By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

Dick Perez is an artist well known with collectors from his many renditions in trading card sets including Donruss’ Diamond Kings.

Perez doesn’t just paint for little 3-inch by 5-inch pieces of cardboard, but puts to canvas the scenes of some of baseball’s iconic figures. Perez uses several photographs to get the exact portrait he wants, even using a bit of imagination.

Perez’s artwork was on display recently at the Agora Gallery in New York City where he put on an exhibit. The artwork included items from the last several years with a number of Jackie Robinson paintings that were bought by the Jackie Robinson Foundation to eventually be put in a museum.

I went on the last day of the exhibit, wanting to make sure to see the paintings in person. Besides the paintings, there was an extra surprise. Dick Perez was there.

We spent about 20 minutes talking about his artwork and sports, in general. He asked about the popularity of football and basketball, and mentioned how he wanted to take a little break after he spent hours upon hours getting the work done for the exhibit.

But, of course, Perez says he will be back.

Check out the photos from the art exhibit.

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

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

A high-grade 1932 U.S. Caramel set — all in PSA 8 condition — joins a high-grade copy of football’s holy grail card, a selection of T206 rarities and some 1950s Topps gems in the latest Memory Lane Inc. auction that starts this week.

The 32-card multi-sport set (checklist and OPG) includes Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Lou Gehrig among the baseball luminaries along with Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones and other stars from the era in the auction from the Tustin, Calif.-based company. The set will be sold as either a single auction or separately, whichever generates the most bidding action. Bidding begins at $50,000 for the set.

The Ruth card has only been topped twice on the pop report, while the Gehrig is the highest specimen. Both cards will open with $10,000 starting bids.

The baseball presence in the auction is massive, but so is the  1935 National Chicle Bronko Nagurski, which is one of the most in-demand football cards in the hobby. It’s among the highest-graded specimens at a PSA 7, while the rest of the landmark set will also be auctioned.

Also up for grabs will be en entire T206 set (minus the big four) opening at $5,000, while a heavy presence of Babe Ruth items — even an autograph for William Bendix, who played him in The Babe Ruth Story — can be had. There’s also a heavy vintage pack presence that includes an unopened 1952 Topps wax pack, a 1909-11 Sweet Caporal tobacco pack, and countless other offerings from the Topps years.

To see more from the auction block, click here.

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 Chris Olds | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

With a new blockbuster sports movie coming next month in 42, the latest Sports Movies Issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly is set to arrive as well with our latest look at collecting things from a slightly different perspective or with a slightly different approach.

You know, one that lets you explore stuff that’s already out there once again — or perhaps dig a little deeper on the auction block where one might not normally look.

Sometimes, it’s a real-world story that shows up on the big screen like in the case of Jackie Robinson‘s tale or even someone perhaps less-remembered in history like Vince Papale here. (In the case of Papale, being the subject of a film where he was played by Mark Wahlberg sparked serious demand for the value of his 1977 Topps Rookie Card.) Other times, we get fictional characters and stories that we all remember and appreciate over time for some of those similar peculiarities or details that we latch onto as collectors in real life.

For this issue, we’re curious about what you think, what you remember and what you know about sports films. Here’s the latest 20 Questions on the topic … after the jump.

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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 Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary

When the debut edition of National Treasures baseball arrived yesterday from Panini America with a heavy game-used presence of legends such as Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson in tow, I couldn’t help but have a few questions.

How much money in memorabilia just left the Panini vault in this one?

How much money could I save elsewhere if I did the unthinkable (for me) and tried to get a box?

How would this one not have been a contender for Product of the Year and other Beckett Baseball awards had it come out during 2012?

After that wave of thoughts washed over me — and after a couple hours of compulsively window-shopping on eBay — I remembered one time years ago when I found my own little national treasure in a pack from Donruss.

My find is the 2003 Leaf Limited Lumberjacks Combos card you see here, a Gehrig-Don Mattingly card that probably impressed much more back then. How? Well, today there are more than 750 different Gehrig memorabilia cards to be found. Back then there were fewer than 150 different cards. It was a really impressive pull then — and I still think it is now, after all, it’s card No. 4, which matches Gehrig’s uniform number.

Yes, it was good to see that there was a photo of the jerseys and bats used in those cards — note two items shown per player though there’s only one or the other per card. (A move to save time during production — even then, when staffs were larger and company calendars not quite as jam-packed.)  These days, of course, things like that are often obsolete because of that whole time thing and because printing plate changes add up fast — and that matters now more than ever with a rougher economy and fewer people buying cards. But that’s fodder for a recent past Beckett Sports Card Monthly and, of course, future issues. (Another aside … do those logos really add that much to the card’s design?)

