A Quick Peek At 2013 Topps Magic Football

Topps has decided to bring Magic Football back to the shelves after being an online-only release last year.  Boxes, no price announced yet, will be released in January 2014 and will include 24 packs. Each box will also contain three autographs.

 

The set is pretty large, 330 cards on the checklist, with 110 short prints. There will be retired players, veterans and rookies on the checklist. Each pack will contain 8 cards with one mini and one parallel. This year’s parallels will be Green, Black, Blue and Red (#/50).

The base autograph checklist will have at least 150 players, there will be two parallels (maybe more) Black (#/5) and Red (1/1). Additionally there will be Dual Autographs (#/25) and Six Autographs (#/5). There are also Mini Autographs (#/10) and Mini Autographed Books (#/5) which will be a dual auto booklet.

Relics are not a big part of the set and there is only one relic insert, Magic Rookie Relics, which contain a large swatch and are #/99, there will be a Magic Rookie Relics Patch parallel #/5 each.

 

Finally, there will be four base inserts, Ground & Pound (25 Running Backs), Aerial Attacks (25 Quarterbacks), Rookie Enchantment (33 Framed Rookies) and ’48 Magic (25 All-Time Greats based on the 1948 Topps Magic set).

 

I will do a more in-depth review as more information is released.

A Tale Of Two Quarterbacks

Today Texas A&M Quarterback Johnny Manziel’s punishment was handed out for his involvement in being paid to sign hundreds, if not thousands, of autographs last January when he met with autograph broker Drew Tieman in Miami before the BCS Championship Game. If we go by what Drew Tieman said on August 6th, he said he paid Manziel $7,500 to sign "hundreds" of autographs.

 

His punishment?

Suspended one half of the Texas A&M season opener vs. Rice

That is ONE HALF of a game, the first 2 Quarters, a mere 30 minutes of game time.

 

 

In 2010 Ohio State Quarterback Terrelle Pryor was punished for his involvement in receiving free tattoos for signing autographs, plus selling his Sportsman Award, his Big 10 Championship ring and a good luck charm. The three items sold for $2,500 and no price was assigned for the tattoos but for argument sake lets say $500 and we are looking at Pryor getting $3,000 total for his signing and items sold.

 

His punishment?

Suspended 5 games, which were carried over to the NFL after Pryor was selected by the Raiders in the 2011 NFL Supplemental Draft.

 

 

Holy crap, are we talking about the same nonsensical all-mighty NCAA that issued both punishments? Yes we are. The NCAA is now claiming that they cannot find any proof that Manziel was paid, even though a number of people were in the room and stated that they saw money change hands. Plus we are talking hundreds items signed so the NCAA is saying that this kid, who has already proved that he is a knucklehead, signed all of these items for free out of the goodness of his heart?

 

If this kid was not paid for the autographs than why is he being suspended? If he did no wrong there should be no punishment.

 

I call shenanigans on the NCAA

 

The difference? Manziel is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and brings in millions of dollars to the NCAA and Texas A&M who want to hold on to this golden goose for at least one more year before he bolts to the NFL where Pryor was just another OSU Quarterback.

 

From the people that brought us the BCS we now find out that the NCAA is willing to overlook serious allegations when money can be made.

Recent eBay Pickup

This was a recent eBay pickup; I have been looking for a Marvel Comic Panel card since Upper Deck included them in the 2011 Marvel Beginnings release. Prices for the Marvel panel cards tend to end up in the $30-50 range for generic panels and ones including major characters or important events demand a premium, sometimes even going for hundreds. Being a collector on a budget I have been watching for a Marvel panel card that is in my price range and have missed out on a couple on last minute sniper bids.

 

Last year Breygent joined the party and began including Comic Panel Cards in some of their products as well as in packs created for the San Diego Comic Con. Books that they have used comic panels from are Dead World comics, Red Sonja, Vampirella, Warlord of Mars and most recently, Transformers.

 

These cards are all 1/1 and contain a scene panel cut out of a classic comic book attached to the card and framed similar to Upper Deck’s old Masterpiece inserts.

 

I don’t read Dead World but when I came across this premium panel from the front page of a Realm of the Dead comic book for $10 I jumped on it.

 

How much cooler can a comic panel get?

Three Zombies…check

Punk Rocker Zombie…check

Frank Sinatra (looking) Zombie with disembodied head… check

A Topless Zombie Chick…check

ITG Decades The 90s Is On The Way

When it comes to hockey cards In The Game is the best, even without an NHL license they still lead the pack. Awesome designs, hard signed autographs with amazing checklists, real game-used relics (no “event used” here) and killer relics are what keeps them head and shoulders above the rest.

