Drivers Start Your Engines!

NASCAR’s premier event, the racing season’s kick-off race Daytona 500 was delayed Sunday due to rain, NASCAR officials decided to switch to a race under the lights this evening. I used to be a racing fan, and from time to time I still get the bug so I figured to celebrate the race I would open some packs of Press Pass’ 2012 Total Memorabilia. This product is an upper-middle range product with boxes running around $110-125 each. I picked up a couple of retail packs for $20 each, which contains 5 cards including a hit (Hobby packs run $5-10 more and contain 9 cards). Each retail pack contains a base card, a red parallel, a Rising Star insert, a Memory Lane insert and a hit.

The base set consists of 50 cards and includes 33 Sprint Cup Series drivers, 2 Nationwide Series drivers, 1 Camping World Truck Series driver, 3 Legends, 6 Owners and 5 Crew Chiefs. There are also Gold (Not #), Black/White (#/99) and Red (#/250- Retail) parallels. Additionally there are 11 base card variations plus a #0 card. The back of the cards contain a quote and lifetime stats for drivers.

The inserts are Memory Lane which shows 1 of 9 drivers as a child and the back explains how the driver made their way in to driving. I pulled Jimmie Johnson (Who started racing at 4 years old) and Bobby Lanonte (A couple of years old) Memory Lane.

Rising Stars introduces us to 8 up and coming drivers including Maryeve Dufault and the Cope Sisters. The back of the card contains a write up about the driver.

The hits are broken down in to 56 Memorabilia cards, 8 Autograph/Memorabilia cards and 16 Booklet cards. Many of the memorabilia cards contain multiple relics or jumbo relics, hits in the retail packs are usually the single relic cards.

I pulled a Ryan Newman Fire Suit relic #/299 and a Mark Martin Tire relic #/99. The cool thing about the Martin relic is that the swatch is from the side of the tire and contains numerous ridges and patterns. Many of the tire cards that I have come across are from the tread area and are smooth from wear.

Preview: 2012 Press Pass Total Memorabilia

Last year at this time Press Pass introduced collectors to Press Pass Five Star, a super high-end product that included some solid card designs and loaded with amazing hits from a decent checklist. This year another new product is being introduced by Press Pass, the 2012 Press Pass Total Memorabilia release. Look to see the product drop February 2012 with boxes running $125 each.

Each 5-pack box (9 cards per pack) will include 5 hits, 1 per pack. To keep things easy there are only three different hits Rising Star Autographs (#/125 or less), Total Memorabilia multi-relic card or Total Memorabilia Signature Collection booklet card (#/10 or less).

I like that Press Pass is putting some serious thought in to what collectors want, unfortunately Press Pass is the only company that is doing this and it is limited to NASCAR but you have to admit they do put out a sweet set.