Every collector has one to many "complaints" within the area they collect. Now I use quotations around the word "complaints" due to the fact many in the community find these as such rather than annoyances they could do without.
In no particular order, here is a list of the Top Five "Things That Bug The Common Collector";
#1: Products Being sold prior to the Official Release Date - This seems to be happening more and more frequently this year that years past. Now most of the ones we are seeing are pertaining to Retail being busted than Hobby, but this still is a pain. They seem to be busting cases of the new product and loading everything on eBay or other sites for very high prices. I've seen base cards for no less than $2.00 sometimes three days prior to the Hobby Release date, and for some reason people are buying them up. There is probably nothing to stop this from happening with the large amount of retailers out there and the time needed for the card companies to ship the product out to the main distributors. As a collector, we will need to look the other way when this happens or you can get caught up in the buying aspect of it prior to Release day.
#2: Sticker Autographs - Yes I know, this is the never ending topic of discussion among collectors and card companies. I understand from the card company side of things where they need to have product out on time in order to satisfy the customers (us), and it is hard to have players sign on-card autographs when they are busy with playing/training everyday in order to keep up with their profession. Topps has been getting much better with on-card autographs in the past couple of years with baseball and football. It use to be just higher-end products that would be the draw to the on-card auto, but now even the regular Topps base products are now showing up with on-card autographs. I think this is going in the right direction with more on-card than sticker autos, but the one thing I would love to see is that when a players card is a memorabilia with autograph that these start becoming more on-card than sticker. I know this would still become a challenge to obtain, but I think that these would draw more value in the community than the current lower than expected value that we see today. I might be one of the few collectors that wouldn't mind waiting for a redemption if it meant an on-card signature.
#3: Sellers with outrageous prices on parallel cards - Yes there are hard-core Parallel collectors out there that collect any and every parallel you can think of, but do you have to jack-up prices so much that the player or team collector can't/won't pay for cards they need for their collection? Parallel collectors are the ones that seem to pay more for these cards over the average collector because of the scarcity of the cards. Also they seem to hold a higher value for them over most in the community. Doesn't seem to be the player but more so the Parallel and the numbering for that card. So of course most flippers or sellers will raise the prices on these and will most times land one of the Parallel Collectors to pay that price. This of course leaves the average collector out of the market and struggling to find that card to finish their player or team set. For myself I wish sellers wouldn't have such crazy prices when it comes to those parallel's of 50 or less. They can be really out there on the value of the cards pricing them in the hundreds for the most common player. Again for myself I will refuse to pay such high prices even though my collection could suffer, but this is what I do to not give into paying more.
#4: Limited Stores carrying cards locally - I have heard of this issue a lot recently with card collecting increasing within the community. Seems harder to find a card shop around most people with the decline in shops opening or even staying open nowadays. The other problem is that the local Wal-Mart's of the world seem to have a selected number and variety of cards to select from depending on where you live. I know of us in Canada it is hard to find any Baseball or Football products in stores, but Hockey has a decent selection. Those Magic cards (or whatever they are called) seem to be everywhere. i wish those would be wiped out with some blasters I've had to cross the border to get a hold of. This is not the card companies fault though and more so the store managers. They decide on what sells best in their store and area and bring it in. Your best bet would to try and talk to them about bring some other selections in and you might get a good response. Just be prepared to hear the "It doesn't really sell well here" speech as sometimes managers aren't as receiving to customers of sports cards.
#5: Perception of a 1/1 card - Are one of one cards truly a thing of the past? It seems everyone has their own idea of what a one of one is. You see a different variation of them every place you look. You have the players number, 01 of the serial number, the last serial number of the parallel, I've even seen the year of the card in the serial number as a one of one. The problem with this is it gives the wrong perception to the value of these cards. Sure getting the players number within the serial number is cool to have but it's really not a one of one. This was a clever way to make more money on these cards and unfortunately it has stuck. I wish we could go back to the true one of one cards as the serial number dictates on it and forget about these other gimmicks.
This is Part 1 of a series I'll write about with further input from our Followers and the collecting community that we poll.
If you have an additional "Thing(s) that bug you" send me an e-mail at: packgambler@gmail.com you just might be featured in our next segment
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
200th Twitter Follower Gambler Giveaway Day: Tuesday August 28th 2012
Thank you for helping us reach another Milestone with 200+ Followers on Twitter!
To show our thanks Tuesday August 28th 2012 will be having our 2nd Gambler Giveaway Day!
In order to be eligible to win any of the Giveaways you will need to do the following:
1) Follow us on Twitter
2) ReTweet any of our Gambler Giveaway Day Tweets.
3) Watch for Tweets sent out on Gambler Giveaway day which will be Tuesday August 28th 2012
Rules:
1) Each Follower will be eligible to win a Giveaway providing they follow us on Twitter and ReTweet the Gambler Giveaway Tweets.
2) Followers will not be eligible to win more than 1 Giveaway during the 200th Follower Giveaway Day.
And that's it, again another simple to pickup a nice Giveaway from The Pack Gambler
Below is a listing of the 200th Follower Giveaway along with the 2 additional Giveaways. I think you'll be excited to jump on and hopefully win one of these on Gambler Giveaway Day.
