Wait Wait Wait. Topps Prime Actually Looks Good?

The golden rule of Topps is that you don’t buy their products that cost more than 100 bucks a box. That’s bottom line, and I RARELY break that rule. The new Topps Prime cards fall just within reason, and to tell you all the truth, they don’t look that horrible. It looks like Topps may have finally pulled their designer's heads out of their asses when creating new products, and this could be something that does for them what Topps Platinum TRIED to do last year.

First off, the Booklet cards are back, and so far they are in just about every Topps product this year. I hate booklet cards, especially the ones from Triple Threads, and these actually look like what Triple Threads should be trying to do. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, these booklet cards actually look okay. Big player pictures, no ridiculous die cut windows, just simple layout with the right components. The one problem is that these cards STILL feature stickers that are built into the design, and to that I call attention to what the cards would look like if Topps actually got off their asses and got them hard signed. Hell, even if these were just clear stickers on that blue background, the cards would be THAT much better. I really like that these cards seem to feature many different parts of the player's uniform, though the event used football swatches are still lame as all fuck.

Secondly, the base card design makes me revel in its simplicity. I freaking love it. Hopefully all the cards look like this, and they don’t fuck it up with all sorts of riff raff that Topps usually utilizes. Im guessing the rookie autos will just be off shoots of these cards, which makes me happy, but they easily could turn out like the abomniations from 2008 Stadium Club. Hopefully they do these like Topps Chrome and not like anything else. HEAR ME TOPPS? Don’t screw this one up.

Lastly, the relic cards remind me of an old school movie reel, and I don’t really like the way they look. That will be a minimal part of this set, so im not really that concerned.

Overall, this looks pretty good, I am actually beyond surprised that it turned out like this. When I originally heard they were trying to pull this off a few months ago, all I could think about was "Uh oh, here comes Topps (not) Unique version 2.0."

My Thoughts On The Ultimate Patches

There have been a lot of swirling rumors about the recent jumbo patches in Ultimate Collection, mainly stemming from the patches actual use in games. Many of the questions have come from people with a background in game used jerseys of older baseball players, and those people are bringing up some very valid points as to where the patches are coming from.

After the solidifcation of the rumors surrounding the counterfeit yu-gi-oh cards, people are quick to jump to conclusions on the recent release, especially when conspiracy is brought up. The general feeling is in relation to the fact that creating counterfeit gaming cards is not far off from creating counterfeit patches in baseball cards. Despite the fact that Upper Deck did admit to creating fakes, I doubt they would risk fake patches with all the ways it could come back to bite them. There are just too many experts out there, and way too many avenues of creating a problem if they were discovered. Does that mean it isnt possible? No, but it definitely makes it a little more than improbable that this is the truth behind the curtain.

Obviously, the top draws in the set are players like Ted Williams and Roberto Clemente, and the problem stems from the makeup of the patches. According to these people, its mostly the way the swatches in Ultimate compare to game used jerseys that people know to be game used. What the "experts" are saying is that these jerseys were not from the timeframe specified because of the way they are stitched, as well as the material of the jersey. Their prediction is that the jerseys are from old timer games and from situations like that, to which many people are echoing their sentiments. Personally, after reading a lot about this subject, I have to agree with the people who know their stuff. However, I don’t think that it completely damns UD into a new realm of deception. That’s where I differ on this.

The reason I have this belief comes from two specific products that are NEVER blasted despite obvious correlations. The first is Topps Triple Threads, and the second is Topps Sterling. Both are heralded products among the legally blind portion of our hobby, despite the fact that its obvious that the same type of swatches are used, with language on the card that is even more vague than UD's. Im sure you all have seen the stark white swatches on many of the cards from those sets over the years, but no one seemed to care about it. I guess when you arent screwing the pooch every other week, people overlook things.

In fact, the language on the back of a Triple Threads cards reads that the swatches are not from any specific game or season, while the Upper Deck says that they are used "in a game." From these statements, its easy to see that the companies are leaving the door open for jerseys used outside a regular season MLB game. Although I don’t support or buy cards like that, others have never had a problem buying both Triple Threads or Sterling despite this terribly worded statement on the back.

