Sports Card Geek Heaven
Archive for October, 2011
Collector’s FYI: Need Card Supplies? Look No Further Than Amazon
Oct 28th
Recently I bought two 100 packs of Ultra Pro pages, another 100 pack of pages for mini cards, a 250 count case of #000 bubble mailers (perfect size for single cards or small lots) and finally a case of 10-100ct packs of penny sleeves. All of that cost me about $50. It should last quite a while. For years I had searched places online to buy supplies and usually bought them from the same place I’d buy boxes to gradually reload. What an idiot I feel like now. If you have amazon prime, which is free if you have an .edu email address by the way, you can get free shipping to boot!
Trust me, you won’t do better than this. Especially if you have the Amazon prime account. If you don’t have amazon prime be sure to order more than $25 to get Free Shipping anyway. If you don’t have a .edu email address prime probably isn’t worth it at $75 a year unless you plan to use Amazon quite a bit.
2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1: Pre-Order ASAP
Oct 27th
Take a look at this Young Gun checklist:
201 Devante Smith-Pelly Anaheim
202 Maxime Macenauer Anaheim
203 Greg Nemisz Calgary
204 Roman Horak Calgary
205 Justin Faulk Carolina
206 Marcus Kruger Chicago
207 Brandon Saad Chicago
208 Gabriel Landeskog Colorado
209 Cameron Gaunce Colorado
210 John Moore Columbus
211 David Savard Columbus
212 Cam Atkinson Columbus
213 Tomas Vincour Dallas
214 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Edmonton
215 Anton Lander Edmonton
216 Teemu Hartikainen Edmonton
217 Erik Gudbranson Florida
218 Brett Bulmer Minnesota
219 Aaron Palushaj Montreal
220 Alexei Yemelin Montreal
221 Raphael Diaz Montreal
222 Brendon Nash Montreal
223 Jonathon Blum Nashville
224 Blake Geoffrion Nashville
225 Craig Smith Nashville
226 Adam Henrique New Jersey
227 Adam Larsson New Jersey
228 Tim Erixon New York
229 Mika Zibanejad Ottawa
230 Colin Greening Ottawa
231 Patrick Wiercioch Ottawa
232 Erik Condra Ottawa
233 Stephane Da Costa Ottawa
234 Sean Couturier Philadelphia
235 Matt Read Philadelphia
236 Erik Gustafsson Philadelphia
237 Joe Vitale Pittsburgh
238 Harri Sateri San Jose
239 Alex Stalock San Jose
240 Brett Connolly Tampa Bay
241 Jake Gardiner Toronto
242 Joe Colborne Toronto
243 Matt Frattin Toronto
244 Ben Scrivens Toronto
245 Cody Hodgson Vancouver
246 Yann Sauve Vancouver
247 Carl Klingberg Winnipeg
248 Mark Scheifele Winnipeg
249 Paul Postma Winnipeg
250 Checklist (Nugent-Hopkins, Landeskog, Larsson)
Of the 50 Young Guns included in Series 1 there are roughly 15-20 that will sell for $10 or more with 5-6 of them selling for near the price of a box. Another thing to consider is that these will presumably be the first legit Winnipeg Jets Rookie Cards in 2011-12. Young Guns Rookie Cards hold their value very well year in and year out. With YG’s falling six per box with parallels including Canvas (1:48), Exclusives #’d /100, and High Gloss #’d /10 this product is loaded with value. Not to mention the design this year is very clean and nice looking.
The best pre-order price we can find on the net is at DCS Sportscards which offers them for $64.95 per box or $192 for a three box lot.
ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 11th Edition Preview
Oct 17th
If you haven’t ever checked in to Dr. Price’s blog you are missing out. He runs Sport Kings and In The Game card companies and on Saturday he posted some preview shots from the upcoming ITG Ultimate 11th edition due out in November. Without stealing too many of his images I’ll post two of them here and let you click on over to his blog for the others.
