Preview: 2013 Pastime Collection: Hall Of Fame Signed Card Edition

Pastime Cards, a new card company on the block, is following Leaf’s “Best of ...” business plan with the release of the 2013 Pastime Collection: Hall of Fame Signed Card Edition in mid-May. Each $250 box will include 7 cards; 5 Hall of Fame signed cards, one Pastime Performers card and one Pastime Points Program card. There will be only 100 boxes released and two of those boxes will be “Hot” boxes, a Mickey Mantle box and a Joe DiMaggio box. These boxes will contain 5 signed cards of either Mantle or DiMaggio.

Each buyback card has been authenticated and slabbed, either in a magnetic holder and sealed with a gold sticker or slabbed by JSA, PSA, SGC or the original card company that issued the card. Some of the cards contain relics like a jersey or bat swatch.

The checklist contains 141 Hall of Fame players, this may change before the product is released, but it includes super stars like Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Cool Papa Bell, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle and Nolan Ryan. There are a couple of notable names missing like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Cy Young and Ty Cobb. I am guessing that if their autographs were too expensive than they were left off of the checklist. With this being Pastime Card’s first product release they probably do not have the cash like Leaf has at their disposal so they stuck with quantity to try to appeal to as many collectors as they can on the budget they can currently afford.

The 5 HOF signed cards will be random in the boxes except for the DiMaggio and Mantle Hot boxes.

Each box will also contain one base card Pastime Performers, these cards are #/25 each. The checklist includes many of the HOF players from the early days of baseball in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. Players like King Kelly and Dan Brouthers. I actually like the design; unfortunately they were ruined by the use of these horrid images. Had they used a simple black and white image the cards would have a classic look but instead they used images that appear to be manipulated by someone who finally got a chance to try out Photoshop.

The final card in the box is a Pastime Points Program card. The cards will have a denomination from 100 through 5,000. It should be noted that their sales materials actually state two different denominations. One section says points inserted are from 100-2,500 but another section states points are from 100-5,000. They also include an image of a 5,000 denomination card in the sales materials so I would assume that the 5,000 is the correct amount.

These points can be exchanged for additional prizes such as signed 8x10 photos and signed baseballs. The player selection is random.

An added bonus is the redemption program; some boxes will include an additional card (8 cards instead of 7 cards) with the extra card being a redemption card. You scratch off the code and contact the company and you will receive another signed slabbed Hall of Fame card that was too large to fit in the box.

There are positives and negatives here, I know that some collectors have ripped Leaf for doing this and I am sure those same collectors will have the same thing to say here, but this gives collectors a chance at an autographed card from a Hall of Famer. The down side is that Pastime Card Company is a new company so people will have their doubts, at least initially, and dropping $250 on an unknown is a big gamble. I think if they were to drop the price to $75-125 range they would probably sell out pretty quickly, at that point I probably would consider buying in.