By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

No one wants to pull a redemption out of a pack of cards. Even worse is when you pull an expired one.

Ugh.

Upper Deck has experimented with ways to help collectors with these. It isn’t eliminating redemptions in products, that’s unrealistic for card companies that want hits with the best names in its products.

Instead, UD will continue running a raffle program it started at the 2012 National Sports Collectors Convention, but for Upper Deck redemptions only. The redemption card must also be for an autographed card or signed memorabilia item.

The 2012 Sportcard & Memorabilia Expo in Canada (also known as the Fall Expo) will host the next redemption giveaway. Upper Deck will hold a raffle for those who have entered their expired, unscratched redemptions on Saturday, Nov., 10 at 5 p.m.

Upper Deck has 100 prizes to give away such as autograph card from Michael Jordan, Sidney Crosby and Christian Ponder.

Unlike at the National, collectors do not have to attend to win.

Those who would like to enter should mail up to five unscratched, expired redemptions to:
The Upper Deck Company
Attn. The Upper Deck Expired Redemption Raffle Program
2251 Rutherford Road
Carlsbad, CA 92008

Write your name, address, phone number and email on the front of the card.

Cards must be received by Oct. 31, to be considered for the Fall Expo.

For those that miss this deadline, Upper Deck is offering the program at least twice more in 2013, at the 2013 Las Vegas Industry Summit in March and 2013 National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago in August.

For more rules about Upper Deck’s redemption raffle giveaway, visit its website.

Susan Lulgjuraj is the editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

A week has gone by since the close of this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention and there’s plenty that could be said, that could be written, about what could be found under one roof during the hobby’s showcase event.

From “extra” DNA Relics found in the bottom of one collector’s Allen & Ginter box (a Texas lizard in the wrong place at the wrong time at the printing plant) to countless vintage gems, from vintage wax to priceless auction items, from kids sorting soccer cards with their grandmas to kids walking the show floor in movie-used Jack Parkman jerseys, there was plenty to see.

If you followed me on Twitter during the show, you’ve undoubtedly seen a few of these already. But with the deadline clock ticking and more to do for your next magazines, this chapter of the NSCC — all except for some video still to come — is closing with a massive 97-image gallery after the jump.

It’s just a small glimpse at much of what was seen at the show — check them out and let us know what you think. After all, a picture’s worth a thousand words — so there’s plenty that could be said.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Football Editor

There are drawbacks when it comes to getting autographs on card, but collectors far and wide would rather have signed cards than autograph stickers.

With 2011 Exquisite Football coming out in a few days, Upper Deck still waited on one of the best running backs in history to fulfill his deal.

How was going UD going to get Barry Sanders to finally sign its cards? Well, as coincidence would have it, UD and Sanders were in Baltimore last weekend for the National Sports Collectors Convention. Upper Deck just happened to have the Exquisite cards with it.

Some of the cards Sanders signed were quad signatures with all-time greats. One of the cards has Sanders, Troy Aikman, Tony Dorsett and Jerry Rice. These cards feature athletes in their college uniforms and are numbered to just five.

These cards are going to be released shortly as Upper Deck is packing out them out now. The crew is actually doing it by hand.

“We package this product by hand to ensure there is value in each pack and case,” an Upper Deck representative wrote on its Facebook page. “Also to make sure there is little to no damage to the cards as that can occur with a mechanized pack out process. It is a lot of work for our team, but it is worth it when we see collectors opening the packs and happy with what they receive!”

While the players can only appear in college uniforms with Upper Deck’s CLC license, the checklist is filled with many popular players. Some of last year’s rookies include Cam Newton, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, along with veterans such as John Elway, Dan Marino and Gale Sayers.

For more information on 2011 Exquisite, check out Beckett’s product preview and a photo gallery below.

By the way, if you check out the pictures, you’ll see UD Black Signatures is back.

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Football magazine. You can email Susan here with ideas, comments and questions. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Dan Good | Contributing Editor

Some baseball stars authenticate, catalog, store and sell their memorabilia when their playing careers are over.
Hall of Famer Jim Rice isn’t one of those players.

“I don’t have anything in my house that tells you I played the game of baseball,” Rice told Beckett at the National Sports Collectors Convention. “I don’t have any hats or balls. The only thing you might find around my house are some golf clubs.”

