And ain't no one has a shortprint as good as mine!



(important safety tip - pastels don't work worth a darn on decoy cards)

This here is the card that caused a big kerfuffle over the summer.


First it was Transmogrifier only, then you could also get it in a factory set, finally Topps relented to put it in the Updates set. After all that, most of us just didn't care.

However, the Update set finally arrived a while back and we're all starting to pull the damnable things. I have been unfortunate enough to pull two, one in a hobby pack and another in the first retail rack I saw. My question:

Is this thing short printed? Normal printed? Double printed?

I suppose I could just go to BaseballCardPedia and find out for myself, but that would be too easy. Also it would ruin the premise of this post, and lord knows I've had enough problems posting lately. I ask mainly because I a) pulled two of those abominations and b) both times they were the last card before the inserts popped up. That ethereal region between worthless base and mega mojo often harbors such rare beasts such as variations, parallels or just plain short prints.I mean, if it was the second or fifth card in the pack, then sure, just a crummy base card. When it hangs around the high-class part of town it makes me wonder. It's probably just a base card with an insert card price tag. Besides, Topps most likely gimmicked the gimmick with a pie in the face or the ghostly head of Shirley Hemphill peering over Stevie's shoulder for super gimmick shenanigans. Can't have too much of a good bad thing!

Anybody want my dupe? It's got a ding in the corner and I left it in my car which is currently at the shop, but if you really want a dinged quasi-rookie card of a pitcher with a bum arm I'll PWE it to you once I get my car back.

Last night's "Let's make the very first rookie card of the most insanely overhyped rookie since Brien Taylor a super short printed gimmick that you can only get online in a baseball card slot machine and to make it fair for everyone let's tell everyone it is available after the first pitch before the game and then actually release it around the seventh inning" marketing genius from Topps has really energized the hobby! Just look at all these positive reactions!

A Cardboard Problem
"Strasburg's RC - AKA the card I didn't win"

The Paper Chase
"One card I will never own"

Mint Condition
"Words cannot describe the anger I am feeling now"

JD's Wild Cardz
"these cards were not even available when I entered my code"

Sign Here... And Here.
"Strasburg broke the Transmogrifier"


Sports Cards Uncensored
"Everyone will need to spend a ton now to truly complete the base set. Nice job there."

Stale Gum
"Topps: Go Fuck  Yourself"

Um. Ahem. Those aren't very positive reactions at all. Oh, but those are bloggers. Bloggers are a bunch of nerdy entitled gripe asses who complain about everything. Let's take a look at some of the comments on the official Topps blog!

Dan:

This whole promotion has been shady from the beginning. If each code is not directly linked to a card there was no sense in entering any at the beginning of the year. You know the Mantle won't be given away until later in the year to keep people buying codes. Huge gimic, blown my trust. Now the Strasburg thing comes up. This is what I get for being a loyal customer and buying all my cards at release date in large amounts and entering the codes right away. Extremely disappointed

Joe Joe:

This venture sucks! I miss the days of no inserts and all that garbage---true rookie cards! 

Kreepy13:

Thats BS... I am Very unhappy now cause you all said that AFTER the 1st Pitch they cards would be available. Thanks for the BS. You are lucky you are the only MLB liscensed product. Cause this shit pisses me off and why I left the hobby before. Thanks for screwing with us and lying to EVERYONE!!!

QUOTE FROM TOPPS so you all don't have to look up:

"Major League Baseball trading cards, has announced that Strasburg’s first ever MLB rookie card will be made available exclusively online via www.toppsmillion.com immediately following his first pitch in the big leagues." 

Markad:

Is it time to start entering codes?? When can I enter my codes and be eligible to get the strassburg????????????????????????// This is confusing???

 NOT HAPPY:

I went out today and bought two code cards so I could enter them for tonight's promotion. I waited until after the first pitch (after the first half inning, in fact), and now I find out that the Strasburg's weren't available as of the first pitch AS ADVERTISED???!!! This is absolutely disgraceful Topps... the collectors here have shown their support, but this is a huge let down on your part.

Bruce Campbella:

I hope everyone realizes that this will be an incredibly short-printed card and almost impossible to pull/redeem. Topps has strung people along with this Topps Million Card Giveaway promotion and it has worked wonders for selling product. It hasn't done wonders for the collectors. Most of the vintage "cards from their vault" are in terrible shape, including a lot of hand-writing, creases, etc. It's been a scam since day one, why should the Strasburg idea be any different?

Ken:

Yes, Just another "ripoff to the buyer" promotion it seems. I am a small time collector but I would have to say that I spend in the neighborhood of $1000 per year on Topps products alone. Or should I say that I did in the past. I will not buy any more Topps product unless it is from an individual who already has what I want or need. No more from the outlets. I feel that the hobby is collapsing because of this type of dealings. Mostly I feel insulted that Topps would do this and think that I was stupid enough not to catch it. Maybe they think that all of their customers are gullable eight year olds. Hell, thats an even bigger insult ! Take the kids money ... he will never know !