Ultimate Memorabilia 11th Edition releases November 10, 2011. Ultimate Memorabilia usually sells out quick so if you find some you should pick them up quick. These cards typically have great resell value if you even want to sell them. Check out this Lemieux that is a cool card but not all that amazing and sold for $150! Also all cards in the pack/box you get will be slabbed in a BGS style holder like the ones you see at auction. Of course if you aren’t a high end box buster you can surely wait for some singles. Each box costs about $600 for 11th edition. Each box has 5 packs. Older versions of Ultimate Memorabilia are slightly cheaper and you can find packs of some of them for $90-100. Each pack of 11th edition contains 1 base card, 1 memorabilia card and 1 autograph card.
Dr. Price also announced recently that 11th edition will have “Hot Packs” that have three “Hot Patch” cards in them.
We aren’t huge fans of the design of these cards and frankly would rather get the standard auto and memorabilia for a chance at a great auto. Whatever option you choose be sure to pick up some ITG Ultimate 11th edition cards for your collection.
Least Shocking News Update of the Day: John Tavares is GOOD
Oct 16th
If you don’t already have a Tavares stash I recommend you get one quickly. This kid will take off even more this year as he has added some weight and can hold his own in faceoffs much better this season. Also he plays for a success starved franchise in the New York Islanders which are off to a 3-1 start behind Tavares league leading eight points despite only averaging 16:18 of ice time per game thus far.
His 2009-10 Upper Deck Series One Young Gun will cost you between $40-50 at this point and may be climbing higher if he keeps his current level of play up.
2011-12 OPC O-Pee Chee 2 Box Break With a Giveaway!
Oct 14th
We did VERY well on this break. Our first hockey box break EVER!
First off we have the beards 1:9 packs. Great idea for a parallel. We hit 8 as we should.
Next we got a lot of retros (72 Total), I’ve only got the scan of this one from the Blues I have kept out for my PC. No blank backs in either box. You can also see a Marquee Legends
Then we have the 10-11 Rookie Update Cards 1:9, we hit 8 as we should have. In this scan you also have Trophy Winners which were one per box.
OPC Foil/Rainbow cards fell 1:4 packs however we only recieved 16 of the 18 the odds call for.
We got one “In Action” per box. Neither was an SP.
We got one 10-11 OPC Update RC Retro per box as the odds establish.
We got 6 Black Rainbow Parallels #’d /100, two of which were PC!
Box 1 gave us an autograph, which means we already killed the odds as the autos only fall 1:212 packs. To make it better we got a Mattias Tedenby who is an SP at 1:307 packs.
Box 2 gave us ANOTHER AUTOGRAPH! :champs: This time a Team Canada Autograph which are one per case and we pulled an SP of this too! 1:944 packs!
Now for the giveaway! All you need to do is like our page on Facebook (see the link in the sidebar) and then send us a message via Facebook with what team you collect and we’ll send you every card we pulled of that team with the exception of the St. Louis Blues and the Autographs that were pulled. If you don’t want to do that you can also send us $2 paypal to cardgeeks@gmail.com with the team you want and we’ll ship you everything we pulled of that team. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more breaks. This was a blast!
2011-12 O-Pee Chee Hockey Preview: Review Coming Tomorrow
Oct 13th
2 boxes were just delivered to me roughly five minutes ago. We’ll be breaking them tonight and reporting back to you tomorrow with a couple contests and giveaways.
Here is the product info with the latest release of info on Autograph and Memorabilia odds sent out by UD yesterday. Enjoy the teaser.
