Hobby Nomenclature Part 3 - Inserts

 

Continuing my series on Nomenclature of the Hobby let's talk about inserts!!

First let's clarify and define exactly what an insert is.  An insert is something other than a base card inserted into packaging.  This could be almost anything (as we'll see).  This shouldn't be confused with a subset. Something I'll likely do a separate post on later.  A subset is (as I'm going to define it) is a themed set of cards different from the base set design (sometimes) but numbered into the base set.  

Baseball cards themselves started off as inserts, in tobacco, candy, and other products almost since the birth of the sport itself.  But extras being inserted into card packs started in the 1960s.  And generally the 1961 Topps Baseball Stamps and Magic Rub-offs inserted inserted into 1961 Topps Baseball packs are considered the first true inserts.  

1961 Topps Stamps

1961 Topps Magic Rub-Offs

Topps over the year's would insert lot's of different kinds of inserts, what I call Added Value Content (AVC)  in the form of stickers and coins.

1964 Topps Coin

1963 Peel-Offs sticker

And the first actual baseball card insert card came in 1965 with Topps' Embossed insert set.

Over the year's Topps continued to insert lots of different inserts, but usually it was only one set.  Fleer and Donruss also added inserts into their packs, where Topps had sued and won about including gum with their cards Donruss opted for puzzles and Fleer for team logo stickers.  In 1986 Fleer started inserting it's All-Star insert into wax and cello packs and Topps likewise offered inserts like it's Glossy All-Stars and Rookies available in the three blister rack packs.  But it wasn't until the 1990s that inserts started being the AVC to chase.  And none was more sought after than the Donruss' serial numbered Elite Series and Legend Series, 1991 Donruss also had one of the first large scale Autograph chases with the Ryne Sandberg Signature Series autographed card numbered to 5000 (but we'll save that for the post on hits)

Still the number inserts per release was relatively small with just a few to chase in each set, but the late 1990s really opened the flood gates. With a bunch of new card companies trying to hustle for those collector's dollars unique and inventive inserts were the main tactic.  The dominance of inserts as the main AVC for a cards set only lasted a few year's until relics and autographs became regularly inserts and they almost become filler after hits became guaranteed per box.  

In the mid 2000s a lot of base inserts, even some with low serial numbering were designed with the relic, autograph, and relic autograph parallels in mind.  Some of the inserts in issues like Donruss Classics were a prime example of this.

Let's fast forward to today.  Card companies still use inserts as a main AVC for releases, along with hits (autos and relics), and parallels.  And most inserts issued today also have parallels and some even still have relic, autograph, and relic autograph variations (we'll talk more about those when we talk about hits).  Topps 2022 Series 1 baseball has about 125 inserts (with all the parallels and variations) to chase in the product.  That's a lot of cards that aren't base cards!!  But this allows them (for better or worse) to print a lot of base cards and package a lot of packs, boxes, and cases.  We are well past the point where a collector could conceivably try to collect them all.

The last couple year's has seen a new trend where companies are starting to insert very rare (even if they aren't serial numbered) inserts.  Like Panini's Color Blast, Downtown, and Whammy inserts.  Which Topps seems to finally have taken notice of.

I realize this post has been almost completely baseball centric when talking about inserts.  It's a very broad topic that spans all sports and many non-sports and I really was just trying to give a brief history and broad overview of what's out there.  One very interesting, intense, and expensive area of inserts are the late 90s basketball issues.  There are some great articles about those cards, and if you're interested I'd urge you to search them out.  

What are some of your favorite inserts (past and/or present)?  Do you have any get memories of pulling an insert?  How about chasing one down?   

Next up Part 4 of Hobby Nomenclature we are finally going to talk about hits (autographs and relics).

Hobby Nomenclature Part 2 - Parallels

 

Next up in my nomenclature of the Hobby series we're going to talk about parallels. Specifically base card parallels.

Disclaimer: I do not consider myself a trading card expert or any kind of authority on the subject.  I'm just a collector with 35 years of experience.  These posts are just my opinions and are meant to be informative and educational. Feedback and/or suggestions are welcome (as long as they're civil).  

First let's talk about a term you may or may not have heard of but will be popping up in the next couple posts.  Added Value Content (AVC).  It's a mouthful and to be fair it's not a term that actually get's used a lot with collector's, but AVC is exactly what parallels, inserts, and hits are.  Basically it's why Topps, Panini, Upper Deck, or whoever can charge you more for a pack of cards.  It also makes sealed products walk a thin line (if not actually cross it) of  being a kind of gambling.  

