Archive for February, 2008

One of my collecting goals for this year and beyond is to get my hands on a game used bat barrel card. Unfortunately for me, bat barrel cards are extremely rare and expensive, but they sure are pretty.

While searching for affordable examples on eBay, I turned up these awesome (and completely unaffordable) vintage Bat Barrels of two Yankee Legends.

I don’t know what price the seller of the Mantle expects it end at, but he’s asking $265 for insurance and shipping…

With the 2008 presidential election just around the corner, political cards are a huge theme in the early 2008 releases by Upper Deck and Topps. Topps has included presidential candidate cards in their 2008 Base Set, along with that Rudy Giuliani silliness. Upper Deck followed suit with their Presidential Predictors set in their 2008 Upper Deck Series I. These cards feature caricatures of the candidates done in the style of the Michael Buysner card.

However the Hillary Clinton Presidential Predictor card was kept out of packs because it was deemed to be offensive. Of course, a few of these cards have made it into packs, whether intentionally or accidentally, and they have set off bidding MADNESS on eBay. Click the pic to see the auction for the first of these Clinton cards to hit eBay and prepare to be floored.

Why would anyone pay so much for such an UGLY card??!?! And what genius at Upper Deck thought that this card design would fly in the first place…. Unfortunately for the poor guy with the highest bid on the first Clinton, a few more have popped up on eBay, so who knows how scarce these really are.

If you are dying to get your Hillary fix, I recommend saving your dinero and bidding on this Clinton card by Topps instead:

I have never been a huge fan of the Autographed Manufactured Letter Patches in sets like SP Authentic and Donruss Threads.

In order to even out the checklist, the card companies thought it would be smart to spell out all sorts of whacky things, in addtion to players’ last names. So you end up with cards like this (no K in Lincecum, Tim, Giants, or even San Francisco) and this (Letters with Yankee pinstripes?! Blasphemy!).

Well Donruss has upped the ante and included Autographed Letters in Donruss Celebrity Cuts, the follow up to Donruss Americana.

So now we have jersey patch cards of people who don’t wear jerseys. The letters spell out “Hollywood”, but are people really that desperate for Letter Patches? The auto’s aren’t very clean and bleed into the fabric and the patches are bland white on black. I don’t see real incentive to try and collect all the letters. At least with the sports letters you have the appeal of spelling the player’s name.

Who knows, maybe they will turn out to be a big hit, but it seems to me like Donruss ran out of ideas for possible sets and took the gimmicky, easy way out. End Rant.

On the whole, Donruss Celebrity Cuts actually looks like a really nice product. If you are interested in seeing the Dealer Brochure for Donruss Celebrity Cuts check out this thread on TCC.

Topps is at it again. The Boston Red Sox team card in 2008 Topps Series One has two variations, a normal card and a version with Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani digitally added. Giuliani, a self proclaimed lifelong Yankees fan, said that he was rooting for the rival Red Sox to win during the 2007 World Series, and those clever boys at Topps have added him to the Red Sox on-field celebration.

I really hope Topps isn’t going to make this a tradition in their Base Sets. I don’t like the idea of digitally altered cards becoming a regular hobby trend.

As a marketing ploy, it seems to be working really well. The Giuliani Red Sox cards are already selling for around $50. I wouldn’t expect those prices to hold up though. Like the Jeter/Mantle/Bush card, prices should come down a lot as more cards hit the market.

I found this video by Donruss TV showing some of the Cut Autos from 2007 National Treasures Football. These are the big money cards from a super high-end product. Some of the subjects include Football Hall of Famers, Boxing Legends, former Presidents, and entertainers. Most of the lower numbered cards should sell for over $1,000 a pop.

Here’s a list of the cards in the order that they were shown:

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Check out this Richard Nixon Cut Auto from 2007 National Treasures Football.

Click to see the Auction.

This is a busy year for Nixon. He’ll also be featured on a Dual Cut Auto with John F. Kennedy in Topps Series II Baseball.

Despite my obsession with Presidential Cut autos, I’ll be sitting on the sidelines for these auctions, unless the lottery ticket I bought today is winner…