Taking Another Look At Hoarding Versus Collecting

A few months ago, I commented on the ways that card collectors resemble hoarders in some respect, mainly focusing on a lot of people who's goal is quantity over quality. The "I have to get every type of X" mentality has left many people with a garage filled to the brim, a room filled with cardboard boxes, or even a basement that is more card storage than anything. Because collecting cards usually extends to other parts of collecting sports memorabilia in general, it can get pretty crazy for a lot of people in our beloved hobby.

Recently, I went through the tedious task of cleaning out my collection, because for someone like me, having a card that you cant display is not worth the time. I have sold parts of my Joe Mauer Collection, my Adrian Peterson collection and my Vikings/Twins collection with reckless abandon, just to make room for things that have more immediate importance to my life. I even listed a huge lot of junk that I have pulled from boxes over the last few years. Really, cards sitting in box, most that will never see the light of day don’t serve a purpose right now, especially when our apartment is soon to be filled with toys and orther Noah related items.

Funny enough, while cleaning everything out and posting on eBay, I watched an episode of American Pickers after an episode of Pawn Stars had ended, and I had some interesting feelings about what was going on in the show. For American Pickers, two gentlemen scour the south for backwoods farms filled with old junk that they can sell at elevated premiums for people who want to decorate their homes, stores, or whatever. Its really a novel concept, especially when you see the stuff they buy and how much they pay. To them, hoarders/collectors are the meat of their business, and it drew some very interesting parallels to our hobby. First, I established from this show that if you are organized and knowledgable, you are a collector, but if you are in a state of disarray, you are pretty much a hoarder. But in all reality, is there much of a difference? We are called collectors because we keep everything organized (mostly) in small boxes arranged by a metric that we deem worthy? I think its borderline at best, and I am wondering how many collectors out there really collect just for the fun of it, rather than just acquiring as much as possible to fill some hole that collectors usually have. Even if it isnt conscious, I have a feeling there is something to that theory. Secondly, if you have a bunch of nice stuff, you are definitely a collector, whereas a hoarder has loads and loads of worthless junk. Sound familiar? Lastly, if you have the space to display, and do display your collection you are a collector, where hoarders just pile everything in any open space, or keep excess amounts of stuff regardless of space issues. Again, sounds a lot like people I know.

Trust me, I am not free from judgment myself, as I have to consciously avoid gathering too much. Unlike the past, when I buy packs now, I don’t keep the junk that’s not a hit anymore, mainly because the shop owners almost always give the cards to people at the store. I mean, what is the point of keeping all of those? They take up space, they arent/will not be worth anything in the future, and like many of us, I already have space issues trying to fit the stuff into a space in my house. I have strictly become a quality over quantity guy, even more classified as an autograph collector rather than a card collector. I think that type of switch in my habits have led to a lot of changes to the collection that I have. If its just going to sit in a box, its not worth keeping anymore. As a result, I have a shelf that is filled with cool items and half a box filled with autographs of my favorite players only.

I want to explain now that I don’t really get what drives someone to collect in excess. When I did it, I just did it without regard for much of anything. I just knew that if it fit my wants, I had to have it without a rational thought telling me not to do it. Eventually, I boiled it down to a combination of unconscious personal vanity, or wanting to have the best "X" collection in the world, and a need to fill free time. Now that I have something to fill my free time and then some, and my personal vanity of needing that best collection has subsided. Honestly, when I started this blog, a lot of my card hoarding habits stopped. Instead of plundering eBay for deals and venturing to shows and shops for forgotten treasures, I spent time writing and making this blog better. Now, a combination of this blog and my son have forced me to re-evaluate a second time, this time with me trimming more fat from my collection than ever before. I hadnt sold a Mauer card in three years, and it was tough to see some of the rarer ones go. But now that I have a lot of extra space and some extra coin in my pocket, I feel better about my station in this hobby.

For you super-collectors out there, I would frequently evaluate why you do what you do. Is it really worth your time to acquire what you acquire even though you know that most of what you buy is not something that needs to be bought? Instead of buying that extra hobby box or making that trip to target, maybe its time to start organizing and stop hoarding. Its definitely worth the time to think about it, and who knows, you may come to the realization that quality may be much more important to the well-being of your life than quantity.

2009 Topps Football Is Live

2009 Topps has hit the bay, and I think this could be a really good year for them. First off, I know that they ditched the flag backgrounds for the RPAs, as long as the photos I saw were used, and secondly, they switched away from those awful looking Career Best auto designs from last year.

