Happy New Year!
If you are out and about this evening have fun and stay safe.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
2012 Panini Prizm Football Is On The Way
Panini is
working on the 2012 Prizm Football release and posted up preview images of
some of the base and base auto cards. The set is scheduled to be released
around Super Bowl time in early February. I recently opened a couple of packs
of Prizm Basketball and I think it is a decent product, I do dig it. This is
another Panini product where not everyone will like it but there definitely is
a place in the collecting world for Prizm.
More information will be released in the upcoming weeks along with additional preview images from the set.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wilbur The Wildcat Makes His Apperance
When Upper
Deck released 2012 Upper Deck Football one of the big hits was the College
Mascot Patches, a manu-patch depicting various college mascots. They continue
with the patches in 2013 Upper Deck Football, scheduled for an April release.
I will cover
the upcoming release in depth later on but the biggest news, for me anyway, was the inclusion of
the University of Arizona’s Wilbur the Wildcat. I was disappointed last year to
see AS(Who?) was included but not Arizona but Upper Deck has seen the error of
their ways and made things right.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
The Hunt For "A Merry Xmas"
Weber Baking Company, out of New
Jersey, followed a common practice in the early 20th Century by
inserting cards in their products as an extra incentive to bring in sales. A
practice that was made popular by tobacco companies was quickly adapted by
candy makers, bakeries and even retailers as a way to get their name out among
the population.
In 1923 Weber inserted informational
cards in to their bread packaging, a set that is now listed as 1923 D50 Weber
Baking Magic Card of Knowledge. These cards included a black and white
illustration on the front along with a short write up on the back giving some
info about the subject. What was cool about these cards is that you could paint
them yourself. Similar to the “Paint With Water” books we had as kids, using a
wet brush you could paint across the card surface and colors would appear. Let
the card dry and you now have your own masterpiece.
The card I have in my sights in
the “A Merry Xmas” card featuring Santa Claus but these cards are extremely difficult
to find. I have only seen one Santa card sell this year and it was well beyond
what I felt was reasonable. Even if I could find a painted version I would be
happy but the cards have been few and far between. A new Santa Claus card to
add to my search for Claus.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Calvin Johnson Jr. Vs. The Madden Curse
On April 25th Calvin
Johnson Jr. was announced as the cover player for EA Sports Madden 13, an honor
as well as a curse. Since Barry Sanders appeared in the background of Madden
2000 there has been a “curse” of sorts that affected many of the players who
appeared on the box.
Going down the line there have
been retirements, sub par seasons, injuries and broken bones, losing streaks and
Vince Young (he deserves his own category when it comes to the Madden curse). Larry
Fitzgerald and Drew Brees had decent seasons following their covers but nothing
like Johnson’s season.
In the Lion’s loss to Atlanta
Saturday night Johnson set the single season receiving yards record, previously
held by Jerry Rice (1995: 1,848 yards). Megatron had a monster night with 11
receptions for 225 yards putting his season total to 1,892 yards with one game
left in the season. He is now shooting for the previously unheard of 2,000
receiving yards in a season, only 108 yards away.
He is averaging 126 yards/game in
2012 so to hit the needed 108 yards to top the 2,000 yard plateau is quite reasonable
and you can be sure that Stafford will do everything he can to get the ball to
Calvin Johnson in their season finally against Chicago next week, a game at
home.
Has the Madden curse finally been
broken?
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Vintage Card Of The Month: 1977 Topps Steve Largent
This month’s Vintage Card of the
Month is from the 1977 Topps Football set, Steve Largent. The 1977 Topps
football release was the first set to include both of the 1976 expansion teams,
the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This card is Largent’s rookie
card, remember the days when a player had only one rookie card?
Last month I selected a Largent
relic card for my vintage card so this selection should be no surprise. Steve
Largent is my favorite Seahawk and is among the Seahawks pantheon of gods along
with Dave Krieg, Walter Jones, Curt Warner, Shaun Alexander, Matt Hasselbeck,
Cortez Kennedy and Mack Strong.
