies produce.
- Keep your post PG or PG-13, I won’t censor it, but this is necessary since we’ll have a vast audience, which might include kids.
- Give us something to read, so don’t just write two sentences and call it a day. Make this a normal post, as you would want your readers to see it as a normal part of your blog. Given the great entries that we’ve seen in the past, I don’t think this will be a problem.
- Please give your post a title, and mark it so it’s easy to find when you give me the link. If you want your full name included and not just your blog title, put it in there somewhere.
- Please comment on this post or email me the link to your post so that I’ll know about it.
Ok, that's about it, write 'em up and make sure I get a link. Deadline is:
Midnight Tuesday, March 24th
I'll post 'em all on Wednesday. First one to give me a link gets on the top of the post, the rest will be listed in the order received. Above all, have fun kiddos!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Value
I've been collecting cards since 1981. That's a lot of years of collecting. That's more years than I'd really like to think about. In that time the hobby has had quite a few major shifts in ideas about the value of cards. Ten years before I collected, baseball cards were something children played with, forgot about when they became teens and got thrown out by mom when the kid left the house. When I started collecting, price guides were just beginning to be taken seriously and two new manufacturers popped up on the scene after a long court battle. Baseball cards began to be actually worth something. Exactly what they are worth has swung wildly in they years since then. Before I get into what cards might be worth something in 10 years, let me show off some of the cards I've picked up since 1981 and look at how they are valued today.
When I started collecting I got cards pretty much exclusively from Matthews supermarket, a little mom & pop grocery store my grandparents went to because they had an excellent butcher. Soon I was picking up cards at flea markets, antique stores and finally a card shop. The concept of 'rookie cards' was just starting to take hold, stars were really the big thing. I didn't have the money to get big stars though, so I went for quantity rather than quality. I'd buy these bricks of 50-100 cards from Atlanta Sports cards of older stuff from the '60s and '70s. I got a lot of '76 cards for some reason even though they weren't really my favorites when I come to think of it. I guess nobody else liked 'em either, that's why they were so cheap! This Eck rookie card here came in one of those bricks. Remember, this was back when he was a Cub, not an A. He was a legit common. The card isn't a common any more, but it's not going to pay off my bills either. It's a nice card to have though and I'm also happy with all those other commons I got instead of buying one big star card.
Once rookie cards got hot, they got really hot. Crazy hot. The genius behind dealers pushing rookie cards as inherently more valuable than boring old star cards is that they could not only boost the value of their older rookie cards, but they had a whole batch of new ones to hype every year! The old rookie cards were set, you knew that the 1969 Reggie Jackson rookie was going to sell for more than that '69 Andy Messersmith. The new ones had no preconceptions at all about them! You could sell them ALL as if they were the next Hall of Famer, and sell them they did. Back in 1986, Andres Thomas was a hot shortstop prospect for the Braves. Apparently we hadn't learned our lessons with Brad Komminsk and Craig McMurtry. I was a Braves fan though so I wanted a card of the new shortstop. Here was the problem: people started looking as cards as an investment. So not only could the rookie card of that prospect one day make you rich, if you bought a whole bunch of them at once you could become REALLY rich! So this is how I ended up buying not one Andres Thomas Fleer Update rookie card at an artificially inflated price but ten of them. The shop wouldn't sell me just one. I was able to flip the other nine after Andres' Hall of Fame induction though and I used the money to buy a villa in the Alps.
The weird thing about the '80s is while all these segments of collecting were being horrifically over hyped, there were others that were completely ignored. Baseball cards would make you rich. Football cards were for serious collectors who wanted to keep in game shape over the offseason. ET and Michael Jackson cards were like the gateway drug to lure little children into the hobby so they could one day become serious investors in baseball cards. Basketball cards? Well, those were obviously worthless. I mean, who the hell collects basketball cards. Yeah, Magic and Bird and whatnot and the slam dunk contest was cool, but no one would really want to collect basketball cards. Nobody's even made them in 5 or 6 years. Nah, they're worthless. Don't waste your money on those. You see, here's the thing about investing. Buy low, sell high. In 1987 basketball cards were literally worthless. Take this card up here, I bought it in a pack for 35 cents. That's about 2 cents for the card. In 1987, the conventional wisdom was that I vastly overpaid.
