Strasburg Still Blowing It Up In Ginter, Just Not As Much

Remember those first Strasburg minis that popped up on eBay? They sold for ridiculous prices just like every other gift from Topps' epic Stras-mas haul. Among reports that the minis were ridiculously short printed and may not even be a part of the main set, prices went wild. Of course, once people started pulling them a little more frequently, prices dropped dramatically, but still remain high for some reason.

They are obviously short printed, but not to the point that would normally lead to prices as astronomical as they are. Strasburg is Strasburg however, and despite performances that really havent really blown people away more or less than Lincecum did in his rookie year, his cards are like napalm in the morning.

Then, when you see the price that the autos are selling for, you begin to question what people actually see in buying cards at these prices. Even if my favorite player had rookie cards that cost this much, ones that weren't more special than any other rookie cards, I would still be saying the same thing about people who think that spending thousands on these autos is a good idea. Its just crazy.

Check out some of these prices:

Strasburg Base Mini - This is one of the originals. Note the price.

Strasburg Base Mini - Here is one that sold recently via auction. Note this price too. Funny what message board comments are capable of at the beginning.

Strasburg Auto Redemption - Really? Seriously? That much? Think of the other STRAS items this person could buy. He doesnt even know what these cards look like yet!

Listen, dont get me wrong, I see why Stras is popular. However, Ginter is a product that is meant for people who dont really spend thousands the way these cards dictate. The popularity of Ginter is widespread but it is usually a result of set collectors trying to build sets rather than high end collectors buying autos. Just an interesting situation that I STILL do not understand.

Steven Strasburg: WTF?!?!? Edition

Am I missing something? No, seriously, am I really seeing what I think I am seeing? A card, available in regular packs at no real lack of distribution, is going for how much? I would understand if it were autographed, or if it were ridiculously SPed, but this is what seems to be a normal mini that you can probably get in retail packs for fuck's sake!

When you see that the autographed version of his 2010 Bowman card can be had for around $650, why in god's name would anyone in their right mind pay THIS much for a normal and not rare card? Most of the Allen & Ginter minis are rar-ER pulls than a base card, and I get that Stras wont have a base card, but this much? Cmon, we have reached a level beyond insanity.

I can only imagine what the first auto is going to go for, even though its a redemption. I would guess the first one will easily top 2K, and settle in around 1,000 for the first month. After that, I would guess that the Bowman auto and the rest of the autos should equal out to be around the same price when all is said and done. Its still beyond stupid though.

I do continue to think people should be committed for buying at these prices, as its obvious that Washington isnt going to be the next Philadelphia in the National League. Not to mention that Tim Lincecum, a 2 time, 2 time, cy young winner has autos that can be had for close to nothing compared to the ridiculous prices that Strasburg is going for.

Its actually rare that I am befuddled by something that happens in this hobby, I mean truly and utterly befuddled. Even though I dont think that anyone should ever pay any attention to anything with a Triple Threads logo on it, I at least get why some people (who must have vision problems, I guess) like to collect the cards. People who pay what they are paying for boxes of Bowman and anything with Stras' picture on the front is literally something I cannot understand.

UPDATE: Ebay has pulled these auctions.

Jason Heyward Superfractor Hits Ebay

2010 Bowman has created a hype machine like no other. Said hype is mostly a result of Stephen Strasburg, as expected, but there are a few other guys contributing to the success. One of those guys is Jason Heyward who is all but assured the rookie of the year as long as his current pace continues. Hell, maybe even if it doesnt.

Well, his best card out of 2010 Bowman is up on eBay as we speak, and it is already garnering large amounts of attention and large bid amounts. Heyward is primed to be the next Andruw Jones (the good Andruw Jones), and this card may come close to that modern card ceiling much like the Strasburg super did. I find this completely ludicrous, especially considering this is his THIRD chrome card, and SECOND autographed card. It would be one thing if this was the first, but it is far from that.

I am not going to restate my beliefs on prospecting when it comes to EXTREME high dollar cards, but I think this is an exception considering how many other versions Heyward has had. I guess I must be in the minority to think that spending this kind of money on a card like this superfractor is one of the dumbest things a collector could do, no matter how rich they are or arent.

EDIT: The OTHER Chrome Superfractor Heyward is also on eBay and it should easily eclipse the current one.

