Card Randomness

I have a horrible habit of setting cards to the side, my sports card procrastination. I decided to just take the time to scan in the cards and write up an “All-in-one” post about my recent pick-ups. So in no particular order here are a couple of cards that I have picked up between

 

Trade

I am a fan of Reem, he can be a pompous ass, he failed a drug test and he can be dismissive of his opponents but he has the talent. If it weren't for his streak fighting he could be looking at a Championship matchup versus Cain Velasquez.

 

Bought

The Koi Animal Kingdom card has been on my “Wants” list since the checklist was announced, I love Koi fish and have always wanted to install a Koi pond in my yard. I like the Panini Crusade cards, they look just like the 1998 Donruss Crusade cards, and the Russell Wilson card seemed like a steal for a couple of dollars shipped. The George Mikan printing plate was just one of those opportunity pick-ups but I am happy to add it to my personal collection.

 

Pack pulls

I had high hopes for Spiller when he came in to the NFL, he had a decent career at Clemson but besides last year's 1,244 rushing yards he has only showed glimpses of what could have been. I pulled it out of a rack pack from Walmart so there are no complaints from me.

RIP Scott Carpenter

America lost a hero yesterday with the death of astronaut Scott Carpenter, the second American to orbit the Earth. He had recently had a stroke and was living in hospice care, he was 88 years old. His death leaves John Glenn as the only Mercury Seven astronaut still alive. The Mercury Seven Astronauts were the first seven American astronauts which included the first American in space Alan Shepard, the second American in space Gus Grissom, the first American to orbit the Earth John Glenn, the second American to orbit the Earth Scott Carpenter plus Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Deke Slayton.

 

While I was trying to do research on Carpenter I started off with a brick wall, NASA’s web site is shuttered due to the U.S. Government’s shutdown and inability to play nicely. Reading through various stories I came across a passage out of Christopher Kraft’s memoir, Kraft was the Flight Director for Carpenter’s lone space mission, and apparently Carpenter made some serious errors while returning which led to him landing over 250 nautical miles from his intended landing zone. Initially he was considered DOA until a Navy search plane saw his life raft 40 minutes later and was able to direct the recovery team. NASA officials made it clear they had no intent on allowing Carpenter to fly again, which he never did.

 

Following his time as an astronaut Carpenter continued to work with both NASA and the Navy working as an aquanaut in the Navy’s Sealab project, he actually spent 30 days on the ocean floor, and helping set up NASA’s underwater training project to prepare astronauts for spacewalks.

 

He may not have been the first American in space or on the moon but his contribution to science has helped advance the space program. Carpenter also became a part of Pop Culture lore with the publication of Tom Wolfe’s novel “The Right Stuff”, a novel about the Mercury Seven, which was later made in to the 1983 film also named “The Right Stuff”.

 

Carpenter has shown up on cardboard a couple of times beginning with the 1963 Topps Astronauts release and most recently in Panini’s Americana releases, which include both relics and autographs. His early Topps cards can be found in the $25-50 range, his base Panini Americana cards are only a couple of dollars but if you are looking to add any of his autographs or relics to your collection you should expect to spend well over $75 and most likely closer to $150-200 now with his passing.

Vintage Card Of The Month: 1933 World Wide Gum Mark Koenig

This month’s Vintage Card of the Month is my 1933 World Wide Gum Mark Koenig, which is the Canadian version of the 1933 Goudey cards. World Wide Gum and Goudey Gum had a similar agreement like the one that O-Pee-Chee had with Topps later in the 1950s. The card fronts are the exact same design, even down to the Goudey Gum copyright logo along the bottom left corner. There is a difference on the card backs, there are laws in Canada that require manufacturers to print text in both English and French so to keep Koenig’s bio short enough to print it in both languages his bio from the Goudey version was abbreviated to only five sentences instead of three paragraphs.

By the time 1933 rolled around Koenig has already been in the league 9 seasons and was with his third team. The Short Stop is probably best known for his first five seasons with the New York Yankees from 1925-1930 where he was part of the 1927 Murder’s Row that went on to win the World Series, batting second in front of Ruth and Gehrig, he led the team in batting average through the 1927 postseason. 

 

Over his 12 year career with the Yankees, Tigers, Cubs, Reds and Giants he made it the World Series 5 times, winning twice in 1927 and 1928 with the Yankees. He had a .279 batting average and even pitched in three games while he was with the Tigers in 1930 and 1931, going 1-3 over 16.0 innings and an 8.44 ERA. Mark Koenig didn’t have a Hall of Fame career but he had a career to be proud of, outside of his league leading errors, and you can never argue with a couple of World Series titles.

