Beckett is NOT Vindicated!

For those of you who were watching, one of the guys who won the Beckett contest busted their Exquisite box on the BMB. I predicted the box would be nothing special because it is just one of the other boxes from the All Day 1/1 RC Patch auto case. It contained normal stuff, a nice Olsen patch auto, a Stanton Auto and a Rivers quad patch.

For those of you who missed my prediction, I said that Beckett was sent 4 boxes with a special note. The note explained which boxes to bust and which to save for the contest. They were sent the full case containing the AD 1/1 and a "special" box containing the two 1/1s (Payton/Piccolo cut, Tomlinson 1/1 base). Explanation can be found here.

If you still think this is all luck, I hate you. You make this hobby a shitty place. And dont you fucking say that this proves anything, because it doesnt prove shit. I just dont get the people who refuse to believe that they were had by the biggest bunch of assfaces in the industry. At the very least, when was the last time someone pulled three, yes three, 1/1's in a two boxes? The answer is never, because its fucking impossible. Whats even more suspect is why Beckett was sent the 4 boxes instead of the normal three boxes in a case of Exquisite. Gee, I wonder why?

Either way, Im done with this shit. You guys know how I feel. Ive already wasted too much space explaining this crap to the stupid people who dont know their ass from a hole in the ground. Fuck me.

I Am Totally Weirded Out Here

See the post directly below this. Then see what was shown to me from Donruss.com in the last fifteen minutes. DLP is legend....wait for it.....dary:

Is it possible to have my card authenticated?

Donruss has partnered with Eastman Kodak Company to employ KODAK TRACELESS System for Anticounterfeiting. Beginning with 2007 Playoff National Treasures and future products, each prime swatch of material will carry a unique and invisible marking that can be authenticated by Donruss through the KODAK TRACELESS system.

It is a good day for collectors. Praise the card gods.

For the third time, DLP I (heart) you.

Liar, Liar?

What do you do when you see a card like this for a player you are collecting?


Numbered to 500, no prime jersey designation

Personally, for me, I swear a bit. After I am done cursing the existence of douchebags who make living off of this souless profession, I simply avoid it like the clap. Of course, there are people that don’t. Despite it being a "too good to be true" patch, they go right for it while wondering why they could never be lucky enough to pull a patch like that.

The bad part is that two things are preventing fake patches from being easily spotted and avoided these days. First off, the motherfuckers are monitoring collector boards to know what we look for in fake cards. Perfectly centered logo patches on high numbered cards are obvious, so they started doing off centered logo patches on cheap low numbered cards. One guy even stole pictures of pulls from the box break boards on the forums and sold those scans on eBay. What a shit eating ass spelunker! Granted, when the high bidder got his cards, he was probably pretty pissed.


No numbering listed, no prime jersey designation

The second part is actually a good/bad thing. Today, with the rising cost of boxes and demand for multicolored patches, manufacturers are starting to put amazing cards into circulation without changing numbering on the cards. Logo patches, laundry tags, and sleeve patches can all be found on numbered patch cards out of 1, all the way up to as high as 100. It’s a bad state for people who know what can be done to cards, but also cool, because now you can actually pull cards like the fakes out there. The worst thing is that now its much tougher to tell what is the fake patch and what is the real one. It also creates a new stomping ground for the shiteaters that make the fake cards, because its become almost commonplace to pull logo patches in numbered patch sets in this day and age.


Numbered to 200, no prime jersey designation

The best of the new sets of logo patches is easily the Topps Sterling Jumbo patch set. Each of these extremly high end cards comes with a hugemongous patch of the players in the set. It’s a fucking ridiculous concept, but totally awesome. They sell for giant amounts of money, and its basically impossible to determine if they are safe to buy. If I had the money, Id be VERY careful.


Sold for 500+ on both.

Websites like Sports Card Info and Fake Patch Report do a great job of chronicling scams in the hobby, but how many of the uninformed/uneducated sheep actually read their sites? Really the only people poised to help this problem is the card manufacturers, but their involvement has been minimal as expected. They are incorporating more die cut windows, which make it harder to fake, but the one thing they could do is not being done. If I were them, I would take each card and scan the print run and release it to the general public in checklist form. This would be great because you could see if your card is real or fake just by looking at their release.

Sidenote: It would also give us a clue as to what percentage of the cards are single color - great for high end sets! It could force them into making more multicolored stuff.

With that, just remember, it isnt worth buying a card unless you are sure its legit. If its too good to be true, it usually is, almost without exception. Plus, you may want to avoid pristinesportscollectibles, zinger222, photoking, shoelessjoejackson and all the other known fakers/donkey rapers out there.

Hall of Name

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce to you, Craphonso Thorpe 2008.



Wow, the parents should be killed. Look at that wonderous name! Its a fucking abortion. Lets start with the first name, being that it starts with De, has two capital letters in it, and has an apostrophe, three elements on my shit list. I guess it wasnt good enough to be "Just Cody," he has to be De'Cody. Some people should have to apply to name their children. Personally, I cant wait to meet his sister, An'Nita.

Next lets gander at the funniestt shitt I have everr fuckingg seenn. I know its sophomoric, but holy fucking shitballs! The best part? The bottom of the card displays it proudly in 72 point all caps font. Nice job with this design, Topps.

Craphonso Thorpe, you have a new buddy in the Hall of Name.

Diamond is a Wax Buster's Best Friend

Okay, ill admit, I worked at a card shop in Minnesota one summer in 2006. Every day, I would come to work and sit behind the counter until our delivery came, usually around 10am. I would sort through the boxes of Magic and Pokemon cards and see what the new products were, then venture out into the store to place them in the correct places. Around noon each day, a guy would walk into the store and hover over the basketball and football case looking at the packs through the plexiglass. After about 10 minutes, he would come over and ask me to open the case. He would pull out 2-3 boxes, all Upper Deck products, and bust them with me while we bullshitted. Steve, is a lawyer for one of Minneapolis' top firms, or so he said, and I knew he had tons of extra cash to spend on whatever he wanted. No wedding ring, rolex watch, drove a Mercedes. He was a VERY nice guy and always made sure to toss me some Twins, Timberwolves and Vikings cards when he pulled minor stuff.

One day, after busting 5 boxes of 2005 Reflections Baseball, I noticed the stack of redemptions he had pulled. He laughed and told me that he had over 1300 pending with Upper Deck and had been waiting on some for a long time. Now, I knew he busted a lot, but just didn’t know how much that was. He said he only comes into the shop because he likes to talk to people and he hates waiting for his UD shipments. On average, he said he broke at least three cases of product per week, hence his massive amounts of cards on wait. He also mentioned something that I had forgotten about until now. Every week, along with his cases that are delivered straight from the manufacturer, he got a special care package of cards to make up for his wait on his redemptions. He showed me four Jordan Autos, Seven LeBrons, 3 Favres, a Jeter/Griffey dual auto 1/1, and 10 Reggie Bush's that he had gotten over the past month or two that he was bringing to his safety deposit box across the street. Steve said that he was a member of the Diamond Club, but I had no idea what that meant. I was just shocked by the cards that he had in his possesion.