So for this post I'm going to be talking about parallels as they pertain to the base set of a product.  Card makers also put out parallel versions of inserts and hits, but we'll cover that when we talk about those subjects.

And when I'm talking about parallels I'm talking about cards produced to parallel the base set that were inserted with the base cards and could be pulled from packs.  I make this distinction because I'm not talking specifically about sets like 1975 Topps Mini, Topps Collector Edition (Tiffany) Sets, Fleer Glossy Sets, or 1991 Topps Desert Shield stamped cards.  These are sets that do parallel other base sets but were released as their own product.  I do however consider parallels inserted into factory sets base set parallels, yeah it can get a little confusing.

Remember there is no real authoritative entity in the card collecting community (sorry Beckett) and I'll be fair I did not do exhaustive research so please forgive if I forget anything, gloss over some things, or missed something completely.  But I'm going to attempt to mark the start of the age of the parallel and that is 1992 for Baseball and 1991 for Football.  The first true parallel sets came in 1991 Wild Card Football and Basketball and  1992 Topps baseball.

If you happen to have been collecting in 1991 or come across some old Wild Cards, Wild Cards gimmick was the insertion of cards with numbered stripes of various denominations (5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 1000).   If you pulled one of those number striped cards you could send that card into Wild Cards and they would exchange it for the same number of base cards of that player.  

The higher stripe cards were very rare and today those 100 and 1000 stripe cards can command a pretty penny.

Topps' gold foil parallel appeared the next year and is considered the first true parallel set.  Inserted at different odds depending on the packaging, they fell about 1 per box or 1:36 packs. 

And we've had parallels in packs every since (mostly).  I do remember when the gold cards hit the market collector's ate them up!!  It didn't take long for other card companies to follow suit. Examples that come to mind are the 1994 Score Gold Rush parallels and 1995 Donruss Press Proofs, and the 1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Silver and Gold Signatures.  

The first serial numbered parallel cards would come from late to the Parallel game Fleer with it's Flair Showcase parallels and Pinnacles Totally Certified.  But the effect of cards having serial numbering and defining their print run allowed collector's and sellers to kind of gauge value based on rarity.

Fast forward to the last couple years and Topps and Panini seems to be in a competition to see who can produce the set with the most parallels. 2021 Panini Prizm baseball had 43 different color parallels!! Topps flagship and chrome baseball had over 30.  That's kind of insane.  Again we can go back to the AVC.  Inserting parallels, especially serial numbered parallels, helps companies justify their products higher costs (along with guaranteed hits and inserts).

The insane number of parallels put out today also gave rise to a popular goal in collecting and that's putting together a player rainbow, or collecting one of every parallel.  Pretty hard with 1 of 1s, in the parallel line up.  But most collector's get goals and a level they want to collect down to or an afford to.

Depending on the set and product the base set may have many different kinds of parallels. So let's look at some of the more common you may see out there in the card market from some current releases.  

Currently color parallel or border parallels are the most common type of parallel card you will encounter.  And the parallel is just what it sounds like the base border color (usually white or plain) will be replaced with a color or design.  

Another type of base parallel that is similar to the color or design front is the framed parallel.  This was popular with Donruss Diamond King sets in the mid 2000s, Upper Deck Masterpieces, and with Topps Gypsy Queen sets up until fairly recently.  And while this parallel seems to have fallen out of favor it may make a comeback again.  Here are a few examples from my Yount collection.

One last front parallel you may see are cards that are foil stamped.  Like Topps' special employee sets, Montgomery Club, or other special Topps events like their Rip Party, the All-Star Game and 70th Anniversary celebration.

Sometimes the difference in the parallel isn't on the front it's on the back.  The one example of this that comes to mind is Topps' Advanced Stat parallels.  While the fronts are completely the same from the base set the backs feature advanced stats.  It does help that Topps serial numbered these to 300 to make them a little easier to spot.

 

One last parallel type to mention and that's cards with different card stock.  Again I'm thinking specifically of Topps' Vintage Stock parallel, but there have been other sets in the past that have had parallel sets with different card stock types. The Topps parallels are serial numbered and are hard to miss amongst the shiny slick base cards.   One other example that comes to mind is the 1996 Fleer baseball set, where the base set had a matte finish and the parallel set was glossy.

Love them or hate them (and there are plenty of people who do) parallels are here to stay. Do you have a favorite parallel?  Is there a parallel not being made anymore that you miss?  Did I miss anything?  Let me know.

