Card of the Day: John Elway 1997 Pinnacle #9

Card of the Day: John Elway 1995 Action Packed #14

How To Spot A Fake John Elway 1984 Topps #63 Rookie Card

John Elway and Dan Marino are the two key rookie cards when it comes to the 1984 Topps Football set.  Eric Dickerson, Howie Long, and Dwight Stephenson aren’t far behind.

Here are some tips on spotting a counterfeit John Elway 1984 Topps #63 RC:

• Image Quality – Counterfeits tend to have a blurry, fuzzy, pixelated quality to them.  Its actually not uncommon for authentic cards to have a snowy-look to them as a result of a printing defect.  Another printing defect found on some authentic cards includes a small bubble around Elway’s fingers.
• Card Stock – Counterfeit examples in many cases are printed on much thinner card stock.  When placed side-by-side the counterfeit tends to be half the thickness compared to the original.  Thin white edges are a pure sign of a counterfeit.
• Black Border – Its not the easiest factor to spot, but the black border on a counterfeit can have very sharp 90-degree angles to them.  Authentic examples have a black border with a bit softer/rounded angles.
• Blue Line – Some counterfeits contain a blue line within the Broncos logo on the front.  Right beneath the horse.  Originals do not have this.
• Centering – Authentic examples are known to be off-center.  Counterfeits like to look as perfect as possible.  If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Remember, not every counterfeit John Elway 1984 Topps #63 RC will have all of these features.  Topps did issue genuine reprints over the years.  A majority of the reprints up for sale were not issued by Topps though.  A lot of these counterfeit cards are now being sold as genuine reprints.

Card of the Day: John Elway 2015 Topps Dynasty Auto Patch Parallel #’ed/5

Card of the Day: John Elway / Jerry Rice 2013 UD SPx Shadow Box Duos

Card of the Day: John Elway 2012 Panini Certified Elway Collection Patch Auto

Card of the Day: Bradford/Manning/Elway 2010 Topps Magic Triple Auto

Card of the Day: Favre/Elway/Marino 2000 Donruss Pen Pals Auto

John Elway’s Baseball Cards

There are a lot of multi-sport athletes for collectors to find wondering around The Hobby.  People like Jim Thorpe, Deon Sanders, Brian Jordan, and Bo Jackson are some of the people that first come to mind.  One that people usually don’t think about right away is John Elway.  When you first hear the name John Elway most people think of the Broncos and nothing else.  But during the early 80’s, Elway played minor league ball for the Yankees organization up in Oneonta New York.  Like many players, he has a minor league “rookie” made by TCMA which demands a strong price on the secondary market.  For many Elway collectors its one of his most expensive cards, even more than a card containing a certified autograph.

 

How many Elway collectors would love to see a buyback autograph of this 1982 TCMA minor league “rookie”?

1999 Just Minors included a painted card of Elway in his minor league uniform.  These still sell for a few bucks a piece, which is a lot for a card like this.

 

In 2005, Topps released a popular product called Fan Favorites which contained a nice surprise for most Elway fans.  It was a card containing Elway in his Stanford uniform.  Not only is there a base version, but an autographed one too.  These demand a very high price because they are so difficult to find. 

 

That brings us to 2009, where Press Pass Fusion has included autographs of John Elway in his Stanford uniform as well.  These will be by far some of the most hot items out of this product.

 

This image on the Fusion card looks like a zoomed in version of the Fan Favorites.

John Elway doesn’t have that many baseball cards, and I’m glad to see that Press Pass included images of him in both baseball and football uniforms.  Now we just need a minor league jersey relic of Elway.  I guess we’ll leave that up to TRISTAR.  Thats if they get their MiLB license renewed.  But thats a whole other subject 🙂

Revisiting 1997 Upper Deck Legends Football

North Las Vegas, NV (December 15, 2008) – When Upper Deck released its 1997 Legends Football set, it changed the industry forever. Collectors fell in love with the set for the simple, yet classic design, its incredible value, and the opportunity it presented to pull autograph cards from some of the greatest players in the game.

Something was missing in the set, however. Where were the current superstars? Players like John Elway, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman and others were not included in the original set. Collectors will have their first opportunity to add those players to their 1997 Legends set when 2008 Ultimate Collection Football releases on February 11, 2009.

These new cards will have the same classic design as the ‘97 Legends set and all autographs will be hard-signed on the cards. These cards will also be numbered as part of the ‘97 set. Collectors can find one ‘97 Legends update autograph card per case on average.

“Collectors have been waiting for us to resurrect this set for some time,” said Brandon Miller, Upper Deck brand manager for football. “It was important enough to us that if we did it, we did it by providing collectors with the players who were not available on the initial checklist. Well, we’ve accomplished just that so football fans should be thrilled to add these cards to their set.