Panini or panini? Part 2

Last week I wrote about a panini sandwich that had been put up for auction on eBay. The sandwich had been autographed by Blake Griffin while he was doing an autograph session for Upper Deck at their Huntington Beach Store.

The auction has since ended, and after an unbelievable 22 bids, the final price was set at $190.50. Oddly enough the price is not the only surprise of the auction; more interestingly is who the winning bidder was. According to Upper Deck’s Facebook page, Panini is the winner of this most unorthodox auction.

“Upper Deck Congratulations to Panini on winning the Upper Deck Authenticated Blake Griffin panini sandwich. They paid over $190 for the item on eBay this week. As the sandwich makes its way to Arlington, TX this week, what do you think Panini will do with it? ”

What could be on the mind of the Panini staff?

Michael Crabtree Negotiations

The countdown has begun on the Crabtree negotiations. October 20th, just two weeks away, is the trade deadline in the NFL and all teams must have their Draft Picks signed by November 19th or the player can return to the draft pool.

In the last two weeks there have been accusations of the Jets tampering with the negotiations as well as rumors of Crabtree caving in and ready to accept the 49ers offer and of course based on Crabtree’s agent, Eugene Parker, there is the claim that Crabtree will sit out the year and enter the 2010 NFL Draft. The Jets tampering is being looked in to and there has been no proof provided as of yet on that accusation.

Today sources said that Crabtree was returning to San Francisco to renew contract negotiations, which could be a positive thing for both parties. Right now, as it stands, the 49ers have offered Crabtree 5-years and $20 million with $16 million guaranteed. This actually seems like a fair offer based on the draft position, but I also understand Crabtree’s side where he feels he is worthy of a better payday. He was an excellent college WR but has yet to prove that in the NFL, do you pay him on his college experience or how you feel he will do in the pros?

If Crabtree does return to the draft it is quite possible that he may fall even further then the 10th Pick next year. There are some decent Receivers next year and Crabtree will have shown that he can be difficult in negotiations not to mention that he will have been out of football for well over a year by the time the 2010 Season starts. You could potentially see Dez Bryant, Arrelious Benn and Brandon LaFell all go before Crabtree in the draft. One mock draft I saw had Crabtree being drafted 10th by the Cowboys next year, probably a stretch too.

The 2016 Olympics and Upper Decks Predictor Card

On Friday October 2nd, the IOC will announce which city will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The announcement may end up being some big news for the country, for the State of Illinois and for the city of Chicago, one of the final four cities up for nomination. It would be a tremendous windfall for the city, thousands of jobs over the next 5 years not to mention the billions of dollars that would be dumped in to the economy from international tourists.

But a Chicago selection would also be some good news for collectors thanks to Upper Decks Predictor cards. The company inserted “Predictor” cards in 2009 Upper Deck Series 1 baseball packs and one of the predictors was that Chicago is named the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. UD has said that if Chicago is selected then they will do “something big” for the occasion. Yesterday Upper Deck announced that the special promotion for Chicago winning would be a free pack of baseball cards to fans across the nation while supplies last. I guess we will find out where things go tomorrow after the announcement.

Bad Wax's Half Million Hits

Bad Wax is closing in on half a million hits and Chemgod is holding a contest to see who can get closest to the actual time and date of the 500,000 hit. Stop by the site and leave your guess for your chance to win.

Also, if you are interested in creating your own custom cards or just enjoy seeing what other people create take a look at Chemgod's Custom Card Blog. There are some very original designs that could easily compete with some of the big boys in card design.

Banner courtesy of Badwax.net

Panini's Coup

While it has not been announced officially, Panini is broadcasting loud and clear that Kobe Bryant has signed with the company. This is a huge coup for a company that less then a year ago had almost no market shares within the United States.

Since Panini purchased Donruss in March they have signed exclusive deals with the NBA, the NFL Draft, a number of NBA Lottery picks, the NBA Hall Of Fame and most recently stole Kobe Bryant away from Upper Deck. Apparently Panini has come to America with no intent on sitting in third place behind Topps and UD.

Signing Kobe Bryant was no small feat and you wonder what else may be up their sleeves in the near future, only time will tell. How will this affect the upcoming Panini basketball sets?

Panini or panini?

My newest addition to the “WTF?” file, I present to you a Blake Griffin autographed panini. When I say panini I am describing a grilled flatbread sandwich not the company Panini-Donruss. To add to the complete oddity of the entire situation is that the sandwich was signed by Blake Griffin at the Upper Deck Store in Huntington Beach and was officially certified authentic by Upper Deck to only be voided shortly afterwards.

The collector has since eaten half the sandwich but is currently offering up the second half of the sandwich for auction. The current bid is a little over $120 with 6 days left in the auction. For your winning bid you will receive the half of sandwich along with a COA that has been voided and is missing the actual certifying hologram sticker.

You have to wonder who thought it was a good idea to certify an autographed sandwich? I do understand that the autograph itself was authentic therefore logically could be certified but this is definitely an interesting dilemma.

I do have to say, it does take a wild imagination to even think about having someone autograph a sandwich and that Blake Griffin has a sense of humor for actually signing it.

What Drives Some Dealers?

What is wrong with people? Apparently no matter what oddball card you have, if it is graded a 10 with a population of 1 the card is apparently worth twice its weight in gold.

Is this Ken Griffey Jr 1989 Starting Lineup card really worth $7,500? Even being the only PSA 10 out there I find it hard to cough up the dough for this one. You can walk in to any number of card or toy shops around the Seattle area and still find a 1989 Griffey SLU hanging on the wall selling for less then $75-100. But I guess there are some collectors out there that must complete their collection no matter what the cost.

