The Baseball (and other sports) Card Thread

[keykey]

nah, a lot of companies use stickers with autographs on them. basically, the athlete sits down and autographs stickers that are on sheets. when the card companies want to include said athlete in any future product, they have stickers to use. it makes the logistics of including players in any set they have much easier rather than track them down. the serial number (in this case 43/149) is just how "many" of these cards there are in out there. it's a false sense of rarity.

plenty of companies are crazy enough to cut up jerseys of hof players...as long as it makes them money (which it does). a lot of people are disgusted with this and wonder where exactly all these swatches are coming from. sort of similar to getting hair pieces from washington....no idea how that happens though.

[Marigold]

I wish I could find it, but I stumbled across a photo recently of some pretty well-regarded prospects sitting down and signing stacks of blank baseball cards to be inserted into packs.

Regarding the cut relics, you have to consider that there are probably hundreds of Mickey Mantle jerseys lying around. I would assume that they use the less valuable ones. And they could probably milk just one jersey for a few sets. That's my guess.

[Architecture]

So are these chase cards rarer than they used to be? Like instead of one per box (which is how often you could expect MJ in a '92 box of Skybox NBA cards), it's one per set?

Also, these cards look thicker, are they? And if so, can't you softly squeeze packs to see which ones are special and which ones aren't?

[Amblin]

he actually signed more if there are parallel versions of that in other colors, and also they have them sign a few extras for replacements. there are sets with autos that are numbered to 599. also they usually have the signer sign for a bunch of products and most of the time they are on stickers that are placed later on cards. So say Evan Longoria might sign 200 times on a few sheets of stickers and they may use those stickers in three or four sets in 2010, 2011 etc.





But you can also stuff that has him signed directly on the card





and yeah the jersey/relic/memorabilia cards are basically in any product. the really collectible stuff is when they include a piece with a patch or part of a number, something more than just the piece of cotton. there's even book cards that include entire nameplates cut and put in order. Also they put bat pieces, glove pieces, shoe pieces and all sorts of things.

check this video out

[Marigold]

The relic cards are definitely thicker. Usually about the thickness of about two or three regular cards. Packs with a relic card have fewer cards. I have a Heritage pack wrapper that normally holds 9 cards but it says in smaller print "Packs with a relic card contain 8 or 5 cards."

I don't know what you mean by "per set," but I think most boxes guarantee at least one auto or relic card per box now. However, they have relic and autograph cards of varying rarity. On page four of this thread, you can see the relic card that I broke out of a box of of Topps Heritage was an Ike Davis relic that isn't serial numbered and sells for about $2 on eBay.

[Amblin]

they make tons of jersey cards, and most of them arent worth much unless it is a HOFer or a really collectible modern player (jeter, pujols). most products have at least two per box along with an autograph, it really depends on the price level. your basic topps baseball box promises one autograph or relic per box and you are likely to get the relic. Here's an example of a more collectible jersey card:

[Marigold]

Oh my God that one is beautiful.

[Amblin]

try this one on for size architecture

[Architecture]

That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

And Marigold, what I meant by per set was per series. So for instance, are there like 100 Mickey Mantle jersey cards, or just 1?

[Marigold]

And Marigold, what I meant by per set was per series. So for instance, are there like 100 Mickey Mantle jersey cards, or just 1?

It all depends. All the better ones are serial numbered to a certain amount.

Here's the checklist for 2011 Topps Series 1. You'll see the "jumbo relics" are serial numbered to 20, and the autograph/relic cards are serial numbered to 6. And it's not just limited to relic cards too. They make parallels of the base set that are of varying scarcity. The "Canary Diamond Anniversary" parallels are all unique:



That's all gold and sparkly. Here's an example on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2011-TOPPS-ROY- ... 3f0be528ee

[gambra]

Topps Inception did on card autos for all the NFL rookies and they look incredible. Really want to get a box even though it's $100 for about 5 cards. I mean this is a beautiful card (though the chipping would kill me):



Personally, I'm fine with relic cards but it needs to be either a jumbo swatch or any colour other than plain black. You can get relic cards from pretty much any set for well under $10, most are about $5. The vast bulk of my collection is autos. I only collect the parallel #d relics of someone I collect and that's really one one person.