I liked this year's base auto design in baseball, and it also looks good in football, though Im not sure why they have career best cards for the rookies who have never played a down. I think we need to change the name there.

EDIT: The first RPA is up, and I am digging the way the borders look, though the player looks a little to stark against that background. Im not a helmet off picture supporter, but this design looks good. See? Topps low end is where its at.

EDIT 2: The duals look great. Kudos to Topps on those.

Edit 3: I have seen variations on some of the rookie cards popping up on the bay, makes me wonder how these will factor into the sets. Ive also noticed that Topps wasnt shy about including some of the premiere tents in the photos, which is a letdown, but I can deal with it. Maybe they will edit the photos when chrome comes around.

Please Leave The Mayo To Hellman's

Most of you know that I am not a fan of retro sets. Personally, I think it’s a sign of laziness and lack of creativity to just redo an old set for today's market. Of course, for people unlike me, Retro sets are a must buy, mostly because they are designed to play to a collector's set building side as well as their nostalgic sentiments about a product from their childhood or earlier.

So far, Magic and Philadelphia were the only slated retro sets of the year, and that was more than enough for me, but not for everyone else. Obviously, Topps finally realized that they were going to have a tough sell for everything not named Chrome or something similar, so they put Mayo football back on the calendar for 2009. After last year, many people lost faith in the product after checklist and collation snafus, so this year they basically decided to remake Allen and Ginter baseball into a football product and call it a day. They have now announced Rip Cards, minis, tons of parallels, framed autos, and box loaders, all of which make this a set that they knew could sell very well, instead of actually making a worthwhile product based on an original idea. Mayo's current release information is frustrating and boring to me, as I would much rather have something completely different from what is out there already. Why not just insert mayo cards into an existing set? That would be much better.

Im sure that Mayo football wont be awful, retro products never are (except for Magic), but it stinks of stale formats, and makes me want to scream. Im sure that once collectors get bored with buying modernized versions of older cards, there wont be many more retro products that are made. Don’t get me wrong, collectors WILL get bored, as we all know that card companies never get the "too much of a good thing" idea down. When the calendar is stuffed to the seems with old products that have been updated, people will want the creativity back. Until then, I guess Ill have to suffer through all the ones on the calendar this year. Although Im guessing that UD Philadelphia will be the best of the bunch this year due to the inscriptions, on card autos, and use of the most popular retro designs on the market, Im not going to buy any of it. Same with Magic, same with Mayo, same with all the retro sets they make.

I want more sets with simple designs like SP Authentic and Topps Chrome, products that focus on the layout and design of a card as the selling point rather than a gimmick or a stale idea like the retro sets. Both Chrome and SPA have been around for years, but neither seem outdated to me. Its because the cards are focused on as the way to show off the brands, resulting in awesome cards that collectors love.

H/T Matt for the Mayo Pic.

Early Look: 2009 Bowman Draft Picks Football

As I said in the post below, I got my hands on about 10 packs of Bowman Draft Picks football, and I must say that I actually like what I saw.

The base cards and inserts look pretty nice, parallels too. However, there are no chrome base cards in any of the packs, sadly, and the auto manupatches seem like they wont be as big of a draw as Beckett wants you to believe. At one per box with a redonkulously long checklist, you can bet a Sanchez pull is very tough, let alone /25. The group A auto rate 1:900+ packs, and the patches are more.

Basically, this is Topps draft picks with a Bowman name, and should be looked at as such. I do support the name change, but chrome would have been nice on some of these. Also, with Prestige out with NFL team names on the cards, these should have them too.

Here are some pictures of the cards, and the orange parallels I pulled of Stafford and Freeman.

First Look: 2009 Topps Football

At this point, I think base Topps is completely worthless in this hobby, mainly with Chrome now at a ridiculously low price tag, and the fact that low end football doesnt have the same following as low end baseball. Add in that Chrome usually comes out a week or two later, and there is no reason to even think this will be a good buy.

With that, Topps has decided to make it a little bit more interesting by adding, you guessed it, manufactured letter autos of the RCs. Lets hope they dont end up like the disasters that were Topps Lettermen Letters. They also added dual autos and some extra gimmicks. Wow, didnt see that coming.