What also made this a memorable treasure for me was the fact that it was among the first cards I ever submitted to Beckett Grading Services — my second batch if I remember correctly — and it made the grade on June 3, 2004 … a Thursday, according to the database records, and several years before I ended up working here for a different division of Beckett Media. All these years later, on a Thursday no less, this card came to mind with its piece of Gehrig jersey — likely a big brother of some other swatches just entering collections now. (After all, the last two Gehrig gamers to sell via Heritage Auctions topped $700,000 — a price that indicates the swatches had better last long and that they’re probably not coming back to a baseball card set any time soon when they’re gone.)

Grading of mem cards is tough as the thicker stock just isn’t as durable and I consider that grade to be a miracle considering I didn’t own any magnetic cases at the time. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough for me. It’s a memorable card.

Another bit of firsts and the Beckett experience for me will come with this card in a few days when it’s among the first I post as part of the new Beckett Graded Registry, a project that’s been in the works for years and finally rounding into final form. I’ll confess as to have never really done much registry dabbling, but it’s an interesting component to the overall grading experience — and a huge influence on collecting markets as people compete for bragging rights and have yet another way to personally assess and expand upon their own collecting experiences.

For me, this card might be part of a custom registry … one accentuating how I often seem to pull Yankees cards from packs — and have done pretty well over the years — without even being a Yankees fan at all. In fact, I’d probably lean toward quite the contrary, but it’s hard to hate the players seen on these cards … just the team. Or something.

The real work, though, comes next — finding a creative name for this ol’ part of the collection.

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 Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

If one looked closely at the on-box features of 2012 Panini Cooperstown, the very last line of the product’s features on the back panel of the wax box was a simple one.

“Ty Cobb Georgia Peach (one card) * Lou Gehrig The Iron Horse (one card)”

On Monday, Panini America unveiled exactly what those are — and exactly how tough they are to find.

The two cards were inserted into packs at a rate of one in every 9,600 packs, according to the company. That’s one per every 400 boxes of the product — making some of those elusive autographs perhaps seem much easier to find than they are.

These cards — simply substantially short-printed cards — just might be the rarest non 1/1s  in the product, which does not contain any game-used memorabilia cards.

Autographs are found one per 24-pack box of the Cooperstown-focused product with some boxes including two.

The only copy of either card to surface on eBay — a Gehrig — sold for $35 last week.

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 Sports Card Monthly Editor

Autographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Cy Young could be hard to find. Even signatures of Abraham Lincoln, Princess Diana and Harry Houdini are limited.

However, Press Pass is making the autographs of these sports and historical figures available in a new product – 2013 Press Pass Platinum Cuts Inscription Edition.

Cut cards will come from people from a variety of areas. People such as Elvis, Davy Jones and William Shatner will be included.

Press Pass will also have some favorites coupled together on cards such as Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), and Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan (Jed Clampett and Granny from Beverly Hillbillies).

However, to go with the name “Inscription Edition”, cut signatures with extras have to be included in the set.

Davy Jones will have cut autos with “Daydream Believer,” “The Monkees,” and “Brady Bunch” inscribed. Lou Ferrigno will have “Hulk,” “I love you, man” and “Pumping Iron” inscriptions.

There will be nearly 2,000 1/1 cuts encapsulated for this set.

Susan Lulgjuraj is an 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

Panini America revealed the latest edition of Prime Cuts on Tuesday and the 2012 edition will arrive in October — just six months after the arrival of the 2011 product.

The company promises that the new edition has been “revamped, redesigned and re-engineered” from the previous version — an offering without prospects that were found heavily in the 2011 version and one instead relying upon Hall of Famers, current players, current rookies and other memorable players from the past.

Each two-card pack of the product will include one autograph and one memorabilia card or a pair of signed cards. There will be 15 packs per case, while the RCs will be numbered to 99 or less and there also will be some fresh prospects — memorabilia cards and autographs from the 2012 USA Baseball Collegiate National team.

The base set will be comprised of 50 memorabilia cards — each numbered to 99 — 50 signed cards (Century Signatures with Gold, Silver and Platinum parallels), 22 USA Baseball autographed jersey cards, 50 Timelines Materials autographs and 36 Timeline booklet cards, according to the company.

