Jared Kelley Signs With In The Game

Back in July I highlighted artist Jared Kelley and his Upper Deck Masterpiece cards of Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Mark Messier. You may also recognize his name if you are a fan of the 2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions release, Jared is the artist who painted half of the US Presidents Goodwin Masterpieces cards. A couple of his Presidential Masterpiece cards are currently up for auction including a James Madison, a James Monroe and a Zachary Taylor.

He is in collecting news again with his recent signing deal with In The Game where he will be producing work for the 2012 Sport Kings Series E; set to be released early next year. According to Dr. Price, he is hoping to add something new to his products and as a fan of Jared’s work I am looking forward to his new artwork.

I have talked with Jared and he let me know that the Magic Johnson card that is appearing with the announcement is in fact one of his paintings that will be included in the 2012 Sport King Series E release.

To keep up with his work you can follow Jared’s blog.

WOW! A Sweet Lou Gehrig Relic... maybe not...

First I would like to thank Sooz from A Cardboard Problem for bringing this auction to light (courtesy of @JuddFamily Stone on Twitter) but it appears that once again Topps is giving collectors a middle finger followed up by a “Suck It!”

In the 2008 Topps Triple Threads release Topps included a fake Ruth/Gehrig autograph card:

 In the 2010 Topps Sterling release we saw this beautiful game-worn Honus Wagner polyester jersey card:

Now let’s fast forward about 10 months and take a look at this sweet Lou Gehrig 1/1 Bat Knob card (which would have been awesome on its own) but to make it even more awesomer (Is that even a word?) Topps adds in two game used relics including a pin stripe. How fucking cool is that?

Here is a close up of the game-used relics:

…Oh wait… aren’t those relics… um…polyester? Why yes they are…but didn’t polyester uniforms show up in the 1970s some 30+ years after Gehrig died? Why yes, you are correct again.

I expect to once again hear crickets coming from Topps corner when people start asking for an explanation. I do like the addition of “The Relics contained on this card are not from any specific game, event or season” as a way of CYA. Maybe they should consider adding in “Any specific player” to the list too to ensure complete coverage.

 If this card is indeed real and pulled from a sealed pack from Topps there is a serious problem, especially considering that it has happened before. Some sort of verification needs to be ensured with autographs and memorabilia and I thought cards like this were hand packed which means that it should have been caught during manufacturing or at least during the pack out. Anyone that spends any amount of time producing sports cards can tell you the difference between a polyester jersey  and a wool flannel jersey.

Custom Cards- Movie Edition: Dead Man

After an exhausting few weeks I have finally found some quite time to relax and I got the chance the other day to watch Dead Man, an independent Western film made in 1995 featuring Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer. You will also see Robert Mitchum in one of his final films, Crispin Glover playing a creepy guy (besides Back To the Future, does he know any of the type of character?), Iggy Pop as a cross-dresser and Billy Bob Thornton as one strange-ass trapper who loves beans.

The movie is not your standard western but if you appreciate a well written, although strange movie, this is definitely well worth the time to watch it if you have the chance. I just felt the need to build a set off of the film, the grainy black & white visuals and historical connection just seemed right to see the major character on cardboard.

There was never a time reference so I did not have a date to build off of but the 1887 Old Judge set seemed to be a nice fit. There were no real printing standards at the time and if you view the cards from the era you will see a lot of variety even within the same set and I love the sepia coloring. This will allow me to change things up.

I started with the 2 main characters, William Blake (Depp) and Nobody (Farmer) and then I will build on to the set. I also have a Train Fireman card (Glover) because he is one of the first characters you meet in to the movie. Up next will probably be John Scholfield (Hurt) and John Dickinson (Mitchum) when I get the chance.

Preview Images: 2011 Leaf Pete Rose Legacy

In a couple of months (November) the 2011 Leaf Pete Rose Legacy set will be hitting the shelves and from what images that have been released it appears that it may be similar to the Leaf Muhammad Ali release.