To that, I say, if you have a problem with player worn versus game worn, don’t buy the Williams or Clemente cards. If you don’t, go right ahead. For the other players, im sure the cards are real, yet if you don’t feel comfortable buying them, that’s up to you. This is the joy of competition, and I am sad that exclusivity has gotten to this point in the hobby.

Suggestion For 2009 Football Products

Listen, I know that I am not going to be able to stop card companies from using Event Used "Relics" in their cards, so I have given that up. The thing with event used, is that they could literally give a rookie a jersey that is covered in patches and logos, and really, we wouldnt know any different. It could be that easy, and the cards would look exactly the same. On top of all that, the jersey would only be worn for as long as it takes the player to put it on and pull it off. That is what event used is, and I hate it. There is no connection to a game, and there sure is no connection to a player. Dont believe me? Here is a great article that describes what happens at the rookie premiere.

Dont get me wrong, I think that the rookie premiere is a great thing. It gets us pics of the RCs for card releases, and is a great time for the companies to get on card autos and to stock up on their stickers to use. Without the RC premiere, our card year would suck. Yet, as with every good idea in this hobby, there is a ridiculously bad thing that goes along with it.

The event used "relics" are bad, but the event used footballs are the worst fucking idea that has ever graced the windows of relic cards. Basically, a guy from UD, DLP, and Topps, on their specific day, stands by a tent and throws football after football at the RCs, they catch them and throw them back. Thats it. Fucking insaneulous.

Just for some background, I am against game used ball cards in general. They are just stupid, unless they have an autograph ON THE RELIC. In my mind, the ball is the least important piece of memorabilia in the game itself, with helmets, pants, jerseys, shoes and even gloves, all above it. They use so many balls, it takes the aura away. With event used balls, you are so far down the totem pole, that you are in the dirt the totem pole is buried in for stability. Plus, with all the fucking relics that come out in a year for a specific player, is there really a need to use the balls?

DLP uses them more than anyone. They are public enemy number one with these testicles of the card industry. Absolute, Gridiron Gear, among others, all have ball relics in the MAIN hits for the product. That sucks the sweaty sac of the Bills' backup left tackle. Ditch it for good.

In a perfect world, we would be satisfied with RC autos until they got some game used shit from the first few games. Everyone plays in pre-season, even Brock Lesnar, so dont think that there wont be anything. At least that way, we get some player important stuff that can actually be considered a "relic."

Product Review: 2008 Playoff Absolute Football

After a barrage of awful to okay Topps products with bad photography and worse looking cards, we finally get one of my favorite sets of the year. The basic feel of the set is pretty much the same as the last few years, but there have been some changes that are definitely welcome. I would say that this product would be twice as good with on card autos, but Im not sure that’s the case. This is one of those products where I cant imagine it without the stickers, because of the small space they would be confined to for on card sigs. Anyways, lets get to the meat!

The Good

Photos, photos, photos. They make and break a product, no doubt about it, and this year's Absolute does not dissapoint from what I have seen. The RC premiere cards look great with the full bleed, and they are printed on foil board which makes the pictures look that much better. For the auto/jersey subsets, I am very surprised as to how great the photos are. Each one has nicely selected action shots, and no weird helmetless players. Is it Upper Deck base set worthy? No. Is it close? Yes.


One of the additions to the set is the use of player number die cut jumbo jersey pieces. They have them for the Tools of the Trade, RPM Autos, and at least one other subset. These pieces are huge, and they look "rozdixculouslee" cool on both the RPMs and the TOTTs due to the space for amazing patches.

They also instituted team logo jumbo swatches, which also look pretty cool, but the size doesn’t compare to the number diecuts, mainly because some teams have small logos.

As always, the Tools of the Trade is my favorite part of this set. The cards are always cool, they usually have multiple types of swatches or nice patches, and they are probably the last shoe card subset on the market. I kind of wish they wouldn’t use the full foil board on these and make them regular like they did with 2005 baseball, but I guess this is the new trend. In all seriousness, it isnt that bad of a change, it just make things more shiny. Plus, with DLP back into baseball, I am PRAYING for 2008 Absolute Baseball. I would be into a case for that shit.

The Bad

There is only a few bad things about this set, and one of them is the RPMs. First off, they hardly changed at all. They look pretty much exactly the same as last year, and I am kind of angry about that. I would like them to try a horizontal design one year, but I guess the jumbos would be tough with that format.

