Three More Cards

I guess the last of the Road to 10,000 Hits Contest cards are coming in. I received one from Anthony yesterday, which was sent over the weekend. Pretty amazing that it could here in only three days, seeing as how there’s a huge snowstorm out East. Anthony, if you’re reading this, I forgot what you requested for the card so let me know and I’ll have it out for you. The other two cards came today from Dayf and includes an insert and a parallel? I’m not exactly sure what these all black cards are. I know they’re exclusive to Wal-Mart blasters and they look like a parallel of the base, except for the fact that even the background is blacked out. Error cards? Gimmicks? Who knows. I know they have a separate black parallel that is serial numbered to 58 and retains the background, which celebrates 58 years of collecting. If anyone could shed more light on what this black card is, that would be helpful. I know there’s been a few entries and articles on this, but I’ve been passing them by.  By the way, Dayf if you are reading, I also forgot what you wanted so guys, here’s the rest of what’s left from the hits contest; I remember someone wanted me to hold onto the Bonser so they could trade for it, but I forgot who:

– 2007 Sweet Spot Boof Bonser Blue Ink Ball #’d 238/299 (SS-BB)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Beginnings Signatures Travis Buck (139)
– 2007 Elements Elemental AuTographs Travis Buck (AU-TB)
– 2008 Masterpieces Johnny Bench Blue-bordered #’d 017/125 (98)
– 2008 Series 2 USA Baseball National Team Jersey Eric Surkamp (USA-ES)
– 2007 Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Memorabilia Kendry Morales (SW-KM)

Here’s a look at my spoils:

Trust No One

That is the basic lesson that I learned from the reading Autograph Alert. Multiple blogs have cited their recent article on fake autographs. These autographs were written by an Autopen machine, which is something that I’ve never heard of. I guess back in the day, they had a machine rather than a rubber stamp? I’m not sure which is a worse type of autograph, one that is written by a machine, or one that is cut up so that it fits in a slab. I would guess the former would be worse. It is absolutely dispicable that these companies are hiding the fact that these autographs are fake. Especially Brian Gray and Razor. This completely re-enforces the idea that I will never purchase one of their products. How can they expect to compete with the Big Two if they can’t even bring change to the industry? They have not won over the trust of the consumers and I hope they burn for that fact. Maybe it’s a catch 22 because if Gray does come clean over the fact that those Oval Office signatures are fake, it is a huge hit to the company’s publicity. Even so, it never should have been authenticated as real in the first place. I don’t even understand how companies like JSA and PSA/DNA can even hire people like this Reznikoff character after what happened with those Kennedy signatures. What were they thinking?

I had this conversation with Gellman a few days ago over autographs and I really do agree that companies like PSA/DNA and JSA cannot be trusted to really authenticate items. I have shared my doubt before, especially with JSA just because of their checkered past. There was that one story that was in a newscast with JSA and how the reporter faked and autograph and it passed authentication at a card show. I was pretty ignorant to blindly trust PSA/DNA because I have not read any negative publicity about that company on a large scale. Maybe because they are also a local company. Gellman is absolutely correct that the only way we can really be sure an item is authenticated is if it is certified by the card companies. But even then, if the card companies are capable of blindly turning away in terms of these historical autographs, might they be evil enough to falsify certified autographs? They wouldn’t do that…would they? I sure hope not, otherwise, that would be the end (take that however you like). The only other way to ensure the autograph is authentic is to get an in person. I also tend to take a picture of the person signing when they are actualy signing the card. That’s as much proof as I need for myself and to show others, but I will never buy an in person autograph from someone else. There’s just too much trust that has to go into that transaction.

Autograph Alert is a great site and this story should be made into a larger collection of stories for a future book that parallels the problems and issues that plague the sports card and collecting industry. It angers me to know that they are getting away with it too. These fake cards are selling on eBay and eBay is even letting them get away with it. There has to be a way to bring consumer relations into this. How sweet would it be if they brought this into the public light by having local and national news crews to document what is going on? No where to hide now. Isn’t there also some way to sue the companies and authenticators over the fake autograph? I feel like there has to be if they’re authenticated by a trusted third party. But in the end, a lot of it is subjective. We always knew that there was a real danger in buying cards from eBay because they could be fake. eBay even goes as far to have a pop up message to warn you. Now that you can’t trust card companies to provide you with real autographs, who can you trust? No one.

