The Future Of Manny Pacquiao

For so many years Manny Pacquiao seemed almost unstoppable, since he began his 1995 he has been dominating. Over the next 16 years he went 54-3-2 and had won 11 different titles in 8 weight classes. The past 6 months have been a different story; while the whole world seemed to be impatiently waiting for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight to materialize Pac-man has slipped and has lost two in row including losing the WBO Welterweight belt to Timothy Bradley in June.  To be fair the Bradley fight was beyond questionable, when the WBO decides that an investigation needs to be done you know there is corruption among the judges.

 

Even with a career that spans 17 years there are very few Pac-man cards available, it was not until 2011 that he made his first appearance in a major brand when Topps included him on the checklist for 2011 Topps Allen & Ginters. Since then he has appeared in a handful of Topps sets and in two of Leaf’s cut signature sets this year.

 

With the recent losses we have to wonder if he will begin to contemplate retirement and move on to other interests, he is a Congressman in the Philippine House of Representatives and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Philippine Army Reserves.

 

His card prices range greatly from a couple of dollars to a couple of thousand dollars but if you scan through the listings you will notice that there is not much activity on his cards, I can actually find only one card with a bid and it is only a $1 A&G mini. I am sure if he were to remain fighting and he returns to his winning ways we will see a surge in the prices but at this point where he stands in uncertainty prices will probably remain stagnant or even drop.

 

Preview: 2012-13 Panini Contenders Basketball

Schedule Release Date: January 4, 2013

Box Configuration:  5 cards per pack/20 packs per box

SRP: $120/box

 

 

Box Break:

4 Autographs (3 rookie autographs)

 

 

My Thoughts:

I have not seen the base card design so I am not sure if they are the same as the Rookie Autographs. Panini used an interesting design with the set, the cards are pretty plain white cards but they included a flowing motion background that is hued to the team colors of the player. This is one of those sets where you will either like it or not like it, but no matter which way you feel it is very different from what we normally see coming from Panini.

 

The base set is broken down in to two parts, 100-card base set and 100-card Rookie Autograph set. There will be Silver, Gold and Black parallels for both the base set and Rookie Autograph set. Like other Panini basketball releases this set will also include rookies from both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 NBA seasons.

 

The Hall of Fame Contenders insert and the Throwback Rookie Tickets insert will be quite limited with the HOF Contenders falling 1:20 cases (1:240 boxes) and the Throwback Rookie Tickets falling 1:13 cases (1:156 boxes).

 

Besides the Rookie Autographs, which are considered part of the base set, the insert sets are pretty limited. Along with the Hall of Fame Contenders and Throwback Rookie Tickets there are 2 autographs inserts, one auto-relic insert and one relic insert.

 

Historic Contenders: Autographs of some of the NBA’s best retired players

 

 

Contemporary Contenders: Autographs from current players

 

Substantial Signatures: An autograph-relic set that includes a patch from a game-used jersey

 

Contenders Materials: A relic set that contains a jersey relic; there are also prime parallels which include a patch

 

 

Pros:

4 Autographs per box

Some very limited pulls

 

 

Cons:

A polarizing design

The Big Bang Theory Is Back On Cardboard

It was this time last year that Cryptozoic Entertainment announced the Big Bang Theory Season 1 & 2 release, now they are working on the Season 3 & 4 release which will be out in mid-January. They have not announced a price but it will most likely be similar to last year’s release, $60-80/box, and each box will contain 24 packs (5 cards per pack).

 

Box Break:

1 Autograph card

1 Memorabilia card

 

The base set will contain scenes from the show’s 3^rd and 4^th seasons plus there will be two 9-card chase sets, autographs and wardrobe relic cards. One chase set features the story of The Elevator; the second chase set covers Duos (which is die-cut), some of the shows favorite couples.

 

Elevator Chase Set:

 

 

Duos Chase Set:

 

 

 

This year’s release has a similar autograph checklist to last year’s release but with some interesting additions. The autograph checklist includes the main characters plus guest stars and some of the side characters. So along with Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg, Kaley Cuoco, Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik we will see Wil Wheaton, John Ross Bowie, Kevin Sussman, Laurie Metcalf, Alice Amter, Brian George, Aarti Mann and Carol Ann Susi. The guest stars checklist includes Christine Baranski, LeVar Burton, Rick Fox and Ian Rudolph.

 

 

The wardrobe cards return, I am not certain if they are all autographed or if Cryptozoic has only posted previews of the autographed versions.

The New Orleans Pelicans?

Rumor out of New Orleans is that Tom Benson intends to make the Hornets more of a Louisiana team, leaving their Charlotte history behind, and changing the name to New Orleans Pelicans. The colors will also change from teal and purple to red, gold and navy blue.

 

Louisiana is the Pelican State plus a minor league baseball team in New Orleans had the name Pelicans from 1887-1959 so Benson is looking to connect more with the city, something George Shinn would have never done. What is interesting is that last month Michael Jordan had made a comment during an interview that he had an interest of bringing the Hornets name back to Charlotte so it makes you wonder if this name change has already been given the green light by the NBA.