Hobby Nomenclature - Packaging

 I recently had an interesting interaction on Twitter involving a new collector.  He was very upfront about his rookie status.  He had pulled a serial numbered red foil parallel out of 2022 Topps Series 1 and had no idea what it was or why it was different.  I was very happily surprised about the hobby twitter support that came to the aid of this new collector and it just helped remind me that there are people finding this hobby for the first time or even better coming back to the hobby, which seems to be a common theme during the pandemic.  It also helped ground me to the fact while I've been in and out of the hobby since the mid-80s the hobby is almost a completely different monster and it can be down right confusing.  So to help with that I thought I'd kind of do a primer on current hobby nomenclature.  So if you're a seasoned collector these posts might not be for you, but I would love your feedback on anything I might have missed or you think should be included.  

I'm going to break these posts up into 4 areas.  Hits (what they are and what you can expect), parallels (why are there so darn many of them), packaging (what's the difference between hobby and retail), and lingo (what is a rookie card?).

Let's start with packaging.  I'm going to focus on modern products, what you can expect to see if you go into your local Walmart or Local Card Shop (LCS).  There are lots of great vintage packaging products you don't see anymore, but that might be a post for another time.  Let's go shopping!!!

I think I might have to explain the lingo as we go as it's pretty integrated into the hobby.  So let's start with walking into your LCS or rather your local card shop or store, could also be used for your local comic book shop, which usually also carries sport cards and non sports cards.  At your LCS you are going to find what we call hobby boxes.  This is card packaging made for card stores.  You may also find more retail oriented packages as well, but I'll leave those till be head on over to Walmart to look for cards.  As of right now we have 3 big players in the sport card market.  Topps which has the exclusive baseball card license (and was recently bought by Fanatics, also another post for another time), Panini which currently holds the exclusive NFL, NBA, and NASCAR licenses, and Upper Deck which has the exclusive NHL license.  Panini also has a license with the MLB Players Association (at least for a couple more years) so they can produce baseball cards, they just can't use logos or team names.  Each company puts out their own products and has different brands, like Topps has Bowman, Panini has all the old Donruss brands and Upper Deck has all the old Fleer brands, etc.  The two main kinds of hobby products are hobby boxes and hobby jumbo boxes.  The difference being the number of cards per pack and the number of packs per box.  Also different products and box types will have different amounts of hits.  Will get to hits later, but basically a hit is considered a card that is autographed or has a piece of relic imbedded in it, or both.  

Using Topps 2022 Series 1 baseball as an example a hobby box has 24 - 14 card packs.  Topps also released a lot of there products in jumbo boxes. 2022 Topps Series 1has a configuration of 10 packs per box with 46 cards per pack.  The big difference between the two besides number of cards is that a hobby box has one guaranteed hit and a jumbo box has three.  Usually.  

So adding to our dictionary, when someone in the hobby refers to a hobby box we are talking about the 24 pack box available at your LCS and if we mention a Jumbo box or Hobby Jumbo we are talking about the 10 pack box with 3 hits.  

Now let's walk on down to a retail store and see what you might find there.  Over the years card companies offered a bunch of different packaging options for retail stores these are what you are most likely to find right now.

Blaster boxes.  A blaster box is a small box of cards that usually has somewhere between 7 and 10 retail packs inside.  Blasters can also feature exclusive parallels, like Topps Royal Blue Walmart parallels or Panini's Rapture parallel, they can also feature exclusive cards (usually manufactured relics, will get to what those are in a later post) as a bonus.

Hanger boxes.  These are small boxes that have a tab attached that can be hung from a store display hook, hence the hanger part.  These usually have one pack inside of about 40-60 or so cards.  These too may have exclusive content specific to just hanger boxes.

Retail fat packs or just fat packs (not to be confused with hobby jumbo packs).  These are just larger packs around 30 to 40 cards that like the hanger boxes are meant to be hung on a display hook.  I have yet to see Topps Series 1 fat packs, but they might be released later, which also sometimes happens.  And again these can sometimes have exclusive content just for this package type.

Blister packs.  These are packages where the card packs are on a cardboard backer and have a clear plastic shell or blister holding them on.  Topps currently has retail two pack blisters running around but again these can come in different pack configurations and have exclusive cards and content.

Mega boxes.  Relatively new Mega Boxes are just larger retail boxes, they usually have move packs than a blaster box and sometimes contain guaranteed hits and exclusive content.  They are most analogous to a hobby box.  