Around 1988-89 boring old base products just weren't satisfying anyone anymore. Collectors wanted new and interesting stuff for their investment portfolio. In '88 Score came out with a seriously high end set. Better card stock, color on both sides of the card, a picture on the back, crazy stuff. Upper Deck upped the ante in 1989 with holograms and space age card stock and a big ol' price tag. That's super premium, baby! I didn't fall for that nonsense. A dollar twenty-five a pack? You must be crazy! I can get three packs of Topps for that. Absurd. I plunked down a buck a pack for Topps Big though. Now that was going to be valuable! It's the same size as the original Topps cards from the '50s and those are valuable! Upper Deck, that's a flash in the pan. Total junk. No one will buy cards for $1.25 a pack.
Well, in the five years from 1989 to 1993, things went a little, how should I put it... higglety pigglety? Packs costing a dollar became the norm. The good packs cost three. Or five. Or more. But they had cards that were shiny in them. Insert cards. Not boring ol' base cards but ones that are rare. Like this Frank Thomas worship insert set from 1993 Leaf. Big Hurt was one of my favorite players back in '93 and I ended up trading something very good for a big pile of Leaf inserts. I mean really good. As in, if I told you what I traded someone would literally smack me. They'd get in their car, drive to my house, ask if I was the Dave Campbell who traded X for a bunch of 1993 Leaf inserts cards and when I said yes they would just smack the hell out of me. And guess what? At the time I was positive that I had just totally ripped off that dude. It's freaking Frank Thomas, man!
So the Frank Thomas inserts didn't quite hold their value. They were a casualty of the '90s insert Arms Race. Each year the manufacturers had to top themselves and things got pretty wacky. Pretty soon a glossy set of an MVP with a big holofoil stamp on them was pretty dang boring, to tell the truth. There were base sets that looked like that! This Albert Belle card here was the very first numbered insert I ever pulled from a pack. I got it from a card shop in Tucker, GA. The owner had been collecting for years and was completely jaded by the industry by this point. He'd pretty much openly mock his customers for some of the crap they'd buy, but he'd at least do it with a friendly wink. I pulled this in front of him and even he was impressed. This was numbered 20/2500 and that stamp on the bottom left corner? Gold leaf. He didn't normally buy cards from customers, but he offered me a sale or trade right there on the spot. He didn't like Albert Belle, but he wanted a numbered card like that to show off at the store. I think the card booked for about $60 or so. I turned him down. It was my first numbered card.
Speaking of firsts, this is my first jersey card. I got it at the Target in Athens, GA when I was in college. I was big into hockey at the time due to the EA video games. Man I played a lot of EA hockey in college. I was looking over the hockey cards in the card aisle and I found a pack of Upper Deck that was lumpy. What the heck is up with a lumpy pack of cards? I figured it was one of those slivers of the stuff that gets trimmed off the edges of the card that ends up sneaking into a pack every so often and got it and a few other packs of UD hockey. Later I opened the pack. A little later after that I regained consciousness. Mark friggin' Messier! There's a piece of his damn jersey on this card!! In hockey a jersey is referred to as a sweater, but Upper Deck didn't care. A couple of years after I pulled it I was at a shop that sold hockey cards at the Venture outlet mall off of Steve Reynolds in Gwinnett. I got to talking with the owner and he know of a lady who was absolutely insane over Messier and wanted to see if she would buy it. I said sure I'll sell it, but I want full book. It was $160 back then. She wouldn't pay full book but offered $100. I liked the card and I didn't really need the money so I held onto it. I have no idea what it books for now, but it's still a freaking sweet card.
After Upper Deck started inserting game used stuff in cards, normal inserts were doomed and the memorabilia craze kicked in. Before I get into that, I'm going to take a quick detour into graded cards. Now, the thing with graded cards is it's all about added value. Yeah, the card is good on it's own, but when you get it graded, there's a host of things that make the card even better. For one, you're having a certified professional card expert authenticate the card, and assign it an industry standard condition grade. There's no eyeballing the card, there's no fudging the condition to make the card look better than it is, that card is now that assigned grade period. No more guesswork. Also, it is now encased in a hard plastic shell that protects the card and keeps it away from damaging dust, grease and clumsy dings. Each card is numbered and placed in a database so you can see how your card compares to other cards that were graded. You could potentially have the only one in existence with a certain grade! Also you can register your collection and compare it with others to see who has the highest ranking! The card is now authenticated, protected, graded, serial numbered, cataloged, and given added value all for a nominal fee. How could having a valuable card graded possibly go wrong?