There will be a decent selection of hits including some very interesting inscription autograph cards (including Rose-isms and Nicknames) along with jersey and bat relics plus patches, name plates and tags, which apparently came from an Expos uniform. Odd considering he spent only 1 year in Montreal and that was the direction that Leaf went with the relics. But I am sure that most Rose fans will be happy just to have the opportunity to pull Rose autographs and relics out of packs again.

No prices or pre-order information has been released and only the word “high-end” has been used to describe the product so we may be looking at $75-100/pack and possibly a similar pack out to Leaf’s Ali product.

Preview Images Topps Chrome Football Autographs

Topps Chrome Football is set to hit shelves at the end of October but Topps is already working on the on-card rookie autograph cards and have posted up some images from Mark Ingram’s signed cards on their Twitter page. I have to say they do appeal to me with the Bowman Chrome being my favorite, but for some reason I am not feeling it with the refractor.

Who Is A What?

While not sports related I thought this was too funny not to bring it up. The other day a seller posted this Civil War era picture up for auction for $1,000,000 claiming a famous connection. The picture was taken in 1864 and is a photograph of Lt. G.B. Smith, a Confederate prisoner being held in an Ohio POW prison.

The reason for the $1,000,000 opening bid price? The seller claims that this picture is a 146-year old piece of evidence that Nicholas Cage is in fact a vampire.

After receiving numerous questions and comments in the Q&A section pointing out holes in his theory, the seller has since removed this item from sale. 

 I have to admit, upon first glance the two do look similar and if you were to tell me that Lt. Smith and Nicholas Cage were related I would definitely say that is a possibility but as for being a vampire I don’t see it. Cage has aged seriously since his “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Valley Girl” days and as someone humorously pointed out… vampires supposedly cannot be photographed.

Leaf Responds To Topps Lawsuit

Recently Topps filed a lawsuit against Leaf because of the inclusion of graded Topps cards in Leaf's Best of Baseball release. Leaf and Brian Gray have responded according to the Facebook page:

Leaf Trading Cards, LLC has filed a counterclaim against The Topps Company, Inc. seeking a declaratory judgment, actual damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs. These claims were filed along with an answer to Topps’ complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York regarding the marketing and sale of Leaf’s 2011 “Best of Baseball” product. Brian Gray, Leaf’s President stated that “Leaf respects the intellectual property rights of its competitors, but Topps’ lawsuit is a wrongful attempt to exercise monopolistic control in the trading card industry. Leaf is entitled to advertise products by displaying images of products that we legally acquired and are entitled to sell. We are confident that the court will vindicate our business practices.”

Additionally, Brian Gray said “Leaf respects the intellectual property rights of its competitors, but Topps’ lawsuit is a wrongful attempt to exercise monopolistic control in the trading card industry. Leaf is entitled to advertise products by displaying images of products that we legally acquired and are entitled to sell. We are confident that the court will vindicate our business practices.”

Being a graphic designer I have worked with copyrights, I have copyrighted designs and I have worked with copyrighted images and graphics both in personal projects as well as “Work for hire” projects. I actually just did a study and research paper recently on the copyright laws in comparison to public-domain and fair use laws in regards to artistic work.

The problem that Topps will have is that Leaf is not advertising that they created the Topps product nor are they including the name Topps in any of the pre-sales information/copy. They even clearly state “Graded” and “Graded/Slabbed” and do not list any corporate names. Yes they do include images of the Topps cards (which may be a sticking point for Topps) but they purchased these cards on the secondary-market and as an end-user have the legal right to sell them as long as the product is represented properly. Think of this as you selling a Topps card on eBay, you can list Topps in the title and description and you can include an image of the card as long as you do not attempt to make claim to creating the design or create a new product and list it as a Topps creation.

The only thing that may come out of this, on Topps side, would be the requirement that Leaf remove any images of Topps product from their sales materials but I would be floored if a judge issues an order halting Leaf from selling the product or removing Topps cards from the release. If anything harsher were to happen it would set precident that potentially could handcuff dealers, retailers and even people selling items on eBay or at auction. We would be at the mercy of Topps’ legal team, which could get as bad as an Orwellian society forcing us to request permission to list a Topps product for sale.