2011-12 O-Pee Chee Hockey
Regular Set:
Regular Cards (500)
Marquee Rookies (50)
Marquee Legends (50)
Product Highlights:
(NEW) Team Canada Sigs (1:432)
(NEW) Playoff Beard variations (1:25)
Retro variations (1:1)
(NEW) ’10-11 OPC Rookie Update (1:9)
Reg. Set Blk. Border Rainbow // (# to 100)
Box Break: (on average)
36 Retro variations
4 Playoff Beard variations
1 In-Action Laminated card
4 Rookie Updates (’10-11)
1 Rookie Update Retro (’10-11)
9 Reg. Set Rainbow parallels
Case Break: (on average)
3 O-Pee-Chee Souvenirs (quad jerseys)
2 O-Pee-Chee Signatures
1 Team Canada Signatures
3 Rookie Update Retro Rainbow parallels
Configuration:
6 cards per pack
36 packs per box
Short Printed Hits as reported by UD on their blog post 10/11/2012
Card # Subject(s) Ratio
OS-BB Brian Boyle A Group A 1:103,626
OS-AH Ales Hemsky B Group B 1:8,726
OS-AO Alexander Ovechkin B Group B 1:8,726
OS-MO John Moore B Group B 1:8,726
OS-NB Niclas Bergfors B Group B 1:8,726
OS-DB David Backes C Group C 1:5,527
OS-KV Kris Versteeg C Group C 1:5,527
OS-PM Peter Mueller C Group C 1:5,527
OS-AL Andrew Ladd D Group D 1:937
OS-AS Alex Stalock D Group D 1:937
OS-DS Drayson Bowman D Group D 1:937
OS-JO Jim O’Brien D Group D 1:937
OS-JV Jakub Voracek D Group D 1:937
OS-KD Kaspars Daugavins D Group D 1:937
OS-KS Kevin Shattenkirk D Group D 1:937
OS-AK Arturs Kulda E Group E 1:307
OS-BM Brett MacLean E Group E 1:307
OS-JA Jamie Arniel E Group E 1:307
OS-JM Justin Mercier E Group E 1:307
OS-MA Jacob Markstrom E Group E 1:307
OS-MT Mattias Tedenby E Group E 1:307
OS-MZ Mats Zuccarello E Group E 1:307
OS-PB Patrik Berglund E Group E 1:307
OS-RB Richard Bachman E Group E 1:307
OS-RM Ryan McDonagh E Group E 1:307
OS-TM Thomas McCollum E Group E 1:307
OS-TT Tomas Tatar E Group E 1:307
O-Pee-Chee Team Canada Signatures
TC-AC Andrew Cogliano A Group A 1:1,836
TC-AP Alex Pietrangelo A Group A 1:1,836
TC-BO Bobby Orr A Group A 1:1,836
TC-BY Brayden Schenn A Group A 1:1,836
TC-DD Drew Doughty A Group A 1:1,836
TC-EK Evander Kane A Group A 1:1,836
TC-HA Taylor Hall A Group A 1:1,836
TC-JE Jordan Eberle A Group A 1:1,836
TC-JT John Tavares A Group A 1:1,836
TC-LC Logan Couture A Group A 1:1,836
TC-MD Matt Duchene A Group A 1:1,836
TC-MT Maxime Talbot A Group A 1:1,836
TC-PM Patrick Marleau A Group A 1:1,836
TC-PS P.K. Subban A Group A 1:1,836
TC-SC Sidney Crosby A Group A 1:1,836
TC-SG Simon Gagne A Group A 1:1,836
TC-SS Steven Stamkos A Group A 1:1,836
TC-WG Wayne Gretzky A Group A 1:1,836
TC-CH Cody Hodgson B Group B 1:1,407
TC-GL Guillaume Latendresse B Group B 1:1,407
TC-JC Jared Cowen B Group B 1:1,407
TC-KA Karl Alzner B Group B 1:1,407
TC-SD Stefan Della Rovere B Group B 1:1,407
TC-TH Travis Hamonic B Group B 1:1,407
TC-BS Brandon Sutter C Group C 1:944