 

The card is in Good condition, the front colors are still bright and pretty well centered but the card is well worn and the corners are fuzzy and rounded. The color on the back is well worn and faded plus there is a stain near the bottom right corner.

Preview: 2013 ITG The First Six

Next up from the brain of Dr. Price is In The Game’s Superlative- The First Six, a high end hockey set designed around the first six NHL teams (Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Detroit Redwings, New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadians) that will be released November 8th.

 

Each book, the product is being released in what appears to be a leather-bound book, will run $400-425 and will contain seven cards, all hits. There will only be 1,500 books produced. All of the autographs are hard signed except for the cut signatures

 

The breakdown of the seven hits that you will pull from a book:

One Autograph card

 

One Autographed Game-Used Jersey card

 

One Auto Plus card

 

One Game-Used Jersey card

 

One Game-Used Memorabilia card or a PaperCut (cut signature autograph) card or LumberGraph card

 

One Quad Game-Used Memorabilia card

 

One Trophy Case Game-Used Memorabilia card

Shadowbox Mania

I have been looking to pick up a Shadowbox card since they first hit the scene a couple of years ago. Using multiple layers, Upper Deck came up with a new level for cards which has since been duplicated by Topps and Panini. We have even seen Rittenhouse use the technology with their James Bond and Star Trek licenses. Over time we have seen some additions like autographs, jersey swatches and inserts and rivets so you can change the look of your card.

 I have watched a handful of cards, usually ending with a price higher than I was willing to play. Because I was looking for specific players I also found myself playing the waiting game. Earlier this year one of those cards I was waiting for, Gale Sayers, showed up and I lost out on a last minute bid. I was actually considering just grabbing up any player who was up for auction but didn’t want to drop money on a card that I was not interested in adding to my collection just to satisfy an urge. I am glad I waited because this one showed up and when the auction ended I paid 50 cents less than the Sayers card went for earlier this year.

 

These are the type of cards that you need to have in your hand to appreciate. I just picked up a couple of Rittenhouse shadowbox cards, Daniel Craig James Bond Shadowbox card and James Doohan Star Trek Shadowbox card, to add to the collection.

Cryptozoic's Fans First Policy

I am a little behind the time on this one but two weeks ago Cryptozoic Entertainment released some policy revisions that have been taken very well by collectors. Cryptozoic makes comic and entertainment cards but I am certain that most sports card collectors would stand up and cheer to hear similar policy changes from Topps, Panini and Upper Deck.

 

The changes, which they are calling the “Fans First” philosophy:

- Increase the thickness of the cards, this will make the cards more durable and will keep the wardrobe cards from bubbling out. Depending on how thick the cards are made it could also make it more difficult for pack searchers.

-All autographs will be on-card, they will not use sticker autographs.

-The biggie though is not using redemption cards except in the case of an item that will not fit in a pack and never in a case where they do not have the card. When they announce new sets they will only include signers on the checklist that they already have on contract and the cards in hand, ready to sign and pack out.

 

I love this idea, gone are the sticker autographs and redemption cards. I could even live with some stickers if it meant that every autograph card got inserted in to packs. How often have we seen an athlete included on a checklist but redemptions were packed out because they had not even signed yet? Logic would suggest removing that player's name off of the upcoming releases instead of just adding more redemption cards.

 

 

Well done Cryptozoic!

Preview: 2014 Topps U.S. Olympic And Paralympic Team And Hopefuls

Scheduled Release Date: 11/6/13

Box Configuration: 24 packs/box, 8 cards/pack

SRP: @$55-60

 

Box Break:

1 Autograph

2 Relics

 

 

What to Expect:

If you are a fan of the Winter Games than this is the set for you, the base set contains 100 Olympic hopefuls as well as a selection of Paralympic athletes and with 192 cards per box you should be able to complete a base set along with a nice collection of parallels and inserts. The base cards even have a similar appearance to the popular Summer Olympics release.

 

The base set has three parallels based on the Olympic medals; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The base autographs and U.S. Olympic Team Relics have four parallels; Gold, Silver, Bronze and Gold Rainbow. No numbering has been announced but I would expect it to have a similar numbering to last year’s 2012 Topps Summer Olympics release.

 

There are three inserts, Games of the XXII Winter Olympiad (Sports that will appear in the 22^nd Winter Olympics), Venues of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games (The various locations around Russia where events will be held) and Olympic Heritage (Chronicling the past 21 Winter Olympics).

 

The hits include:

Base Autograph cards- At least 50 athletes will be featured with each card having four parallels. These autographs are sticker autos.