All Giveaways will be Random drawings of current Followers on Tuesday August 28th 2012:
1) 5 packs of 2012-2013 Panini Score Hockey, a 2011-12 Upper Deck Ultimate Chris Pronger Premium Swatches /35. And you will also recieve a team lot of an NHL team of your choice (minimal 20cards)
2) 9 2012 Topps Retro Rookie Reprints of: Bradshaw, Jurgensen, Montana, Griese, Brees, Kelly, Elway, Marino, Stafford. Along with 2012 Score Retro Rookies of: Warner & Carter. Plus 3 2012 Topps Parallels of: Camo Greg little, Pink Casey Hayward & Gold Adrian Peterson. Also you will recieve a team lot of an NFL team of your choice (minimal 20cards).
200th Follower Grand Giveaway: Uncut sheet of 2009 MLB 20th Anniversary Memorabilia cards. This is a full uncut sheet of the faces of the cards. Sheet measures 40x28. Includes players like Tiger Woods, Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Griffey Jr, Brett Favre, Tony Romo and Kobe Bryant to name just a few.
Good Luck to all of our Followers on Gambler Giveaway Day! Thank you again for following and please continue to spread the word out as we will continue to bring you the best giveaways in the hobby as we expand our followers.
Sincerely,
The Pack Gambler
To show our thanks Tuesday August 28th 2012 will be having our 2nd Gambler Giveaway Day!
In order to be eligible to win any of the Giveaways you will need to do the following:
1) Follow us on Twitter
2) ReTweet any of our Gambler Giveaway Day Tweets.
3) Watch for Tweets sent out on Gambler Giveaway day which will be Tuesday August 28th 2012
Rules:
1) Each Follower will be eligible to win a Giveaway providing they follow us on Twitter and ReTweet the Gambler Giveaway Tweets.
2) Followers will not be eligible to win more than 1 Giveaway during the 200th Follower Giveaway Day.
And that's it, again another simple to pickup a nice Giveaway from The Pack Gambler
Below is a listing of the 200th Follower Giveaway along with the 2 additional Giveaways. I think you'll be excited to jump on and hopefully win one of these on Gambler Giveaway Day.
All Giveaways will be Random drawings of current Followers on Tuesday August 28th 2012:
1) 5 packs of 2012-2013 Panini Score Hockey, a 2011-12 Upper Deck Ultimate Chris Pronger Premium Swatches /35. And you will also recieve a team lot of an NHL team of your choice (minimal 20cards)
2) 9 2012 Topps Retro Rookie Reprints of: Bradshaw, Jurgensen, Montana, Griese, Brees, Kelly, Elway, Marino, Stafford. Along with 2012 Score Retro Rookies of: Warner & Carter. Plus 3 2012 Topps Parallels of: Camo Greg little, Pink Casey Hayward & Gold Adrian Peterson. Also you will recieve a team lot of an NFL team of your choice (minimal 20cards).
200th Follower Grand Giveaway: Uncut sheet of 2009 MLB 20th Anniversary Memorabilia cards. This is a full uncut sheet of the faces of the cards. Sheet measures 40x28. Includes players like Tiger Woods, Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Griffey Jr, Brett Favre, Tony Romo and Kobe Bryant to name just a few.
Good Luck to all of our Followers on Gambler Giveaway Day! Thank you again for following and please continue to spread the word out as we will continue to bring you the best giveaways in the hobby as we expand our followers.
Sincerely,
The Pack Gambler
Friday, August 24, 2012
**UPDATE** Product Review: 2012 Topps Football *Gametime codes*
Here is an update on the 2012 Topps Football Gametime codes I received from the Hobby Jumbo box.
So in the box I received 11 codes from the 10 Jumbo packs. The Topps Gametime site went live yesterday after being a week late to the public. I entered the codes last night and all 11 were for Team Coins.
On top of each being for a team coin I had 2 Cardinals and 3 Saints coins from the 11! I would have thought that the assortment in a jumbo box would have been for all different coins, but then again I guess I can't be picky since they are free.
Now the coins can be used for the Game online which occurs each week. You can pick up to 5 tokens you have to use towards the current weeks games. The Top Ten Highest Scorers at the end of the week are eligible to win a Limited Edition Topps Autographed Card.
The catch to this all is that you can only use your coin once for the season. So you either go all in the first week or wait it out till your coin/team has an easy week againest another team to rack up more points.
They also are keeping track of the Highest scorer for the season as well, which the prize for that will be again for the Top Ten an Autographed Helmet or Football.
Good luck to all that win, hopefully one of your codes unlocks a card instead of a team coin.
So in the box I received 11 codes from the 10 Jumbo packs. The Topps Gametime site went live yesterday after being a week late to the public. I entered the codes last night and all 11 were for Team Coins.
On top of each being for a team coin I had 2 Cardinals and 3 Saints coins from the 11! I would have thought that the assortment in a jumbo box would have been for all different coins, but then again I guess I can't be picky since they are free.
Now the coins can be used for the Game online which occurs each week. You can pick up to 5 tokens you have to use towards the current weeks games. The Top Ten Highest Scorers at the end of the week are eligible to win a Limited Edition Topps Autographed Card.
The catch to this all is that you can only use your coin once for the season. So you either go all in the first week or wait it out till your coin/team has an easy week againest another team to rack up more points.
They also are keeping track of the Highest scorer for the season as well, which the prize for that will be again for the Top Ten an Autographed Helmet or Football.
Good luck to all that win, hopefully one of your codes unlocks a card instead of a team coin.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
**UPDATE** Product Review: 2012 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby Box
Just wanted to give a small update on the 2012 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby review.
So as you might have heard through the 3rd and 4th video I was thinking of putting together a complete base set since I seemed to have a few doubles through the boxes. Well after sorting through them last night I was able to complete a full set along with some doubles.