Once manufacturers figured out that people loved jersey cards, they started embedding whatever they could into cardboard. Some things were a big hit, like those multicolored patches that manufacturers had left over from the jerseys they had already cut up. Some things like game used base cards didn't go over quite as well. Short of a jock strap though, if it was used in a game, they tried to put it on a card. This card here I picked up from a Yahoo! auction back in 2000-2001. Jamal was my favorite Dirty Bird (sadly he got a bit too dirty recently) and when I saw this card with a piece of a ball with stitching holes and part of the W in Wilson on it I went nuts. Not only did I spend the second highest amount I had ever paid for a card when I won this auction, the seller was located in the Philippines of all places and I risked sending a money order overseas to the guy as payment. Risk is the operative word, because after I received the card I started getting e-mails from other people who won his auctions asking if I knew how to contact the guy. He sort of fell off the face of the earth right after I got my card. So what is a nine year old card from a low-level set of a retired running back who played for a second rate NFL franchise with a chunk of a football glued to it worth? I dunno, you tell me...
Now when I said the card companies started putting anything on a card, I did mean anything. Those celebrity hair cards and dino fossil cards and postage stamp cards didn't just magically appear last year. They've been putting crazy stuff on and in cards for years. I used to collect coins and I do collect cards, so this set here was perfect! Too bad the cards were insanely expensive back when they first came out. Have you noticed a trend here? How cards get a whole lot of hype and are really expensive when they are first released? I wanted the cards with the silver dimes and quarters and stuff (heck I would have loved a nickel) but all I could scrounge up with was this McCovey with a 1959 penny. It's not even a wheat cent. I wonder what those cards go for now...
Now don't think that while all this insert madness was going on, rookie cards went out of vogue, oh no. People still loved the rookies, it's just that they didn't quite have that same oomph they used to have. Short printing to the rescue! Here's how to make a good rookie card. Wait until the very end of the year. Even after the next year's sets start hitting the market. Now figure out all the rookies that haven't had a card in that year's set. Put out an end of the year product with all those rookies in it. That way your card is not only his first but the only card of that player in any of the sets from that year. Bonus points if the player has a rookie card in the next year's base set that got released before your end of year set. Now, just to make absolutely sure that your product gets the hype, short print the only rookie card that player will ever have to 1000 copies. That's the kid's only rookie card so the people have to have it and they have to buy that product to get it. Instant money! As long as the player pans out at least. Now do you see why the Rookie Card rules came about?
Nowadays though it's all about the 'graph. Certified autograph cards used to be the domain of the superstars in the beginning. Then minor league autographs started showing up, then entire sets of autographed cards. When Albert Pujols' Bowman Chrome auto hit, rookie cards became passe. Now it's the autographed rookie that's the good one! Besides, rookies don't charge as much to sign those cards and sticker sheets. Since we're already combining the rookie value with the autographed value, why not kick it up a notch and mix in an insert too. Let's superfract that rookie auto. I prefer the more traditional on card sig though. And besides, Chuckles went 11-4 his rookie year so he's got a bright future ahead of him.
So here we are in 2009. Some of those cards from 10, 20, 30 years ago have increased in value. Some have held. Most have fallen. A lot. The problem with predicting what will be good in 2019 is that pretty much everything today is overproduced - except the stuff that's artificially scarce - and most of the products that come out this year will be one-upped next year. So, how do you go about figuring out the exact thing to BUY, and then to HOLD with all this insanity going on. I'm not exactly certain which specific products, players or individual cards will have the largest increase in value in ten years, but I think I have a pretty good formula to help you determine which ones would be the best bets. Here it is:
Step 1: Find something you LIKE.
Step 2: Determine what you would be WILLING to pay for the card.
Step 3: Purchase the card at a FAIR price that is within your budget.
Step 4: Once in hand, EXAMINE the card and DETERMINE if you actually do like it or not.
Step 5: If you really do like the card, HOLD.
