Looking at 2010 Famous Fabrics and the Stephen Strasburg 1/1 Hat Logo

To me, Famous Fabrics is completely out of left field. No player pictures, no team names, no license, nothing. I think it stands for everything that is wrong with cards today, focusing more on the relics and the memorabilia parts of a card than the design of the card itelf. Honestly, its a little different in this situation because the cards are forced into this predicament, so they are obviously making due with what they have.

One way to do that is to include as much Stephen Strasburg stuff into the product as possible, and lucky for them, a card like the 1/1 Stephen Strasburg hat logo that just showed up on eBay is garnering all sorts of attention. The seller is asking the price of mid size used Honda, but im not sure he is going to get what he is looking for because of the card's shortcomings. Without an autograph or a picture, the card doesnt have the appeal that a lot of the other Strasburgs have, but it will definitely get a lot of money. Its also unfortunate that its a USA hat and not a Nationals or MiLB hat, but again, that would be very tough to get if you arent Topps.

Outside of the Strasburg, there is little that this set offers to an autograph collector like me, and I think thats pretty apparent. At least in my opinion, unless you are that focused of a player collector or relic collector, you probably feel the same way.

Here is what I mean:

Jose Canseco 1/1 Logo

Quad Jersey 1/1 w/ Pujols

LeBron James Patch 1/1

Michael Jordan Patch 1/1

Wilt Chamberlain Patch 1/1

Alex Rodriguez Letter Patch 1/1

As you can see, the cards are "meh" without the licensing, but people still find them appealing because of the patches inside them. I would never consider even thinking about buying any of these cards, but obviously there is enough people that do like them. I guess that says a lot about what people value in the cards they buy.

Topps Magic is Back, New, and Seemingly Improved

I hated Topps Magic in 2008, mainly due to the fact that it was a complete sticker dump. Aside from being all college jerseys, the cards themselves featured weird painted artwork, and it looked like it was just another retro product for retro product's sake. Obviously, a set composed of college jerseys isnt possible this year, but that doesnt mean Topps doesnt have a ace or two up their sleeve.

Topps tweeted a picture of the Joe Namath Mini from the set, and although it looks oddly familiar to 1997 Upper Deck Legends, it looks pretty good. I love game shots on cards, especially in place of stock backgrounds from Photoshop, and this appears to have that element in check. Hopefully this set will be everything that Mayo has never been, and maybe even show that Topps doesnt need a wake up call when it comes to producing retro sets not named Ginter.

Here is what we have so far, ill update as they tweet more pics.



UPDATE: I dont mind this dual auto, despite the fact that it looks like it will be stickers. Because of the style of the card, the borders on the stickers dont look horrible, and the painted style is very sleek. But, think of how cool it would be if the black part wasnt there and the green and orange continued on to the side with a hard signed auto? That would make this card that much more awesome.



The reason I think this will be cool is because the cards look to all be painted. Its almost like a retro Topps and Topps Chrome mixed together, and that isnt a bad idea. Even the bordered sticker doesnt bother me as much as it usually does. Low end Topps is where its at.



Here is another base card, the Namath is the mini version. Interesting what Magic is turning into.



Ahhh, here is the Topps we know and hate. Not Triple Threads bad, but I am convinced that Topps is incapable of producing a triple auto worth buying.



There are others up on the Topps facebook page now, but these are the meat. Im looking forward to seeing the final product now, but Im still not holding my breath on a retro set with sticker autos. Hmmm, I guess we will see.

Ruminations on Hobby Life: Part III

A few weeks ago, I posted my first two volumes of Ruminations on Hobby Life, an exercise in observation that was pretty fun for me. It took me a while to get some other ideas of what to do, so this has been a long time in the works. For those of you unfamiliar, I took this idea from a funny site (Ruminations.com) where people post their observations on daily life. Although mine are far from that quality, it’s a good time putting this together each time I do it. Enjoy.

