
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tagged: 2020, card, day, dreams, fulfilled, ghost, leagues, legends, marcell, negro, of, the | Leave a comment »
The hobby saw a surge of new collectors/flippers/investors in 2020. With the rise in popularity, it makes perfect sense for companies to issue cards to promote almost anything.
Bridgestone Golf’s days of making trading cards lasted about as long as Ryan Leaf’s NFL career. Ok. Maybe Ryan Leaf had a bit of a longer run. But not by much.
In November 2020, Bridgestone Golf thought it would be a good idea to print up some cards to use for promotional purposes.
The retro-style set consists of (5) cards and (1) sticker.
Whoever designed the set must have been a big fan of 1990 Topps Baseball. The card’s border clearly is a homage to that set. Photos have been replaced with animated images. Backs provide some stats while advertising Bridgestone Golf balls.
What led to the downfall of this promotion and denied it to collectors? According to a Bridgestone Golf Sales Rep it was Tiger’s agent. Bridgestone Golf is a sponsor of Tiger Woods, but apparently that doesn’t allow them to make cards of him. Tiger’s agent pointed out that his client has an exclusive trading card deal with Upper Deck, and demanded if the sets weren’t pulled legal action would take place. Deciding to save on legal fees, Bridgestone Golf cancelled the promotion and very few cards saw the light of day.
Bridgestone Golf pulled all photos of this promotion off of their social media. Although a Tweet from Darren Rovell briefly talking about it is still visible.
Its too bad this set was DOA. I know there are a lot of golf collectors who would’ve liked to get their hands on one.
Filed under: Card Info | Tagged: 2020, bridgestone golf's, cancelled, inside, promo, set | Leave a comment »
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tagged: 2020, allen & ginter x, bryce, card, day, harper, of, the, topps | Leave a comment »
Thanks to COVID-19 the 2020 Little League World Series did not take place. That certainly didn’t stop individuals and businesses from making their pins for fans to collect.
Pins have been a big part of the Little League World Series for years. Some of the more desirable pins come from various people who work for ESPN. When, where, and who distributes them is a total mystery to me. They just seem to popup and find their way into circulation.
A staple ESPN pin that seems to comeback year to year are the ones in the shape of the robo cams. The pin pictured below is what would have been making it’s rounds at the Little League World Series in 2020.
What makes this pin so special is the logo. This is the only pin that I’ve seen which contains the logo which would have been used for the 2020 Little League World Series. Usually the Little League store would sell logo merchandise, but they did very little of that last year. No pins for sure. Little League chose to use the same logo for 2021. The main difference is the year change.
Two of these pins have popped up for sale so far. Both auctions could easily have been for the exact same pin, and sold for close to $50 each time.
Filed under: Pin Highlight | Tagged: 2020, cam, espn, highlight, league, little, pin, robo, series, world | Leave a comment »
Collector Type: Autograph/Relic/Olympic Fans
Do you know what the secret is to being an Olympic athlete? LITTLE CHOCOLATE DONUTS!
The 2020 Summer Olympic Games were postponed last year thanks to COVID-19. This obviously postponed the release of 2020 Topps U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team & Hopefuls. Even though everything about this product screams 2020, I see many people referring to it as a 2021 product. It makes sense as to why seeing that the cards were printed in 2021, and have a 2021 copyright date.
We don’t get to see many standalone Olympic products. They’re usually reserved only for years when the Olympics are actually taking place. Although it isn’t uncommon for Olympians to show up in other products like Allen & Ginter. Its a welcomed change of pace as these athletes who can become superstars overnight usually don’t have that many cards made.
The base set consists of (76) cards. Parallels include Bronze (1 per pack), Silver (1:4), U.S. Flag #’ed/299, Gold #’ed/99, and FoilFractor #’ed 1/1. Watch carefully for those Gold parallels. The gold color is quite similar to the Copper ones and can easily be missed. Check the back to see if they are serial numbered to (99) copies to make sure. I almost missed mine.
Every hobby box comes with (24) packs containing (8) cards per pack. On average you should find (3) hits per box. One of those hits should be an autograph.
Autographs include your regular autographs that mirror that of the base cards. You will also find Olympic Champions Autographs which feature past winners.
Relics include Achievement Medallions Commemorative Relics, Team USA Memorabilia Pieces, and USOC Insignia Commemorative Relics.
Inserts include For Pride and Country, New to the Games!, and U.S. Olympic Heroes.
Wouldn’t it be fun to see this product receive the Sapphire treatment?
Here is what I pulled:
Auto:
Relics:
Parallels:
Inserts:
Filed under: Reviews | Tagged: 2020, box, break, hobby, hopefuls, olympic, paralympic, review, team, topps, u.s. | 1 Comment »