Rice, an eight-time All-Star and the American League’s MVP in 1978, played his entire career with the Boston Red Sox.

One of the most feared sluggers of the late 1970s and 1980s, Rice’s career bridged the cardboard gap between the vintage and modern eras. He appeared on his first Topps card in 1975 – a purple-and-yellow-bordered ‘rookie outfielders’ release alongside Dave Augustine, Pepe Mangual and John Scott.

Cursives and block lettering and wood grains followed, but forgive Rice if he doesn’t recognize his cards.

“I haven’t seen all of them,” Rice admits. “I don’t collect anything. The only thing I used to collect is ’55 Chevys, because of Reggie Jackson. Reggie had a purple ’55.”

Following his retirement in 1989, Rice has focused on charity endeavors and hitting instruction, as well as on-air work for New England Sports Network. The NESN job keeps him involved with the game and connected to his Red Sox.

He also hits the autograph circuit from time to time, interacting with fans and reliving past successes – successes that Rice considers part of his job.

“I don’t have any of my jerseys,” Rice said. “I’m not out to sell my stuff, it just doesn’t do anything for me.”

Rice was one of baseball’s all-time greats. He has a plaque in Cooperstown to prove it.

But collecting? Cards? He’d rather leave that to the fans.

 By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary

The National Sports Collectors Convention is the place you visit to pick up memories, add to your collections that you have built over a lifetime and, in a way, shape your own personal view of the sports world.

With my final hour of my final day at the show winding down, it was now-or-never time for finding a certain memorable item to add to my collection since I had purchased just a couple small items — nothing necessary, nothing remotely memorable — while working. Before this year’s event, I had told myself that I should find one item — a better piece — that I could remember the show by, so that was what was in my mind as I made my way out of the Beckett bullpen with one of our writers and we headed down one aisle.

What I got in that last hour was something I never in my life could have expected — something I could have never want-listed or dreamt about. It wasn’t a Rookie Card or an autograph, it wasn’t an unusual piece of memorabilia I couldn’t find anywhere else.

What I got was Reggie Jackson.

What I got was not Reggie on a signed 1969 Topps Rookie Card (something I had eyed the previous year; above) or Reggie on an old candy bar long past its prime. I got the Reggie that made Billy Martin even angrier. I got the Reggie that made reporters cringe. I got the Reggie that made teammates scowl.

I got what made Reggie  ”The Straw That Stirs The Drink.” I got the Reggie that I have heard stories about from show promotors and autograph-acquiring companies in the past.

I got berated for taking photo of Reggie Jackson by Reggie Jackson.

We had walked a distance from our bullpen toward some dealers on that side of the Baltimore Convention Center, breezing by some tables, stopping at others. We came up on a table where, a bit earlier in the day, Jackson had been posing with a bat while looking at items one dealer had for sale. After all, he was at the show to sign and he’s also been known as a collector of memorabilia, cards and sports cars (much of it lost in a fire long ago). Turns out, he was still there. We were 10 to 15 feet away from Jackson when two of our writers came up to tell us they were leaving for the day, giving us their last contacts before hitting the road.

Those of us remaining took a few more steps forward, stopping at the table to look at whatever treasures were there when I said, “I guess I should get a picture of Reggie” and started fidgeting with my iPhone, raising it once but it was on my video setting from filming wax breaks and other videos before. I switched its settings and took a few more steps forward when a couple of other collectors walked off after taking a picture of the Hall of Famer from across the two tables.

From six or so feet away, I framed up the image of him and card industry legend  Ken Goldin, who was beside him, looking at a baseball and clicked once (the image at the top) as Jackson himself just started to click.

“How many you need?” he quipped (at least I think thats what he said as it was all a blur). “Take a couple and move on.”

A bit surprised, I looked to my right but nobody was there and spun around to see where my writer had went. Jackson was talking to me and he wasn’t done.

“How many do you need? Six, seven … 10, 11?” clearly agitated and not kidding. “Take a couple and move on.”

“I got one,” I said, holding up a single finger. “One.”