TC-CA Jordan Caron C Group C 1:944
TC-MS Marco Scandella C Group C 1:944
TC-PC Patrice Cormier C Group C 1:944
TC-TE Tyler Ennis C Group C 1:944
O-Pee-Chee Souvenirs
OPC-#1#2 Wayne Gretzky/Mario Lemieux/Sidney Crosby/Alexander Ovechkin A Group A 1:37,404 h
OPC-GR8 Mario Lemieux/Mark Messier/Joe Sakic/Steve Yzerman A Group A 1:37,404 h
OPC-PIM Colton Orr/Daniel Carcillo/Matt Carkner/George Parros B Group B 1:29,923
OPC-CAPS Alexander Ovechkin/Nicklas Backstrom/Alexander Semin/Mike Green (Wa Capitals) C Group C 1:14,962
OPC-DET Henrik Zetterberg/Johan Franzen/Nicklas Lidstrom/Pavel Datsyuk D Group D 1:2,494
OPC-LBBR P.K. Subban/Carey Price/Tomas Plekanec/Michael Cammalleri D Group D 1:2,494
OPC-PENS Evgeni Malkin/Jordan Staal/Sidney Crosby/Marc-Andre Fleury D Group D 1:2,494
OPC-BLUES Jaroslav Halak/Patrik Berglund/David Backes/David Perron E Group E 1:156
OPC-BOLTS Steven Stamkos/Vincent Lecavalier/Martin St. Louis/Victor Hedman E Group E 1:156
OPC-BOS Zdeno Chara/Patrice Bergeron/Tuukka Rask/Tim Thomas E Group E 1:156
OPC-BUF Thomas Vanek/Tyler Myers/Nathan Gerbe/Tyler Ennis E Group E 1:156
OPC-CBJ Derick Brassard/Rick Nash/Jakub Voracek/Nikita Filatov E Group E 1:156
OPC-CGY Jarome Iginla/Miikka Kiprusoff/Jay Bouwmeester/Rene Bourque E Group E 1:156
OPC-CHI Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane/Marian Hossa/Brent Seabrook E Group E 1:156
OPC-DAL Jamie Benn/Brad Richards/Loui Eriksson/Alex Goligoski E Group E 1:156
OPC-FLYER Daniel Briere/Jeff Carter/Scott Hartnell/Daniel Carcillo E Group E 1:156
OPC-LAK Jonathan Quick/Drew Doughty/Anze Kopitar/Ryan Smyth E Group E 1:156
OPC-NASH Pekka Rinne/Shea Weber/Ryan Suter/Patric Hornqvist E Group E 1:156
OPC-NJD Travis Zajac/Patrik Elias/Zach Parise/David Clarkson E Group E 1:156
OPC-NUCKS Roberto Luongo/Alexandre Burrows/Ryan Kesler/Alexander Edler E Group E 1:156
OPC-NYI Josh Bailey/Matt Moulson/Kyle Okposo/Rick DiPietro E Group E 1:156
OPC-NYR Henrik Lundqvist/Marc Staal/Marian Gaborik/Derek Stepan E Group E 1:156
OPC-OTT Jason Spezza/Nick Foligno/Daniel Alfredsson/Sergei Gonchar E Group E 1:156
OPC-POE1 John Tavares/Cody Hodgson/Jordan Eberle/Evander Kane E Group E 1:156
OPC-POE2 P.K. Subban/Tyler Myers/Alex Pietrangelo/Keith Aulie E Group E 1:156
OPC-POE3 Patrice Cormier/Jamie Benn/Stefan Della Rovere/Zach Boychuk E Group E 1:156
OPC-SABRE Derek Roy/Ryan Miller/Drew Stafford/Jason Pominville E Group E 1:156
OPC-SJS Joe Thornton/Dany Heatley/Patrick Marleau/Devin Setoguchi E Group E 1:156
OPC-VAN Ryan Kesler/Henrik Sedin/Daniel Sedin/Cody Hodgson E Group E 1:156
OPC-WILD Jose Theodore/Pierre-Marc Bouchard/Mikko Koivu/Niklas Backstrom E Group E 1:156
OPC-WPG Dustin Byfuglien/Ondrej Pavelec/Evander Kane/Tobias Enstrom E Group E 1:156
Give Hockey a Chance!
