Lin’s autographed jersey auctioned for charity

Posted Feb 20, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 20, 2012 at 05:35 PM

If you have some extra cash to throw around—and who doesn’t, given today’s economic situation (insert laugh track here)—you can bid for the hottest piece of memorabilia in sports.

But you have to move quickly, since this auction ends Tuesday at noon.

The auction site CharityBuzz.com is selling the jersey worn by Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin on FEb. 10, the night he scored a career-high 38 points against the Lakers. Wait, there’s more. The jersey has been signed by Lin, too. Throw in four tickets to the Knicks’ game Wednesday against Atlanta at Madison Square Garden (Section 106, Row 11), and a meet-and-greet session with Lin after the game, and that’s quite a package.

The net proceeds for this item benefit The Garden of Dreams Foundation. As of Monday at 5 p.m., bidding was up to $31,388.

The Garden of Dreams Foundation, by the way, is a non-profit charity founded in 2006 that works closely with all areas of The Madison Square Garden Company, including the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, MSG Media, MSG Entertainment and Fuse “to make dreams come true for kids facing obstacles.”

The Lin jersey has received 30 bids. To compare, another item on CharityBuzz.com that ends Tuesday at 9 a.m. — two hospitality passes to watch the 2012 Masters practice rounds on April 2-3 — has had 18 bids and currently stands at $1,050.

The prices are crazy, but the money benefits a good cause. So that’s a good thing. Not sure how much higher the price will go, but there could be a flurry just before noon.

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Collect call: Donruss Elite Extra Edition

Posted Feb 17, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 18, 2012 at 12:38 AM

This year’s model has some of the same characteristics of that 2004 product, but not much. Oh, the distinctive Donruss Elite logo is evident, but the rest of the design is very stark. The player’s photograph is a cut-out, set against a shiny, glossy background. A semi-stenciled headline proclaims “Extra Edition” across the top of the card.

It’s a little too shiny for my liking, but others might find it attractive.

Because of licensing issues, you won’t find any major-league logos or team nicknames on these cards. All have been airbrushed, and the player is referred to like this: Josh Hamilton, Texas, outfield.

So this year’s checklist is thin on major-leaguers but heavy on prospects. There are 25 “commons,” or major-leaguers. The hobby box I sampled had 13 of the 25 players.

Each hobby box contains 20 packs, with five cards per pack. The real lure for this box are the six autographs sprinkled within those packs.

There are 90 prospect cards in the set, and the numbering system is a bit confusing. That’s because there are prospect cards numbered 1 through 100 and then 151 through 190. Cards numbered from 101 to 150 are autograph prospect cards. It seems to me that those cards easily could have been numbered 141 to 190, allowing all the prospect cards to be lumped together.

The six autographs in the box I looked at were on-sticker signatures, and there was a preference for signing with purple Sharpies — five of the six were purple. The sixth was a very thin green, for a Gabriel Rosa card that was numbered to 10. The other autos were from Keenyn Williams (White Sox), Chris Heston (Giants), David Herbek (White Sox), Danny Hultzen (Mariners) and Angelo Songco (Dodgers).

Songco’s signature, by the way, is one of the nicest I have ever seen by a baseball player.

There are several inserts, including Building Blocks, which depicts two, three and four players on a card.  Best Compared To inserts takes a prospect and matches his skill sets to a current major-leaguer. For example, prospect Sonny Gray has a similar build and delivery as Roy Oswalt.

Other inserts include Yearbook and Elite Series. There are also die-cut parallels of the base set, for collectors who love chase sets.

Not a bad set. The one negative were the four doubles from the “commons” set. Not a deal breaker, but I am greedy, I love awesome collation. This was close to being pretty good though.

And I can say that overall, this set is pretty good.

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Ruth is Topps Redemption card for Week 2

Posted Feb 17, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 17, 2012 at 04:00 PM

Topps announced its redemption card for Week 2 in the Home Run Legends Prime 9 program today, and this week’s choice is Babe Ruth.

Ruth joins Willie Mays, who was the first card announced in the promotion last Friday. Each week, for nine consecutive Fridays, Topps will reveal another player. Collectors then can bring their redemption card to a participating card shot and get an exclusive Topps Chrome Refractor of the Babe.