Ill wait for Chrome, but regardless, the design isnt great in my opinion, baseball OR football.

h/t Freedom Card Board

First Look: 2009 Upper Deck Philadelphia Football

(click to enlarge)

We got a new preview today, and to me its just Goudey in football terms. To everyone else who loves retro sets, this is guiding light from above. Not only do you get the Philadelphia football set with current players and other stuff, but you also get the 1935 National Chicle mini set that is one of the most recognizable sets ever produced.

Im glad this is coming out, not because I will buy any, but because Mayo was a complete disappointment in every way. I hate retro sets, but a lot of collectors out there have made them the most bankable venture in the industry. If UD can have success with this, I assume that more collectors will come to football and bring their money with them. If MLB goes Topps, this may be their only outlet for UD retro.

Regardless of my feelings on Retro sets in general, I think it looks pretty nice. There was so much more in the preview that I didnt have time to crop, please go view the slideshow at the normal place. I think UD may have found the next big thing.

A Comment On First World Versus Second World

I will say that over the last few days and weeks, there has really been some nasty sentiment towards my fellow 2nd worlders and anyone who doesnt subscribe to a quantity over quality way of thinking. It seems that people have the idea that if you are not set collecting, or collecting the way they do, you arent as real of a collector as they are. I consider the people writing these posts to be my friends, and I know they were not trying to take stabs at any particular person. The problem is, it’s the sentiment that I really dislike, and I really want to take some time and address it for the 8th time on here. Again, I am not calling anyone out specifically, and mostly I am just referencing the posts for the discussion.

Before I go into this, I want people to understand that not every apple is a good apple. Anywhere there is money to be made, there will be people who take advantage of the situation. Those people suck, and I am not in any way condoning what they do. However, that A) doesn’t mean they arent out there, and B) doesn’t mean that some of them don’t really understand that what they are doing sucks.

Now, back when I first mentioned that most collectors were set up into first world and second world (first being the set collecting, retail and low end buying, mostly baseball collectors, and second being the high end buying, high end busting, jersey and auto lovers, mostly from Football and Baksetball), I said that each had their own merits. That is exactly the truth. I dont try to insuate that people arent at my level of collecting because they are first worlders. Yet, post after post from first world bloggers over the last year took that buffer I try to exude and disregarded it. That is crap. There is no hierarchy of collectors, you are not more of a collector because you go after sets rather than autos and jerseys.

Guys, believe it or not, the second world is the place where the hobby is headed or already is. Modern set collectors, though prevalent on the blogs, are not the majority of the people I see at shows, they are not the people I see on the boards, and they are definitely not the people I see at the five or so shops I visit in my area each month. As I have said before, there is nothing wrong with being a first world set collector until you start thinking that you are the right way to do things and all who do it differently are wrong or lesser of a collector.

To have the idea that its wrong to embrace the new world of collecting is really too bad. Yes, it isnt 1994 anymore, and yes things have changed, but that doesnt mean things arent just as good as they once were. Also, to say that collecting revenue is directly related to the invent of high end and super high end is a farce. As I said before, there are a lot of things that contribute to the way of the world, and the rising cost of boxes is not necessarily the only reason things are taking a turn for the worse.

I will be the first one to say that my viewpoints are not widely accepted, and I will not hesitate to agree with people who think that I talk way more game than I have. So dont think I am speaking for anyone but me. I just dont like the way people are looking at things, and I think that this blog is a perfect soapbox for that. Thats all I was hoping to accomplish.

Reviewing the Mass Buy Sites

For those of you new collectors and first worlders out there, I wanted to quickly go over a few things that may be of interest for you. If you were like me coming back into collecting, you wanted a bunch of cards of your favorite player/team, and you wanted them fast and cheap. You were really unsure of value and you were probably wondering where to buy them. Well, besides eBay, there are actually a few sites worth checking out.

Naxcom/Sportsbuy

If your favorite player is not a top tier guy and you just want a bunch of cards to start your collection, you may want to check this place out. It is probably the biggest of all the sites, but it is also the most expensive. This is because all the listings are either from people who just want to list their cards on the off chance that people will buy them, or they are sync listings from inflated ebay stores. The problem with this is that most of the cards are priced at or above the already ridiculous/arbitrary book value if you want high-end stuff. Due to this fact, it makes little sense to buy that kind of stuff from them. It does make sense to buy a few base cards or crap cards of your guy because the shipping is standardized (I think) and the sellers who have them also have searchable inventories. Ebay should be your first stop, this may be your last due to price.

