2012 Topps Turkey Red Football?

Hot on the heels of Topps online only Turkey Red Baseball offering this year comes last years Football!! I saw this posted on Sports Collectors Daily's Facebook feed and that's the only place I've seen it yet.

If you ask Topps their Turkey Red baseball was a huge success, for them.  They sold out of product in less than a day even with a cap on the amount of boxes you could order.  Now boxes are going somewhere between $60-70 online.  So why not throw out an online exclusive football set, dated to last year so we can put last year's rookies in it, although last year we saw some great rookies and rookie performances.  Looks like it'll be just like 2011's Topps Magic online offering.  All rookies with one auto per box.  

Still waiting for more product info, like a checklist or release date.  Don't look to Topps.com.  There's no news there anymore.  Topps.com is now just a store front. I think Topps has officially moved it's online presence to Facebook, although you won't find much information there either.   I wonder if this is a statement by Topps about their commitment to brick and mortar hobby shops?

TTM Success - Travis Ishikawa

Got my second TTM for Spring Training back on Friday.  Sadly, Travis isn't with the Brewers organization anymore, but I did get to see him last year at spring training in Maryvale and he signed a ball for me.  Travis is now in the Orioles camp and he was nice enough to sign both of his Topps Brewers cards for me and getting his 2013 card signed fills a hole.  If I get someone else on the 2013 design I'll probably give Travis the 2012 spot since Nyjer Morgan has both the 2011 and 2012 spots on my Brewers TTM page. 

Anyways thanks Travis and good luck this year with the Orioles.

TTM Stats:
Date Sent 2/13/13
Date Received 3/8/13

Address used
Ed Smith Stadium
2700 12th St
Sarasota, FL 34237

2012 Panini National Treasures Baseball - Panini Steps it up.

If you're like me, and by like me I mean cheap and not well to do, you like to window shop.  I love watching Youtube box breaks and reading forum posts of super high end box breaks.  And the more I watch and read  the less I ever want to actually open a box of this high end stuff.  Just so much risk for your buck.  But I digress, the latest super premium baseball card offering is Panini's National Treasures.  And after watching the box breaks and reading about them on forums I have to say I really like this stuff.  I still would never spring for a $400 plus box of this, but I could see taking that $400, if I had it to blow, and picking up stuff I wanted online.

I have to say that Panini has really stepped it up with this super premium product.  Each "box" contains 8 cards all hits of some kind.  Including one book card and one on card auto guaranteed.  The one thing I would like to tell Panini is when you advertise your product you might not want to refer to most of your subjects as commons.  When you look at the sell sheet and the collection breakdown it says 150 commons and 75 rookies.  That's a terrible way to sell your product.  Might I suggest you say something like this, 150 active, retired, and hall of famers and 75 rookies.  Calling the majority of your players commons really doesn't lend to how great of a product you're trying to put out, especially when your product is 8 cards in a box inside a tin.

But I digress.  There are no base cards in this product.  There are lots of different themes and subsets  but they are all either memorabilia, autographed or both.  And I know I'm usually hard on Panini, but I have to say from what I've seen I really like this product.

Sure there are your base relics like this Al Kaline bat...

this Jackie Robinson jersey.  I really do like the over all design of much of the cards.  Instead of airbrushing all the players Panini decided to do head shots in black and white, cutting off the hat logo and chest logo of the player.  But what you get is a nice close up of the player and for an unlicensed MLB product, they do have a players association and HOF license, it looks really good.  I also think that Panini did a great job making these look retro, but modern and pretty much gave us a modern day cabinet card.   With great filigree and borders and just a really nice clean over all appearance, that  I find very attractive.  Not to mention there are some insanely nice cards in the product. Here are a few I found while window shopping.

There are lots of book cards.  Everything from this awesome Granderson patch to some large plain patches. All are very low numbered.

Panini released a pretty extensive drool gallery before the product launch and one of the really stand outs were the button cards.  Topps will also be putting out button cards in Gypsy Queen this year.

There are also some really nice patch cards too.

Panini also brings back the Rated Rookie with these signed patch cards.  There are also MLB Players Choice cards that are just like this with a different embroidered logo.  No Diamond Kings though which is kind of disappointing.

One of my other favorite themed cards in the set are the Hall of Fame auto cards.

This will be one of the cards I'm going after.  I do believe these are numbered to just 25 and are all hard signed.  A great design with the players year of induction and the HOF's logo.

But probably the best cards I've seen and I have no chance of ever owning one, because the few that I've been tracking in ebay are going for crazy money, are these bat knob cards.

I mean this would probably be the crown of my collection if ever it was to be acquired, or something like this.

Panini put out a drool gallery of these card too.

Color me impressed Panini.  If Panini can transfer this kind of effort over to more mid to low range offerings, if and when they were to get an MLB license, well it just might work out all right.  And the more I thought about it after my whole Look Back at Topps Exclusive License, the more I wouldn't mind the return of Rated Rookies and Diamond Kings.  Maybe there's hope on the horizon.  Anyways congrats to Panini for putting out a great product that I will never buy a box of.  But damn if it ain't fun to window shop.

cb out.

3rd Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl contest on the Web Pre Game Trash Talk

It's here, well almost.  This year we will have a winner outright.  But of course we will have to find a winner from the tie breakers.

That being said here are our 5 finalist!!!

Shane P. - Ravens over Falcons , 39 points, 5 TO

Adam E - 49ers over Broncos, 48 points , 2 TO

arpsmith- 49ers over Broncos, 36 points, 3 TO

Skroeker - 49ers over Patriots, 45 points, 3 TO (pimp)

Robert - Ravens over Packers, 47 points, 3 TO


For those of you who forgot what's on the line.  Why these sweet cards are!!!

