Early Preview: 2012 Upper Deck Marvel Premier

Upper Deck is taking a page out of the sports card world and offering a high-end comic set, in October Upper Deck will be releasing Marvel Premier. The product was announced last week at San Diego Comic-Con. Each 4-card pack of Marvel Premier will run $200 and will contain a base card (which is #/99), a 1/1 sketch card, a multi-hinged sketch card and the fourth card will be either a Classic Corners card, a Shadowbox card or an “Emotion” booklet card.

Upper Deck’s reasoning is that comic collectors have put out big bucks from some of their premium inserts over the years so they want to provide collectors with a premium high-end product. I have been reading through some of the graphic novel and comic card collector’s forums and I have to say, Upper Deck has seriously over-estimated this part of the market. While many collectors like the product (I will admit, they are pretty sweet and would fulfill my inner geek) but not many seem ready to drop $200 for a base card, 2 sketch cards and either a manu-patch, shadowbox or mystery “Emotion” booklet card. Most have the “wait until next year” attitude when packs will be selling at $50 and individual cards are pennies on the dollar.

A Box Break:

The premium base card set will consist of a 50-card checklist with each thick-card stock card #/99. With one base card per pack, a 50-card checklist and 99 copies of each card that means there will be 4,950 total packs released.

 The sketch cards and multi-hinged sketch cards will all be 1/1, meaning there will be nearly 5,000 individual sketch cards, I am not sure of the hinged sketch card totals. The set will include work from some top artists; some of the names already announced are Cruddle Torrain, Jason Adams and NAR! The multi-hinged sketch cards are an enlarged sketch cards that are folded two, three or four times. So you will receive two different sketch cards per pack, an individual one and a hinged one.

The fourth card will be one of these three types of cards:

The Classic Corners card, a manufactured patch that looks like one of Marvel’s classic corner pieces from a graphic novel.

The Shadowbox card, building on the popular shadowbox cards Upper Deck brings them over to the Marvel World. To note, Rittenhouse did release a 6-card shadowbox set as part of the Marvel Greatest Heroes last March.

The “Emotion” Booklet card has not been previewed yet but Jason Adams and NAR! will be the artists creating this insert. I am guessing that Upper Deck plans on keeping these booklet cards a bit of a mystery until release date in a similar manor as the Shadowbox cards a couple of years ago.

Sayonara Seattle...

The Mariners traded Ichiro to the Yankees today for two minor league pitchers.


According to the Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln, the trade was requested by Ichiro and if you look at this over the long run it works out for the Mariners. Ichiro is 38 years old and his numbers have been dropping so taking in to account he may be seriously considering retirement this at least gives the Mariners return on his departure.

The UFC Finest Grill Gear Relics Begin To Appear

2012 Topps UFC Finest went live at midnight on July 18^th and within minutes individual cards were showing up for auction. Possibly the most significant and anticipated card from the entire set showed up for auction within 12 hours of the product being released, the first Grill Gear relic card had at last seen daylight. The Grill Gear relics are a 15-card checklist where every card is #1/1 and contains an entire fight-used mouth-guard enclosed in a Lucite holder.

Not only was it the first Grill Gear relic, but the best of the Grill Gear relics, someone had pulled the Chael Sonnen Grill Gear relic card. The redemption card was set for auction and ended 24 hours later when it sold for $1,750. I am a bit surprised, I was actually expecting the price to be closer to $2,500 but I wonder if the short time frame was a detriment to the final sales price. You have to consider if a longer auction would have rewarded the seller; it is possible that some potential buyers may not have had the opportunity to even see the auction. I guess we will get a better idea when we start to see the other 14 cards come up for sale or if this one gets posted again by the new owner.

To add to the excitement, the first VIP Pass showed up for sale last Thursday and the auction runs through the 26th, there is a set $2,399.99 BIN. The VIP Pass cards are redemption of sorts, the card contains a code which is good for entry in to the VIP UFC exclusive sweepstakes. There are only 50 VIP Pass cards total and one winner will be selected and will win an all-inclusive trip to a UFC event, 2 tickets to the fight and access to a fight meet-and-greet before the event. Each VIP Pass is also signed by Dana White.

EDIT 7/24: Three more VIP Pass cards have shown up in the last 24 hours and range from $599.99 opening bid ($899.99 BIN) through $1199.99 BIN in addition to the first VIP Pass that showed up last week there are now 4 total VIP Pass cards up for auction.