However, the process is great, and they have buyer protection if you are unsatisfied. I have ordered before with no problem on two occasions and both times I have been happy. The problem is that the scan on the site is not the scan of the card you are getting, and sometimes it comes in a PWE if the card is cheap. I would say for crap cards you can be rest assured you will get what you expect.

Inventory: **** out of five
Price: * 1/2
Scam Prevention: ***
Best Feature(s): Buyer Protection, Huge Inventory
Worst Feature(s): Cards are listed if buy offers are listed, search not based on available cards.

Sport Lots

Sportlots.com is cool because they have tons of shit for every player you can think of. Plus its much easier to buy in bulk, which is great for baseball prospectors. Also, for each player and brand, the cards are listed by set and by availability, so it is ridiculously easy to find the set you are looking for. If you are looking to complete a set, GO HERE. Prices are okay on base, high end can still border on naxcom prices. They take paypal, but the site just looks like it is prone to a lot of problems with satisfaction.

Shipping prices are standardized on the site, so that can save you from the uncertainty of eBay shipping. The problem is that there are a complete lack of scans completely on the search functions of the site. If you dont know what the card looks like - forget it - no help here. They do offer some protection from their "star sellers" but if you buy from Joe Collector Schmoe, you are out of luck unless you used paypal.

Personally, I have never bought from Sportlots because I dont collect base sets or base cards. I have been tempted on a few occasions, but eBay always drew me back. If there is someone out there who can elaborate on this site, I will add your comments here.

Inventory: ****
Price: ***
Scam Prevention **
Best Feature(s): Organization, Searching
Worst Feature(s): Lack of scans, buyer protection, overall site design

CheckOutMyCards

The name of the site bugs me, but there are a few other things that I like. The site design is nice, and the process is pretty streamlined. The problem is that EVERY GODDAMN THING on this site goes by book value. They have calculated all pricing based on it, and even give the idiots a percentage they are saving in regards to BV. That sucks a barrel of donkey balls.

This site is also pretty new, so the inventory is good not great. I would say this is a more baseball focused site as well, although they are trying to beef it up for the other sports. The other thing is that most of the sellers wont have much experience either, so I would maybe check out Sport Lots first. This could become a nice site eventually, but right now its still a beta version.

Shipping on the site is standardized again, and that is always a nice feature. They also promote the fact that all cards are scanned, so you should have a picture of the card you are ACTUALLY getting. They are also looking at adding a standardized trading site, so that might be cool too. Lastly, they have a return policy, so I would say that if you get scammed, it should be easy to return. Also, CheckOutMyCards keeps all the cards that are for sale, so you buy directly from them. I guess if the cards sucked, they wouldnt list them. The problem with that is that you are at their mercy if you are the seller and you think the condition is better than what they say.

Inventory: ** 1/2
Price: ** - for the way it is displayed
Scam Prevention: ****
Best Feature(s): Cards are expected to sell, this is not a display site. Very nice set up too.
Worst Feature(s): Site inventory isnt as expansive.

The Pit

When this was invented, I thought it was really cool. Then I saw what actually happens on the site. Basically, you buy cards like you buy an IPO and they keep it in their "warehouse" for you. That way you can buy and sell like stock trades, and the prices reflect those sales. They solely deal in graded and uncirculated cards, so dont go looking for base crap here. The Pit does have the option to receive the cards you bought, but they dont reccommend that.

Personally this type of site is not for collectors, but rather for people looking to play a game with real money. The inventory and site interest has dropped dramatically since the beginning, but when it was bought by naxcom, it picked up a little.

Really, go somewhere else.

Inventory: 1/2
Price: *
Best Feature(s): All cards are graded or uncirculated so there is no possibility of condition problems or fakes
Worst Feature(s): Its more of a game than a real collecting site

I know that eBay will always be the best and the cheapest, but not every card is on eBay at all times. Plus, for newbies and first worlders, they may want the base cards that ebay neglects. I figured that because the newbie collector journal is a living document, this should be added for the sake of all involved. Im glad the newbie collector world is safe for another day. Click the tag below to see the rest.

First Razor Draft Picks Set Checklist Announced

Thanks to Blowout for this info.

