Sports Card Info Turns 7 Today

Thanks For The Support!

“Pin-Up” of the Week: Brooklyn Cyclones 7/5/14 Celebrating 25 Years Of Nothing Pin

If this doesn’t scream pop-culture, I don’t know what will.  On 7/5/14, the Brooklyn Cyclones (Short-Season A affiliate of the New York Mets) celebrated the 25th anniversary of the show Seinfeld.  Attendees to the game received a Keith Hernandez “Magic Loogie” bobblehead.  In case you’ve never seen the show, Hernandez appeared in an episode or two in the winter of 1992.

In addition to the bobblehead, the Cyclones also produced this pin that could only be purchased during that specific game.  It features the Cyclones name designed to look like the Seinfeld logo.  The pin even contains the name “Vandelay Industries Park”.  The Cyclones actually play in MCU Park, but Vandelay Industries fits this pin well as it was the fictional company made up by George Costanza.

This pin makes a great addition to any baseball pin or Seinfeld collection.  Fans can find them for $20.00.

Little League Celebrates 75 Years

This year Little League Baseball celebrates it’s 75th anniversary.  Ya know what that means?  Commemorative stuff!  Little League recently unveiled their official 75th anniversary logo which has already begun to show up on merchandise including pins.  Pins are a big deal when it comes to the Little League World Series.  Almost every sponsor and many of the businesses in Williamsport issue some type of commemorative pin during the Little League World Series.  With this being their 75th anniversary, I’m sure collectors can look for even more pins this year.

As of right now, there are two 75th anniversary pins available.  The first one (pictured above) is your standard $5.00 pin that can be picked up in their gift shop.  The other is a special version that comes in their 75th anniversary membership package that runs for $50.00.

Sports Card Info Celebrates 6 Years!

Today is Sports Card Info’s 6th anniversary.  A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I guess you could say it all started when eBay allowed users to write guides covering all kinds of topics.  How To Spot Fake Sports Cards That Are For Sale was the first guide I put together.  That spawned a bunch of other sports card related guides, and then I decided to start my own blog.  I would like to thank Panini, Press Pass, In The Game, Atlanta Sports Cards, Lil’ Teammates, Sports Card Album, and OYO Sportstoys for supporting Sports Card Info.  I would also like to thank everyone that stops by here everyday to check out the Card of the Day and/or enter the latest contest(s).  Six years ago the hobby saw a surge in sports memorabilia blogs.  Over time many of them flamed out, but a few still remain.  Blogging on a regular basis takes dedication, and not everyone is able to do it.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

ITG Brings Back The Ultimate Memorabilia SuperBox For This Year’s National

According to Dr. Prices’s blog, it looks like In The Game will bring back its Ultimate Memorabilia SuperBox for the National Sports Collectors Convention that begins later this month.  This marks the second year in a row for them to do so.  This year’s SuperBox applies to ITG’s Ultimate Memorabilia 12th Edition hockey product.  ITG has only made 100 UM-12 SuperBoxes for the National this year.

Each UM-12 SuperBox will contain a 1/1 Extra Card inserted into UM-12 boxes and in addition the UM-12 National SuperBoxes can be redeemed at The National for a 1/1 Redemption Card.

Extra Card – Each UM-12 Ultimate Memorabilia SuperBox will contain an Enshrined Memorabilia Card made specifically for the 34th National.  Every Enshrined Memorabilia Card will contain a relic from a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.  Oh ya!  These are all numbered 1/1 too.

Redemption – The UM-12 Ultimate Memorabilia SuperBox itself can be redeemed for a special 1/1 Enshrined Dual Game-Used Memorabilia Card featuring two members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

If you’re having trouble finding one of these UM-12 Ultimate Memorabilia National SuperBoxes, shoot ITG an e-mail at: info@itgtradingcards.com and put National SuperBox in the subject line.  Arrangements can be made to ship your SuperBox for pick-up in Chicago if you act quickly.

ITG’s Ultimate Memorabilia 12th Edition is a super high-end hockey product that costs around $600.00 per box.  Its not for your average hockey collector.  Don’t worry, ITG will have more promotional programs that involve their other products which don’t cost quite as much to take part in.

Two Years Ago Today We Lost Our Friend Harry

Two years ago today Phillies fans lost their beloved Hall of Fame broadcaster, Harry Kalas.  I’m a huge fan of his, and thats why I’d like to show off my personal collection of Kalas cards.  In addition to these cards, I have two bobbleheads, HK pin, and an autographed bat.  I’m always on the lookout for more Kalas stuff.

There is a Harry Kalas Memorial Statue in the works, and the Phillies have accepted it as a gift.  I can’t wait to see it.