[Architecture]

Parallels meaning like when the '95 X-Men set came out (all chromium) and there were Kubert "signature" cards of every standard card that were chase inserts?

[Marigold]

Parallels meaning like when the '95 X-Men set came out (all chromium) and there were Kubert "signature" cards of every standard card that were chase inserts?

Yeah. Like that Ichiro one I posted is just a rare parallel of this one which is just a standard base card:



gambra, who do you collect?

[Architecture]

Do non-sports cards retain their value at all? I probably have an entire set of those 1996* chromiums somewhere.

*Apparently it was the 1996 Fleer X-Men set, all drawn by the Brothers Kubert.

[Marigold]

Just check the completed listings on eBay to get an idea of market value.

[Architecture]

$25. So no.

It's too bad, because I had a '94 Flair set of X-Men that I traded in for all the 1996 cards (got as many packs as I could and then bought probably two dozen packs subsequently). The '94 set is worth $40 on ebay, which is about 3 times what I paid for them in '94.

[gambra]

gambra, who do you collect?

I could post a few shots of the collection if you're interested?

[Marigold]

This is the thread for it!

[gambra]

Pictures were taken for another board a few months back so there's a few additions at the end. It's not as big as other PC's out there but it's pretty big for wrestling..



2010 Platinum black base printing plate #1/1
2010 cyan base priting plate #1/1
2010 dual w/Luke Gallows black priting plate #1/1
2010 Platinum Triple Relic (w/ The Miz & Rey Mysterio) #67/75
2010 Platinum Triple Relic (w/ Edge & Big Show) #16/99
2010 Platinum Legendary Superstar red parallel #1/1
2010 Platinum gold auto relic #8/25
2010 Platinum blue auto relic #73/99
2010 Platinum base auto relic #67/275



2008 Ultimate Rivals blank back proof 1/1
2010 Base Auto
2010 Dual Auto w/Serena #67/99



2007 Heritage III auto
2008 Action auto
2009 Heritage IV in person auto base card
2010 Platinum red relic #10/10
2010 Platinum gold relic #26/50
2010 Platinum blue relic #59/99
2010 Platinum green relic #162/399
2010 Platinum base relic
2010 Platinum green base card #351/499



2009 black base parallel #08/40
2010 gold base parallel #01/50
2010 gold relic #91/99
2010 base relic
2010 elimination chamber relic

+ a few recent additions that aren't in the photos



1/1 Sketch Card



2010 elimination chamber gold relic #'d to 50



2010 Platinu gold relic #'d to 50 (2nd one)

[Marigold]

Oh man I don't follow wrestling but that is a collection.

[gambra]

Thanks. I've sank a silly amount of money into it (maybe $500+ easy) but I'm proud of the 1/1's and the 2010 Platinum collections in particular. I just need to three cards to complete the entire Platinum rainbow but they're three red 1/1s including an auto relic which would go for bonkers money if it crops up on eBay. I managed to get the other two reds from that set in trades.

[keykey]

http://wickedortega.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/hey-hater-this-one-is-for-you/

this guy just went OFF. card blogging goin' harddddd

[keykey]

gambra...incredible stuff. what made you collect wrestling. if there (or is there?) was a wwf heritage set with only former wrestlers i'd buy the shit out of that.

[fester]

They should start doing ones with some of the player's skin or hair or blood on them, or maybe like a bitemark or something.

[keykey]

[Marigold]

They should start doing ones with some of the player's skin or hair or blood on them, or maybe like a bitemark or something.

[fester]

I think I'd rather have Peyton Manning's baby teeth than King George's pubes.

[Amblin]

gambra that collection is fantastic. with the inception rookie stuff i am getting super tempted by the taiwan jones autos and jumbo patches, they look great. c

[Marigold]

Did you ever unlock any Diamond Die Cuts from the Diamond Giveaway? Just curious.

[Motherwell]

my all time greatest pull was a michael jordan die cut card (some upper deck set) that was worth $500 or something. only thing is when i tried to sell it at a store i was told it had a manufacture error.