Pretty much no matter what you purchase right now, you'll probably do a lot better off in ten years investing in just about anything else. Follow those five steps though, and you'll at least have a collection that is valuable to you.
I think I'm going to hold onto this card that I bought for 6 bucks:
It's shiny!!!
When I started collecting I got cards pretty much exclusively from Matthews supermarket, a little mom & pop grocery store my grandparents went to because they had an excellent butcher. Soon I was picking up cards at flea markets, antique stores and finally a card shop. The concept of 'rookie cards' was just starting to take hold, stars were really the big thing. I didn't have the money to get big stars though, so I went for quantity rather than quality. I'd buy these bricks of 50-100 cards from Atlanta Sports cards of older stuff from the '60s and '70s. I got a lot of '76 cards for some reason even though they weren't really my favorites when I come to think of it. I guess nobody else liked 'em either, that's why they were so cheap! This Eck rookie card here came in one of those bricks. Remember, this was back when he was a Cub, not an A. He was a legit common. The card isn't a common any more, but it's not going to pay off my bills either. It's a nice card to have though and I'm also happy with all those other commons I got instead of buying one big star card.
Once rookie cards got hot, they got really hot. Crazy hot. The genius behind dealers pushing rookie cards as inherently more valuable than boring old star cards is that they could not only boost the value of their older rookie cards, but they had a whole batch of new ones to hype every year! The old rookie cards were set, you knew that the 1969 Reggie Jackson rookie was going to sell for more than that '69 Andy Messersmith. The new ones had no preconceptions at all about them! You could sell them ALL as if they were the next Hall of Famer, and sell them they did. Back in 1986, Andres Thomas was a hot shortstop prospect for the Braves. Apparently we hadn't learned our lessons with Brad Komminsk and Craig McMurtry. I was a Braves fan though so I wanted a card of the new shortstop. Here was the problem: people started looking as cards as an investment. So not only could the rookie card of that prospect one day make you rich, if you bought a whole bunch of them at once you could become REALLY rich! So this is how I ended up buying not one Andres Thomas Fleer Update rookie card at an artificially inflated price but ten of them. The shop wouldn't sell me just one. I was able to flip the other nine after Andres' Hall of Fame induction though and I used the money to buy a villa in the Alps.
The weird thing about the '80s is while all these segments of collecting were being horrifically over hyped, there were others that were completely ignored. Baseball cards would make you rich. Football cards were for serious collectors who wanted to keep in game shape over the offseason. ET and Michael Jackson cards were like the gateway drug to lure little children into the hobby so they could one day become serious investors in baseball cards. Basketball cards? Well, those were obviously worthless. I mean, who the hell collects basketball cards. Yeah, Magic and Bird and whatnot and the slam dunk contest was cool, but no one would really want to collect basketball cards. Nobody's even made them in 5 or 6 years. Nah, they're worthless. Don't waste your money on those. You see, here's the thing about investing. Buy low, sell high. In 1987 basketball cards were literally worthless. Take this card up here, I bought it in a pack for 35 cents. That's about 2 cents for the card. In 1987, the conventional wisdom was that I vastly overpaid.
Around 1988-89 boring old base products just weren't satisfying anyone anymore. Collectors wanted new and interesting stuff for their investment portfolio. In '88 Score came out with a seriously high end set. Better card stock, color on both sides of the card, a picture on the back, crazy stuff. Upper Deck upped the ante in 1989 with holograms and space age card stock and a big ol' price tag. That's super premium, baby! I didn't fall for that nonsense. A dollar twenty-five a pack? You must be crazy! I can get three packs of Topps for that. Absurd. I plunked down a buck a pack for Topps Big though. Now that was going to be valuable! It's the same size as the original Topps cards from the '50s and those are valuable! Upper Deck, that's a flash in the pan. Total junk. No one will buy cards for $1.25 a pack.
Well, in the five years from 1989 to 1993, things went a little, how should I put it... higglety pigglety? Packs costing a dollar became the norm. The good packs cost three. Or five. Or more. But they had cards that were shiny in them. Insert cards. Not boring ol' base cards but ones that are rare. Like this Frank Thomas worship insert set from 1993 Leaf. Big Hurt was one of my favorite players back in '93 and I ended up trading something very good for a big pile of Leaf inserts. I mean really good. As in, if I told you what I traded someone would literally smack me. They'd get in their car, drive to my house, ask if I was the Dave Campbell who traded X for a bunch of 1993 Leaf inserts cards and when I said yes they would just smack the hell out of me. And guess what? At the time I was positive that I had just totally ripped off that dude. It's freaking Frank Thomas, man!