One last retail product you may see this year are retail tins.  Topps has released Series 1 tins the last two years, but Panini and Upper Deck also occasionally will release product tins.  Again these can contain one or multiple packs and sometimes include exclusive content.

Before I end this post I should point out that some card sets are retail or hobby exclusives, meaning you'll only find them at retail outlets or in hobby stores and some of the retail exclusives are exclusive to that store, like Topps Fire, Bowman Platinum, and Topps Holiday for examples.

I hope that was helpful.  I think I might put together a historical packaging post where we can talk about rack packs and cereal boxes.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner - 12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web has a winner!!!

 

Wow I can't believe it's already over.  I had a nice afternoon enjoying the game at home.  I really had no horse in the race so I was really just hoping for a great competitive game (I might have been leaning on rooting for the Bengals just a little).  And boy did we get that!  It was a lot lower scoring than a lot of you predicted, but how can you complain when the game was so close the entire way and really came down to the last drive.  I'm glad Stafford and Donald get rings and wow Kupp was impressive, but Burrow, Mixon, and Higgins were equally fun to watch.  If the Bengals can keep that team intact they will be ruling the AFC North, heck maybe all of the AFC for some time.  

Ahem, let's get down to what you all are here for.  We had 4 teams going into the finals.  Two had who picked the Bengals and two for the Rams.  No one correctly predicted the opponent so we have to move to total points and boy did our two correct picks way over predict that!  But by the margin of just one point CaptKirk42 is our grand prize winner!!!!!!

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

A complete correct guess with tie breakers would have been:

Bengals over Rams, 43 Pts, 3 FGs

Kirk just happens to be a Rams fan, I guess that's not too surprising.  Kirk also writes a couple blogs the most relevant is CaptKirk42s Trading Card Blog. Kirk I'll be sending you an email here shortly, I think I have some nice Rams stuff for your collection.  Also I'm fairly certain (without going back through my notes) that Kirk has won one of my contests before.  

But wait we ain't done yet.  We still have a door prize to give away.  As is our policy, everyone who entered (and I have to add this caveat,  everyone who entered and had an identifiable entry, we had 3 unknowns that were removed)  has a chance at the door prize.  People who promoted the contest got an extra entry.  The names of everyone who entered were entered into a list randomizer at random.org and the list was randomized 3 times!

And it's Fuji!! Who writes the great blog The Chronicles of Fuji.  Fuji is a fellow Packers fan, but also collects Seahawks (so he's probably getting Seahawks).  

Again I just want to thanks everyone who entered!! I know I've really slacked on the blogging front for that last couple years, but it's awesome to have such a great turn out for a contest.  Kirk and Fuji I will be contacting both of you to make sure I have current shipping addresses.

Now let's just hope we have a baseball season so I can have the my 12th Annual World Series contest!!!

12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Conference Championship Round Up

Wow, this weekends conference championships did not disappoint!! After my team was eliminated I had decided to root for a Bengals/Rams Super Bowl and I guess I got my wish.  With the Chiefs and 49ers eliminated that leaves us with just 4 picks, 2 for each team and no one correctly picked the opponent for the first tie breaker, so really this is literally anyone of those 4's  game!!! Congrats to the our finalists bbcardz, Twinkiller, Captkirk42 and Huskerfan22.  And thanks again to everyone who entered.

 KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Divisional Series Break Down

 

Wow, just wow.  I will say I'm sad to see my Packers eliminated, but really they only have themselves to blame or at least the special teams.  Both Saturday games were pretty surprising.  But the two Sunday games holy cow, what a roller coaster!!!! But with both #1 seeded teams gone and Tom Brady and the Buccaneers it's easier to just say how many we have left than how many we lost.  Going into the Conference Championships we only have 11 teams left!!!   I'll be honest I thought the Bills were going to pull off another upset and we'd have lost even more.  As of right now I think we only have two picks that have an opponent still in the playoffs.  Could come down to the wire and I'm sure next Sunday will be a great day for football.

With that said here are the picks and those remaining, I'll have another update after the conference championships and thanks again for everyone who entered!!!

KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

night owl - Buffalo over Dallas (REVENGE). 59 points. 4 field goals.

J L - Buccaneers over Bills 45 points 3 FGs

Fuji - Green Bay over Kansas City, 54 points, 4 FGs

(codence97 on TCDB) - Bills over Packers, 51 points, 3 FGS

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Adam Kaningher - Bills over Buccaneers, 41 points, 2 field goals

spazmatastic - Packers over Chiefs - 41 points - 3 field goals

ToppsrBest - Titans over Packers-65 points-3 FGs

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

suourange93 - Tampa Bay over Kansas City, 45 points, 1 FG

sandyrusty - Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs 

The Angels In Order - Bucks over Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs.

gregory - Green Bay over Pittsburgh. 40 points, 4 FGs.