Preview Images 2011 Topps Five Star Football

Topps posted up some pictures of the upcoming high-end 2011 Five Star Football release. Pretty sweet Montana/Rice dual auto. How cool would it be to see a Dave Krieg/Steve Largent dual auto? I know... not going to happen but I can hope right?

If you had the disposable income ($500/pack) would you pick up some packs?

A&G Minds That Made The Future

Rounding out my favorite inserts from the 2011 Topps Allen & Ginters set is not from the minis category but is one that I am glad Topps chose to add to the release. The Minds That Made The Future set at 40 cards is the largest non-baseball insert set (not counting the 50 States Relic set) but is also the most informative set by far.

Because the list is extremely long and it would take some seriously long and detailed research to cover them all I decided to just list them and hit on a couple that are important to me or contain some interesting facts.

MMF1 Leonardo da Vinci MMF2 Alexander G. Bell MMF3 Eli Whitney MMF4 Nicolaus Copernicus MMF5 Johannes Gutenberg MMF6 George W. Carver MMF7 Samuel Morse MMF8 Granville Woods MMF9 Elisha Otis MMF10 Alessandro Volta

MMF11 Tycho Brahe MMF12 Gregor Mendel MMF13 Carl Linnaeus MMF14 Johannus Kepler MMF15 Isaac Newton MMF16 Marie Curie MMF17 Carl Friedrich Gauss MMF18 Sigmund Freud MMF19 Bernhard Riemann MMF20 Leonhard Euler

MMF21 Robert Fulton MMF22 Ada Lovelace MMF23 Florence Nightingale MMF24 Nikola Tesla MMF25 Galileo Galilei MMF26 Charles Darwin MMF27 Louis Pasteur MMF28 Guglielmo Marconi MMF29 Antoine Lavoisier MMF30 Michael Faraday

MMF31 Dmitri Mendeleev MMF32 Robert Koch MMF33 Euclid MMF34 Archimedes MMF35 Jagadish Chandra Bose MMF36 Aristotle MMF37 John Deere MMF38 George Eastman MMF39 Samuel Colt MMF40 Benjamin Franklin

Leonardo da Vinci- I was fortunate enough to study his art in college, he was advance well beyond his years and is most connected to the European Renaissance artistic movement more than any other artist. He did everything with a scientific approach; he took detailed notes and kept all of his anatomy studies in journals for future reference. Only a few of his paintings remain but a number of his journals have been found detailing his life’s work.

He was known for being a procrastinator, often leaving paintings and other art projects unfinished. Did you know that he would take completed paintings and re-use them by painting over them to try new paints or styles, which would ruin the original painting? See, art school prepared me for an awesome game of Trivial Pursuit.

Samuel Morse-  .... . / .-- .- ... / .- -. / .. -. ...- . -. - --- .-.

 Sorry, I could not help myself there. This dude was a conspiracist that felt other countries were attempting to stymie America’s freedom. He hated immigrants and Catholics, was a racist and an anti-Semite. Strange how those little tid-bits do not make it in to the history books.

Tycho Brahe- He was an astronomer during a time when if your belief did not jive with everyone else you could be tortured or killed but a more interesting fact? His nose was cut off in a duel and he wore a fake nose the remainder of his life made out of copper but on occasion he may have worn a silver or gold nose.

Benjamin Franklin- What da Vinci was to the European Renaissance Franklin was to America’s history. He was a politician but also an inventor and an amazing writer who was able to see the world through other’s eyes. Look up Richard Saunders (Poor Richard), Silence Dogood, Miss Busy Body, Anthony Afterwit or Alice Addertongue and you will get an idea how his mind worked.

 I only pulled the Leonardo da Vinci card from this set, the one card that I really wanted, and it is difficult to find more then a handful of cards sold in a lot together so I definitely will not be building this set.

Woops, Somebody Made A Mistake

Today's WTF moment goes to Panini.

I open up Panini's Donruss Facebook page this morning and I am greeted by the top two most recent posts on their page. Looks like someone missed something.

Warning:The images are NSFW