A Picture of the 2007 Diamond Club - From UD's Website

Yesterday I received an email from John, a reader, talking about the Diamond Club and all the perks they get for busting the wax they do. His shop has 2 members, and they always come in with bags full of stuff they had gotten from Upper Deck. He thought it was a little out of the ordinary and thought it was something that the general public should be aware of. Basically, these invitees to the club are given stuff based on how much they spend, and are invited to the international meeting of the 110 or so members every year in San Diego. There they participate in focus groups, talk to the execs, and most of all, get free stuff.

Personally Im not surprised that this happens, you gotta reward your best customers. On the other hand, I cant understand why UD would have all these cards laying around that are supposed to be in the products. That’s a little fishy. Also, why are the biggest buyers the ones that get to speak for the general collecting public? Either way, these people get a lot of perks that make me wonder how much of a chance we actually have when buying product. The odds of a big pull are already miniscule, but could it be that it is tougher than we thought?

Hey, if UD wants to give their best customers bags full of UDA memorabilia, please go ahead, that is available to everyone, and its only fair that they get some rewards for spending thousands on wax each month. If UD wants to give these guys bags full of Jordan, Bush, Favre, and Jeter autos from product that the public is supposed to have a shot at per random odds - that’s where I draw the line. Everyone deserves a chance at those cards when they bust, not just a select few. I pray that I am wrong here, but something inside my brain thinks I am closer than most would care to believe.

After doing some research, I have come to a conclusion on this subject. Hopefully manufacturers will realize over the next few years that their customer base is a brand loyal bunch. Some day, bad stuff is going to leak - more so than the Beckett Box busters - and the fit is going hit the shan. At that point, the brand loyal collectors will simply choose another brand, as I have already.

Good luck UD, you're going to need it.

A Thank You Note To The Twins

I would love to personally congratulate the Twins on coming back from down a whole hand's worth of runs (five) against the leagues worst team (at this moment) in the top of the 9th, to win it in 10. They did all of this despite an 0-5 performance from Mauer, who is 0-9 in the series, and an 0-4 night from Cuddyer. Morneau, you ask? EN FUEGO. Im guessing his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is hugemungous for this series, and he has made the last few weeks his bitch. Thank you Justin, thank you.



So, with the White Sox performing well above expectations, and the Indians and Royals falling apart, I hope the Twins continue to take advantage of stupid baseball teams making awful decisions like Royals have done on a consistent basis.

God knows, my Mauer and Morneau collection needs your help!!

Finally, Someone Gets It

I just wanted to give a hooh-ah shout out to this post on the Sports Lizard blog.

Would We Be Better Without Beckett Or Tuff Stuff?

Unlike Ben Henry, who he is responding to in this article, Mr. Macfarland does not make me want to bash my computer in with a rusty shovel. He puts everything nicely, explains where he is coming from, and for sure, gets my vote of respect. Most importantly, he does not threaten to shut down his site every six months. Overall, just a well thought out post that may be opposed to my millitaristic viewpoint, but still makes it well known that people need to open their fucking eyes.

Bravo, my compadre, bravo. *golf clap*

2008 Head Hunting Guide - Game On!

If you collected a rookie this past year, chances are that they missed out on some cool firsts and old favorites when it comes to the best sets of the year. Granted, the rookie sets are usually much better anyways (as the focus of many products), but here are some cards that you may want to save your money for. I know I will.

In no particular order:

1. SPA By The Letter Autos (Possibly Numbers Too): This set was a welcome addition to a product that needed something else for the boxes that had no RC patch auto. I thought that the cards for the vets were amazing, especially Montana and Sanders. Hopefully they bring these back with a better checklist, minus Aaron Schoebel and Drew Pearson.



2. Absolute Tools of the Trade Auto Parallel: Once again, I hate when card companies parallel the shit out of something, but this time, Im cool. Each new parallel has a new piece of memorabilia, and the design has been great all the way back to 2004. I will maybe try to get my hands on more than just my favorite players for this set.



3. Leaf Limited Lettermen: These cards are pretty fucking spank, but will cost you an arm and a leg. They arent auto'ed which is cool with me, simply because you get the whole letter. I would hope they would expand this to the shoulder pad numbers, but that may be too big. There are a lot of collectors for these cards due to their nature, so expect competition.

4. Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Black Logo: These 1/1s again will cost you your first born, but they are worth every penny. Last year they were one of my favorite 1/1 parallel so I hope they look as good this year as they did last. These pop up pretty frequently at first, but very rarely after that, jump on them before you lose it to someone's PC forever.



5. Playoff National Treasures Base Jersey Autos (w/parallels): I just bought the Maroney from last year and I think it is one of the prettiest cards I have ever owned. These cards get better as they go down in numbering, and the 1/1s are amazing. They go for a ton, so you may want to save more than your usual 6 months for these. Trust me, once you have them, you wont be disappointed.



6. Topps Stadium Club Beam Team Autos: One of my favorite sets of the early 90s is back with autos and jerseys. I think its pretty cool, and I hope they dont fuck it up. The auto checklist is small, so you may be out of luck.

7. UD Premier Premiere Stitching Autos: Last year the RCs mostly had the NFL draft symbol or something different for their card, this year they will be more creative with the manufactured patches, so I would expect they should be as nice as the basketball ones. I like these cards, but some hate them - but I write this so they get in.



8. Non RC Year Exquisite Autos - Couldnt afford the hugemungous price tag on the RC patch auto of your favorite RC? Me either. Thankfully they drop dramatically in price, especially if your guy didnt do much last year. Now is your chance.

9. Non Event Used Jersey Autos: One can hope right?

10. Leaf Certfied NFL Fabric of the Game Autos w/out College Picture: Some of the most sought after cards of the year fall in this set. You may actually get lucky and your guy could have an auto here. Im crossing fingers, toes and legs for All Day.



After writing this post, all I can think about is how ridiculous huge my credit card bills are going to be. I make some money, but Im not Fort Knox. I may have to pick and choose what I think are necessities after I see the actual cards. Eesh, its going to be a long year...

First Look: 2008 Topps Finest Football

Wow, these cards are the fucking belle of the ball. Gorgeous. Finest was rather disappointing last year with silver backgrounds around the players instead of action shots, but damn, those have been made a million times better. The RC autos look amazing, and I will be pumped for this set for sure. Im not a fan of the finest moment cards in baseball or football, so im kinda bummed they didnt replace it with something else.

Some things have changed for the better besides the design, as now, all rookie cards and rookie autos are numbered!! I like this idea because it seemed like last year all the scrub autos seemed like there were millions. Now we will know exactly how many there are when saying, "Fuck, I pulled Jordy Nelson AGAIN?!? Well, at least its numbered to 15,049!" Overall, a great show for Topps.

Nice! 2 for 2 this week.

First Look: 2008 Playoff Absolute Football

Boom. This set is going to rock out with its cock out. One of the best products of last year is definitely returning with a vengance. The cards look great, tools of the trade has been tweaked, and the RPMs are still a mystery. Condition was a big factor last year due the foil board that these were printed on, but my sources tell me that will be taken care of.

New additions that look good include the Gridiron Force subset with autos, and some new diecuts and other things for the TOTT subset that look pretty good. I saw that All Day was on the TOTT checklist, as expected, so I will be saving lots of b-day money to pick up the auto version of that card. Its going to be fucking amazing.

Bravo DLP, Bravo.

Clean Your Plate!

