The First Shoeless Joe Jackson Relic Sells For $500 On eBay

In case you werent excited for Donruss Threads baseball, the first card of Joe Jackson in a long time, and first "legal" card in forever, will be included. This story was broken here.

Anyways, the first Bat relic from Shoeless Joe has been up and sold on eBay for a cent under $500. I think the person could have gotten a little more for it being the first one, and being from a new set, but that is still a pretty high sum.

I am excited for this set, and I am definitely of the ilk that says Joe Jackson should never have been part of that scandal.

Regardless of what you think, check it out here.

Obvious News Of The Day: Threads Baseball Has Sold Out

Donruss hasnt released a product like this in close to 4 years. In this product they have autos and relics of a few players that have never seen a trading card from the big three in MANY years. This product is a Baseball replica of a very popular football product.

Wait, you say this product has sold out?

No fucking shit it has. If you havent jumped on pre-ordered boxes, I would if you can. The price will go up if this product delivers - which it should.

Either way, here is the press release:

Donruss Threads Sold Out
September 28, 2008

Officials at Donruss announced Friday that 2008 Donruss Threads Baseball has completely sold out, and sales representatives began notifying dealers and distributors that demand for the product has been overwhelming and has far exceeded supply.

"We are excited to be producing our first baseball-only product since 2005," Donruss Vice President Mike Anderson said. "However, because of the high demand, the product has oversold and we've been forced to cut orders, ensuring success of this new baseball brand."

Boasting an unprecedented lineup of retired greats and top-shelf prospects, Donruss Threads makes its baseball debut in October. Loaded with autographs and memorabilia cards, some of the same components that made Donruss Threads Football so successful, including signed on-card Rookie Class nameplates, will be introduced to baseball collectors.

Recently announced deals with Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson join a list of retired legends including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken Jr., Nolan Ryan and Ted Williams among many others. Also included in Threads Baseball are the first autograph and memorabilia cards of top prospect Rick Porcello, as well top prospects Ike Davis, Josh Vitters, Xavier Avery, Mat Gamel, Christian Marrero, Elvis Andrus, Jesus Montero, Brandon Waring and more than 110 others.

Five-card packs of Threads will carry a $4 SRP.

An Ode To DLP Baseball

One of the first posts I ever did on here was a plea to bring DLP back into the baseball market with more than just draft pick and college sets. Well, I finally got my wish with threads baseball, and I couldnt be more happy than I am right now. Yet, without an MLB license or any of the big name signees, will it be at all possible for them to make a worthy return to baseball?

For the answer, I have three words for you that say yes: SHOELESS JOE JACKSON.

I also broke the SJJ story a while ago, and I believe that his "relics" are a great addition to this set. Any set with Shoeless Joe is an EPIC win, considering that he barely has any cards. He remains one of the game's greatest players, and we deserve more. Was he guilty enough to suffer this fate? Im not sure, but his stats from the 1919 series speak for themselves.

We also will get a healthy dose of people who have been absent from cards since DLP left, mainly Aaron, Mays, and company. This is beyond a victory for collectors, especially with the crap that Barry "the Steroidisaurus Rex" Bonds brought to the title of HR King.

Lastly we also get Pete Rose, who I agree should be included. However, the guy is the epitome of how not to be a baseball player, so he is not my favorite, and I wont be getting his cards. Others will, so thats good for this set to have him as a part of it.

Basically, when it comes down to it, I miss DLP Baseball A LOT. They were everything they are to football now, and you will see the shear awesomeness when we break Absolute next wednesday. In fact, I have yet to see a VETERAN based product that was done as well as they were done with DLP. They took boring base card focused sets that I couldnt stand, and made them into ridiculously cool products that everyone could appreciate. Since they left, 2nd world baseball has sucked a whole fucking truck of dicks, and I am tired of it. For fuck's sake, not everyone can survive on collecting retro sets filled with players I dont want a base card of.

If there is a future for National Treasures baseball, I will be there busting boxes. If there is a future for the return of a new Timeless Treasures, ill be there too. If we get 2008 Absolute Memorabilia Baseball, there will be a happy dance, follwed by a case break on this site for sure. Thats how much DLP rules.

So listen UD and Topps, you may have some big shoes to fill coming up, I hope. So big that I hope a lot of the first worlders start to recognize that the grass is greener on the other side when its Absolute they are busting.

Shoeless Joe is BACK

Thanks to DLP, Shoeless Joe will again have baseball cards in a mainstream product. As it turns out, DLP has obtained a "game used" bat and will also be including the first relics of Shoeless Joe in some years.

Of course, this cant be THE Black Betsy as Im sure people would riot if it was cut up. I know I would be among those people.

