Card of the Day: 1999 Original Hand-Painted Baseball Art by Monty Sheldon – Sandy Koufax #20

Card of the Day: Cliff Lee 2010 Topps National Chicle Monty Sheldon Artist’s Proof Auto

Card of the Day: Monty Sheldon Artball Painter 2015 Topps Custom Promo Card

Monty Sheldon & Piece of the Game’s Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces Are Coming This Spring

All good things are worth waiting for.  Originally scheduled to be released last November, Piece of the Game and Monty Sheldon’s Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces is now planned to go live near the end of March.

This is truly a unique product.  Only (15) cases will be produced.  Housed inside each case are (10) game-used, autographed, and hand-painted baseballs.  Monty Sheldon is the artistic genius behind all of the original artwork.  He’s been using baseballs as a medium for over twenty years.  You probably recognize his name from the various projects he’s worked on for Topps.  Some of his baseballs were even included in 2017 Topps Transcandent.

They went all out on the packaging too.  Every baseball comes packaged in an LED lit maple or ash wooden box.  Very high-end stuff.

(150) baseballs make up the entire set.  When it comes to the main player set, each player will have (6) baseballs – (3) portrait shots and (3) action shots.  There are also rookie balls, and dual signed hand-painted balls as well.

Somewhere within the (15) cases there will be a Babe Ruth authentic autographed, and hand-painted baseball.  We have yet to see this one, but I bet it will be really cool looking.

Wondering about documentation?  They’ve got you covered.  Each baseball comes with a hologram and serial number which will allow you to look-up in their database to see that specific baseball’s identity.  MLB Debut Balls, Triples, Doubles, Singles, RBI’s, Fouls, Pitch In Dirt, Record Breaking Hits, Playoff Hits, and Defense Play baseballs are all in here.

Cases have been allocated to Steel City Collectibles, Blowout Cards, Layton Sports Cards, GTS Distribution, and Ripping Wax.  A single case will run about $36,000.  Group break spots have been selling for about $3,600.  I’m really interested to see how these perform on the secondary market.

Updated Sales Sheet – Page 1, Page 2.

Win This Mickey Mantle Hand-Painted Autographed Baseball

If you have Twitter, this is a contest that you need to get in on.  Piece of the Game is giving away the Mickey Mantle ball from their Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces product.  Authenticated by JSA, this autographed baseball also features the artwork of renowned sports artist Monty Sheldon.  In order to be eligible for the contest, all you need to do is follow Piece of the Game on Twitter and retweet this tweet.  You can get (50) additional entries if you purchase a spot in a break of this product from any of the qualifying retailers too.  The contest ends 1/21/19.  Good luck!

Expected to be released near the end of March, Piece of the Game’s Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces features actual game-used baseballs, autographed, authenticated, and hand-painted by one of the greatest modern day sports artists Monty Sheldon.  It truly is a unique product that we haven’t seen before.

On a side note, don’t forget to take the 2018 Sports & Entertainment Collectibles Hobby Awards Survey.  When you get to the section “Favorite Collector Blog” be sure to vote for Sports Card Info.  Thanks!

Piece of the Game & Monty Sheldon Prepare Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces

Update

• This product has been pushed back until March, 2019.

Alright you high-end baseball collectors.  Mark your calendars.  On Black Friday, 11/23/18, a new product will be hitting the market.  Sports artist Monty Sheldon has teamed-up with Piece of the Game to bring you Baseball Authenticated Masterpieces.

Only (15) boxes of this product will be produced.  Housed inside each individually numbered, maple and ash box, will be (10) autographed, game-used, and hand-painted baseballs.  These just aren’t foul balls and wild pitch game-used baseballs either.  They’ve included MLB debut balls, triples, doubles, singles, RBI’s, record breaking hits, playoff hits and defensive play baseballs from current MLB superstars, rookies, and Hall of Famers.  Every baseball comes with a MLB hologram certifying that the ball was in fact game-used by that specific player.  Authentication holograms for the autographs and artwork will also be included.  All baseballs are #’ed 1/1.  An example of a historic baseball would be Ronald Acuña Jr.’s first MLB double ball.  That’s in here.  Painted and already autographed.

The checklist features the best of the best.  Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Derek Jeter to just name a few.  Even Babe Ruth is in here.  That’s correct.  You did not misread.  One of these (15) boxes will have an authentic, hand-painted, and autographed Babe Ruth ball.