Ahh, the printing plate. The hobby's runt version of a 1/1, created to lure more collectors into buying cheap products. Let me express how stupid I think inserting printing plates in packs is. Why do I want this piece of trash - literally - that you want to call a 1/1? Fine, slap an auto on it, surely it becomes more desirable but still less so to me than a normal auto'ed card.



Right now there are hundreds of printing plates listed on the world's greatest marketplace - most of which have an abundance of exclamation points in the title. These things usually sell for some cash, especially if it has an auto stickered to it. That baffles me as to why people want this colorless display of your favorite player. First off, it is not a 1/1. At best it is a 1/4, but when triple threads does it, the plates are 1/16. This is because each card requires 4 colors to generate color photography, black, yellow, cyan, and one other color (depending on the process). They use the plates, one after the other to put the colors into place on the card during the printing. Eventually after all the layers are applied, the photo is color, and everyone is happy. Funny enough, the plates you get in the packs are pretty clean considering what they are used for. Plus, as stated before, who says these things are actually used (remember, all is not what it seems).



Ebay sellers want you to think that these "cards" are the bee's knees, but in all reality, they are just another way to further the spread of the 1/1. BMB people often refer to these pulls as the m-word and I think they are fucking idiots. Printing plates arent even completed cards, and they sure as hell arent pretty. I remember UD took it a step further with 2006 Ultimate football, when they had the actual card with a cut out of the plate underneath. This was so ugly that I wouldnt touch them with someone else's 10 foot pole. What's worse is I think I even saw a Mantle cut auto printing plate out of co-signers one year that made me question why the fuck they cut up a Mantle document for this fugly piece of shit.

There really are very few times where they actually work, and I wish that companies would think twice before sending these out with the products. Why not fill the set with cards that are actually good looking, creative, and worth my time. THAT would be an idea to bank on.

Hey Mario, I Write For Beckett Too! Ugh.

Click on pic for enlarged version.

Okay, I know, I know, I have gotten like 15 emails today from people pointing this out. The douchebags at Beckett decided that my review of Exquisite was good enough for them to publish in their little magazine this month. They obviously got to it before I edited it after the whole Exquisite Fiasco, so there you go.

Here is what they unknowingly, or knowingly, published:

1. Comments from someone who thinks their magazine is the cancer of the hobby
2. Comments from someone who spoke out very vocally against their practices as a magazine for breaking boxes
3. Comments from someone that constantly calls them out for being fraudulent
4. Comments from someone who will never buy the product they are commenting about ever again.
5. Comments from someone who posted these articles, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

In the words of Nelson Muntz, "HA HA!"

I Am Really Sick of East Coast Teams/Fans, Part 2

For those of you who havent seen the recent all star game balloting update on MLB.com, a Yankee or a Red Sox player leads the vote in each goddamned category. Fucking gross if you ask me, considering that this game actually counts for something.

Let me tell you something. Jason Varitek should not be the top vote getter for AL catchers, nor should Ivan Rodriguez. But, since the average 9 year old is still allowed to vote, and because the average baseball fan is a blithering idiot, he leads by a good margin. I would pick Napoli, Mauer, and 3 other guys before I would waste my vote on those guys. Ivan Rodriguez isnt even batting .270!


Youkilis commits error, needs new pants.

Youkilis is having a great year, but he should not be leading by over 200,000+ votes. Not a chance. Same with Pedroia and ESPECIALLY Derek Jeter. I know Jeter prevented a plane crash last week by piloting the team plane to a smooth landing from 35,000 feet, but he is not even close the top shortstop in the AL. Calm eyes aside. Also, sidebar, Jason Giambi has 3 place in the vote for AL 1B, I want to kill myself.

If this exhibition game is going to count, which it shouldnt as an exhibition game, fans should be taken out of it. I say to let the managers pick their rosters because the fans have no clue, and when I mean no clue, I mean NO FUCKING CLUE who to start.

Based on VORP and EqA, here is who should be starting:

CF - Josh Hamilton
LF - Carlos Quentin
RF - Magglio Ordonez (May actually be a starter)
1B - Kevin Youkilis (Morneau leads EqA w/ Youk a close second)
2B - Ian Kinsler
3B - Carlos Guillen
SS - Michael Young
C - Joe Mauer
DH - Milton Bradley

Ill take this team, you guys take your Yankees/Red Sox hybrid. We'll see who wins.

Shirt Off My Back - THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKIN' BOUT!!

From my newest pickup. Just in case you cannot read it, the back of this card states as follows:

"The enclosed piece of jersey was cut from an authentic jersey personally worn by Laurence Maroney in an OFFICIAL NFL GAME. The authentic game worn jersey was obtained and guaranteed by Donruss Playoff, LP."

Boo-fucking-yah motherfuckers. DLP - I (heart) U.

To those of you who doubt the majesty of National Treasures, I assure you - IT IS THE MACK DADDY OF HIGH END PRODUCTS.

This is Beyond Ridiculous Pt 2: Even More Ridiculous?

After reading the second part to "For the Love of Sitting Around and Flipping Through a Price Guide" I might just stop going to baseball card shops all together, just to spite this guy. Holy fucking shit, man! The Baseball Card Blog (no link on purpose), has created a world where Baseball Cards have ceased to exist all because, wait - sit down for this, price guides have stopped their publication. It begins with the descripion of a pure utopia in collecting (my commentary, fire joe morgan style in italics):

"Here’s the situation. The list prices in price guides have been deemed useless on such a massive scale that Beckett and FW have ceased their publication. With no widely available prices, the majority of collectors now consult eBay for accurate card prices."

I love it. No longer will a douchebag ridden magazine set the prices for the 50% of uneducated idiots that still consult beckett for prices.

"Dealers do the same. And after they view the umpteenth autographed patch 1/1 card go for less than $20–pulled from a box that dealers paid a premium on to sell–they stop ordering high-end products from the manufacturers. The dealers understand that if they’re seeing these auctions on eBay, their potential customers are winning them."

Ba-what? Dealers who see the card pulled from a 500 dollar box stop ordering wax because their customers cant sell their pulls for a lot of money? How hasnt the customer part not happened already? I guarantee that the dealers will not stop ordering boxes because people are going to eBay to sell what they get. You know why? It already happens every fucking day, you arrogant ass. Dealers like Northridge Sports Cards and Santa Monica Sports Cards make their bread and butter selling boxes where people pull nothing and sell them for nothing. Do they fucking care that their customers cant sell them for shit on eBay? Sure, but only on a personal level. What they care about is that it has become more convenient for their customers to buy WAX on eBay rather than paying INFLATED prices at a shop. Once again, Im sorry that it sucks you cant spend 30 minutes bullshitting with Blowout Cards, but it is a necessary evil. Despite this trend, both the shops are doing fine. Seriously, if your shop is relying on singles to function, they NEED to go down with the ship.

"So many dealers stop ordering these cards that the manufacturers have a difficult decision to make: finally listen to dealers and put more value in each box of product, or dismiss dealers altogether and work exclusively with big box stores like Target, Kmart and Wal-Mart. It comes as no surprise when the manufacturers go with the latter choice."

This could be the worst paragraph ever written in the history of sports card blogs. Manufacturers will never go with the second choice because Target, Kmart and Wal-mart will NEVER, EVER, EEEEEEEVAAAR pay 500 bucks for a box of cards. They have flat screens and plasmas to sell rather than that bullshit. I would see UD and DLP sell to eBay directly before they do this.