This was sent from the Prez of Razor:

BASE AUTOGRAPHS (CARDS #101-200)...
BASE AUTOS ARE NUMBERED TO VARIOUS QTYS.
THERE 3 PARALLELS # TO 199, 25 AND 5.
Tim Beckham 101*
Pedro Alvarez 102*
Eric Hosmer 103*
Brian Matusz 104*
Buster Posey 105
Kyle Skipworth 106*
Yonder Alonso 107*
Gordon Beckham 108
Aaron Crow 109*
Jason Castro 110*
Justin Smoak 111*
Jemile Weeks 112*
Brett Wallace 113*
Aaron Hicks 114*
Ethan Martin 115*
Brett Lawrie 116*
David Cooper 117*
Ike Davis 118
Andrew Cashner 119
Joshua Fields 120
Ryan Perry 121
Reese Havens 122*
Allan Dykstra 123
Anthony Hewitt 124
Christian Friedrich 125
Daniel Schlereth 126
Carlos Gutierrez 127
Lonnie Chisenhall 128
Casey Kelly 129*
David Adams 130*
Jeremy Bleich 131*
Brett DeVall 132*
Cutter Dykstra 133*
Stephen Fife 134*
Ryan Flaherty 135*
Derrik Gibson 136*
Pete Hissey 137*
Destin Hood 138*
Garrison Lassiter 139*
Che-Hsuan Lin 140*
Kyle Lobstein 141*
Jordan Lyles 142*
Brett Marshall 143*
Tim Melville 144*
Wade Miley 145*
(William) D.J. mitchell 146*
Robbie Ross 147*
Tanner Scheppers 148*
Ross Seaton 149*
Chris Smith 150*
Ryan Westmoreland 151*
Robbie Weinhardt 152*
Casper Wells 153
*** TBD/SURPRISE *** 154*
Michael Antonini 155
Jay Austin 156
Jeremy Beckham 157
Eric Berger 158
Charlie Blackmon 159
Bobby Bundy 160
Sawyer Carroll 161
Welington Castillo 162
Ryan Chaffee 163
Tyler Chatwood 164
Dusty Coleman 165
Brandon Crawford 166
Jordan Danks 167
James Darnell 168
Danny Espinosa 169
Jeremy Farrell 170
Tim Federowicz 171
Tim Fedroff 172
Logan Forsythe 173
Rolando Gomez 174
Anthony Gose 175
Robbie Grossman 176
Trey Haley 177
Brad Holt 178
Brett Hunter 179
Jake Jefferies 180
Lance Lynn 181
Jordy Mercer 182
(Robert) Quinton Miller 183
Mike Montgomery 184
Tim Murphy 185
Petey Paramore 186
Cord Phelps 187
Bryan Price 188
Kevin Pucetas 189
Zach Putnam 190
Dennis Raben 191
J.P. Ramirez 192
Tyson Ross 193
Cody Satterwhite 194
Logan Schafer 195
Zeke Spruill 196
Michael Stanton 197
T.J. Steele 198
Niko Vasquez 199
Beamer Weems 200

*= EXCLUSIVE TO RAZOR!!!!

YOU WILL NOTE THAT WE HAVE 15 OF THE TOP 17 PLAYERS EXCLUSIVE! (OUR COMPETITORS ONLY HAVE 2!)

WE ALSO HAVE EVERY PLAYER IN THE FIRST ROUND THAT SIGNED (29 TOTAL)! (OUR COMPETITORS HAVE ONLY 12!)

****
INSERT AUTOGRAPHS WILL FALL RANDOMLY.

BASE SINGLE PLAYER AUTOGRAPH INSERTS ARE NOT NUMBERED, HOWEVER THERE ARE PARALLELS # TO 25 AND 5. THESE FEATURE THE 40+ RAZOR EXCLUSIVES........

DUAL SIGNED CARDS ARE RELATIVELY LIMITED (PRINT RUN UNANNOUNCED).
THEERE ARE PARALLELS # TO 25 AND 5... BELOW IS THAT CHECKLIST:
(1) Tim Beckham Pedro Alvarez
(2) TBD!!!! Kyle Skipworth
(3) Eric Hosmer Ethan Martin
(4)Brian Matusz Casey Kelly
(5) Yonder Alonso Jemile Weeks
(6) Tim Beckham Jeremy Beckham
(7) David Cooper Brett Wallace
(8) Justin Smoak Robbie Ross
(9) Brett Lawrie Cutter Dykstra
(10) Destin Hood Aaron Crow
(11) Stephen Fife Casey Kelly
(12) Jason Castro Jordan Lyles
(13) D.J. Mitchell Brett Marshall

*******

OTHER NOTES:
WE ARE PRODUCING 15-20% OF QUANTITY OF BOWMAN DRAFT (ESTIMATE).....