Redemption cards can be found in 2012 Topps Baseball Series 1 Hobby packs (1:18) and Jumbo packs (1:5). Each card is denoted by a Week number (1, 2, 3, etc.).

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Carter’s death a loss for baseball and for card collectors

Posted Feb 16, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 16, 2012 at 09:37 PM

The death of Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter on Thursday at age 57 due to brain cancer truly leaves a void among baseball fans — and card collectors, too.

I honestly can’t tell you if Carter’s love of collecting cards extended deep into his adult life, but the man I interviewed in March 1981 during spring training boasted a pretty awesome collection. Even by today’s standards, it would stack up pretty well.

I caught up with “The Kid” in West Palm Beach, where the Montreal Expos shared a spring training facility with the Atlanta Braves. I was a young sportswriter at The Stuart News on Florida’s east coast, a small paper located about 45 minutes north of Palm Beach County.

It was mid-morning on a lazy Sunday, and Carter was sitting in the third-base dugout with a reporter from Japan, who asked him to assess every pitching staff in the National League. I was waiting for an incredulous look, a rolling of the eyes or a refusal, but instead Carter happily went down the list of every NL pitching staff, not missing a beat. I thought to myself in an amused sort of way that the Expos were going to finish dead last, since Carter talked up every opposing rotation in glowing terms. And then he talked about the Expos, too, which then made me think the NL races were all going to end in a tie.

But my reason for talking with Carter that day had little to do with his credentials, which were becoming more pronounced by 1981 and would culminate in Hall of Fame numbers. Sure, Carter played for 19 years with the Expos, Mets, Giants and Dodgers. He was an 11-time All-Star and was that game’s MVP in 1981, hitting a pair of solo homers as baseball had ended its strike and was preparing for the second half of the season. Carter hit 324 homers and drove in 1,225 runs and won three Gold Gloves. Those numbers got him into Cooperstown in 2003.

I was interested in his baseball card collection.

When I asked Carter about it, his eyes lit up. He proudly told me he had complete sets of Topps cards from 1972 to 1980 and also from 1959 (the first set he ever completed) and that he owned between 15,000 and 20,000 cards. He told me his goal was to get complete sets from 1957 to the present. He chose 1957 because that was the first year Topps went to its current size of cards (cards from 1952 to 1956 were larger and in many cases, a lot clunkier).

“If I could reach that then I’d be satisfied,” he said.

I asked him that since he was a big collector, what his reaction was when he saw his first baseball card, a 1975 Topps rookie card he shared with catcher Marc Hill of the Giants, and Detroit Tigers outfielders Danny Meyer and Leon Roberts.

“I was elated,” he said, a big grin spreading across his face. “That was like a dream come true to see myself.

“That was one thing I wanted when I was collecting as a kid. I said ‘hey, it would be great to get myself on one of those cards one day — and that’s what happened.”

Carter wasn’t into collecting cards for the money, and remember, this was before the memorabilia boom, so prices were still fairly reasonable. He called his collection a scrapbook, to view men who were teammates and men he played against.

“I’ve got a Hank Aaron card that’s worth about $700 if you’re going by the price list,” Carter said, probably referring to Aaron’s 1954 Topps rookie card. “I don’t look at it that way. I don’t put a price on any of my cards, I don’t care who it is.”

Here are some card stats about Carter, courtesy of Chris Olds, the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Olds writes that Carter appears on 2,746 different cards. He signed 858 different certified cards and had 1,126 memorabilia cards. Carter’s most recent autograph cards were showcased in the 2011 Topps Tribute set; he had 10 different signed cards.

.You could tell Carter not only loved his cards, but also the game of baseball. During his career, particularly with the World Series champion Mets of 1986, Carter was mocked by his teammates as a goody-goody and a phony.  In addition to his “Kid” nickname, his teammates called him “Camera” because he was friendly with reporters and they believed he was self-promoting himself.

But as any Mets fans will tell you, it was Carter who started the legendary rally in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Carter singled with two outs and nobody on base and the Mets trailing 5-3, and got the ball rolling for one of the most improbable rallies in World Series history.

Earlier tonight, USA Today writer Mike Dodd quoted a comment made by former Mets infielder Wally Backman about Carter to Bergen Record columnist Bob Klapisch.