Ryan Emery:

I guess I got taken by topps... I entered my codes when the site came back up... no Strasburg for me! But money in topps pocket, as I bought to get code cards today... no more, done for the year!

wayloheyo

listen it is not about us right now its about leting the new guys have a chance to make a name for them selves. u should be in it not for ur selves and what u collect but what u collect for your kids our even your grand kids.........................

Dan Jackson in reply to wayloheyo:

Ok, if that's the case, I want to make sure that Topps doesn't pull unfair and shady promotions on my children and grandchildren.

hk:

Topps no longer Tops on my list 

These comments are all on Topps' official blog by die-hard collectors who spend time on that blog and were extremely excited about the promotion. This is not positive feedback in any way shape or form. I don't even know how people are reacting on Facebook or Twitter or on the forums, but I can't imagine that it's mich better than this. I fully expect to see a press release describing how successful the Strasburg promotion was in the near future. Heck, it probably was very successful for Topps. They probably sold a lot of packs, the code cards are already selling for ludicrous prices on eBay and I'm sure this promotion will be mentioned in the media more than once giving Topps some free advertising. So short term, this is going to be a boon for Topps. There is a very serious long term price to be paid however.

First of all, collectors are going to stop trusting the Transmogrifier. This is the second significant launch day that was screwed up by Topps resulting in collectors desperate to unlock codes ending up unhappy. Both times Topps had poor communication that left collectors wondering what the hell was going on, unsure when to enter codes. On the day it went live, they couldn't enter codes at all, last night they burned through many precious codes for nothing. These codes can get expensive and many collectors aren't going to throw away their money for nothing a second time. Counting on everyone who got burned to come back for more is foolish thinking, especially in a hobby that is shrinking, not expanding.

Topps is also looking very untrustworthy right now. Collectors have figured out that instead of having each code tied to a particular card like in redemtions, that any code entered could end up with damn near anything, including cards that weren't a part of the promotion at the start. How many people would have saved up all your codes if you knew you could pull a Strasburg rookie back in February? A whole BUNCH that's how many, but that would have caused their launch to be less spectacular with far, far less codes being redeemed. Since each code is not tied to a particular card, who's to say that Topps isn't giving out the Strasburgs only to high rollers who redeem the most codes or to dealers as a kickback for buying lots of product? They probably aren't - I don't think Topps has gotten to Richard McWilliam levels of shadiness quite yet - but with all the crooked shenanigans going on in this business why set yourself up for the suspicion?

The Transmogrifier (I'm having a hard time trying to write seriously about this subject while calling it that - is there a real name for it yet?) is a very good innovation in the hobby and could be important to Topps for a long time to come. Is it really worth losing your customer's trust in the device just for a gimmick like this? Seriously, are you going to trust it in February 2011 when Topps puts out a whole new batch of codes to redeem? Will you enter in the codes right away or just sit on all them and wait for Topps to pull next year's gimmick? Every Time Topps pulls a stunt, seasoned collectors learn from it. The last Topps base set I built from scratch was the 2007 set. I learned from the 2008 Santana no-hitter card #661 that Topps could screw up the base set at any time so I gave up on trying to collect it. Apparently I was right to do this because now three of the Topps base sets from the last 5 years are uncompleteable by the average collector.

This is the biggest problem I have with this: once again the base set has been compromised. They've taken it off the Topps Million splash page, but every indication is that card #661 in the 2010 Topps set is an extremely short printed Strasburg rookie card that is only available through an online slot machine. That card would have been highly sought after and pricey without the artificial scarcity aspect.  How much do you think it will go for now? How many set collectors will be willing to pay that just to be able to complete the set? THE. TOPPS. BASE. SET. Topps has forgotten that this hobby (and their own success) was originally built by kids who bought piles of crappy gum just so they could collect 'em all. Now it's all about people gambling to get the big card. I don't know about you, but if I want to gamble, I'll just go to Vegas. If I want to collect the 2010 flagship exclusive baseball set... well, I just can't do that anymore. Because Topps has completely forgotten what this hobby is about.

As a pain in the ass blogger who just likes to complain, I am fully aware that I have done nothing but complain in this post. Well, here's something positive and constructive. Topps has completely screwed the pooch on this but they can fix everything pretty easily AND make tons of money AND get a ton of publicity all at the same time. Let me explain.