- Cool card idea: Anyone ever see the signed photos that Mounted Memories has with the black and white picture and color player? Most of the time, those photos look great. For something so simple, it would make a pretty sweet on card auto subset. No stupid busy design, just a white bordered black and white photo with a color player pic and a hard signed signature. It would be amazing. I would collect the set.

- Why are so many people's perception of a product's "cool factor" related to whether or not they got a good card out of the boxes they broke? Some guy emailed me saying that he thought Classics was the best ever Panini set because he pulled a Tebow /25, and that I was stupid for calling it crap. Umm, no.

- Speaking of haters, I don’t comprehend when people bring up the concept that any criticism is a direct result of jealousy. I saw it on a message board for another hobby of mine. Can someone explain that to me? I really do not understand why someone could think that envy has anything to do with any of the things I bash on this site. Desiring a certain aspect of improvement seems to be a completely different emotion than being jealous.

- Why was Mark Sanchez the crown jewel of the 2009 rookie class? True the Jets were in the AFC Championship game, but Sanchez was not the reason they were there. Can someone find me a QB that threw 20 INTs on their way to playoff success at any point in history? That is crazy.

- In a similar vein, Sam Bradford may challenge that stat line this year from the looks of things.

- Another cool card idea: Muddy and Bloody Memorabilia autographs. I think that in most cases jersey pieces that are dirty rarely make it into sets. How about a set dedicated to dirty game used swatches. I think that would be pretty cool. Even better if there was an inscription from the player.

- I really hate when I see a player pictured in one uniform, and the jersey is from another team. It deflates the joy of the card. Upper Deck was infamous for doing this, and sometimes its unavoidable, but its annoying. I just saw a 1/1 Brett Favre auto pulled on Blowout with Nike swooshes. Reebok has made the NFL jerseys for years.

- I wonder if Topps ever considered doing a set with just cards from previous iconic sets. No reprints, all buybacks. Get some rookie autos in there to appease the leagues, and make everything else valuable cards that people recognize. It would have to be expensive, but I think it would be interesting to see if it turned out.

- Is there a reason to name subsets anymore? When you call a subset something completely lame like "Freshman Orientation" or "Material Monikers" it takes away from the overall appeal of the card to me. I don’t think people would be that angry if they pulled a Donruss Elite Auto Jersey instead of a "Down and Distance" auto jersey.

- I think a good way to keep things fresh would be forcing the card companies to redo their product calendar every year. Give them three slots for their marquee sets, and the rest have to be completely new concepts.

- Cards that need to go: Panini signed manupatches, Topps booklets, signed manuletters, and single jersey cards. None of these bring something positive to the table.

- Topps said they use the stickers they do because they have a backlog, and yet we new stickers used every year. The leagues should force the companies to depleat their stock and start introducing hard signed cards. If a company like Upper Deck can put out a calendar with 8+ products that feature on card signatures, the other companies can do it too. Its not a bad thing to use half stickers and half on card autos until the stickers are gone.

- Speaking of stickers, I don’t get why the companies don’t pay us back a little for using them. It would be cool to get more inscriptions on the stickers, or at least something to make it worth more.

- Does anyone start to wonder what would happen if we actually got an all access look into the manufacturers? I think I would probably stop collecting due to disgust.

- Who chooses the pictures used on the cards? I have to believe it’s the design team. I don’t get why every card doesn’t have the best possible pictures. That new Strasburg chrome auto has the most ridiculous picture ever, and that will no doubt detract from the value. Topps had to know that.

- Is anyone else as happy as I am that the amount of products featuring celebrities in sports cards has dropped? I remember when every set had some celebrity element back in 2008. Upper Deck was a prime offender, and maybe the card gods got pissed at them.

- I don’t think redemptions are always the fault of the companies, but the replacements fall 100% on their shoulders. What if we were able to choose from a list of replacements instead of being surprised? That way you actually get something you want. Each card is assigned a tier, and those tiers are updated with market trends. The higher the tier, the higher the replacement. Lower tier cards can be added together to replace a higher tier one. That would be a cool system.