Nothing funny about this trade

Does anyone remember John Odom? He was the former Giants minor league pitcher who was traded for 10 bats sometime last year. I bet they had a ball making fun of that trade on the late night shows. An article came out in the San Francisco Chronicle today that reports about his death from a drug overdose. Something that was poked and proded as being something funny turned out to be tragic. An event like that really messes with your head after a while. A guy can only take so much. Apparently, the stunt wasn’t really done for publicity reasons. The team didn’t like to do cash trades because it would make the team appear financially unstable (if they wanted money back for a player), so instead, the team that traded him gave up 10 bats, which valued around $650. He actually has a link to Timmy too. Timmy bunked on his couch when they were teammates in Class A. Just goes to show that mental health is very important in how a baseball player turns out. I guess that’s why there are so many sports psychologists out there.

Lincecum’s MLB 2K9 Commercial

This is funnier than the previous one I posted. I also didn’t know he had a tattoo on the back of his neck, is that new? Weird…

Baseball cards on mainstream Yahoo!

I found this blog entry on Yahoo Sports today. I read Big League Stew from time to time, but this is the first time I’ve come across an entry on modern baseball cards. It’s nice to know there are other recovering addicts out there. Enjoy:

A recovering addict opens a pack of 2009 Topps baseball cards

By Jamie Mottram

Jamie Mottram is the blog editor here at Yahoo! Sports and can be found on the web at Mr. Irrelevant.

From 1986 to ’93, the most important thing in my life was collecting cards. Baseball, football and basketball mostly, but even a little hockey and Desert Storm. Honestly, I have the entire set of ’91 Topps Desert Storm cards, including the SCUD missile card, which is a keeper.

Since turning 16 and discovering the opposite sex, acquiring a driver’s license, etc., however, I’ve kicked the habit, only succumbing to it upon the annual release of a new series of Topps baseball cards.

This year, that exhilarating rush happened over the weekend when, upon searching Target for a humidifier for my daughter’s nursery (“a nice little Saturday”, indeed), I stumbled upon the “collectables” section.* Not really. I knew exactly where the “collectables” were. I walk by every time with hope that the 2009 cards have arrived.

Saturday was my lucky day. There they were, staring back at me. This year’s cover boy, A-Rod (above) may have been a bad choice, but I gladly purchased one 12-card pack for $1.99, the contents of which were as follows …

Enough about the packaging and price point. Let’s get to the product: How does this year’s Topps look? Well, like every other Topps set since the early ’90s, it’s generic, white, crisp, glitzy, hard to read and, ultimately, forgettable.

Seeing as how I’m also a “D.C. sports-addled” blogger, though, this is one sweet shot of L-Millz:

And, ah, yes, old reliable: the “Topps All-Star Rookie” team. Even if it’s the last all-star team Denard Span might ever be a part of:

Chris Lambert and the “Rookie Card” phenomenon makes me want to pour a little out for “Future Star(s)” of days gone by (@Gregg Jefferies, @Bo Jackson, etc.):

But at least Topps includes WHIP as a statistical category now. The arching “Six Degrees of Mantle” is a nice touch, though couldn’t they have found baseball’s Kevin Bacon-equivalent? And who exactly would that be? Rusty Staub? I’m going with Rusty Staub:

Another old reliable: “League Leaders”. Thank goodness Matt Holliday beat out Christian Guzman for third place, otherwise we would have had a case of “Which of these is not like the others?”:

As far as inserts go, “Legends of the Game” isn’t bad. Anything that teaches kids a little hardball history is to be encouraged. But someone should really tell Topps that George Sisler only played 20 of his 2,055 career games as a Washington Senator:

Rounding out the pack: Edwin Encarnacion, Tim Hudson, Kevin Maas (just kidding), Andy Marte, Kazuo Matsui, Daniel Murphy, Dan Uggla and Jerome Walton (again, JK), none of which are interesting enough to blog about.