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Classic Signatures Spot Red Ink Auto #’ed 1/25

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Signatures Blue Ink Auto #’ed 1/50

2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Auto

2004 Fleer Greats of the Game – Announcing Greats

2010 Monty Sheldon Harry Kalas Sketch card #’ed 1/1

Ten Years After Y2K

Ten years ago at this time I guess people realized the world wasn’t going to come to an end.  People made too much of a big deal out of Y2K.  In 1999 there were companies left and right trying to make a buck off the year 2000.  Card manufacturers even had products featuring the Y2K craze.  Below are my two favorite Y2K cards which were made well after 2000.  I wonder if they have any plans for 2012?

Most collectors should be familiar with Upper Deck’s 20th Anniversary set which features many events in history over the past 20 years.

This is the best picture I could find of this card.  It features the Griffin family in their Y2K bunker.  Inkworks created this set back in 2006.

My Top 6 New Year’s Themed Cards

Whenever a holiday rolls around, I like to see if there are any cards floating around The Hobby which contain the theme of that specific day.  I thought I might have a difficult time with New Year’s, but it wasn’t that hard.  Christmas by far is the holiday that has the most trading cards.  After digging around, I was able to come up with my Top 6 New Year’s Themed Cards.

#1 – 1941 War Gum #24: Gum, Inc created a ton of cards between 1938 and 1941 that dealt with WWII.  This one depicts the Luzon Repels New Year’s Push.

#2 – 1999 Upper Deck Encore 2K Countdown: These were randomly inserted into packs of ’99 UD Encore Baseball.  They fall 1:11 packs.  The word “countdown” has been used a lot with cards.

#3 – 1995 Skybox Impact Countdown: This is a 10-card set that features all horizontal cards.  They fall 1:30 packs.

#4 – 2002 Atomic Countdown to Stardom: The Atomic brand is no longer around, but Pacific did create some great looking inserts.  These fall about 1:11 packs.

#5 – 1997 Pacific Fireworks Die Cuts: What would New Year’s be without fireworks?  These condition sensitive die cuts look cool and fall 1:73 packs.

#6 – Dick Clark 1993 American Bandstand: It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without America’s oldest teenager.  This card comes from an American Bandstand set.

As you can see, there are a bunch of cards that you could say have a New Year’s theme.  I’m sure there are a ton more, especially from products such as “Turn Back the Clock”.  I could see Upper Deck including a piece of the ball that drops in New York City into their Piece of History product next year 🙂

Sports Card Info Turns Two!!!

Today Sports Card Info turns two years old.  Two years ago today I started Sports Card Info over on Blogger, but for some crazy reason Google shut me down because they thought I was spam.  I originally started SCI because I wanted to link from the Beckett Message Boards to some of the guides I had written on cards.  Since Beckett wouldn’t allow users to have a link in their signature to eBay, I had to move some of my popular guides over to Blogger.  In May of 2008 I moved the site over to WordPress since I was shut down and the site has grown steadily ever since.  Thanks to the now retired Mario from Wax Heaven, I have been able to obtain new products from Press Pass, TRISTAR, and hopefully Upper Deck soon to review and use for contests.  Wax Heaven gave me some great ideas to help further improve my blog.  Blowout Cards is now an official sponsor of SCI too.  In return for displaying their logo in the sidebar, they give exposure to specific blog posts I send to them.  When I started blogging two years ago I never thought I would be teaming up with manufacturers and distributors.  As of right now, SCI has received well over 100,000 total hits and averages about 400 visitors per day.  2009 was a great year for SCI and I hope 2010 goes even better.  I’d like to thank everyone that has visited this year and has taken part in many of the contests.

The Early Years Can Be Confusing

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is how relics have been labled once they are placed into cards.  When Upper Deck introduced the first jersey relics back in 1997, everyone thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Companies then started to introduce multi-colored patches that just blew the plain colored jerseys out of the water.  One thing that a majority of the  manufacturers did was keep the lable exactly the same for patches as they did for jerseys.  At the time this was ok, but in today’s hobby with all the fraud many counterfeiters take advantage of this opportunity.  Take this Nolan Ryan 2001 Leaf Certified Materials Fabric of the Game patch for example.  Donruss made patches for this set, but labled them “Authentic Game-Worn Jersey”.  Most if not all patch cards made today say “patch” or “prime-jersey”.  Usually if you see a patch card today that says “jersey” it makes you want to stop and think.  This is just one of those little things you need to know before bidding on that special patch relic.  Depending on the set and year, that patch may be real even though it may show signs on being fake.