First of all, the genie is out of the bottle, 2010 Topps card #661 is Steven Straburg's very first official rookie card and is only available on www.toppscards.com. This is a fact written in stone which has made a large number of collectors very unhappy. However, Topps doesn't have to backtrack, apologize or change anything about the promotion to make it so EVERY 2010 Topps collector is made wildly happy by this state of affairs. Here's all Topps has to do:

Topps simply needs to release a press release stating that every collector who enters a Topps Million Card Giveaway code after Strasburg's official debut on 6/8/2010 gets a Strasburg RC in their collection in addition to whatever vintage card they received, limit one per account.

That's it. One small change to the promotion and not only is any goodwill they lost last night immediately restored, but Topps also gets to deal with a second frenzy of code redemptions and all the publicity that comes with it. Think about it, if you want the first Strasburg rookie card, you need a Topps Code. Here are just some of the benefits of this move:

• All existing collectors with a Topps Million account will want to enter in a code to get that last card for the set. 
• Plenty of collectors who never bothered will sign up and enter codes to get a Strasburg. 
• Plenty of people WHO DON'T EVEN COLLECT CARDS will buy some packs of Topps or some codes online just to get a card of Mr. Superhype. 
• Most of these collectors will now actually pay the shipping charges to get their redeemed cards so they can get the Strasburg in their hands.

And the most important part:

• Topps packs - Series One as well as Series Two - will fly off the shelves by people wanting to get a Strasburg rookie.

The only drawback I can possibly see from this is from people creating tons of accounts for tons of codes in order to claim as many Strasburg cards as they can get. Even so, Topps STILL makes money from the two dollar shipping charge! Think about it - one code per 6 packs is $12 in packs sold per code. Add two more for shipping and you have $14 spent on each Strasburg. You really think it will cost $14 to print and ship each Strasburg? And no matter how many are ultimately redeemed and shipped, the Strasburg RC will STILL be seen as an extremely short printed redemption card so it will STILL retain an excellent price tag in the long run.


You have a chance to recover big time from this colossal screw up. You can get some great publicity, bring new collectors into the hobby and make a lot of money. For the good of the hobby, please don't blow it.

Once again, Topps has decided that gimmicky bullshit is more important than the integrity of the base set that made them what they are today. I'd say more, but I've already done this rant.

I really shouldn't be surprised, they don't want people like me as a customer anymore anyway.

I ended up on another late night Wally World mission tonight. I didn't wanna go, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. I sacrificed by picking up a few packs of Topps out of boredom. I was hoping for a code card or two to hold in reserve. It's a giant march of the late '70s in there right now so I won't be redeeming any anytime soon, but it's nice to have 'em just in case. I unfortunately got none, but I did get what could have been an awesome pack if not for a horrible flaw. My flaw, let me show it to you.


Joe's decent, too bad he's hurt. There's an odd baseball stitching shaped bump on the front of the card. I have no clue how it got there.


Fish annoy me, but this is a great photo.


The patron saint of card bloggers. One of these days I need to get over my irrational fear of pestering celebrities and send a card to Pat to get signed.


Keeping the 'Best Player in Baseball by a Wide Margin" seat warm for Jason Heyward for the next few years. Gotta love pullin' an Albert. 


YEEEAH TOMMY. The dude's been in the league less than a year and he's already the Ace of the staff. This is shaping up to be a hell of a pack and we haven't even gotten to the inserts yet.


Don't know who he is, but he's a rookie. Next is the last card before the inserts, let's see what we go-



I hate everything about this card. Fffff - I just - auugh. Does someone need this? please take it from me.


I need this card but I can't enjoy it. The pain is too fresh.


Oh thank goodness, the power of a Good Yankee can overpower the power of an Evil one. This is the perfect card to sooth my shaken spirit.


Any Ichiro is a good Ichiro. Things are starting to seem normal again. I finally tried out Topps Town and I was not impressed. My kid might like it though, so I think I'll give him my codes this weekend and let him go to town, so to speak.

I got a bunch of Greinke cards in the packs I got. Just one of those weird collation quirks I guess. All of them are going in a package I am mailing to Heartbreaking cards tomorrow 'cuz I really just don't need 'em. Matt is happy I got stuck at work today and had no time to hit the post office now.


Nice looking card of Willy about to try to beat out an infield hit.

That could have been a very good pack if not for the awfulness. I will try to think of the pleasant cards like Hanson and Ruth instead of gimmicky abominations. I just need to remember that this too shall pass.

"Unfortunately Topps has helped by letting you know which blasters are which. How stupid! Now instead of multiple purchases to get the cards you know exactly which one."

I hit Wally World on my lunch break. Since Hand Collated stated that Topps told him the variation blasters were marked as such, I wanted to check 'em out and maybe walk out the store with one. The two black border Topps series 2 blasters were still there so I took a closer look.

I was wrong about them, there is a notification on the blasters. It's hard to tell the two apart at first glance, but there is a little black oval in the middle of the blaster stating that black border cards are inside.

Two packs of black border cards.