* Yes, I realize “collectables” is an acceptable spelling and can be found in a dictionary, but I’ve never seen it that way and refuse to believe that Target uses British English when labeling its sections.

Error card or rare SP?

Fellow reader Jay has come across this SP #166 1995 throwback design auto of Tim Lincecum from 2007 SP Rookie Edition. I cannot remember a point when I saw this card on eBay, but in my opinion, that is because this product doesn’t get much coverage at all. He thinks since the population sightings have been zero thus far (he said that it has come up once in three years), he has reason to believe that this is an “error” card. IMO, it’s just a regular SP with a sticker auto slapped on. I think a true error card would be 2007 Bowman’s best where Timmy’s weight is listed as 420 lbs. and his height is listed as 6’10”. So I leave it up to you, the readers to say if this is an error card or just a rare SP.

We are also debating the value of this card. Based on past sales of similar cards (the regular base, albeit not an SP), I appraise this card at a maximum of $80-100. I really don’t think it’s worth any more than that based on the set it comes from and the sticker auto. That is my opinion, everyone else is entitled to their own. How much do you think this card is worth? How much would you pay for it? Leave your comments below.

Here is also an incentive for you guys. Jay is offering the first person to come up with evidence of a sale of this card a 2008 TCHC blue refractor #’d 34 of 200 Tim Lincecum.

More Xfractor Love!

YES! It’s finally here. I spent a pretty penny on this one, but it was worth it because now I have 3 out of the 7 parallels. Not that I’ll get all of them, but I love this product and I love the refractor parallels that go along with it. You don’t see these very often anymore on eBay either. I basically traded the value of my five Allen & Ginter silk cards for this one card. This takes over the refractor as my most centerpiece card of the collection now. I’m also up to 108 cards in the collection. The other base and refractor parallel are graded, but I think I’m going to keep this as is in a toploader. Here’s a look:

Debunking Book Value: A Success Story

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of e-mails regarding the value of certain Lincecum cards. I am quite flattered that I’ve been regarded as the foremost Lincecum card expert in the blogosphere and many people who have questions pertaining to the value of his card has come to me or has been referred to me. But one thing has really irked me concerning these conversations about his card value and that is the dreaded topic of book value. For the most part, I have avoided this controversial topic because I have strayed away from forum and message boards full of brain-washed zombies who view book value as scripture. I love how many times, these people view book value as a double standard. Basically, they would love to sell you their card for book value, which in reality is an insanely overpriced product (99% of the time anyway), but at the same time, they would also love to buy cards from you at half book value. They never deal with you if you want to sell your own card to them at book value. But as we all know, if you go to a card shop, a lot of times the owners will also try to sell cards to you at half book value. In many cases, this is still a rip off because those cards you can get for pennies.

When tackling this issue, I take the Bad Wax approach of being kind and informative before calling them an idiot and bashing their blind faith. I absolutely love Chemgod’s posts on calling out Craigslist idiots for trying to sell 80s and 90s crap at exorbitant prices.  I would like to do the same with anyone who e-mails me about book value. Fortunately, I have a great success story and hopefully a convert of book value.

First, let me get my opinions on book value out in the open. Let me be very clear in saying that book value is essentially an arbitrary number assigned to a card and currently holds no value whatsoever in today’s market. But, I am an open-minded person so let’s play devil’s advocate. When is the only time book value is actually accurate? Find me a person willing to pay book value for an overpriced card and I will gladly sell it to them. The main reason that book value is now defunct is because of market value. Market prices and trends set the value of a card. This is mainly determined on the global marketplace known as eBay. It has changed the face of sports card collecting, for better or for worse, but it is here to stay. This has come at the expense of companies like Beckett and Tuff Stuff. This is not to bash on them because some articles in their magazines are good, but the truth remains that book value is irrelevant today. I used to actually value cards by book value at one time believe it or not. Not sports cards, but rather Magic cards. For those of you who remember, the Scrye, it is the longest running periodical to place value CCG cards. I gave that up when I stopped collecting Magic cards. What has become of The Scrye these days? It is still in publication actually, but according to Wikipedia, they intend to cease publication in April 2009, which is in a few months. Folding in tough economic times or the irrelevance of book value? Maybe a little bit of both.