Scottzoe - Tampa Bay over Kansas City , 65 Points, 3 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

FiresNBeer - Green Bay over Cincinnati, 58 points, 4 FGs

jlcre2003 - Green Bay over Buffalo, 58 points, 3 fgs

(greatgazoo19 on TCDB) - Green Bay over Buffalo, 52 points, 1 FG

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

John Shar - Titans over Packers, 62 points, 4 FGs.

Matt - Buffalo over Tampa Bay, 69 points (yeah baby!), 4 FG  PIMP

Eric - Green Bay over Buffalo, 63 points, 2 FG

ckevink on TCDb - Green Bay over Buffalo; 51 points; 3 FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

Shaw Racing - Bucks over Bills, 57 points, 5 FGs.

Brett Alan - Buccaneers over Titans, 55 points, 3 FGs.

Dion's IP Autos only - Packers over Chiefs 83 Points 2 FGs

Elliptical Man (Uncorrected Error on TCDB.) - Bills over Packers, 47 points, 3 field goals

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Crocodile - Bucs over NE, 51 points and 4 fg's.

packsux -Packers over the Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs. Packsux on TCDB

Sportzcommish - Pokes over Bills (again), 68 points, 4 FGs.

Jafronius - Packers over the Titans, 44 points, 3 FGs. Thanks for the contest!

gcrl - bucs over Chiefs 57 points, 4 FGs

Trevor P - Green Bay over Tennessee; 52 points; 1 FG PIMP

Robert - Bills over Packers, 50 pts. 3 FG

Sandy (Tscastle on TCDB) - Titans over Packers, 61 points, 4 FGs

e.v.a.n (as myrke) - Packers over Patriots, 65 points, 3 FG

cardboardhogs - Green Bay over Tennessee, 56 points, 5 FG

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

Wilson - Bills over Cowboys, 50 points, 4 FGs

12 Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Wild Card Weekend Round-up

 

Well howdy all.  What a great long weekend of football.   Well at least a great long weekend.  All but two of the Wild Cards games were blowouts, but those two had a lot of drama.  We didn't lose too many, only 6, plus the three unknown entries since no one has come forward to claim them.  They'll be removed going into the divisional games, unless someone comes forward quickly.  Either way we have a large group moving forward and I can't wait to see my Packers next weekend.  Alrighty good luck everybody I'll have a update after the games next weekend.

KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

abraham - Dallas over Kansas City, 81 points 5 field goals

night owl - Buffalo over Dallas (REVENGE). 59 points. 4 field goals.

Unknown - Kansas City over Tampa Bay 64 points, 7 fgs

J L - Buccaneers over Bills 45 points 3 FGs

Fuji - Green Bay over Kansas City, 54 points, 4 FGs

(codence97 on TCDB) - Bills over Packers, 51 points, 3 FGS

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Adam Kaningher - Bills over Buccaneers, 41 points, 2 field goals

spazmatastic - Packers over Chiefs - 41 points - 3 field goals

ToppsrBest - Titans over Packers-65 points-3 FGs

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

suourange93 - Tampa Bay over Kansas City, 45 points, 1 FG

sandyrusty - Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs 

The Angels In Order - Bucks over Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs.

gregory - Green Bay over Pittsburgh. 40 points, 4 FGs.

Scottzoe - Tampa Bay over Kansas City , 65 Points, 3 FG

Jayoneill - Dallas over Kansas City, 75 points, 6 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

FiresNBeer - Green Bay over Cincinnati, 58 points, 4 FGs

jlcre2003 - Green Bay over Buffalo, 58 points, 3 fgs

(greatgazoo19 on TCDB) - Green Bay over Buffalo, 52 points, 1 FG

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

John Shar - Titans over Packers, 62 points, 4 FGs.

Matt - Buffalo over Tampa Bay, 69 points (yeah baby!), 4 FG  PIMP

Eric - Green Bay over Buffalo, 63 points, 2 FG

ckevink on TCDb - Green Bay over Buffalo; 51 points; 3 FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

Shaw Racing - Bucks over Bills, 57 points, 5 FGs.

Brett Alan - Buccaneers over Titans, 55 points, 3 FGs.