Oct 12th
If you’re a card collector who hasn’t ventured into the Hockey world yet you are missing out. No sport has such dedicated and knowledgeable fans. It truly has been a remarkable experience as I have moved into the hockey world. I have been a St. Louis Blues fan for quite some time but hadn’t ventured into their cards much. Recently I’ve started picking up the young stars the Blues have to offer like T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund and Alex Pietrangelo. It’s been a blast. Here are a few reasons you should check out hockey cards.
1. The collector’s are second to none when it comes to kindness. Check out online forums like CloutsnChara and you’ll see all kinds of friendly posts, contests and good reading. Sports Card Forum also has a decent hockey population. I’m sure there are others but these are the two I have been checking out. I have yet to see a “flamewar” between members like you see on baseball, football, and hockey boards at nearly every forum.
2. The patches are gorgeous! No sport has better patches than hockey. It’s indisputable. Do an ebay search for patches under the hockey category and enjoy.
3. Topps isn’t there to mess it up. Or at least they haven’t been for a little while. There aren’t twenty different rookie cards like you see in Topps baseball products
4. You would be shocked at the value of cards from sets you would deem worthless in other sports. Upper Deck Young Guns Rookie Cards are the best example. They are 1:4 packs typically and a good one will easily pull you $25-50 depending on the player. Compare that to Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers who is pretty much on top of the football card world right now and his UD SP RC is not even $20. For reference a 2010-11 Taylor Hall Young Gun will cost you $40-50.
5. Most sets aren’t seeing the insane overproduction of other sports. The aforementioned Young Guns wouldn’t hold such great value if they were being printed at the same rate.
6. For the most part these cards aren’t being “paralleled” to death. This probably is a function of Topps’ absence from the hockey market but to use our UD Young Gun example yet again these nice rookies only have the following parallels:
- Exclusives #’d 100
- High Gloss #’d 10
- Starting this year they are adding Canvas Young Guns which fall one per two boxes.
That’s it. Nothing #’d to 499 then 399 then 199 then 99 then 49 then 29 then 9 and so on.
7. Nearly every hockey product you see has on card autographs. There are of course a fair share of exceptions but there are plenty of beautiful on card autographs to be found.
8. If you still aren’t convinced, watch some hockey. It’s a fantastic sport and the fact that their are 3-4 lines of players that see the ice throughout a game makes it all the more interesting to follow them and collect their cards. You won’t see most players go straight from the draft to the NHL but when you do you at least get to watch them play. No sitting on the bench waiting for Brett Favre to retire in the NHL. It’s either you’re on the roster and on a line or you’re with a minor league affiliate playing. The playing never stops.
Week 6 UPDATE to 2011 Investment Guide: Running Backs
Oct 11th
This is part two in a several part series. Be sure to check in as more guides are posted.
