Certifiably Insane!

Another eBay wow. This set is amazing, considering the names it contains. I think 23,000 is a little steep (A Mazda 3 costs half of this), but considering how much this guy probably spent to obtain each one of the big cards makes me understand his price. I must say, the Cris Carter patch/auto is the new target for my next purchase. Jesus those are nice cards. Pic below in case the auction goes away.

eBay Auction

Convict of Interest

I was just looking over some things on eBay and I saw that Beckett has their own eBay store on the site. On the site they sell a lot of things, including graded cards. Because BGS is such a trusted source for grading, I dont think anyone would really question the cards that are up for sale - unless you consider who is the seller.

BGS 9.5s and 10s carry such a premium that it would be quite easy just to throw up a few cards with 9.5s and not worry about the actual grades the card deserves. Sure makes Beckett and the card owner some more money, plus no one will ever question it after it leaves the auction block. A few months ago I would have thought that integrity of BGS would prevent this from happening - but Beckett's integrity has been greatly questioned as of late.

Hmm, more on this later...

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.

I Challenge You to a Dual!

I was going through some stuff back at home a few weekends ago and I came across some of my brother's stuff in our basement. He's at college right now and most of his room is still in tact, however his collection is mostly in boxes. I saw some nice stuff, a Ken Griffey Jr ball, Hrbek ball, and what I thought was a single signed Kirby Puckett ball. Then I flipped it over and saw the mark of shame in black sharpie - Shane Mack had scribbled his name too. I must have yelled pretty loudly because my mom asked what was going on. When I told her, she responded with, "Well you guys were only 10, how would you know?"

She was right, for the most part, but there are numerous cards that befall the same fate in the collecting world - most designed by people that are not 10 years old. Dual, triple, quad, and even octographs have become commonplace now, due to a number of different advances in technology. Trust me, I want to pull the octograph with Bron, Jordan, Bird, Magic, Melo, Russell, Erving, and Kobe. THAT would be amazing. However, the octo with a few great HOF knicks and Renaldo Balkman, is not something I want.

Believe it or not, I can pull card after card that are created with a top auto on one side, and a scrub on the other. This is why I think duals suck. For every great one you can get, there are three that make me cringe. I know that card companies have to fill out sets, and therefore scrubs and bad cards are inevitable, but we should keep them to a single signed card and not ruin someone's big pull with Crap(honso) Thorpe.

Jordan and Lebron? Sure - toss them together. Makes the card more valuable to have the two biggest autos on a card. Lebron and Zdrunas Ilgauskas? Hold up. You are telling me that my first big auto pull in history will be tainted by this worthless second auto? Happens all the time! In fact in 2007 exquisite, you could pull an All Day auto, but not have it break the 150 dollar mark because it also contained Jerrious Norwood(see below). Not only does Norwood have one of the worst first names of all time, but his auto brought the value of the card down about 100 bucks. Its fucking stupid when you paid 500 for the box and pulled the biggest name of the year, yet you cant make up the cost because he is paired with a hobby nobody.


The other side of this octograph contains the four other top RBs in the game. Michael Bush? Brian Leonard? 2nd-3rd stringers for basically their entire career. Ugh.

Topps Cosigners has taken the dual to a whole new level. They made an entire set out of it. Besides parallelling the base set to death, they also created 50-80 dual auto cards that rarely break 4.00 on ebay. They were like, "Why only give them one whozit auto when they can have two?" The problem was that it was the box hit for 120 bucks. UD Reflections had a similar concept in 2005 was a good set with a good price point, but most of the duals that made the set famous were awful. Ask Dallas McPhereson.

My solution? Creativity. I know, I know, a lot to ask for these days. Instead of tossing random or even related players on the card, each designer should ask themselves whether the value is raised or lowered by the additional auto(s) on the card. Duals should be a big pull, not a crap afterthought. Fill out the set with more creative subsets that collectors will love, which will make for less duals, triples and quads that no one wants. You want to put LT on the card with Emmitt and Barry? Please, go ahead! But if you are considering LT with Michael Turner, please dump it, we don’t need it.

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.

Donruss Must Be So Pissed

They're baaaaaaaaaack. And they are worse than ever. Don’t believe me? Click here.



For this disgrace, they decided to ditch the formality, the room, and from what I can see, all pretenses of their dignity.

Luckily SCU had a spy with a hidden camera in the conference room during the set up meeting/table reading for the script. Here is the transcription:

Beckett Director: Ok, so DLP didn’t learn their lesson and they sent us another "box" of 2008 Prestige to open on video. After last time's clusterfuck, you guys are lucky to have jobs, let alone the chance to make another video. Lets not fuck this one up gentlemen, okay?

Tracy: You said fuck.

Beckett Director: Who let Hackler in here? He is supposed to be in daycare.

Beckett Lackey 1: Umm, you did.