Working through the 4 box numbers I had 242 base and 73 RC base to put together the 220 card set. I came away with 73 Base and 23 RC doubles within all 4 boxes. this is a little more than seemed to be at the time of opening the boxes as I found into my third and especially the fourth box I was seeing more of the same players and also sequencing within the packs.
However, even on the fourth box the last 5 packs yielded cards I didn't pull in the first three boxes. So in all aspects this was pretty good for this product.
The two rookie autographed base cards that have some manufactured defects (Matt Dominguez, Tyler Pastornicky) will be sending back to Topps for replacements. The lines from the top of the card down the center are very noticeable. We'll have an update on when these return from Topps.
An additional note to this set is the news of Photo Variations to the product. Yes Topps has added them into the Chrome product for the first time. This came late yesterday after the product was released and there are 20 in total. These 20 also are all big name players, so no chance finding a lower tiered Photo variation with these. Included are the hot rookies of Harper, Darvish, Lawrie and Cespedes. With odds of 1:912 Hobby packs and 1:13,500 Retail packs, your sure these will be up there on the price scale. Good Luck on the hunt.
So as you might have heard through the 3rd and 4th video I was thinking of putting together a complete base set since I seemed to have a few doubles through the boxes. Well after sorting through them last night I was able to complete a full set along with some doubles.
Working through the 4 box numbers I had 242 base and 73 RC base to put together the 220 card set. I came away with 73 Base and 23 RC doubles within all 4 boxes. this is a little more than seemed to be at the time of opening the boxes as I found into my third and especially the fourth box I was seeing more of the same players and also sequencing within the packs.
However, even on the fourth box the last 5 packs yielded cards I didn't pull in the first three boxes. So in all aspects this was pretty good for this product.
The two rookie autographed base cards that have some manufactured defects (Matt Dominguez, Tyler Pastornicky) will be sending back to Topps for replacements. The lines from the top of the card down the center are very noticeable. We'll have an update on when these return from Topps.
An additional note to this set is the news of Photo Variations to the product. Yes Topps has added them into the Chrome product for the first time. This came late yesterday after the product was released and there are 20 in total. These 20 also are all big name players, so no chance finding a lower tiered Photo variation with these. Included are the hot rookies of Harper, Darvish, Lawrie and Cespedes. With odds of 1:912 Hobby packs and 1:13,500 Retail packs, your sure these will be up there on the price scale. Good Luck on the hunt.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Product Review: 2012 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby Box
As soon as the Sell Sheet was out this was the one product I was looking forward to this year. Topps has packed this product for 2012 with a lot of hits. Not only do you till get 2 Autographed cards per pack, but this year they have added veterans to the mix. And if that wasn't enough, they have added Die-cuts, Buy Back Autographs, an uncut sheet redemption and Hot Boxes!
The basics on the product this year are as follows: 24 Packs per Hobby Box, 4 Cards per pack. With Refractors running at 1:3 packs with the additional colors of Blue /199, Black /100, Sepia /75, Gold /50, Red /25, Atomic /10 and Super-Fractors 1/1. Pretty much the same this year with the difference of Sepia are a lower serial number and the Atomic Fractors jump from 2011 /225 down to /10. The Dynamic Die-Cuts are listed at 1 per Hobby Box and should be tough to put together a set unless using the secondary market. With the Veteran Autographs I mentioned that were added into the product, well these will be even tougher to find as the highest serial numbered auto is /25! Most are out of 10, so for those autograph seekers your in for a challenge.
Chrome has a certain following, some just wait for this product to come out and put all their collecting cash into it. It's shinny, has autos, and always has kept it's value over the years. It seems to be the one product with a solid collectors base very similar to Allen & Ginter collectors. More so this year than any other, Topps has pushed the envelope and brought more to this product to lure more collectors into the Chrome drool fest. The ever so sought out for Hot Box has been introduced this year for 2012 Chrome. These boxes will be found 1 out of every 3 cases. All cards within these Hot Boxes will be all Refractors, no base Chrome. The ultimate Refractor collector dream, can you imagine each card in a box being a refractor? Amazing they have done this with Chrome, and with this I bet more cases will be sold than individual boxes this year.
As with every year Chrome packs in it with Refractor Parallels. So nothing changed here with colored Refractors, X-Fractors and Super-Fractors. Of course you have your assortment of Rookie Card Autographed cards seeded 2 per box on average, but with the veteran autographed inserted into the product you might end up getting 1 RC Auto with a Veteran Auto, either way you win with this product. Most of the Veteran Autographs are numbered from 25 or less, so your odds of obtaining one might be harder than you would think with this product. Also they have added a small number of Autographed Relics numbered to 10. One last added new item are the Dynamic Die-cuts set at 1 per box.