Felix Jones- Almost all alone with the exception of Demarco Murray in what was an overcrowded backfield last season. Prices remain fairly low on Jones given the upside potential but nagging injuries are making collector’s skittish about his prospects to be a feature back. Look for Felix to break out this season and even if he doesn’t his cards are still very cheap for a potential starring RB playing for “America’s Team”. Ultimate Auto Jsy’s are about $25, SP Authentic Auto Patches are anywhere from $50-75 and National Treasures Auto Patches are in the same realm as the SPA. Pick them up ASAP. INVESTMENT GRADE: A- (Downgraded from A on 10/11/11)
Maurice Jones-Drew-The perennially under appreciated back is off to another fantastic start. 4th in rushing yards Drew was expected to have a down year with concerns over his knee and talented backups. The Jacksonville team is most definitely a work in progress but MJD has shown they can count on him every weekend. He’s still only 26 years old! Not many folks realize that and they are missing out. His 2006 RC’s are stupid cheap. A 4 color SPA recently ended for $40. INVESTMENT GRADE: A-
Ladainian Tomlinson- The upside on his cards are definitely gone but he is a sure fire Hall of Famer and you should be looking for any opportunity to buy his key RC’s at a low price. Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, and SP Authentic are the main cards that will hold value going forward. Anything around $20 for Bowman Chrome would be good and $15 for Topps Chrome. Investing in a guy like LT will in the worst case scenario leave you with an NFL Legend’s RC. INVESTMENT GRADE: B+
Darren McFadden-The buying window has probably closed on McFadden which means it’s time for a downgrade. 2008 Contenders are now $50 instead of $25 and SPA are now $100 for single color rather than $50. Doubling up is always good. Sell now and take the profit. It’s not that Darren isn’t a stud with a bright future it’s just that you need to take the profit while you can. He could bust his knee sunday and his prices would suffer. It’s the harsh reality of sports. INVESTMENT GRADE: B (Downgraded from A- on 10/11/11)
Lesean McCoy- A classic case of a being surrounded by bigger stars than yourself killing your card value. McCoy is the only thing that has kept the Eagles from completely bombing the 2011 season thus far. He already has seven TD’s and almost 700 yards from scrimmage in five games. He’s only 23 years old and plays the same style of game as Matt Forte but he sells for quite a bit more. His SPA Auto Patches typically sell in the $55-80 range. Our suggestion is to pick up a couple of his RC’s whether it be Topps Chrome Refractors or SPA Auto Patches and stash them until the Eagles right the ship. INVESTMENT GRADE: B
Matt Forte- We hit the nail on the head here. His SPA have moved from the $30 range preseason to around $40 now. However we don’t see it going all that much higher so if you see them selling for $50-60 you should go ahead and dump them. Forte is a solid back but not a big enough talent to hold those prices without a major playoff run by the Bears. INVESTMENT GRADE: B (Downgraded from B+ 10/11/11)
Chris “Beanie” Wells- We’re being optimistic with him but his $10-15 Topps Chrome Auto RC’s haven’t moved much even though he has done well thus far. The problem is his team has been awful. We’re going to give him a bump in grade simply because we think he is about to pop. Those chrome autos should reach $20-25 by December. INVESTMENT GRADE: B (Upgraded from B- on 10/11/11)
Mark Ingram- Prices are still too high despite him being stuck in an absolute committee in New Orleans.We fully expect his cards to be far to high to recommend investment by the time the more quality sets like Contenders and National Treasures come out. INVESTMENT GRADE: B-
Adrian Peterson- His prices are high but they won’t be dropping any time soon. The Vikings look poised for a big run in 2011 and Peterson will obviously be the centerpiece of the attack. He isn’t a “Buy Now” candidate but he also isn’t a “Sell Now” candidate. If you find something like a Topps Chrome RC for about $5 go ahead and grab as many as you can. INVESTMENT GRADE: B-
Chris Johnson- Buyers are still optimistic about Johnson who has been sluggish so far in 2011 despite his team’s 3-2 start. His prices have barely budged as a 2008 Contenders Auto will still cost you $100. Hold or buy at bargain prices only. INVESTMENT GRADE: B-
