2008 Stupid Year In Review - Part 1: Beckettgate

I don't do end of year awards on this blog. Before I could definitively state what was the Best Set of 2008 (Upper Deck) or the Worst Card of 2008 (Topps Johan Santana No-Hitter) I'd feel compelled to thoroughly examine all the sets and all the cards and judge them objectively on their merits and I don't have time for that. I think the year deserves a eulogy though. Mainly because I'm so damn glad it's over. 2008 was one of the stupidest years on record for trading cards and I think it should be reviewed in a similarly stupid fashion. THOUGH AN INTERNET MEME.

There's this silly comic infesting message boards right now that amuses me to no end. The basic set up is three panels of an annoying everyday occurrence, followed by a fourth panel of frustration. The comic is done in MSPaint and usually has that same last panel. This being the internet, the joke is usually sophomoric, scatological or obscene in nature. If you want to learn more, here's the Reddit thread where I became acquainted with this phenomenon. It will take you to a message board post full of them (not safe for work) and has links to others (again, watch where you click) if you want to check some of them out. Or, if you're lazy and don't want to bother with that, just click here. I'm going to do several of these as the muse strikes me throughout the month. To win over my skeptical readers I will start off with some red meat for the blogging community:

BECKETTGATE

(click to enlarge)

See what I mean? There's more where this came from...

A Weird Card for a Weird Player

First of all condolences to Blue Heaven. Secondly, condolences to me. The Dodgers were willing to give up Andy LaRoche and a pitching prospect for Man-Ram when they already have too many outfielders, but they wouldn't bite on Tex? Stupid GM. I hate L.A.

In honor of what the hyperventilating sportswriters are calling the surprise blockbuster of the century, here's a card I stumbled upon today while looking for trade bait. I could have inflicted this upon the A Pack A Day readers, but I decided they couldn't handle this. The fine regular readers of this blog however have the intestinal fortitude to not be overly shocked and appaled by some of the strange crap I post. A warning though - this is very, very wrong on several levels. If there are small children, pregnant women or the elderly around, now is the time for them to put on their special 3D glasses. Ok, here it is:

First of all, I want to make it abundantly clear that I did not purchase this thing on purpose. It was the special bonus in one of those twenty dollar junk wax boxes that I bought several years ago. I learned my lesson, I only buy ten dollar junk wax boxes now. This is an actual pack that was sold by reputable dealers that contains one graded card with a game used piece of what was formerly memorabilia from the player on the card. I think it originally cost twenty to twenty five dollars a pack. It went over so well they ended up as bonuses in junk wax boxes. The card was graded by Beckett Grading Services and the card is guaranteed to be graded 7.5 or higher. A 7.5 grade for any card produced in the past 30 years is better known in hobby circles as 'toilet paper'. Ah, but it was also genuine GGUM... Graded Game-Used Memorabilia. Thank the Maker that 'gum' never caught on as a euphemism for a game used card in hobby circles. Can you imagine how annoying it would be if those horrible Rip Master parties had people squealing about how they got a piece of GUM in their pack every time they pulled a hit? You've seen the pack, so lets move on to the monstrosity within.


A Manny Ramirez 1995 SportsFlix UC3 lenticular 3D card graded, with a square chip of wood purportedly from one of Manny's bats also encased within the card's plastic tomb.

Just let that sink in a bit, folks.

A GRADED 1995 UC3 three dimensional plastic lenticular one-off oddball forgotten by history card, with a little square piece of bat on the label where the grade normally goes. Oh, and it's not even his base card, it's an In-Depth subset card. I'm gonna go all Joe Collector on ya and declare here and now, before God and all His creation, that this is a 1/1 card. Yep, I just went there. Ya know how I know this is a 1/1?

BECAUSE NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER HAVE A CRAPPY 3D SUBSET CARD THAT BOOKED FOR FORTY CENTS SUBMITTED FOR GRADING TO ANY COMPANY EVER.

EVER.

I mean, I've got a few graded cards lying around here and there, I can sort of see why some people would want to have their cards graded, and if I had a lot of money and very little space maybe I'd want to collect them. But seriously, a forty cent card? Who grades stuff like that? And the card itself is ugly as a bucktoothed angler fish to boot. When you add on the game used chip, the ridiculousness level goes through the roof. My mind just can't fully comprehend the insanity. It's like if the Great Elder Cthulhu showed up at my door dressed like Elvis, bringing scones and biscuits for tea.

The back is pretty surreal too. Beckett breaks down all the individual grades that make up the total. The centering gets a 9.5 sub grade. Can someone explain to me how you can possibly grade the centering on a full bleed lenticular 3D card?? I guess the only reason it didn't get a 10 is because the grader wiggled the card while grading it. It was a 10 grade, but Manny moved to the right a little bit. The surface is graded a 9. The lenticular plastic surface. There's only two grades with that kind of card as far as I'm concerned. Either it's Mint, or some kid took a nail to it and made some cool zippy noises and now it's a 1. And you gotta be DRUUUUUUUNK to grade a 1! I never graded a 10, but one time, I graded five twos... Ok enough of that. the corners and edges bring it down to an 8 because the stupid black back of the card shows all the dinks. So instead of a solid 9 that I could sell for the big bucks, I got a stupid 8. Can you imagine the poor schlub who paid twenty bucks for a pack and got a SportFlix card graded 7.5? Ha!