So of course this was something I was planning on buying already but how much would I buy? Well, I set aside 4 boxes from a sealed case to try my luck at a hot box. With the odds of 1 out of 3 cases I figured breaking 4 of the 12 gave me pretty good odds (if this was the case). Lets see how I did:
Box 1
Base: 63 (Trumbo, Arod, Jeter, Braun, Ichiro)
Base RC: 15 (Harper, Nieuwenhuis, Reed, Moore)
Refractor: 8 (Montero RC, Falu RC, Chipper Jones)
X-Fractor: 4 (Beltran, Latos, Cueto, Duda)
Blue Refractor: David Wright /199
Sepia Refractor: Eric Surkamp RC /75
Gold Refractor: Kirk Nieuwenhuis /50
Dynamic Die-Cut: David Ortiz
Autographs: 2 (Matt Dominguez RC, Wily Peralta RC Refractor /499)
Box 2
Base: 59 (Strasburg, Tulo, Votto, Kemp, Trout, Bautista)
Base RC: 20 (Adams, Cespedes, Valdespin, Middlebrooks, Darvish)
Refractor: 8 (Trumbo, Lester, Johnson)
X-Fractor: 4 (Aoki RC, Kinsler, Gordon, Cabrera)
Blue Refractor: Brian Wilson /199
Gold Refractor: Jon Lester /50
Dynamic Die-Cut: Curtis Ganderson
Autographs: 2 (Drew Hutchison RC, Kirk Nieuwenhuis RC Refractor /499)
Box 3
Base: 62 (Pujols, Wright, Fielder, Hamilton, Ortiz, Cano, Kemp, Trout, Bautista)
Base RC: 17 (Lawrie, Cespedes, Montero, Mesoraco, Adams)
Refractor: 8 (Cain, Crawford)
X-Fractor: 4 (Garza, Iwakuma RC, J. Upton, Stubbs)
Blue Refractor: Michael Taylor RC /199 Red Refractor: Mike Napoli /25
Dynamic Die-Cut: Ichiro
Autographs: 2 (Jarrod Parker RC, Drew Hutchison RC Refractor Blue /199)
Box 4
Base: 58 (Chipper Jones, Hosmer, Jeter, Longoria, Kershaw, Sabathia, Stanton)
Base RC: 21 (Middlebrooks, Valdespin, Taylor, Betances, Hutchison)
Refractor: 8 (Ganderson, Herrera RC, Hendriks RC, Liddi RC, Halladay)
X-Fractor: 4 (Bruce, Braun, Crawford, Ackley)
Blue Refractor: Nyjer Morgan /199 Sepia Refractor: Ryan Braun /75
Dynamic Die-Cut: Troy Tulowitzki
Autographs: 2 (Zack Cozart, Tyler Pastornicky RC)
So out of 4 random boxes from the case I picked out I came out with none being Hot Boxes. As for the product, Chrome is one of the cleanest and nicest products on the market year in and out. The Refractors are great parallels to this product and add to the chase of finding tough rookie autographs. I did decently on these boxes, again with Chrome you are only getting 96 cards total in a Hobby box so building the 220 base set could be a little tougher with the mix of parallels and autographs in the product. You would need a few boxes to get close or hit the 220 mark. In my case I have a good start and so I will try to make a Chrome Base set. The Dynamic Die-Cuts are really nice added insert into this product. Somewhat like the Cutting Edge Stars in Bowman Platinum, these die-cuts standout and pictures don't do them justice at all. As of the Release there are 50 players to collect. A complete set of these would be really nice to display as part of any collection.
The Autographs I pulled were all rookies except for the Zack Cozart, and the signatures were all On-card (a Hobby favorite) which were all cleanly signed. The one thing I did notice on the base Autographs is that 2 of the 5 seemed to have a manufactured defect of the printing press. The lines on the card front were noticeable and not very appealing to them. However I noticed on the Refractors they did not have this and were very clean card faces. I hit two Sepia Refractors and 1 Red Refractor out of the 4 boxes from the case. Again if you are a Chrome collector you will be delighted in this product. The cards are nice and crisp, not bending like previous years past. And with the lineup of players this year and the addition of more autographs you can't go wrong. This is not one of the Higher end products for baseball but is certainly one that could temp those in the Higher-End market to dabble into the product like myself. in previous years I didn't really bother with Chrome. Don't get me wrong though as I've always enjoyed the On-Card autographs the past years. I just didn't buy boxes of it, instead bought in the secondary market for those players I wanted for my collection. This year though it turned me into a Chrome Collector for years to come, just because of the new product offerings in the this year that I know will continue down the road.
Overall I would say this is in the top 3 baseball products of the year and a definite buy for any collector looking to make sets or chase down those hard parallels or autographs.
Gambler Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs: 4.5/5
Parallels: 4.5/5
Fun Aspect: 5/5
The basics on the product this year are as follows: 24 Packs per Hobby Box, 4 Cards per pack. With Refractors running at 1:3 packs with the additional colors of Blue /199, Black /100, Sepia /75, Gold /50, Red /25, Atomic /10 and Super-Fractors 1/1. Pretty much the same this year with the difference of Sepia are a lower serial number and the Atomic Fractors jump from 2011 /225 down to /10. The Dynamic Die-Cuts are listed at 1 per Hobby Box and should be tough to put together a set unless using the secondary market. With the Veteran Autographs I mentioned that were added into the product, well these will be even tougher to find as the highest serial numbered auto is /25! Most are out of 10, so for those autograph seekers your in for a challenge.
Chrome has a certain following, some just wait for this product to come out and put all their collecting cash into it. It's shinny, has autos, and always has kept it's value over the years. It seems to be the one product with a solid collectors base very similar to Allen & Ginter collectors. More so this year than any other, Topps has pushed the envelope and brought more to this product to lure more collectors into the Chrome drool fest. The ever so sought out for Hot Box has been introduced this year for 2012 Chrome. These boxes will be found 1 out of every 3 cases. All cards within these Hot Boxes will be all Refractors, no base Chrome. The ultimate Refractor collector dream, can you imagine each card in a box being a refractor? Amazing they have done this with Chrome, and with this I bet more cases will be sold than individual boxes this year.