Early Preview: 2012 TNA TENacious Wrestling

Over the next two months we are primed to see 3 new wrestling sets hit the shelf. First up is Leaf’s Original Wrestling, a set that I reviewed in early May. This will be followed up by TriStar’s TNA Impact TENacious in Mid-August with Topps’ 2012 WWE Wrestling hitting in September, a set that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. TriStar will offer an early-release of TNA TENacious on August 1^st at the National Convention but it will not be available to everyone else until August 15^th. Boxes are currently pre-selling at $70 for a 20-pack box with 7-cards per pack.

The set is dedicated to TNA’s decade of wrestling and will extremely limited, roughly 1,800 total boxes. Each box will contain 4 hits, 3 autographs and 1 Celebrity Signature card or a memorabilia card, there will also be 3 short-print cards consisting of a short-print and two numbered parallel cards. The one-per-box short print may include one of the following (among others); a Jeff Hardy “Art” card, a Celebrate Sting card, a TNA Arrivals card or a Hulk Hogan: The Immortal Speaks card.

We will also see Brooke Hogan’s first card and TriStar has decided to spice the set up by using celebrity autographs. Each celebrity included have had some connection with TNA, most appear to have appeared in matches or at PPV events. The list is pretty impressive and some celebs that have been announced: Brian Urlacher, Toby Keith, Chris Rock, Dennis Rodman and Tito Ortiz and each of the celebrity cards will be limited to #/5 or less. The huge downside with the Celebrity Signature cards is that they are cut-signatures, a serious disappointment. You would have thought that between TriStar and TNA they could have caught up to most of these celebs and sat down with them to sign 5 on-card autographs or even 5 stickers.

Sneak Peek At Upper Deck's National VIP Cards

Upper Deck will also be offering a special set for collectors who purchase the VIP package. Upper Deck’s set will be a six-card set that will highlight some special talent from around the sports world. Even though they do not have a MLB, NFL or NBA license they were still able to use their NHL, MLS and NCAA licensing, along with a couple of individual licenses, and they were still able to create a solid lineup for the VIP set. Each card will contain a gold side border and gold name plates plus a VIP logo along the bottom. These cards are similar to the warapper redemption cards (as you will see below) except for the color. The VIP cards are gold and have the logo where the wrapper redemption cards use silver in place of the gold and there is not a VIP logo.

Upper Deck will also be offering the redemption pickup project, the expired redemption raffle (both covered yesterday) and a wrapper redemption (more about this below).

The set includes:

Upper Deck National Wrapper Redemption

On top of the VIP set, redemption card pick up and expired redemption raffle Upper Deck will also be offering a wrapper redemption program. It is a little different than many of the other wrapper redemptions that we have seen; instead of purchasing product from Upper Deck’s booth you will actually by from certified dealers to be eligible.

The way that it works:

Purchase 5 hobby packs of select Upper Deck products at a Certified Diamond Dealer

The dealer will give you a voucher from Upper Deck stating you purchased 5 select packs

Open the packs and keep the wrappers

Take the voucher and 5 wrappers to Upper Deck’s booth and you will receive one pack of 2012 Upper Deck National Sports Collectors Convention pack in exchange for the voucher and wrappers

Collectors can claim up to 5 redemption packs maximum each day

 There will be 5 different sets of 5 players, one for each day

 The program begins Wed, Aug 1^st at noon and runs through Sun, Aug 5^th. Each day redemption packs will be available beginning at noon until supplies run out.

Inserted randomly in to the redemption packs will be limited edition autographs, announced so far: LeBron, MJ, Sidney Crosby Gretzky, Landon Donovan, Bobby Orr, Don Mattingly, Trent Richardson, Alex Ovechkin and RG3 and there may be additional athletes added before the convention

The product that is eligible for the wrapper redemption:

2011-12 NHL SP Game-Used
2012 Upper Deck Football
2011-12 NHL SPx
2011 College Football Legends
2012 SPx Football
2012 SP Signature Edition Baseball
2011-12 NHL SP Authentic
2012 Upper Deck Soccer

Each day will have a different set of 5 players with Wed & Thurs offering the same 5 players:

Thursday, August 2
NSCC-1 – Michael Jordan
NSCC-2 – Thierry Henry
NSCC-3 – Alonzo Mourning
NSCC-4 – Roger Staubach
NSCC-5 – Cody Buckel