Another bad thing is still including the base RC autos as a box hit. That is awful. At one guaranteed auto per box with a max of two, hitting this crap for 120 bucks is beyond frustrating. Its time to wise up about this and include them as an extra hit in one of the packs.

The Ugly

Why oh why do we get fucking event used football pieces in the RPM RCs? I cant fucking understand what DLP's obsession with these is? They are in this product, Gridiron Gear, LCM, and at least one other product. Could this not be a better example of why event used bullshit should be eviscerated from the hobby? Just to give you an example of how "event used" works:

- The player throws on a jersey in the RC tent
- The DLP rep throws him a ball
- The player throws the ball back
- The player takes off the jersey
- Both items go into a box as "event used"
- I die a little inside

Yeah, this needs to stop.

Also, can we get some better cardboard for this product? This is the second year in a row with ultra condition sensitive materials used to produce these cards. Trust me, it sucks balls when your McFadden has more damage than a woman who was abused as a kid.

Overall, I am still a huge fan of Absolute despite the over-abundance of EU jerseys and balls. When it comes down to it, you cant beat some of the awesome cards from the sets. Plus, the 1/1s have limitless potential as its pretty obvious that jumbo swatch 1/1s have the possibility of being fucking amazing.

Go buy yourself some of this stuff right now so you can tell me what you get. I will be part of a six box break later today, so ill let you guys know if I get anything cool. Besides, the next product on the list is the abortion that is Topps Lettermen FB, so prepare yourself for a long few weeks until LCM.

Not Seen In This Video: Upper Deck Waiting To Collect The Jersey

Odds that this jersey will be used in an event worn jersey card?

Id say at least 3:2.

(h/t you been blinded)

Why is Change In This Hobby Always For The Worse?

In lue of a review for Icons FB and after seeing the abortion that is the product, I want to revisit a few things I have talked about before. It seems that these things are getting to the point where I can no longer look at a product like Icons or most of the other new additions to the wax lineup and not laugh at its stupidity. Now, creating card sets is NOT rocket science and I would think that its something one could become a professional at. So, with all of these professional designers, why is EPIC FAIL attached to just about every release that these people have come up with in the last two years?

Lets run down the list:

Premier: Same stuff over and over and over, no new innovations, value DID NOT HOLD
SP Chirography FB: Price point was the worst in history, autos worth less than the cardboard
SP RC Threads FB and BKB: Could be the ugliest set ever, value did not hold, no one cares about letters when they look like that.
Icons FB: Don’t get me started
SP RC Edition FB and BB: Retro themed sets suck, especially when you can only go back 15 years.
Exquisite Baseball RCs BB: Every second world collector is screaming for exquisite baseball, and this is what we get? Crap.
Topps Triple Threads FB, BB, BKB: could not be more boring, price point is terrible for an auto and a jersey, cards havent changed in 3 years. Easiest way to blow $170 and not even break 5 bucks on the box.
Topps Paradigm FB: The only cool thing about this awful ugly set is the box can be used as a candy dish.
UD Draft Edition FB: Why do we need another set that is just like fucking press poop? Find a better way to get a prospect set out.
Topps Sterling BB: So now I have to pay 350 dollars for one hit and it could be a jersey card?
Topps Letterman BKB and FB: Sticker autos on manufactured letters, nuff said.
Topps Stadium Club BKB, FB, and BB: You take a fan favorite set from back in the day and you uglify it, make it 15 times more expensive, and fill it with worthless autos and jerseys. Good job.
Fleer Ultra FB BKB and BB: So you take once cool product from 10 years ago and add worthless jerseys and autos to hike the price.
Topps Performance FB: Made Adrian Peterson autos that no one cared about, awful looking cards, worthless subsets, and horrible price point. More like paradigm jr. than a new set.
Topps TX fooball: Sticker autos on super bowl ticket stubs? Was it really that hard to get hard signed tickets? Wait, this product costs 200+ per box? Oh my god, the humanity!
UD Elements BB: So, you have three mini boxes per box and we know where the jersey auto is? Stupid. The cards are ugly? Stupid. The checklist is the worst of the worst? Stupid.
UD Spectrum BB: Spectrum of the stars? No. Spectrum of the 80s hair metal back up singers. This added to an awful checklist on ALL rainbow foil cards makes for headaches.
Topps CoSigners BB FB and BKB: Ugly cards, the most worthless dual autos ever, parallels that are unnecessary and hard to understand, this would be the fail of fails except for below.
Topps Moments and Milestones: The dumbest idea since non-autoed manufactured patch and letter cards. 10,000 cards that killed millions of trees for no reason, ugly everything, horrible price point, and single handedly made the 1/1 worthless.