- If 10-15% of a product run is always held back for QC problem replacements, what happens to the left overs? There arent THAT many redemptions that go unfufilled.

- Topps should make a coffee table book of their historic sets. Kramer would appreciate it.

- Lastly, someone should create a hot or not website for cards. Each time a product is released, the gallery should be posted an people should be able to vote on whether or not the cards look good. I think that it would be interesting to see how it turns out. Guaranteed, Triple Threads would get the opposite reaction I want it to.

That’s it for now, let me know if you guys have any items brewing in your brains that you want me to post. It takes a while for me to compile my thoughts into one of these posts, so hopefully I will have more to share at a future date.

When it Comes to Rookies & Stars, Save Your Money

The upcoming Panini release calendar is packed with products. Threads, Absolute, Certified, Limited, they are all on the way, and are all sets that are not new additions to the slate. Panini uses this part of the calendar to bank on previous years' success, mostly with a tried and true formula of a mid range price point and 3-4 hits per box. Rookies & Stars is beginning of the products I have dubbed the "Panini Blur," as each of the products is so similar in the concept, that they actually are indistinguishable for lack of a better explanation. I stopped by Sports Cards Plus in San Antonio today to get a look at the latest batch of Panini splatter paint, and despite a nice pull from a customer there, the results were far from impressive.

Aside from the normal Panini cookie cutter of stickers, foilboard, parallels and busy designs, Rookies and Stars brings absolutely nothing of worth to the table. Its a product that rarely holds its value, the concept and content of the set hardly looks like it was designed by a professional, and it is full of rehashes that produced its share of groans from the peanut gallery at the shop. I opened a few packs after some prodding, and I was lucky enough to pull not one, but two of the stale and played out manupatch autos. Not only was one of them a redemption, but the one that was live was snooze worthy at best.

Because Topps is locked and ready to roll with the meat of their calendar, Panini desperately needs to pull their heads out of their ass to stay relevant. I mentioned in the post below this one all the reasons why I like the low end Topps products as much as I do, and I can honestly say that from what I saw, Panini did not deliver even one of them with R&S. If you can stand to save that hundred bucks you were going to spend on a box of this junk, you are going to have that much more fun opening what is coming on wednesday from Panini's main competitor.

Personally, I love that the people at Panini use my posts as toilet paper, because it just shows the level of commitment they have to taking what people like me say to heart. I have loudly sung the same tune for 3 years, and over that time frame, Panini has gained its share of haters that function similarly to the way I do. Its funny the amount of times I have started to hear the boos on the boards, twitter, and blogs, when a product preview is posted, something that can easily catch up to your P&L statements. You cant churn out the same shit over and over again, and not expect your customer base to get tired of the apathetic approach. The brass at Panini doesnt seem to get that despite the numerous industry people letting them know how they feel.

I think that once the rest of the Panini Blur hits the shelves, we are going to start to see a lot of angry collectors start to make their voices heard. Its easy to overlook the "YES! LOOK AT THIS CARD I GOT!" when there are a lot of "Nice pull, but it looks like shit." reactions right after it. I didnt even take the time to review this product last year because it was so terrible, and I am glad to see that Panini decided that one year of poop wasnt enough.

Topps Accomplishes More With Two Products Than Others Do In A Whole Year

I get criticized a lot for being overly negative, especially when it comes to upcoming products. However, with two of my favorite sets of the year on the horizon, I can tell you my level of excitement is unparalleled. With the two products that now compose the low end part of Topps' football calendar, Chrome and Flagship, its like they are playing on a different level. Topps Flagship is being released next week, and I have a feeling that it may do enough to re-energize exactly what I am looking for in the 2010 card season. I mean, the crap that is coming out of Panini's butt sure isnt doing it, so for these two sets, its make it or break it. Im sure most of you are wondering why these particular sets are my favorite, and I am more than happy to explain.

