Nightmares On Cardboard IV... The Final Cut

This card just needed to be made, I totally forgot about one of the scariest movies of it’s time and the 1990 Topps No Name error seemed like the proper way to offer tribute to Linda Blair and the Exorcist. So this card will complete my 2010 Throzul Will Rule Nightmare on Cardboard contest custom cards.

A Georgia Mindset Contest

It is that time of year to go trick-or-treating so why not go asking for a hobby box of Topps Chrome Baseball? OK, so it is a contest and winning the box is not as simple as calling our trick-or-treat, but if you are interested in putting in for the contest take a look at the blog Georgia Mindset and read up on the requirements.

Act fast, the contest ends Halloween Night, Sunday October 31st at 11:59 PM.

Quality Control Is An Issue

Quality control is a word that a lot of collectors know but it is often used in a negative connotation, especially when Topps is being discussed. But it is nice to see that at least one company is taking it to heart when their product is concerned.

There was a recent posting on the Panini blog regarding quality control specifically with the 2010-11 Score Hockey release. As I have stated before on my blog, I am not much of a hockey fan but this post was more then just about hockey, it is about how the company feels about the quality of their product and the image that they want to portray to their customers.

I just wished that all companies took such serious control of their product. How many of us pulled crimped A&G cards and I have heard of some problems with missing refractors/hits in the Chrome Baseball releases too. Has Topps become so lazy about their production that problems are expected before the boxes even hit the shelves?

So in a time where the hobby seems to be going up one day and crashing down the next, thank you to Panini for taking things seriously when it comes to quality and to Topps, please do something about your poor control over packing out and packaging.

2011 Topps Opening Day

Schedule Release Date: March 19, 2011
Box Configuration: 7 cards per pack, 36 packs per box
SRP: $36/box

Box Break:
1 Insert Per Pack

My Thoughts:
A set called Opening Day being released 2 weeks before the actual opening day, it just does not seem right.

This set is made for 2 specific types of collectors, children and set collectors and at roughly $1 per pack you can get quite a bit for your money. I am not certain about what is included in each box but Topps has come with some interesting hits in such a budget box. This does take me back to the 1990s when boxes were loaded with baseball cards and ugly inserts and a collector wasn't worried about getting an auto or relic card that would pay for the box.

Some of the interesting inserts in this set include parallels #/2011, printing plates (Hobby boxes only), Superstar Celebrations and Luck Charms (Team Mascots). 3D cards are making a return in the Opening Day Stars sets and glow-in-the-dark cards are back in the Under The Lights insert along with Presidential First Pitches featuring presidential first pitches throughout history (Hobby boxes only).

Another oddity making an appearance in the set are the intentional error cards in the Spot The Error insert, another gimmick card by Topps… who would have figured?


Pros:
Affordable

Interesting Inserts (3D cards, Glow-In-The Dark cards, Error cards and “shiny” cards)


Cons:
Another baseball set showcasing the same exact players as the base sets.

Team logos, Topps logos, Opening Day logos... to many logos hurts a design and this proves it

Gimmicky


Rating:
The World Series is still to begin and we are 5 months away from Opening Day's release a lot may change before this set sees the light of day so I will not be rating the review since it is still to early. There are some nice opportunities here, I am a fan of the glow-in-the-dark cards, but I am not a fan of building a release totally on gimmicks.

2010 Crown Royale Football Rookie Die-Cuts Prime Signatures

Next week, November 3rd, Panini’s 2010 Crown Royale Football release will be hitting shelves. The set is an interesting collection of Crown Royale history and modern Panini design and I am actually pretty partial to the Kings Of The NFL insert.

A box runs around $80 and contains 4 packs with 5 cards each. You will pull two autograph cards and two memorabilia cards from your box along with a mixture of commons, rookies, parallels and inserts.

The big news comes from an exclusive sneak peak by Tracy Hackler on Panini’s new blog, The Knight’s Lance, where he posted about the Rookie Die-Cuts Prime Signatures set, a die-cut set made up of 35 prominent rookies containing both a prime patch and an autograph and each card is numbered #/50. Yes the autographs are on sticker but honestly I think you can overlook that when you see the cards. They actually have a vintage look to them and the die-cut window works perfectly with the design. This is an insert where you say “Panini got it right!”