Upper Deck to Target: Umm, yeah, we want to market Exquisite directly to Target.
Target: Sounds great, how much does it cost?
Upper Deck: At cost, about 400 bucks a box. You would probably want to mark it up to 599.
Target: *Click*
Upper Deck: Hello? Hello?

You dont think they have enough problems with security and shrink on their current stock? Now they gotta worry about protecting this shit, let alone SELLING it to collectors like me that would MUCH rather buy it from a trusted source without weirdo 50 year old men fondling our prized investment every 5 minutes...Ugh, it gets worse.

"Because the majority of shops deal primarily in new cards, they start to close. Collectors don’t notice right away, as most of them are tuned to eBay. And besides, the hobby’s gone through this before and survived, so what’s the big deal? Also, everybody’s got a Wal-Mart near them, so who cares if one more shop goes out of business? Shops sell off their inventory and shutter."

Again, this has already happened, but guess what? Shops are still open. Ebay is currently the hobby's biggest card shop. Other shops survive because they have found innovative ways to stay open and because they know what to sell: WAX and lots of it.

"Dealers at baseball card shows don’t feel the same pressure right away, though many of them do feel their brethren’s plight. Instead, without book prices to consult on every transaction, desperate, frenetic dealers result to using their best judgment. Collectors, fully aware of the situation dealers are in, refuse to be charged “judgment call prices.” Many dealers, citing lack of meaningful sales at shows, stop booking booths. What few shows remain shrink in attendance until they cease to exist. The National is the lone exception, chugging away, though it’s a magnet for news media to lament the hobby crisis. “Ain’t in the Card$,” is the New York Post headline."

Or better yet, dealers use eBay prices and collectors finally find a great marketplace - outside of the scam ridden internet - to buy their cards. Or even better than that, Dealers, who have paid eBay prices to get their cards, stop marking it up and decide to open shops rather than booking tables at shows and sell their cards back to the collector on ebay. Now, because the New York Post would never write such and awful headline, nor post an article on collecting with this as its subject, I wont even address it.

"Without dealers, the manufacturers are no longer in the dominant bargaining position. They’re at the whim of the big box stores. Product’s gonna be late? OK, we’re diminishing your shelf space. The manufacturers are not used to their role as ‘just another product.’ What happened to all those dealers they used to push around?"

I dont understand the point of this. So without dealers they decide to stop producing despite having a perfectly good marketplace in eBay where they can still make the same, if not more, money? This is pure dribble. I dont even know where to go. Oh, but wait, there's STILL MORE!

"If I haven’t given my critics enough fodder already, here’s some more:

• The future of the hobby most certainly will not play out the way I’ve got it, though certain aspects of it are very close to happening now."

Trust me, you have given me a gold mine of material. However, thanks for acknowledging that your above written was basically a practice in stupidity and was not worth the space it was printed on (nothing).

"• No matter how much we distrust the prices within price guides, they’re essential to the well being of the hobby. If you’ve got a plan for injecting realistic card values into the hobby without killing hobby shops and show dealers off, please, I’m all ears."

First of all, they are FAR from "essential." They are a way for a magazine to justify their worthless existence on the planet. Other than that, price guides are worth less than nothing to the hobby. As for the second part, do you enjoy paying inflated prices for your cards? Why are you set on keeping shops and dealers in this hobby if they continue to sell you cards at twice the price you can get on a true free marketplace? I love the way you support dealers and shops PAYING eBay prices to get their cards but selling them to you at double.

My plan? Hobby shops should get out of singles. Period. Then, they should focus on selling two things: guaranteed autographed memorabilia and wax. I say this because wax prices are the only thing that eBay cant guarantee as the lowest price. With shipping prices at 10 dollars plus, stores can compete with using their own mark ups. As for guaranteed memorabilia, eBay cannot compete due to scams. Fake autos are so rampant, Im weary of even buying PSA/DNA authenticated stuff anymore. Shops have the ability to get their own materials and and get them auto'ed. Buy from PSA and other authentic sources and save me the trouble of going through places I dont trust for my auto'ed stuff.

"• One last thing: I wanted to work graded cards into this somehow, but never found a good spot. If raw singles aren’t really worth their book value, what about graded cards? I know that entire price guides cater to graded specimen, but will/should these prices be combined with prices for unslabbed cards? Or would that negate the values assigned to those that have been slabbed? Also, why does it feel to me that dealing in graded cards is going to be what saves shop owners and show dealers?"

This whole "one last thing" makes no sense, but what else is new? Graded cards are pretty much one big conflict of interest to begin with. Besides, it was solely created as a mechanism for, *gasp*, eBay and the like. It protected the buyer from unforseen........oh forget it. Just look here and here.

I know its against my better judgement to take on one of the biggest blogs out there, but still, who wants to put up with this shit? I hope the sheep dont take what he says as gospel. Just to set a precedent: after this, I will not be reading his blog without a very strong bias, and I encourage you to do the same.

As collectors we are thrown to the wolves almost daily by the very sources that are sworn to be our advocates. Why is this guy supporting everyone's enemy? His platform supports paying higher prices because it keeps the good ole days in tact, it supports price guides because they supposedly provide a non-existant backbone to the hobby, and lastly it supports underhanded dealers and shops who do their best to scam you out of your hard earned money because they dont have any.

Thank you, Woody Paige of sports card collecting, you have opened my eyes!!

Everybody's Working For the Weekend

Well, I had a good start to this long weekend. First I stopped in at my local store to pick up a few packs, and I must say that they were very nice to me. First they gave me an autographed picture of DeSean Jackson from their recent signing for free, and then I bought three packs where I got this:



So, with that, I would like to say thank you to the Beverly Hills Card Shop for their generosity.



Next, I stopped in at the other store I go to down the road, where I bought the last five packs of prestige from the box they had. I ended up with these two nice pulls, the Chris Long is 17/25 and the Gholston is /999.



So like I said, it was a good day. Now lets hope the Twins can lay a second smackdown on the Tigers and I will be tickled fucking pink.

This Is Beyond Ridiculous

I was reading through a few blogs today and I came across a post at The Baseball Card Blog that I thought was one of the most arrogant, non-collector friendly articles I have ever read on a sports card blog. His post titled "For The Love of Sitting Around and Flipping Through a Price Guide" took the stance that price guides are necessary to help keep the hobby in check, if not only so your local mom and pop card store wont go out of business competing with big bad eBay.

Let me reinterate what I have said countless numbers of times on this blog - BOOK VALUE IS FUCKING USELESS. We should be thankful to have a free enterprise marketplace on eBay that allows us to find the TRUE MARKET VALUE of any single card we want. Want to know what your 1/1 logo patch is worth? All you have to do is put it up and watch for 5 days.

My favorite paragraphs from the article (not altered):

"I'll admit, that's a dire read on today's hobby, but let's examine the situation. The hobby doesn't need price guides to exist, and yet would be chaotic without them. Beckett and FW Publications (publisher of Tuff Stuff) provide infrastructure for the secondary market. Dealers consult them when setting prices. You want to see a world without the consultation of book prices? Look no further than eBay.