Strasburg Superfractor Listed Without Reserve

A few of you probably remember the hoopla surrounding the Strasburg superfractor that was pulled back around the release of 2010. The person originally listed the card at 20K, only to decline over 30 offers for the card. Now its up without a BIN, without a reserve, and its already at a ridiculous price with more than 9 days to go.

All I have to say is HO-LEE-SHIT.

I once said that the ceiling on raw modern cards is $10,000 but after so many consecutive scoreless innings on his way to a June 4th call up, this may have a chance at shattering that.

More Insanity From 2010 Bowman

I just saw this posted on FCB, and I believe this price on the Dustin Ackley Superfractor auto 1/1 is totally and utterly insane. Even if this guy turns out to be a perennial all star, maybe winning a few MVPs, there is no way this price has anywhere to go but down. Look at what Ryan Braun sold for, and then consider the price on this guy. I mean think of all you could have instead of dropping this kind of coin on a guy who may OR may not pan out. I can understand spending 100 bucks, maybe 200 if you are a huge Mariners fan who wants to get some cards of the highly touted prospect. But that kind of money? Cmon.

Ackley isnt the only one garnering ridiculous prices for his parallels either:

Tyson Gillies

Edinson Rincon

Mitch Moreland

Joseph Cruz

Josh Thole

Kavin Keyes (IN HIGH SCHOOL?)

I mean, I get that they are 1/1s, but you could have an auto of just about anyone for those prices. Wow. Prospecting is one thing, this is completely different.

Talk About A Ridiculous Price For A Ridiculous Pull!

Over the last few years, SP Authentic has offered a cool chase card for the buyers of the product. Basically, for each of the last few sets, there has been one or two redemptions per year that offer a complete set of low numbered rookie patch autos for the lucky person that pulls the card.

This year, the person wisely put it up for auction and let it run. To say that the ending price is a little surprising is like saying the Happening was just "a bad movie."

After getting news of Upper Deck's settlement yesterday, I have been assured that all will remain the same, however, investing thousands in a redemption is still risky regardless. I would maybe have thought twice about this one, just because of the shear price of it.

Oddly enough, many people are speculating that the hand numbered "platinum" rookie patch autos numbered to five, were actually supposed to be this redemption's reward. Im not sure if that is actually the case, but it seems like that would have been the case for previous incarnations of this chase.

Here is the auction, see for yourself. Wow.

These Are Ridiculous Cards

Right now, two cards are up on eBay that will never be produced ever again. In fact, they are custom 1-of-1s produced by Upper Deck for a collector, both of which have sold for over $14K together.

After some detective work by the users over on freedom card board, they have figured out that these cards were likely used as part of a settlement due to the counterfeit Ruth quad cut auto that was featured on HBO, and possibly one other situation. For the Ruth quad, More than one of the card's cut autos were found to be fake, and Upper Deck had to make good for the collector who spent thousands to obtain the card.

The users speculated that Upper Deck either offered or was forced to provide these cards, which are not part of any set, and are not ever going to be available ever again in any product. The Tiger features two player worn swatches and an auto, and the LeBron/Jordan features two of the best autos I have ever seen on one of their cards, as well as a GU swatch from each. They are foil numbered 1/1, and could actually be two of a few others. Im guessing there is at least a Jeter/Griffey card that he may have kept.

Either way, I have an email in to Chris Carlin, maybe more light will be shed on this subject.

SPX 2009: The Shadow Box Cards Explained

After months of trying to get an idea as to what these cards are actually going to be, here is an explanation from Chris Carlin:

The card is five layers so it’s a little thicker. Three of the layers have images, two of the layers are filler to add depth. The images and scans we show don’t speak to the three-dimensional look of the cards so it’s hard to understand fully how unique these cards are unless you have one in front of you.

Im guessing this means that two of the three image layers will have acetate as the stock they are printed on, with a very, very thick result. For the third Image layer, its probably a solid cardstock background slide or another acetate style design background. It should be amazingly cool, especially when they have the signed versions.

They are going to serve as case hits for the upcoming SPX release, and you can bet that they are going to be pretty valuable as well. Hopefully they arent too much to buy, as I know I wont be lucky enough to pull one.

Here is Mario's take on it, he should have a sample to show everyone next week sometime.

Could A Scrub Be The Most Expensive Chrome Auto Of The Year?

