Sports Card Geek Heaven
Product Spotlight
Topps announces Bowman 2013 Promotion: Collectors everywhere let out collective sigh…
May 1st
The promo in question will give 10 lucky winners a chance to get their own card in 2013. While only one of them will get their card in the 2013 Bowman set, at least all 10 will be getting a Yu Darvish autographed ball. While that’s cool dropping 10 of these in a product with an absolutely insane high print run doesn’t get many collectors drooling. Here is the release from Topps. What’s your take? Our take is that nobody but half of dozen people on the planet will want the card of the winning collector. I’m sure there will be parallels of said collector as well. Imagine pulling the red 1/1 of John Smith, Right hand pitcher pourer, from Pittsburgh, PA. No thanks.
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!
Happy Upper Deck Series 1 Release Day!
Nov 8th
The day has come! Winnipeg Jets will return in all of their cardboard glory to Series 1 with the annual release of Young Guns. These cards are going to be super hot in coming weeks. Jets fans have been waiting for this. To add to the impact of the set there are a handful of great RC’s to be pulled that aren’t wearing the Winnipeg insignia’s.
As expected the cards are hitting ebay as fast as they possibly can. Here are some of the goodies:
- This Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is over $100 with an hour left at auction. Don’t worry if you miss it. There will be plenty more like this one.
- Gabriel Landeskog’s YG is pulling around $50 early on.
- One of the players I’m more intrigued by is Flyers rookie Matt Read. It looks like he may not sell very well despite his hot start of 7 points in 11 games until he suffered an injury. A $9.99 Buy It Now is currently available.
- Read’s Flyer counterpart Sean Couturier isn’t selling nearly as cheaply as it looks like his YG will cost $30-40 early on.
- Keep an eye on the key Winnipeg RC of Mark Scheifele. He is very good but was sent down a week or two ago which shouldn’t impact his value much but it may very well do so. BIN’s of $24.95 have already been hit with auctions over $30.
There are a lot of young stars waiting to be grabbed so check out what is available and pick them up asap. As always, have fun!
We are still waiting on our box of S1 but will be posting it with some contests after it arrives. We’re also busting a box of Score 2011-12 to give away so stay tuned!
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.
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
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.
New Autographs Announced for 2011 Bowman Draft Picks Baseball!
Aug 23rd
Here are the autographs added to the checklist:
Javier Baez, Cubs
Matt Barnes, Red Sox
Trevor Bauer, Diamondbacks
Jed Bradley, Brewers
CJ Cron, Angels
Jose Fernandez, Marlins
Tyler Goeddel, Rays
Sonny Gray, A’s
Jake Hager, Rays
James Harris, Rays
Francisco Lindor, Indians
Brandon Martin, Rays
Kevin Matthews, Rangers
Brandon Nimmo, Mets
George Springer, Astros
Corey Spangenberg, Padres
Trevor Story, Rockies
Dan Vogelbach, Cubs
Keenyn Walker, White Sox
Kolten Wong, Cardinals
Joe Panik, Giants
Several of these guys like Lindor, Gray, Springer, Spangenberg, Bradley, Panik and Wong have had autographed cards before. Most of them were in previous Bowman products as well. Of course most were shown in Team USA jerseys meaning these will be the ones most coveted by collectors. Bauer is definitely a welcome addition!
