Expired Redemptions For The Win

I came across a couple of redemptions that are pretty cool. Panini is quite lenient when it comes to expired redemption cards, I wonder if Obak will redeem these coupons? They are just a bit outside of the 1915 expiration date.

They actually would make a nice addition to anyone who is working on a 1910 T212 baseball set, a couple of unused redemption coupons would just complete the collection. I am not sure if the pricing is appropriate with the smaller coupon with a $25 BIN and the larger one with a $28 BIN. I guess if you were working on a set from 1910 spending $25-30 wouldn’t be too far out of their league.

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Panini Comes Up Strong With A National Wrapper Redemption

With a week left before the National Convention opens its doors Panini has been busy posting up images of the final two cards from their National VIP set, something they originally intended to show at the National, along with their special wrapper redemption set that collectors can pick up by busting specific boxes of product. They laid it down, a wrapper redemption that will really reward collectors with some nice cards. I like the idea of a complete set, it really reaches out to all type pof collectors like set builder and player collectors.

Starting with the final two “Mystery” VIP cards, Diamond King Darvish and Harper cards.

On to the wrapper redemption program:

When collectors purchase and open a box of one of the 14 included products they will receive wrapper redemption packs. Depending which box you open will determine how many packs you will receive:

Panini Wrapper Redemption Program pdf file

What is interesting is that this program is actually a complete set, including parallels, inserts, relics and autograph cards plus instant-win cards for printing plates. The printing plates are actually packaging printing plates that were used in printing out the boxes.

The base set has a 40 card checklist made up of 14 active players, 5 legends and 19 rookies. Each rookie card is #/499. There are Cracked Ice Parallels (#/25 or less) and Autographed Cracked Ice Parallels (#/5 or less).

The Team Colors insert set is an 8 card set including players from Baltimore and Washington teams. Like the base set there are Cracked Ice and Autographed Cracked Ice parallels.

Memorabilia cards are made up from Tools of the Trade, NFL Draft Materials and Rookie of the Year Materials. The 12 card Draft Day Materials and 6 Tools of the Trade are NFL players and the 1 Rookie of the Year Materials is Gabriel Landeskog (NHL).

The other relic set is the 10 card Rookie Manufactured Auto set, a Manu-patch that is autographed by one of the NFL rookies, there are also Cracked Ice parallels #/30 or less.

The final set is the 3 card RG Collection

Instant win cards will reward collectors with package printing plates or on-site autographed memorabilia.

I think you will find that the set is a collaboration of various Panini designs, which is why I think that the set overall may go over well. The set seems like it will be readily available, considering that only the parallels are really limited, the base set and some of the inserts will probably show up for reasonable prices within minutes of the convention opening. I am wondering how the packaging printing plates are going to go because many collectors are torn over the card printing plates. Do people actually collect packaging material? Is it a large enough group that would justify creating these plates as instant-win rewards? What adds to question is the sheer size of the pacakging printing plates, these are not card sized, these are the size of the boxes so it will be very different to display and do people really want to display a box? I have various Griffey box tops from the 90s that I tore off of boxes but that was just the top flap, these are the entire box; top, sides and bottom.

Sneak Peek At Upper Deck's National VIP Cards

Upper Deck will also be offering a special set for collectors who purchase the VIP package. Upper Deck’s set will be a six-card set that will highlight some special talent from around the sports world. Even though they do not have a MLB, NFL or NBA license they were still able to use their NHL, MLS and NCAA licensing, along with a couple of individual licenses, and they were still able to create a solid lineup for the VIP set. Each card will contain a gold side border and gold name plates plus a VIP logo along the bottom. These cards are similar to the warapper redemption cards (as you will see below) except for the color. The VIP cards are gold and have the logo where the wrapper redemption cards use silver in place of the gold and there is not a VIP logo.

Upper Deck will also be offering the redemption pickup project, the expired redemption raffle (both covered yesterday) and a wrapper redemption (more about this below).

The set includes:

Upper Deck National Wrapper Redemption

On top of the VIP set, redemption card pick up and expired redemption raffle Upper Deck will also be offering a wrapper redemption program. It is a little different than many of the other wrapper redemptions that we have seen; instead of purchasing product from Upper Deck’s booth you will actually by from certified dealers to be eligible.

The way that it works:

Purchase 5 hobby packs of select Upper Deck products at a Certified Diamond Dealer

The dealer will give you a voucher from Upper Deck stating you purchased 5 select packs

Open the packs and keep the wrappers

Take the voucher and 5 wrappers to Upper Deck’s booth and you will receive one pack of 2012 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention pack in exchange for the voucher and wrappers

Collectors can claim up to 5 redemption packs maximum each day

 There will be 5 different sets of 5 players, one for each day

 The program begins Wed, Aug 1^st at noon and runs through Sun, Aug 5^th. Each day redemption packs will be available beginning at noon until supplies run out.