Topps was the only major football
card company at the time and they had a pretty standard design in the mid-late
70s; a white border, close-up shot of the player, a banner of some sort with the
team name and the player’s name. If you look at the base cards from 1975
through the 1983 sets you will see there were only minor changes from year to
year.
The card is in good shape and
besides a smudge on the front (above the “E” in Largent) and cut slightly off
center on the front it looks great. I picked up the card about 10 years ago on
eBay for less than $8 shipped so a pretty good bargain.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Preview: 2013 Press Pass Total Memorabilia
It is interesting how some
companies release certain products like clockwork; In December 2010 Press Pass
introduced 2011 Five Star Racing, a seriously high-end product ($500/5 cards). In
December 2011 they introduced 2012 Total Memorabilia Racing, a mid to high-end
product ($125/5 packs/9 cards per pack/5 hits) that replaced Five Star Racing.
Now in December 2012 they have released previews of 2013 Total Memorabilia (@$125/5
packs/9 cards per pack/5 hits).
It seems as though Press Pass is
satisfied with how last year’s product went because this year’s release is
almost identical in description. The price has not been announced but figure it
will be around the same $125/box price. The pack out is the same with 5 packs
per box, 9 cards per pack and 1 hit per pack.
Going down the line with the hits,
the Rising Stars autographs return, though a very different design, the auto-relic
booklets return, with a slightly different design, and Hot Rod Relics is
replacing the Total Memorabilia relics. Added to the mix is the Burning Rubber
Chase Edition relic, which contains a race used tire relic from a Chase For the
Cup race.
Overall I prefer last year’s
designs over this year’s designs, the layout on some of the cards just do not
grab me like they did last year.
| Danica Patrick Booklet |
| Patrick Booklet Close-up Autograph |
| Patrick Booklet Close-up Relic |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. Booklet |
| Jr. Booklet Close-up Autograph |
| Jr. Booklet Close-up Relic |
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
2012 Upper Deck Marvel Beginnings III Is Now Live
Upper Deck has a tendency to hold
fast on certain upcoming sets, they release very little information and even
less preview images. The Marvel products are usually among those releases that
they keep quiet and close to the chest. I sent an email to Chris Carlin two
weeks ago asking if they had planned on releasing any info or images and he
sent me the checklist only. The checklist was released to members of Upper Deck’s
Insiders Newsletter the next day. Not really the scoop I was hoping for.
Today Marvel Beginnings III was
released, the final piece to the Marvel Beginnings trilogy product. Starting
with Beginnings I, which was released late last year, and continued with Beginnings
II, released earlier this year, the set has used a continuing checklist number
system. Each release contained 180 base cards so when all has been said and
done the Beginnings line has a total of 540 base cards. Each release also
included Ultimate Panel cards, a panel out of various comic books was inserted
in a card to create an original type of relic card, as well as sketch cards.
Inserts varied from set to set otherwise.
As expected the sketch cards are
the highlight of the insert checklist, inserted at 1:2 boxes, each sketch card
is a 1/1 sketch from one of the 76 artists included in this release. The
product was released today but there are some amazing sketch cards already out
there for auction.
The Breakthrough Issues Autographs,
inserted at 1:2 boxes, are also lighting it up, it seems like collectors can
never get enough of Stan Lee’s autograph. There are 49 cards included in the
checklist plus another 33 cards on the Breakthrough Issues Dual Autographs
checklist. I like that Upper Deck used gold and silver paint pens for the on-card autographs.
Monday, December 17, 2012
2012 Panini Black Football Is On The Horizon
Sorry about the lack of content lately, I am fighting some sort of cold/bug that has me out of sorts and I can not shake it. Hopefully some rest will help clear out the virus and get me back on my feet.
2 Base cards
2 Rookie cards
2 inserts
1 Parallel
There are a couple of cards that
caught my eye. Ray Lewis with a double red swatch (I am guessing a Pro Bowl
jersey) and a Raven’s Triple Materials card where Ed Reed’s swatch appears odd,
almost looking like padding from a shoe. It does not have the texture of a
jersey swatch or a piece from pants.
Wednesday Panini is unleashing
2012 Black Football, a high-end football product that will run $200 for a 12
card pack/box.