With its low prices and open-source approach to assigning realistic value to cards and memorabilia, it's the new face of the hobby. It's slowly killing independent in-shop dealers. It's taken the bottom out of the value of game-used, relic, auto and other seemingly hard-to-find cards. That Poley Walnuts insert of the squirrel at Yankee Stadium from last year's Topps? Tuff Stuff has it at $40. Here are two eBay auctions: one's at $1.25, the other at $0.99."

Give me a motherfucking break. Chaotic without price guides? Youre worried about a squirrel card? I just threw up in my mouth, that is the dumbest thing I have ever fucking read. Listen buddy, I know your favorite store may not be able to hold up selling 1980-1990 rookie cards at full book, but that is the way of the world now. Other ebay competitive industries are adapting fine, and both of my local stores are doing fine selling what dealers should be selling - WAX. It sucks that you cant have a good ole half hour conversation with your ebay seller about the state of the hobby, but I am damn glad that I dont have to pay double what a card is ACTUALLY worth. Its a trade off I am glad to take.

The New Garden of Eden

Gents, I have found my new favorite box break boards to browse when I am bored, and it is a Mojo-less paradise. Everyone's favorite online wax supplier has their own message board where people actually hate the word as much as I do. Anyone who uses that worthless expression of a good pull is promptly reminded to never use it again. I cant tell you how pleasing that is. I dont care if its not updated as much as the Beckett boards, people on there dont spend anytime on their posts other than writing what they got in their boxes. Its literally heaven.

Proud member since 2005:

Thanks to This Video, I Am Now Hearing Impaired

Ugh, another one of these wonderful displays of box breaking. Just for fun, check out 1:56 in the video. That guy's look says it all. Everyone is going nuts, but you know the product is as good as Topps Total. WA-OW!

More Beckett Douchebaggery

Did you enter the Beckett contest for the Adrian Peterson 1/1 Exquisite that was fraudulently obtained in a box break scam? No? Me either. However, a lot of people did enter, much to my chagrin, and guess what? No winner has been announced despite the expected reveal being two days late. Im sure they will announce the winner, and that person will be happy to have made 7,000 dollars for filling out a lame survey instead of actually purchasing the product. Here is poetic justice for you: they announce the winner as one of the people who posted a support video for the original YouTube response that I posted. That would be so great, I cant even tell you how happy I would be. Oh well, add it to the laundry list of complaints against the hobby's number one scam magazine.

As far as I am concerned, there are two major enemies for every collector out there:

1. Beckett
2. Fake Patch Card Makers/Sellers

Yes, I group them as one and the same. First, Beckett makes me sick with the masks they put on the hobby and collecting. They show collectors a possibility in their video breaks that isnt really possible, among other things they present as the truth. What's most sickening to me is that they are the end all and be all for pricing within many collector's minds. Doesnt that seem dirty to you? For 50% of the people out there, Beckett sets the price of their collection. Bullshit. BULLSHIT. Each time I hear someone refer to them as the #1 source for the hobby, I die a little inside. At least Upper Deck, who most people blame for the current state of the hobby, does do SOME good for some people.

As for fake patch sellers, I think the situation they have created has made it impossible for people to purchase any multicolored patch card with any certainty anymore. Granted, there are some OBVIOUS ones, but some are fucking good and you wouldnt know it wasnt real. That scares me.

Money For Nothing = Chicks For Free

Is your wallet a little lighter than you would want it to be right now? Worried that when the real NFL cards come out in a month that you wont be able to spill all your cheese on cards? Im with you. So, with that, I wanted to give you some little hints on some guys to collect this year that arent named Ryan or McFadden. Most of them will be pretty cheap come july, and may not be in december. Dont buy now because all the stuff out there is crap other than Prestige (the best of the worst), wait for Classics and Threads which will come soon enough.

1. Felix Jones - RB - Cowboys



This guy is already at the middle of the pack (in terms of price) for RCs this year but he is the best middle of the pack-er out there. He is on an amazing team, will get good playing time, and wont have to carry the load all by himself thanks to Barber. Im guessing he will outrush McFadden, and shouldnt have a problem scoring TDs from what I saw at Arkansas. Sometimes it pays to be in someone's shadow. The best thing about this guy? Best auto of the 2008 class, its completely readable and looks like he actually cares (im looking at you Mendenhall, you careless douche).

2. Devin Thomas - WR - Redskins



This guy was the best WR in the draft and he aint gettin much love like most of his WR bretheren. He will put up good numbers this year if he gets the PT and should be the Dwayne Bowe of 2008. If he doesnt start for the first part of the year, dont worry, he will. Jason Campbell is a mid-level QB only because he lacks experience, but with Santana Moss and Clinton Portis drawing defenses away from Thomas, expect big things.

3. Chris Long - DE - Rams



Get 'em while you can. DEs and other DLs never get many autos in products. They have RC stuff and thats pretty much it. See Kevin Williams, Dwight Freeney and Julius Peppers if you dont believe me. Long should be great, and I mean "oh my god" great, so dont hesitate to pick his stuff up. Whats stupid is that he couldnt make the premiere so his stuff will probably be redemptions. Either way, if you see a produced card, jump on it.

4. Chad Henne - QB - Dolphins



The Dolphins suck. They suck BAAAAAAAD. You know who will take the most blame of any player? John Beck. He isnt a top caliber guy and he should have been Brady Quinn if the Dophins were smart. That means when he sucks it up, look for Chad to come in next year and pick up the pieces. I saw Henne play live last year and he looked more pro ready than any guy on the field. I would think that a small investment now, while he is benched, could turn into a nice profit when (not if) he starts.

5. DeSean Jackson - WR - Eagles



Another cheap-o WR that will be VERY good with a good team in philly. He will get PT right away as a punt returner and kick returner, so I would guess that he should get more once he blows everyone away with the speed. I would expect that at first, he will only get a deep ball here and there. But who else to the Eagles have at WR? NO ONE!! Next year will be a great year for him and you may even see him catch on before that. He will get lots of man on man due to westbrook, so I will be expecting good things in the future.

The Grading Service Vs. The Grading Business

Grading cards started as a practice to help collectors identify things they may not see with the naked eye when buying cards over the internet and in person. Basically, it protected the buyer from unforseen condition problems when they don’t have the card in their hands (eBay) or when the card is not necessarily available to look at outside of a case (high end buys at shows). In my opinion it went from a service geared towards protecting the buyer to a service geared towards helping the seller make money.

High grade cards carry a huge premium, as expected, and are the staples of many seller's inventories. I don’t really have a problem with people buying high grade cards, because it is only natural that the high grade ones sell for more money. I have a problem with the services themselves. The reason I say this is because I see certain sellers on eBay with a plethora of pristine graded cards from PSA and BGS when the population reports for those cards show that a high grade is usually outside the status quo. I also see BGS selling their own cards as discussed before, which creates a conflict of interest, and I start to wonder how much of grading is being the best at grading a card and how much is being good business people.

Being a good business person means you reward your good customers and still maintain your quality of product and your ethics. This makes me think that services who receive thousands of submissions from a person are more inclined to reward them with higher grades because they spend thousands of dollars on the service. Now, im not saying they take cards that should be a 5 and make them a 9.5, but I question whether they look at every card close enough to determine whether it is a 9 or a 9.5. Once its in that case, no one will question the authenticity of the grade because collectors know that it isnt worth the idea in their head. Yet, I can see that a collector submitting 1000 cards per week would be more likely to get a 9.5 on those 9s because he/she is spending so much money. I also see that the guy who has nothing but PSA 10s cant possibly have THAT many high end cards in THAT condition. It spreads beyond possibilty that every card he gets is a PSA 10, especially when most of them are bought from other collectors.