Inserted randomly in to the redemption packs will be limited edition autographs, announced so far: LeBron, MJ, Sidney Crosby Gretzky, Landon Donovan, Bobby Orr, Don Mattingly, Trent Richardson, Alex Ovechkin and RG3 and there may be additional athletes added before the convention

The product that is eligible for the wrapper redemption:

2011-12 NHL SP Game-Used
2012 Upper Deck Football
2011-12 NHL SPx
2011 College Football Legends
2012 SPx Football
2012 SP Signature Edition Baseball
2011-12 NHL SP Authentic
2012 Upper Deck Soccer

Each day will have a different set of 5 players with Wed & Thurs offering the same 5 players:

Thursday, August 2
NSCC-1 – Michael Jordan
NSCC-2 – Thierry Henry
NSCC-3 – Alonzo Mourning
NSCC-4 – Roger Staubach
NSCC-5 – Cody Buckel

Friday, August 3
NSCC-6 – Wayne Gretzky
NSCC-7 – Robert Griffin III
NSCC-8 – David Robertson
NSCC-9 – Don Mattingly
NSCC-10 – Dwayne DeRosario

Saturday, August 4
NSCC-11 – Tiger Woods
NSCC-12 – John Kruk
NSCC-13 – Sidney Crosby
NSCC-14 – Landon Donovan
NSCC-15 – Trent Richardson

Sunday, August 5
NSCC-16 – LeBron James
NSCC-17 – Bobby Orr
NSCC-18 – Jack Morris
NSCC-19 – Brodie Merrill
NSCC-20 – Alex Ovechkin

Panini's Black Friday Pylon Relic Insert

Earlier this year Tracy Hackler wrote a story about Panini picking up a pair of end zone pylons from Super XLV along with game-used footballs and autographs from both the Packers and the Steelers players.

Now we get to see what happened with the pylons. Panini created a Super Bowl XLV insert set that will be included in the special Panini Black Friday redemption packs. These inserts will include both Relic and Auto-Relic versions.

I like the group shot of the Rodgers cards with the NFL Shield though you have to wonder why the upper right corner of the shield was placed horizontally in the card instead of vertically.

Panini's Special Black Friday Packs

With Donruss Elite Extra Edition set to hit shelves on December 21^st, the first baseball set that Panini will release since signing the licensing agreement with the MLBPA, they decided to draw attention to this signing with a release of a special “Black Friday” wrapper redemption product which will feature MLB players and will be handed out to customer who purchase specified product and amounts of product on November 25^th at select card shops. The packs will also include cards from NFL, NBA and the NHL but most people seem to be drawing their focus (and ire) on the baseball cards.

Because Panini only has a MLBPA license they can only create cards with the players but they cannot be in uniform and there cannot be any connection to the MLB like team uniforms, team names, logos or anything else owned by the league. This can be a difficult task, just ask Upper Deck, so Panini decided to skip all the extra time of brushing out an action photo and instead went with the posed shots. It brings back memories of the early-90s Leaf Studio cards.

As a special release or an insert I like the cards but if Panini built an entire set in this design I would pass, I prefer an action shot and even an airbrushed action shot would be better than a posed image.

Additionally, randomly inserted in packs will be Kobe Bryant, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Marshall Faulk and Tim Tebow autographs.

Leaf MMA Wrapper Redemption #5

I was under the impression that the Leaf MMA Metal Alistair Overeem preview cards were to be the final MMA wrapper redemption but Leaf just announced on their Facebook page that they will make one final offer.

The fifth offering (Offer #5) is a 2010 Leaf MMA Charles Oliveira on-card autograph. Send in 24 wrappers for this redemption, there has not been an announced close date at this time. There are some pluses here, first the autograph is hard-signed which makes it stand out amongst the world of stickers and second Oliveira is a solid up and comer young fighter (He turns 22 later this year) and he already has a 14-1 record. His last two fights are a bit of a disappointment with a loss to Jim Miller last December and a No Contest against Nik Lentz last week (He struck Lentz with an illegal knee strike); hopefully he can right the ship and move on from these setbacks. Someone recently posted an auction for 24 wrappers under the heading for this Oliveira autograph with a BIN of $25 and free shipping.

The first offering (Offer #1) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Shogun Rua autograph #/85. This offer was valid through 1/31/11 or while supplies last and has since expired. There are currently none of these available for auction but the last one I did see sold for $180.

The second offering (Offer #2) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Alistair Overeem autograph #/185, this offer has since expired. There is only one of these up for auction with a BIN of $100, but the last one I saw sold for around $250. At this point it is nearly impossible to find any Overeem autographs.

The third offering (Offer #3) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Jon “Bones” Jones autograph #/99 and was available for 24 wrappers. This offer has since sold out but you can still purchase the same exact card from Blowout Cards for $25. You can also find a couple of these up for auction and usually sell for $35-40 each.

The fourth offering (Offer #4) was a 2011 Leaf MMA Metal Alistair Overeem preview card, this offer has since expired. There are none up for auction but I did see some late last month but I do not remember what the price range was at the time. Like most Overeem cards these are difficult to come by.

