Another box break for your viewing pleasure:
Much better than my previous debacle of a box break.
My regular readers (all 3 of you) know by now that I’m pretty obsessed with Topps Sterling. Exhibit A and Exhibit B (Exhibits C,D,E and F coming soon!). So I finally decided to put my money where my mouth is and pick up a box.
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Here’s an interesting interview with a Topps Representative about the process of making a Relic Card. He takes you inside the Topps Relic Room where the Game Used relics that Topps uses to make cards are stored.
The Topps Sterling Barry Bonds Jumbo Swatch Card with the hat logo seen in the video has turned up on eBay. Click the picture below to see the auction.
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In 2007, Upper Deck introduced a set of manufactured patch cards in UD Premier Baseball. The Premier Stitchings set was also included in UD Premier Football and will return in 2008 UD Premier Baseball and 07-08 Premier Basketball.
Von Glitschka, a graphic designer and illustrator, designed the Premier Stitchings patches for Upper Deck. Check out his homepage and his art blog. He does some really neat stuff, including the logos for Orbit Gum (which I chew constantly).
Here’s how Von went about designing a Kevin Durant patch for 07-08 Premier Basketball.
Here’s my 2007 UD Black Baseball Analysis. It’s similar to the 2007 Topps Sterling Analysis that I did before. Information is based on the full UD Black Checklist found at Upper Deck.com. Numbers are based on the entire baseball card print run and do not reflect any cards held back from distribution by Upper Deck for NPN programs or other reasons. All percentages shown are chances of getting a card out of a 2 pack box.
First, some comments:
Obviously, UD Black Baseball is a high-end product so I was really surprised when I saw the shear size of the checklist. 149 different players appear on at least one baseball card each. The “base set” is 42 veterans and 30 rookies. That leaves 77 players that only appear in insert sets.
Some players only appear in the Pure White Packs, including big names like Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, and Albert Pujols. Bottom line, there is no player that appears in every set, so if you are a player collector consult the checklist before you go chasing after cards that don’t exist!
For the most part, every card has a gold and pearl parallel. However, there are some cards that don’t… and there are some parallels of cards that aren’t in the regular set. Weird. Also, the gold versions of the Prominent Numbers set are #’d to 10, but the regular cards in that set are #’d to the player’s jersey number, so some of the gold parallels are actually more common than the regular cards.
There are 10 mystery dual cut redemptions included in UD Black. That gives you a 0.057% chance of getting one if you buy a box.
There are 1,432 one of one’s, giving you about a 8.2% shot at pulling one.
Now, let’s get to the complete analysis…
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I just stumbled across this auction on eBay. Its a Daisuke Matsuzaka Game Used Letter Patch from 2007 Topps Sterling Baseball, numbered 1/1.
Click to see the auction (Not my card)
This is a sweet card. There isn’t much Dice-K prime game used out there yet and this is by far the nicest piece I have seen. Even a Yankees fan can appreciate this card.