Preview: 2011 Parkhurst Champions Original Artwork

I wanted to create a seperate post highlighting the original artwork by Ron Stark and Jared Kelly that will be included in the 2011 Parkhurst Champions set being released this Fall. These images are of the original artwork created by these artists.

The Gretzky and Bourque paintings are original artwork by artist Ron Stark used to produce the mini cards, the minis will not be actually painted cards but reproductions of Mr. Stark's original artwork.

Wayne Gretzky Mini Artwork

Ray Bourque Mini Artwork

The Masterpiece cards are all original artwork by artist Jared Kelley and limited #/10 of each player with each card signed by Jared Kelly. The first card of each player will have a hand-painted gold side-border.

Wayne Gretzky Masterpiece

Wayne Gretzky Masterpiece Closeup

Wayne Gretzky Masterpiece Back

Gordie Howe Masterpiece

Mark Messier Masterpiece

All images that I used are from Grant Soundground's video that has been posted on Upper Deck's blog (as can be seen from the time stamps seen in some of the images). I would like to thank Upper Deck and Chris Carlin for making this video available so the collectors can have a preview of these amazing cards.

Preview: 2011 NHL Parkhurst Champions

Schedule Release Date: Fall 2011

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

SRP: $77/box

Box Break:

2 Signature cards

5 Wire Photo cards

2-3 Renditions cards

20 Champ’s Mini cards

My Thoughts:

The return or Parkhurst hockey, a product that we have not seen since 2005, should make collectors very excited. The Parkie brand started in 1951 before disappearing in the 1960s, but made a resurgence in 1991. Between 1991 and 2005 the brand bounced around from Pro Set to Upper Deck to In The Game back to Upper Deck before being shelved for a bit. Now Upper Deck has gone full force in another resurrection of the brand and they have done a wonderful job in this re-release of the brand.

 Being an artist myself the wonderful artwork included in this set is a huge draw for me, Upper Deck goes above and beyond finding the right artist for their sets and it shows. Going back for many years now Upper Deck has shown love to the art world with their releases and this set continues that tradition.

Upper Deck created a 160 card base set and each card also has an autographed parallel version (hard signed too):

Regular Cards (100)
Wire Photos, Single + Multi-Plyr. (30)
Renditions, Color + B/W(30)

Not included as part of the base set is a 57 card mini card set which are based on original artwork created by artist Ron Stark. Minis come 1 per pack.

The product has some huge positives including hard-signed autographs parallels, multi-signed Wire Photo cards, Parkhurst Masterpieces, Champ’s Signatures along with fossils and artifacts.

Like the Goodwin Champions Presidents Masterpiece hand-painted set Parkhurst Champions will include a hand-painted Masterpiece set made up of 3 players- Gretzkey as an L.A. King, Gordie Howe and Mark Messier as an Oiler. There will be 10 beautifully hand-painted copies of each star signed by artist Jared Kelly and the first card of each player will have a gold painted side-border to differentiate it from the other 9 cards.

Pros:

Hard-signed autographs

Beautiful artwork by artists Jared Kelly and Ron Stark

Multi-signed autographs

Fossil and artifacts

Cons:

Not a “Parkhurst” design but an Upper Deck product with the Parkhurst name

Based on retired players so modern player collectors may not be interested

Fossils and artifacts do not appeal to all collectors

Rating: 

I rate this at 4 1/2 out of 5 because the product is solid and really relies on players from the history of hockey, these are the guys who laid the foundation for what we see on the ice today.  I am a old-school collector so that may be the additional draw for me to this release along with the love of fossils and other artifacts.