 

U.S. Olympic Champions Autograph cards- There are 10 athletes on the checklist, including Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi and Mike Eruzione, who have all been champions in their specific sport. These are on-card autographs.

 

U.S. Olympic Team Relics- At least 50 athletes included on the checklist, the set will feature athlete-worn relics. There are four parallels for this set.

 

U.S. Olympic Team Patch Cards, U.S. Olympic Team 2014 Patch Cards and U.S. Olympic Team Logo Pins- These three relic sets are manufactured patches

 

 

My Thoughts:

The Olympic sets are a specialized set, besides the hockey players, most of the Winter Olympic athletes do not normally show up on cardboard so fans are limited to these releases and if the 2012 Summer Olympic release was any indication of what to expect I would figure that this set will do well too.

 

 

Pros:

3 Hits per Box

Some On-card Autographs
Cheap Price

 

 

Cons:

Sticker Autographs

Manufactured Relics

 

 

Rating:

I would give this a mid-range rating; a fair score would be 3 out of 5 loosing points on the sticker autographs and manufactured relics.

Pele In My Pocket

Edison Arantes do Nascimento is among the pantheon of football gods. Before names like Neymar, Ronaldo and Messi, before even Beckham and Maradona there was Pele. The name strikes awe among players and fans alike. Over a twenty year career playing for the Brazilian National Team, Santos Futebol Clube and the New York Cosmos he won awards, trophies and even three World Cup titles.

 

Pele is known the world over for his skills, in 1967 there was a ceasefire during the Nigerian Civil War so the soldiers could watch him play a game in Lagos. He even took on the dreaded Nazis and won (not really) when he stared in the 1981 film Escape to Victory along with Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.

 

I was a little kid in New York during his time with the Cosmos and every kid on my soccer teams tried his bicycle kick, usually to humorous results and very little scoring. I have been a Pele fan since. When 2013 A&G was released his relics were readily available to all fans and I was able to pick one up, along with a regular base card and missing text variation, for a great price.

 

On a side note, this 2013 Topps Tier One Pele autograph is about the most badass autograph card available. Topps designers nailed it, they used Brazil’s green and yellow national colors, which also happen to be two of the three colors of the Cosmos logo too. The card is well outside of my budget but I do appreciate its beauty.

 

2013 Leaf Masterworks Is Live!

Leaf’s newest product, 2013 Masterworks, is now live. The set, which is made up of all sketch/autographs or sketch-o-graphs, will run $135-140 per 3-card box, with all three cards being sketch autographs. There are 190 personalities on the checklist and while some stars will have up to 20 cards they are still considered one-of-one because each card is unique.

 

The checklist really has a nice variety that is made up of current and retired players as well as team officials (GM, President, etc.) and coaches. Sports include baseball, basketball, football, hockey, Olympics, soccer, wrestling and boxing. Some of the people include:

Brooks Robinson
Barry Sanders
Gary Payton
Ichiro
Jim Otto
Pat Riley
Steve Largent
Hulk Hogan
Jose Canseco
Kristi Yamaguchi

 

There are around 40 auctions right now and the prices really vary with many of the low priced auctions getting bid up quickly.

Rockin It From Space

Last year Upper Deck introduced the “It Came from Outer Space” meteorite relic cards which were inserted in to packs of 2012 Goodwin Champions at an insane 1:3,986 packs insert ratio. When they started showing up for sale they were topping the $400-500 range, now that the redemptions are being filled the actual cards are going for a much higher amount. There is only one currently up for auction and it is posted with a $750 BIN price tag.

 

Like many collectors I have trouble putting up $750 for any modern card so I went a more realistic route and started looking at meteorite specimens. There are plenty of options when looking for specimens like eBay, Craigslist, Gem & Rock Shows and even swap meets. I ended up picking up this mesosiderite (a stone-iron meteorite) for $8 and that included the display case.

 

This piece came from the Vaca Muerta strike in Chili. The history was pretty difficult to track because it was initially discovered in 1861 by mining surveyors, who immediately (and incorrectly) identified the shining metallic pieces as silver and the area was picked through by the mining company and then left abandoned. It was rediscovered in 1985 and it has since been cleared of samples.

 

I finally found a NASA paper that was published in 1991 that covered the history of the meteor beyond the 1861 mining company. It is believed that Vaca Muerta (Dead cow, cool name huh) hit around 3,500 years ago, it weighed 6 tons but was only about 3-4 feet across. The strike zone was 34 feet across and 6 feet deep with some pieces found over 2 ½ miles away from impact.

 

My sample is pretty small, only about the size of a pinkie nail, but it still pretty neat to have a space rock sitting next to my computer.