Leaf MMA Wrapper Redemption #4

Leaf has released the information for their final MMA wrapper redemption program (Offer #4). The redemption program runs through June 1, 2011 or while supplies last. When you send in 16 wrappers you will receive one of the four available 2011 Leaf MMA Metal Alistair Overeem preview cards. The cards are Silver, Red, Gold and Prismatic and there will only be 200 cards total, so most likely 50 of each card is available.

The first offering (Offer #1) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Shogun Rua autograph #/85. This offer was valid through 1/31/11 or while supplies last and has since expired. There is only one of these available for auction and it was just posted with a $1 starting bid but the last one I did see sold for $180.

The second offering (Offer #2) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Alistair Overeem autograph #/185, this offer has since expired. There is only one of these available for auction and it was just posted with a $1 starting bid but the last one I saw sold for around $250. At this point it is nearly impossible to find any Overeem autographs.

The third offering (Offer #3) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Jon “Bones” Jones autograph #/99 and was available for 24 wrappers. This offer has since sold out but you can still purchase the same exact card from Blowout Cards for $25. You can also find a couple of these up for auction and usually sell for $35-40 each.

I did check with Brian Gray and he let me know that the Jon Jones autograph redemption cards are not numbered (though they only had 99 available for the redemption) and are the same exact cards that you find at Blowout Cards.

Leaf MMA Wrapper Redemption Offer #3

Leaf has made two recent announcements regarding their MMA wrapper redemption program. First, the Alistar Overeem redemption has been extended until February 28th. The second announcement regards the 3 offer which will be for Jon Jones, which will run through March 31st.

The first offering (Offer #1) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Shogun Rua autograph #/85. This offer was valid through 1/31/11 or while supplies last and has since expired. I do not see any up for auction at this time but the last one I did see sold for $180.

The second offering (Offer #2) is a 2010 Leaf MMA Alistair Overeem autograph #/185 and is still available for 96 wrappers. This offer was extended through 2/28/11 or while supplies last. There are currently three of these cards up for auction, they are at $199, $199 and $220 and all are BIN auctions.

The newest offering (Offer #3) is a 2010 Leaf MMA Jon “Bones” Jones autograph #/99 and is available for 24 wrappers. This offer runs through 3/31/11 or while supplies last. There are not any of his Leaf Wrapper Redemption cards available for auction but there are 50 auctions for various Jones autos ranging from $1 to $749 with a couple of Leaf autos from this set going anywhere from $24.99 to $200. You can find a similar Bones Jones autographed promo card at Blowout Cards for $19.99

Leaf MMA Wrapper Redemption Offer #2

In December I wrote about the Leaf MMA wrapper redemption program. There was not a whole lot of information regarding the program on the Leaf web site at the time but the redemption turns out to be an on-going program where new offerings will be made by Leaf from time to time throughout the year, so make sure to hold on to your wrappers.

The first offering (Offer #1) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Shogun Rua autograph #/85. This offer was valid through 1/31/11 or while supplies last. Leaf just announced that the Rua redemption has been sold out and is no longer available. I was able to find one sale of an autographed Rua redemption card, it sold for $180.

The next offering (Offer #2) is a 2010 Leaf MMA Alistair Overeem autograph #/185 and is still available for 96 wrappers. This offer also runs through 1/31/11 or while supplies last. I think we finally have an autograph candidate who will rival Chris Johnson autographs. I have found one sale of an autographed Overeem redemption card, also selling for $180.

Overeem is a workhorse of a fighter, he has been active in both kickboxing and MMA for over 10 years and has an impressive record in each going 10-4 in kickboxing and 34-11 in MMA. He is currently the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, which he has held since 2007, and he is also the Dream Heavyweight Champion, which he won last month, with kickboxing he is the current K1 World Grand Prix Champion. He is ranked in the Top 10 MMA Fighters and has had discussions about joining UFC but no contracts have been signed yet.

Leaf MMA Wrapper Redemption

A couple of months ago Leaf released the 2010 Leaf MMA set, a solid set featuring some of the top in the mixed martial arts field, which was reason enough to buy a box or two and since the initial release the price has dropped significantly, basically in half going from $120/box to around $65/box.

This past Tuesday (12/14/10) Leaf added additional value to their product with the announcement of a wrapper redemption program running through Jan 31, 2011. Not a lot of information has been released yet. Here is the wording directly from Leaf:

“For as few as 16 2010 Leaf MMA wrappers, collectors can redeem limited edition and exclusively signed cards from various fighters. Throughout the next few months, Leaf Trading Cards will reveal more specific redemption opportunities, so collectors can choose when to cash in.”

The best part though is that you can exchange 96 wrappers for an exclusive Mauricio Rua autograph card #/85 that was created specifically for the wrapper redemption program. Shogun Rua is currently the Light Heavyweight Champion and depending on his knee surgery recovery, is scheduled to fight a re-match against Rashad Evans in March 2011 at UFC 128 or UFC 129. Given 96 wrapper is 12 boxes worth of busting and at the current $65/box comes out to $780, you will probably be able to pick up the card for quite a bit less once released and even cheaper if he loses the Evans but for those who are dealing with box and case breaks this might be a good reason to wrangle up those wrappers.