Wow, that is a long fucking list, and I didn’t even think that hard about it!

So, what are we going to do about it? That part is pretty simple to break down, as it is pretty obvious what needs to happen (in no particular order):

1. All second world products need to be tinned. Drop the price and the packs full of base, we don’t care about the crap so forget it. Give us the hits and one other card so we can get our fix and be done with it.

2. No more stupid reasons for parallels unless you are a chrome set made by Topps. "So the only reason for this parallel I just pulled is to put a different serial number on it?" No, not any more. If you are going to give us parallels, see LCM from baseball and FB. Each parallel had a different reason for being a parallel. One was base, one was jersey, one was bat/shoe, one was logo, one was auto jersey, etc. Enough with serial numbered parallels for no reason other than to fill out a set, they piss the fuck out of me.

3. Put the cards in cases for high end products when you pack it out. No more dinged edges and bad corners. Because you paid 500 bucks, they should provide the supplies. It would solve a ton of problems.

4. No more sticker autos when the card is irregular. If you have a sticker auto, it needs to be on cardboard and not a ticket, jersey, or something else. Signa cuts put stickers on blank note cards - that is lazy bullshit. If you cant get the cards made, its your own fault. Plan ahead, it works for more than college homework.

5. NO MORE PRINT PLATES! I hate these things more than anything. They dont matter. They arent 1/1s, im tired of idiots thinking they are rare, every product has them, they are ugly.
6. No more event used pieces of shit. If you cant the jerseys from the league fast enough, then don’t put them in the cards. They are worthless and presents the wrong expectations for new collectors. Its time to put autos on every event used card at the very least, or at least have the player wear the jersey for more than 8 seconds. This isnt bull riding.

7. No more ball cards. I don’t care about game used balls. I care even less about event used balls. I hate balls in general.

8. No more non-autoed manufactured letters. Just don’t. Its beyond stupid and makes you look lazy.

9. If you are going to make a celebrity set, make a celebrity set. Don’t put that crap in my sports stuff. I don’t care about an auto of the understudy from Rent.

10 (AND MOST IMPORTANTLY). Give us a reason to bust your product. Guarantee good hits. Guarantee more A List autos per case. Show us why wax is better than buying a lottery ticket. If you hand pack a product there is no excuse for 20 dollars worth of cards in a 500 per pack product, or even a 100 per box product.

Like I mentioned before, all of this stuff has been said in previous posts, but it needed to be done. With more than half of the football card season to go, I am praying that someone suprises me with greatness. So far, its not looking good.

First Look: 2008 Bowman Chrome Football

There really isnt much difference in the advertising for this and Bowman base, but we do have more event used crap being forced down our throats in the hobby's cheapest worthwhile box break. Like Topps Chrome, Bowman is going to be inserting jersey pieces into the normally simple yet awesome RC auto cards. Either way, the cards look nice, even though they always do on the sell sheet, so maybe we can still get some nice stuff. Ill be buying this when I get the itch and have no money.

Product Review: 2008 Topps Chrome Football

I loved topps chrome last year, the design was awesome, the cards were chic, the set was very simple. This year, well, not so much. A lot of stuff has been added, some good, some bad, some nebulous, but all will come out here. I think its interesting that topps has basically fallen on their face this year, and its obvious that things may not be what they once were. However, Topps Chrome has always been a favorite of mine, so lets get this show on the road.

The Good

Unlike the base Topps set, this product actually looks good with the pictures they chose in most cases. I think that the chrome foilboard has the ability to turn a crappy card into a medicore card, and in this case it worked. They went with the black border, which is always a good idea, so that was a plus.