“We used to make fun of him, the way he’d sign every damn autograph. We had to hold the bus for him sometimes, because he didn’t know how to say no. He didn’t want to say no,” Backman told Klapisch. “But you know what? He was right. He really loved the game.”

I took a photo of Carter in the batting cage before I interviewed him that morning, and I snapped a picture tonight from an old scrapbook I have, which shows that particular photo and the headline written for the story. It’s here within this post, in all of its grainy black-and-white glory. Lousy photo then, lousy photo now. Photography was not my forte, but at a small newspaper you were expected to wear many hats.

I asked Carter some baseball questions too, and when we were done we shook hands. I turned to leave, already mentally writing my story, when the next interviewer stepped up. I almost fell over; it was Hall of Fame outfielder Duke Snider.

As I wrote at the time, “it’s one thing to dream of being a Hall of Famer; it’s quite another to be interviewed by one.”

 

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Topps Tribute including 100 extra Aaron buyback autographs

Posted Feb 16, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 16, 2012 at 05:06 PM

Topps Tribute was definitely a product on the rise last year, but it looks like it might even move to a higher level this year.

Topps announced Thursday that there will be an additional 100 Hank Aaron buyback autographed cards. All 100 cards will count as extra hits in the high-end product that will be released on March 7. A hobby box will contain three autographs and three relics, Topps officials said.

Aaron signing these extra cards is certain to spark more interest in the product. If you ever had the pleasure of watching Aaron hit a baseball (and I did during spring training when the Braves trained in West Palm Beach during the 1970), you’d never forget the sound of a home run hit off the bat of the Hammer.

I saw Aaron hit one in the first inning that started out just a few feet over the pitcher’s head, then kept rising and rising until it cleared the center-field fence — and in a hurry, too. And that hissing sound it made was incredible. I was 12, and I never forgot that sound.

So to have something signed by Aaron would be an absolute must in my book.

In addition to the news about Aaron, Topps also announced that every autograph and relic card will be encased with an authentication sticker attached. The Sandy Koufax photo running with this post serves as an example.

Topps also said that many of the 1/1 autographs will include inscriptions written by the players themselves, to go along with the autograph. In a way, you might say the player is personalizing the card just for you (although obviously, you’re not there to tell him what you really want him to write — but it’s the next best thing).

In addition to Aaron and Koufax, some of the other signers for Topps Tribute include Ernie Banks, Carl Yastrzemski, Albert Pujols, Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey Jr.

Not a bad lineup.

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2012 Topps Chrome will include interesting additions

Posted Feb 15, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 15, 2012 at 08:47 PM

We’ve only just begun collecting 2012 Topps Series 1 baseball, and of course we’re looking forward to Series 2. But Topps is already priming the collector for its glossier edition — the Chrome set, which has an Aug. 22 release date.

Topps released some images of this year’s Chrome set on Wednesday, and Rays fans can revel in the fact that pitcher Matt Moore will have a presence. Topps has tabbed him, along with Jesus Montero of the Mariners, as the key newcomers to showcase. Both will be among the 25 players who will have autographed rookie cards — signatures, by the way, that are on the card and not from a sticker. Love that.

This year’s Chrome set will have two autographed cards in each hobby box, plus a pair of die-cut insert subsets. There will be 220 base cards, and plenty of variations — autographed patches, blue, black, sepia, gold, red and atomic refractors. Hobby boxes also will include 1/1 printing plates, too. That’s a ton of variations, and if you’re a collector who enjoys the challenge of putting together a master set, well, this would be a set to tackle.

In addition to die-cuts, there is the two-sided Cut From the Same Cloth autographs set. This is a card signed on both sides by two different players and numbered to five. Topps is putting a theme to these cards; for example, top catchers are honored by the double-sided, double signed card of Joe Mauer and Buster Posey.

Dynamic Diecuts will highlight 50 players and will show up one per hobby box on average. And if you find one that is autographed, it will be numbered to 25 — or less.

Chrome has a certain appeal to collectors. Some are more traditional and enjoy the flagship Series 1 and 2 sets, but there are plenty of shiny card lovers. Topps is giving those collectors more reason to love those cards this year.

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Would you own a Hitler autograph card?

Posted Feb 14, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 14, 2012 at 09:46 PM

I’m going to jump out of sports tonight and dive into history, since it is one of my passions. Particularly American history and U.S. presidents.

