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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Race-used lugnut cards return in Press Pass Main Event
08.25
Press Pass announced on Tuesday that race-used lugnut cards will return to its NASCAR products with a future product.
The unusual memorabilia cards will be found in Press Pass Main Event as part of the Stop & Go Swatches set.
Each 20-pack hobby box of the poker-themed NASCAR set will include one autograph and two memorabilia cards as well as autographs from professional poker stars.
The product is set for a Sept. 30 release.
Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
Brett Favre's first Panini Vikings card also in Target packs
08.25
Panini America announceed on Tuesday that its first Brett Favre football card of the future Hall of Famer in Minnesota Vikings uniform also will also be inserted into 2009 Donruss Threads Target blaster boxes and retail packs.
“My hat is off to our production staff. Based on their hard work and quick turn around, we were able to include the limited edition Favre card into Target blasters too,” said Panini America’s Scott Prusha. “Even with the additional product configurations, our initial announced print run of 4,444 cards will remain the same.”
The retail version of Donruss Threads begins shipping on Aug. 26.
Hey, Bull Durham fans… TRISTAR Obak has something for you
08.25
The forthcoming TRISTAR Obak baseball set includes some serious surprises and some fascinating baseball-related inclusions.
But this one might be one of the cooler ones of the bunch.
You see, Steve Dalkowski was at one time regarded as the hardest-throwing pitcher ever, some saying he threw 110 miles an hour — at least that’s what the back of his newest baseball card says.
Whether that’s true or just baseball legend intensified by years of dust, he played in an era before radar guns so it doesn’t matter. What’s cool about this card?
Dalkowski is considered to be the player who was a key inspiration for Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh from Bull Durham.
You know, the guy with a quadraphonic Blaupunkt.
Orioles' Nolan Reimold and Rangers' Neftali Feliz are latest Topps Finest Rookie Redemptions
08.25
Topps announced the seventh and eighth Finest Rookie Redeption cards on Tuesday morning and they are Texas Rangers pitcher Neftali Feliz (No. 7) and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold (No. 8).
Each master box of Finest includes one redemption card, which can be found as Refractors (numbered to 199) and Gold Refractors (numbered to 50).
There are two rookies remaining to be announced later this season.
Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
TRISTAR's upcoming Obak Minor League Baseball card set just might be a game-changer itself
08.24
While many baseball card companies have added pop culture personalities and icons as well as historical figures to sets in recent years in an effort to draw more mainstream fans (or non-collectors) into trading cards, they haven’t achieved anything close to what TRISTAR‘s upcoming Obak set delivers.
And it’s so simple. They’ve been there all along.
You see, Obak, which is a modern-day nod to the tobacco cards of the same name from a century ago, arrives next Monday and it includes a 25-card set of “Game Changers.” They’re people who influenced the game we see today in stadiums around the country — and really the globe, though they are showcased on the smaller stage of a Minor League Baseball set.
It’s a set that includes promising prospects of today, some of the game’s greatest Hall of Famers in their farm-team threads, past MiLB Player of the Year winners, a crop of Minor League Baseball’s legends that you’ve likely never heard of but have rich and storied careers.
But the Game Changers especially caught my eye.
Who are they?
Some are pioneers you’ve never heard of. Others are ones who have influenced the very habits you have if you’re reading about baseball cards today.
Check out just a few of them in our exclusive early sneak peek at the checklist:
Panini Makes First Favre Vikings Card a Walmart Exclusive
08.24
Panini America officials had the rare opportunity to stop the presses over the weekend, doing so on the retail version of 2009 Donruss Threads in an effort to include what promises to be Brett Favre‘s first Minnesota Vikings card.
The card, also the first to incorporate game photography from Favre’s Vikings debut last Friday in a preseason game against Kansas City, will be inserted exclusively into Walmart blister packs of Donruss Threads, due out this week.
“Panini America dispatched a photographer to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome with the sole intention of creating this historical card,” said Panini America Marketing Manager Scott Prusha. “We wanted Favre’s first official Vikings trading card to be an in-game action shot of him wearing the purple No. 4.
“We were able to send a photographer to the game Friday night, print cards Saturday and have them ready for product insertion first thing Monday morning.”
– Tracy Hackler
Examining Bart Giamatti's baseball cards
08.24
It was 20 years ago today that Pete Rose accepted his ban from baseball, handed down by Commissioner Bart Giamatti.
“The banishment for life of Pete Rose from baseball is a sad end of a sorry episode,” Giamatti said that day. “One of the game’s greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts. There is absolutely no deal for reinstatement.”
Giamatti died just eight days later, which led to a memorial card produced in a handful of 1990 sets — Donruss (No. 716) as seen here and in Topps (No. 396), its O-Pee-Chee counterpart, the 1990 Score Rookie Dream Team set and in the 1990 T/ M Umpires release.
None of the cards are particularly valuable as anything more than a history lesson into one of baseball’s more unfortunate tales. (The Tiffany version of his Topps card, which is limited to roughly 15,000 copies — pretty rare for its time — is worth $4.)
Should Pete Rose be reinstated? Not in this writer’s mind.
He spent years lying to everyone, denying that he bet on the game as manager of the Cincinnati Reds — only to finally admit it when attempting to make a buck by selling a book.
Not sure what’s worse here — the lying or the gambling. And gambling — in any of sport — is one of the largest sins possible for an athlete or manager.
Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
Topps announces mistake on Will Venable Blue Refractors
08.24
This in Monday morning from Topps …
WILL VENABLE’S UNSIGNED CARDS
Topps announces that because of a mistake during the manufacturing process, Will Venable’s UNISGNED Blue Refractor Autograph cards (#’d to 199) were inadvertently inserted into packs of 2009 Topps Chrome Baseball. Topps is urging collectors to send their UNSIGNED Venable cards to the following address no later than Monday, Nov. 30. Topps will return the cards once they are signed by Venable and re-certified for authenticity.
Topps Company
ATTN: Consumer Relations
1 Whitehall St.
New York, NY 10004
MISSING CARD NUMBERS
Topps confirms that Tommy Hanson, Mark Melancon and Will Venable’s 2009 Topps Chrome Autographed Rookie Cards do not feature card numbers.
Box Busters: 2008-09 Exquisite Collection basketball cards
08.22
Join Beckett Media’s Keith Hower, Tracy Hackler and Chris Olds as they each open a $600 box of 2008-09 Exquisite Collection Basketball cards from Upper Deck.
What will they find? Watch the video here.
And be sure to watching to see how you can win a box …
Heritage set to auction million-dollar vintage collection
08.21
An impressive collection of rare and high-grade key vintage baseball cards is set to hit the auction block through Heritage Auctions in September, led by a PSA 8 Ty Cobb 1911 D304 Brunners card estimated at $200,000.
The Freedom Collection as a whole is estimated to fetch more than $1.2 million for just 40 cards of Hall of Fame players and will be sold during the Dallas-based company’s Signature Sports Auction that launches on Sept. 10 and ends on Oct. 1. The seller has wished to remain anonymous.
“It absolutely ranks among the finest private collections of high-end cards in the world,” said Heritage’s Chris Ivy in a release. “Only the most iconic names in baseball history are represented, and each of the 40 cards rate among the highest graded available … It’s rare to have a single six-figure card in an entire auction, and there are several examples in this small but special collection.”
It includes “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays among the highlights. See a sampling of the cards after the jump.