Unlike last year, the MSRP dropped on this year's product to around Bowman Chrome prices. Instead of being 90+ for box with one auto and two refractors, you now get the auto plus a number of refractors for around 50-60. That is a HUGEMUNGOUS upgrade, as Bowman Chrome was always popular due to the awesome price point. There is no reason to think that anyone would ever pay the 90 bucks hapily, if not only because the A and B list autos were one per case and usually sucked. Good job on that.

Lastly, im going to file the addition of more colored refractors under good, because Topps chrome was WAY too simple last year. I hate parallels more than most people, but the chrome products are the one exception due to lack of a jersey subset and lack of many inserts. They added the copper and red refractors to the set, and they numbered them WAY differently than I expected. Copper is /425 and Red is /25 instead of /50 and /5. The box toppers are still the same with the Superfractor autos /10. Too bad those arent inserted into the product.

The Bad

This year Topps took it upon itself to add a patch auto subset to the RC pool. The cards contain the standard fucking gross Topps sticker, but this time you get a football sized patch with it. Of course these are really of little fucking consequence as they are all event used. Still, they are numbered /25 and people are going to go shitballs over them. They look a little better than I expected, but I can think of 25,000,000 other ways to spice up this set without going event used. Either way, this wont really factor into much because of the low numbering, but its still annoying to me.

The other thing that is bad is why they couldn’t use different pictures than the base Topps set? How hard would that be? The existence of chrome only invalidates the base set more, and that is why I never buy that product until it drops to 30 bucks per jumbo box. Chrome is cooler, and despite what an uniformed Chris Harris says, it is someone that EVERYONE can appreciate.

The Ugly

I have endlessly complained as to how awful the Topps stickers are, so Ill just say this:

Topps, you are proving to us that you are no longer relevant in the industry over and over again. You may have signed a bunch of baseball guys, but that is worthless unless you make a good product. Its time to step the fuck up and get some clear stickers. If you want to advertise your ceritifcation, use the back of the card. That is what it is there for.

Overall, this set falls somewhere in between the first and second world of collecting, and you can tell that Topps is trying to appeal to both with the patch auto additions and the colored refractor additions. We also know that there will be some kind of gimmick, so ill keep you posted. In the mean time, don’t get caught up in the shitstorm, keep your head above it and wait for Absolute in two weeks. ITS GOING TO FUCKING ROCK!

Product Review: 2008 SPX Football

This is the first high end procuct to be released this year, and usually it does pretty good in terms of value. Despite what people said about last year's product, I think it did pretty good for design and overall appeal. As for this year, I actually had high expectations due to the sell sheet, but boy did that give me false hope. I saw an early case break today at a local shop during lunch, and I was shocked as to what I saw.

The Good

SPX is usually a product focused around the RC autos, as with most sets for the year, but I think that the subset autos are usually overlooked. This year's subset autos are BETTER looking than the base RC autos, and I think that if I were to buy singles from this set, I would go for these. The designs look more complete and there is no event used bullshit to get mixed up with. Its just the normal signature on holoview card stock, and I think they look great. This was pretty much the only good part about this entire product.

The Bad

Why in the world are there so many fucking "Winning Materials" jersey cards? Its every fucking card plus a billion due to parallels, die cuts, and other bullshit, which would lead me to be VERY angry if I pulled one of these pieces of crap. Each RC has 25-30 it seems, and then there are veterans, and of course, duals, triples, and quads. I would rather have a base RC card with nothing on it, than have to endure these fugly messes.

Another bad thing here is the fact that the stickers are so "rodixulus" in the way they look. Normally the stickers are clear and barely noticible, but the placement and film used for these ones make them the focus of the cards. I hated that, and it most definitely detracts from what the set is presenting to everyone.

The Ugly

First, is the price. Last year this sad excuse for a set jumped from 110 a box to close to 180, just so that they could put a hit in each pack. Please, spare me this shit-for-brains excuse to drive up prices. I would rather get three hits with an auto for 110, than 9 crappy hits with a crappy auto for 180. Its so beyond funny that people buy this crap because it was bad for the baseball set, it was bad in basketball, and yet they think it will be a good product for football? Yuck.

Whats uglier than the price is the way the box hits look. The cards look beyond awful, the stickers are out of place, and I still think its dumb to diecut SPX into the cards. Plus, who chose the green hologram cardstock? I dont think these could look any worse, oh wait, forgot about the pictures on the cards. Those are probably the worst of all. This all comes together with the fact that there were more duds at the rookie premiere than ever. So, with your 180 bucks, you could end up with a piece of crap that will never play a down.