As with every year Chrome packs in it with Refractor Parallels. So nothing changed here with colored Refractors, X-Fractors and Super-Fractors. Of course you have your assortment of Rookie Card Autographed cards seeded 2 per box on average, but with the veteran autographed inserted into the product you might end up getting 1 RC Auto with a Veteran Auto, either way you win with this product. Most of the Veteran Autographs are numbered from 25 or less, so your odds of obtaining one might be harder than you would think with this product. Also they have added a small number of Autographed Relics numbered to 10. One last added new item are the Dynamic Die-cuts set at 1 per box.
So of course this was something I was planning on buying already but how much would I buy? Well, I set aside 4 boxes from a sealed case to try my luck at a hot box. With the odds of 1 out of 3 cases I figured breaking 4 of the 12 gave me pretty good odds (if this was the case). Lets see how I did:
Box 1
Base: 63 (Trumbo, Arod, Jeter, Braun, Ichiro)
Base RC: 15 (Harper, Nieuwenhuis, Reed, Moore)
Refractor: 8 (Montero RC, Falu RC, Chipper Jones)
X-Fractor: 4 (Beltran, Latos, Cueto, Duda)
Blue Refractor: David Wright /199
Sepia Refractor: Eric Surkamp RC /75
Gold Refractor: Kirk Nieuwenhuis /50
Dynamic Die-Cut: David Ortiz
Autographs: 2 (Matt Dominguez RC, Wily Peralta RC Refractor /499)
Box 2
Base: 59 (Strasburg, Tulo, Votto, Kemp, Trout, Bautista)
Base RC: 20 (Adams, Cespedes, Valdespin, Middlebrooks, Darvish)
Refractor: 8 (Trumbo, Lester, Johnson)
X-Fractor: 4 (Aoki RC, Kinsler, Gordon, Cabrera)
Blue Refractor: Brian Wilson /199
Gold Refractor: Jon Lester /50
Dynamic Die-Cut: Curtis Ganderson
Autographs: 2 (Drew Hutchison RC, Kirk Nieuwenhuis RC Refractor /499)
Box 3
Base: 62 (Pujols, Wright, Fielder, Hamilton, Ortiz, Cano, Kemp, Trout, Bautista)
Base RC: 17 (Lawrie, Cespedes, Montero, Mesoraco, Adams)
Refractor: 8 (Cain, Crawford)
X-Fractor: 4 (Garza, Iwakuma RC, J. Upton, Stubbs)
Blue Refractor: Michael Taylor RC /199 Red Refractor: Mike Napoli /25
Dynamic Die-Cut: Ichiro
Autographs: 2 (Jarrod Parker RC, Drew Hutchison RC Refractor Blue /199)
Box 4
Base: 58 (Chipper Jones, Hosmer, Jeter, Longoria, Kershaw, Sabathia, Stanton)
Base RC: 21 (Middlebrooks, Valdespin, Taylor, Betances, Hutchison)
Refractor: 8 (Ganderson, Herrera RC, Hendriks RC, Liddi RC, Halladay)
X-Fractor: 4 (Bruce, Braun, Crawford, Ackley)
Blue Refractor: Nyjer Morgan /199 Sepia Refractor: Ryan Braun /75
Dynamic Die-Cut: Troy Tulowitzki
Autographs: 2 (Zack Cozart, Tyler Pastornicky RC)
So out of 4 random boxes from the case I picked out I came out with none being Hot Boxes. As for the product, Chrome is one of the cleanest and nicest products on the market year in and out. The Refractors are great parallels to this product and add to the chase of finding tough rookie autographs. I did decently on these boxes, again with Chrome you are only getting 96 cards total in a Hobby box so building the 220 base set could be a little tougher with the mix of parallels and autographs in the product. You would need a few boxes to get close or hit the 220 mark. In my case I have a good start and so I will try to make a Chrome Base set. The Dynamic Die-Cuts are really nice added insert into this product. Somewhat like the Cutting Edge Stars in Bowman Platinum, these die-cuts standout and pictures don't do them justice at all. As of the Release there are 50 players to collect. A complete set of these would be really nice to display as part of any collection.
The Autographs I pulled were all rookies except for the Zack Cozart, and the signatures were all On-card (a Hobby favorite) which were all cleanly signed. The one thing I did notice on the base Autographs is that 2 of the 5 seemed to have a manufactured defect of the printing press. The lines on the card front were noticeable and not very appealing to them. However I noticed on the Refractors they did not have this and were very clean card faces. I hit two Sepia Refractors and 1 Red Refractor out of the 4 boxes from the case. Again if you are a Chrome collector you will be delighted in this product. The cards are nice and crisp, not bending like previous years past. And with the lineup of players this year and the addition of more autographs you can't go wrong. This is not one of the Higher end products for baseball but is certainly one that could temp those in the Higher-End market to dabble into the product like myself. in previous years I didn't really bother with Chrome. Don't get me wrong though as I've always enjoyed the On-Card autographs the past years. I just didn't buy boxes of it, instead bought in the secondary market for those players I wanted for my collection. This year though it turned me into a Chrome Collector for years to come, just because of the new product offerings in the this year that I know will continue down the road.
Overall I would say this is in the top 3 baseball products of the year and a definite buy for any collector looking to make sets or chase down those hard parallels or autographs.
Gambler Overall Rating: 4.75 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs: 4.5/5
Parallels: 4.5/5
Design: 5/5
Rookies: 4.5/5Fun Aspect: 5/5
Monday, August 20, 2012
Product Review: 2012-2013 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Hockey Hobby Box
So I left this one alone on release day but had some interest from the beginning, but it was more about the Canadian Redemption instead of the Hobby box as a whole. Yes 2012-23 O-Pee-Chee have been released and are out there on the market for all. This set was a "maybe" purchase for me at Release day instead of the typical "Go get it" feeling. The base cards have a non-flashy design, but are looking more retro each year which is nice. Parallels are in the set with Rainbow and Black Rainbow foils, along with stickers and other inserts. New for this year were Team logo Patches and Autographs with the addition of Buy-Back Autographs.