Demetrius Byrd played his college ball at LSU, was picked late in the 7th round of the NFL draft, and Topps couldnt even get a uniformed pic of him for the cards they produced. Crazy enough, the odds of pulling his auto out of chrome are MORE THAN the odds of pulling a Superfractor, thus making this cardthe most expensive scrub auto ever made.

Now, this could easily be a mistake, but Byrd's odds are listed at 1:7000 packs for his autograph. To pull a 1/1 superfractor, the odds are one in just under 3700 packs. Im guessing that if the odds are true, Topps must not have gotten many signed stickers back from him, therefore limiting the amount produced and inserted. There were enough to put him on the checklist, but so few that the odds are closer to one every 24 cases. Based on that, you can expect that the amount of Byrd's total signatures are less than any other player ever produced in a Chrome set. Crazy.

Factor in that Topps Chrome is one of the most widely collected sets of the year, and this autograph may be worth more than most of the other players from the past few years. Rarity drives price in these cases, and saying this card is Rare is an understatement.

Beckett Grading Has Issues

Check out this thread on SCF about a member getting their cards jacked from Beckett's grading service. Considering the shear stupidity of grading cards in the first place, I am tempted to give a big I told you so. However, I still feel bad for him...

http://www.sportscardforum.com/showthread.php?t=855165

The Thrill Of The Chase

Over the last year, I have been wanting a certain Joe Mauer card that could not have been tougher to find. Since I had been looking for it, the card had only come up for auction twice. It didnt go for a whole lot of money last time, but this time I knew things had changed. Being in the midst of the best season of his career, Mauer's cards have gone fucking nuts. In the last auction, the card went for about 40 bucks, and I was quite anxious in waiting for this one to end.

The other issue that I have been contemplating is the locations of the auctions. Both times they have been in Taiwan, which prevented me from buying the first time around. In my mind, Taiwan is the land where crazy, crazy shit happens when it comes to cards. The comfort is that this time, the seller has 100% feedback, and I have some money from some stuff I returned at the mall today. Good for me to take a chance on it.

As the auction wound down earlier tonight, my hopes pf landing this whale started to slip away. Fifty dollars, sixty dollars, seventy dollars all came and went in the final hours. Since my budget was a c-note, I started sweating bullets about how much this could end for. When the final seconds ticked away, I entered my bid and won my prize by 1 cent. Yes, it came down to a penny, Im completely serious.

Despite the huge win, the water isnt calm quite yet.

First, I wont feel comfortable with someone shipping from Taiwan until I have the card in my hands. To help qualm any fear I have over the package, I will be videotaping the opening after I saw that one vid of the destroyed empty package on Youtube. I know I am generalizing about a seemingly harmless seller, but I cant be too careful with this much money on the line.

Secondly, the patch is pretty nice, which makes me question whether this card is truly "real." I do have comfort in some of the other cards that I have seen from this product, but these days you never know. Thank you to the douchebag patch fakers for that paranoia. With things the way they are, I could easily get the card and see it split down the side. That would make me more angry than you could imagine, though it is highly unlikely to happen.

Lastly, the sig is seemingly quite faded on this card, meaning it may be hazardous to display in a room that gets a little sunlight. Maybe its just the large scan, but I am very worried that I might be getting a poor example of this card. Worse come to worse, I could always re-sell. Yet, as a player collector with a chance to pick up a REALLY nice piece, I cant help the happiness over my find. I guess this is the plight of someone like me.

Now what am I going to chase?

The Fake Rookie Premiere Autos Are Reaching A Point Of Parody

Now they are just plain stupid. If you fall for this crap, I dont pity you at all. Seriously, you are bidding on this?!? Fucking idiots.

More Images From Black: Looks More Ridiculous Than Before (In A Good Way)

Just saw the powerpoint for 2009 Upper Deck Black Football on the normal site. Wow, these cards look like they are getting better and better. Team color cards are SOOOOOO underrated, glad to see the colors coordinate with the players - especially on that quad. Awesome.

Per the slideshow, Black will now be 2 cards per pack with 2 autos per box instead of the normal 1 card per pack set up from before. Although that other card is just a flag card, a staple of all black sets, it still adds a little more value to the break. The price is still VERY high considering what you are getting, but the design is well worth it. Also, if you consider that you pay 89 bucks a box for Ultimate for one hit, I guess its around the same.

