2012 Press Pass Rookie Football Preview

Ever since Press Pass didn’t get their college license renewed, I haven’t been too thrilled about their football products.  This year they are going to kick it up a notch by making football versions of their popular NASCAR products such as FanFare and Showcase.  I think they’ll do well, but not as good as a product that can take advantage of college logos.  They could take a play out of Leaf’s book, and make a unique product that is made from a totally different perspective where logos don’t matter.  2012 Press Pass Rookie Football probably isn’t a product like that, but rest assured these autographs will be hot when they first come out.

In a press release, Press Pass stated they have signed Andrew Luck to an exclusive autograph agreement.  Press Pass will be the only manufacturer to have Andrew Luck unlicensed autographs.  Don’t worry, Luck will be in all the licensed college and NFL stuff.  Exclusives for unlicensed cards isn’t that big of a deal anyway.  As soon as the licensed stuff hits the secondary market, unlicensed cards take a major dive.  Exclusive or not, that’s what happens.  The last time I checked, Leaf was planning to have Luck cards too.  Leaf has a loop-hole though.  They don’t have a collegiate or NFL license, but they can use U.S. Army All-American photos.

2012 Press Pass Rookie Football is due out on March 21st.  Each box will contain (6) autographs.  FanFare, due out on May 9th, will have an autograph in each pack.  The base autographs will be featured on “chromium” technology.  I hope this looks something like Leaf Metal or the base cards found in 2009 Press Pass Stealth.  Showcase, which will be released in June, will feature the high-end type of “hits” you would find in their NASCAR product.

Leaf President Brian Gray’s Response To The Andrew Luck Prismatic Errors

In case you didn’t notice, all the Andrew Luck Leaf Prismatic auctions were closed today.  Below is Leaf President Brian Gray’s response to the errors.

“We appreciate the feedback on the recent Metal Andrew Luck cards which included spelling errors. I am embarrassed over these oversights and I would like to apologize on behalf of LEAF that these errors occurred.

These were printed as part of a much larger job and were only one card on a 100 card sheet. With that being said, there is still no excuse for this error..

In an effort to address this issue in the most responsible manner:

1> We have removed all listings for auction style cards featuring this error. This includes ALL parallels. All bids are cancelled and the cards will be destroyed!

2> We have discontinued selling the error version of the Luck Prismatic. We WILL ship the 39 copies sold last night, but will be destroying the rest of the copies immediately. Therefore, while the cards are numbered to 350, only 39 cards will be released. We will only ship cards #1/350 to 39/350.

3> We have (at great expense) stopped the presses mid-production and added this card to our Metal Football Draft print job. We WILL be reprinting these cards with corrections made. These cards will be made available on ebay in the next 10 days for shipment approximately February 7th. These corrected versions will be made available similar to the manner error versions were.

4> The base version of the Luck card has no errors and will continue to be made available continuously until the production run is sold out.

5> We will allow any collectors who wish to swap their “error” prismatic the opportunity to swap for corrected versions…

I am pleased we found this solution to any concerns over the errors on these cards.

Once again, I personally apologize to both collectors and Andrew for these errors and hope this resolution resolves open concerns..
Brian”

I think this was handled very well.  You probably wouldn’t get that kind of response that fast from another manufacturer.  So, who are those lucky collectors that are getting one of the errors?

Leaf Produces Andrew Luck’s First Licensed Cards

Leaf has produced Andrew Luck’s first licensed football cards.  Leaf is selling them on eBay, and if your interested in purchasing one click here.  Luck was the Heisman Trophy runner up two years in a row, and will be one of the NFL’s next top prospects.

Collectors have a wide variety of choices when it comes to purchasing one of these cards.  Leaf made some limited to 500 copies all the way down to 1.  People are going nuts over them already, and they aren’t even autographed.

• Luck U.S. Army Metal Super Prismatic #’ed/1
• Luck U.S. Army Metal Red Prismatic #’ed/25
• Luck U.S. Army Metal Blue Prismatic #’ed/50
• Luck U.S. Army Metal Green Prismatic #’ed/89
• Luck U.S. Army Metal Prismatic #’ed/350
• Luck U.S. Army #’ed/500

Leaf is planning to have autographs later.  It wasn’t too long ago that an Andrew Luck Leaf Executive Collection Cut Signature sold for $1,000.00.  What can I say?  Collectors love Leaf’s products.

***Update***

Leaf has closed the auctions on the Luck Prismatic cards due to a few spelling errors.  I wonder if any misspellings found their way out? 🙂

Card of the Day: Andrew Luck 2011 S.I. For Kids #33