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Specialty Cards/ Toy Review

Star Wars Masterwork Release Date February 2015

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Star Wars Masterwork New Date 02/11/2015!

The release for this product has been pushed back to February 2015. Most of the artist apparently were having difficulty delivering the original artwork, and thus the date has been pushed back so that no one gets a horrible redemption card. I know I hate them. Anyway here is a breakdown of the product and what you can expect to give you an idea as to whether or not you are going to plunk down about $75.00 for a mini box.

Seems like plenty of money, and at least you do not have to tie down your Christmas money on the product. Too late for me, as I was a busy purchaser some weeks back, but at least I know I have the product secured. This product will nearly double in my opinion. With a hit in every mini box, Star Wars fans will be pleasantly surprised.

The Star Wars Masterwork Breakdown:

High-end is finally feeling the Force. 2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork brings a formula similar to the card maker’s Museum Collection line in baseball, promising a hit or premium insert in every pack. Boxes promise one autograph and a premium sketch card.

Sticking with the trend started by 2014 Topps Star Wars Chrome Perspectives, virtually all of the autographs here are on-card. Base autographs come from actors and are done on foil-stamped premium card stock. Parallels include Foil (#/25 or less), Canvas (#/10 or less) and Wood (1/1). Every case also has a Silver Framed Autograph that is numbered to 29 or less.

Five Dual Autograph Book cards are the only signed cards in the product that use stickers.

Signature Pen Autograph Relics are something new. In addition to the signature, the cards come with a piece of the pen used during the signing.

Star Wars sketch cards have been a regular feature in sets for a decade now. However, 2015 Star Wars Masterwork attempts to change things up a little. For the first time, basic sketch cards are done on 72-point card stock, giving them a much thicker feel. Sketch Card Variations have a different logo and are numbered to 10. Wood Sketch Cards use a very different stock and are numbered to 5. Sketch Card Books have a pair of panels with original art. Rare, these are numbered 1/1.

Randomly inserted are 50 mini boxes that have four sketch cards that fit together to form a puzzle.

Production-used relics are still a novelty in Star Wars sets as they’ve only been used a couple of times before this. Momentous Movie Relics include some new materials that haven’t been used in cards yet. They’re inserted at a rate of three per case.

2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork has two additional premium inserts. Weapon Lineage Medallions come with a metal piece showcasing a famous tool from the franchise. Postage Stamp Relics have a US stamp embedded in them. These stamps feature artwork from Drew Struzan, one of the most iconic Star Wars artists.

While the premium inserts may be the focal point for many, 2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork does have a base set. That said, it’s not a massive one. Printed on premium 72-point stock, the set has a total of 75 character-driven cards. On top of that, there are four parallels that combine to fall one per pack. Base set parallels are Blue Metallic (#/299), Silver Metallic (#/99), Green Metallic (#/50) and Gold Metallic (1/1)

The product also has a trio of ten-card basic inserts: Defining Moments, Companions and Scum & Villainy. Every pack has either an insert or one of six insert parallels: Foil (#/299), Canvas (#/99), Wood (#/50), Clear Acetate (#/25), Metal (#/10) or Golden Metal (1/1).

Each pack of 2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork is packaged in its own mini box. Master boxes have four of these.

Estimated Release Date: 2/11/15
Product Configuration: 4 packs per box, 5 cards per pack
2015 Topps Star Wars Masterwork Box Break:

1 On-Card Autograph
1 Premium Sketch Card
2 Additional Premium Inserts
4 Inserts
4 Parallels
8 Base Cards
20 Total Cards

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Football Cards

Case Vs. Random Boxes? 2013 Topps Chrome Football

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2013 Topps Chrome Football vs. 2013 Topps Finest Football

Many people that collect sports cards today always second guess themselves out of purchasing cases of specific product, for those who can afford to do that. I often wonder why not purchase smaller lots from different sellers, like some of the reputable ones on eBay? Some of the good sellers on eBay sell lots of 5 or 6 boxes. Many times you can secure some bigger hits that way, other times not so much. I love to place  Youtube videos on my sports card blog, because sometimes you can see how difficult it is even with a case purchase to secure any valid hits. Other times you can see the flip side, which is 4 boxes from different cases, and two of the same lousy autographs like in this video that I am sharing on my baseball card price blog. See for yourself, and make up your own mind as to the pros and cons of purchasing sports cards online in smaller bunches. Some of the great rookies thus far from 2013 are as follows: Eddie Lacy, Geno Smith, Keenan Allen, and more…

Baseball card price

2014 Topps Allen & Ginter – Andrew McCutchen Box Top

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Atlanta Braves Fred McGriff Wood Mini 1/1

This is a cool video of a box break of Topps Allen & Ginter 2014. The video was shot in July 2014 and if you want to speed up to the big hit of the box, the 1/1 Atlanta Braves Fred McGriff Wood Mini, the video time of this hit is about 13:20 or so. Great Topps product with great inserts and special cards. On average these boxes have approximately 3 hits some have more.

The Wood mini card is in addition to the three hits in this particular box. I like these videos as they give you a good look at the product before you decide to get into a specific product. Thanks for reading.