Dion's IP Autos only - Packers over Chiefs 83 Points 2 FGs

OhioTim - Pittsburgh Steelers over Green Bay Packers, 48 points, 2 field goals

Elliptical Man (Uncorrected Error on TCDB.) - Bills over Packers, 47 points, 3 field goals

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Unknown - Cincinnati over Dallas 79 points and 1 field goal

shanepatrickwrites - patriots over packers 54 points, 3 fg's

Crocodile - Bucs over NE, 51 points and 4 fg's.

Brandon75 - Raiders over cowboys 55 points and 2 fg's  TCDB

packsux -Packers over the Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs. Packsux on TCDB

Sportzcommish - Pokes over Bills (again), 68 points, 4 FGs.

Jafronius - Packers over the Titans, 44 points, 3 FGs. Thanks for the contest!

gcrl - bucs over Chiefs 57 points, 4 FGs

Trevor P - Green Bay over Tennessee; 52 points; 1 FG PIMP

Robert - Bills over Packers, 50 pts. 3 FG

Sandy (Tscastle on TCDB) - Titans over Packers, 61 points, 4 FGs

Mark M (Chiken Biscuit on TCDB)- Pittsburgh over Dallas, 54 points, 4 FG

e.v.a.n (as myrke) - Packers over Patriots, 65 points, 3 FG

cardboardhogs - Green Bay over Tennessee, 56 points, 5 FG

Unknown - Titans beat the Cowboys, 56 points, and 4 field goals. Good luck to everyone!

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

Wilson - Bills over Cowboys, 50 points, 4 FGs

12th Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web - Official Entries

 

Sorry for the delay.  Been a busy couple days and I've got a busy couple more.  But wow what an exciting ending to the Bengals-Raiders game.  The Patriots-Bills not so much.  But here we are the start of my 12th yes, 12th Annual contest I want to thank everyone who entered.  We had 51 people put picks in this year!  I'm pretty sure that's an all time record for any of my contests so thank you for those that helped spread the word.  And it looks like my Packers are heavy favorites.  One hiccup we have 3 entries that got submitted by an unknown persons.  I'm assuming this is because they either weren't logged in to Blogger or don't have an account and I tried to get the word out, and a lot of people were really great about making sure their twitter or TCDb handles were included.  So if one of these three unknown entries is yours please let me know ASAP, as they will likely be removed after Wildcard weekend if I can't put a name to the entry.  Also please look over your entry.  I copied the entries over from the official sign up post, but you never know.

Here are your official entries.  Good luck everybody.  I'll have an update after Sundays games.

KMack - Kansas City over Green Bay, 71 points, 4 FG's

abraham - Dallas over Kansas City, 81 points 5 field goals

night owl - Buffalo over Dallas (REVENGE). 59 points. 4 field goals.

Unknown - Kansas City over Tampa Bay 64 points, 7 fgs

J L - Buccaneers over Bills 45 points 3 FGs

Fuji - Green Bay over Kansas City, 54 points, 4 FGs

(codence97 on TCDB) - Bills over Packers, 51 points, 3 FGS

bbcardz - LA Rams over Kansas City Chiefs, 72 points, 3 field goals PIMP

Adam Kaningher - Bills over Buccaneers, 41 points, 2 field goals

spazmatastic - Packers over Chiefs - 41 points - 3 field goals

ToppsrBest - Titans over Packers-65 points-3 FGs

Ymmat - Kansas City over Packers - 55 points - 4 FG's

Twinkiller on TCDb - Bengals over Packers, (Yeah that's right,) 54 points, 4 FG

suourange93 - Tampa Bay over Kansas City, 45 points, 1 FG

sandyrusty - Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs 

The Angels In Order - Bucks over Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs.

gregory - Green Bay over Pittsburgh. 40 points, 4 FGs.

Scottzoe - Tampa Bay over Kansas City , 65 Points, 3 FG

Jayoneill - Dallas over Kansas City, 75 points, 6 FG

CaptKirk42 - Rams over Bills 71 points 5 FGs

FiresNBeer - Green Bay over Cincinnati, 58 points, 4 FGs

jlcre2003 - Green Bay over Buffalo, 58 points, 3 fgs

(greatgazoo19 on TCDB) - Green Bay over Buffalo, 52 points, 1 FG

Autographs2000 - Chiefs over Packers, 66 points, 3FG

John Shar - Titans over Packers, 62 points, 4 FGs.

Matt - Buffalo over Tampa Bay, 69 points (yeah baby!), 4 FG  PIMP

Eric - Green Bay over Buffalo, 63 points, 2 FG

ckevink on TCDb - Green Bay over Buffalo; 51 points; 3 FG

cardcollector65jw - 49ers over chiefs, 49 points, and 5 FGs

Shaw Racing - Bucks over Bills, 57 points, 5 FGs.