Im sure a lot of you are wondering if I have ever graded a card or if I own graded cards. The answer is yes and yes. I own two graded cards, an 8.5 2002 Joe Mauer Chrome Auto, and a BVG 4 1953 Eddie Mathews Topps. The Mathews is graded because it was losing condition sitting how it was in my collection, and the graded case protects that. The Mauer I bought graded because the set is so condition sensitive that I knew I couldn’t trust eBay to provide me with a good card. 8.5 was cost effective so I bought that one. As for grading cards I have only used it once for profit. I graded my Topps Finest Santana Rookie and got a 9.5, then sold it for a ton.

Do I say that grading should go away? No, I think it is a necessary service. Do I think that the sheep collectors should maybe question the business part of it before buying? Hell yes, all is not what it seems. In fact, I think that "Sports Card Buying: All is Not What it Seems" (AINWIS) should be the slogan of the industry. There is so much deception, that I think we have just accepted it. Its like the OJ Mayo situation in that we all know its going on behind the scenes, but we will wait for that big story before taking action. Until then, its all swept under the rug.

Product Review: 2008 Topps Rookie Progression

Its that time again, where every single goddamn company needs to release a product SO early that they cant get anything worthwhile into the set except pictures of players in their college jersey. Rookie Progression does this one further - this time putting pictures of players in their college jersey on really fucking disgusting cards. Ugh, I wish the companies would hold their fucking horses and wait for the premiere.

The Good

It will be cheap to pick up a lot of autos of the top guys because this set is crap. If you want a McFadden but don’t want to drop 2 bills, wait 5 months for this to drop under 100. I did find one redeeming factor for this product, the triple autos look presentable. However, if you arent a Beckett Box Breaking douchebag, you wont pull one.

The Bad

Oh, where to start. Besides having more college jersey photos, the layouts of the cards are really weird. Everything just looks like it it doesn’t belong, and I would expect that it doesn’t. The jersey cards are just there to be there, no thought seems to be put into the pairings or anything other than they are all rookies. There's more, but I still have one more category.

The Ugly

This set is one of the ugliest in recent memory. I mean its really that bad of a design. Everything looks retro and it is an EPIC FAIL on that. The cards will drop like a rock and I cant understand why anyone would drop any type of money for this considering its less than 2 months for some real cards.

The worst thing about this product is the name. Whoever came up with this should be fired. Bottom line. Topps DP&P was a good set and needed no revamp. Last year's design was visually appealing and the chrome cards were better than any card in this set. Topps should scrap this faster than a '79 AMC Pacer.

Overall Grade: D

First Look: 2008 UD Ballpark Collection and 2008 UD X Baseball

Here we have two new products from the Evil Empire and I am only interested in one - only because the set they are releasing is already out in a better form. Ballpark Collection Baseball looks like Premier Baseball II, in terms of set construction, box break, and what it offers. It will be a high end tin or pack, and should have some nice stuff, yet Premier still looks more interesting to me. The most interesting thing above is that the Griffey logo is /5, which is crazy go nuts for people that have never pulled one, and shitty for collectors who dont think the hobby needs more logo cards. Also, in this set we have our first baseball cards with laundry tags and jersey button cards since 2005 and I think it will be quite a chase for some. Obviously, they will cut up more pieces of history, so look for the standard HOFer legends too.



X Baseball is a snoozefest, and I think it screams elements from last year. Basically you get two autos and two of 200 different foil cards that are parallelled to shit. Ill pass.

First Look: 2008 Upper Deck Premier

Holy Shit, the sell sheets are coming fast now that the Rookie Premiere is over. This set looks 100x better than last year, but like many of the products for 2008, will be much too expensive for what you get. Again, the Premiere was so diluted that it will be a lock that you will pull a nobody for your big hit. Either way, cool design gets my vote.

First Look: 2008 Topps Stadium Club

First off let me say this is a fucking brilliant move by Topps bringing this set back. It is not brilliant making this a high end product instead of a mid level one. Either way the cards harken back to the 1991 set which was one of the pimpest sets in football history. I guarantee you will see an Adrian Peterson Beam Team auto in my future.

First Look: 2008 Score Select

Here is the design. I really dont even need to say anything because this set should have died years ago. It consistently has the worst photography, the worst design, and is completely worthy of its 50 dollar post 2008 season price tag. If you pay sticker price for this shit, say "baaaaaaaah," Mr Sheep. Jesus, someone needs to give the design team some TLC, these are getting bad.

First Look: 2008 Bowman Sterling

A nice design to a set that usually is filled with crap for an extremely high price. Will I want some of the cards? Sure, they look pretty good. Will I buy a box? HELL FUCKING NO. Plus, with this year's Rookie Premiere being chaulk full of opening day scrubs, your luck will be awful. Gruaranteed.

Argh! My Eyes!

I cant...type...brain...exploding.....this card....makes....no sense...arghhssdkfjsdfj.

God, I dont even know where to start. Sweet Shot Baseball Signatures? If anyone can tell me who green lighted cards like this, please, I will go and kick them in the nuts. I guess thats all I have to say about this piece of shit fugly design.

Skol is NOT A Type of Tobacco

To love something unconditionally is pretty tough, especially when it’s a Minnesota sports franchise. When it’s the Minnesota Vikings, you are better off just ripping out your own heart and handing it to a Packer fan. I remember back in 1998, sitting in the Dome in a very uncomfortable chair, watching the Vikings rumble to what seemed like their first Super Bowl in decades. Thirty minutes later, you could hear a pin drop as they missed the field goal to seal it, and im sure my heart sinking made a pretty audible sound as well. Alas, this is my plight as a member of the Purple Pride Brigade.

The good thing is, now we have something to look forward to for the first season in about five. All Day is coming off a hugemungous year, T-Jack has another year under his belt, the Williams wall is still standing tall, and most of all we have the new NFC roughneck in Jared Allen. Its looking good in a Favre-less NFC north, and I think we have a shot.

For collectors this year is also pretty huge, mainly because you have five billion people who want their All Day investments to skyrocket so they can sell them to homers like me. Its also a make or break year for people sitting on Tarvaris, and Sidney Rice collectors are secretly gathering for what they call "the coming of the light," or some shit like that. Me? Count me in for all three, though secret cults are not my thing. Here are my predictions for 2008 - Minnesota Fucking Vikings style.

Record: 10-6
Place finish: Tied 1st

Lets face it, in a division dominated by the green and gold parade for as long as I can remember, its good Fav-rah is gone. Very good. The Lions did crap to help themselves, and Chicago still is counting on Gross Rex and Kyle Orton (laughable - I would be pissed!). I think, due to this fact, Vikings fans can take solace in the amped up defense and returning offense. Our biggest loss could pose some problems, but ill get to that later.

All Day: Okay?