Box Break:
5 Autograph/Memorabilia cards (At
least 3 will be autographs)2 Base cards
2 Rookie cards
2 inserts
1 Parallel
I don’t know what it is about
black and cards but when you use a black background the cards just seem “better”,
it makes the player stand out, when signed with a proper pen (gold) it makes
the autographs pop and relics seem more visible.
Upper Deck set the standard with
the original Black product, which they released in 2009, but after they lost
their NFL license they were not able to capture the collectors attention with
their 2011 release using the NCAA license even though they had a solid
checklist and a pleasant design. Panini is now taking their shot using the
Black name (note that Upper Deck’s Black and Panini’s Black are two different
products and are not connected besides having the same name).
Panini did a nice job with the design,
the base cards have an interesting design (it actually reminds me of car seats,
not sure why) but they have a uniform flow throughout the set and using gold
pens for on-card autographs and blue pens for stickers (gold and silver
stickers) make the autograph cards stand out nicely. About the only thing
bothers me is that a number of the cards that were previewed on their blog show
single colored swatches, something that you would not expect from a limited high-end
product. If you drop $200 for 12 cards you deserve multi-colored relics or
patches, not a dime-sized white swatch. I am also wondering if the Captains patch cards are game-used patches or if they are manufactured patches like Topps Manu-patches that they inserted in blaster boxes this year.
Friday, December 14, 2012
2012-13 Limited Basketball Is Live
Today 2012-13 Limited Basketball
was released, each $100 box contains one pack with a total of 7 cards; 1 Rookie
Autograph, 1 Additional Autograph, 1 Memorabilia card and 4 base cards/parallels.
As far as a set goes, it is loaded
with foil and acetate. Which might not be so bad was it not for the fact that
you are paying $100 for 7 total cards and only 3 hits. Sure you have the chance
to pull top rookie autographs from both the 2011 and 2012 NBA Drafts but with
100 base rookie autographs you are bound to find the dogs of the draft before
pulling Anthony Davis or Kyrie Irving.
Most of the relic inserts could
have as easily been inserted in to any other Panini basketball release, besides
some of the cards being extremely limited nothing screams “High End” inserts.
Cards like the Glass Cleaners insert
is a complete disappointment, the card itself is fine but the forced addition
of the relic and the vertical autograph sticker just ruin it. Some designers
just do not understand that more does not always equate better. I am actually
hard pressed to think of another autograph set that uses a vertical autograph
besides the Topps Letterman cards.
On the positive side I do like the
base Rookie Autographs; they bring back memories of Pacific’s Cramer Choice
Award cards. They are die-cut, acetate cards with an on-card autograph and they
are limited to #/399 or less. I think had they included a little fold-out base
so the card could stand up it would have been a pretty cool way to display the
card.
The Home/Away Jersey cards are
another card I like, for some reason the basic design appeals to me. To add to
the value, taking another page out of Pacific’s playbook, there are relics on
each side of the card. One side has a home jersey relic and the other side has
an away jersey relic, the relic square even rotates in the card so you can
display either side.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Golden Age Baseball Pop-Ups Rock!
Panini will be releasing Golden
Age Baseball in a little over a week. I am not a big fan of the base set
design, the colors just do not appeal to me at all. There are some redeeming
qualities though. There is an interesting selection of athletes and popular
culture personalities included in the on-card autograph checklist, reprints of some
very rare vintage card sets from the early-20th Century as well as
unique relics.
One insert that has drawn my eye
is the Pop-Ups; a sepia-tone card that when the subject is popped out from the
card and the card is bent over the person “pops up” like a tent card. There is
such a variety too, baseball players, football players, actors and actresses,
golfers, horses, boxers and the list goes on. They are inserted at a 1:12 packs
so you will get 2 per box.
I was excited to see both Curly
Howard (Three Stooges) and Buck Weaver (1919 Black Sox) were included on the
checklist, I will actively be hunting for both cards. I have seen the 26 that Tracy Hackler posted on Panini’s blog but I
do not know if this is the complete checklist or who all is included.
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