Design

Most of the time, the base set design for the Topps products is solid. This year, it’s a little more than solid because I always am a fan of the use of the team word logo design. In all of sports, the NFL team word logos are some of the best looking, and it’s a shame they arent used more often in cards. Those logos are an integral part of the design this year, and the overall simplicity of it other wise, makes the stuff from sets like Rookies and Stars look like it may as well be a traffic jam. This year's design will also translate VERY well into the chrome sets, and the colored refractors with the eye-popping border additions should look amazing. I will say, also, its one thing to use shitty foil board to produce an ENTIRE set, its something completely different to use the chrome tech. The quality of the base cards is THAT much better, and that quality leads to some of the only base unnumbered rookie cards that are worth any sort of money.

Price

The fact that a box of Chrome costs 50 bucks for what you get is great. Because you don’t need the 2 dollar jersey cards to drive up cost and carry a box, the cards do the talking. Even though you only get one auto per box, there is usually enough other draw to busting that makes up for it. Flagship is very similar, especially for the jumbo boxes. When Topps added in the red-zone signatures to rake with the Rookie Premiere autos and the rare variation cards, this product got that much better. Also, much like Chrome, the box is one of the most fun rips around. You cant beat the amount of fun you get ripping into 50 card packs that actually have value in what you pull.

Content

In Flagship, there once was very little content outside of the RPAs. That has since changed. The addition of a parallel structure that is more friendly to the collector, the variation cards, the red zone signatures, and the other inserts like Ring of Honor, make this set great even without the premiere cards. Yet, with a great design added in, even the base cards bring content. For Chrome, Topps sadly folded the Bowman Chrome line into the Topps Chrome brand, which is great for Topps Chrome, but not good for my love of the stand alone product. Because of the added Bowman content, as well as more red zone signatures, and retro autos, Topps Chrome is going to mash this year. Again, the great price point and great design add into the content rather than detract like Bowman Sterling, and that is always a huge plus.

Legacy

When I heard Topps was out of football, I was pissed, despite my hatred of their high end brands. Their low end brands have been around for decades and my collection is stocked with past players in said products. Collectors associate the Topps base cards with the general happiness of collecting, and a year without them is like a year without football itself. Chrome has a similar legacy with collectors, especially those who loved the invention of premium brands as much as I did back in the day. Even though Chrome is no longer a premium brand, it has the feel of a well put together product each and every year. Like SP Authentic, collectors buy because they know they are not going to be short changed on the construction of the set, and that is something that Panini has lost in creating the crap they have churned out lately. Sets like Rookies and Stars and Certified have a lot to learn from the likes of Chrome and SPA, especially due to the way they look. You can line up the cards for Panini's long running sets and see nothing but rehashes and staleness, where as the Topps and Upper Deck cards are reinvented visually each and every year. THAT is how you build a legacy.

Parallels

I hate the fact that Parallels have been blown up like they have in high end Topps products and Panini products. Chrome and Flagship don’t fall into that category. The parallels are tastefully done and add a lot of value to the card itself in some cases. When you pull a rare parallel of a Topps card, you get exponentially more value out of that pull. The difference between a Triple Threads card to 299 and a Triple Threads card to 99 is negligable. That's when you know there is a problem.

Because of the above and lack of options, I may be purchasing my first case of anything, ever. I opened so much of these products last year that I probably gave away three complete sets to the local kids at the shop. I can tell you all right now that spending 700 bucks on a case of Chrome will definitely be a better investment than buying box after box of the products that blur together on the slate of the other companies. If you are going to blow your money on wax, at least blow it on something worth busting.

2010 Panini Certified Looks Worse Than Anything Yet

Leaf Certified Materials, now Panini Certified has been around forever. The Fabric of the Game subset has produced some amazing cards across the span of the product's existence, and it is usually a celebrated part of the football calendar. Over the last few years, Certified has gone from a celebrated product to "meh" to absolutely terrible, and this year's set may be the worst thing I have ever seen to come out of Panini's house. Although we only have a few cards from the set, the common theme and design of the product is so bad, that I actually laughed.