Friday, August 3
NSCC-6 – Wayne Gretzky
NSCC-7 – Robert Griffin III
NSCC-8 – David Robertson
NSCC-9 – Don Mattingly
NSCC-10 – Dwayne DeRosario

Saturday, August 4
NSCC-11 – Tiger Woods
NSCC-12 – John Kruk
NSCC-13 – Sidney Crosby
NSCC-14 – Landon Donovan
NSCC-15 – Trent Richardson

Sunday, August 5
NSCC-16 – LeBron James
NSCC-17 – Bobby Orr
NSCC-18 – Jack Morris
NSCC-19 – Brodie Merrill
NSCC-20 – Alex Ovechkin

Upper Deck's National Convention Redemption Program

Upper Deck, similar to Panini, is offering customers with current or outstanding redemptions the option to pick up their card (if it is "In House") or a replacement card during the National Convention. This is actually a program that Upper Deck began offering at the 2012 Sports Cards & Collectibles Expo in Toronto back in May and they have decided to continue with it at the National.

The way that it works:

1. Review your current redemptions by logging into your Upper Deck account

 

2. Any cards that have a status of “In House” can be selected to be shipped to the National where you can pick them up at Upper Deck’s booth

 

3. Any cards with a status other than “In House” or “Shipped” can be exchanged for another card

 

4. Send an email to: time2swap@upperdeck.com with the subject title “2012 NSCC Redemption Program.”

In the body of the email, please cut and paste the code and description of the card you would like fulfilled to be picked up at the National. 

If you are looking to exchange for a card that is unavailable in the body of the email, please cut and past the code and description of the card you would like exchanged. Keeping the message short (preferably less than 30 words) describe the type of replacement you would like to receive. Be specific if possible: Team, region or brand. You can request a specific player but more likely than not, you may not receive that player.

 

5. Requests must be received in by Monday, July 23

6. Only the redemption holder can pick up the card, you will be required to show ID and you will also need to sign for the redemption

 

 

The redemption program will be available August 2-4

Aug 2- 1:00-6:00 PM

Aug 3- 1:00-6:00 PM

Aug 4- 1:00-4:00 PM

Upper Deck’s Expired Redemption Card Raffle

In an interesting addition to their redemption program at the convention, Upper Deck is taking it a step further. To give collectors a treat they will also be offering an expired redemption raffle. Just as it sounds, bring an expired redemption card to the Upper Deck booth before 4:00 PM on August 4^th and you will be entered in a special expired redemption card raffle. There will be at least 100 prizes offered during the raffle.

The way that it works:

1.  Bring up to 5 unscratched and expired redemption cards to the Upper Deck booth on August 4^th by 4:00 PM

2. The cards can be from any major manufacturer (Topps, Panini or Upper Deck) and the cards must be from the online redemption era and they must be unscratched and unredeemed (I know that sounds like an obvious request but…) I am uncertain of which companies are all included so if you have a question stop by their booth and ask, what is the worst that can happen?

3. Return to the Upper Deck booth by 5:00 PM, you must be present to win

The prizes offered include, but not limited to, autograph cards, memorabilia and unopened product. The prizes do not come from current live product, they are made up of promotional signature cards, items pulled during product reviews, expired quality control replacements and expired redemption inventory.

Here are some sneak peeks at some of what will be included as prizes:

Sneak Peek At Panini's National VIP Cards

Panini has decided to keep it simple with their National VIP set, a 6-card checklist. So far they have released images for the first 4 cards in the checklist; RG3, Andrew Luck, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Kyrie Irving. Panini is holding back two “mystery” cards that will only be released to the public on August 1^st at the convention.

Seeing that the four cards include the some of top draft picks from basketball, football and hockey I would expect the final two cards to be baseball prospects. My best guess would be Yu Darvish and maybe Mike Trout. What I like about the cards is that they are based on the Diamond Kings inserts that have become part of the Donruss/Panini legend.

 

Is anyone else wondering why Panini has included the spot metering circle on Irving's card? When I first saw the card I thought it was a water mark but I took a closer look and that is full-on the center focus from a camera's viewfinder. None of the other cards carry the marking.