Main set players will each have (3) different portrait and action baseballs.  Rookie Balls and Dual Balls can also be found.  Rookies include Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres, and Shohei Ohtani.  Dual Balls pair guys like Chipper Jones/John Smoltz, Craig Biggio/Jeff Bagwell, and Xander Boegarts/Mookie Betts.  All hand-painted, game-used, and autographed.

If you attended the 2018 National Sports Collectors Convention, you could’ve gotten an early glimpse of these amazing baseballs.  Monty Sheldon has been using baseballs as a medium for his artwork for over two decades.  You’ve probably seen his work in various Topps products.  Last year, (10) of his painted baseballs were used in Topps Transcendent.

Paul Goldschmidt

Monty Sheldon’s 2017 Topps Transcendent MLB Artballs

For a mere $27,000 you could own and open a hand-crafted wooden box of 2017 Topps Transcendent.  It doesn’t get much more high-end than this.  When you’re spending that kind of money there really isn’t a bad box.  What can you pull from a box that costs as much as a new car?  According to the sales sheet every box will contain the following:

• (1) complete set of Transcendent Icons Base Cards
• (1) complete set of Transcendent MLB Moments Sketch Card Reproductions
• (50) Transcendent Collection Autograph Cards – numbered to (25) or less
• (1) Aaron Judge Topps History Autograph Card #’ed 1/1
• (1) MVP Cut Signature or MVP Autograph or MVP Dual Autograph #’ed 1/1
• (1) Transcendent Moments Sketch Card or Authentic MLB Baseball Sketch #’ed 1/1
• (1) Oversized Cut Signature Card #’ed 1/1
• (1) Hank Aaron VIP Experience Invitation

1987 Topps Baseball has a heavy presence through the entire set.  The wood grain design is somehow incorporated into almost all of the cards.  Only (87) boxes will be produced.  That’s up from (65) last year.

Everything about this product looks awesome.  But what impresses me the most is the artwork.  Artist Dan Bergren did the sketch cards, while Mayumi Seto and Monty Sheldon created the baseballs.

Monty Sheldon has been making his world famous Artballs for awhile, but this is the first time any of them have been included within a product.  These just aren’t regular baseballs either.  They’re actual game-used baseballs, and come with certification from Major League Baseball.  Mayumi Seto and Monty Sheldon both did (10) baseballs each.  That leaves (67) sketch cards from Dan Bergren.

The baseballs Monty Sheldon did include Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, Adrian Beltre, Clayton Kershaw, Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rizzo, Eric Hosmer, and Mike Trout.  Both the Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger baseballs come affixed with the official “RC” logo.  The sweet spot was even left blank just in case you’re ever able to get that player’s autograph.  Talk about a truly unique collectible.

Monty Sheldon’s 2016 Topps MLS Sketch Patch Card Gallery

Hand-drawn sketch cards, especially ones containing a multi-colored swatch, are some of my favorite modern day cards.  In addition to Gypsy Queen this year, sports artist Monty Sheldon contributed his talent to 2016 Topps Major League Soccer too.  There are (10) sketch patch cards inserted within ’16 Topps MLS, and Monty Sheldon drew all of them.  Each card is numbered “1 of 1” and is incredibly difficult to pull.  I think they look absolutely stunning.  I like how the patch seems to be shinning a beam of light on the player.  Even though this product was released in April, I’ve only seen two of these cards arrive on the secondary market – Obafemi Martins and Federico Higuain.

Monty Sheldon’s 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Original Art Patch Card Gallery

When Topps revived the Gypsy Queen brand in 2011, they introduced collectors to the Original Art Patch Card.  These are by far some of the nicest looking modern day cards.  I always enjoy hand-drawn cards the most, and these come with a multi-colored patch.  Its definitely not something you see done all the time.  Maybe once a year at the most.

With 2016 Gypsy Queen releasing on 4/6, I’d like to show you all (37) Original Art Patch Cards that you’ll have the chance to pull.  Every single card was drawn by sports artist Monty Sheldon.  They look great!  Monty has really outdone himself this time.  Any of these cards could easily be considered the centerpiece of someone’s collection.  Each card is a one-of-one, and is incredibly difficult to pull.  Congrats to anyone that gets one.

According to Topps, many of these masterpieces have been shipped out within the product.  A few of them might come as a redemption.  Either way it doesn’t really matter.  Topps has them already, and are ready to ship.  They shouldn’t take long to arrive.

The checklist this year includes top guys like Ken Griffey, Jr., Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, and Maikel Franco.  Click on each image for a closer look.

Card of the Day: Monty Irvin 1952 Topps #26