Curry Signs With Seahawks

In some great news out of Seattle (for us Seahawk fans), the Seahawks First Round draft choice Aaron Curry agreed to terms with the team for a 6-year $60 million deal. Now that the 4th overall pick has signed a contract the Seahawks look very solid at linebacker with Curry, Hill and Tatupu (my personal favorite) pegged for the starting linebacker positions.

Last year was a fluke; a number of injuries to key positions and some new players coming in it was bound to cause some grief for the team. But now Hasselbeck is back and healthy not to mention a solid receiving corps with Nate Burleson, TJ Houshmandzadeh and Deion Branch. John Carlson and Julius Jones have now been with the team for a year and have learned the system. Things can only go up with this team, even with Jim Mora taking over. I don’t see a return to 2005-06 form but making it to the playoffs should not be out of the question.

Upper Deck's Response

With Topps recently announcing that they have become the “Official Trading Card Company of MLB”, Upper Deck has not sat by idle and have made their own announcement about their future in the baseball market. Upper Deck CEO Richard McWilliam today stated, “Looking ahead to 2010, we are 100% committed to building the highest quality and most innovative baseball cards in the industry…”

Additionally Judy Heeter, the Director of Business Affairs and Licensing for the MLBPA, said "We believe strong competition is generally good for consumers, and expect that our ongoing relationships with both Topps and Upper Deck will ensure consumer choices that lead to category growth."

Upper Deck will not back down and the MLBPA is supporting them. I, along with many other collectors, am relieved to hear that Upper Deck is committed to continuing in the baseball market. The MLBPA is absolutely correct by saying that competition is good for the consumers and it is situations like this that bring about brand loyalty. I have said all along that signing exclusive contracts is just good business but in this hobby it could adversely affect the consumer in the end.

Under The Radar

One of the coolest recent releases that comes in under the radar is Just Minors farewell release Just Minors Mystery Jersey 2009. Just Minors is leaving the baseball card and memorabilia market but they are leaving with style with this release.

A Mystery Jersey 2009 box, which sells for $120 at Just Minors website or around $100 on eBay, contains 1 random autographed jersey(actual full-size jersey) and 2 autograph cards. There are even game-used jerseys on average of 1 in 60 boxes. The checklist, while short (only 38 players), is pretty varied and includes both Minor Leaguers and Major Leaguers.

The Autographed checklist includes Alex Gordon, David Price and Josh Hamilton. The Game Used checklist includes mostly Atlanta Braves and USA Baseball jerseys like John Smoltz and Chipper Jones. Probably the best of all is that there is an autographed Mickey Mantle jersey inserted randomly, now that would be an ultimate pull.

Topps Exclusive MLB Licensing

By now most of you have heard that beginning January 1, 2010, Topps will be the exclusive card company of MLB. This means that Topps has the exclusive rights to creating baseball cards, stickers and specific other products featuring MLB players, team names and logos. The first exclusive card set to be released by Topps will be the Topps Baseball Series 1 in February 2010.

Just the other day I was talking about Panini having the exclusive rights to NBA licensing and now Topps signs one with MLB. What is next Upper Deck working to sign an exclusive NFL license? I understand that this is just business and some people claim that this will help stimulate the trading card market as well as “cut the confusion” for collectors, but honestly it also isolates a segment of the collecting community and in the end may cause some collectors to either leave the hobby or adjust their purchasing habits.

Fortunately Upper Deck still has the MLBPA license so they can continue to create sets using MLB players, just not team names or logos and Donruss loosing the MLB license a few years back has not stopped them from putting out baseball sets. Hopefully I am wrong and this does not affect the hobby in the end.

File Under WTF?

In the news today I came across a story about Maurice Clarett withdrawing his request for early release from prison. I had to go back and do some investigating to find out why he had requested his early release from prison. Turns out that he asked to be released this past April to join the Canadian Football League. Additionally his agent has claimed that NFL teams have been contacting Clarett in prison but will not name which teams. That seems odd that he supposedly has been contacted by interested NFL teams yet wants to be released to play in Canada.