Also, all the cards will be on card, and those lustrous cards are the PETG things. I think this product could be absolutely amazing, even though for me, all Peterson cards will be redemptions until he gets off his ass and signs his shit.

Remember, these are mock ups, so that means the rookies are still in college jerseys and blah blah blah. Its not going to look like that on the final product.

More Unbelievable Adventures In Set Collecting

When Exquisite was first produced in 03-04, people had two reactions. They either shit their pants with excitement, or they shit their pants wondering why something like it was ever considered. Personally, I wasnt really into collecting at that point, but I still heard rumblings, and I was a little of column A and a little of column B. 

The collector who put this set together obviously picked the right set to collect. This set is widely considered to be the most unbelievable and most valuable modern set ever. LeBron, Wade, and Anthony all had cards that are worth a ton, and this guy has them all with ridiculous patches in each one. He wants a lot of money for it, without a doubt, but I cant really blame him. 

I am always impressed with the people who manage these things, and I will never hesitate to post about it. Who knows what this will be worth 20 years down the road when James and Wade are retiring. Then again, its still relatively early in their career, lots can happen.

Most Colors On A Patch Goes To...

So, a few weeks ago, I posted about the idiots who contstantly post about their 6 and 7 color patch cards, which are actually just two to three patches of 2-3 colors each. Well, someone on blowout actually found a card that falls under the true 6-7 color variety. Take a look at these!




Holy... fucking... shit. BALLGAME.

Where Does It End?!?

Well, you know that claim that says 80% of all secondary market memorabilia is fake? I am starting to buy in. I used to think that if an item is up for auction with a place like heritage and other top houses, it should be researched beyond comprehension. Most of the time, the items come with massive provenance, but that doesn’t always mean they are real.

I started looking around gameuseduniverse.com lately because I am always interested in parts of the hobby I know nothing about. What I found there was shocking, disheartening, and very educational to say the least. On multiple occasions, people have posted threads on the site showing how a certain item cannot, under any circumstances, be real - despite any history described in the auction.

Recently, a Mastro Michael Jordan item was proven to be not real, and drew the attention of the national media. What they missed were two items, described in this thread, that should have had the same kind of coverage. There are other items listed, but I took these two as the most important due to the players and the claims of the auction.

The first was supposed to be a game used helmet worn by Joe Namath in SBIII. The auction lists miles of history and even has a quote from the house's president about how this is the one item that should be tops on everyone's list. The problem is, that one of the members on the forum knew more about football helmets than any single other person who worked for the house.

According to photographs from the auction, the Namath helmet was relatively unrestored, but the major "gaff" was that there was only one drill hole below the earpiece. From other photos in the thread, Namath's helmet had two drill holes, done haphazardly to replace the two bar facemask with a three bar. When it was removed, the drill holes remained throughout the season. As you can see from the pictures, the helmets are similar, but not the same. Wow.

Secondly, there was an easier gaff spotted in a Unitas gamer, that brought 50,000+ on three occasions at auction. The issue? The helmet was made by a manufacturer that Unitas never wore in a game. Fucking crazy.

Of course all the claims were immediately refuted by the houses in pretty conspicuous fashions. The person on the forums said that if the claims by the auctions were true, it would be pretty crazy to think that they wouldn’t show up in any of the photos and extra photos provided to him personally.

So, if Heritage, Mastro and all the other houses can make mistakes like this, how many mistakes are there with Upper Deck, DLP, and *gasp* Topps? Im guessing quite a few.

If you havent checked out gameuseduniverse.com, do yourself a favor and check it out. Even if you don’t care about gamers, its still cool to see the collections on the site.

Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous Set Collectors

Holy shit. This is fucking awesome/"redockulis" at the same time. Here is an auction for completed Contenders auto sets from the entire run of the product. Wow.

Yet, for every cool thing you may think, there is a stupid fucking idiot thing too. First off, the sets are all going to encased in beckett holders. WHY WOULD YOU RUIN SUCH BEAUTY!?! Give me a fucking break! I would demand this not happen if I was buying. Secondly, you have to go make an appearance at the hobby's number one authority on douchebaggery to claim your prize? That is beyond fucking dumb. Why does Beckett have to insert their grubby fucking fingers into everything? They are like the paparazzi of this industry. I hope someone throws a drink at their moving car!