When it comes to Adrian Peterson, I am a follower of the Purple Jesus. The man is a straight beast and is poised to have an even bigger season than last. The problem is that he wont. Not even close. Put your money on Marshawn Lynch, because this Viking ship is going down for collectors… for now. Peterson, like the majority of the games in the second half last year, will consistently face 8-9 in the box every down we are expected to run (8 when we arent expected). Due to lack of creativity that the 80's and 90's lions had with Barry Sanders, Childress will let this ship sink and not even think twice, mainly because he sucks my left ball when it comes to coaching. The second huge problem deals with the Vikings' biggest loss: Tony Richardson. Without him, I hope they can still have the same success due to the line from hell, but we shall see. In all reality, All Day's season success hinges on the success of two men: Bernard Berrian and good ole Sid Rice. If they get open and catch some balls, teams will no longer be able to stack the box. Every one wins because his cards regain some of their value and Sid Rice's cards come in to their own.

Ive said it before that T-Jack should be able to get Rice the ball. It shouldn’t be a problem, but as a Vikings fan, I know it will be. The good thing about this season is we should only have to put up 21 points to win consistently. Another QB note - one guy I would probably hold off on besides Jackson is Booty-call. As a fifth rounder, they dont have much invested in him and he will probably ride the bench the whole year as a third stringer. I wouldnt invest because next year the first round pick may be a QB if things dont work out. If he was a third rounder or higher, I would rewrite my tune.

Best investment: Sidney Rice
Worst investment: Adrian Peterson (Fuck all you people who raised his prices for me!)
Possible Big Hit: Bernard Berrian
Still NO: Tarvaris Jackson

Defensive No-Show


This is the only Williams Auto I have seen.

Personally, I wish Kevin Williams had more cards. Especially autos. But, like Allen and most D-Linemen, they don’t. With that, I cant even tell you to invest, just because there isnt anything out there. The one thing I hope happens this year is that Antoine Winfield finally makes a pro-bowl. He deserves it. But, even without a pro-bowl year from the strong side monster, the defense is much improved, and they should help make the offense look like the Bears of 2005. The difference is that OUR offense actually has a few impact players.

The Stone Cold Bottom Line

Basically, the Vikings should be on their way to the playoffs. Thats all that matters. If we cant get there this year, we seriously need to re-evaluate a few things.

Charlie Bucket 2008

Ever dream of creating your own Exquisite Basketball Box? Yeah, me too. The problem is I dont have $8,000 to burn. Right now I could flop down the money that I could use to pay off the rest of my car and buy this card on eBay. You get to fly to Dallas, have lunch with UD execs, and have 5 minutes to create your own box. Now, it has already been said that you have to follow collation rules, meaning you cant put 7 logomen in your box and call it a day.

My response?

How about we follow the collation rules that you used for Beckett's two boxes of Football? The reaction would be worth the trip alone.

The first one of these went for 5 grand and change(I believe) to that one guy who busts case after case of high end stuff like it was Topps Total. You know what? He deserves it. I cringed watching those videos as he broke case after case, and I hope he gets the Durant Logo or the Jordan Logo for his trouble.

As for UD, well you guys know how I feel already.

Im Gettin' The Band Back Together

I couldnt help myself, I needed to make sure this bullshit doesnt go un-responded to.

Beckett Pulls Another "Beckett"

What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!? What the fuck!?

Are we seriously going to do this all over with their bullshit? They pull the best triple auto out of the whole set, AGAIN? AGAIN?!? Im so fucking sick of these schmucks and no one fucking cares but me. Of course their YouTube comments are moderated so they will only have stuff that supports their fucking bullshit. Lets go over their pulls lately:

1/1 Exquisite Adrian Peterson Patch Auto
1/1 Brian Piccolo/Walter Payton Dual Cut
1/1 LaDanian Tomlinson Base
1/1 Joe DiMaggio Cut Auto
Brian Brohm/Matt Ryan/Andre Woodson triple auto
1/1 Brady Quinn Sick Patch Auto
2006 Vince Young Exquisite Patch Auto RC

Most collectors dont pull one 1/1 in their entire life. I still have not pulled a triple auto out of anything. This is fucking gross that they have pulled 5 1/1s and the Triple while the rest of us spend thousands on wax and get shit. Fuck Beckett and their bullshit breaks. I cant even contain my rage.

I Miss the Good Ole Days

Petition to Upper Deck: bring back the SP Holoview cards w/ die cut parallel. The reason I am behind this all of a sudden was I recently saw a friend crack a box of 1994 SP Basketball and pulled a Shaq holoview diecut. These cards were the coolest things to hit the hobby since the 1989 base set, and we really havent seen much since. How cool would it be to pull holoview autographs of the RCs and vets instead of lame subsets like they have now? I would be ridiculously pumped if those were brought back - you have no idea. I mean, we havent had a cool subset insert since they cured polio. Here is their chance. The old ones still go for 50-100, and I may throw down some coin for these badboys after seeing the pull yesterday.

Shirt off My Back: CNBC Takes Action?

Thank you to Mario at Wax Heaven for posting this one.

Looks like CNBC got a whiff of what collectors have been talking about for a long, long time. I posted a while ago how fucking sick I am of event used shit, and I think its great how far the CNBC reporter took it. I have been saying for an extended period of time that cards containing pieces of jersey may not be as accurate as we think (ever since they took the guarantee off the back). Im quite glad that someone with resources greater than a YouTube channel is doing something.

If I Had a Million Dollars...

Well, there is still a ridiculous amount of time until the NFL season is even close to getting started, and naturally I am bored. So I decided to put together my own prospecting sheet for the 2008 season on some players you may want to get your hands on cheaply while you still can...

(In no particular order)

1. Sidney Rice - WR - Vikings



Yeah, yeah, I know, hometown bias. Still, this guy is going to be a beast. In an injury shortened season he led the team in just about everything, even though thats like saying I led my little league team in everything when I was 25. I would say that with Bernard Berrian on the other side of the field and All Day requiring 8-9 in the box every play, he should have a mammoth year. Tarvaris Jackson (another awful, awful first name that should never be used again) should come into his own this season now with a few under his belt. I am one that believes they should have gone for Brohm in the second round, but now we gotta work with him. He definitely has the chops, but maybe not the intelligence. This is a make or break year for him and I would expect Sidney to benefit greatly.

Approx Price for Exquisite Auto /225: 80 dollars
Approx Price for 3 clr SPA: 65 dollars
Approx Price for standard auto: <30

2. Kevin Kolb - QB - Eagles

This guy was a second round pick that I never put much thought into, honestly. This year, however, he is worth more than a thought to the sheep out there. If you guys think Donovan McKneeinjury is going to make it through the year as the QB of this team, forget it. He hasnt played a full season in 3 years, and Mr. Kolb will be the shoulders it all falls on. When this happens his cards will jump and you will profit - even if he does shitty at first. They drafted DeSean Jackson to build up their WR corps, a great move with Westbrook tearing up D's like they are tissue paper. I think by next year Kolb will be a starter for good and you can expect good things from him on a playoff caliber team.

Approx Price for Exquisite Auto /225: 90-100 dollars
Approx Price for 3 clr SPA: 50-60 dollars
Approx Price for standard auto: <30

3. Marshawn Lynch - RB - Buffalo

Im putting Lynch on here because he deserves to be. His cards are already expensive, but to tell you the truth, I think they will be more so come next year. He broke the 1000 yard mark last year with a handful of TDs and you can expect he will do it again. Unlike All Day, he wont face 8-9 in the box every play, so he will have some room to run. I expect him to blow up - and I expect the same thing from his cards. If you have some extra coin laying around, you may want to consider dropping some on his SPA or at the very least, his Limited auto.

