Nightmares On Cardboard V Submissions

It is time for Nightmares On Cardboard V!

 

Each year on Thorzul Will Rule there is a contest for Halloween related cards, people can enter by submitting their custom cards and the best of the group is selected with prizes going to the top couple of submissions.

 

I am a fan of House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects so I decided to build a set on House of 1,000 Corpses. For the card fronts I used the 1971 Topps baseball cards as a base, rotated it horizontally, added the "House of..." logo and built it from there. For the card backs I used the 1959 Topps Baseball High Series back.

 

I created 9 cards total but decided to limit my submission to 5 cards, so I only created backs for these 5 cards. The cards are 4 main characters; Baby Firefly, Captain Spaulding, Dr. Satan and Otis B Driftwood along with a video card. I added wear & tear along with some staining and discoloration to the backs of the cards. I wanted to add wear, rounded corners and creases to the front but I was not happy with the way it looked, it stood out but in a bad way.

I was playing around with the backs and while I was adding different elements of the cardboard being worn and stained/discolored I decided to add a thumbtack hole in the center of the Dr. Satan card (below). I did not submit this card with the pin hole.

 

 

The following four cards; Grandpa Hugo Firefly, Earl Firefly (The Professor), Tiny Firefly and Gerry Ober are cards that I created but did not submit. I did not create backs to any of these cards.

 

 

This year will be my third time entering the Nightmares of Cardboard contest, these are my prior submissions:

 

Here is last year’s submission for Nightmares on Cardboard IV (2011); I ended up as a non-medalist

 

Here is the previous year’s submission for Nightmares on Cardboard III (2010); I earned a second place tie with Matt from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius

Happy Birthday Bob Ross

 

Today would have been Bob Ross’ 70^th birthday; even 17 years since he passed away he still is remembered for his show “The Joy of Painting” that ran on PBS between 1983 through 1994. Many of us grew up learning about happy little trees watching his show and I dreamed of being a painter when I grew up.

 

Ross was born in 1942, in the thick of World War II, and with many supplies being limited there were no major sports card releases at that time so I went with the next best thing, a release by TCMA Ltd. Beginning in the 1970s TCMA released a number of “retro” sets that highlighted players from the 1930s and up, which included a couple of different team sets and minor league teams. In 1983 TCMA created two sets based on 1942, a 1942 Play Ball set and a 1942-46 St.Louis Cardinals team set. I used the Cardinals team set for the template because it was a pretty plain card design that allowed me flexibility to make it an art themed card.

 

I hope that where ever he is now he is surrounded by happy little trees and mistakes that turned in to fluffy clouds.

Panini's Continued Support Of Breast Cancer Awareness

In 2009 the NFL launched A Crucial Catch, a program that was designed to increase awareness and to promote early detection in conjunction with the American Cancer Society. Each October the fields are decked out in pink and ribbons, the players wear pink gloves, towels and cleats that are later auctioned off and proceeds donated to the ACS.

 

In 2010 Panini and Topps both created special cards to show their support and have since followed up with additional sets in 2011 and 2012 even including autographs and relics. Earlier this year Panini included their cards in the special National VIP packs, they will continue the product in special promotional packs next month, expected to be part of the Black Friday promotion. Some of the cards that will be included in the promotion have been posted up for preview on their blog.

 

What is cool is that the relics used for the set come from actual game-used footballs that were used in 4 games played in October 2011 and Panini includes a picture of the specific football along with a short write up about the game on the back of the card. Some of the cards will also include autographs. There are rookies included in the release but they signed on manufactured patches.

Early Preview Images: 2012-13 Titanium Hockey

Hockey is now cancelled through November and the remaining NHL season is up in the air waiting on groups of millionaires to figure out how to keep more money in their pocket while ignoring the fans who pay their salaries.

 

Meanwhile card companies are still going through with their hockey release schedule to give hockey collectors their fix. Pacific has Titanium Hockey set for a January release and after last year’s “miss-step” they returned to the original Pacific style designs. I think this will go over well with the hockey faithful.

 

Each $100 box will contain 5 packs with 4 cards per pack. There will be 5 hits (memorabilia or autograph cards) with at least one hit being an autograph.

The base card should be quite familiar returning to the metal/steel background design. The 100-card base set uses a simple design, the player over the Titanium logo. Each base card will have two hobby exclusive parallels, Ruby (numbered to player’s jersey number) and Gold (numbered to NHL Draft position).

 

The Gold Rookie cards, which there may be as many as 100 rookies but at least 50 rookies will be included on the final checklist, use the same design but with a gold background color and two “Rookie”  bars along the right and left borders. The rookie cards are going to be extremely limited with only 1 rookie card per 16 box case (1 in 80 packs) and each card will be numbered to the player’s jersey number. Panini will be including rookies from previous NHL drafts who spent some time with the parent club last season.

 

Some of the announced inserts include Four Star Memorabilia, Milestone Goal Die-Cuts, Game Worn Gear, Scorers and Metallic Marks Autographs. One of my favorites, Game Gear, is back to what we expect from Titanium from last year’s black and gold foil cards.

 

Box Break 2012 Certified Football Part II

Panini’s Certified Football is one of those products that polarize collectors, either you like it or you do not, there is no in-between when it comes to fans.

 

This is a product that can trace its heritage back to the Select Certified Football sets of the late 1990s, which saw a resurgence of sorts when Leaf brought it back 10 years later before Panini took the torch in 2010. Over the past 15 years very little has changed since those early Select Certified sets and this release is no different.