Beckett Director: Fine, whatever, someone give him his passie before he gets fussy. Anyways, this time we hired someone to do the video for you so you guys don’t "beckett" this one up. (Aside to his assistant: Like that one? I put it on the message boards so people could think they have their own term. I am a god!) Right. So his name is J'isthat Youma.

Beckett Lackey 2: Who is that, sir?

Beckett Director: Remember the film of the tanks in Tiennemen Square and the guy? Yeah that was his. One of the most famous clips of all time. I got him for you. He said you can call him J'isthat Youma for short. Don’t piss him off. These assholes are all yours man. Im off to finish my "massage." (leaves)

J'isthat Youma (through translator): Gentlemen, you have sullied your honor and we must reclaim it like the ancient empire did in 1419. I have a plan.

Beckett Lackey 1: We are at your service.

J'isthat Youma: The focus of this clip will be the ancient Chinese sport of Ping Pong.

Beckett Lackey 2: Nice! We use our table all the time. We can move it into the break room for this.

J'isthat Youma: SILENCE! I will open on a glorius work of art and move into this, how do you say?, break room. There you will be playing and you will look happy like a lotus flower on the water of the pacfic.

Beckett Lackey 1(raising hand with the fear of a thousand jackals): All we have is this drawing by a guy we kept waiting too long.

J'isthat Youma: Fuck. You Americans are the scum on my sandal. It will have to do. When you are opening the cards, make sure you show more feeling. I have been told this was a problem last time. In fact, make sure you express emotions as if you were making love to a beautiful woman for the first time.

Tracy: I don’t know what that is like.

J'isthat Youma: Fake it. Miss - what ever your name is (points to lackey 1). Make sure you interrupt us to make this seem like it is filmed during the work day. I know you guys don’t work, so come dressed like you do. Now. Lets get on with the script reading. I know the company has inserted cards with names of players that are hard to pronounce for you heathens. They will be spelled phonetically on the back - take notice.

That’s about all the interesting stuff we got. Im surprised at how much of an idiot Tracy hackler is. Wait. No im not.

Eh, well I guess the guy filmed it just like the clip he is famous for. They sure didn’t convince me of anything other than they are ignorant douchebags. Well, that wasn’t too hard. Speaking of directors, I need one for my sisters birthday video. I wonder if they got J'isthat Youma's number. He did wonders making Hackler look like an adult, his next canvas can be her. Later!

The Best of the BMB - Kill Me Now

I think I have encountered the worst Beckett Board thread title in the history of thread titles. Women who are pregnant or nursing should shield their eyes. Here you go:

3 packs 07/08 bowman sterling......SUPERMANJO!!!!!!!!!

Let me break this one down, because I will now have to spend the next 2 hours cleaning up my Family Guy Ipicac Puke. First off, using the word "mojo" makes you a douchebag, and it should never be used. Secondly combining the word with an excessive use of exclamation points makes you an ignorant douchebag with a death wish (there are 9 above). Thirdly, combining a player's name with Mojo and using the exclamation point like you are hitting the morphine button on your IV drip, makes you an ignorant douchebag with a death wish that may not have passed kindergarten. Lastly, combining a player's stupid ass nickname derived from a costume worn while doing an awful layup in a slam dunk competition with Mojo and using the exclamation point like you will get a 1up for every time you hit it, makes you the ignorant message board douchebag of the century. Pat your 13 year old self on the back. Congrats.

(NOTE: My respect level for Dwight Howard was zero immediately after he expressed his goal in the NBA: to have the league put a Christian cross in their logo. It went lower than zero when he put on the Superman costume in reference to the worst song in recent and non recent memory, rather than the comic character.)

Sweet Spot Changes: Dance With the Girl That Brung Ya.

Memo to the Sweet Spot and Sweet Shot producers and designers. I don’t know what your vision of this product is, but to me, the only reason to buy this product at first was for the innovative baseball leather signatures for baseball, pigskin leather signatures for football, and spalding leather for basketball. In fact, it was so innovative that it was copied by a few different companies including Topps and Fleer(not upper deck at the time). What this means is DON’T FUCK WITH SOMETHING THAT ROCKS. I just saw a "Top Secret" screen shot of what Upper Deck was planning for 08 Sweet Spot and to tell you the truth, I am not impressed. Let me go over a few important points with you:

1) I liked the switching to the tin. Those leather cards were too easy to search, no matter how thick the dummy was.
2) Im okay with the helmet sigs for football, but the primary focus should be the leather
3) I HATED having different colored stitching for baseball last year. It was the worst idea ever in the history of redesigns. I don’t want a gold laced baseball - they never use those. If you want to parallel the shit out of something (which I know you do), switch the ink color, not the stitch color.


Crap by any other name is still crap.

4) Go back to the jumbo jersey swatches and patches. This bullshit with the tiny jersey windows is awful.
5) The duals suck. Most of the time both players cannot fit both their sigs on the card.
6) Keep the changes to a minimum unless you have some ground breaking innovation. Enough with coming up with crap like "Signature Glass" or "Signature Kicks."

That’s all I have to say about that.

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.