Brett Alan - Buccaneers over Titans, 55 points, 3 FGs.

Dion's IP Autos only - Packers over Chiefs 83 Points 2 FGs

OhioTim - Pittsburgh Steelers over Green Bay Packers, 48 points, 2 field goals

Elliptical Man (Uncorrected Error on TCDB.) - Bills over Packers, 47 points, 3 field goals

abide (on TCDb) - Chiefs over Buccaneers  / 61 points / 2 field goals

Unknown - Cincinnati over Dallas 79 points and 1 field goal

shanepatrickwrites - patriots over packers 54 points, 3 fg's

Crocodile - Bucs over NE, 51 points and 4 fg's.

Brandon75 - Raiders over cowboys 55 points and 2 fg's  TCDB

packsux -Packers over the Bills, 51 points, 3 FGs. Packsux on TCDB

Sportzcommish - Pokes over Bills (again), 68 points, 4 FGs.

Jafronius - Packers over the Titans, 44 points, 3 FGs. Thanks for the contest!

gcrl - bucs over Chiefs 57 points, 4 FGs

Trevor P - Green Bay over Tennessee; 52 points; 1 FG PIMP

Robert - Bills over Packers, 50 pts. 3 FG

Sandy (Tscastle on TCDB) - Titans over Packers, 61 points, 4 FGs

Mark M (Chiken Biscuit on TCDB)- Pittsburgh over Dallas, 54 points, 4 FG

e.v.a.n (as myrke) - Packers over Patriots, 65 points, 3 FG

cardboardhogs - Green Bay over Tennessee, 56 points, 5 FG

Unknown - Titans beat the Cowboys, 56 points, and 4 field goals. Good luck to everyone!

Huskerfan22 - Cincinnati over Green Bay, 59 points, 5 FGS tcdb: Huskerfan22

Wilson - Bills over Cowboys, 50 points, 4 FGs

Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web 12 - Official Sign up Post!!!

 

Wow, another season gone in the blink of an eye, and we even got an extra game.  But that means it's time for another one of my Almost the Easiest Contests on the Web!!!  I can't believe we are already on my 12 Annual one.

Same rules as always. I just want you to tell me who's going to win the Super Bowl.  That's it.  Well...in all likelyhood more than one of you will guess correctly, so we are going to need a couple tie breakers.  

So I also want you to tell me who the opponent will be, the Total combined number of points (both teams remember, and closets get's it this isn't the Price is Right)  and just incase we need one more tie breaker how many total field goals in the game (again both teams combined)

So your entry should look something like this:

Green Bay over Kansas City, 75 points, 4 FGs

Now I know you're asking, "Hey CB what am I going to win?"  It never fails that if I was to offer up a prize it would not be to everyone's likely so just like my last World Series contest I'm going to make a prize pack specifically crafted to the winner, based on their team(s) of preference.

But wait there's more.  Like always there's going to be a door prize, just for signing up!!  And the door prize will also be crafted for the winner.  And if promote this contest, on your blog, twitter, YouTube video, or what ever tube you use.  You'll also receive an extra entry into the door prize contest.  But Please Please Please make sure you let me know you did it and a link to the pimp would be great.

OK there you go.  You have until Noon Alaska Time/4 pm EST on Saturday January 15th to enter, right before the Bengals and Raiders game.

Here are you choices:

AFC

Kansas City Chiefs
Pittsburgh Steelers
Buffalo Bills
New England Patriots
Cincinnati Bengals
Las Vegas Raiders
Tennessee Titans

NFC

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Philadelphia Eagles

Dallas Cowboys

San Francisco 49ers

Los Angelese Rams

Arizona Cardinals

Green Bay Packers

Good Luck everybody!!

Oh what a year - A room full of elephants that we should probably talk about

Oh hello there, yep it's me again.  I've been sitting in the cold dark Alaskan winter contemplating life, the universe, and well, everything.  It's been a crazy couple years hasn't it?  I apologize for the lack of content.  I really just haven't felt like sitting down to write blog posts.  And the few times I have sat down to do it the post turns into a bitch session and I've been making a very concerted effort to be a positive force in the hobby and the universe, so a lot of those posts go unpublished or just get deleted.  

