Sports Card Geek Heaven
Archive for March, 2012
Sage HIT 2012 High Series Box Break: More Draft Prospects and Surprise Unannounced Autographs…CAM!
Mar 30th
We busted open a box of High Series yesterday boasting 9 Autographs and boy were they some solid ones. While we didn’t land the big hit of High Series, Trent Richardson(RB, Alabama), we did land one of our favorite draft sleepers and not one but two unannounced autographs. Some of the better names in High Series are Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill, Trent Richardson, Justin Blackmon, Kendall Wright, Brock Osweiler, Kirk Cousins, and Brandon Weeden. It was an exciting break so lets get to it.
First we pulled a few more “The Write Stuff” inserts (all silver, no golds), several more Artistry cards which are expanded on from Low Series with new names and several Gold and Silver parallels including a couple bigger names. Here are the pack odds for reference:
We landed a Gold Artistry parallel of Case Keenum which beat the odds just like our Low Series box that yielded an RG3 Gold.
We landed more Gold Autograph parallels than we should have as well getting four in our box rather than the two odds state you would get. The autograph card design is nice and we love the huge checklist. Also it never hurts to pull nine hits from a box. It’s so much fun and it will be even more fun on draft day when we see where all of these future stars are headed.
Red Base Eric Page, Silver Kirk Cousins and Gold Darron Thomas
Devon Still Gold, Devier Posey Red, BJ Cunningham Gold, George Iloka Gold
We managed to pull a couple nicer Gold and Silver parallels in this box as well. We really like the look of the silver parallels and they would be a fun and cheap set to put together. The Blackmon photo is very cool as well.
The photography for High Series, while I’m sure collected at the same time as the Low Series, seems to be better for some reason. We liked a lot of the shots this time around.
As noted earlier the Artistry set was expanded in Low Series and would also be a fun set to chase, especially the autographed versions which we have yet to hit.
Alright so you’re probably wondering about these unannounced autographs teased in the headline and first paragraph. Well here they are in all their Sophomore glory. We have no idea of the odds on these as they aren’t listed on the packs or the box. Enjoy and stay tuned to our twitter or facebook pages(find them on the right side of this page) for contests or if you’re a player or school collector looking for base cards give us a shout and we’ll send them out for the price of “on the house”.
Sage HIT 2012 Low Series: Review
Mar 19th
Let’s start by saying just about any product giving you six autographs per box is going to be a fun one to open. Add a little bit of NFL Draft excitement to the mix and you’re going to love Sage 2012 Low Series. One of the first products released with 2012 NFL Prospects is a step up from last year’s Low Series in terms of design. It’s very clean looking and while the photography may seem a bit odd compared to your typical set it is actually kind of fun if you can get past the fact that most of the pictures aren’t of the in game variety. Low Series boasts a 75 card checklist with 43 “STAT” cards and 32 2012 Rookie Cards. Most of this years top prospects such as Lamichael James, Alshon Jeffery and of course Robert Griffin III are included in the set. Not everyone with a STAT card has a RC card in the series as you can tell from the numbers above. For instance Alshon Jeffery will more than likely have a RC in High Series released later in the month of March (which is of course still before the NFL Draft).
2012 RC on Left, Stat card on Right
Stat card on Left, 2012 RC on Right
The clean base design is paralleled with Gold and Silver versions just like last year although it appears they used a bit less glitter this year for the borders (which is a good thing).
The Golds actually look very nice and are the tougher pull. Typically parallels from non licensed products seem to lack secondary market interest but these should remain appealing for collectors in the future. Next we move to the Write Stuff inserts which are one of the more difficult insert pulls and have a silver, gold and autographed(#’d to 25) version available. We got two silver versions in our box and while we like the continuity of an insert set like Write stuff that has been going on for as long as this one has, we are not all that impressed with this years design. Maybe this one should be limited to the autographed insert only in the future. It seems odd as a plain insert. 
An insert we do love this year is the Artistry set. Coming in Gold and Silver parallels as well as an autographed version #’d to 100. While we didn’t hit an Artistry autograph in our box, we did hit an RG3 Gold version which falls one 1:45 packs so that was pretty cool. We also got a handful of Silver Artistry cards. We’ll be putting together the set of these and possibly using them for TTM or IP Autographs. They are gorgeous.