Approx Price for Exquisite Auto /99: 400-500 dollars
Approx Price for 3 clr SPA: 300-400 dollars
Approx Price for standard auto: <70

4. Laurence Maroney - RB - Patriots

Maroney is a beast, dont let anyone tell you different. He had an okay first 2 years in the league and will definitely be better come next year. He was kind of the forgotten son of Bellichek's offense, but this year I have a feeling he wont be ignored. His Exquisite is already expensive because he is a Patriot, but his SPA and other autos are still quite affordable. I would check him out and maybe spend the 20 bucks to get his lower end autos.

Approx Price for Exquisite Auto /225: 200-250 dollars
Approx Price for 3 clr SPA: 70-80 dollars (watch out for fakes!!)
Approx Price for standard auto: <40

5. Anthony Gonzalez - WR - Colts

Marvin Harrison likes to shoot his gun and Anthony Gonzalez will benefit. He was a first rounder last year and his non-exquisite stuff is dirt cheap because of the colts depth chart. I would expect him to have a better year mainly due to the fact that his QB is probably the smartest person in the league, and the fact that they love to pass even when ahead - despite having an awesome Joseph Addai. I would say he is a good investment to take a look at.

Approx Price for Exquisite Auto /99: 150-200 dollars (Tier 1 price)
Approx Price for 2 clr SPA: 40-50 dollars
Approx Price for standard auto: <20

Other mentions:

Steve Smith - WR - Giants: Not impressed with play during playoffs or reg season, stuff already at its peak even if he has a good year. Needs a GREAT year for stuff to boom.

Patrick Willis - LB - 49ers: Defensive guys never do much in the hobby with few exceptions. If he has another monster year, expect his stuff to go up - just not that much.

Reggie Bush - RB - Saints: His stuff is so down that it may be the time to get it. If he has even an inkling of a good season his stuff will jump. So many people are sitting on his stuff and waiting, that I think its a good idea to buy low. Its definitely a risk.

Santonio Holmes - WR - Steelers: He's a Steeler so that helps, but the Steelers dont pass much, and when they do its to Hines Ward, so thats bad. He still has major potential, despite having ANOTHER fucking awful first name. Man, some people should not be able to name their kids.

Maurice Jones-Drew - RB - Jaguars: Another great buy, but still very expensive due to a great year last year. I would say that you should wait to see how he does this year before making a large investment. You could save yourself some dough - just a hunch.

OMFG

If you want to know where this hobby is going, take a look at this card. Obviously less than 5 minutes went into designing this Sinorice Moss card, and I would be pissed if I was the player. That swatch is so oddly placed, he is probably thinking, "First the Giants draft me late. Then they draft a receiver AGAIN in 2008. Now my cards look fugly and there will never be another because I suck." Poor Sinorice, I guess you deserve it because your first name should be banned from all future born children.

Autolic Test II: What To Do With Your Johnson

Thanks to one of my readers, Justin, for this:




Looks like we have our first F- for the year. I dont even know what to say! Are you fucking kidding me? This guy put as much effort into his auto as your wife does to that "Anniversary BJ" you get once a year. Listen, Mr. Johnson, I know you are doomed to being a third string special teamer your whole career, but that doesnt mean you need to ruin our boxes of prestige with this shit.

One down, eleventy billion to go.

Money Shot: 2008 Bowman

I just wanted to say how stunned I have been by the sheer awesomeness of 08 Bowman Baseball. It is seriously one of the sickest designs I have ever encountered for a Bowman set. Card companies should take notice of how great this set is put together - even if I am shocked by the unflinching stupidity of inserting scout autos.

Also, when it comes to parallelling the shit out of something, Bowman products are the mack fucking daddy. I acutally accept their 15 parallels in the set only because there really isnt much more and they look fucking spank as hell. Great price point, great cards, STACKED autos that hold their value, where do I sign the credit card slip?

I have a small prospect-wang and I still want to blow a few hundo on some boxes of this awesome shit.

Certifiably Insane!

Another eBay wow. This set is amazing, considering the names it contains. I think 23,000 is a little steep (A Mazda 3 costs half of this), but considering how much this guy probably spent to obtain each one of the big cards makes me understand his price. I must say, the Cris Carter patch/auto is the new target for my next purchase. Jesus those are nice cards. Pic below in case the auction goes away.

eBay Auction

Convict of Interest

I was just looking over some things on eBay and I saw that Beckett has their own eBay store on the site. On the site they sell a lot of things, including graded cards. Because BGS is such a trusted source for grading, I dont think anyone would really question the cards that are up for sale - unless you consider who is the seller.

BGS 9.5s and 10s carry such a premium that it would be quite easy just to throw up a few cards with 9.5s and not worry about the actual grades the card deserves. Sure makes Beckett and the card owner some more money, plus no one will ever question it after it leaves the auction block. A few months ago I would have thought that integrity of BGS would prevent this from happening - but Beckett's integrity has been greatly questioned as of late.

Hmm, more on this later...

Review: 2008 Playoff Prestige

Well, our first licensed product of the 2008 season is here. Too bad its Playoff Prestige, which is basically the rookies in their college jerseys with their drafted team helmets below. I like this more than UD Draft which doesn’t display any of the NFL stuff we are craving, and focuses more on being UD Press Poop. Prestige does have a few redeeming factors which I will talk about below, but overall, its pretty much your standard pre-rookie premiere set.

The Good

In Prestige they took a page out of Leaf Rookies and Stars and brought back the signed manufactured patch cards which I think give this set a lot of credibility. The cards look great and make up for the fact that none of these players are listed or pictured in NFL gear. They have collegiate patch autos too, which are just as nice as last year, and overall, I think these are the highlight of the product.



Another good thing is the inclusion of the 2007 RCs on 2007 prestige cards IN THEIR NFL UNIs. I don’t know why, but I like the designs with the actual game pics. Some of the cards have jersey and patches on them, which ill get to in a sec. Either way, these cards are nice and the photography is great. As you can probably tell, I think a rookie without an NFL jersey is like a sitcom with no laughs, so its nice to have these cards to see what they would have looked like last year if the card companies had actually been patient enough to release a nice product.

The Bad

The card designs for some of the jersey/patch subsets are so bad that I don’t want to pull any of them. The swatch is WIDE RIGHT and it leaves way too much open space. Im guessing there is supposed to be room for an auto, but I havent seen many pop up on the world's greatest market place quite yet. They include both vet and RCs in these, college jerseys for the rooks I would guess, and it doesn’t make one bit of difference. These subsets bring the whole product down. At 4 hits/box you are definitely going to get some of these, and trust me, you will want to claw out your eyes as soon as you see.



The Ugly

Even though the cards above are the ugly ones, this space is reserved for one issue that plagues this set more than ugly cards. Based on some seller question research I have found out that all the jersey swatches included from the 2007 class are still EVENT FUCKING USED jersey cards from the 2007 premiere. Are you fucking kidding me? How many fucking jerseys did they wear? 500? Oh my lord get some game used stuff in these cards. Its only been a year for god's sake!

Overall grade B- (BRING ON CLASSICS!)

NOTE: How fucking hard is it to get the pictures taken AT THE DRAFT and put those on the cards. I would rather have a card like that than ANOTHER product with college jerseys.