But here we are, a new year and there's lots to talk about.  Over the last two year's we've seen a huge gain in popularity in the trading card hobby.  Whether it was people stuck at home during the pandemic rekindling their passion for a hobby, new people finding the hobby, or people realizing just how lucrative it can be to sell and resell sport cards to make a buck for better or worse the last couple years has seen a huge shift in the hobby landscape with hints of the 90s boom.

Let's talk about what's been happening.

1. Retail trading cards become the hot new thing.  It wasn't that long ago I can remember reports that retail outlets like Walmart and Target were considering not stocking sports cards anymore because they weren't selling.  And let's be honest in the hobby retail product was a joke if you were looking for high end hits.  But retail was also a nice cheap alternative to pricy hobby boxes and packs if you were a set builder.  Now we've got fist fights breaking out in stores and Target actually halting sales of the products due to safety concerns.  People were camping out in front of stores waiting for restocks and then clearing out shelves.  Stores started putting limits on the number of boxes you could buy at one time and moved cards behind counters and registers.  Then of course a lot of this product ended up on the secondary market on eBay and being sold on Twitter accounts and the like at huge mark ups.  I personally was lucky I was able to find enough Topps Baseball to put most of my base sets together, but even up here in Alaska the shelves were usually bare.  

2. Card grading companies got swamped!!  I'm not a guy who sends in cards to get graded, but I can respect and understand those that do and the value of having a supposedly impartial 3nd party service grade a card to establish and then preserve condition.  But wow I think even the grading card companies were a little surprised by just what happened.  And I'm talking mainly about the big three, Beckett (BGS), PSA, and SGC. The companies at one time had to halt submissions and then jacked prices up to a point that it really limited what was worth send in to get graded.  Not all of these companies reacted the same, but all got blindsided with an unprecedented amount of demand while trying to tackle pandemic restrictions and dealing with employee safety.  

3. COMC.  Oh COMC.  I'm sure if you're reading this blog you know what and how COMC does what they do.  And the unique service COMC offers to the hobby can be seen by just how many growing pains the company has bumbled and stumbled their way through and survived. The first real challenge came after COMC and Beckett parted ways.  COMC had a deal with Beckett for use of their checklists for listing purposes, but COMC also used Becketts pricing information for help inform both sellers and buyers what their cards were worth.  It was kind of a golden time for the hobby because you could see the Beckett value for cards without having to pay for the service.  This is likely why the two parted ways year's ago.  But that led to a scramble for COMC to not only produce it's own checklists, but to document that production. And they did that through it's crowd sourced challenges.  This led to a long wait time for processing.  The second big hiccup I can remember is the first time COMC upgrade facilities.  Both processing and shipping times got pretty extreme, but not terrible.  But the latest hurdle that COMC had to overcome, and looks like they finally have, was the pandemic. Which saw a perfect storm for the company that was trying to move to another larger facility, coupled with operating in an area of the country with some of the most strict pandemic lock down orders, while dealing with an unprecedent surge in card submissions, sales, and shipping requests.  I made the mistake of placing an order in Jan of 2021, it took 8 months for my cards to ship!

4.  And finally the newest and biggest elephant in the room.  Fanatics.  I think we (the hobby, the royal I) and probably Topps, were really blindsided when the MLB, MLBPA, and Fanatics announced their exclusive trading card deal.  And then shortly after announcing they had acquired rights to the NFLPA and NBA and NBAPA.  I don't think anybody was that surprised with Fanatic announced it had bought Topps' trading card business.  It seemed pretty obvious that Fanatics would acquire one of the trading card companies.  In 2009, it was a big shock to see Panini, a little sticker company from Italy, scoop up the exclusive NBA license.  At least they had some experience with sports cards and stickers, but it wasn't that surprising when they bought Donruss.  And in buying Donruss Panini gained instant US brand recognition and arguably one of the deepest brand catalogues in the hobby.  So Fanatics, with no trading card experience would likely have to acquire one of the big three remaining companies.   I had joked that Upper Deck should be their goal and then they would have licenses for all 4 US major sports leagues. But Topps seemed like the obvious and likely choice.  

Since the MLB announcement there have been lots of uncertainty with what was going to happen in the hobby.  I'm not saying I'm happy that Topps will continue their baseball exclusivity into the foreseeable future, but I have happy that I'll get to put my Topps flagship set together and I am looking forward to Topps flagship football again.  What will happen to Panini and Upper Deck with this new juggernaut of Fanatics/Topps?  Who knows?  I'm a little anxious, but also very excited for the what might happen in the trading card arena.  And if it all goes to hell we still have over 100 years of vintage cards to fall back on.