So the Frank Thomas inserts didn't quite hold their value. They were a casualty of the '90s insert Arms Race. Each year the manufacturers had to top themselves and things got pretty wacky. Pretty soon a glossy set of an MVP with a big holofoil stamp on them was pretty dang boring, to tell the truth. There were base sets that looked like that! This Albert Belle card here was the very first numbered insert I ever pulled from a pack. I got it from a card shop in Tucker, GA. The owner had been collecting for years and was completely jaded by the industry by this point. He'd pretty much openly mock his customers for some of the crap they'd buy, but he'd at least do it with a friendly wink. I pulled this in front of him and even he was impressed. This was numbered 20/2500 and that stamp on the bottom left corner? Gold leaf. He didn't normally buy cards from customers, but he offered me a sale or trade right there on the spot. He didn't like Albert Belle, but he wanted a numbered card like that to show off at the store. I think the card booked for about $60 or so. I turned him down. It was my first numbered card.
Speaking of firsts, this is my first jersey card. I got it at the Target in Athens, GA when I was in college. I was big into hockey at the time due to the EA video games. Man I played a lot of EA hockey in college. I was looking over the hockey cards in the card aisle and I found a pack of Upper Deck that was lumpy. What the heck is up with a lumpy pack of cards? I figured it was one of those slivers of the stuff that gets trimmed off the edges of the card that ends up sneaking into a pack every so often and got it and a few other packs of UD hockey. Later I opened the pack. A little later after that I regained consciousness. Mark friggin' Messier! There's a piece of his damn jersey on this card!! In hockey a jersey is referred to as a sweater, but Upper Deck didn't care. A couple of years after I pulled it I was at a shop that sold hockey cards at the Venture outlet mall off of Steve Reynolds in Gwinnett. I got to talking with the owner and he know of a lady who was absolutely insane over Messier and wanted to see if she would buy it. I said sure I'll sell it, but I want full book. It was $160 back then. She wouldn't pay full book but offered $100. I liked the card and I didn't really need the money so I held onto it. I have no idea what it books for now, but it's still a freaking sweet card.
After Upper Deck started inserting game used stuff in cards, normal inserts were doomed and the memorabilia craze kicked in. Before I get into that, I'm going to take a quick detour into graded cards. Now, the thing with graded cards is it's all about added value. Yeah, the card is good on it's own, but when you get it graded, there's a host of things that make the card even better. For one, you're having a certified professional card expert authenticate the card, and assign it an industry standard condition grade. There's no eyeballing the card, there's no fudging the condition to make the card look better than it is, that card is now that assigned grade period. No more guesswork. Also, it is now encased in a hard plastic shell that protects the card and keeps it away from damaging dust, grease and clumsy dings. Each card is numbered and placed in a database so you can see how your card compares to other cards that were graded. You could potentially have the only one in existence with a certain grade! Also you can register your collection and compare it with others to see who has the highest ranking! The card is now authenticated, protected, graded, serial numbered, cataloged, and given added value all for a nominal fee. How could having a valuable card graded possibly go wrong?
Once manufacturers figured out that people loved jersey cards, they started embedding whatever they could into cardboard. Some things were a big hit, like those multicolored patches that manufacturers had left over from the jerseys they had already cut up. Some things like game used base cards didn't go over quite as well. Short of a jock strap though, if it was used in a game, they tried to put it on a card. This card here I picked up from a Yahoo! auction back in 2000-2001. Jamal was my favorite Dirty Bird (sadly he got a bit too dirty recently) and when I saw this card with a piece of a ball with stitching holes and part of the W in Wilson on it I went nuts. Not only did I spend the second highest amount I had ever paid for a card when I won this auction, the seller was located in the Philippines of all places and I risked sending a money order overseas to the guy as payment. Risk is the operative word, because after I received the card I started getting e-mails from other people who won his auctions asking if I knew how to contact the guy. He sort of fell off the face of the earth right after I got my card. So what is a nine year old card from a low-level set of a retired running back who played for a second rate NFL franchise with a chunk of a football glued to it worth? I dunno, you tell me...