So instead of a full blaster of black border variation cards like in series one there's two packs of 'em. About 12 black border cards per box instead of 60. So if you like the black borders better and wanted to build a set of them instead of the normal base cards, you will now be spending over five times as much on blasters if you chose to do so. Which you might have thought about doing if you already invested heavily in series one black border blasters building that set. and if you bought up a bunch of white botrder blasters planning to buy the black bordered ones when they came out, well, now you just got a whoooooole lot of white border doubles if you do so. Nice one Topps. Yep, I made a mistake.

My mistake was buying a single pack of 2009 Topps base cards and not just going with the factory set like I planned.

I'm tired of being jerked around. I'm tired of having the rug pulled out from under me by some new gimmick every time Topps releases a series of their base set. Even though I have been building Topps sets since 1981 and have at least 10% of every damn set they've put out since 1951 I'm officially completely utterly sick of the Topps base set now and I'm not wasting any more of my money on it. I'd rather waste my money on Heritage or Goudey or A&G or O-Pee-Chee or Goodwin because while they are difficult to build gimmicky messes, at least they're not annoying difficult to build gimmicky messes. 2009 Topps is done for me and 2010 is looking bleak.

Anyone who still likes Topps base cards, watch this blog this weekend.

GO TO THE SHELTER MY BABY MY BABY
GO TO THE SHELTER
GO TO THE SHELTER

Poodle Portuguese Water Dog bites...
Poodle Portuguese Water Dog chews it...



Baby I'm sorry, but that's all I wanna know, I need a little more cheepnis please...

Yes, it's another 3AM post.

Saturday's Dilbert was shockingly relevant to recent events in our hobby.




Yeah, I bought another blaster. I'm a sucker for the Cosmic Bowling cards.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO








Hat tip: BallCard Mania and The Topps Heritage Blog and Stale Gum via Someone who is about to get a big package of Cubs for gloating



no.

Via Stale Gum:

"Topps is confirming that it randomly inserted special “BLACK” cards (the entire front of the card is black except for player image) in 2009 Topps Baseball Series 1 $19.99 value boxes found at Wal-Mart.

"The exclusive limited edition set includes each of the 330 subjects found in the 2009 Topps Series 1 Base Set."

Ok, so they are a stealth retail parallel. Ok, I can see that. There have been plenty of retail exclusive parallel cards in the past with every manner of border and foil color and gimmickry. This is what I don't understand.

WHY THE SMEG ARE THERE ENTIRE BLASTERS OF THE STUFF??!?!

Seriously, dude! Insert one per pack! Maybe a special 'bonus pack' of all black cards! But the entire freaking blaster?!? What are they thinking???

I'm heading to the card shop for some recon work. Heritage is pushed 'till at least Friday but I will not come home empty handed.

Lots of all caps titles today.

I checked in on Old School Box Breaks and checked out his review of an '09 Topps blaster. The image on the post nearly caused major bowel malfunctions. Here it is, lovingly swiped and reposted.


WHY ARE THE BASE CARD BORDERS BLACK?!? Someone please tell me they bought a blaster with white border cards in it. Please tell me this blaster just had a ridiculous amount of numbered black border parallels. Please tell me Topps put Opening Day cards in the box by accident. Please tell me Keith Olbermann is on the way to John's house with a briefcase full of cash so Topps can kick off their 2009 Target black border 'error' gimmick to boost sales at Target. Please tell me that this is just an elaborate hoax to get back at me for my mean Heritage trick.

Anyone have any info on these things?

UPDATE: It happened to Nachos Grande too! Topps has caught the Black Death! Fungus blasters at Wally world!

Oh man... Oh God... Oh man! Oh God!



Oh man!!!

Oh God!!!

GIIIIIIIMMMIIICCCCCKKKKSSSS!!!!!111

UPDATE #2: They've spread to eBay!!!!!

The PLAGUE is SPREADING!!!

Hide the children!

Get your shotgun!

Aim for the head! They'll just keep on coming if you don't get 'em in the head!

PANIC!!!!!*

UPDATE #3: Noooooooooooooooo

JayBee has gone over to the Dark Side. How many more innocent souls shall this evil scourge claim?

Why, Topps... WHYYYYYYY

* don't panic.

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!!!

This was leaked from a very unreliable source in Duryea PA, so I'm almost positive they're legit. What? A reliable source wouldn't have been unscrupulous enough to leak them! Anyway, Topps is doing some super short printed variation cards again in 2009. The variations are subtle so you'll have to look closely at those cards, kids. Behold:








Man, I haven't been this excited about a new Topps set since, well, since they boogered up last year's set. Johan didn't even pitch that day! I can't wait for Series Two and the Chipper Jones Frank Zappa Variation.

(context)

thx Stale Gum, Tom the Ripper, Wax Heaven and I guess Topps for making all of this possible.