The Hunt for Joe D.

My wife Erika likes puzzles. She spends many a weekend hour solving Ken-Ken and Sudoku brainteasers. She’ll even put up with Pat Sajak to watch Wheel of Fortune.

So when Upper Deck rolled out a holiday scavenger hunt I figured she would meet the challenge with zeal.

The prize closest to us was a Joe Dimaggio cut autograph card from 2009 SP Legendary Cuts. I probably wouldn’t have spent any time looking for other prizes, but this was Joltin’ Joe. So after a day or so of futilely mulling over the clues released by Upper Deck on my own, I enlisted Erika’s help. I thought the hunt would appeal to her and, for at least a little while, she would make it her mission to try to find the cards.

Boy, was I right. I knew she was hooked when she sent me a message saying, “This is driving me crazy.” She wanted to do it, and hockey moms aren’t the only ones with the tenacity of a pit bull.

We knew from the clues that the card would be found at a New York shop near a school and a train station. We also knew that someone named Evan worked at the store. But after a couple of hours with Google Maps, we were still stumped. We eventually narrowed down our search to shops listed in Upper Deck’s store locator. We locked on to a few good possibilities, but had nothing certain.

Then, Tuesday morning, Erika called me from work–excited. She thought she had figured it out. The proprietor of BookMarx Collectibles, one of the shops we had considered, was named Evan Marx. She had already looked up the train schedule and was thinking of heading out from midtown Manhattan to Roslyn Heights on Long Island.

After some anxiety-filled minutes–Were we right? Even if we had figured it out, had someone else gotten to the store first?–Erika made it to the shop. Evan was great. And Joe D. was still waiting there.

The prize! Our thanks to Upper Deck and Evan Marx.

How Much Would You Pay for Nothing, Part 3

This one takes the cake.

Another Invisible Man autograph just sold over on eBay. This one was numbered 06/10.

2009 Allen & Ginter Invisible Man autograph 06/10

How much would you pay? The final bid on eBay: $1,102.77 plus $3.50 shipping!

Sure, it’s a rare card and appealing, in an odd way, but I can think of a few thousand other things I’d do with $1,100.

A Legendary Pull!

I hit the “East Coast National” card show last weekend and bought some boxes, including one box of Goudey. I tore into the box this week and in the fifth pack I found this:

Larry Bird 2009 Goudey Sport Royalty autograph

I’m not a huge basketball fan these days, but I was into the NBA back when Larry Legend played, so I was pretty excited. But the pull is even more amazing because last year, one of my best pulls was a 2008 Goudey Sport Royalty autograph of…Magic Johnson.

So now I have these two, both pack pulls. What are the odds?!?

Bird and Magic

How Much Would You Pay for Nothing, Part 2

Let me revise my previous comment: Allen & Ginter collectors can be really fanatical.

This “autograph” card of the Invisible Man just sold on eBay. Okay, so it’s not quite nothing. The card, numbered to 10, contains an autograph of some sort that supposedly can be seen under a blacklight.

2009 Allen & Ginter Invisible Man autograph

How much would you pay? The final bid on eBay: $354.99 plus $3.50 shipping.

Wow. Just wow.

How Much Would You Pay for Nothing?

Allen & Ginter collectors can be fanatical. Take, for example, this Unicorn relic card.

2009 Allen & Ginter Unicorn relic

Part of a subset of “Creatures of Legend, Myth & Terror,” the card is numbered to 10. And as the back of the card makes plain, “The relic contained in this card is not from anything at all.”

So how much would you pay?

The final price on eBay: $203.50, plus $2.25 shipping.

Not bad for nothing at all.

A Signature Twist on Topps’ Red Hot Rookie #2

Topps announced today that Gordon Beckham will be featured on the 2009 baseball Red Hot Rookie Redemption No. 2 cards–but there’s a twist. One in 10 cards will be autographed. (RHR #1 was the Mets’ Fernando Martinez.)

Check out the pics out below. Those autographed cards will look sweet.

Bernie Madoff Gets His Own Baseball Card

Bernie Madoff 2009 Allen & Ginter

Bernie Madoff and Alex Rodriguez have both made plenty of headlines in recent months. Now they’ll have something else in common.

Like A-Rod, Madoff is getting his own trading card as part of the 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter set. The Madoff will be part of a subset of “World’s Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks, & Bamboozles.”

For more, see here.

Review: 2009 Upper Deck Series 1

I’ve opened three hobby boxes of 2009 Upper Deck Series 1 Baseball so far, and I guess I’ve gotten pretty lucky because I’ve pulled more autographs and relics than promised. Each hobby box contains two memorabilia cards and one autograph card (on average, of course). Each of the first two boxes I tore into (bought from different dealers) included four serial numbered double-swatch relics, one autograph/relic card, and one regular autograph. The third box included one game-used, one triple game-used, and one autograph. I’ve also gotten a few gold parallels numbered to 99 and a bunch of other inserts. I don’t have a complete base set yet, but for the first time in a while I’m actually interested in getting there. Here’s why:

Design: Upper Deck’s base cards in recent years have looked a lot like 2.5″-by-3.5″ photos with chrome labels on them. This year’s set maintains that emphasis on glossy action shots, but adds some design details that make these looks more like baseball cards and less like mini-photos. I particularly like the silver-foil team logos in the bottom left-hand corner of each card. Sure, slapping a team logo in a box and adding the player name and number in foil isn’t a dramatic design step, but it’s fairly clean and classy–and a serious improvement over the design of the last few years. If I wanted to collect small glossy photos, I’d do just that. These cards at least–finally–offer something more for the eye.