Now the one thing about this product that is not available for everyone is the "Canadian Only" Red Parallel Wrapper Redemption. The Wrapper redemption only works through Upper-Deck "Approved" hobby stores and they are the only ones to send in the wrappers to Upper-Deck for the redemption packs. This is very tight on the process along with only available to Canadians. The redemption's will come in a 6 card pack which includes Red Parallels Cards from the 600 base set, with 1 All-Star card from a 50 card subset only through this wrapper redemption. The secondary market of these cards, sets should be pretty high. I will provide an update as to my redemption pack I receive in a future blog.
As for the O-Pee-Chee product it's self, it is a big Base set this year with 600 cards. This includes 43 Rookies and Marquee Legends included int he 600 base set. In addition to the 600 base card set there is also a Retro Parallel set of the same 600 base cards! In each box you will receive 32 of these which is one per pack. So with a huge base set, Upper Deck included the Rainbow foil Parallels which are loaded in each box as 8 per box with the Black Rainbow (which are very hard to tell from the front) numbered out of 100 with a serial number on the back of these cards. They also added in a 100 Sticker card set and a 50 card Pop-up set.
So a lot product for your money on this one. But again with low value boxes you always have a lower secondary market to go along with it. Now like other lower valued offerings this year Upper Deck has included Team Manufactured Patches and Autographs to the product. Now finding one of these is going to be tough as the Patches are 4 per case with different odds for the different variations of the patches from 1:125 packs to 1:14,056! And these are hot currently in the secondary market, lots of big money being throw around on these for the even the lower tiered patches. To join in the search are Autographs with the same tough pull odds from 1:240 packs to 1:7144 for the Team Canada Signatures. Not to mention they have Buy-Backs included in the product of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.
So looking through this at first glace it is a like it or leave it box to buy, but for Canadians we have an advantage with the Wrapper Redemption, so this is more of a reason to buy a box or two in order to obtain 50 wrappers for the redemption. With this in mind I took off to the local shop Monday to buy a couple of boxes and get the wrappers in. My shop had a number of boxes still from last Wednesday so I picked up 2 random boxes and here is my results:
Box #1: Box#2:
Base cards: 184 Base cards: 178
Marquee Rookie cards: 7 Marquee Rookie cards: 7
Marquee Rookie Veteran: 1 Marquee Rookie Veteran: 1
Rainbow: 8 Rainbow: 8
Black Rainbow: 3 Black Rainbow: 3
Pop-Up: 2 Pop-Up: 2
Sticker cards: 10 Sticker cards: 11
Marquee Legends: 8 Marquee Legends: 8
Retro Base: 26 Retro Base: 26
Marquee Rookie Retro: 3 Marquee Rookie Retro: 2
Marquee Legends Retro: 3 Marquee Legends Retro: 3
O-Pee-Chee Signatures: Jonathan Ericsson Manufactured Patch: Calgary Flames (Modern)
Overall this was a really decent break for this product. I was happy with both boxes and the selection for each. The only difference was I had 1 Sticker card more in Box #2 which gave me 1 less Marquee Retro Rookie. I have gone through most of the base and I don't think either box had any doubles which is fantastic and a great start for anyone wanting to try the 600 card set. Both boxes I pulled hits out of which is really nice. Both aren't the big pulls but are both hard to find among a case so I will take this as a big win. Looking over the product again while writing the review and it isn't the flash of other sets but the photography is sharp on the base cards and the inserts and parallels give a good variety to the product. Aside from my Canadian exclusive Red Border pack that I will see later on, I'm very happy with this purchase, Upper Deck did a great job on this one and I would recommend this to any hockey fan out there.
Gambler Overall Rating: 4.7 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs/Patches: 4/5
Inserts/Parallels: 5/5
Fun Aspect: 5/5
Now the one thing about this product that is not available for everyone is the "Canadian Only" Red Parallel Wrapper Redemption. The Wrapper redemption only works through Upper-Deck "Approved" hobby stores and they are the only ones to send in the wrappers to Upper-Deck for the redemption packs. This is very tight on the process along with only available to Canadians. The redemption's will come in a 6 card pack which includes Red Parallels Cards from the 600 base set, with 1 All-Star card from a 50 card subset only through this wrapper redemption. The secondary market of these cards, sets should be pretty high. I will provide an update as to my redemption pack I receive in a future blog.
As for the O-Pee-Chee product it's self, it is a big Base set this year with 600 cards. This includes 43 Rookies and Marquee Legends included int he 600 base set. In addition to the 600 base card set there is also a Retro Parallel set of the same 600 base cards! In each box you will receive 32 of these which is one per pack. So with a huge base set, Upper Deck included the Rainbow foil Parallels which are loaded in each box as 8 per box with the Black Rainbow (which are very hard to tell from the front) numbered out of 100 with a serial number on the back of these cards. They also added in a 100 Sticker card set and a 50 card Pop-up set.
So a lot product for your money on this one. But again with low value boxes you always have a lower secondary market to go along with it. Now like other lower valued offerings this year Upper Deck has included Team Manufactured Patches and Autographs to the product. Now finding one of these is going to be tough as the Patches are 4 per case with different odds for the different variations of the patches from 1:125 packs to 1:14,056! And these are hot currently in the secondary market, lots of big money being throw around on these for the even the lower tiered patches. To join in the search are Autographs with the same tough pull odds from 1:240 packs to 1:7144 for the Team Canada Signatures. Not to mention they have Buy-Backs included in the product of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.