Advice to wax breakers: Save your $180 and wait for Absolute. You WONT be disappointed.

Finally, Your Patience Has Paid Off

If you were stupid and bought a shitload of Press Poop, SAGE, or Draft edition, then I have nothing to say to you.

If you waited patiently for Donruss classics, where the NFL rookies are IN their NFL unis with NO AIRBRUSHED BULLSHIT, then your wait is finally over! THANK THE CARD GODS!




Full product review coming tomorrow.


Score.

UD Makes Premier a Premiere Set

Per case, you will get at least 1 auto of one of these guys:

Adrian Peterson
Barry Sanders
Ben Roethlisberger
Brett Favre
Dan Marino
Jerry Rice
Eli Manning
Jim Brown
Joe Montana
Joe Namath
John Elway
Ladainian Tomlinson
Peyton Manning
Terry Bradshaw
Tom Brady
Tony Romo

Well, thats pretty good, not great, but good. Some of the guys on the list shouldnt be there, but its a good list like the Basketball one.

The good thing is that they are also including 4 autos of this list of guys per case:

Matt Ryan
Darren McFadden
Chad Henne
Rashard Mendenhall
Brian Brohm
Felix Jones
Joe Flacco
Jonathan Stewart

That is huge. HUGE. For a premium product and a long list of guys at the RC premiere, this is a great way to fix it. This means that for 5/10 boxes for a case, you will pull a pretty good auto. But, that still leaves 5 boxes that are going to probably be total crap. Who knows though, we could have another product like UD Black Basketball where the cases are fucking loaded.

Either way, its a good start to a premium product season.

Product Review: 2008 Donruss Elite Football

Well, the first product that actually holds value for the top guys is here. The bad thing is that these guys are still in their fucking college jerseys!!! Goddammit I hate that with a passion. You have photoshop, you have jersey mockups, fix it! Of course, the set isnt trashed just because they don’t do what I want. So without further adieu: my usual review (ryhme intended).

The Good

You know, there actually is a lot of good for this set. First are the actual base and rookie cards themselves, they look really nice the way they are set up. As the numbering gets lower, the cards become diecut, which can be annoying, but I love the creativity in making diecuts these days. This contributes to the fact that besides a lack of pro jersey pics, the rookie autos are ones I would actually want. The diecut ones are cooler than I expected this year, and the foilboard looks good with the base design.



Secondly, kudos for Donruss for actually inserting game used stuff for the 2007 RCs. FINALLY. I sent out my usual feelers and got back some good responses from sellers on the world's greatest marketplace. That is huge in my mind, as before we were still stuck with fucking event used bullshit.

Thirdly, the jersey cards for the set are pretty good looking and creative, and actually look like they are in the right place. Prestige's were an abortion, and Elite blows them out of the water. Kudos +2 for firing the guy who placed the swatches on the last cards.



Lastly, although none have turned up yet on TWGM, I have heard that the passing the torch autos are back. YES! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES! These are stil some of the best cards I have ever seen, and the checklists for past sets has been the best use of dual autos, ever. I hate duals in most of their incarnations, but these are so well put together, im cool with them. In the past, these were on card autos, we shall see about now.

The Bad

Parallels, parallels, PARALLELS! What the fuck DLP? Do you really need to do this instead of creating a better set building technique? It seems like this set is worse than triple threads when it comes to this shit. Enough is enough! Regular and Gold, repeat after me, Regular and Gold is all you need.



The Ugly

Scrubs is a great show on NBC, but having them as the focus of your product is fucking stupid. There are so many scrub autos in this set that I will not be wasting my hard earned cheese on a box of Elite, despite the above. I hate that manufacturers include these as a box hit, they should have their own disclamer set for hits, "2008 Elite with one RPS Auto and one non RPS auto per box!" That way you can still have autos from people like Tom Brady, as well as people like Peyton Manning. EVERYONE WINS. Except for the people who would pull white boy Jordy Nelson.

Overall Grade: B+

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 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 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.

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.

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.