Now onto my story:

A week ago, a reader named Andy e-mailed me asking me if I wanted to purchase a couple Lincecum autograph cards since I’m such a big collector. He said he would rather have it in the hands of a collector that could appreciate the cards. Here is his e-mail when I was interested:

Hi Bailey,

I have never sold any of my cards before either, but I am trying to pare down my collection to just the few players that I collect: Jeter, Mattingly, Bernie Williams and Joba.  I use Tuff Stuff for pricing, although I know most collector’s use Beckett. ($10 for the magazine, pfft!!)  The Tuff Stuff book on those 2 cards is $150, not sure what the Beckett is.  I’m willing to sell them for $125, which would include the postage and handling as well as the cards in the screwdown holders.  I would ship them in a padded envelope UPS so you can track them.  The cards are in mint condition because as soon as I pulled them they went into the screwdowns.  I could scan them for you, if you’d like.  I would take a personal check or money order mailed to me.

Let me know if there is any more info you need and if the price seems fair to you.  I won’t be able to do anything until the middle of next week as I am going out of town on Friday morning for the weekend.  I’m not trying to scam you, I just can tell that you’re a big Lincecum fan and these cards are sweet.  You’ll definitely enjoy them in your collection more than I will.  Also, could you send me the link to your blog?  I found it at work and can’t seem to get back to it.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Andy

Andy is very nice and cordial throughout the exchange and this is not to bash at all on his price offer. It’s not outrageously off, but it’s off by about $40 or so based on eBay completed auctions. Here is my response e-mail:

Hi Andy,

I don’t really want to sound condescending so please don’t take offense to what I’m about to say. The assessment of card value has changed dramatically in the past few years. Ever since eBay came to the forefront of internet auctions, book value has become meaningless because it is such an arbitrary price that people at Beckett or Tuff Stuff come up with that has no merit how what a card’s true value holds. That being said, the best way of assessing a card’s value is through completed auctions on eBay. That way, you can get a sense of a card’s true market value, which may shift from time to time throughout the year. That’s one of the main reasons so many card shops are going out of business – mainly due to the fact that eBay is selling the same cards for cheaper and also the fact that they religiously abide by book value, which looses them more customers to eBay. Adam Gellman is a huge proponent against book value as is many of the other card bloggers in the card blogging world. I strongly encourage you to read the history and facts behind book value vs. sell value (eBay auctions) on his blog. You can find many of the articles at this link:

http://www.sportscardsuncensored.com/search/label/Book%20Value

That is not to say that those two cards are highly valued, but I’m pretty sure they will sell for under $125. As of right now, I can’t afford those two cards at that price since I am waiting and saving up to buy a card I’ve been after for a while on eBay. This is not to say that that your price is outrageously unfair, but I just hope to shed some light on the issue. I hope you can keep an open mind and be informed and not get ripped off yourself by other people who strictly abide by book value in the future. By the way my blog is here: https://thenennthinning.wordpress.com

-Bailey

I really appreciate people who are open minded about these things. Did I make a convert out of Andy?

Thanks for the information, Bailey.  I have bought some stuff on eBay over the years and I realize that some stuff on there is much cheaper.  I had even looked for both of those cards on eBay and didn’t find them.  I had no other guide to go by other than Tuff Stuff.  I like the guides because they give me an idea of card rarity, popularity, etc.  I realize that their prices are not gospel, I just like to have an idea.

I don’t know what it is, but I have been buying ’07 stuff from Dacardworld.com and I seem to be getting Tim Lincecum stuff.  No offense, but I’d rather have the Jeter stuff!!  That being said, I have decided to hold onto the masterpieces card as on card autos are becoming rarer and rarer, plus it’s such a cool looking card.  Maybe I will try to be a seller on eBay, although I have never done that before.

Thanks for the info.