So looking through this at first glace it is a like it or leave it box to buy, but for Canadians we have an advantage with the Wrapper Redemption, so this is more of a reason to buy a box or two in order to obtain 50 wrappers for the redemption. With this in mind I took off to the local shop Monday to buy a couple of boxes and get the wrappers in. My shop had a number of boxes still from last Wednesday so I picked up 2 random boxes and here is my results:
Box #1: Box#2:
Base cards: 184 Base cards: 178
Marquee Rookie cards: 7 Marquee Rookie cards: 7
Marquee Rookie Veteran: 1 Marquee Rookie Veteran: 1
Rainbow: 8 Rainbow: 8
Black Rainbow: 3 Black Rainbow: 3
Pop-Up: 2 Pop-Up: 2
Sticker cards: 10 Sticker cards: 11
Marquee Legends: 8 Marquee Legends: 8
Retro Base: 26 Retro Base: 26
Marquee Rookie Retro: 3 Marquee Rookie Retro: 2
Marquee Legends Retro: 3 Marquee Legends Retro: 3
O-Pee-Chee Signatures: Jonathan Ericsson Manufactured Patch: Calgary Flames (Modern)
Overall this was a really decent break for this product. I was happy with both boxes and the selection for each. The only difference was I had 1 Sticker card more in Box #2 which gave me 1 less Marquee Retro Rookie. I have gone through most of the base and I don't think either box had any doubles which is fantastic and a great start for anyone wanting to try the 600 card set. Both boxes I pulled hits out of which is really nice. Both aren't the big pulls but are both hard to find among a case so I will take this as a big win. Looking over the product again while writing the review and it isn't the flash of other sets but the photography is sharp on the base cards and the inserts and parallels give a good variety to the product. Aside from my Canadian exclusive Red Border pack that I will see later on, I'm very happy with this purchase, Upper Deck did a great job on this one and I would recommend this to any hockey fan out there.
Gambler Overall Rating: 4.7 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Autographs/Patches: 4/5
Inserts/Parallels: 5/5
Design: 4.5/5
Rookies: 4.5/5Fun Aspect: 5/5
Saturday, August 18, 2012
How do you value your card collection?
Since the very first sports card was made back in 1869 up until 1984 with the very first Dr. James Beckett Monthly Price Guide what was used as the value of sports cards? I have asked several older collectors this question as it comes up each time I meet someone at a card show or run into them in the local hobby shop. 100% of the time the answer is the same, the love of that team or player had the highest value in the eyes of that collector.
Now with the internet you can find a different price for a card in multiple places. You have eBay listings, store websites, Beckett Online pricing, Collector forums, and auction warehouses. Along with the internet you have your local hobby shops and sports card shows with their own pricing as well.
Most people use Beckett for their value of a card. You will see advertisements within an eBay auction for "50% less than listed in Beckett monthly", the same can be said for Local card shops and dealers at card shows. Does the Beckett Monthly Price Guide hold the key to the value of your cards? It does in one way or another as most people will refer to the guide when making trades within collecting forums or with dealers/hobby shops. This has been the main reference for decades within the hobby, heck before the internet was born it was the only source to the card collecting world.
So the question still remains out to you; How do you value your collection? Are you more of the Pre-1984 type that values their collection with a more personal touch of nostalgia? Are you the type take the price in the guide to hold true and would not budge on it even for a friend? Or do you work with the market at that time and ride the trends? There are many ways to value your collection or cards you are looking to sell or flip to make some money towards the next product coming out.
The way I look at my personal collection is different from what I view my Flippers. For me I have a couple of personal collections on the go. I have a "Rainbow", Player, Team and set collection in the works right now. How I personally value these is a little different for each. For example the "Rainbow" collection is a player for the 2011 Topps Baseball set. Since it has been out for over a year I know it will be tough to find some of the parallels. Knowing this if I see one of those lower numbered cards I will take it for a higher price than I would have when the set was released. The Player collection is for a minor leaguer in baseball. Since he has very little cards in the community I am more laid back about getting some of them because I know once he's called up people will put them on forums or eBay to sell as he would be "trending" the market at that time. And as for the Team and set collections, there is no rush on grabbing those cards. Both are in plentiful amounts as lots or singles that there isn't a real rush to obtain them. Plus it is a little different when you are targeting on one certain player or "Rainbow" card as they are limited to what you can get after a product has been released for a while and even sometimes at the release with certain lower numbered parallels.
With Flippers I have found you can go one of two ways. First and most popular is get it out there when they are first released and populate the community. This creates an instant value for your card before pricing is even wet on the paper. Collectors have no idea what value a card has other than what the last one sold for. This can work for collectors but can also back fire. I have seen int he past when the community is flooded with new released cards before pricing is out int he market place and seen some cards go for a lot less than what the pricing is listing them at as well as auction end prices a month after a release. There are many variables to make this happen, but if you are a regular Flipper of cards you need to be on your game to make it work. Myself, I watch the trends of the market. Just as the stock market moves during a day the same happens within the sports card collecting world. Our market tends to have very high peaks when products are first released or if a player is on an MVP or championship run. other than those defining moments the market tends to even out a couple of weeks or a month after a new product is released. This is when I find the true value for cards. People aren't in panic mode to find those rare cards or complete their sets. More volume is out there but the pricing is very close between sellers that you can take your pick.