Time to show off the Autographs which were quite interesting. You’re supposed to get one or possibly two gold parallel autographs #’d to 250 per box. Well we pulled 5 Golds and our only non Gold was a stud prospect. See for yourself:
Overall this is a very fun product to bust pre-draft for less than $100 to grab some autographs, inserts and nice parallels of the stars of draft weekend. The unique photography made it very fun to open as well. For instance check out this doofus:
Stay tuned as we’ll be giving away the Lamichael James autograph and many others in the next couple of weeks to a few of our lucky readers and as always if you’re looking for base cards of anyone just comment or tweet us @cardgeeksblog and we can send a few out. Happy Monday everyone!
An Interview with Sage President Tom Geideman: 2012 Sage Low Series Available SOON!
Mar 9th
How many products will you have for 2012? Is 5-Star making a return?
We have four football products lined up for 2012. HIT 2012 Football – Low Series is first (shipping March 7) followed in late March by HIT 2012 Football – High Series. SAGE Autographed Football will be out prior to the draft (which is April 26-28. We will have a fourth product as well in mid-to-late May, but we haven’t ironed out the details of that issue yet. We want to tailor that product, like we did with SAGE 5-Star to how collectors react to our initial products and to try and continue to give them great value at an affordable price. We know that money is tight in most households and we want to continue to develop products that give collectors that great value at affordable prices.
In the early SAGE years there was a lot more memorabilia available in products it seems. While the autograph is king have you given much thought to turning out a product that has a game-used card in each pack as well as an autograph?
We have considered doing the memorabilia cards, but quite honestly we believe that the real value is with autographed cards. Part of that is that our production numbers are very low – to keep products collectible. The typical jersey can yield so many pieces of fabric that it’s not really feasible to produce them. Some of the jersey origins are also murky at best. Plus the costs of producing those cards is very high, even if the jerseys were free, and we all know they’re far from that.
Has SAGE given much thought to delving into other sports again (haven’t done anything other than football since basketball ended in 2005)? Hockey seems to be a good area in terms of prospects and a lack of professional licensing hasn’t hurt other companies (ITG).
We are always exploring additional products that can fill a void for collectors including different sports or multi-sport products. While that hasn’t seem to merit producing them in the past few years we continue to research those avenues.
Give me three reason SAGE football products are a must have for fans of the 2012 NFL draft.
I’m going to ask for a mulligan on this one, because there are far more reasons than just three for SAGE to be a must have for fans of the 2012 NFL draft.
1) Value – There is no greater single value per dollar in the trading card market like SAGE products. Authentic autographs are very frequent and of the top players that you want now (like RG3, Trent Richardson, Justin Blackmon, etc.) and in the future (like Lamar Miller, Ryan Tannehill, or even the “Danny Woodhead of college QBs” Alex Tanney)
2) Timing – SAGE is always first to market with the next year’s rookie cards. We have three products that will be in collectors hands PRIOR to the draft even occurring.
3) Authenticity – SAGE guarantees the authenticity of every autograph (which I should add are all inserted directly into packs without a single redemption card – always have and always will)
4) Photography – The photography in the SAGE products is far-and-away superior to what you will find in any other product. It’s just simply amazing…
Are inscriptions or ink variations going to be involved in any 2012 products? Collectors love their variations, especially when the company releases the numbers and types of variations a week or two after the product has been released.
There are some variations that will be available in the 2012 products. We do have some naturally occurring variations such as when players include their uniform numbers on a select few (or vice versa having a select few without them). In the past when we had players add inscriptions or varying the ink color of their signatures we didn’t ever see as much clamor or increase in value for those cards versus the standard though. Therefore we tend to create more straight forward alterations such as a unique three-card RG3 autographed insert (#’d to 10) that will be forthcoming.
The Artistry cards in 2012 Low Series are very cool. Will there be autographed versions?
Thank you very much for saying that. There are definitely autographed versions of the Artistry insert cards. Each is numbered to 100. We were trying to draw inspiration for these cards through previous art cards collectors have seen along with channeling the old posters that were so prevalent in the 1980s & 1990s that so many of us had on our walls growing up.
Which players were you most excited to get signed for SAGE Low (or 2012 in general)?
Lamar Miller was the very first player we signed in 2012. That first player is always exciting, but even more so when it’s a player of his incredible skill level. He posted the fastest 40-time at the combine by a running back and I believe cemented himself as the #2 RB on the board behind Trent Richardson. I’m always excited about the top players signing like RG3 or Richardson, but the main guys for me are the diamonds in the rough. I already mentioned Alex Tanney (QB from Monmouth IL, a D3 school). We got a hot tip from his trainer in Florida – Brian Martin of TEST. Brian said he was a real sleeper and that we had to take a good look at him. From that info I did, and was impressed. If you google Alex Tanney and see his youtube videos you will be impressed also. Tanney also holds several NCAA records including all-time passing TDs. However, the one single player I was most excited about was Vontaze Burfict from Arizona State. He not only went to the local high school for us (Centennial in Corona – which is a big powerhouse program), but he was named the Meanest Man in College Football by The Sporting News. If you check out his viral videos you’ll be impressed. He plays smart and delivers some huge hits.