 

 I want to include Upper Deck's list of the break down of the product because I do not feel like I can do it justice by listing the products out in my write-up. This list is posted on their Facebook page:

Regular Set:
Regular Cards (100)
Wire Photos, Single + Multi-Plyr. (30)
Renditions, Color + B/W(30)

Product Highlights:
Regular Card Autograph //’s (1:22)
Wire Photo Autograph //’s (1:400)
Parkhurst Masterpieces (# to 10)
Champ’s Fossils & Artifacts (1:1,280)
Champ’s Signatures (1:90)

Box Break: (on average)
Two Great Hits Highlighted by 1-2 Signature Cards
Five (5) Wire Photos cards (1 multi)
Two-to-Three (2-3) Renditions cards
Twenty (20) Champ’s Mini cards

Case Break: (on average)
Ten (10) Renditions B/W cards
One (1) Fossils & Artifacts OR Champ’s Red Ink (SP) Sig (# to 15) OR Parkhurst Masterpiece Sketch (# to 10) OR Wire Photo Multi-Player Autograph card OR Renditions B/W, Color Autograph card

Wire Images Autograph Parallels include players like Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Beliveau, Lindsay/Howe, Esposito/Bucyk/Orr all hard-signed.

Key Inserts:
Wire Photo Autographs:
Orr, Gretzky, Messier, Lemieux, Clarke, Beliveau, Lindsay; Howe/Bower, Hull Mikita, Messier/Kurri, Esposito/Orr; Esposito/Bucyk/Orr and more!

Renditions Autographs (Black & White variation):
Roy, Lafleur, Beliveau, Hull, Howe, Lemieux, Gretzky!

Champ’s Signatures:
Orr, Mikita, Brett Hull, Messier, Lemieux, Bossy, Shutt, Bowman, Robitaille, Bucyk, Kurri, Sakic, Bower, Neely!

Some of the artifacts and fossils includes Greek & Roman coins

The brain cavity of an Auroch

and teeth from a Spinosaurus.

Independance Day

Happy Independence Day to everyone

I was reading about a survey that was done last month and sadly people seem to be losing their history or to be more exact not learning their history. In this survey only 58% of all Americans are aware that our country declared independence in 1776. Even worse, for those under the age of 30 only 31% knew of our independence in 1776 and only 25% of Americans know that we declared our independence from Great Britain. I blame politicians for this debacle, let the teachers teach kids and not worry about state standardized testing to dictate how kids are taught.

 On a lighter note, Joey Chestnut continued his dominance at the annual Fourth of July Nathan's Famous Hot Dog eating contest at Coney Island. In typical form Chestnut downed 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes to win his 5^th consecutive mustard yellow belt. Takeru Kobayashi (2001-2007 Champion) stayed away from the contest after last year’s outbreak when he actually charged the stage and was arrested. This year Kobayashi held his own contest in downtown New York where he ate 69 hot dogs showing he still has dominance in the sport of competitive eating.

Contest Time At Plashke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle

Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle is has organized a contest to celebrate his 50^th follower and it is time to pimp his contest. I am not sure when the contest ends, more on that later from Greg, but there will be 2 winners selected and they will each win 3 cards (1 War-era card, 1 Tobacco-era card and 1 scrub autograph). His requirements are simple and instead of me telling you, head on over to his blog for your chance to get involved.

Preview: TriStar TNA Signature Impact Wrestling

TNA has recently re-branded it’s flagship program TNA iMPACT as IMPACT WRESTLING and TriStar is releasing the first product to represent this change with the release of 2011 TriStar TNA Signature IMPACT WRESTLING set to hit shelves in August.

Schedule Release Date: August 3, 2011

Box Configuration: 6 cards per pack, 20 packs per box

SRP: $78/box

Box Break:

3 Autograph cards (At least 1 multi-autograph card)

1 Memorabilia card

2 Parallel cards

1 Short Print

My Thoughts:

TriStar has done another excellent job with the TNA license hitting on all cylinders and they made sure to stick with the “Big 3” of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Sting. The set is pretty small, consisting of only 99 cards with 90 Base Cards and 9 Short Prints. There will only be 90 cases of this product made and with each case containing 24 boxes there will only be 2160 total boxes made, so a pretty limited release. In an interesting move TriStar even created 3 different box designs (Hogan, Flair and Sting) and each case will contain 8 of each box design.

Some of the things that we will see in this set include Matt Hardy’s first TNA card after jumping from WWE, TriStar’s first 7 & 8 signed autograph cards, Ric Flair Letter Memorabilia Cards and best of all a 1/1 Macho Man Cut Signature card as a tribute to the loss of Randy Savage.

