The Upper Deck Awards!

Upper Deck is really embracing social media and the blogosphere by holding the first Upper Deck Awards.  Its your turn to nominate your favorite blog, forum,  product, collector, etc….

The winner of “Best Blog” will receive a trophy, variety of unopened product, and a 2009 NFL Rookie Photo Shoot signed football.  I think this shows how powerful blogging has become and its a great idea.  Be sure to vote for Sports Card Info!!!  You can submit your nomination on Upper Deck’s Facebook Fan Page.  Nominations are this week and voting starts next week.

Do not submit your nomination/vote via Twitter.  The @upperdeckawards Twitter account was a fake.

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This would look nice sitting on my shelf 🙂

Topps Embracing Social Media

It has only been a few days since James O’Hara took the role of CEO over at Topps and you can already see positive improvements with the company.  You can now follow Topps on Twitter and today they launched their Facebook Fan Page.  I’m glad to see Topps finally embracing social media in order to learn more about their customers and receive feedback on their products.  I’ve been able to easily get in contact with them via Twitter if I have any questions.

A Look At Ryan O’Hara: Topps Gets A Social Media Upgrade

Yesterday, Topps announced that Ryan O’Hara would become its new CEO.  Departing is Scott Silverstein who has been with Topps since 1993 and will stay on the Topps board.

O’Hara holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.  This guy has spent so much time in school, he probably hasn’t opened a single pack of trading cards in his life…… just joking 🙂  O’Hara is coming over from TV Guide and TVGuide.com and in the past has worked for Nestle and Fox Sports.  Having worked for Nestle could possibly help Topps out with their candy business and working for Fox Sports means that he’s not totally lost when it comes to sports.

One area that I’d like to see O’Hara succeed in at Topps is their social media division.  O’Hara is one person that truly embraces social media and marketing.  This is one place that Topps drastically needs to make some improvements in.  Topps does send some products out to a few websites other than Beckett, but other than that, they really fall short of what some of the other manufacturers are doing.  They do have Topps Town and that iPhone card flipping app, but other than a few Tweets every now and then they don’t do anything too spectacular.  Don’t even get me started on the augmented reality stuff your suppose to do with a webcam.

On March 1, O’Hara will start as the CEO of Topps, and it will be interesting to see what changes he can bring with him.

What type of changes would you like to see at Topps?  For one thing, cover up the redemption codes so people can’t use them and then place the redemptions up for sale!

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Sports Card Info Is Getting An Upgrade

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Sports Card Info will be getting an upgrade very soon.  Last night I placed an order for a brand new webcam so I can share pack/box breaks with everyone.  This is the first time I have ever used a webcam so its going to be exciting.  Be sure to keep reading Sports Card Info so you can view its first video.

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On a side note, The Cardboard Connection has launched its new online social networking platform for collectors.  Sports Card Info is one of the main contributors to the website and you can view its profile here.  If you feel like signing up, click on the crazy looking logo on the right sidebar to fill out the form.  Over the last few months I have seen The Cardboard Connection grow quite a bit into an awesome place for collectors to gather.  Be sure to check it out, Mike Smith has put a lot of time, effort, and money into it.

How sports cards help the world

Sports cards are one of the best learning tools in the world.  Think about it for a moment.  They teach, reading, hand-eye coordination, organizational skills, money management, and how to interact with other people.   

I remember opening my first pack of baseball cards back in the early 90’s, right when I was starting school.  These cards really helped me learn how to read and write.  Since I was so young I really didn’t recognize the pictures of the players but in order for me to figure out who they were I had to learn how to read. 

Sports cards are also great tools for hand-eye coordination.  Have you ever seen a pack of cards?  As the years have gone by, packs have become more and more complicated to open.  Years ago, packs of cards used to by wrapped in wax.  It wasn’t too hard to open the back and pull the cards out.  In today’s world, packs come in foil, boxes, clamshell casing, etc……  Trying to open these packs can be great practice with your hand-eye coordination, especially for younger kids.  Also, have you ever tried getting a card into a penny sleeve?  Sometimes it can be difficult to get a card in a sleeve and then place it in a top loader.

If you were like me when I was young, I just put my cards in an old shoebox and put it in my closet.  Over the years when I got more and more into collecting, I knew that I would need to develope organizational skills so I knew where I could find my cards.  Now, I don’t use shoeboxes at all.  I have boxes for my baseball and foootball cards.  Each sport is separated and is no longer mixed.  Since I am a Phillies and Dolphins fan I keep those cards in a special place I can get to fast.  If you are just getting into collecting and your worried you won’t be able to stay organized, don’t worry, you will develope the organizational skills as you go along.  Thats what happened to me.

Money is what makes the world go around.  Collecting sports cards will really teach you money management.  It can help you learn how to save for a special card that you plan to buy.  Collecting can also help you learn how to sell something and make money.  If your lucky, and have a card shop near where you live, collecting can teach you about how a business works.

Collecting cards can provide a great social experience.  It doesn’t matter whether you buy, sell, or trade, you will need to interact with people to acquire the cards you want.  You can interact with them in person or over the internet.  Card collecting can bring people out of their shell.  Some people are very quiet, but when you touch a subject that they are interested in they could talk all day about it.

As you can see, card collecting has a ton of benefits.  They can teach a lot that you need to survive in the world.  There aren’t too many things in the world that are fun to do, and helps you learn at the same time.