This guy has not touched a football since the Denver Broncos cut him in August 2005, does anyone honestly believe that Clarett will actually ever return to the NFL? Hell, I don’t think we can even call it a return considering he never played a down of professional football.

So why am I bringing up Clarett? Because it appears that there are collectors as delusional as Clarett and his agent. Why in the world would anyone pay $1000 for an autographed logo patch card of a head-case who is in prison and has never played in the NFL and probably never will?

Apparently redhotcards thinks so: 2005 SPX and 2005 SP Authentic

If you seriously need to have an NFL shield logo patch card you can pick up a Favre/P Manning duo logo patch for $900, a Brady/McNair duo logo patch for $800 or a cool Bulger/ Lewis/ Leftwich/ Klopfenstein quad auto logo patch card currently at $92 with 8 days left, why would anyone blow cash on a has been/never will be?

VOTC National Plunder Contest

If you have not had the chance you really need to take a look at VOTC to read up on Rob's trip to the 2009 National in Ohio. While at the show Rob acquired a number of “swag” items and he is currently running a contest where he will be awarding these items to 9 lucky readers. For more information about the contest or to join in, read up here:

VOTC National Plunder Contest.

Good luck to all!

Arena Football Folding

In disappointing news today, multiple media sources have stated that the Arena Football League will be folding and declaring bankruptcy. There should be an official announcement coming soon.

The league, which was formed in 1987, halted operations in 2008 due to the recession but in April 2009 the league announced that they had begun preparation to resume playing in 2010. Since operations were halted in 2008 two teams have folded and you could figure it would be a matter of time before the other 15 teams would start feeling the burden of no income.

Since the first season in 1987 I have been a fan, I love football and having a game played in a small arena meant more scoring and more impact hits, which made the games more exciting. I have always had a connection to the Arizona Rattlers too. Being that the team was a new franchise they held open tryouts for new players, in the end many of the players on that first Rattlers team were players I knew or played against in high school. Additionally the second coach of the Arizona Rattlers, Todd Shell, graduated from my high school (10 years before me) and was an Assistant Coach for my high school team during Spring and Summer training in 1989, giving me the chance to meet and learn from him.

I will sorely miss the Arena Football League.

The National Convention news

Panini hit the National with their first basketball release, well not really the first release but more of a preview. The set, from what I can find, contained base cards, autographs, the Old School insert and a patch card. There are 4 base cards, 2009 first round draft picks Blake Griffin, Hasheem Thabeet and Tyler Hansbrough along with Derrick Rose. The autographs, which were signed at the show, were Blake Griffin and Tyler Hansbrough. I have seen 2 Old School inserts, a Larry Bird (unsigned) and a Kevin McHale signed (sticker auto). The patch card is a manufactured UNC patch of Tyler Hansbrough autographed and #/5.

This set is a preview of the 2009-10 Prestige basketball set that is being released in October, the only difference is that all of the National cards portray the players in their college uniforms and the Prestige release will have the players in their NBA uniforms.

I was able to find at least one copy of each of the cards available on eBay if you are interested, quite a few are very reasonably priced too. Some of the images included are courtesy of eBay auctions, I would like to thank: leader14, franco4c54, scott568, troley78 and legendsautograph.

Upcoming 2009-10 Prestige basketball

I was listening to the Sports Card Show podcast today while sitting at the pool and Colin had brought up Panini having the NBA License and it made me think back. When the news was announced in January that the NBA was signing exclusively with Panini I was really against it because I feel that a single manufacturer can prove fatal if the company becomes stagnant and their releases are lazy. But then it can turn in to a complete score if the releases are well thought out and original.

I guess we will see how Panini/Donruss do when they release the 2009-10 Prestige Basketball set in October. I have seen the Prestige sell sheet and I kind of like what I see, I am not sure about the autographs though, in the sell sheet the autos look on-card but the auto of the Kevin McHale Old School Signature from the National the card has a sticker auto.