Steven Jackson- We aren’t going to change a thing about our previous Jackson blurb. The situation hasn’t changed there……Jackson’s prices are very low and probably don’t have a ton of potential for moving upward but he is still worthy of an investment simply because his cardboard is cheap and he is a very talented player despite injury concerns. He is a workhorse and collector’s have seen workhorses like him (think Shaun Alexander) go by the wayside pretty quickly once injuries start taking their toll. His 2004 SPX is around $40 and worth a look although given the injury concerns a Topps Chrome RC for $3-5 may be the wiser option. INVESTMENT GRADE: C+
Shonn Greene- Greene has been the feature for the most part as Rex Ryan promised but it hasn’t gone so well for the Jets or Shonn. A 2009 National Treasures RC Auto Patch #’d to 99 recently ended without a bid at $29.99. Not a good sign at all for support of his cardboard. At current prices though it’s tough to say investment is a terrible idea when you’re talking about the New York starting RB. Pick up a couple SP Authentic Auto Patches for under $20 and sit on them. INVESTMENT GRADE: C+ (Downgraded from a B 10/11/11)
Jamaal Charles- Sigh. Knee injuries are the worst. Should you sell? We don’t know. Should you hold? Probably not. It’s a very confusing situation. If you can sell for what you paid or even 75% of that price we recommend dealing your Charles cards and picking them up at a later date. His prices have actually held fairly steady as SPA’s are still selling between $50-70. If prices dip much further you could pick up a couple and hope for the best in his return next season. INVESTMENT GRADE: C (Downgraded from B+ 10/11/11)
Ryan Mathews- Well we missed on this one. His prices were most definitely too high to garner investment from anyone who doesn’t love to play with their money. However he has done very well and put up another great effort in Week 5. If you didn’t have his cards at their already inflated prices you definitely won’t want them now. His performance has garnered an upgrade though. INVESTMENT GRADE: C (Upgraded from D- 10/11/11)
Reggie Bush-Not much to report here. You should have avoided his cards as we suggested so hopefully you did. INVESTMENT GRADE: D- (Downgraded from D on 10/11/11)
- The only thing he is good at!
Knowshown Moreno- We were spot on when we said “kiss Moreno’s value goodbye” in September. He should maybe even be downgraded further. The only thing that makes us keep him from an F is that if McGahee gets hurt Moreno will get a chance to shine and he is very cheap right now. INVESTMENT GRADE: D-
Playoff Peformers: Mr. October 2011 Nominees
Oct 5th
Cardinals
Albert Pujols- The Cardinals lost 3-2 on Tuesday and had 12 hits despite only scoring two runs. Albert had four of those hits.
Ryan Theriot- The St. Louis second baseman accounted for four hits himself. Pujols and Theriot have 13 of the team’s 32 hits this series despite Theriot only playing in Games 2 and 3. The utility man has a .667 average heading into Game 4 on Wednesday.
Phillies
Jimmy Rollins- Rollins hasn’t done all that well in the postseason historically (.250 career average if you include this series) but is off to a great start against the Cards staff hitting .583 with five Runs scored and two stolen bases in only three games. Assuming the Phillies roll on to the next round you can expect his 1998 Bowman Chrome RC and parallels to pick up steam
Diamondbacks
Paul Goldschmidt-If I have to choose someone I guess it’s him. 5 RBI in Game 3 to avoid elimination makes him their savior for now. He has a .375 average on the series. Goldschmidt’s prices have been volatile this season as they were sky high before his call up and then experienced the usual lull after he performed at a level less than that of a Hall of Famer. Prospectors are fickle and not all that interested in holding on to players past callup making it so almost every time a guy hits the big leagues his cards crash. Well thanks to his Grand Slam in Game 3 his 2011 Chrome Autos are going bonkers yet again.
Brewers
Ryan Braun- Who else? What a stud this guy is. He continues to get the job done batting .545 this postseason and leading his team to a near sweep of Arizona.
Prince Fielder- Who else to go with Braun? These two are the centerpieces of the Brewers franchise and are showing everyone why this October. We’ll see if they can close out Arizona and carry their momentum to most likely Philadelphia. Neither Braun or Fielder’s cardboard is seeing much of a hike due to the Arizona series but it still would be wise to pick up a couple just in case they make the World Series. The 2002 Prospect Premieres Auto of Fielder and 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Auto of Braun are of course the way to go if you’re looking to grab their key RC’s. Don’t pay more than $100 for the Fielder or $150 for the Braun and you should do alright.