For a split-second, I contemplated saying something to Goldin — a “How are you doing?” and an introduction to break the unnecessary tension as I had talked to him before last year’s show, make Jackson realize he might have screwed up by berating a member of the media. But I was stunned, and I doubted Jackson would care.

All I could come up with was “I’m an A’s fan.” in a flustered response, raising both of my hands over my head, not believing the surreal circumstances.

Jackson wasn’t done barking at me like I was one of the reporters in those 1970s news clips.

“Buy my drinks and I’ll pose for photos with you all night,” he said (or something close to it) as the few other people around on his side of the table chuckled. I quickly quipped “sure” as the laughter died down, but he didn’t hear it and I was done with it. I wondered whether that was his way of making up for being Reggie.

It might have been, but I wasn’t sure so I walked off.

–

I was stunned for the rest of the show — the single image was taken at 5:10 p.m. on Aug. 4, according to my iPhone — and I tried to replay it all to myself and to the writer who witnessed it, a few recaps muttered with adjectives that couldn’t be written here.  (“Man, TMZ would have loved that on video,” I later thought.) We worked our way down a few other tables and found a dealer selling ticket stubs, stopped and looked — I was instantly reminded of Jackson again when one Yankees stub showed Jackson from the 1977 World Series.

I was done, annoyed once again. I didn’t buy another thing at the show. Less than 1/10th of the money I brought with me for buying was spent — a record-low.

At first it was shock as this life-long Oakland A’s fan was being trash-talked by one of the guys he’d have on his Mount Rushmore of A’s collecting — Reggie, Rickey, Jose and Swish. Then I thought back to the old notion that “you never want to meet your favorite player” because he might quash your entire image of him and why you collect. But that wasn’t it for me — I’ve met Canseco and I’ve met Swisher — neither was like this. (Heck, I could have met Henderson had I been in the Beckett booth for the whole show — he stopped and took a picture with members of our crew. That’s something I would not have expected out of Rickey.)

Instead, by a short time later and still feeling conflicted, I realized I got Reggie. I got the Reggie that isn’t the Reggie showing when the dog and pony show of the TV cameras are around at an event like the National. No, no. I got the real Reggie.

For me, he’s one of a kind. For him, I’m one of a million (or two). None of this really shocks me — put yourself in his shoes. Doesn’t make it right, but he’s been in the spotlight longer than I have been alive. I’ll give him that. But when I’m in the shoes of the one being treated poorly? Well, it’s different.

I got Reggie — one part of that puzzle that made him an enigma, a star. I got Reggie — the part that we may not always like, but it’s there.

He stirred me up. I hear he’s good at that.

Never once did I have any inclination of asking Reggie for an autograph — one that, oddly, I don’t have through all these years — I preferred just a snapshot from afar. I got much more, and it oddly sort of made my 2012 NSCC, too — but not in an overwhelmingly positive way.

I was ready to sign off on this entire story by the end of the night, but it ironically presented itself once again the next morning.

My flight out of Baltimore left at 7 a.m., which meant about two hours of sleep after a late-night VIP event I needed to attend on Saturday night. We got to the airport with no problems, and I quickly worked my way to a newsstand location for breakfast and the first food of any kind in about 10 hours. I made a beeline for a $4 bottle of Evian (that, to me was like finding a Honus Wagner in an attic), some pretzels, a sandwich and sleepily rolled to the check-out stand.

It was a line that couldn’t move fast enough as my head hurt just as much as the rest of me after a long show. I leaned on my suitcase, and I glanced up at what was on the counter in front of me to see what the hold-up was. In a sleepy haze I noticed three newspapers — two being New York tabloids — being stacked to be bought, and I remembered my days of working in the industry. “Oldschool readers are still around,” I thought to myself. “That’s good.” Then I glanced over and up … and that’s when everything seemingly went into slow-motion.

It was Reggie Jackson.

Again.

Part of me really wanted to ask him if I could buy his papers instead of his drinks just to see his reaction. But I really didn’t want to get Reggied one more time and we had a person in line between us. Yet, I also wondered if he’d remember me — after all, it might not be that hard to unless he made a habit out of berating fat guys in white dress shirts and khakis at the show. (That’s what I was wearing at the airport, too.)