2008 Rookie Premiere

The rookie premiere is set. Now we can all rest easy that the patches and jerseys in our cards will be ready for production. This list is bigger than last year, so there will be a few more Antonio Pittmans and Chad Jacksons. Yay.

Here is a list of the rookies attending the Rookie Premiere in Los Angeles (*= no one should care):

Donnie Avery - St. Louis, WR*
Earl Bennett - Chicago, WR*
John David Booty - Minnesota, QB (YES! Booty call!)
Brian Brohm - Green Bay, QB
Andre Caldwell - Cincinnati, WR*
Jamaal Charles - Kansas City, RB*
Glenn Dorsey - Kansas City, DT
Early Doucet III - Arizona, WR
Harry Douglas - Atlanta, WR*
Joe Flacco - Baltimore, QB
Matt Forte - Chicago, RB
James Hardy - Buffalo, WR
Chad Henne - Miami, QB
DeSean Jackson - Philadelphia, WR
Dexter Jackson - Tampa Bay, WR
Chris Johnson - Tennessee, RB*
Felix Jones - Dallas, RB
Dustin Keller - New York Jets, TE*
Malcolm Kelly - Washington, WR*
Jake Long - Miami, T
Mario Manningham - New York Giants, WR
Darren McFadden - Oakland, RB
Rashard Mendenhall - Pittsburgh, RB
Jordy Nelson, Green Bay, WR*
Kevin O'Connell - New England, QB*
Ray Rice - Baltimore, RB
Eddie Royal - Denver, WR*
Matt Ryan - Atlanta, QB
Jerome Simpson - Cincinnati, WR*
Steve Slaton - Houston, RB *
Kevin Smith - Detroit, RB *
Jonathan Stewart - Carolina, RB
Limas Sweed - Pittsburgh, WR
Devin Thomas - Washington, WR

DeSean Jackson will also be doing a signing at the Beverly Hills Card Shop, so I might go check both of these out. Expect my OWN behind the scenes report if I do. You can bet your ass I will be counting jerseys worn.

Seeing More Than Double

I know I have already talked about the destruction of the 1/1's value in the hobby, but there is a whole different kind of monster that needs my attention. In today's industry you cant release a set without some kind of parallels in the product. I guarantee you that any product from 2003 on contains at least one kind of parallel. Of course, one kind of Parallel is not the problem. In fact, I support the parallels for SPA football patch autos because they are 1 of 3 levels. On the other hand, Topps CoSigners, Topps Triple Threads, Topps Moments and Milestones, Upper Deck Premier, DLP National Treasures, etc have upwards of 15 parallels per set. Do we really need 15 fucking parallels of one card? Definitely not.

Lets take a look at the Topps Triple Threads Triple Relic Auto "Rookie Card" for All Day.



For this card you have the base /99, and parallels numbered to 89, 79, 69, 49, 27, 25, 18, 10, 9, 3, 1, and 4-8 plates. This does not include the rest of the set which contains three other Peterson Triple Relic Autos with basically the same numbering. That is fucking overkill. I think if we are going to release cards, lets keep it to 2 or less parallels. It raises value, prevents confusion, and negates this whole "True RC" bullshit that no sensible person should care about.

SPA Football has 2 parallels per RC patch auto and remains the 2nd or 3rd highest valued card for a Rookie. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because in SPA, you have a Rookie that has 399 base card auto patches, 25 gold, and a logo patch auto to 1 that no one will ever pull, and thats all there is. That is why people love this set. At 100 bucks, you get a shot at 30 or so rookie patch autos at one every other box and they arent the most accessible cards. Topps, I am beginning to wonder why I bother with your crap. ESPECIALLY when you keep putting out the abortion that is moments and milestones. I think I would rather amputate my leg with a rusty spoon than be forced to pay the price point for that paralleled to death bullshit.

The ONLY thing in this world that needs parallels is hot women. I would love 99 plus parallels of Meghan Fox. That would be worth my time.

You Tube: Cool National Treasures Video

Two things of interest about this video other than what it shows:

1. Play Where's Waldo on the Quinn 1/1 pulled by Beckett in their break of NT. Its kind of funny in a sad Special Olympics sort of way that it made it into the video.

2. These are the acutal cards depicted in the numbering. So when buying the NT 1/1s or even the other cards pictured here, consult the vid here. If it isnt the card pictured, well, its fake.