Andy

Mission accomplished. While the population reports are nice, magazines such as Tuff Stuff and Beckett should have no control over appraising card value due to conflict of interest in terms of the companies scratching each other’s back. Andy is not the only person who has e-mailed me this week about book value of Lincecum cards, but many many others. I’m not sure why I was suddenly bombarded with these e-mails all of a sudden, but I’m glad they happened because now I have material to write about. This is also an issue I feel strongly about because it prevents people from getting ripped off, especially if they’re just returning to the hobby only to find out it has changed drastically (for the better) for the buyer/collector.

Some more 2008 parallels

I’m adding three more cards to the collection to raise my total to 107 total cards. Today, I received two cards from Eric over at The Pettitte Pursuit, a 2008 Topps Stadium Club (regular version) and a 2008 Goudey, blue back mini, which apparently is quite rare. I guess it goes red back, blue back, green back, and black back with the last two being serial numbered. Anyway, it’s always nice to a parallel set. The other package comes from Lonestarr who delivered on his promise of a serial numbered green parallel from Baseball Heroes. Again, I mention that I hate how many parallels that this product has, but I am one step closer to getting all of them, which is nuts. They will be receiving the last of the contest hits, which came to an end after I hit 10,000 a few days ago. The pile of cards will be divided among those two and Dayf, who said he sent in a Stars of the Game insert card from ’09 Upper Deck. Thank you everyone for these cards that I would otherwise probably not come to have in my possession. I have basically given up buying single base/insert cards on eBay just because shipping is ridiculous when people charge you $3 in addition to the price of the card. I am only buying up autographs now. Here’s a look at the trio of cards received today:

Why Bother?

With all the recent high end products coming out for baseball, the cost is unbelievably high to get an amazing hit. People are buying the boxes such as ’08 Prime Cuts to get autographs of old timers who are either hard to get autographs from or who are dead. Dave made a great point last night with his post at Fielder’s Choice Blog on buying the Joe DiMaggio on card autograph from Pinnacle from DA Card World over trying to come up with the ’08 Prime Cuts hit that cuts the card apart, puts that in another card and then slabs the whole thing in plastic. Why chase, when you can get the real deal (and the original) for a cheaper price? Is it for the thrill of opening a box without knowing what it holds? The thrill lasts a few seconds, maybe a few minutes. Getting a card that you can actually appreciate lasts a lifetime (or until you decide you want to flip it years later).

Since pulling that Cal Ripken Jr. card from Elements a few weeks ago, I think I would love to expand my PC to Hall of Famers and legends of the game. I have since sold that card because despite it being a nice card, I didn’t like the sticker auto or the chipping on the edges of the jersey window. I will be on the lookout mainly for on card autos of baseball greats and the like. Speaking of which, I wanted to see the risk/reward aspect of 2008 Topps Sterling. This product has garnered a lot of criticism and is comparable to that of Triple Threads (or Triple Suck as it has become to be known). Completed listings on eBay show that the average price for a box lands anywhere from $170-190 in price. Tack on shipping and the box is nearly $200. What you get inside is a player themed box with one hit and three base cards with one mystery card that is usually worthless (I have never seen anythign cool come from that mystery pack). What would I be looking for in a product like this that would tickly my fancy? Ruth, Mantle, Cobb, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Robinson, Williams, Wagner. Those are some pretty big names in baseball. Granted, I would only truly be happy if I got a cut signature or something of that nature from these players to be happy from a product like this. If I got something like a baseball relic like bat or jersey, I would be pretty satisfied. Anything else and this product is a complete waste of money. The other players who signed are still alive and all their autographs are on those damn holographic stickers. The last Mantle 5 piece Jersey card sold on eBay for…$124.50. Who is the biggest name in this product? IMO, it’s Babe Ruth. His last 5 piece memorabilia card sold for $205.49 and a triple bat piece came in at $164.26. There are currently two auctions ending in a few hours today that are quad bat pieces that are both under $200 right now. Why pay the price of a box when you can get the card you want for so much less? Okay, so these cards aren’t as great as those booklets or bat barrel cards, but they’re a helluva lot better than cards of those other players on the checklist. The only people who can afford these are people who are buying to flip for a profit or doing it for the money (and that’s okay too, not to bash on them). I have not seen a single blogger on my blogroll bust a high end box like this. Why bother when you can just go out and buy the card you want without the risk?