Even though he treated me like something damp and useless beneath the napkin below The Drink just 13 or so hours earlier, I didn’t want to blow his cover to anyone around us. (I wasn’t a jackass before, wasn’t going to be now — not my style.) Instead, once again in shock, I watched as he paid and walked across the hall in a straight line to the Bayside Landing restaurant to sit and wait for a flight. I collected my things and moved on toward my gate. I ate my breakfast among the crowd and mentally recapped the whole thing, chuckling at it all.

But then I started to think about one more thing.

I collected my belongings and headed back toward the restaurant and the newsstand, intent on doing one more thing to cap this story if Jackson was still there and he was. It was 6:26 a.m. on Aug. 5, according to my iPhone, when facing the wall across from him using my two-way camera just in case he turned around to leave, I snapped this Nighthawks/Edward Hopper-style photo of Jackson, age 66, alone and far, far away from stirring anything.

It’s just my second photo of Reggie Jackson.

It’s the way I’ll choose to remember him for this trip.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Ben Aguirre Jr. | Contributing Writer | Commentary

BALTIMORE – The proof is in the details.

From the day that I found a game-used 1977 Baltimore Orioles Earl Weaver jersey in a San Francisco Bay Area thrift store, there has always been one tell-all sign that what I had located was truly a garment worn by the Hall of Fame manager himself.

The giveaway?

“Does it have the pocket for my cigarettes?” Weaver said Saturday at the National Sports Collectors Convention as he handled the jersey, placing his right middle and index fingers over the area where the chain-smoking skipper kept his pack. “Oh … yeah.”

Weaver is an elder statesman of the game and life, physically showing his 81 years of age. (He’ll be 82 on Aug. 12.)  He wore a black wrist guard on his right hand and winced when I shook his left hand with my own. But his mind is there, and so is the classic spark that made him the poster boy of bad boy managers who enjoyed verbal sparring with umpires.

“Ow, you’re gonna hurt my hand, dammit,” he said as I thought I shook his hand gently. “I’ve got arthritis you know.”

The handshake was a classic moment, one that could not have been written in a script anywhere. Which really was apropos considering that the circumstances of this encounter between Weaver and I were unlikely to begin with.

The story began about a year ago when I was making my thrift store rounds, which I often do seeking out sports collectibles in second-hand stores.  It was a mid-week jaunt to a series of shops in the Bay Area. I hadn’t located anything of real value all day until I walked into a shop in Hayward, Calif. As soon as I stepped in the door, there were two mysterious jerseys staring at me from the distance.

They were hanging on the clothes rack just like any other discarded replica fan jersey – seemingly worthless and tattered.  From a distance, all I could see was the black and orange colored striped on the sleeves. I initially thought they were older remakes of the local San Francisco Giants jersey, which still would have been a cool find.

But as it turned out, they were giants all right … giant scores for a thrift hunter. The jerseys were Orioles jerseys, authentic baseball shirts; one for pitcher Mike Torrez (issued for 1976) and the other for Weaver.

When you hit big finds in a thrift store, there is always a moment of truth before you can scream from the roof tops:  It’s getting past the cashier before they start questioning why the item is priced so low.

As soon as paid for the items, I quickly walked to my car fearing that someone else would notice that I had purchased a piece of baseball history for a mere $3. And once I was secured in my vehicle, I carefully examined the jerseys again to confirm my notions.  The fact that these two jerseys were found together gave me a pretty good indication that they were authentic, but their tagging was spot-on and the pocket sewn to the interior of the Weaver jersey was the calling card.

I showed images of the jerseys almost instantly via Twitter, which received a great response.  But for months the jersey sat dormant in my collection, its fate uncertain. Was I going to sell it, frame it, or put it in a garment bag and wait. I decided on the later.

Sort of out of the blue, I was asked in December to write about the find for the February edition of Beckett Sports Cards Monthly, which was a topical issue about game-used memorabilia.

The story of my thrift treasure was revitalized for a while.  I showed the jersey off to a few more friends and family. And several months later, TRISTAR released the list of its signers for the National, which was being held in the city where Weaver solidified his place in baseball history. Weaver was on the list.

Crazy thoughts entered my mind. Was I really going to scrounge up the cash to pay for flight and hotel to get this jersey signed?  Initially, the answer was no. It was a ridiculous notion. But things fell into place and suddenly I was on my way to Baltimore. I was briefly going to re-unite the game-used jersey with the Hall of Famer who made it famous.