Either way, its still pretty cool that the guy has taken the coolness to put these together.

Will it sell? Fuck no - not at that price.

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!

Imagine The Possibilities...

I have always wondered how close we are to a set made up of all 1/1 cards. Nothing else, just one of one everything. I know that Razor is coming out with their extreme high end cut signature set, but I am talking about a sports based set.

I would expect that this new type of set would be around exquisite prices, if not much more than the already high price, and would contain an array of cards. It wouldn’t be all logos and other special cards. Im guessing it will be an Upper Deck product, and it will cause a huge reaction, both good and bad, from collectors everywhere. Each pack, would contain a 1/1 base card, a 1/1 jersey card, a 1/1 Jersey auto card, and one other special card. I would expect it would be at least $800-900 per pack, and it would sell out in a second.

If you think about it, its not that much of a novelty anymore. I mean, each jersey they get has at least 6-15 potential patches that could be used for 1/1 purposes, such as logos, letters, team name neck patches, laundry tags, buttons, etc. Of course there is never a shortage of autos, so im sure that this would be huge. Also, with the 5-16 patches per jersey (on average, ha!) we could expect a print run of 100-200 per player, all with 1/1 serial numbers. Face it, it could be done.

I would also like to see what they could pull out for 8-10 person autograph cards, as the octographs are usually pretty stunning, and I think it was UD portraits that had the decagraphs with 10 players on one 8x10.

Now, I would never buy this in a million years, as it would be pretty obvious that my 900 bucks could be spent elsewhere, but that wouldn’t stop everyone from purchasing. I have seen people bust cases of Exquisite at once, even with the expectation that they will not make their money back. I expect this new product would be no different. However, if Topps were to get ahold of this idea first, you can kiss it goodbye, as it would just be Triple Threads with more 1/1s (as if that was possible). Personally, UD would be the only one I would want to make it, as they are the originators of the ultra high end products, and they do it the best - most of the time.

My guess is that it would be called UD White Label or UD Extravagence, so that it would seem "better" than Exquisite. But honestly, is this type of thing "better" for the hobby? My answer is a muddled gray mess, as it seems like this is the next logical step, but also its fucking crazy-go-nuts. Im hoping that when (not if) this product is created, it will be done with the collectors in mind. It has endless possibilities for cool, never before seen cards, and I think it is a pretty obvious place to screw people over with one color jerseys and awfully paired duals, triples and quads.

Either way, here's to a card that looks like this:

Two Unbelievable Auctions, I Cant Stop Laughing

Well, since every single person and their mother uses Beckett to sell their shit, Im not suprised that they got these two cards. Both cards are amazing, really huge pulls that have the possibility of breaking $15K. However, a few things about these auctions make me laugh really fucking hard.

The first card is one of the Hair Cut cards I discussed a few posts back, with this one being the best of the best. The cut is nice, the hair is creepy, but overall, its not suprising to see it reach the price it did because of the circumstances. The funny thing about this auction is that the card has a 5 cm piece of the hair. At least the Washington card had a good strand, this one, however, is crap - despite it being weirdly included in a baseball card set. Again, a piece of our country's history is destroyed for profit.

The second is a 1/1 Mantle Bat Barrell that was out of Topps Sterling. Besides it being sold by Beckett, this auction screams "I AM THE STUPIDEST PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF CARD COLLECTING!" about its seller. Let me elaborate: first mistake, this fucking idiot sent his prized pull to the hobby's number one source on douchebaggery. Good idea, idiot. Secondly he had them slab it in this fucking "ROZDUCKULOUS" case because its obvious the foldout cards are beyond Beckett's capabilities. Big suprise there. Lastly, Topps couldnt include some game used jersey in this card? Instead they used some stark white old timer game jersey? Cmon, that is fucking stupid. However, the funniest thing about this idiot and his card? He had them grade it.

Let me repeat that so you get the full gist of this.

HE HAD THEM GRADE HIS 1/1 MICKEY MANTLE BAT BARRELL CARD. Please, someone, tell me why he decided to do this? If the slab wasnt funny enough, his card is forever a 7.5 for all to see. Did he think it would be worth more as a 9.5? Who fucking cares! This could be the dumbest thing I have ever seen, no doubt. Just to remind you, if you grade a 1/1, you deserve to be shot.