Rays
Matt Moore- The rookie made a heck of a postseason debut dominating the Rangers in Game 1. Sadly for Rays fans that was the only bright spot of the already finished series. His base 2009 Bowman Chrome RC’s are selling for over $5 apiece following his debut and subsequent stellar performance out of the pen in Game 4.
Rangers
Adrian Beltre- He was having an awful series until Game 4 when he blasted three HR’s in his first three AB’s and made this October even worse for beleaguered Red Sox fans. Now that the Rangers have advanced it would be a good time to pick up his 1997 Bowman Chrome RC or Refractor RC’s. Refractors can be had for about $10 when they pop up which isn’t all that often.
Yankees
Curtis Granderson- Granderson is finally getting the recognition he deserves. I’m a big fan of his despite my distaste for the Yankees. Whether it’s making fantastic catches or doing the dirty work on offense you want him on your team. Grab anything you can of him but my favorite is the 2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks RC and it’s parallels.
Tigers
Granderson’s former team isn’t going away easily and can knock of the titans of the sport with just one more victory on Thursday night. There isn’t much of hero for Detroit at this point other than Delmon Young who hit the game winning HR in Game 3 but is still hitting a paltry .267 in the series. Ace Justin Verlander piled up the K’s in his victory but gave up four runs and would have lost had it not been for Young’s long ball. Stay tuned for the Tiger’s playoff performer and know that basically any core player like Verlander, Scherzer, Young, Martinez, Magglio or Miguel Cabrera would be good to have a stash of should they knock off the Yanks.
2011 Topps Products: A Plea from the Common Collector
Oct 5th
Imagine this if it isn’t already your reality. You’re a player collector, or worse in this case a team collector, and 2011 Topps Finest releases nearly simultaneously with 2011 Topps Platinum giving you the usual new excitement of a new set to chase every card your favorite player or team has in the latest packs of cardboard crack. So lets say you’re collecting a rookie as most player collector’s are at this point. Depending on the rookie you are chasing you could have up to 30 different cards to find in 2011 Topps Finest football which doesn’t include printing plates. Eliminate 1/1 Superfractors and your chase is slimmed to 23 but let’s be honest there aren’t many player collectors who would willingly cede Superfractors from their chase. Topps Platinum will give you another 21 or 18 if you leave 1/1′s out of the equation.
Two Topps Products and your search has boomed from whatever it was to 51 or possibly only 41. That is pure insanity for a player collector, not to mention redudnant. With so many parallels and then just as many parallels of the same card but with an autograph or an autographed patch Finest goes over the top.
Jerrel Jernigan is one of the rookies with the fewest parallels in this set. MADNESS!
Collectors everywhere aren’t begging for this many parallels or the added “value” which actually just heavily dilutes the market for a player. The value is so sporadic it’s tough to tell whether or not it really adds anything at all. The people who sell immediately after release to the people who have to have their player immediately are doing well with this added value but wait a month or two and see how the resell value on your precious green refractor numbered to 599 is. It’s a mess than can easily be cleaned up but the increase in parallels is purely a mask to increase production. We all love low numbering but it loses it’s luster quite easily when it has three or four counterparts that are nearly as “rare” Please stop. Collectors have been crying about too many parallels for quite some time. Certain sets have always been known as “parallel friendly” sets and Finest is one of them but this has gotten out of hand especially when you consider the new Topps products like Prime, Platinum and soon to be Chrome that have plenty of parallels already. They’ve infused the flagship base product with quite a few as well. Rare parallels are cool and should remain but ditch the seven layer bean dip style strategy and stick to a few solid traditions such as a base refractor (#’d would be awesome!), a black, a gold, a red and a superfractor. That’s a rainbow collector’s would love. We’re begging you.
