Sports Card Geek Heaven
Archive for June, 2011
2002-03 UD Glass Auto Focus Autographs
Jun 30th
2002-03 UD Glass Auto Focus Autographs
Not only were the Auto Focus cards amazing to look at but they also had some of the greatest autograph checklists NBA cards have ever seen once 2004-05 and 2005-06 rolled out UD Trilogy Auto Focus sets. No disrespect to the obvious leaders like Topps Fan Favorites and Upper Deck Legends sets. The Auto Focus sets were littered with a lot of worthless rookies that now a few years later might as well be in a trash can. (I’m talking to you Sean May and Wayne Simien) Also…how in the hell did Keyon Dooling make this checklist? Very strange.
Check out this checklist in 2005-06:
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A few of those SP’s should be super SP’s like Pippen and Ming but it’s balanced out by the J.R. Smith that few would consider short printed.
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2011 Topps Allen & Ginter
Jun 28th
2011 Topps Allen & Ginter
John McEnroe is all I needed to see to get geeked about Allen & Ginter again this year. Last year’s autograph checklist was a little soft when it came to non baseball autographs but this year between Mac and Manny Pacquiao there is sure to be even more busting and chasing than we usually see with A&G. They ahve completely revamped the auto checklist with the aforementioned members as well as Dick Vitale, Sue Bird, Kristi Yamaguchi, Stan Lee, Lou Holtz and Jim Nantz. Pretty interesting names that you certainly won’t find in many, if any, other products.
Crack the code, don’t crack the code…I don’t really care. The code thing has never gotten me all hot and bothered and it that’s not about to change this year. You have to bust too much of this stuff to even get the cards to help you crack the code. Some collector’s go nuts for this stuff, I’m not one of those collectors.
Of course Rip cards are back bringing plenty of value to the product as well as plenty of fortune and misfortune to those deciding whether or not to rip or sell their new found lottery ticket. The usual “new” inserts this year include animals, flowers and other stuff I don’t care about but master set collectors will drool over. The “Minds Tthat Made the Future” set is a pretty cool concept though. N43, Ginter codes, Box Loaders and mini parallels pack the same punch they always have.
This year’s DNA card being touted is that of Geronimo the long time Apache Indian leader. As usual this one will bring huge cash when it gets pulled or if it gets pulled at all. Ginter’s production run with so many parallels must be through the roof. It gets bought up in such bulk amounts but never seems to run dry which is definitely cause for concern.
A Hobby box will get you three hits, maybe more if you’re lucky but expect at least two of them to be framed memorabilia pieces and often times all three will be memorabilia. This will be a hot product out of the gate and usually has a solid month or two of staying power before prices begin to really fade badly on the more common SP’s, inserts and SP’s memorabilia. SP Autographs, rip cards, and parallels wills stay strong probably until the next A&G is released. That’s part of the fun of ripping this product. You never know if the Bazooka back mini you just pulled is going to fetch $50.
The price point is about the same as past years in the $85-100 range per box. Unlike other products you can never really bank on the price falling and picking it up later at a cheaper price so if you want this stuff you might as well get it as soon as you can. Last year’s A&G is still in the $85-95 range and so is the 2009 wax.
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| You’re going to want to keep her happy. |
To make this product even more fun this is the only proven product my girlfriend will stay interested in. She likes opening any product but this is the only one she truly examines the cards and enjoys seeing pack after pack.
With a release date of July 13th get ready for some fun. I’ll be busting at least one box on my blog.
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Paul Goldschmidt Bowman Chrome Autos and Parallels
Jun 27th
Paul Goldschmidt Bowman Chrome Autos and Parallels
Price Range: Base $35-50, Gold $400-500, Orange $800-900
Why it matters: Goldschmidt was never a super highly touted prospect. An 8th round pick in 2009 belted 35 HR’s in 2010 and was immediately on everyone’s radar. His first autographed chrome cards came out this season in Bowman and I think has caught quite a few people by surprise with the values it has realized. Prices have been on the rise again this season as he is currently slapping a HR every 11-12 AB’s with a .315 average in the Southern League (AA).