The fact that Panini is willing to stake one of their most popular sets on a shitty design like Certified showcases this year, makes me wonder if the people over there are even trying with football anymore. If this year's National Treasures Basketball is any indication, its not like they are focusing on the Basketball designs either, so this begs a very important question: WHO HIRED THIS BUSH LEAGUE DESIGN TEAM? Jesus, this is just terrible.

Starting with the base cards, it looks like someone was carrying the printing plates and dropped them on the floor on the way to the press. The result looks like a fractured mirror and it looks absolutely horrid. When you add in jersey and autograph in typical Panini fashion, like they did for the rice, it becomes a complete and utter Dexter McClusterfuck.

Oddly enough, the only cards that anyone cares about are not present in this preview, and those are the freshmen fabric cards. Last year's werent a complete disaster like 2008, but they still left a lot to be desired. I figure these will shape up more like the 2008 than anything, if not a hell of a lot worse.

Lastly, the Fabric of the Game cards don’t look terrible, but that isnt the point. They are basically the 2009 design with minor tweaks, and that is BEYOND frustrating. It shows that Panini is getting very lazy with their updates, and its going to be a long time before we get any sort of innovation again.

Panini, you are heading the way of worry faster than I can say Ndamukong Suh, and that is a pretty scary situation for football collectors who depend on good looking cards to build their collection.

Fake Peterson Logo Back Up On Ebay

When 2009 Ultimate Football came out, I was very excited for a number of the cards in the set. None more so than the Ultimate Patch Auto cards, which were beyond awesome. The Adrian Peterson from the set was one of the cards I HAD to have from the product and I set out to buy one as soon as I could. The first one that was posted was a blurry picture but still good enough to bid on. Not willing to wait, I offered the guy almost 50% more than I expected the card to go for, but he wanted to let it go. Less than 3 hours later, another one showed up on ebay, this time with 3 color patches, to which I hit the BIN as quickly as I could. Funny enough, that price was less than I offered the first guy for his one and two color patches Peterson.

Moving forward in time, the person who ended up winning the Peterson I originally bid on wasn’t exactly the best of people. The card, number 6/10 was put back on eBay with two reebok logo patches and a shield logo tag patch, hiding the serial number and expecting people to not see what's up. Obviously, since I had been watching all the Ultimate Patch cards, this one set off red flags immediately. Eventually someone brought to my attention that this card was the one I had previously bid on, and it had been destroyed for nefarious purposes. Regardless of my proof, the card was sold for a lot of money, again to someone who didn’t take the time to do a simple google search.

Well, its back up on ebay, and this time, the person wants even more money than it sold for originally. Stay away, stay FAAAAAAR away.

EDIT: Looks like the card has been taken down and replaced with something else. Maybe the seller was notified it was fake and actually took it down like a good person should.

2010 Bowman Sterling Is Cringeworthy, Golden Rule Still in Effect

Just when you think Topps has finally started to put the right foot forward, they take three steps back. I really don’t get what it is that Topps cannot see about their high end products, but the stuff is just horrible. I cant even tell you how tired I am of seeing the same stupid ideas product after product, year after year. Seriously, I am wondering if one group of people designs the low end stuff and another group of people designs the high end. Even outside of the continued stupidity regarding the way the stickers are used, the designs never look up to par with even the worst of their low end products.

First off, let me start with the box hits of this product, the rookie material signatures. These cards used to be a matter of taste because they were horizontally oriented and they always had the players with their helmets off. I hated the pictures, so I didn’t buy the cards. Now, the pictures are game style, but the vertical orientation forces Topps to cover up the player with the unnecessary swatch placement, and then it no longer becomes a question of taste when it comes to liking these cards. Its absolutely shocking to me that Topps' design team is willing stamp their name on a finished product like that, especially when you also see that they cut out a place for the sticker AGAIN. Oddly enough, there is no sticker cutout space on Dez Bryant's non-memorabilia signature, and it obviously looks THAT much better. Not that it even would make a difference when the player is just barely peaking over the stupidly placed relic, at least in this case.

