Hobby Oddities: An Introduction To Baseball Card Collecting On VHS

The year is 1989. You’re visiting your local video rental store. Walking up and down the aisles you begin to browse their inventory. Die Hard, Beetlejuice, Coming To America, etc… Its a difficult choice. That’s until you see An Introduction To Baseball Card Collecting. I’ll take it!

An Introduction To Baseball Card Collecting was released in 1989. In this 28 minute video Bobby Valentine covers many of the important principles as to how baseball cards were collected at that time. Some of these principles are valid today, while others are completely outdated.

An example of an outdated principle is when the video states that a player’s rookie card is his most valuable card. At one time this was true. Today we have grading, parallels, autographs, and relics. A mass-produced base rookie card can be worth significantly less when compared to a non-rookie, low-numbered, autograph, relic card of the same player today.

Distributed by JCI Video out of Woodland Hills, CA. The summary on the VHS back reads:

Finally, a video about baseball card collecting is available! Bobby Valentine hosts this beautifully filmed explanation of how a simple pastime of the 1950s exploded into a multi-million dollar industry in the 1980s. Bobby discusses all the basic subjects of card collecting, including how the distribution methods through 1973 affect card prices today and the current hobby role played by dealers, card shops, trade shows, price guides and hobby newspapers.

A highlight of the video is its photography of the cards themselves, filmed with lush backgrounds and lighting effects to make their rich colors evoke the kind of nostalgic emotions that are the essence of the relationship between a collector and his cards.

I wonder if we’ll ever see the 4K, Blue-Ray, DVD, Extended Director’s Cut? Imagine watching it in IMAX.

Believe it or not this wasn’t the only VHS released on baseball card collecting. There are others.

Grading started with cards, and now extends all the way to VHS tapes. Someone should get a copy of An Introduction To Baseball Card Collecting graded. That would complete the circle.

Topps Project 2020 – Iconic Baseball Cards Get An Artistic Twist

Have you checked out the latest online exclusive offering from Topps?  The Topps Project 2020 has (20) artists giving their artistic spin on (20) iconic Topps baseball cards.  Cards receiving this treatment range from the Jackie Robinson 1952 Topps #312 all the way up to the Mike Trout 2011 Topps Update RC #US175.  Lots of other classic cards in between.

When it is all said and done, the set will contain (400) cards.  Monday through Friday two new cards will go up for sale each day for 48 hours on the Topps website.  Regular cards cost $19.99 each, while Silver-Framed Artist Proofs #’ed/20 cost $99.99 each.  Gold-Framed Artist Proofs #’ed 1/1 are sent out at random with orders.

Creative, alternative, eye-catching new takes on well-known baseball cards really gets collectors talking.  I’m glad to see Topps taking risks like this.  Things like this need to happen in order to move the hobby forward.

One thing is for certain.  The Topps Project 2020 cards make for an interesting conversation piece.

Tombstone Pizza’s 1995 Super-Pro Series Could’ve Landed You An Autograph

Happy National Pizza Day!

Food manufacturers have included sports cards with their products for decades.  It still happens today, but not quite as often.  At one time sports cards were offered with potato chips to dog food.

The folks at Tombstone Pizza created a few different sets throughout the 90s.  In 1995, I remember pulling a Frank Thomas card from one of their specially-marked frozen pizza boxes.  The 1995 Tombstone Super-Pro Series Baseball set consists of (30) cards.  (15) players from the National League, and (15) players from the American League.  Inside each Tombstone Pizza box you would find (1) card.  Randomly inserted autographs could also be pulled.  Some lucky pizza lovers opened their box and found an autograph card of George Brett, Johnny Bench, or Bob Gibson.  Tombstone included 6,000 total autographs.  That’s 2,000 autographs a piece.  In order to get the certificate of authenticity you needed to send away for it.  You could also send away for a complete set with (5) proofs-of-purchase.

José María Olazábal’s Most Valuable Card Is An N64 Game

José María Olazábal showcased on the cover of PGA European Tour for the N64 is another situation similar to when former college basketball star Jay Williams was the front man for NCAA 2K3 College Basketball on the Nintendo GameCube.

The main difference is this.  Jay Williams crashed and burned when he made it to the pros.  José María Olazábal on the other hand has had a long successful career in his given sport of choice golf.