What exactly is a microprinter and explain the kinds of things it limits or expands your options when producing sets?
In a nut shell being a Micro-Printer means that we have very few staff, that are all very passionate about trading cards, and with decades of experience with cards. We don’t just make product to make product, we enjoy what we do and we enjoy crafting our products. An example of that is since day 1 SAGE has witnessed every single packaging of our products. Some companies just ship their files and cards to a factory (that does packaging for many other companies) and has them just run it. We don’t think that’s good enough for SAGE products, so we make sure we attend all of them and stay there until each is done – correctly. Collectors may not be aware that we spend the time to watch all of those cards drop into every pack – making corrections in-line as they occur, or that we hand-collate the autographs to ensure a proper blend of players in each package. Those are the types of things that we’re able to do as a Micro-Printer.
Are on card autographs a possibility in the future?
SAGE developed a patented autographed process that many people have since copied or used in violation of that patent. There are so many perks to that process that collectors may not be aware of. The main one is authenticity. When a trading card has the old-school on-card autograph process they need to print the authenticity on the card PRIOR to it being sent to the players to be signed. That means that any person who gets one of those raw printed cards can just sign anything on the front and the company is authenticating it. As a collector I’ve even received unsigned cards like that in my packs. If I didn’t have morals I could easily have just signed anything on that card and sold it as authentic because the back of the card says it is. Our process avoids that by never having the printed cards and autographs in the hands of any non-SAGE person. We also avoid having dings and scratches to the cards that are caused during the signing process because the players aren’t experts in trading card handling. They are experts in playing their sport, and often have no clue or desire to handle the cards with the care than a passionate collector would.
I had no idea you oversaw the packing out of the cards. That is incredible attention to detail. Since you are so intimately involved in the process do you ever get a hankering to drop a couple extra autographs in a pack just as a special surprise for a collector? I know I would.
We have done some very fun things during packaging before such as an all-Adrian-Peterson pack (and many other single-player packs) with insert cards, autographed card, etc. We have done all one-player packs and/or mirror packs (where you’d have in a 5-card pack one player on the outside top and bottom, another in the middle top and bottom and the insert card of one of them since the start in 1998. We always drop in extra insert cards randomly in packs while watching the packaging line also. Doing that helps keep us sharp and focused on the packs we’re watching and provides more of a perk to the collectors who get them. We have even gone so far to drop in hand-written notes on blank white card stock in packs asking collectors to email us at the email address provided (special for those cards). One year we even created 1/1 trading cards to give to collectors when they emailed us at the address with the info from the note. Most collectors responded, but some collectors didn’t. I know on that specific Adrian Peterson pack a collector posted what he found on a popular card message board, but said he wasn’t going to email us. That’s his choice (and his loss in that case). We don’t try and up-sell anyone or pester them when they contact us with those. It’s really interesting to know where the cards ultimately land and how collectors opened them. It’s sort of like putting a message in a bottle or attaching it to a balloon hoping the person on the other end who finds it lets us know. We always drop in the really rare cards by hand also because we want to make sure the machinery is running smoothly at the time to avoid damaging those cards and we don’t want them dropped from the machine because there is zero chance they can get damaged (feeding by machine always creates more of a chance of damage because they are machines, and get hot or wear or whatever).
Overall I’d say that your average collector can appreciate the hard work Mr. Geideman and his staff put into each set. There is a lot of legwork done to create these sets. No Redemptions and virtually no errors make for a very quality set time and time again.
700+ Peyton Manning Items Listed in the Last 24 Hours
Mar 7th
AND COUNTING! While I admit the press conference and the gravity of the situation has made me want to snatch a few more of his RC’s the less impulsive and calculating part of my brain is telling me to hold off. You should do the same. That is unless of course this flurry of items being listed doesn’t bring about a flurry of interest. The number of people wanting Peyton RC’s may actually decrease with his departure from Indianapolis or at the very least Colt’s fans who previously were holding 15-20 Peyton RC’s may decide it’s time to trim their collection. While big news rarely results in lowered prices this is a situation where prices may actually drop or at least a few will slip through the cracks with the insane amount available at the moment. Clear out your watch list and wait for one of those to slip through the cracks and fall into your lap. Happy hunting!
PEYTON MANNING CARDS ENDING SOONEST