Outlook: Comparisons are all over the map with this guy. Some say Ryan Howard, some say Ryan Shealy, but I’m confident with a prediction somewhere in between. I think he will be serviceable in the field an above average at the plate. I would expect his average to drop quite a bit as he advances and but the HR’s will be there. The real question will be how much his average drops.Last season in A+ ball he struck out once every 3.26 AB’s. Is that because he was outmatched? Most of the time no. He had some issues with swinging for the fence every time but supposedly he doesn’t have that bad of discipline. He has cleaned it up a bit this season and is close to a 1:1 K:BB ratio which scouts love to see especially from a guy with this powerband. As for the potential of his cards I certainly wouldn’t recommend picking up the highly volatile rarer parallels but at less than $40 per it may be wise to pick up a few to see if this one can climb to closer to $80 at time of callup and $100 if he does well in his debut week.
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Around the Internets and Twitterbooks 6/26/11
Jun 26th
A weekly post with the funnies, announcements and awesomeness of sports card forums around the internet.
-2011 Donruss Elite Football released and has been met with jeers all around getting an F- for design of this year’s rookie cards which has long been a the flagship of the product. Oh and for even more of a buzzkill on this product the Cam Newton 1/1 Black Elite Status has already been pulled. Get this card for the steal price of $3,000!
-Panini redeems itself revealing shots of their next big football release Absolute Memorabilia. Check out this year’s RPM Autographs! I love them. So clean looking.
-Rare MJ cards soar like Air Jordan at auction this week. No shortage of multi-thousand dollar cards.
-Bryce Harper mania continued as he competed in the SAL All-Star Game and backed out of the Home Run Derby this week. He went 0-2 in the game. Reports from several twitter accounts in the autograph line were not positive regarding the young gun’s attitude and demeanor. Of course that is nothing new. KISS, KISS
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| Photo by TonyH @FreedomCardboard |
-Rory McIlroy dominated the US Open this past weekend, then dominated his trophy. CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!
-Non-card fun
-Weekly Hot Pic
ESPN 30 for 30 Collector’s Set
Jun 25th
ESPN 30 for 30 Limited Edition Collector’s Set
Amazon.com ran a special for one day only where you could buy this “Collector’s Set” which includes both Volume 1 and Volume 2 and an ESPN baseball cap for $49.99. The set is now $79.99 but well worth it.
My favorite episodes are the story of the USFL and how Donald Trump ran it into the ground, Reggie Miller vs. Spike Lee and the Legend of the Jimmy the Greek. It’s also worth noting that I have only watched SIX of them at this point. Next up “The U”. As a long time Hurricane fan I’m excited for this one even though I despise Michael Irvin.
Anyway at $79.99 this is still a hell of a deal so tell your wives, girlfriends, partners and parents that you want this one for your birthday, anniversary, or christmas because it is a must have.
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Are Diamond Giveaway codes worth it?
Jun 24th
Enjoy paying $2-$3 for base Topps cards from the 80′s, 90′s and 2000′s? Then Topps Diamond Giveaway is for you! I know that sounds jaded but I’m actually just going off of the general impression I get reading blog and forum posts about the codes. Of course if you’re opening topps products they are a bonus but the people buying them on ebay must love losing their money. It’s truly gambling at that point and just about anyone would agree you would be smarter taking whatever you would spend on diamond giveaway codes and tossing it on black for one spin of roulette.
It’s sad but probably true that no less than 90% of the time you would be better off getting a measly $2 for your code on ebay after fees/shipping. 90% isn’t an exaggeration either. Most collectors are reporting no better than a 1/10 ratio of digging up a die cut or better. Early on the die cuts were selling well and generally speaking you can get anywhere from $6-$60 depending on the player you pull. So lets say you are lucky enough, yes 1/10 is one of the best ratios I’ve seen with some poor folks going 0/50+, to pull a die cut once every 10 codes. That’s roughly $20 you passed up on purchasing to get a card more than likely worth less than $10. Of course there are older base cards to be pulled from the giveaway but you have absolutely no idea what condition they are in which obviously matters to a great extent when you are talking about cards from the 50′s and 60′s.