I’d never been to a National, but if I was going to make the cross-country trip to go to a sports card show, there had better be a good reason for it. This certainly was.

In the days before the trip, I worked four 10.5-hour days and had little sleep the entire week leading up to the event.  Then I took a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Baltimore for the eventual meeting with Weaver.

On Saturday, I woke up and felt uneasy about the Weaver signing. Was this thing really going to happen? A day earlier TRISTAR had four autograph signers cancel their appearances for various reasons. I was still a bit skeptical because I held autograph ticket No. 10, meaning I was just the 10th person to purchase a ticket — and I bought mine only a week before the event.

Would Weaver cancel due to a lack of interest?

All of these thoughts remained with me as I toted the piece of baseball history through the streets of Baltimore. But a short while later, my frazzled nerves were calmed shortly after I was introduced to employees of a card company who wanted to see the jersey.

After a brief discussion with the card company employees, I was led to a booth where people who know Weaver were selling authentic signed items from the Orioles and legendary players.

“They’ll get a kick out of it,” the card company employee said as we walked.

When we got to the booth, the person whom we were looking for was not there – he was already behind the scenes with Weaver in the show’s autograph area. But another person in the know wanted to see the jersey. They took a look at the jersey and instantly reached for the custom flap of fabric sewn to the inside.

“You know how you know this is real?” he said. “It’s got the pocket.”

I then shared the story of where the jersey was found and how much it cost.

“You paid how much?” he said. “Unbelievable.”

Exactly.

Ben Aguirre is a Contributing Writer for Beckett Media and author of the blog Cardboardicons.com. You can follow him on Twitter.

 By Ben Aguirre Jr. | Contributing Writer | Commentary

BALTIMORE | “Everything over here is $1 or $2, and everything over there is 50 cents,” one dealer says.

“And if you pick out a lot, I’ll give you a good deal.”

That was an actual selling point one dealer was shouting Friday as he was drawing customers to his booth to dig through the various so-called bargain boxes.

In reality, words to this effect are fairly common place at sports card shows such as the National Sports Collectors Convention.  There are bargain bins at just about every other dealer booth.

And to me, those selling points are music to my ears.

As I noted in the latest Beckett Sports Card Monthly, one of my primary objectives in attending regional card shows is to raid the bargain boxes.

I came to Baltimore this weekend not to talk like a pirate, but to act like one – to pillage and plunder through box after box until the treasures within these chests were mine.

And after two days of surviving the stormy seas of the crowded showroom floor at the Baltimore Convention Center, I have managed to acquire roughly 250 cards from two dealers, cards that collectively have book values between $1,200 low book and $2,000 high book value.

Rookies, inserts, low-numbered serial-numbered parallels, short prints, variations, etc. You name it and they are all there.

My cost for these treasures?  A mere $112 – less than a box of 2012 Bowman Platinum. (Those are running $119 on the showroom floor, by the way.)

Mickey Mantle and Michael Jordan were never commons in this hobby, yet some of their cards these days are being treated as such as they are left to wade in the choppy waters of the bargain boxes — their corners and edges subjected to damage as collector after collector begins their journey through the boxes.

Luckily, for these two players, I managed to save their cardboard lives before they could be destroyed.  As soon as I found them for 50 cents each, I plucked them from the sea and brought them aboard the proverbial Jolly Roger.

From one dealer I acquired 70 Mantle insert cards for $35. The high book value of these cards alone was upward of $900. And not a single one of these are those 2006 Topps Mickey Mantle Home Run Continuity cards that collectors love to hate.

Also from the same seller I located not one, but two, 1980-81 Topps Magic Johnson Rookie Cards.  True, they were detached from the original three-panel perforated card that also featured Julius Erving and Larry Bird, but these were legitimate RCs of perhaps the greatest point guard to ever play in the NBA.

At that price, and with the boon in miniature card craze, these Johnson cards were a no-brainer.

With more than 200 cards being purchased thus far, I obviously am not going to attempt to list each one I’ve found, but there are a quite a few that are listed in the Beckett Online Price Guide as having values between $10 and $40 each. (Oh, and the cards numbered to 25 above? Just 50 cents apiece.)