Inserts: As usual, this set includes a host of insert cards. Yet while the dual- and triple-swatch cards I mentioned above look great–and I’m not usually a fan of any relic cards–most of the other inserts are downright boring.

2009 Upper Deck Series 1 dual-swatch relic cards

 The regular game-jersey cards are stale and ugly. The Starquest cards look good, but they don’t excite me. There’s also a 30-card Rookie Debut set, a 25-card Stars of the Game set, and a 64-card Documentary update set. Yaawwwn.

Upper Deck is making the most of it’s O-Pee-Chee brand, though, with a 50-card set of cards that mimic the look of the 1975 O-Pee-Chee. Being a fan of old-school and retro looks, I’ll be collecting these and the mini versions that measure about 2.25″ by 3″.

 
Oh, and of course, the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards make a return, with more than 80 new cards commemorating the final season in the House That Ruth Built.

If all that wasn’t enough, Upper Deck has also rolled out another huge subset. This time, it’s the 2,500-card Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective Set.

 

The set features highlights, if they can be called that, from the last 20 years in the worlds of sports, pop culture, politics, history and technology. I don’t know why anyone would collect this set, or why it exists. If you have an idea, please shoot me a comment. Same for the Historic Firsts and Historic Predictors inserts. (That “Dow Reaches 15,000” card looks pretty silly, by the way…but then there’s a “Bigfoot is Discovered” card too. Who’s making these predictions?)

 

 

Overall Value: Based on the boxes I’ve opened, I’d say the value here is pretty solid. On the other hand, if I’d only gotten a few regular relic cards and autographs of Joey Gathright and Erick Aybar, I wouldn’t be too happy. Topps seems to have the upper hand when it comes to inserts, but if I’m building only one base set this year it’s Upper Deck.

Too Much of a Good Thing from Topps

It’s been just a few weeks since I gushed about the 1-of-1 sketch cards included in some Topps releases. Now, after the release of 2009 Topps Series 1, I have to dial back that initial enthusiasm.

The cards themselves generally still look great, but the the problem is–no surprise here–overproduction. Topps has seeded so many of these drawings into the 2009 set that what had been a distinctive insert is now significantly less appealing. Here’s one quick measure of how many baseball sketches are out there: About 150 cards from the 2009 set are now available on eBay, with a couple of hundred more already having been auctioned off. Many of those auctions are for redemption cards, so you can be sure the supply of sketch cards is going to continue.

Even more disappointing is that, while these cards are labeled as being 1-of-1, unique works, many of the cards that have surfaced look disturbingly similar.

Can you spot the differences between these Chase Utley cards, which apparently were pulled from the same box?

Chase Utley sketch cards from Topps

Or how about these Mariano Rivera cards?

'1-of-1' Mariano Rivera sketch card

'1-of-1' Mariano Rivera sketch card No. 2

Sure, each of these cards is different, and each is individually produced by the artist. But it’s disappointing that Topps has commissioned so many of these cards, and the fact that such similar cards are being released and promoted as unique is well…a bit sketchy.

Topps Inserts Prove Quite a Draw

When is a baseball card more than just a baseball card? With its recent releases, Topps has come up with a couple of good answers to that less-than-existential question.

The 2008 Topps Updates & Highlights and Topps Stadium Club sets released back in October and November, respectively, include 1 of 1 sketch cards that stand out from other gimmicky inserts for their artistry and style. These hand-drawn cards are sometimes colored, as with the Hideki Matsui card below, which I spotted on eBay.

Hideki Matsui 2008 Topps Stadium Club sketch card

More often, though, the sketch cards look to be simple–or not so simple–pencil or charcoal drawings.

Josh Hamilton, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz sketch cards

The elegance and eye appeal of these cards also brings to mind other inserts from Topps, silk cards seeded in the 2008 Topps baseball sets, 2008 Allen & Ginter, and 2007 Turkey Red. The 2008 Topps cards aren’t bad, but the real beauties are in Allen & Ginter and, especially, Turkey Red. These cloth versions are also stylish and attractive, without the design noise or gimmickry of so many other releases.

Allen & Ginter, Turkey Red and 2008 Topps silk cards

It’s, unfortunately, all too rare these days that baseball cards rise to the level of art. Too many inserts rely on swatches of “event-worn” cloth or wood to make them more collectible. I’m a fan of autographed cards, but these cloth cards, and the sketch cards too, are useful reminders that there can be much more to collecting than just looking for some so-called relics and big-money hits.