The Significant Signatures and Notable Nicknames inserts will each be limited to 49 or fewer copies and include Hall of Famers such as Tom Seaver, Robin Yount, Ernie Banks and Johnny Bench to name a few, while other legends to appear on memorabilia cards will include Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby among others. It also will include new stars such as Albert Pujols and Yu Darvish. The Nicknames cards will be a mix of Hall of Famers and newer players such as Josh Hamilton and Larry Walker.

Hats Off Signatures cards will showcase a piece of a game-used cap as well as an autograph for Pete Rose and 11 Hall of Fame players, while Notable Nicknames Cuts will include the likes of Williams, Satchel Paige, Connie Mack and Casey Stengel to name a few.

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 Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

TRISTAR‘s next baseball card line will be twice as nice for some collectors who rip into the cut-autograph product.

How? Every 24-box case of 2012 TRISTAR SignaCuts will include 10 dual-sided cut cards when it arrives at the National Sports Collectors Convention Aug. 1-5 before a traditional hobby-wide release on Aug. 15.

Among the notable pairings? Babe Ruth and Charlie Root, who served up the “called shot” in the 1932 World Series for one. Jimmie Foxx and actor Tom Hanks, whose character Jimmy Dugan in “A League of Their Own” was based on Foxx, is another. A third — of many in the product — will pair Nolan Ryan and Josh Hamilton, while another will pair New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig with legendary stadium voice Bob Sheppard.

Every case will include two Hall of Fame autographs, three dual-sided Hall of Famer autos, 12 standard cuts and seven dual cuts.  As for serial-numbering, each will include two 1/1s, eight cards limited to five copies and seven limited to 10. Each pack contains just one cut card.

The product will not include any cards numbered to more than 25 and each will be encased in a tamper-proof TRISTAR-sealed case.

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 Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor | Commentary

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again — nothing is perhaps more perfectly symbolic of a home run hitter than a game-used baseball bat.

And, unlike cards, jerseys and other pieces of memorabilia, the more beaten and worn out a bat is, the more impressive it is — as long as it remains complete.

For card collectors and game-used cards, bats are not always as impressive. It’s not always a love-love relationship. But Topps is intending to change that with its upcoming Tier One release arriving later this month. While bats can yield hundreds, if not thousands, of anonymous-looking wood chips to be placed into cards, the most-special pieces of chopped up gamers are the nameplates — the spot on the barrel where the player’s name is burned into the bat — and the bat knob where a player’s perhaps most-personalized touches can be seen via numbers, initials or sayings.

In Tier One, there will be a 100-card set of 1/1 knob cards for collectors to chase, including some of the biggest names in the history of the game. It’s not an accident, said Topps Vice President Mark Sapir.

“The goal was to add special content, over-deliver value on this release,” Sapir said Tuesday night. “To create buzz and excitement in hobby, provide a special chase.”

Bat knob cards are not a common thing in the hobby today — even as game-used memorabilia cards are much more commonplace than they were even a decade ago. Today, there are just 629 total bat knob cards in the Beckett.com database. (Click here for a complete checklist and to get an OPG) Many of them are 1/1 cards that few of us ever see.

Topps previously billed this release as “one of the most significant memorabilia inserts ever offered in a product” and the company already is the runaway leader in bat knob cards made previously. There are 491 different Topps knob cards in existence, while the old Donruss/Playoff made the second-highest total with just 92. The remaining companies all have made fewer than 20 knob cards.

Among the legendary bat knobs to be inserted into Tier One will be Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and many more. Oh, and you can find new sluggers, too, such as Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Bautista, Josh Hamilton, Matt Kemp, Jay Bruce, Carlos Gonzalez and others.

It’s an impressive array — largely retired greats — and it will be a pricey one, too. In the cases of some modern sluggers the knob card might outpace the price of a complete game-used bat. (I’m expecting that as I’ll fight — and lose — to deep-pocketed Yankees fans online for what will be just the third Nick Swisher bat knob card to ever be released. It will likely surpass what I paid for even the most-expensive of my 10 or so complete game-used bats.)

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.

Feast on a massive gallery of the actual Tier One bat knobs below and then take our poll.

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By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

Topps released the basic product information and preview images for this year’s edition of Triple Threads on Friday, and it looks like the seventh edition of the always-popular hit- and autograph-laden brand will deliver what collectors have come to expect — maybe more.

And that starts with a slightly different configuration that will have two types of packs to be found per box when it arrives on Sept. 19. (Need any of the Triple Threads checklists from 2006-2011? Get them and an OPG here.)