Looking at my wall of Beckett Price Guides (close to 100) from years past while writing this piece has given me another question to ask; Have you ever gone back and looked at an older Beckett Price Guide to see what a card was listed at near the products release or the prime of that players career? I have numerous times. In fact right now I'm looking at a 1990 July issue of Baseball Monthly. Looking back at that published magazine brings back memories. Lets give a couple of decent comparisons from that guide to this months guide (August 2012). The famous 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is listed for $7000.00 (High Column) as compared to this months guide at $30,000. 1988 Score Traded Mark Grace is listed at $35.00 compared to $8.00 in 2012. Just two examples of cards that both have had some events in years past to change the values on them both. But as a collector of either of these cards, do you value the Mantle at or above the $30,000 now that he has past? And do you still value the Mark grace card at the $35.00 value even though you could pick one up for $1.00 currently on eBay?
Collectors will always have a different point of view of their own collections value. This creates more good for the community than bad. It's the ones flipping for huge mark ups when a product goes live that cause an issue sometimes. So don't get bummed that a 2012 Finest Yu Darvish Rookie card was at a "Buy it Now" of $25.00 within the first couple of days of the product being live. The price will go down in the next couple of weeks and settle at the normal average price for that card. Hey it might just be the $25.00 but you never really know right away. To the person who owns it in their own collection whether it be a "Super" collector or baseball card collector, it could be worth much more to them.
Now with the internet you can find a different price for a card in multiple places. You have eBay listings, store websites, Beckett Online pricing, Collector forums, and auction warehouses. Along with the internet you have your local hobby shops and sports card shows with their own pricing as well.
Most people use Beckett for their value of a card. You will see advertisements within an eBay auction for "50% less than listed in Beckett monthly", the same can be said for Local card shops and dealers at card shows. Does the Beckett Monthly Price Guide hold the key to the value of your cards? It does in one way or another as most people will refer to the guide when making trades within collecting forums or with dealers/hobby shops. This has been the main reference for decades within the hobby, heck before the internet was born it was the only source to the card collecting world.
So the question still remains out to you; How do you value your collection? Are you more of the Pre-1984 type that values their collection with a more personal touch of nostalgia? Are you the type take the price in the guide to hold true and would not budge on it even for a friend? Or do you work with the market at that time and ride the trends? There are many ways to value your collection or cards you are looking to sell or flip to make some money towards the next product coming out.
The way I look at my personal collection is different from what I view my Flippers. For me I have a couple of personal collections on the go. I have a "Rainbow", Player, Team and set collection in the works right now. How I personally value these is a little different for each. For example the "Rainbow" collection is a player for the 2011 Topps Baseball set. Since it has been out for over a year I know it will be tough to find some of the parallels. Knowing this if I see one of those lower numbered cards I will take it for a higher price than I would have when the set was released. The Player collection is for a minor leaguer in baseball. Since he has very little cards in the community I am more laid back about getting some of them because I know once he's called up people will put them on forums or eBay to sell as he would be "trending" the market at that time. And as for the Team and set collections, there is no rush on grabbing those cards. Both are in plentiful amounts as lots or singles that there isn't a real rush to obtain them. Plus it is a little different when you are targeting on one certain player or "Rainbow" card as they are limited to what you can get after a product has been released for a while and even sometimes at the release with certain lower numbered parallels.
With Flippers I have found you can go one of two ways. First and most popular is get it out there when they are first released and populate the community. This creates an instant value for your card before pricing is even wet on the paper. Collectors have no idea what value a card has other than what the last one sold for. This can work for collectors but can also back fire. I have seen int he past when the community is flooded with new released cards before pricing is out int he market place and seen some cards go for a lot less than what the pricing is listing them at as well as auction end prices a month after a release. There are many variables to make this happen, but if you are a regular Flipper of cards you need to be on your game to make it work. Myself, I watch the trends of the market. Just as the stock market moves during a day the same happens within the sports card collecting world. Our market tends to have very high peaks when products are first released or if a player is on an MVP or championship run. other than those defining moments the market tends to even out a couple of weeks or a month after a new product is released. This is when I find the true value for cards. People aren't in panic mode to find those rare cards or complete their sets. More volume is out there but the pricing is very close between sellers that you can take your pick.
Looking at my wall of Beckett Price Guides (close to 100) from years past while writing this piece has given me another question to ask; Have you ever gone back and looked at an older Beckett Price Guide to see what a card was listed at near the products release or the prime of that players career? I have numerous times. In fact right now I'm looking at a 1990 July issue of Baseball Monthly. Looking back at that published magazine brings back memories. Lets give a couple of decent comparisons from that guide to this months guide (August 2012). The famous 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle is listed for $7000.00 (High Column) as compared to this months guide at $30,000. 1988 Score Traded Mark Grace is listed at $35.00 compared to $8.00 in 2012. Just two examples of cards that both have had some events in years past to change the values on them both. But as a collector of either of these cards, do you value the Mantle at or above the $30,000 now that he has past? And do you still value the Mark grace card at the $35.00 value even though you could pick one up for $1.00 currently on eBay?
Collectors will always have a different point of view of their own collections value. This creates more good for the community than bad. It's the ones flipping for huge mark ups when a product goes live that cause an issue sometimes. So don't get bummed that a 2012 Finest Yu Darvish Rookie card was at a "Buy it Now" of $25.00 within the first couple of days of the product being live. The price will go down in the next couple of weeks and settle at the normal average price for that card. Hey it might just be the $25.00 but you never really know right away. To the person who owns it in their own collection whether it be a "Super" collector or baseball card collector, it could be worth much more to them.
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