In addition to the grading, there is a nifty website on the back. That hasn't been updated since the Clinton Administration apparently. Among the five extremely informative pages on the site, is one that shows all the actual memorabilia they destroyed to create these abominations to humanity! I can look through the list and see the exact bat used in my card, um, case. Or not, since there are three of them. Best of all you can submit a card for grading and make your own GGUM card. Or try to at least. The guy taking your order mike look at you funny, but it's worth a shot for a chance at getting a 1996 Collector's Choice card of Andruw Jones graded with a real piece of his pants inserted into the slab! That's right, this pack was all an elaborate ruse to get unsuspecting collectors to get their crappy cards graded with BGS so they could get a chunk of something stuck in the case with it. For a nominal upcharge. Ingenious.

So that's my bizarre Manny card. Almost as weird as Manny himself, don't you think?

Beckett sent me a press release for some reason

I'm glad because it's a cool press release. Apparently someone came out of nowhere and submitted a previously unknown T206 collection to be graded by Beckett. It's a collection with all Sweet Caporal backs. Guess which card is only found with a Sweet Caporal back. Read more about it on Beckett Behind the Scenes, which also has a brilliantly unhinged rant against all Beckett products in the comments section. I'm not a huge fan of grading myself, but it's neat to see a collection like this pop out of nowhere into the light. Hopefully somebody scans the whole collection for posterity before it gets broken up into a bunch of people's collections. Since Elon sent the press release to me, I'm guessing he wouldn't mind if I posted it here, so I will.

-For Immediate Release-

Famed Wagner Card Highlights Massive T206 Collection

-Beckett Media Plans Historic Multi-day Auction-

DALLAS (January 16, 2008) --- For the past month Beckett Grading experts have been verifying and grading over 550 T206 Sweet Caporal tobacco cards including a rare Honus Wagner card, from a single collection previously unknown to the hobby. This collection, submitted by a private collector, is thought to be one of the most extensive T206 private collections of raw, ungraded, turn of the century tobacco cards uncovered in the past 30 years. There are believed to be only 55-60 T206 Honus Wagner cards in circulation.



“The story behind this find, and the fact that the entire group is from the Sweet Caporal brand, suggests it is likely an original collection from an early 20th century collector who smoked Sweet Caporal cigarettes. There is no doubt that unearthing a T206 collection of this breadth, headlined by a Wagner, is one of the most significant trading card finds in recent memory. Beckett Grading Services is very pleased to have been selected to grade not just our first Wagner but also over 550 of exceptionally well-preserved tobacco cards from that era,” said Mark Anderson, Director of Beckett Grading Services. “Having been hidden away for decades, the color on these cards is extraordinary, and a very large percentage of these cards should grade Excellent or better.”



The entire collection will be auctioned off through multiple auctions overseen by the Beckett Select Auctions division of Beckett Media beginning in March of this year. The single card and lot auctions will culminate with the multi-day auction of the T206 Honus Wagner ending on April 10th.



“The history and lore that surround the previous Honus Wagner cards makes this one of the most exciting announcements Beckett Media has ever made. We expect this card alone to sell for well over $100,000 at auction and based on the exceptional appearance and condition of many of the other cards in the collection we feel that many collectors will be able to enhance their T206 collections dramatically in the coming months,” said Grant Sandground, Beckett Media’s Technical Director of Hobby Development.



“The T206 set has and remains to this day, by far, the most important pre-war set of trading cards ever issued. In fact, you could make a viable argument that it’s the most important set of trading cards ever issued. Period. The set represents every element that comes to define a collecting masterpiece,” added Sandground.” The Wagner is, of course, the centerpiece of the set. It’s gotten to the point where it’s virtually an iconic image when discussing American pop culture. The set is loaded with multiple cards for benchmark Hall of Famers like Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson and Cy Young. The artwork and images, to this day, remain universally compelling. The cards have a perfect balance of scarcity and commonality. Low grade copies are affordable for options almost any collector and high-grade cards and scarce short prints continue to grow in popularity with aficionados.”



For information about this collection or the upcoming auctions please contact Dave Sliepka, Beckett Select Auctions, 972-448-9182 or dsliepka@beckett.com.

UPDATE!!! ~ Here's a quote from the comments of the Beckett blog from the main man himself:

We will be launching a complete photo gallery of all 550 cards shortly. We will also be listing all the specific cards and grades. It is a lot of information and rather than dump it on the world all at once we are going to spread out the happiness.

Elon

Awwwwww YEAH!!!!!!!! A five hundred fifty card gallary of the T206 set! That is freakin' SWEET! I will be linking like mad to that, rest assured. Beckett has a new friend today, although I'm still calling them The Propaganda. (remind me to tell you the story behind that one day)

EPIC Thread

Anyone out there who was fascinated (or horrified) by my insane Greg Maddux inserts from my 12 days of Cardmas post will be interested in this awesome thread from the Beckett Message boards. A member asked for opinions on the coolest insert set of the 90's, and a flood of images of the most obnoxious, flashy designs ever put to cardboard ensues. This is a great history lesson on the Golden Age of insert cards, before relics and autos pushed them aside. I need to go look though my old insert binders today to find a couple that can rival some of the beauties in that post.

Here's my humble contribution to the madness:

1996 Collector's Choice You Crash The Game contest card CG1 Chipper Jones

and 1996 Collector's Choice You Crash The Game winner card CR1 Chipper Jones

The winner card is not nearly as shiny as the contest card, but it is made of real wood glued onto clear see-thru plastic. Now that's a chase card.