Secondly, I have no clue why Topps needs booklet cards in every goddamn product. It wasn’t even that novel of an idea when it was first started, and now its getting worse than the Panini manupatch autos that they spread over 25 different products. When you count up the different elements that they factor in to each of the booklet cards, it makes you wonder what the purpose of the card is. Is the purpose to create a good looking card, or is the purpose to pack so much crap onto the front of a card that you actually need two front sides and two back sides to do it. Give me a break.

Lastly, the price point of this product is still one of the most ridiculous on the market. Based on what you get out of a box, this product is so completely overpriced that it makes Triple Threads look like a good deal. Even though you may get 10 or whatever autos per box, all but one or two is going to be a scrub. That means, that you have to count on one or two cards to make up for 250 dollars, and even the Mr. Golden Bronco cant live up to that. That puts the collector at even more of a disadvantage, especially when you consider how terrible these cards sell on the secondary market after the initial release.

Ill give it to Topps, the overall design looks better than last year, but that is like saying this year's Chevy Aveo looks better than last year's. In the end, its still looks like an Aveo, and that's the problem.

Its Rare That Fakes Generate This Kind Of Money

Fake patches have become sort of a good/bad situation these days. Obvious ones rarely generate much money, and the less obvious ones generate tons. Because of the way fake patches have been covered on the message boards, blogs and other non-mainstream hobby media, collectors have been able to avoid some of the pitfalls that once plagued them. However, based upon recent auction completions, im not so sure people are wising up as much as I thought they would.

Look at how much this fake Peyton Manning that I covered last week sold for. Check out this Tom Brady too. I cant believe this Favre hit the number it did. Those are HUGE prices, despite the fact that they are ridiculously fake. My favorite fake promoting company, PSA/DNA, seemed to think they were authentic enough to slab them, and that I just don’t understand. I explained that the presence of the Captain's patches alone should have been a tip off, but because the faker was skilled at creating these terrible cards, they passed it off. Inexcusable.

Guys, the reality of this situation is that our only line of defense is ourselves, and even a quick 2 second google search on these cards would have brought up the FCB AND Blowout thread where these fakes were outed. Ufjumper7 may be gone for the foreseeable future, but there is always someone else to take their place. Kevin Burge has been operating for as long as I can remember, and he is responsible for so many fakes that I cant even count them in an excel spread sheet. The list is that long.

Its one thing when the card generates 50 bucks or even 100 bucks, but when someone spends the cost of a month's rent on one of these horrid fakes, we have to start asking how they think it can be real. I know if I were about to drop that kind of money on a card that obviously has doubts as to authenticity, I would do everything in my power to rid myself of that doubt. Hell, I recently bought an autograph for 150 dollars and I spent close to an hour online comparing it, despite the presence of authenticity statements from "reputable" companies. That was 1/10th the cost of what this person paid.

The sad thing is that a lot of the people who buy the fakes, refuse to admit to themselves that they cant tell the difference. I have received no less than five emails from different scam victims explaining that they know better than I do, even in the face of obvious observation. How dare I call them uninformed for not being able to recognize they were being had. God forbid. Really, the problem is the attitude more than anything, and I mean no disrespect when I say that even the most hobby saavy person is at similar risk as the newbie is. Just because someone has been collecting for 30 years, does not mean they know their ass from their elbow in a lot of these cases. The reason I say this is because of how little the mainstream hobby resources have focused on fakes in general. You can go back through years and years of Becketts, Tuff Stuffs, and any other magazine, and there wont be much to reference from. So, I don’t fault the uninformed for being uninformed in that respect. What I do fault them for is not taking the time to research their purchases, something that should be a part of buying on the internet even outside of sports cards and memorabilia. A simple five second search through completed auctions or google would have saved this person a ton of money, and that is exactly why they have every reason to hate themselves for wasting that kind of money.

I may not be the one hitting the buy it now or the bid button, but I will not stop talking about this as long as SCU is up and running. Fakes are a epidemic that have garnered the attention of national law enforcement, and I think its good to have as much dialouge as possible.