FULL PAGE PRINT ADS WILL APPEAR IN BECKETT MONTHLY AND MULTISPORT MAGAZINES IN NOVEMBER.........

WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY NEGOTITATED WITH THE PIT.COM FOR THE RELEASE OF UNIQUE AND EXCLUSIVE UNCIRCULATED CARDS THROUGH THEIR SITE IN LIMITED QUANTITIES (WITH A SURPRISE AS YOUVE COME TO EXPECT FROM US).

PRODUCT IS ALMOST SOLD OUT AND A SELL OUT SHOULD BE ANNOUNCED IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS .

ON AVERAGE, A BOX (10 AUTOS INSIDE) SHOULD YIELD 2-4 AUTOGRAPHS PER BOX THAT FEATURE A FIRST ROUND PICK ON EITHER A BASE, INSERT OR DUAL AUTO CARD!!!... THAT IS 20-40 PER CASE (OF THE 100)!!!!!! HOW OFTEN DO FIRST ROUNDERS COME OUT OF OUR COMPETITORS PRODUCTS???

Looking At Where We Are Headed

There are quite a few instances over the last few months where I have read about the trends of the hobby heading this way, or the trends of the hobby heading that way, but no one seems to really understand the true trends. The first worlders claim that the hobby is spiraling to a point where high end products will take over the low end, and their world will cease to exist. Second worlders are claiming that the hobby is losing value and that the higher end products they love to break are not as worth their time. Really, these "claims" are only just sounding the warning bell with nothing more than a thought. I dont think that either of these things are really true, but I hear them echoed more than any other idea or trend. Im curious as to why.

First off, to address the claims that high end is shortly becoming the only end, I want to say that is crap. The amount of high end products that come out every year really doesn’t change. UD and DLP never really just delete a low end product and replace it with a high end one. However, because high end is a much more volatile market, the products change more often. So, when Upper Deck deletes a high end product and replaces it with another high end product, it creates more names on the market, but the number of sets each year really doesn’t change. Plus, with three competing brands in football, that can seem like the price of boxes is drastically climbing, when in reality, its just every company coming out with their own version of high end. I mean, lets face it people, high end is in trouble in today's economy. Retailers are becoming more wary of higher end products because they know its only a sale until the next product comes out, and after that, they may have to dump it at a loss. Its easier to take a loss on a sixty dollar box rather than a 300 dollar box. Its why the middle products like Topps chrome and Icons are always so popular - its easier to afford the loss.

Really the trends are heading towards a bigger gap between the high end and the low end, but not in terms of the number for each. Personally I think that the middle products will start to envelop the low products, and the retail will become all that is left of low end. From there, you will have the majority of the boxes at or around 75 dollars, with the gap being pretty wide then to the few 300 dollar products and above. If you look at it, this has already started to happen. In an effort to bring more content to a person paying for that 75 dollar box, they have put out the retail low end with nothing in it to help offset the massive and growing costs of autos and memorabilia. Even the once expensive Chrome products have come towards the middle of 75 dollars to help them to sell more. Exquisite will continue to be high, but the other products will hover around that 75 dollar mark. The gap will grow.

Secondly, its pretty obvious that cards are not going to be worth as much as they used to be. As long as people have less disposable income, they wont have as much money to spend. Thankfully, content is being added to products to help offset those bigger price tags on the boxes, so to you second worlders, the value is being replaced with both quantity and in some cases quality. If you buy an expensive product, chances are that there will be a guarantee of something good in the near future. Upper Deck is already seeding top tier autos at one per case, and top RC autos at more than that, so that’s a start. I would expect that to come from others in order to compete. So, it will become easier to pull something great when you decide to drop top coin on these things. I also think that the quality of the card designs has increased ten fold over the last 5 years, and really there are only a handful of repeat ugly offenders, and they are usually all from the same company.

Funny enough, I think this epitome of non-essential goods is a depression proof business, so if anything cards will only become more of a way to get away from that awful feeling that things arent going well in this country. Do I think you should go spend 5 grand on a dual logo? Fuck no. But I do think you should ride out any fears that the economy will prevent you from having an awesome collection that is worth a lot of money.