Panini Redemption Trade Up- National Convention Program

Panini will also offer a redemption “Trade-up” program during the National Convention where collectors who are waiting on overdue redemptions can do a trade up at Panini’s booth. They felt this will give frustrated collectors the option to get something of higher value instead of waiting for their outstanding redemption.

The program layout:

Collectors must have redemptions that are outstanding a minimum of four months (April 1^st, 2012). If possible, collectors are encouraged to bring print outs showing their outstanding redemptions, this will be verified by Panini’s CSMs.

Redemption cards will have their value determined using Beckett prices by Panini’s CSM team and will be separated by sport

Outstanding redemption card’s prices can be combined to a max of $400 or they can be redeemed individually

Once a price has been determined by Panini and accepted by the collector, the collector will have to sign a release form agreeing to the random pull replacement

Grab bags are separated by price levels and sports. Each grab bag will contain an autograph or prime memorabilia card and will be separated by sport and set price points- $50, $100 and $200

Some grab bags will contain replacement cards with higher values, for example some $50 bags will contain cards as high as $80, some $100 bags will contain cards as high as $140 and some $200 bags will contain cards up to $250 in value.

Some grab bags will contain onsite redemption cards that will be good for boxes of product that you can exchange for the box at that moment.

The program will begin on August 1^st and will only run from 5 PM- 8 PM

This is a nice offer on Panini’s side, it will give collectors the opportunity to get something out of an overdue redemption card that may or may not ever show up. There are both an upside and downside with the program. For a collector who pulled a redemption of a player who they did not care for either way this can work out in their favor because they could end up with a player they collect or a player that will offer decent value. The downside is if a collector has specific player redemption and are tired of waiting months or even a year, they could end up with a player of no interest to them. Just because two players have the same Beckett value does not mean they are equal in the eyes of the collector.

Doing a quick search, I selected a mid-priced ($120.50 w 4 days left) Panini Limited Glass Cleaner Kevin Durant autograph redemption and within a $10 range of that $120 price there is a Ron Harper Limited Trophy Case auto-relic, a Dave Cowens Preferred Choice auto, a Grant Hill Limited SP autograph and a Alonzo Mourning Preferred Choice auto. Yes some of these are asking prices and not actual prices and yes some of them are limited and yes there were also Blake Griffin auto-relics, Chris Paul auto and Kobe Bryant autographs but no matter how you sell it someone is going to get the crap in exchange for a meaningful redemption.

Because of the uncertainty, if I had a delayed redemption for a specific athlete that I collected, I would hold on to the redemption and hope that it comes through some day. I would happily wait on a Durant autograph then take my chance on possibly pulling a Dave Cowens auto even if the Durant is un-numbered and the Cowens is #/5.



Sneak Peek At Sportking's National VIP Cards

Sportkings has announced their National Convention VIP Cards. Sportkings has two offers, the first is the VIP Puzzle cards which will be included (redemption card) in the VIP bags and the second is a product redemption set.

In the VIP bags will be a Sportkings redemption card; you bring the redemption card to their booth and exchange the card for 9 puzzle pieces. There are 9 subjects in the puzzle checklist: David Robinson, Gordie Howe, Gale Sayers, Bjorn Borg, Ken Griffey Jr., Franco Harris, Annika Sorenstam, Tito Ortiz and Man O’War.

There is also a separate redemption program too; purchase a box of Sportkings Series E (Currently $90-100 each) from their booth and you can exchange the box top for one game-used Sportkings memorabilia card. There are 20 subjects with 19 being Silver Subjects and 1 Gold Subject. Memorabilia cards can have between one and three memorabilia relics inserted in the card. All of the redemption relic cards have a “33^rd National” logo printed on the card to differentiate them from the regular Series E relic cards.

To add to the chase, purchase a 16-box case of Series E and you will get a National 1/1 Spectacular Patch card.

Another redemption program that Sportkings was already running connected to the Series E product is the Chase Cards. Each box of Series E includes a base card with a letter on the back instead of the standard card back. If you collect all of the letters to spell out “SPORTKINGS” you will receive a special #/10 Premium Sportkings Quad Memorabilia card, collect enough letter chase cards to spell it out twice and you get a 1/1 Premium Sketch card and if you can get enough chase cards to spell it out five times and you will get a 1/1 Premium Art Card hand painted by artist Jared Kelley. I am not sure if the art card will also have the “33^rd National” logo or if it was one that he created for the set.