Pros:

7 Hits per box gives pretty decent value for the price

Limited production

1 Multi-Autograph card per box

Jumbo swatches and multi-relic cards

Chance to pull Macho Man’s 1/1 Cut Signature card

 

Cons:

Centered around the Old Big-Three (Hogan, Flair and Sting)

Autographs may be sticker autos

Hogan, Flair and Sting autos are very limited

Rating:

I give this release a solid 3.5 out of 5 because TriStar did a good job using quality pictures on a nice clean design. Non-wrestling or non-TNA fans will not be very interested in the product but for fans of the genre or TNA will definitely be delighted.

Leaf MMA Wrapper Redemption #5

I was under the impression that the Leaf MMA Metal Alistair Overeem preview cards were to be the final MMA wrapper redemption but Leaf just announced on their Facebook page that they will make one final offer.

The fifth offering (Offer #5) is a 2010 Leaf MMA Charles Oliveira on-card autograph. Send in 24 wrappers for this redemption, there has not been an announced close date at this time. There are some pluses here, first the autograph is hard-signed which makes it stand out amongst the world of stickers and second Oliveira is a solid up and comer young fighter (He turns 22 later this year) and he already has a 14-1 record. His last two fights are a bit of a disappointment with a loss to Jim Miller last December and a No Contest against Nik Lentz last week (He struck Lentz with an illegal knee strike); hopefully he can right the ship and move on from these setbacks. Someone recently posted an auction for 24 wrappers under the heading for this Oliveira autograph with a BIN of $25 and free shipping.

The first offering (Offer #1) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Shogun Rua autograph #/85. This offer was valid through 1/31/11 or while supplies last and has since expired. There are currently none of these available for auction but the last one I did see sold for $180.

The second offering (Offer #2) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Alistair Overeem autograph #/185, this offer has since expired. There is only one of these up for auction with a BIN of $100, but the last one I saw sold for around $250. At this point it is nearly impossible to find any Overeem autographs.

The third offering (Offer #3) was a 2010 Leaf MMA Jon “Bones” Jones autograph #/99 and was available for 24 wrappers. This offer has since sold out but you can still purchase the same exact card from Blowout Cards for $25. You can also find a couple of these up for auction and usually sell for $35-40 each.

The fourth offering (Offer #4) was a 2011 Leaf MMA Metal Alistair Overeem preview card, this offer has since expired. There are none up for auction but I did see some late last month but I do not remember what the price range was at the time. Like most Overeem cards these are difficult to come by.

Smackdown

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for WWE Friday Night Smackdown which will air Friday July 1, 2011

But, if you don't mind finding out how the matches go keep reading.

The night of wrestling started with some NXT matches and then some Superstar matches before getting to Smackdown. There was a women’s match followed by a 6-man match which showcased the Usos against the guys who used to be part of NXT.

The matches really started with a championship match between Randy Orton and Mark Henry with Randy Orton winning by count-out after Christen sabotaged the match by playing the Big Show’s entry music. I guess Mark Henry and The Big Show have an issue and it was enough to draw the World’s Strongest Man’s attention away from the ring long enough for the ref to hit a 10-count.

 

Then came Daniel Bryant and Ted DiBiase Jr with Bryant winning by submission when he placed DiBiase in a to a triangle choke hold.

 After some talking with General Manager Teddy Long in the back about having a title shot Christen is instead forced to fight Sin Cara and only if he won would he have a title shot. So Christen takes on Sin Cara and after a wonderful visual match with this amazingly athletic Mexican Luchador, Christen closes out the match with a pin.

 A little intermission followed by Kane vs Wade Barrett. I was hoping to catch Kane’s entrance where he makes the ring explode with fire and I was quick enough to get a good picture. Kane went on to win the match.

With Christen winning his match against Sin Cera and Randy Orton winning his match against the #1 Contender Mark Henry, Christen demanded that the agreement get signed giving him a title shot against Orton so out comes the table, lawyers, Teddy Long and the whole shebang to get both wrestlers to sign the agreement.