I’ve already discussed the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW product being put out by In The Game, which is certainly an interesting product about the men who have occupied the White House. But now I find that Leaf has done the same thing (and yes, forgive me for being late to the game on this one, since there already has been some lively discussion about it on several sportscard boards).

The 2012 Oval Office Cut Signature set is being released this month, and it’s way above high end. One card to a pack, and one card to a box. Each pack will have a presidential cut signature, and some will have two. Only about 275 boxes will be produced, although on its sell sheet, Leaf officials noted that the production quantity might be far less. Each card will numbered to 5 or less.

Leaf president Brian Gray released a similar product in 2008 when he was with Razor, called Oval Office Cut Signatures. Those packs went for $2,500. Wow. I am guessing four figures for this product, too.

I’m not sure how I’d feel if I spent that much money and pulled a Franklin Pierce signature, for example. Or one of Chester Alan Arthur.

The 2012 Oval Office set will feature a cut signature of every U.S. president, plus dual autographs that include running mates, spouses, or historic figures that were synonymous with that particular president.

It’s that last feature that has generated the most discussion. While some of the pairings are well thought out — Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee on the same card is a masterstroke — at least one card has come under fire, although I am surprised a second one hasn’t at least raised a few eyebrows.

That is a dual cut signature card of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler. Oh my. Ohhh, my. The second is the dual signature card of George H.W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.

No, there is not an Osama bin Laden autograph in the set. Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela? Yes.

The Hitler signature presents a moral dilemma for a collector. Directly or indirectly, Hitler was responsible for millions of deaths from 1933 to 1945, and his wish to exterminate people of the Jewish faith was horrific. So, if you unwrap a pack and find the FDR/Hitler signature card, what do you do? Keep it? Sell it? Throw it away? If cost was not an issue, would you boycott a product like this out of principle? Or would you buy it regardless?

It wouldn’t be a moral issue for me. It would be domestic — my wife would kill me if I spent that much for any pack of cards.

But I’d like to know what you think. Do you believe such a card is an intriguing slice of history, or a tasteless move? Or something in between?

 

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Linsanity in the Knick of time for Panini

Posted Feb 13, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 14, 2012 at 12:09 AM

It’s no secret that as hot as Jeremy Lin has been on the court this season, his rookie cards have been even hotter. You might remember last week’s news of the high prices his rookie autograph relic cards were fetching.

Well, it looks like the NBA lockout was a blessing in disguise for Panini America. Because of the lockout, the Feb. 29 release of the 2011-12 Hoops Basketball set enabled Panini to rush a Lin card into production that shows him in his New York Knicks uniform.

It will be Lin’s first card in a New York uniform; all of his rookie cards last year show him wearing Golden State Warriors garb. There will be a base card and an autograph card of the point guard who has led the Knicks to five straight wins since becoming a starter

It’s only the start. You can be certain that Panini will push Lin hard in its other NBA product this year. Preferred will be the next card set after Hoops. If Lin continues to shine, his marquee — and market value will continue to climb.

It’s the kind of boost that both the NBA and Panini didn’t expect, but are more than happy to play up.

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Collect Call: 2011 Panini Football Plates & Patches

Posted Feb 13, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 13, 2012 at 11:11 PM

There’s a small burgundy box inside the main package when you open Panini America’s new Plates & Patches football set. But once you break the seal, that burgundy box can produce some big hits.

These are the kind of sets that high-end collectors love: 1/1 printing plates, cut autographs of NFL legends, and autograph/relic cards of the game’s current stars. That’s hard to resist, even with a $150 suggested retail price. There are 10 cards in that little box, but five of them are pretty good hits.

Panini guarantees three autographs, one memorabilia card and either another auto or relic card.

The box I opened had two memorabilia cards: Card No. 1, a Joe Flacco white piece of a game-used uniform numbered to 299; and a Rookie Blitz card of Saints running back Mark Ingram, also numbered to 299. The swatch on Ingram’s card is is black and a good size, too.

Now, the autographs. The first one is a redemption RPS Rookie Signatures card of Titus Young. Great pull, but you will have to wait for the card. And I will repeat what I said in an earlier blog post tonight; as a collector, when you pay a good chunk of change for a box, you want instant gratification. I do understand the theory behind redemptions, the company has to get a card in the player’s hand to sign it and that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Still, I don’t have to like that. And I don’t.