LCM 08 Is Live, But I Am Sad

After looking at the two pictures above, are you not as sad as I am? The LCM mirror blues from last year were great looking. I still miss my Peterson. The windows had that tapered look and they looked like they were just right in the way they fit the card. This year's are a oil drum full of suck with the 3 square windows of floating event used crap. Besides the ridiculous auto from lazy brat Chris Johson, the cards are a complete downgrade. I had serious high hopes for this set and now I feel like Donruss has severely let me down. Limited is coming out soon too, and I cant help but wonder if we are in for a raping because of a switch back to packs. Base cards suck in non-lowend products. Lets leave them to the First Worlders and their lower end products.

Chris Johnson, I hope you are run over by a stampede of Buffalo. Your auto is horrible. Epic Fail.

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.

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!

The Best Of Both Worlds

Today, it seems like there are two worlds in the collecting hobby. The first world is people who are trying to reclaim the days they spent collecting base sets of the four products that were released every year. They buy retail, they buy the base cards themselves, they do base card trades, and they are the ones that voted the first option on the poll I am running right now. I have no problem at all with these people, I just have a hard time understanding them. The second world are the people like me that practically throw away every base card we pull. We want more tinned products that don’t have 24 packs per box, and contain more hits. We also only buy cards that are special (auto, jersey, low numbered), and we usually focus on a team or a player. If we collect a set, it is an auto set or a jersey set.

Speaking from my end, I don’t really understand why the other world still functions with as many people as it does. In fact, it seems like a lot of the online bloggers identify with that part of the hobby, living through sets like A&G and other retro themed sets like Heritage and Goudey rather than buying perennial favorites of my world like SP authentic, Sweet Spot, Leaf Limited and other higher end sets. Funny enough, I have even seen some people post breaks of retail blasters of this stuff, and that I cant understand one bit. I wouldn’t touch a retail anything with someone else's ten foot pole, mainly because if I am going to spend 20 bucks on some packs, I want a good chance at something nice. That is pretty much impossible with retail, unless you enjoy the 2 dollar jersey cards.

Personally, I would say that money has something to do with what world you belong to, but I have to say that is almost never the case. I spend VERY little money on cards relative to my income, but I have amassed a pretty good collection of VERY high end cards. I also know that a lot of the collectors I know who belong to the first world spend almost as much on their favorite products as I do on mine, but they come out with base sets, where I come out with autographs and jersey cards. Now, 10-15 years ago, my world was miniscule, because there was only 4-6 products per year, thus making base sets more desirable. Now, with 50-100 products per year, base sets arent worth squat unless they contain some super SP'ed cards, and that is pretty understandable. Yet, this doesn’t stop first world collectors from spending money on building a set worth half of what they paid. Its almost a quality versus quantity debate. To me, it comes down to spending $100 dollars on a 300-600 card set that will sit in a box in my closet, versus spending $100 on one single auto card that I can display on my shelf. I would take number two any day. I would even take spending $100 on a card versus spending $20 on a complete base set. Its all about quality for me, and in my opinion, there is no quality in a base set focused product.

My second world identification also prevents the tag of "person with 100,000 cards" from being applied to me. That’s okay, I don’t need to brag about my numbers in quantity. I am more than satisfied in bragging about my 100+ card collection that is on display at my apartment in my mother's basement. I think a lot of the people who are similar to me are okay with this lack of breadth in their PC boxes. As expected, when I buy wax, I will only buy products that can produce a card like the ones I have on display at a high clip. Usually I have to spend 80-120 dollars on a box, rather than 50-60, and I am perfectly fine with this. However, the people from the first world are not like me. They buy retail, as said before, where the odds of pulling something good are lottery sized. Why they don’t buy the hobby version at the same price is beyond me. That way you still get the base cards, but you don’t have to be 1 in 100,000 to pull an auto. It can still be worth while that way.

With that, I guess you could count this blog as one of the few second world blogs out there. Like I said, there is nothing wrong with the first world, its just tough for me to understand the other side (im positive the feeling is mutual). Im pretty sure that I am generalizing way too much, but I am confident the readers out there can easily understand the two types of collectors I am documenting.

NOTE: Its interesting that both worlds are seemingly progressing at a very large rate. MLB Documentary is obviously a first world set, while Ballpark Collection is definitely second. Topps and DLP all have similar dichotomies in their upcoming product releases, so it looks as though all things are going to be fine for both types of collectors.