Connie Mack or Connie Mack?

The day hasn’t come yet when I can add a Connie Mack game-used or cut signature to my personal collection.  I’m really picky when it comes to cut signatures.  I need them to be signed in ink and centered perfectly.  I want nothing to do with signatures that are half cut off just so it fits the card.  Perhaps the market wouldn’t be flooded with cut signatures if the manufacturers waited for the perfect signatures to come along.

I have a bone to pick with a few cards that have been out for a couple of years.  These cards come from 2007 & 2008 Donruss Americana.  I’m specifically talking about the relics and autos of Connie Mack’s grandson, Connie Mack III.  Imagine being a collector opening a pack of Americana, flipping through the base cards, and when you reach your hit, you see the name “Connie Mack” written on the COA.  For a few seconds you might be jumping for joy, but when you turn the card over its of his grandson.  That has to be a huge let down for a collector.  Instead of pulling a hit of one of the greatest managers in baseball history, you get his grandson who in 2005 was appointed by President George W. Bush as the Chairman of the President’s Advisory Panel for Federal Tax Reform.  I know people like to collect historical figures, but to me this is like pulling a card of Babe Ruth’s brother who works at Kinko’s

Card of the Day: 2010 Topps Philadelphia Phillies #134

Card of the Day: Tracy Porter ‘08 Bowman RC #268

Where Are The Reich Relics?

On January 3, 1993, Frank Reich led the Bills to the largest comeback in NFL history.  At halftime the Bills were losing 35-3 and in the second half Reich led the Bills to a 41-38 victory over the Oilers.

Reich was a rookie for the Bills in 1985, but didn’t get an actual rookie card made until 1989.  His only two rookies can be found in ‘89 Topps Traded and ‘89 Score Supplemental.  From ‘89 to ‘97 he had a steady flow of trading cards, but nothing really major.  He went 11 years (‘97-’08) without having a card made, until Upper Deck included him in their Masterpieces set.  What surprises me the most is the fact that Reich has no memorabilia or autographed cards.  I would think that leading your team to the greatest comeback in NFL history would stand out to most manufacturers.  Perhaps Reich doesn’t want his relics and autographs floating around?  I guess some athletes are like that.

Right now, Reich is the quarterback coach for the Colts.  His playing career ended in 1998 with the Lions.  I remember when he gave a speech at Cedar Crest High School about his playing time.  For one year I attended the same school as Reich before moving.

Card of the Day: Jerry Rice ‘05 Topps Heritage Goal Post Relic

Confusing Dual Relics

One of the first cards to contain more than one player on the front comes from 1953 Bowman Color card number 93 – Billy Martin & Phil Rizzuto.  Ever since then, companies have been teaming up popular players on the same piece of cardboard.  It only seems natural that when relics were introduced during the mid to late 90’s, manufacturers would start placing multiple relics of different players on the same card too.  I think its great if a card has two players on it along with a relic for each person.  Where I think it gets confusing sometimes is when a card has two players on it but only one relic.  Certain sets make it look like the relic is from one player, but really its from another.  The only way to know for sure is to read the back of the card or look at the card number.  It doesn’t take much for a scammer to take dual card of Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx and tell people the bat is of Ruth when in fact its of Foxx.  There is a big difference in the price of a Ruth bat versus a Foxx one.  This is why I don’t like to see single bat pieces on a card with two players.  It can get confusing.

Without turning this card over, how would you know who used this bat piece?

Flashback Product of the Week: 2000 Upper Deck Power Deck Baseball

Oh yeah!  These cards were the shit back in the day.  Baseball cards and CD-ROM’s altogether in one box.  2000 wasn’t even the first year Upper Deck made Power Deck cards.  The internet kinda killed the whole idea behind these cards because why would someone want to insert a CD into their computer so they could learn more about the player?  Maybe back then it seemed like a good idea, but now you can just Google an athlete and get photos, videos, and bios.  And from my experience these cards took one hell of a long time to load.  If I remember correctly, some CD’s were even autographed which do look cool in your player collection.  2000 UD Power Deck contains one digital trading card in every pack and boxes can easily be found for under $30.00.

Card of the Day: Joe Greene 1997 UD Legends Auto

Take Away Their Relics & Autos: My 2¢ On Upper Deck’s Lawsuits

I have held my tongue for awhile about Upper Deck and its legal troubles, and I promised that I wouldn’t write an entire post about it but thats not what having a blog is for.  A blog should be used to speak your mind and be a platform for your voice to be heard.  Its not a place to hold your thoughts back.  If you have something to say, just come out and say it.

It surprises me that entities such as MLB and Topps would think that taking away Upper Deck’s right to use certain logos would prevent them from making baseball cards this year.  It sure didn’t work when Donruss/Playoff was told they couldn’t use MLB logos.  Since when have collectors purchased cards just for the logos?  Thats right.  Is been a hell of a long time.  When you have a market filled with collectors willing to spend well over $100.00 for a single pack, I’m betting they have a good idea who those players have played for.  And if by chance the collector doesn’t see a logo, what stops them from just researching who they played for online?  Nothing at all is the answer to that question.  Collectors don’t need logos which is why I think Upper Deck shouldn’t have put them on with their newest releases in the first place.  Upper Deck was just asking for trouble when they did that.  Its something they could have easily avoided and certainly didn’t need to get all wrapped up in after having to pay millions of dollars to Konami for counterfeiting a ton of Yugioh cards.

Upper Deck has been one of the top, if not the top manufacturer when it comes to high-end cards.  Collectors aren’t looking at logos when the card they just pulled contains some jumbo, multi-colored, World Series logo patch.  They are looking at the quality of the relic and of coarse the serial number.  If you want to take a shot at a manufacturer and really nail them below the belt, simply take away their autographs and relics.  That is what most collectors are looking for in the first place.  I’m no legal expert, and I doubt this would even be possible, but if you take away a company’s relics they would have to survive by doing something else.  I can’t even think of the last product released that didn’t contain at least one autograph or relic per box.  If they couldn’t stay alive its most likely they would go under and there would be one less manufacturer in The Hobby which is really what entities like the MLB want.  At least thats what they appear to want when they give exclusive licenses to companies.

Many people believe Upper Deck has a good chance of filing for bankruptcy due to all their current financial problems.  Just because a company files for bankruptcy doesn’t mean its going away.  There are all kinds of bankruptcy.  If by chance, and I mean this is a small chance, Upper Deck were to leave The Hobby altogether I think all the bloggers within the card blogosphere should get together and start-up their own manufacturer.  Bloggers by far know more about this hobby than certain executives only in it for the bottom line.

So who’s with me?

Card of the Day: Ryan Howard 2010 UD Pure Heat