Now when I said the card companies started putting anything on a card, I did mean anything. Those celebrity hair cards and dino fossil cards and postage stamp cards didn't just magically appear last year. They've been putting crazy stuff on and in cards for years. I used to collect coins and I do collect cards, so this set here was perfect! Too bad the cards were insanely expensive back when they first came out. Have you noticed a trend here? How cards get a whole lot of hype and are really expensive when they are first released? I wanted the cards with the silver dimes and quarters and stuff (heck I would have loved a nickel) but all I could scrounge up with was this McCovey with a 1959 penny. It's not even a wheat cent. I wonder what those cards go for now...
Now don't think that while all this insert madness was going on, rookie cards went out of vogue, oh no. People still loved the rookies, it's just that they didn't quite have that same oomph they used to have. Short printing to the rescue! Here's how to make a good rookie card. Wait until the very end of the year. Even after the next year's sets start hitting the market. Now figure out all the rookies that haven't had a card in that year's set. Put out an end of the year product with all those rookies in it. That way your card is not only his first but the only card of that player in any of the sets from that year. Bonus points if the player has a rookie card in the next year's base set that got released before your end of year set. Now, just to make absolutely sure that your product gets the hype, short print the only rookie card that player will ever have to 1000 copies. That's the kid's only rookie card so the people have to have it and they have to buy that product to get it. Instant money! As long as the player pans out at least. Now do you see why the Rookie Card rules came about?
Nowadays though it's all about the 'graph. Certified autograph cards used to be the domain of the superstars in the beginning. Then minor league autographs started showing up, then entire sets of autographed cards. When Albert Pujols' Bowman Chrome auto hit, rookie cards became passe. Now it's the autographed rookie that's the good one! Besides, rookies don't charge as much to sign those cards and sticker sheets. Since we're already combining the rookie value with the autographed value, why not kick it up a notch and mix in an insert too. Let's superfract that rookie auto. I prefer the more traditional on card sig though. And besides, Chuckles went 11-4 his rookie year so he's got a bright future ahead of him.So here we are in 2009. Some of those cards from 10, 20, 30 years ago have increased in value. Some have held. Most have fallen. A lot. The problem with predicting what will be good in 2019 is that pretty much everything today is overproduced - except the stuff that's artificially scarce - and most of the products that come out this year will be one-upped next year. So, how do you go about figuring out the exact thing to BUY, and then to HOLD with all this insanity going on. I'm not exactly certain which specific products, players or individual cards will have the largest increase in value in ten years, but I think I have a pretty good formula to help you determine which ones would be the best bets. Here it is:
Step 1: Find something you LIKE.
Step 2: Determine what you would be WILLING to pay for the card.
Step 3: Purchase the card at a FAIR price that is within your budget.
Step 4: Once in hand, EXAMINE the card and DETERMINE if you actually do like it or not.
Step 5: If you really do like the card, HOLD.
Pretty much no matter what you purchase right now, you'll probably do a lot better off in ten years investing in just about anything else. Follow those five steps though, and you'll at least have a collection that is valuable to you.
I think I'm going to hold onto this card that I bought for 6 bucks:
It's shiny!!!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sometimes a comment just needs to be a post, part 1
I stayed out of the most recent Blog Bat Around, mainly because I am a coward. I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my mind about what the card manufacturers should do in '09 and beyond, but I just couldn't force them out of my head and onto the screen via my stubby fingers. Partly I wanted to get it perfect before I posted it to the world, partly I'm unsure of myself since I've been utterly wrong on many occasions (Ok, 2008 Opening Day was a decent set for kids. It still makes my eyes bleed) and I'm also paranoid that I'll make a good suggestion and someone from one of the manufacturers will stumble across it and decide to do the exact opposite thing just to spite the loudmouth assclown who banned their company over a Hillary Clinton card or dumped their base set like a hot rock over a no hitter card.