Worth $50,000?

Aron Phillips of Dime Magazine calls this Upper Deck Black Michael Jordan and LeBron James dual autograph-dual patch- 1/1 card “The Most Coveted” basketball card in the world.

I can understand why any basketball collector would love to have this card in their collection I am just not sure that the card would be considered the most coveted. I am positive many people would be willing to argue this point. I would think that any number of Exquisites could make it to the list of “Most Coveted” or how about a top graded ‘87 Fleer MJ or even the Buyback autographed version? And while I realize they may not be priced as high as this MJ/LJ dual card, a ‘48 Bowman Mikan would be a happy addition to any vintage collection.

If you do happen to have $50,000 available burning a hole in your pocket and you feel like making an offer then check out the auction for the card. The seller is respectable (he has 100% feedback with over 1800 deals) but the card has been up for auction since September 4th and there have been 28 offers all declined so I am guessing the seller is pretty set on the sale price.

Any guesses at what you think the card might actually sell at finally?

Nightmares On Cardboard Part III

These are the final four cards from my submission to Thorzul's Nightmare On Cardboard III contest.

1984 Topps: John Kramer (The Jigsaw Killer)- Saw series

1986 Topps: Pennywise The Clown- It!

1986 Topps: Damien Thorn- The Omen

1990 Topps: Jason Voorhees- Friday The 13th

After posting the 10 cards that I created for the contest I realized I missed an opportunity here. I think I am going to work on one more card, I won't submit it for the contest but I will post it here just for fun.

Nightmares On Card Part II

Continuing with my custom cards for Thorzul’s Nightmare on Cardboard III contest.

Next:

1980 Topps: Norman Bates- Psycho

1980 Topps: Captain Spaulding- House Of 1000 Corpses (and The Devil’s Rejects)

1984 Topps: Johnny- Night Of The Living Dead (Zombie Dress Shirt Button replica relic)

Dont Forget Thorzul's Nightmares On Cards Contest

For those that are custom card makers, or even aspiring custom card makers, don’t forget that the deadline for Thorzul’s Nightmares on Cardboard III contest is coming up quickly, October 24th.

I created a 10-card set for the contest, 8 base cards and 2 relics. The contest requirements this year is that all the cards have to be based on Topps baseball cards printed between 1970 and 1990. I unfortunately ran out of printer ink after printing a couple of cards (Both of my relic cards were printed but that is it) and can not make it to pick up more ink until Friday so I submitted my cards in digital form, which does not do the 2 relic cards justice.

First up:

1971 Topps: Fredrick Loren- House On Haunted Hill

1971 Topps: Edger Allan Poe- The Raven

1972 Topps: Malachai Boardman- Children Of The Corn (Corn Stalk Relic)

In case you are wondering, yes I bought an ear of indian corn so I could use the dried husk in the card. Part of the interesting factor with this card was actually being able to touch the husk.

Is This Card On The Horizon?

In the last year we have seen Topps release some very questionable relic cards. In January this year they admitted that some of the more prominent cards in the 2009 Topps Tribute Baseball set actually contained wood from stadium seats and not bats as originally believed. This included the Babe Ruth Dual and Triple relics, Ty Cobb Dual relic and both the Jackie Robinson and Mickey Mantle Triple relic cards. Most recently there have been questions regarding Topps 206 Mickey Mantle “Warm-up Jacket” relic cards. I am not positive but I am pretty sure that Mickey never wore a warm-up jacket with pink or teal on it.

I suggest that Topps takes a look at relics that will not be in short supply any time soon. How about a relic insert based on jail garb? Every month it seems like another athlete shows up in another mug shot, so lets take these lemons and make lemonade.

Please note that I am making this post in jest, I really hope that none of the card companies become so desperate as to actually consider this avenue. But, with that being said I introduce my newest custom card set, the Jailbirds relic set. Each custom card will include actual jail-worn garb (Just so everyone knows these cards are just digital mock-ups and will not actually be printed plus I wouldn't even know where to go to get the jail gear.).

Watch for your favorite parolee to make their appearance in this promising new insert set. First up is one of my favorite jail birds, and University of Arizona product, Gilbert Arenas in his Washington DC Department of Corrections gear.