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Talk about a card that you rarely ever see, let alone graded gem mint. This is a 1988 Burger King Florida Gators Emmitt Smith card. This card predates his first NFL release by a two years. The card was distributed by Burger King as a regional promotion.
There is no doubt this card is rarer than his 1990 Score Traded, his most valuable rookie card. Does that mean that it's highly sought after by collectors? Not really. There's never been a huge secondary market for regional (police, school-issued, etc.) sets in the hobby. I personally like them. I don't think they're much different from the minor league sets of the 70's and 80's but those are far more popular in the hobby.
No matter where you stand, this is a great card. This is a highly counterfeited card so having an authentic one is great, gem mint even better. One lucky Emmitt Smith collector will add this to his or her collection tonight for a bargain. Maybe one day collectors will appreciate these releases more than they do now.
You can view the eBay auction here.
The 1960 Topps design has always been one of my favorites. I starting building a set as a kid and slowly work on it to this day. I was so excited when Topps announced that they were using the 1960 design for 2009 Heritage.
I recently started building the 2009 Heritage set. I've purchased a few blasters here and there when I've been able to find them. I figured the easiest thing to start on would be the SP portion of the set. Although expensive, it's only 75 cards so I figured I'd try to knock that out first. I have 35 of the 75 cards so far. I have six doubles so I was wondering if any readers had extras to trade or sell.
Drop me a note in the comments if you have extras and maybe we can work something out. I'll get my wantlist up this week to make it easier. For now, here are my doubles:
426 Scott Rolen
428 Jermaine Dye
445 John Smoltz - 2
448 Kevin Millar
492 Kosuke Fukudome
I will start off this post by stating that I am a Washington Capitals fan. I'm a season ticket holder and I will be at Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals tonight in DC.
That said, I cannot believe the prices that Simeon Varlamov cards are commanding on eBay. The kid is off to a great start but came crashing back down to earth last night in Pittsburgh. I hope that it was just a bad night and he'll rebound with a victory tonight.
For those that know Capitals history, you know the misery that the Pittsburgh Penguins have caused this franchise in the past. You may also recall another Washington Capital phenom goalie named Jim "Ace" Carey. Long story short, he was a goalie for the Capitals in 1995 and 1996 that had two fantastic regular seasons, only to come crashing back down to earth in the playoffs twice against the Penguins. He was never the same again.
Am I saying this will be Varlamov's fate? Not at all. I really think this kid is the real deal. I think last night was hiccup and he'll rebound tonight with a victory.
I know one thing for sure, if he doesn't, you won't see cards of his like the one pictured above topping the $200 mark for much longer.
You knew it was coming at some point. Stephen Strasburg already had a 10-0 record with a 1.38 ERA and a load of strikeouts coming into the game. He's cleary going to be the #1 pick in the 2009 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals. He's received more press attention than any college baseball player that I can ever remember. What else could he do? Throw a no-hitter, of course.
Strasburg tossed a no-hitter against Air Force last night, walking only two. He racked up another 17 strikeouts in the game. This guy is putting together an amazing season.
Head on over to the Upper Deck Blog and check out their coverage of the game. They live blogged from the game last night and have some great video from the ninth inning.
Strasburg autographed Upper Deck USA cards are selling in the $100-$600 range on eBay, depending on the card and the amount produced.
Date sent: 3/6/09
Date returned: 5/8/09
I started sending TTM autograph requests about three months ago. About a month after I started, in March, I started sending requests to veterans and prospects at their Spring Training sites. I think I sent just over twenty requests and I only got one return. That was from Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles.
This return that came today really shocked me. It's from Neftali Feliz of the Texas Rangers. I sent this request back in March to Surpise, AZ, the Spring Training site of the Rangers. The request that I received today came from Oklahoma City, OK, the home of Feliz's current team, the Oklahoma City RedHawks. He must have taken his Spring Training requests with him when he left.
Feliz is ranked as the #10 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. He's off to a slow start in 2009 but remains a tremendous talent. Here is his player page on milb.com.
Date sent: 5/2/09
Date returned: 5/8/09
This is my eighth return out of twelve in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all twenty surviving members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team.
This return made me think about some of the posts I've seen on the sportscollectors.net bulletin boards from members that send a sharpie with their request. You can see from the picture that Danny Kravitz signed the card in ballpoint pen. It would look much nicer if it were signed in sharpie. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to get another card back regardless of what it was signed with. It just made me think that I may want to send a sharpie with future requests to see how that works out.
What you're looking at is a 2009 Press Pass Gold Inscription "Autograph" of B.J. Raji. First off, there is not autograph on this card, it's just an inscription. I wrote about this same issue last week when I posted about the 2009 SPX Rookie Exchange Colby Rasmus rookie card. I'm not a fan of this and I hope it's not a trend. I just don't see the value in a player writing a couple words on a card (or sticker). I'd much rather have the autograph of the player.
OK, in case it wasn't painfully obvious at first sight, look at the inscription on the card again. Raji wrote "Sore Eagles" instead of "Soar Eagles" on the card. All the guy had to do is write two words and he messed it up. I wonder what his Wonderlic score was? There are 99 of these cards out there. I wonder how many of them are misspelled? Will this become a collectors item because of the spelling mistake?
Here's the crazy part, the card is at $180.05 on eBay with just over an hour left. I would LOVE to talk to the person that purchases this card to see why they purchased it.
You can view the auction here.
Talk about a card that you rarely ever see, let alone graded gem mint. This is a 1988 Burger King Florida Gators Emmitt Smith card. This card predates his first NFL release by a two years. The card was distributed by Burger King as a regional promotion.