The recent Panini monopoly/Donruss lawsuit bombslhells have me spooked however, and I'm starting to feel that impending dread I felt a year and a half ago when Upper Deck was trying to gobble up Topps. NBA cards are way down on the packing order in my world, but the MLB license is up at the end of the year and now I'm feeling queasy. There's been a metric ton of posts about these issues already in the past day and I've commented on most of them. This one from Hand Collated looks at the lawsuit and theorizes that Donruss won't be getting their license back anytime soon. Stale Gum said the exact same thing last night (and my comment on that post has gotten a LOT of traction in the interwebs, but that's a subject for part 2) That's probably correct, and Donruss is fooked, although I don't think it's the right decision.
Hand Collated's post did do one thing - it crystallized what is probably the closest thing to my ideal baseball card business model theory. It has also forced me to face my greatest fear for the hobby in 2010. I don't think I can really write it better than I already have in that comment, so here it is:
Three licensees, 12 sets each. That's the exact same number of products that are out now. There are three manufacturers so innovation will increase as they try to out do each other. 12 sets is enough so there can be a wide range of products from low end to high end while weeding out some of the unnecessary ones like X and Moments & Milestones. Each release is much more important to the health of the company so more care is put into each. Better product, happier customers, better sales.
However, MLB has shown in the Bud Selig era that they either do things absolutely right or completely wrong. Thus, I give it a 50-50 chance that they yank both Topps and Upper Deck's licenses next year and create their own in-house trading card company. Their first premiere product will feature Cut signatures of the Commish and all 30 owners. AND NOTHING ELSE.
Now you know the next time I post about nonsense at 3:30 am, it is because I just woke up screaming from a dream where I just pulled a Jeffrey Loria taxpayer leeched money card from a pack of 2010 SeligCards. The horror.
The recent Panini monopoly/Donruss lawsuit bombslhells have me spooked however, and I'm starting to feel that impending dread I felt a year and a half ago when Upper Deck was trying to gobble up Topps. NBA cards are way down on the packing order in my world, but the MLB license is up at the end of the year and now I'm feeling queasy. There's been a metric ton of posts about these issues already in the past day and I've commented on most of them. This one from Hand Collated looks at the lawsuit and theorizes that Donruss won't be getting their license back anytime soon. Stale Gum said the exact same thing last night (and my comment on that post has gotten a LOT of traction in the interwebs, but that's a subject for part 2) That's probably correct, and Donruss is fooked, although I don't think it's the right decision.
Hand Collated's post did do one thing - it crystallized what is probably the closest thing to my ideal baseball card business model theory. It has also forced me to face my greatest fear for the hobby in 2010. I don't think I can really write it better than I already have in that comment, so here it is:
Three licensees, 12 sets each. That's the exact same number of products that are out now. There are three manufacturers so innovation will increase as they try to out do each other. 12 sets is enough so there can be a wide range of products from low end to high end while weeding out some of the unnecessary ones like X and Moments & Milestones. Each release is much more important to the health of the company so more care is put into each. Better product, happier customers, better sales.
However, MLB has shown in the Bud Selig era that they either do things absolutely right or completely wrong. Thus, I give it a 50-50 chance that they yank both Topps and Upper Deck's licenses next year and create their own in-house trading card company. Their first premiere product will feature Cut signatures of the Commish and all 30 owners. AND NOTHING ELSE.
Now you know the next time I post about nonsense at 3:30 am, it is because I just woke up screaming from a dream where I just pulled a Jeffrey Loria taxpayer leeched money card from a pack of 2010 SeligCards. The horror.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Blog Bat Around
Gellman did a spectacular job on the inaugural Blogger Bat Around. So far there are thirty-two blogs participating! If you haven't already, check 'em out. There's a lot of good reading in there.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Blog Bat Around Post
I'm going to admit right off the bat, this post is going to suck. When I agreed to to do the Bat Around I thought I'd be able to rip out a post no problem, but once I saw the question my mind locked up. I'm just not up for writing a heartfelt well written origin story, ok? It doesn't help that there are a bunch of excellent posts out there already. So ya know what? I'm gonna mail it in. I've got card show purchases to post, High Numbers to rip, packages to address, trades to scan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it. I'm swamped. I gotta post something though, so let's just do it Q&A style, shall we?
Most of us classify ourselves as some type of collector in this industry.
I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE SMAUG.
HOARDER OF CARDS.
EATER OF SNEAKSY LITTLE HOBBITS WHO MESS WITH MY BRAVES CARDS.
MORTAL MEN VIEW MY TOPPS COLLECTION AND TREMBLE.
NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, I NEED TO SO SACK GONDOR. THE MINAS TIRITH TARGET HAS BLASTERS OF STADIUM CLUB.
Player collector,
Yes.
team collector,
Yep.
set collector,
Absolutely.
auto collector,
Mmm-hmm.
first world,
Of course.
second world,
Sure, why not.
among thousands of other labels.
Yep, them too.
As you have navigated the hobby, what are the biggest challenges you face as that type of collector or label of hobby enthusiast?
Too many cards, not enough money, really not enough time, stacks of cards toppling and crushing me underneath, losing consciousness from lack of oxygen as the weight of the 1990 Donruss cards flatten my lungs. Typical stuff.
What have been your biggest successes
Buying oddball stuff cheap before they really took off value wise.
failures?
Buying everything else and watching as their value went straight into the toilet.
What would you like to see the manufacturers focus on to make your type of collector flourish in the hobby?
Just make quality cards for every price range in the spectrum. Don't mail in the inexpensive sets. Don't ignore the low end collector. Don't base your success or failure on a gimmick wholly unrelated to the cards themselves. Don't pull a GM and put all your eggs in the basket labeled "Let's Catch Some Whales" and fold when the market dries up for $300 packs. Actually the collector will flourish regardless. These suggestions will help the manufacturers flourish.
Feel free to provide blog examples, scans, poems, haikus, bar napkin messages, medical prescriptions, etc as complements to your posts.
The industry sucks
But I still love to collect
Bring back Topps Total.
If you feel your type has been covered on another blog, tell us how you do things the same or differently.
I think I'm the only bloodthirsty evil dragon card hoarder blog out there, actually. Well, there's Stale Gum, but Chris is more the Great Old One type.
If you don't identify yourself as a type, explain why, or explain how you think of yourself.
I AM LEGION. Of types. I'm complex. A complex card hoarding evil dragon collector thingy. Metaphorically, of course.
You do not have to answer any or all of the questions asked here.
NOW YOU TELL ME
Most of us classify ourselves as some type of collector in this industry.
I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE SMAUG.
HOARDER OF CARDS.
EATER OF SNEAKSY LITTLE HOBBITS WHO MESS WITH MY BRAVES CARDS.
MORTAL MEN VIEW MY TOPPS COLLECTION AND TREMBLE.
NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, I NEED TO SO SACK GONDOR. THE MINAS TIRITH TARGET HAS BLASTERS OF STADIUM CLUB.
Player collector, Yes.
team collector,
Yep.
set collector,
Absolutely.
auto collector,
Mmm-hmm.
first world,
Of course.
second world,
Sure, why not.
among thousands of other labels.
Yep, them too.
As you have navigated the hobby, what are the biggest challenges you face as that type of collector or label of hobby enthusiast?
Too many cards, not enough money, really not enough time, stacks of cards toppling and crushing me underneath, losing consciousness from lack of oxygen as the weight of the 1990 Donruss cards flatten my lungs. Typical stuff.
What have been your biggest successes
Buying oddball stuff cheap before they really took off value wise.
failures?
Buying everything else and watching as their value went straight into the toilet.
What would you like to see the manufacturers focus on to make your type of collector flourish in the hobby?
Just make quality cards for every price range in the spectrum. Don't mail in the inexpensive sets. Don't ignore the low end collector. Don't base your success or failure on a gimmick wholly unrelated to the cards themselves. Don't pull a GM and put all your eggs in the basket labeled "Let's Catch Some Whales" and fold when the market dries up for $300 packs. Actually the collector will flourish regardless. These suggestions will help the manufacturers flourish.
Feel free to provide blog examples, scans, poems, haikus, bar napkin messages, medical prescriptions, etc as complements to your posts.
The industry sucks
But I still love to collect
Bring back Topps Total.
If you feel your type has been covered on another blog, tell us how you do things the same or differently.
I think I'm the only bloodthirsty evil dragon card hoarder blog out there, actually. Well, there's Stale Gum, but Chris is more the Great Old One type.
If you don't identify yourself as a type, explain why, or explain how you think of yourself. I AM LEGION. Of types. I'm complex. A complex card hoarding evil dragon collector thingy. Metaphorically, of course.
You do not have to answer any or all of the questions asked here.
NOW YOU TELL ME
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