And if you’re sitting there shaking your head asking the question: “How does this happen in a day and age of so many buying to resell” you’ve essentially answered your own question by asking the question.

A lot of these cards in the bargain bins were part of massive collection purchases where their existence was forgotten.  They were not the prize of the deal in which they were acquired.

The result is a winning situation for collectors who are willing to take the time to treasure hunt.

Ben Aguirre is a Contributing Writer for Beckett Media and author of the blog Cardboardicons.com. You can follow him on Twitter. 

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

BALTIMORE – As first-timers to the National Sports Collectors Convention, Julien’s Auctions are showing up with the real deal.

Normally an entertainment auction house – selling items from Michael Jackson and Cher – Julien’s is putting together it’s first full day of auctions for sports. The items will include nearly the entire estate of boxer Evander Holyfield.

Championship belts, rings, furniture, cars and even the gloves he used in the bout with Mike Tyson – where Tyson bit his ear – are being auctioned. His 1984 bronze medal from the 1984 Summer Olympic Games is also on the block.

Dan Nelles, a sports specialist for Julien’s, said the company just acquired the deal two weeks ago, but they haven’t gone through the entire inventory yet. However, he expects they have about 400-500 items.

“We’re going to have about 30 to 40 robes, 15 or so gloves,” Nelles said. “One of the first things he bought when he made money was a 1962 Corvette and we’ll have the Corvette too.”

Holyfield’s memorabilia hasn’t made it to the public very often because he kept almost all of his stuff over the year. He did give a pair gloves to Chuck Norris, which eventually found its way to auction house and sold for around $5,000, Nelles said.

In the end, Nelles thinks the auction could bring in about $3 million, possibly more.

“I think it has the chance to break $5 million It’s tough because hardly any of it has made the market. ” Nelles said. “There is not a lot of precedence so we are going to put our estimates on the conservative side.”

The auction takes place November 30. The items will be on display for two weeks leading up to the live auction at the Beverly Hills studio. An online auction will begin a couple of weeks earlier, and then there will be a live video streaming during the live portion in order for people to bid from home.

In an interview last month with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Holyfield admitted he was broke.

“When it falls, it falls, ” Holyfield told AJC reporter Bill Torpy.

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazine. You can email Susan here with ideas, comments and questions. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

BALTIMORE – The bat Frank Robinson used to hit his 500th home run sat in its own display case in the front of a booth. Onlookers stopped and marveled. It brought attention to JT Sports‘ booth where game-used bats were everywhere.

John Taube, owner of the game-used bat authentication business, said his booth has been busy this weekend, even better than the visit to Charm City for the National Sports Collectors Convention.

But Taube’s busy weekend was darkened before it started.

A game-used bat by Mel Ott from the 1930s, which was bought for $48,000 from Hunt Auction during MLB All-Star Weekend in Kansas City, was stolen from his booth on Wednesday. Taube filed a police report and planned to speak to detectives on Saturday because of the value of the bat.

“It’s been a tremendous show. Sales have been brisk,” Taube said. “Other than that it’s been a fabulous show.”

The bat was brought to him for authentication from Scott Foraker, a long time customer. He wanted a letter from Taube’s company before taking possession of the bat. Taube planned to take it back to his office in Margate, N.J., then ship it out.

The bat was left in a rack in the booth for Taube to store later. At the end of the day when he went to pack everything – he takes the very expensive bats with him back to the hotel – the Ott bat was missing.

In nearly 30 years of business Taube has never had anything stolen.

However, when the high-profile nature of the theft and the number of people talking about it, it will be difficult to re-sell the back on the open market.

“That’s the hope (to recover it),” Taube said. “Scott’s a great guy. He’s mild-mannered to begin with. He understands how it can happen. His concern is to recover the piece.”

Susan Lulgjuraj is an editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazine. You can email Susan here with ideas, comments and questions. Follow her on Twitter here.

Join Beckett Baseball‘s Chris Olds as he opens a 2012 Bowman Platinum Blue parallel set — an exclusive wrapper-redemption item at this year’s National Sports Collectors Convention that has been a tough get for some collectors.

What will he find inside? Will there be any autographs? Watch and find out …