Long story short if you pull some giveaway codes either sell them as a lot or save them for the next time you pull some codes and sell them all together as a lot. You probably have noticed that neither one of those recommendations includes using the code yourself and that’s because you might as well throw money in the trash can and most collector’s know that busting wax is already basically doing so. So sell those codes and recoup some cash to live to bust another day!
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2011 NBA Draft Special: Review of the Best RC Cards from 2010-2011
Jun 23rd
Which sets held their value for a measly season? Which players held or gained value? What 2010-2011sets and players can you expect to hold or gain value in coming years?
The Products and Their RC’s:
Donruss: Rated Rookie sticker autos, cool pictures. Not a complete disaster but don’t expect them to hold much value going forward.
Absolute: Same old design, not terrible, not great. Stickers of course. Cool patches though.
Adrenalyn XL: Seriously? Why did they even make this?
Classics: On card, very nice looking design. Worth picking up.
Limited: As usual a solid release and great design. Another set you can feel safe investing in.
Prestige: Early release, lots of players in camp/college jerseys, autos paralleled to death. No thank you.
Rookies and Stars: Blah, nuff said.
Timeless Treasures: Sharpie, Leather piece…disaster waiting to happen with the autos. See older sweet spot cards.Still holding value pretty well right now though.
Contenders: Cropped autos, not a fan. Regression from 09-10
SP Authentic: Letter Autos…garbage
The Lottery:
| 1 | 1 | John Wall | PG |  United States |
Washington Wizards | Kentucky (Fr.) |
| 1 | 2 | Evan Turner | SG/SF | United States |
Philadelphia 76ers | Ohio State (Jr.) |
| 1 | 3 | Derrick Favors | PF | United States |
New Jersey Nets | Georgia Tech (Fr.) |
| 1 | 4 | Wesley Johnson | SF | United States |
Minnesota Timberwolves | Syracuse (Jr.) |
| 1 | 5 | DeMarcus Cousins | C | United States |
Sacramento Kings | Kentucky (Fr.) |
| 1 | 6 | Ekpe Udoh | PF | United States |
Golden State Warriors | Baylor (Jr.) |
| 1 | 7 | Greg Monroe | PF/C | United States |
Detroit Pistons | Georgetown (So.) |
| 1 | 8 | Al-Farouq Aminu | SF | United States |
Los Angeles Clippers | Wake Forest (So.) |
| 1 | 9 | Gordon Hayward | SF | United States |
Utah Jazz (from New York via Phoenix)[a] | Butler (So.) |
| 1 | 10 | Paul George | SF | United States |
Indiana Pacers | Fresno State (So.) |
| 1 | 11 | Cole Aldrich | C | United States |
New Orleans Hornets (traded to Oklahoma City)[A] | Kansas (Jr.) |
| 1 | 12 | Xavier Henry | SG | United States |
Memphis Grizzlies | Kansas (Fr.) |
| 1 | 13 | Ed Davis | PF | United States |
Toronto Raptors | North Carolina (So.) |
Wall, Cousins and Turner were the studs of this lottery. One total bust has already been identified in Cole Aldrich and this is coming from a Thunder fan. Davis, George, Hayward, Udoh, Johnson and Favors all showed flashes of brilliance. Greg Monroe was a double double machine in the second half of the season and is probably a good investment going forward.
For the price right now the best investments are Cousins, Monroe, Hayward and Favors because of potential and the market they play in. Ed Davis is very good but Toronto is a killer and he doesn’t have a scorer’s mentality so he won’t see a price boom any time soon from a 40+ game. Favors is probably more about the big market than it is his play thus far. He has loads of potential though, but they say that about a lot of guys.