I can come up with a number of options I would opt for before I laid down a dime for a graded SLU card. Just a few random selections: A Game-used Autographed Away Jersey, Game-used Autographed Shoes and the ULTIMATE Ken Griffey Jr Autograph card. This card is the shit; it is the autograph to have no matter whom you collect. Griffey and Mantle together, does it get any better?

When the card came out a friend offered me the single-signed Griffey version of the card for $50 but I was holding out for the dual-signed card, I kick myself now.

So, in the end the choice seems obvious… a game-used auto jersey, game-used auto shoes and the Gold Crown of Griffey & Mantle autograph cards with well over $2500 still left over. Being a Griffey collector the choice is easy.

2009 Topps Sterling Baseball

Topps recently released a preview of the 2009 Topps Sterling Baseball set, which is scheduled to be released in January 2010. The base set is 130 cards and contains a decent checklist including many of the standard players from the past, present and future. Ruth, Cobb, Cal Ripken Jr and Alex Rodriguez all are on the checklist as expected but you will also find future stars like David Price and Joba Chamberlin on the checklist.
Obviously absent are players currently under contract with Upper Deck like Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr.

The boxes contain 5 cards, plus a Mystery Pack, and are expected to have a SRP around $230 each. Included in each box will be 3 base cards and 2 hits. The 2 hits will be one Relic Card #/25 and either one Autograph or Relic Card #/10 or less. The Mystery Pack will contain a Base Parallel card that is numbered and framed or contain a Cut Signature from Classic Baseball or Historical Figure.

As with previous releases there are plenty of autographs and relics available to pull including Multi-Autograph and Multi-Relic cards. Additionally there is a Sterling Spectators Relics set that includes relics from John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, George W Bush and Franklin D Roosevelt. Does anyone else find it odd that a five-card set contains 4 strong Democrat politicians and a Republican politician with a “less then Sterling” legacy? This leads me to believe that George W Bush was an after-thought addition to the set. Topps has some serious pull when it comes to hits, you are telling me that they could not get relics of Regan or Eisenhower for a top end set?

One thing that you will notice, besides the Base cards, the hits are the focus of the card design. Many of the inserts are basically relics and sticker autographs with a tiny image of the player. The Chronicles, Sterling Moments and Jumbo Swatch inserts are the worst offenders of the entire set. I know people love to pull relics but when you have to flip the card over so you can read the player info to figure out whom you pulled then something seriously went wrong during the design phase.

I am not down on the entire set, like I said I actually love the simplicity of the Base card. The border really accents the player photo, the silver foil name and border design really pop out. The Sterling Cut Signature cards are pretty sweet too; a cut signature and three relics are a nice pull. The relics are not overpowering either; the cut signature is the focus of the card especially when the signature is clean like the Babe Ruth and Mickey mantle cards.

Some of the book cards are nicely designed too while others seemed to be put together solely around the relics. The Bat Barrel Name Plate really caught my eyes. The blue coloring is nice and sets off the autograph and relics while the barrel sits on the opposite side. This set up works well, the player, autograph and relics are not over-powering and have a visually appealing look.

The Season Autograph Relic set is another nicely design insert. The player stands out nicely and the relics, while small, are presented well along the bottom of the card while the autograph sits on the opposite side from the player’s image. The coloring is done well and the background design adds a nice tough.

While the Season Auto Relic cards are nicely designed the basic Season Relic cards are just appalling in comparison. You have to wonder why Topps would create two different overall designs for the same set (minus the autograph). With the base Season Relic set they should have placed the relics along the bottom with the players image on one side and the team logo on the opposite side in place of the autograph. This would have offered continuity throughout the set. I added a mock-up design of what I am talking about to compare the original Sterling Season relic with what I suggest.

This is one product that I don’t think I will be picking up any boxes. Being a Griffey collector I have nothing to shoot for here and with my luck I would end up pulling a George Sisler or Dan Haren theme box. Not bad players but definitely not someone I would be interested in collecting. If any cards do draw my interest I think I would be better off picking up singles.

Fossil Cards

Last month I touched on the blurring of lines between sports cards and non-sports cards. I bring this up because I was reading a story on the Upper Deck Blog regarding a special 1/1 redemption card from the 2008-2009 Champs Hockey set.

In the 2008-09 Champs set Upper Deck included redemption cards for a very rare insert, actual fossils and other artifacts. These shadowbox cards, which are suppose to be up to 10 times the thickness of a regular card, contain various fossils including femur bones and teeth. The top dog from the set is a 1/1 Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth, the entire tooth, and as pointed out in the story the redemption card for this treasure is still out there in a pack somewhere on a shelf. With other fossil cards showing up on eBay ranging from about $90 and up you have to wonder how much this bad boy might fetch.

This is a cool insert, I would love to pull any of these fossils but I don’t see the connection between dinosaur fossils and hockey. What brought UD to create an insert like this for the Champs set?

Patch Works

Player: Jeff Bagwell
Team: Houston Astros
Set: 2002 Fleer Flair - Jersey Heights (Hot Numbers)
Card # : No #
Serial # : 001/100
Description: This is one of the cooler patches that I have pulled. A white grass-stained jersey swatch, the edge of lettering appears along the right side. Colors include, white jersey, black, gray and red edging.

Why does Fleer create a bad ass patch and then center the white jersey portion? Really, you have a 3 color patch off-center and under the die-cut window while the white jersey stands dead center. Woohoo!!!