Charlie Sheen's Announcement

Yesterday morning Charlie Sheen appeared on the Today Show to make an announcement that he is HIV positive, the announcement while unexpected was not startling considering his poor decisions with drugs and prostitutes. Now as Magic Johnson has shown being HIV positive is no longer a death sentence that it once was and with proper treatment and safety he can continue to live his life in peace.

 

For collectors of Charlie’s cards there are plenty of options going back to the 1980s with Pacific’s 1988 Eight Men Out set. Since then he has made appearances in sets like 1993 Skybox Three Musketeers, a co-star appearance with Michael Jordan in 1995, Donruss’ 2004 Playoff Fans of the Game (plus an autograph version) and more recently in some Leaf and Topps sets. I do not own any of these cards, the images were pulled from eBay.

His cards have always had a premium, at least his sports cards, so I would expect prices to possibly increase with this announcement but over the long run prices should balance out as long as his health does not get any worse.

Panini's New Redemption Program

Panini hit the ground running at the start of the 2014 Industry Summit in Las Vegas making two major announcements.

 

The first announcement addresses Panini’s attempt to combat fake relic/patch cards. As patch cards are being produced each card will be photographed. A QR code will be printed on the back of the card, a collector can scan the QR code on a card and see a high-res image of the original card. If the QR image does not match the patch on the card, the card has been faked.

 

The second announcement is significantly bigger news. Beginning in May with the release of 2014 Score Football, Panini will no longer be inserting redemption cards. Instead they will be inserting Panini Reward Points, these points can be collected and exchanged for cards that would have otherwise been inserted as redemptions.

 A quick rundown of the Panini Reward Points system:

-Point cards will be inserted in to random packs in place of a redemption card.

-The points value will be based on the product line, point cards in Score will be lower while point cards in National Treasure will be worth more.

 

-These point cards will never expire.

 

-These point cards are generic and will be the same in every product (except the point values).

 

-Collectors can collect points (from any and all products) over time so they can get better redemption cards when they have enough points.

 

-Additional cards will be added over time while other cards will be sold out/exchanged and removed from the system.

-This system does not include current or prior redemption cards that are outstanding, only products beginning with the May release of 2014 Score Football.

 

This is one suggestion that has been discussed over the years as a way to reduce the wait time on redemption cards. I think many collectors who have pulled redemption cards wouldn't mind having the option to select the card/player they want. If this takes off and is well accepted by collectors I would expect to see similar systems from the other companies to follow suit.

Georges St.-Pierre To...

The MMA world was rocked today with the announcement from Georges St.-Pierre that he is vacating his title and stepping away from fighting. He has said that he is stepping away from an undetermined period of time because his life is in upheaval. Johny Hendricks, who lost to GSP last month, will fight Robbie Lawler for the vacant Welterweight title at UFC 171 in March 2014.

 

Over the last few years GSP has dealt with the injury bug, which he finally seemed to shake this year, but when he fought Johny Hendricks last month he was very un-GSP like winning on a split decision. He says he is 100% healthy but his mind is not right for fighting mentality. Personally I agree with his choice, you can lose a fight if you are not fully focused mentally just look at Silva’s loss to Weidman for a perfect example. Plus, if he does ultimately decided to retire he goes out on top as the Champ.

 

GSP has always been top dog in the MMA collectors market, this announcement will only cause his card’s prices to increase. I bet if he returns the prices will probably move up even more, similar to when MJ came back to the Bulls in 1995 wearing the 4-5.