One pack version will include three base cards, two parallel cards, one triple Relic and a Unity Single Auto Relic. The other pack version will include three base cards, two parallels, one triple Autographed Relic and one Unity Relic.

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Overall, every case will include the aforementioned hits per pack along with one 1/1 autographed Relic as well as a Triple Autographed Triple Relic. All hits will be numbered to 99 or less or 36 or less, depending on the version.

The base set will consist of 100 cards, each with six parallels and sets of printing plates, from a lineup that includes a mix of today’s players and yesterday’s legends. The Sepias will be limited to 625 copies, while Emeralds will be limited to 250, Golds to 99, Onyx to 50, Sapphire to 25 and Rubies will be 1/1s.

The Rookies and Future Phenoms presence in recent years will return as well with more than 50 young players signing on-card (no stickers) for the product. Those will be limited to 99 or less with Sepia, Emerald, Gold, Sapphire, Ruby, Wood and printing plate parallels. Some of the signers here will include Yu Darvish, Matt Moore, Mike Trout, Eric Hosmer, Michael Pineda, Dustin Ackley, Mike Moustakas, Starlin Castro and Paul Goldschmidt.

Single Unity Relics will be found with the same parallels as well with 36 or fewer copies, while Unity Autograph Relics will be numbered from 99 on down.

The autographed Relics will include 270 different cards with more than 75 players showcased. These cards will be limited to 18 copies with multiple sayings for the diecut windows per player. As with past releases, there will be Gold, Sapphire, Ruby, Wood, and printing plate versions of these as well.

The Triple Threads Combos Autographed Relics will feature three players, three Relics and three autographs per card with these starting at 36 copies apiece and then with seven other versions to chase. There will be only 15 different cards in this lineup.

The booklet card lineup — or Double Combos — will include six Relics, six autos and six players. There will be six different cards to chase there. The Jumbo Plus Autographed Relics will include a jumbo piece across from an autograph and three other Relics. These 16 cards will be limited to just three copies with a Ruby 1/1 parallel to chase as well. Also to be found are Letter Plus booklets, which will showcase letter patches, autographs and additional pieces all in one place.

Cut autographs also have a place in 2012 Topps Triple Threads as there will be 10 Cut Above cuts to chase — each 1/1s with an autograph and three Relics — while there also will be six Cut Above booklets as well, which will feature two players.

The Triple Relics lineup will have more than 170 cards to chase between current stars and 20 legends. The easiest to find versions will be limited to 36 copies with Sepia (27), Emerald (18), Gold (nine), Sapphire (three), Ruby (1/1) and Wood parallels (1/1).

Like last year, there will be two-front Relics — the Flashback Relics will include 25 legends from the past with the same parallel lineup. There also will be Combos that show three players as well. The triple-Relic lineup continues with Couble Combos booklets — six players limited to 18 or less — All-Star Patches with 2011 All-Star workout jerseys, All-Star Jumbo Sleeve Patches (booklets),  Team Patches (booklets) and more.

Also to be found will be Logoman 1/1s from the All-Star jerseys, Laundry Tag 1/1s booklets, Bat Nameplate booklets (1/1s) and Letter Plus booklets that are limited to just three copies also with a 1/1 Ruby parallel. Continuing the high-end booklets will be 1/1 Jumbo Plus Relics (three pieces and a jumbo piece), 1/1 Bat Knobs and 1/1 Jumbo Patch Combos that have three panels each with a jumbo patch from three different players all in one booklet. Rounding out that lineup will be single-player Jumbo Letter-Number-Logo patch booklets (three jumbo panels) and Singular Swatches. Both of those are 1/1s.

Players scheduled to sign the product, based on the preliminary checklist, include Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken Jr., Ken Griffey Jr., Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Matt Kemp, Ryne Sandberg, Robinson Cano, Joe Mauer, Justin Verlander and Fergie Jenkins among others.

Others whose autographs might be found include Reggie Jackson, Stan Musial, Tony Gwynn, Alex Rodriguez, Rickey Henderson, Buster Posey, Gary Carter, Chipper Jones and Clayton Kershaw among others.

Lastly, some of the big names slated to appear on Relic cards will include Ty Cobb, Carl Yastrzemski, Roberto Clemente, Harmon Killebrew, Wade Boggs, Mickey Mantle, George Brett, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Johnny Bench, many present stars and many of the other legends mentioned above.

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.

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Click on the images for a closer look.