 

I am not sure how I feel about the name “Pelicans”; I do not dislike it I guess it will just take some time to get a feel for it. It is definitely better than “Thunder”, but Clay Bennett is an ass so I guess we got the best out of him with that name.

 

I put together a “What If?” uniform for Anthony Davis using the new color pattern and added a Pelican logo on the leg of the shorts. I didn’t alternate the pin striping like the current uniform (which alternates purple and teal) instead going with a continuous red to match the leg center stripe. The gold trim remained the same as the current uniform.

The Man Who Was Once The Future Of The Saints

I recently received this card as part of a package from Thorzul for winning the Nightmares on Cardboard IV contest (Thank you to all who voted for me) and for some reason I held this card aside, I was just drawn to it so I decided to do a search for some Ricky Williams fun facts.

 

This card is from Upper Deck’s 1999 SP Top Prospects Minor League Baseball release. The set included some true prospects like Roy Halladay, Pat Burrell and Josh Hamilton. Williams was drafted out of high school by the Phillies and only played 4 years of Minor League baseball while he was playing football at the University of Texas. As a baseball player he was not even “average”, in his 4 seasons in the Minor Leagues he had a.211 batting average with 4 home runs, 120 hits and 159 strikeouts. I am guessing the only reason that Upper Deck included him in the checklist was because he had just won the Heisman Trophy and was drafted by the New Orleans Saints.

 

As far as his football career goes he will probably be best remembered as the guy Mike Ditka traded away the Saints (immediate) future just for the chance to draft him and of course his marijuana smoking, early retirement and his failed time in the CFL (and broken arm). What many people do not realize is that during his 11 year NFL career Williams was quietly piling on the yards, eventually topping 10,000 rushing yards. This is a feat that only 25 other players reached, though Steven Jackson is only 135 yards away from 10k rushing yards with 4 games still to play.

 

Of those 25 players ahead of him; 13 are in the Hall of Fame, 5 are not eligible for the ballot yet (have not reached the required time since retirement), 6 have not been inducted yet and 1 is currently an unsigned free agent. Though I would expect that Jerome Bettis, who is #6 on rushing list and is on the current ballot, will eventually be voted in to the Hall of Fame. Even with hitting the magically 10k rushing yard mark I do not believe that Ricky Williams will ever see the inside of the NFL Hall of Fame unless he buys a ticket but he did give us something exciting to watch, Americans sure do love a train wreck.

A Slap To The Face Of Hockey Collectors

Here comes another one of those stories that just makes you cringe as a collector.

 

According to the NHLPA, the Anaheim Ducks’ Devante Smith-Pelly used a stamp instead of actually signing his autograph for five different releases from Upper Deck and Panini. The releases affected are

Upper Deck- SP Authentic, Ultimate and The Cup
Panini- Contenders and Prime

 

The NHLPA’s Director of Licensing, Adam Larry, said “There wasn’t any bad intention on his behalf”. Really, he had no bad intention? You mean that he knowingly took money from both Upper Deck and Panini to sign autographs and never planned to actually sign the cards and this was no bad intention on his behalf? Where I come from that is considered fraud.

 

Panini’s versions were redemption cards and Tracy Hackler said only a handful of Smith-Pelly’s Contender autographs were shipped out (there are 3 currently on eBay) and none of his Prime autographs were shipped out. Panini is remaking the cards for him to sign and they have contacted the people who have already received their redemptions and will replace them as well as send the recipient a pack of Rookie Anthology.

 

Upper Deck is in a different situation because his cards were packed out so they are asking that anyone that pulls any of the affected cards to contact their Customer Care center: Call 1-800-873-7332 or send an email to QA@upperdeck.com.

They have already begun the process of reprinting the cards for him to sign (I am assuming there will be a nanny watching over his shoulder this time) and once completed they will begin shipping the cards out as replacements to the collectors along with two packs of cards, I would guess probably from the set you pulled the card from.

 

I pulled these images of the stamped autographs from some of the auctions on eBay to get a side by side view; I am just surprised that nobody in QC noticed anything off here. These autographs are in nearly the same location on every single card, there are no differences in stroke, pressure, height or width changes. The only real noticeable changes are on a couple of cards where you can see the ink was wearing thin or the stamp had been re-inked and there was a splash of ink on the card.

 

On the positive side I have to say that Upper Deck has included some very cool patches in a insert that is #/249, usually multi-colored patches are only in smaller print runs and by the time you hit sets with #/50 or above you are usually stuck with those sweet single color jersey swatches.

 

 

 

Here are some of his stamped autographs from Panini Contenders that made it out to collector's hands.

 

Here are some of the cards that he supposedly did sign and you will notice there are slight differences in the signatures though I have a bit of a concern with the Ultimate Autographed Shield. This card goes the opposite way and is quite different from his other autographs. In fact out of the 15-20 real autographs that are up for auction I am hard pressed to find one that even comes close. If we know that this kid is not beyond using a stamp, including for other autographs in the Ultimate release, you have to wonder if someone else signed this card.