I am going to do a review of the 2009-10 Prestige Basketball set within the next few days, I just want to get as much information about the release as possible.

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

The other day I pulled a 2009 Goodwin Champions Preview Card of Tony Gwynn, one of the best pure hitters of our generation, and decided to take a closer look at the upcoming set scheduled for release in September.

The set is based on the 1888 N162 Goodwin Champions set. Goodwin actually produced 4 sets between 1887-1890 (Old Judge, Old Judge Cabinets and Gypsy Queen being the other 3 sets). As was common in that time period, the cards were illustrations of the player and Upper Deck’s 2009 Goodwin Champions set follows suit.

Product Breakdown

Box:
20 packs per box
5 cards per pack
100 cards total

Base Set
252 cards including;
150 Base cards
40 SPs
20 Super SPs
42 Mini Exclusive High Series

Inserts
Printing Plates
Minis (with various backs and borders)
1888 Goodwin Champions Buybacks
Autographs are 1 per box
Memorabilia cards are 2 per box
Special Edition Memorabilia Cards are 1 per case


Base Set:
From what I have seen the set checklist seems to be greatly varied with players from many different sports including baseball, basketball, hockey and even UFC and politicians. You will find superstars like Ken Griffey Jr and Tiger Woods. Players that are coming up like Evan Longoria and Alex Ovechkin and even some of the greats from the past like Joe DiMaggio, Michael Jordan and Patrick Roy.

The minis are similar to the minis you find in almost every other retro set. You will pull 1 mini card in each pack and there will be different backs and borders, otherwise the minis are the exact same cards as the base set.


Inserts:
The inserts in this set are pretty standard with printing plates, minis and a couple of subsets such as “Citizens of the Day/Century” and a continuation of the UD 20th Anniversary cards.

Autographs: 1 per box
The autographs are on-card signatures, definitely a pleasant change from all the sticker autograph sets currently being released. I came across a preliminary autograph checklist and I have to say it looks pretty solid.

Here is a preliminary partial autograph checklist:

Adrian Gonzalez
Al Kaline
Bucky Dent
Bobby Orr
Chipper Jones
Dennis Eckersley
Derek Jeter
Dustin Pedroia
Evan Longoria
Felix Hernandez
Kevin Garnett
Joe Carter
Ken Griffey Jr.
Kent Hrbek
LeBron James
Michael Jordan
Nolan Ryan
Ozzie Smith
David Price
Prince Fielder
Paul Molitor
Brooks Robinson
Rollie Fingers
Tony Gwynn
Whitey Ford
Kristi Yamaguchi
Yogi Berra

Memorabilia: 2 per box
I have not seen what the cards look like yet and I do not have a checklist besides Cal Ripken Jr, Joe DiMaggio and His Airness himself, Michael Jordan.

Special Edition Memorabilia: 1 per case
These cards are very interesting but I believe that they will only be collectible to a very specific type of collector; I don’t see the average sports card collector hunting these down. There are 3 different kinds of these special memorabilia cards Entomology, Landmarks and Thoroughbreds.

Entomology cards contain collections of insects and butterflies. I am talking an actual butterfly on the card.

Landmark cards contain items from famous landmarks around the world including coal from the Titanic and salt from the Dead Sea.

Thoroughbreds contain hair from famous horses.

The champion of the Goodwin Champions set has to be the Buybacks of the original 1888 Goodwin Champions set. As a vintage collector I love the pre-war sets, the older the set the better so the buybacks are just another incentive for me to pick up a couple of boxes to bust, not that I need any more incentives because I plan on working on a set.

Overall I think that the 2009 Goodwin Champions set is going to do very well, especially in the current market where many of the retro sets are doing well. Personally I like that Upper Deck stayed rather true to the original set, the checklist looks solid from what I have seen and the autographs are actually touched by the player. I think that the autographs are going to be the driving force of this set because they look good and they are on-card signatures. I would love to get my hands on an original N162 too, which is one set that I do not have in my collection.