Either way, Donruss Threads Baseball is shaping up to be pretty cool as Hank Aaron and Willie Mays seem to also be included in the product. I may buy a box or two.

Here is the official release:

"Shoeless Joe Jackson, banned from baseball for his alleged role in fixing the 1919 World Series, returns to baseball in 2008 Donruss Threads which will include game-used bat cards of the legendary Black Sox figure.

Donruss Threads, scheduled for a mid-October release, is the company's first full-scale baseball product in three years and combines baseball's rich past with its bright future through the inclusion of all-time greats with top-tier rookies and prospects. The release will be loaded with autographs and memorabilia cards.

Donruss recently purchased an outstanding circa 1916-1920-era game-used Jackson bat and will include pieces in 2008 Threads Baseball. The bat - with provenance - displays significant game use and carries the dark flame-treated finish Jackson preferred on his bats.

"True game-used Joe Jackson items almost never surface on the secondary market - they're kept in private collections or on display in museums," says Donruss spokesman Mike Payne. "But sometimes great pieces do find their way into auction, passed down from generation to generation, as this bat was."

Jackson joins other legendary names such as Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Nolan Ryan, Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Cal Ripken Jr., Bob Feller, Reggie Jackson and Whitey Ford among others, in the product.

Rick Porcello, the first-round pick of the Detroit Tigers I 2007, headlines a deep checklist of prospects, many of whom have never appeared on a certified autograph card before. Porcello's first certified autographs and game-used memorabilia will only be found in Threads.

Some of the other top prospects include Ike Davis, the New York Mets' 2008 first-round pick, Josh Vitters, Xavier Avery, Mat Gamel, Christian Marrero, Elvis Andrus, Jesus Montero, Brandon Waring and more than 110 others.

Five-card packs of Threads will carry a $4 SRP. "

Thank Yous and Pack Breaks

First off, I want to say thank you to Charlie and Stampman who both sent amazing packages for the fun of it. Both packages had awesome cards, Mauers and Petersons included, so thank you very much to both of them!

Secondly, I stopped by the local shop today to bust some Donruss Threads and I came back with cool stuff from 10 packs. Here is what I got:

A nice rookie 1st rounder from USC, Lawrence Jackson /100 RC:

So thats always a good start. Then in the next pack I pulled the first hit from the box, a Fred Taylor 1 color patch card /50. This is definitely a patch, even though it is one color. The card is a fucking brick.

Lastly was a biggie, especially because I have never pulled diddly shit out of this product. I pulled it and immediately wondered if I had pulled something really worth my time as it was /15. I flipped it over, but I was kind of bummed that it wasnt one of the bigger guys from 08. Still, he is one of the better defensive players in the draft and should make an impact right away.

So, a pretty good day.

Product Review: 2008 Donruss Threads Football

Unlike Triple Threads, Donruss threads is a pretty cool product. It is released today, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. Unlike Classics, where the base RC autos look the nicest, this product is a little different. Anyways, ill get to my normal format so that you guys can get a good look at stuff from this beast.

The Good

As with last year, the RC auto letters look really good. They are white bordered and show some good pictures of the players along with the letters. The bad thing is that the letters are not team colored, but at least they arent gold and red like the ones from SP RC Threads. Of all the letters out there, and with the awful Topps set coming out, these are pretty much right under limited and national treasures (both are player worn not manufactured) as the best looking on the market. They hold value too, so expect to pay top dollar now and later for them.

Another aspect of threads is the 4 hits per box, which other products don’t really have yet. That’s not the good part…

…The good part is that most of the jersey inserts and auto inserts look really aesthetically pleasing. The base RCs which contain jersey pieces are really nice, but are event used, obviously, so I don’t buy them. They also have a lot of dual and dual plus jersey cards with combos from old timey guys and new guys. Most of the time, the combos are pretty good.

The Bad

As with most product this year, this one is CHAULK full of no-name rookies who will never see playing time. It absolutely SUCKS when you pull an auto of these guys, hopefully you can get some good players in your box, because otherwise you pretty much wasted 120 bucks. I would like to see these guys as a secondary box hit in the future as some of them go on to be stars (Tom Brady, Hines Ward), but honestly, right now that is crap.

Another bad aspect of Threads is that the rookie letters are so rare. The top ones are numbered to 100, unlike last years 125, so its going to be tough to get a good pull here. This set would be a lot better if these were one every other box instead of 2-3 per case. On top of all that, there were a fuckload of ass-rookies at the premiere, so when you pull one, you may still get crap.

The Ugly

There really isnt that much bad stuff about this set, for once. I would say the worst thing is the design of the base cards. Man they are ugly and a half. Luckily most of the rest of the set is pretty good looking. Also the price point on this is fucking awful. Lets bring things down to around $80 a box please.