 Doesn't Christen's lawyer look the The Ragin' Cajun Jim Carville?

So the contract gets signed by both wrestlers when out comes Sheamus, my favorite current wrestler, and upends everything, tears up the contract and then lays a beating on both Randy Orton and Christen and then walks away leaving the ring in shambles.

So everything gets cleaned up and Teddy Long decides that Orton and Christen should just "Get it on" and makes them wrestle for the title belt right there in a "Street Fight" rules match.

 Christen grabs the belt and starts to run away with it, and I find it funny that people were calling out "Randy he is running away with the belt" like Orton would hear them and run after Christen. So Orton grabs Christen and brings him back to the ring.

The match goes back and forth with each wrestler using the belt to conk the other wrestler on the head before Orton lays out Christen for the win and retains the World Heavyweight Championship Belt.

Afterwards Randy Orton went around the ring talking to fans, which I thought was pretty nice of him to do. He spent a good 10 minutes talking to people and shaking hands.

Considering this will probably be my only visit to a corporate suite we took some pictures around the room.

It was a fun night and a nice going away present for our nephew who is going back to live with his dad after a year with us. I told my wife that if UFC, Strikeforce or WEC comes to Phoenix I will personally go to her office and beg the person who selects who gets the tickets for the corporate suite.

Another Night of Wrestling

My wife called me this afternoon (well Tuesday afternoon now that it is Wednesday morning) and told me that she had a surprise and to get our nephew ready to go out. She gets home carrying a bag with a pint-sized WWE t-shirt for our nephew and tells me that she was given 3 tickets to the WWE Smackdown tonight in Phoenix (They tape 2 Smackdown shows on Tuesday and Wednesday and then edit them together and show them on Friday nights). Remember, she is in a position where she deals with many travelers who come in to town for training and she will set up for outings and events and as a perk she will be given tickets to local events on occasion.

 So we hop the metro rail and head downtown, get in to US Airways Arena and are escorted to a private escalator heading up to the corporate suites. We were totally surprised when the lady at the door asked us to come with her (we snuck in water bottles and thought we got caught) but apparently this is just a service they offer to people in suites. So we ended up in the corporate suite overlooking the ring with amazing views; a private waiter, private bathroom, big screen plasma tv, leather seats... it was a trip of a lifetime. I honestly never expected to ever be able to sit in one of these suites so it was a treat for us all.

 I will post up pictures of the matches including two matches for both Randy Orton and Christen, a surprise visit from Sheamus (my favorite wrestler) and a sweet picture of Kane and the exploding cornern ring posts.

Vintage Card of the Month: Wood & Beecham

In honor of the 2011 Women’s World Cup, which began today, I am going back to 1927 with this month’s vintage card(s). I do not have any cards from women’s soccer so I am posting 2 cards from the 1927 Football Caricatures by MAC set. This set is a tobacco era card set and cards were included in packs of John Player & Sons cigarettes. The players were from various English leagues but there were also players from Scotland, Wales and Ireland included in the set. The cards are in decent condition with the backs showing a bit more wear then the fronts. Arthur Wood's card is yellowed on the back and Beecham's card has some stains.

 Arthur Wood was a goalkeeper for the Clapton Orient, the team is now known as Leyton Orient F.C., and was very effective during the 1920s making 373 appearances for the team. He retired following the 1931 but made the occasional appearance for 2 club teams on the Isle of Wight. 

 Ernie Beecham was also a goalkeeper, he played for Fulham from 1925 through 1932, and to say he was just mediocre would do him justice. He played 187 total games over those 7 years and was an average player. Most of the cards in the set can be found for a dollar or two with the entire 50-card set selling around $60-65.

The O.G. Baby!

  

I went out to dinner with my family tonight and came across this guy. I didn’t realize it but he lives here in Chandler and is seen around town often. My wife, who really has some brass cojones, just walked up to him and started talking to him and he was surprisingly nice. What was cool is that he was just walking around in shorts and a soccer jersey not trying to stand out or draw attention, though his sweet hooked up convertible Mercedes and trophy wife did counter that.