The second signature card is a rookie card of Packers tight end Ryan Taylor. The autograph is on a sticker and is a nice size. What detracts a bit from the card (and this is also the case in the base set and silver parallels that I saw), is that the player’s name, team and position is stamped in foil on the right-hand side of the card. Because that foil is a rich burgandy color, it’s hard to read the writing unless you tilt the card.

The final autograph comes from a subset that I absolutely love: Gridiron Cuts. Collectors can pull autographs of greats like Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Red Grange, Norm Van Brocklin, Pete Rozelle, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, just to name seven of the 50 possibilities.

The card in this particular set was a cut signature of Andy Robustelli, numbered to 49. Believe me, I love this card, but the autograph troubles me just a bit. If you look at the photo that goes with this post, you will notice that Robustelli’s autograph appears to be cut off at the bottom, particularly in the first letter of his first name and the first two letters of his last name. Almost seems like someone put a piece of paper at the bottom and Andy went outside the box. The same could be said when looking at the “y” in Andy. Looks like he went back and added the bottom part.

Maybe I am just reading too much into it. After all, I don’t know when Robustelli signed this card, although since he died in May 2011 at age 85, I know it was obviously before then.

Regardless, a very nice card.

The box also included a pair of inserts: a City Limits card of Jahvid Best, numbered to 249; and an Honors insert of Drew Brees, numbered to 249.

If you are trying to collect the base set (although, why would you be? You bought this stuff for the big hits, right?), there are 100 commons and 100 rookies.

This is a nice high-end product that boasts some of the hottest names in the NFL. Plus, some of the all-time greats. It’s an irresistible combination.

 

 

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Collect call: 2011 Panini Limited Football

Posted Feb 13, 2012 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Feb 13, 2012 at 06:40 PM

Panini America has kicked off the new year with some high end football product, a set tailored to the wants of hit-seekers, autograph collectors and rookie card lovers.

Draft day geeks probably will enjoy this set, too. And with a $100 price tag for an eight-card box, you’d have to hope there was enough sizzle to justify it.

For starters, every card — including those from the base set — are numbered to 499 or less. There are 100 “common” cards, 50 Legend cards, with names like Jack Lambert, Bob Griese, Barry Sanders, Joe Namath, Jerry Rice and Sam Huff, to name but a few. Finally, the base set wraps up with 50 Phenom cards.

Material Phenoms cards are numbered 201-236 in the set and will contain an on-card autograph. In the box I sampled, this card appeared as a redemption for a Julio Jones autograph. That’s a nice pull, but my feelings on redemptions remain the same — as a collector, when you plunk down $100 for a box, you want instant gratification. I understand the theory behind redemptions, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

The box I opened also contained a pair of Initial Steps relic cards. One was of former Polk County (Lake Gibson) standout Bilal Powell, who is with the New York Jets. This card had a nice green swatch and was numbered to 99. The second relic, also numbered to 99, was of Denver’s Von Miller.

Another card I pulled was a parallel refractor card of the Chiefs’ Dwayne Bowe, numbered to 50. Former Oakland Raiders tight end Dave Casper was the Legends card, while Denver’s Quinton Carter was the phenom card. Both were numbered to 499. And there were two base cards.

There are other sizzle cards to be had from this set. Draft Day relic cards are broken into four subsets: Limited Lids (13 solo cards that have pieces of the hat the player wore when he was drafted and walked to the podium on draft day), pairs (five cards), trios (four cards) and quads (also four cards). For example, one quad card features Cam Newton, A.J. Green, Julio Jones and Von Miller. Newton and Jones are featured on a second quad, two, along with Alden Smith and J.J. Watt.

Rookie Lettermen (like the one of Jake Locker featured in this post), has a large patch also signed by Newton, Andy Dalton, Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert.

The biggest autographs in the set will be contained in the Limitless subset, including Tom Brady, Joe Flacco, Tim Tebow, Michael Vick, Sam Bradford, Dez Bryant Adrian Peterson and Darrelle Revis.

There’s plenty of different subsets to satisfy the high-end collector. This is not a set you would necessarily want to build, although I guess you could. The autographs and relics? That’s a different story. It’s a strong lure.

 

 

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