2008 Was A Year That Will Not Be Vanishing Quickly

At least that is how I feel it will be happening. Tonight at midnight, 2008 will be gone, but for me, not forgotten. It was a year that brought the hobby together in new ways, but tore it apart in just as many. Its tought to believe that most of what has happened this year was just 12 months of time, it felt like it was a college lifetime. What I mean by that is that you remember stories like they happened 10 years ago, when really they only happened last month. Its a crazy phenomenon, and it happened to me a ton in college, because there was so much stuff packed into each week. Card blogging in 2008 was the exact same thing.

I think there were a lot of really awesome things that happened this year, and at the top of it, we had one of the bigger surprises in NFL history when the Giants knocked off the 16-0 Pats in the Super Bowl. It had a big hobby impact, as Tom Brady's cards, which were higher than Robert Downey Jr on a bender, came down from the stratosphere. All the weird people who thought it was a good idea to invest at $3000+, got a crash course in buy low sell high. I love the taste of vindication.

We got a great National Treasures product out of DLP, which could have been the best value in a high end break in a long, long time. For once, you could have a pretty good shot at not coming out behind 300 bucks in value. Granted its not a good idea to bust high end for value, but if you get crap cards, where is the fun in that? National Treasures packed the boxes with sweet ass cards, and even during our break on here, we did pretty good.

SPA football was great, even though collation problems made it impossible to break and do well. Even with the collation problems, the cards looked great, producing some of the best autos of the 2007 card season. It also was all completely on card, which made it the beginning of a great tradition for all UD products in 2008. We also got our first taste of the new 45 day redemption process, and for the most part, it worked out pretty well.

Moving on to Exquisite, we got a great idea of what kind of impact Peterson had on the 2007 draft class. even though most of the breaks were less than stellar, the set looked to be one of the most valuable of all time. Coming out of the gate, Peterson, Quinn, and Calvin Johnson were all over, or close to 1000 bucks on ebay, and that was enough to draw the attention of quite a few people looking to break something with that kind of awesomeness. There were major problems with the legitimacy of the set, but I will get to that later.

Later on in the year, DLP came out with its first non-RC based baseball product since 2005, and as expected people went nuts, myself included. We also got the first modern cards of Pete Rose, and the first widely produced relics of Joe Jackson. The product was a reminder to everyone how much DLP's products were missed from the Baseball realm, and I, for one, was very happy to welcome them back.

Staying in Baseball, Allen and Ginter returned with its critically acclaimed 3 offering, this time with many more reasons to bust a shitload of it. Hair relics from some of the country's greatest heroes, as well as the first fossil ever to be put into a card, were huge highlights to the already mammothly (pun intended) popular set.

We also got our first taste of Razor baseball prospects, and for many people it was quite a thorn in their chrome first tendencies that have been building over the last 10 years. They managed to sign most of the first round of the 2007 draft to exclusive contracts, which meant that for many people who made their living on Bowman Chrome, it would be a new experience in 2008.

Exclusive draftee contracts were not the only contract problem to hit 2008, as the rights to many of Baseball's most valuable HOFers went over to the topps brand. A lot of people were very happy, especially now that products like Triple Threads and Sterling would have a MUCH better checklist. I voiced my opinion pretty often that exclusive contracts were one of the main reasons that the hobby was going downhill, and this was a prime example. Legendary cuts, as a response, faced numerous issues.

Also during the course of this year, we saw youtube become one of the most popular expressions of a collector's stash. In the years prior, Doctor Wax Battle had originated the video box break, but it took YouTube to make it huge. After 12 months of people catching onto the phenomenon, though, it has become almost impossible to find an entertaining person to watch. Look at my breaks, for instance, they suck.

Even though my youtube skills are minimal, 2008 was probably the best year for me, as it marked the beginning of this blog as well as the beginnings of a major internet presence in the community the blogs established. As of today there are hundreds of card blogs, all with a unique view of the hobby. The blog bat around that I put together showcased all the talent that was available to new people on the card based internet, and it was really awesome to see how many people cared enough about everything that was going on in the hobby to use a blog as an outlet. We saw the power of the internet, time and time again, as people sounded off on issues ranging from sponsorship to Beckett's awful displays of immorality.

When it comes to Beckett, they made 2008 a year to remember for all the wrong reasons. First, they gave birth to this blog by busting loaded boxes on video, and continuing to showcase the conflicts of interest that plague their magazine. This includes selling graded cards on ebay, crying to manufacturers about not getting certain exclusives that had been given to the newly empowered blogs, and eventually antagonizing bloggers by posting response graphics and stealing articles that had been written by people on the numerous blogs.

They also dismantled the Message boards that thousands of users went to every day to discuss things that were important to them. What is left of that community is still trying to survive on Beckett.com 2.0, but we can see it is no longer what it used to be. I thanked them for destroying the one thing that made them relevant anymore.

Thanks to crooked manufacturers sending them loaded boxes as discussed above, here is a list of their pulls in 2008:

1/1 Adrian Peterson RC Patch Auto
1/1 Walter Payton/ Brian Piccolo Dual Cut
1/1 Brady Quinn National Treasures Logo Patch Auto
1/1 LaDanian Tomlinson Exquisite Base Card
1/1 Ryan Howard Triple Threads Letter Fold Out
1/1 Joe Dimaggio Topps Sterling Cut Auto Jersey
1/1 Lucille Ball Razor Cut Sig
Charlton Heston Razor Cut Sig
Alex Rodriguez Topps Sterling Jersey Auto
Brian Brohm/Matt Ryan/Andre Woodson Rookie Progression Triple Auto
Shoeless Joe Jackson Prime Cuts Dual Bat
National Treasures Dual auto featuring Dan Marino

You may think that anyone who busts thousands of dollars worth of boxes could pull this kind of stuff, but if you look back, all of this is only out of 30-40 different boxes.

Before 2008 is up, I want to thank all the SCUites who have made this blog so awesome to run, and awesome to participate in. Special thanks to Holy Hitter, Will Noetling, and Charlie, who all pitched in to help me out. To all the people who donated to the walk to cure Diabetes, you guys are the true heroes of this b-sphere, thank you for giving up your hard earned cash to help others.

I also want to thank all the idiots who have provided me with so much shit to write about here, seemingly on a daily basis. It was a ton of fun to write about all the numerous blunders.

So, from the bottom of my heart, HAVE A GREAT FUCKING 2009, may you all be safe, healthy and happy.