My “Investment” pick if I may use that term is Evan Turner. Andre Iguodala just got traded opening up a lot more room for Jrue Holiday and ET to get to work. I like the new combo that will get to run the floor exclusively in Philadelphia next season.
Outside the Lottery:
Notable impacts were made by Jordan Crawford, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, Greivis Vazquez, and Landry Fields while the rest of the later picks had tough times even finding roster spots. I would feel silly saying any of these guys are worthy of investing more than a $20 bill in (assuming that gets you 4-5 of their autos) but if I must recommend a couple it would be Jordan Crawford because the kid plain scores and Eric Bledsoe because Clippers fans are rallying behind their young guns.
Words to the Wise:
Be happy there isn’t Finest anymore for you to invest hard earned dollars into what turns into a Yaraslov Korolev gold refractor redemption that you won’t see for a year. Also, don’t invest in boxes of Prestige or Donruss just because you have to have the latest rookies or product. Wait it out, it’s worth it.
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1995 and 1996 Pinnacle Summit Ground Zero Parallel
Jun 22nd
1995 and 1996 Pinnacle Summit Ground Zero Parallel
Ah yes, Ground Zero. Pinnacle Summit was far from what we consider a high-end product today but it was certainly in the upper tier of football cards at $6-7 per pack in the mid-1990′s. I don’t recall pack odds nor can I find odds at the moment but they were not very easy to come by. Summit had a black bordered base card, a silver foil parallel and then the Ground Zero parallel. The top RC’s from ’95 and ’96 still hold decent value from this set in the Ground Zero version. Marvin Harrison is usually $5-7, Curtis Martin $7-10, Steve McNair $7-10, Eddie George $10-12, Terrell Davis $6-7 and Kordell Stewart $3-5. Those are not earth shattering prices by any means but for cards produced those years outside of SP and Topps Chrome you won’t find anything else holding value over a dollar or so. This is one of my all time favorite parallels and without sounding too much like a homer I can really see this set gaining value as time goes by. These were the early days of parallels when I could still appreciate them.
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The Ultimate Collection Card #1
Jun 21st
Imagine you have a 50 card display case to fill and unlimited cash to fill it. We are building (figuratively) not literally the greatest card collection ever on this page. We’ll slowly add cards to this collection for your viewing pleasure. We welcome and encourage submissions/suggestions for the Ultimate Collection. Email us at cardgeeks@gmail.com or Tweet us @cardgeeksblog with comments or suggestions. Sending a pic of the card if you have one is even better! We want this to be a community project and most of all we want to have fun with it.
We’ll get started in a week or so on this project so submit your favorites.
2005 Bowman Chrome Matt Kemp Autograph RC
Jun 21st
2005 Bowman Chrome Matt Kemp Auto RC
Price Range: $75-$150 depending on grade.
Why it matters: Kemp is the only thing keeping the Dodgers offense afloat this season. Hitting .330+ with 20 HR and 16 SB Kemp is a darkhorse for the MVP award at this point. If his team were doing better he would be a frontrunner. Assuming the Brewers cool off and the Dodgers pick it up a bit Kemp will be in the discussion for the award along with Braun, Fielder and Jose Reyes if he is still in NY at the end of the season. Of the names mentioned Kemp is the youngest at 27 years old. He currently leads the NL in slugging percentage (.638), HR (20) and is top five in average, OBP, and RBI.
Outlook: I don’t think many people realize he is the youngest of the aforementioned bunch but he most certainly is. Unfortunately for the value of this card he is going to need some national spotlight aka playoff appearance by LA to see further rise in this cards value. The 2005 Bowman Chrome set is a very good one so there may be plenty of this card locked up in sets with Verlander, Butler, McCutchen, Kinsler and the recently hot bat of Mike Morse. If he wins MVP expect this ones range to move up to $100-200 but it’s already pretty high at this point. If Kemp would have been doing this the past few seasons rather than fighting nagging injuries this one might be that high already. Editor’s note- I think he is doing so well because he and his girlfriend Rihanna broke up early this year. He needed to run free!
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