 

Another aspect that draws in the hockey collectors is their ability to build a set around a theme and own it. Over the years we have seen sets dedicated to goalies, captains, cities and Olympic teams but one of the more popular sets are the “Decades” sets, which are designed around specific decades. This week we see “Decades the 90s” hit the shelves.

 

I am a lifelong Islanders fan but I didn’t start collecting hockey cards until I returned to collecting in the early 90s so this set is right up my alley. Some of the best played during the decade like Gretzky, Messier, Hull, Chelios, Roy, Lemieux, Bure, CuJo and Lindros and I collected most of them with LaFontaine, Richter and Messier being my favorites.

 

Each box of Decades The 90s, which will run $90-100, will contain 14 cards; 6 Base cards, 3 Hard Signed cards, 3 Game-used Memorabilia cards (1 will be a quad-relic card) and 2 insert cards.

 

Base Cards

 

Insert

 

Autographs 

 

Relics

 

Mega Forwards/Mega Goalies Patches

Leaf Draft Matrix Football Is Live

Leaf has just released an update of sorts for their 2013 Leaf Metal Draft Football, more of an extended insert series really. A 25-card Leaf Matrix was created using the top (mainly skilled position) rookies like Eddie Lacy, EJ Manual, Geno Smith and Tavon Austin.

 

Leaf decided to follow a path that they have used before; they posted the cards up for auction through their eBay store. The cards were posted Thursday afternoon and will run through Tuesday (8/27). Some cards are being sold individually while others are being sold as a complete set.

 

The 25-card base Matrix set sells for $39.99 each, there are 300 total sets made. The 25-card Green Matrix set (#/50) sells for $74.99 each. The Gold Matrix (#/5) and Orange Matrix (1/1) cards are being auctioned individually with the Gold cards beginning at $9.99 and the Orange cards beginning at $19.99 though a number of the cards are already rising quickly in price.

Green Matrix #/50

Gold matrix #/5

Orange Matrix 1/1

What To Expect From 2013-14 Hoops

In October Panini will be releasing 2013-14 NBA Hoops Basketball and following in the steps of Score Hockey and Score Football, Hoops will be released in jumbo form. Each box will contain 10 packs with 50 cards each pack, 500 cards total. No price has been announced yet but based on previous releases this too will be an entry-level product and will be priced as such. A perfect example of a product designed for young collectors and set builders.

 

This release will see the first memorabilia card ever in the Hoops brand plus rare inserts Artist Proof Blacks (1/1) and Kobe’s All-Rookie Team.

 

You can expect to pull plenty of value out of each box, the box break checklist seems to never end. The jumbo box break:

2 Autographs

1 Relic
50 Parallels
30 Red Back Parallels
1 Artist Proof Parallel
20 Action Shots Inserts
20 Dreams Inserts
20 Board Members Inserts
20 Class Action Inserts
20 Courtside Inserts
20 Spark Plugs Inserts

 

Preview: 2013 Topps Best Of WWE

Scheduled Release Date: 10/2/13

Box Configuration: 24 packs/box, 7 cards/pack

SRP: $45-50

 

 

Box Break:

1 Autograph or Mat Relic

1 Swatch Relic
1 Silver Parallel
12 Bronze Parallels
33 Top Ten Inserts

 

 

What to Expect:

This set is designed for set builders who love WWE Wrestling, the base set consists of a 110-card checklist and there are 4 parallels for each base card; Bronze (1:2 packs), Silver (1:box), Gold (#/10) and Printing Plates (1/1).

 

You also will be pulling two hits, one will be either an autograph or mat relic card and the second will be a relic swatch. Some of the swatches are from photo shoots so there may be some interesting relics in the set; Topps has released the image of one of these swatches, a teddy bear relic from a photo shoot with AJ Lee.

 

A new addition to the insert lineup is the Top 10 inserts. Topps allowed fans to vote for the top 10 in 10 categories, 100 cards total. Categories like Top WWE Champions, Top Trash Talkers and Top Finishers. The Top 10 are also tiered with cards 8-10 on the specific category checklist the easiest, cards 5-7 are more difficult, cards 2-4 harder and card 1 a short print so putting together a complete Top 10 for a certain category will take some effort to find all of the cards.

 

 

My Thoughts:

The set is based on various story lines over the last year but I have not watched a wrestling match since late 2012 so I am out of date on what is going on in the WWE world but I do like the design with the black borders and a decent action shot along with the specific date of the storyline on the front of the card. If I was a regular wrestling fan I would be all over this set. When you consider you get 2 hits and 13 parallels for $50 you really get your value from a hobby box.

 

 

Pros:

2 Hits

Cheap Price
Easy Set to Build

 

 

Cons:

Sticker Autographs

 

 

Rating:

This set is a solid wrestling set; it covers the past year’s story lines and will make any wrestling collector happy. It is easily 3 out of 5 because it has a nice design and interesting relics and you cannot complain about the $50 price.