 

The box contains 10 packs with 5 cards per packs. There are 4 hits (memorabilia or autographs), with at least one being an autograph, plus three parallel cards. I actually pulled 53 cards from the box instead of the expected 50 cards so I had 3 bonus cards, one being an extra Mirror parallel.

 

The set contains 350 cards and is made up of a 150 card base set and 4 SP subsets. The short-print subsets are the 50-card Immortals subset (#/999), the 50-card Immortals Materials set, the 65-card New Generations RC subset (#/999) and the 35-card Freshman Fabrics subset (#/499). These cards are sequentially numbered so they are all part of the set. Most cards in the set have 5 parallels; Mirror Red (#/250), Mirror Blue (#/100), Mirror Gold (#/25), Mirror Emerald (#/5) and Mirror Black (1/1).

 

I pulled a decent selection of young players and established players. Suh and Cutler, the two least liked players in the NFL based on a recent poll. The refelective surfaces make the base cards difficult to scan so the cards look dirty and scratched in the pictures but the cards are actually quite clean and shiny.

 

Pulling a group of Cardinals and Seahawks players always makes a box break a fun encounter. Beanie Wells is out for at least another month but Patrick Peterson, who is a Cards CB, has proven his worth as a KR/PR specialist in his first two seasons and finally a pair of wide receivers coming out of Seattle with Baldwin and Rice.

 

The card backs are pretty basic and includes the player’s bio info, a short write up along with two lines of stats, last year’s stats and lifetime totals.

 

I pulled two base set parallels, a Mirror Red Miles Austin (#/250) and a Mirror Blue Roddy White (#/100).

I pulled two Immortals, Drew Bledsoe and a Mirror Red Emmitt Smith (#/250).

I pulled two New Generations, Luke Kuechly and Zack Brown

 I close out with my hits;

 

Gold Team relic Dwayne Bowe (#/99)
The problem with using foil board is that the cards chip easily around the edges. Around the die-cut there is chipping on all 4 sides, it looks like the blades may have been dull. Additionally, below the “B” in Bowe’s name is a scrape where something pulled across the surface. I am not too upset about this, I am not a Bowe fan and not like this would really affect the value of a card that may be worth a dollar or two.

Fabric of the Game relic Michael Egnew (#/199)
The back of the card lists that this relic is from a jersey worn by Egnew on May 19, 2012 at the NFL Rookie Premiere. I am not a fan of event worn relics but I do like that Panini lists the exact time that this jersey relic was worn, though we all know that players put on probably 15-20 jerseys during their time at the Rookie Premiere.

Mirror Blue Reggie Bush autograph (#/49)
Ahhh Reggie Bush, if only I had pulled this 6 years ago I could be raking in a tidy profit.

You have to admit, Reggie has had resurgence in Miami, he produced his first 1,000 rushing season last year along with nearly 300 yards receiving and he is in a good position to repeat it again this season.

 

Certified Rookie Materials Ryan Tannehill (#/299)

Tannehill may not be the best of the rookie QBs this season but he is definitely not among the worst. In 6 games the Dolphins are 3-3 and have already reached half as many wins as last year’s 6-10 team. Considering that the AFC is horrendous this year, the Dolphins at 3-3 are right in the middle of a playoff race that is anyone’s game.

 

I was fortunate enough to have won this box in Panini’s daily contest as part of their 2-year Blogoversary Countdown last week so I appreciate that Panini made this possible. It was a wonderful surprise and since I open one, maybe 2, boxes a year this really made my day. Not the best box I have opened but considering that it was free I enjoyed having the chance to do a box break courtesy of Panini.

 

I thought it was funny that as a Seahawks fan and collector I would break a box that contained 3 hits from the Miami Dolphins; the teams are literally the furthest teams physically from each other in the NFL nation.

Box Break 2012 Certified Football

Last week I received an email from Tracy Hackler letting me know that I was selected as one of the winners of the daily contests that Panini was running for The Knight's Lance Blogoversary Countdown contest. I was expecting a couple of cards from one of their recent box breaks but when the package arrived yesterday I found this inside.

 

I need to get things organized and I will post the break tomorrow.

2012 Press Pass Hall Of Fame Edition Is Live

Press Pass Hall of Fame Legends has now been live for almost a week and we are beginning to see a large selection of cards available and prices are stabilizing following the initial release. As expected there are some extremely limited cards in the upper price range, but with players like RGIII, Nolan Ryan and Larry Bird it is expected. It should be noted that the highest card with bids is at $137, everything above that has a BIN price. On the flip side, for every card over $100 there are many more under $10 (roughly 11-1). Doing a quick scan of auctions, out of the 620 current single card auctions there are 358 that are at $10 or less while there are only 34 at $100 or higher.

 

The low end contains some names you would expect to be more expensive. Tony Gwynn, Randy Couture, Monte Irvin and Ozzie Smith are all below $10, and this includes the Gwynn and Irvin #/10 and Ozzie Smith #/15.

 

 

When I did my initial preview a couple of weeks ago I liked the basic design of the cards but I felt that the $175 price point was way too high and I still feel that way. Some of these cards are pretty sweet and having inscriptions and limited numbers makes for a very cool product but you are more likely to pull a card of Gaylord Perry or Gino Marchetti before a Nolan Ryan or Larry Bird. The numbers just do not work out and this is another product where you are better off hunting for singles of players you like instead of buying a box and hoping for the best.