Psa / Heritage Auctions

1975 Topps Mini Charlie Conlon Collection

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I have long been a collector of the 1975 Topps mini baseball set. I have often scour the Internet for lots and boxes of this series. I have to ask though, are the Charlie Conlon collection 1975 Topps mini baseball cello boxes find worth $3995.00 a box? I think these cards however scare they may be, are equally over-priced. Granted the further into the future we go with baseball cards, and sports cards altogether, the more scare these will become. But I have to question any collector looking to plunk down this money for a cello box from this collection. The more years pass, the harder these cards will come by to find in mint or nrmt condition. But $3995.00 for a cello box is just plain ridiculous. Some unknown private collector has purchased two of the original 9 that are up for sale.

It appears to be quite the gamble to find a PSA 10 or BGS 10 in these boxes. Quite frankly for the true collector, owning a complete set of PSA 8 registered is far more valuable in my eyes and it would not cost you the amount of two of these cello boxes for sale on eBay. One of the great purchases that I made from the Topps 1975 baseball mini series was two boxes of 990 cards already sleeved and placed into plastic sleeves in which all are mint or nrmt. I made this purchase back in 2006. The total cost was $580.00, when I made this purchase there were still wax boxes of 1975 Topps mini (36 packs) available for $1300.00 plus. Now you cannot purchase these for under $2000.00.

While these cards are more and more quickly becoming favorites, they are full of factory defects, and the very colorful borders make them very difficult to not notice and extremely difficult to get in a high grade. This is why more and more, I am leaning towards getting a PSA registry set from one of the few vendors that have these cards already graded.

Brien Taylor – The Dream That Was Not!

Rookie Baseball Cards

Brien Taylor – The Dream That Was Not!

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NY Yankee Brien Taylor

The NY Mets dominated the baseball world in New York City with a kid named Dwight Gooden in the mid-late 1980’s. The New York Yankees and then owner George Steinbrenner were never second fiddle to any cross-town sports team ever! But how to draw against Doctor K? This was not just something that could be easily overcome. As a sports card collector sometimes there is a moment where you have to take a gamble on a baseball card rookie and collect every card imaginable even if that card/rookie  belongs to the dreaded Yankees. That was me in the early 1990’s when talk of Brien Taylor came about. I knew that George had deeper pockets then anyone in baseball at the time, but I just could not believe the rampant hype about another pitcher taking away some of the glory from Gooden in NY. Even though Gooden was no longer the center focal point of the Mets pitching staff by the time 1988 and the loss to the L.A. Dodgers came during the National League Championships. However, as a sports card collector you do not ever want to miss the boat on a star rookie. After all, since then, I have missed so many boats, dingy’s, cruise ships, you name it I missed it. This is why today I have more Brien Taylor cards than most to make soup with.

Shoulder Injury From Hell For Yankee Fans!

In case you do not know the history of how this phenom who went from a 1.55 million signing bonus (largest ever at the time) to what turned out to be the end of what could have been a glorious pitching career. In an effort to defend his brother from another person that had already beat his brother up, he attempted to stand up for his brother and endured one of the worst shoulder injuries that Dr. Frank Jobe had ever seen. Dr. Frank Jobe repaired a torn capsule and a torn labrum in Taylor’s shoulder, but the pitcher lost 6-8 miles off his fastball and was unable to land the curve ball for a strike. Since then, he has been arrested two different times. Once for misdemeanor child abuse/child neglect in 2005 and then in March 2012, Taylor was charged with cocaine trafficking after undercover narcotics agents purchased a large quantity of cocaine and crack cocaine from him over a period of several months. He received a 38 month prison sentence, and then he will get three years’ supervised release.

Collecting sports cards teaches us that these players are human and sometimes all the talent in the world, cannot help overcome poor decisions and tough breaks. As a sports fan I think back on when I heard the news that he was arrested a second time and I could not help but feel bad for him. He was only the second NY Yankee 1st round overall pick since 1965. As an older sports card collector, I treasure his cards just as much today. Not because of the value of the cards or a lack there of, but because of the history behind the cards and the man. One man’s claim to fame, and what could have been. Keep collecting sports cards there is history and knowledge on that little piece of cardboard paper.

2012 Topps Museum Collection Grading Your Collection

Baseball card price

2012 Topps Museum Collection Grading Your Collection

Making The Grade – PSA, Beckett, And SGC

There are many ways to preserve your sports cards. Baseball cards are one of the true collectibles of all times. With many of the companies that are reliable making grading deals each month, there is really is no reason that you are not currently picking a company selecting your top rookie cards, and grading them. I have well over 2000 graded cards, and that is not counting all that I have sold.  The amount of sold cards exceed 2000 graded cards. I have sold sets upon sets. The registry sets from PSA are amongst the most collectable of all sets. The collectors are serious about their collections and the sale prices are certainly not anything sold baseball card collecting kid could afford.

 Topps Museum

Topps unveiled a new baseball card line for 2012 on Friday. But if you’ve seen it before you’re not crazy.It’s 2012 Topps Museum Collection a high-end line with four packs per box and one Relic or autographed Relic in every pack. Earlier this year actually less than a month ago the company teased 2012 Topps Marquee. It appears this offering has since been re-named since then as it aims to feature “the most-striking cards of 2012 now the centerpiece of their own product. Each pack also will have three base cards and one blue parallel in every pack, while each box is guaranteed to include one on-card autograph, one autographed Relic, one jumbo Relic and one quad Relic. Meanwhile, every case will include an autographed jumbo Relic and one framed Museum Collection on-card auto as well when it arrives on April 6.