Cards of Jay Williams are mainly used for kindling today.  Its a fair assumption to say that GameCube game is the only thing with his face on it that continues to hold any value.  Golf collectors don’t have much options when it comes to cards of José María Olazábal.  He only has (18) total cards.  Surprisingly none from Upper Deck given all of the golf products they use to make.  His rarest cards come from 2010 Leaf Sports Icons Cut Signatures Update and 2012 Sportkings.  Five out of his eighteen cards come from those two sets.  Each one is numbered one-of-one too.  Not the easiest to find.

When it comes to the world of golf cards, only a select few have a strong enough following to garner any real value.  I don’t believe José María Olazábal is one of those golfers.  If and when any of his one-of-one cards popup for sale, I highly doubt they would sell for much.  Despite being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2009, and winning the Masters twice, this is just how things go.  Cards, even rare ones, of great golfers don’t always have the demand.  This is most likely why we haven’t seen a standalone golf product since 2014.  I’ve always enjoyed golf cards, found them fun to open, and wish they’d make a comeback.

PGA European Tour was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000.  José María Olazábal already had his second Masters win, and made the box cover.  This game was released quite late in the N64’s lifecyle which resulted in not many being sold.  Sealed copies have been known to sell for $100-$200.  Some asking prices are even higher.  That’s a decent amount considering most sports games are rarely sought after for collecting purposes.

I know José María Olazábal is not the reason why this game is so collectible.  It wouldn’t matter who’s on the box really.  Things like this always catch my eye.

Panini Shows Off An Early Look At 2014 NSCC Wrapper Redemption Set

We’re only 24 days away from the opening of the 2014 National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland.  Things are starting to heat up.  You know me, I’m all about free stuff and that’s one of the best things about the National.

Panini has given us collectors a small glimpse as to what we’ll find inside those coveted wrapper redemption packs.  Right now all we’re getting to see are base cards.  For more pictures check out The Knight’s Lance.  Panini plans to bring back their popular VIP Party which you’ll most likely need to spend a few thousand dollars on product if you want to attend.  They’ll also have autograph guests at their booth too.  In my experience, Panini’s wrapper redemption programs aren’t something you need to rush through the door to participate in like some of the stuff you see with Topps.  Panini usually holds their programs at specific times.  Watch the lines!!!  Collectors have been known to lineup 2 hours ahead of time.

Golf Metal Is LIVE & Comes With A Great Promotion

Golf Metal is live!!!  This is the first all golf product released in the last 7 years.  Boxes contain (2) base cards and (3) autographs.  When taking a look at some of the auctions, you can clearly see collectors have been missing a product like this.

• Jack Nicklaus Blue Prismatic Auto #’ed/5
• Jack Nicklaus National Pride Prismatic Auto #’ed/25
• Paula Creamer Award Winners Green Prismatic Auto #’ed/25
• Michelle Wie National Pride Prismatic Auto #’ed/25
• Sergio Garcia Prismatic Auto #’ed 1/1
• Arnold Palmer Green National Pride Auto #’ed/10

The list of big pulls just goes on and on!!!

Leaf also has an interesting promotional program to go along with their release of Golf Metal.  Any collector that sends in the bar code off the bottom of their box of Golf Metal will receive a 3-card pack in return.  The pack will have (3) Leaf Limited base cards, and you can look for randomly inserted redemption cards. These can be redeemed for full-size pieces of golf memorabilia.  Leaf has items such as golf clubs owned by Michael Jordan and tournament used clubs by Jack Nicklaus.  Click on the flyer below for all the details on the program.

Topps Offering Up A 2012 Inception Football Preview

Inception was new to collectors last year, and I believe it was one of the nicest looking sets Topps issued.  There are plenty of on-card autographs, thick card stock (even on the base), and the price isn’t terribly bad.  Products like this are usually my favorite to open because they offer a quick thrill.  When the actual product is released, the 2012 rookies will be in their NFL uniforms.  The silver ink on the black backgrounds look amazing.  If you can’t afford an expensive product like Five Star, Inception gives you a great alternative.

These would much better if they were on-card.

An Early Look At 2012 Ignite Racing

Ignite is a new product Press Pass plans to release in May of this year.  Collectors will find (20) packs per box with (5) cards per pack.  Boxes will contain (2) “hits” – (1) autographed memorabilia card and (1) memorabilia card.  This will be the first set to include all new 2012 photography.  You can look for Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie cards and autographs as well.  Ignite will also introduce the first autographed quadruple relic cards entitled Supercharged Signatures.