And don't forget we also have a door prize to award after the big game.

See you after the game!

3rd Annual Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web Wild Card Weekend Update

Well that was an interesting, but not unexpected outcome to the weekend.  To be honest I think the only game that was mildly up in the air was the Redskins and Seahawks game at before the game.  The fact that the overwhelming majority of you guys picked teams with byes in the first round helped too.  And no one decided to be a spoiler and go after the Bengals, Vikings, or Colts.

In the end we only lost one out of our contestant pool. Sorry CaptKirk42.

But this year there will be a winner for guessing the correct team!  As all the remaining teams have at least one pick.  And more than likely it'll come down to tie breakers.

Here are the remaining picks if you forgot what you chose.

Greg Z - Broncos over Packers, 50 points, 3 TO

Shane P. - Ravens over Falcons , 39 points, 5 TO

Eric L - Broncos over 49ers, 58 points , 3 TO

Adam E - 49ers over Broncos, 48 points , 2 TO

Wilson - Patriots over Seahawks, 63 points, 4 TO (pimp)

hiflew - Falcons over Texans, 41 points , 3 TO

Jeff Wilk - Falcons over Pats, 38 points, 4 TO

Brian Conrad -  Patriots over 49ers, 52 points, 2 TO

CaptKirk42 - Redskins over Texans, 48 points, 3 TO

High Five Man - Broncos over Packers, 43 points, 3 TO

arpsmith- 49ers over Broncos, 36 points, 3 TO

Johngy - Broncos over 49ers, 62 points , 2 TO

Tim Byrd - Broncos over Redskins, 55 points, 6 TO

The Dimwit - Broncos over Packers, 47 points, 2 TO

The Diamond King - Patriots over 49ers, 49 points , 3 TO

Fan of Reds - Texans over Packers, 53 points, 4 TO

Spankee - Packers over Broncos, 40 points, 2 TO

Skroeker - 49ers over Patriots, 45 points, 3 TO (pimp)

Josh D. -  Seahawks over Patriots, 54 points, 1 TO (Dammit Josh I thought a girl actually entered my contest)

Chunter - Patriots over 49ers, 42 points, 4 TO (pimp)

Brads Blog - Patriots over Falcons, 56 points, 3 TO

Robert - Ravens over Packers, 47 points, 3 TO

irondequoit36 - Broncos over Seahawks, 48 points, 3 TO (pimp)

daddyohoho - Patriots over 49ers, 49 points, 2 TO

Richard Nebe Jr - Falcons over Redskins, 35 points, 3 TO

Have a great week everyone and enjoy the football this weekend.

Box Break 2012 Topps US Olympic Team and Hopefuls

I haven't broken a box in a while.  A long while actually. I ended up at Don's Sportcards the other day to see if I'd won his monthly drawing.  He was giving away a box of 2012 Chrome Football.  I obviously didn't win, because I would be featuring that break instead of this one.

I was perusing the wares and drop boards and noticed he had a bunch of boxes for super cheap.  There was a lot of hockey, but also a couple boxes of Topps Olympic cards from last year.  I had resisted buying any because to be honest hobby boxes were really expensive.  Talking to Don he said he wasn't going to get any of it, but had a few people interested in it so he bought a couple of boxes, the ones now marked down to a reasonable price.  So I snagged one of the boxes and when I go back if the other one is still there and cheaper I might snag that one too.

In my honest opinion this was one of Topps best releases last year.

You've all seen the cards I'm sure.  They make for great TTM fodder, plus you get 3 hits per box, at least!!

Let's go through the motions of it though.

Here is the base card.  A nice clean design that takes a Sharpe very well, I've had a few successes TTM from of the extras from a blaster.

There are also three tiers of parallels, bronze, silver and gold.

The golds are 1:4, Silvers 1:3 and the Bronze 1:2, but is seemed like you got at least one if not two of these per pack.

There is also the Games of the XXX Olympiad insert.

These too would look great auto'd..

The other base insert is the Heritage of the Games.

You get one commemorative (ie Manupatch) card per box.

Henry here won gold in 2008, but failed to make the Olympic team in 2012 and after losing his 2012 Olympic Trials removed his shoes and threw them into the crowd officially retiring.  Nice patch card though.

Tony was the captain of the 2012 US Men's Water Polo Olympic team.  Sadly they didn't medal in London.

Natalie only got a Bronze in London last year as part of the 4x100 freestyle relay and didn't actually swim the final, but she has earned 12 medals, tying two others for the most medals won by a female US athlete and she won 6 medals in Beijing in 2008.  And I have to say this is a terrible picture of her, because she is quite good looking woman.

But wait what's this I beat the odds!! Yeah the packaging says you get at least 1 relic, 1 auto and one commemorative card.  But ain't it sweet when you get more than that?!!

Juan is origianlly from Columbia, but now plays for Chivas USA in Los Angeles.  Sadly the US Men's Soccer team didn't qualify for the Olympics, but his is a sweet silver parallel auto numbered to just 30 and a great bonus auto.  Not as good as a Michael Phelps would have been.

Over all not a bad box for under 40 bucks.  I haven't collated the set yet, but from just leafing through the stack I know that I should have most of a set and quite a few doubles.

It is on like Donkey Kong and so the 3rd Annual Almost the Easiets Super Bowl Contest on the Web begins.

Wahoooooo! It's go time. I want to thank all the people who pimped the contest as well.  We had a fairly decent turn out. Last year we had 22 entries and this year we had a slight increase with 25.  So I'm pretty pleased.

So here we have the offical entries.  If you see pimp next to it, it means you pimped the contest, if I missed someone please let me know and if I typed your pick in wrong also let me know.

Greg Z - Broncos over Packers, 50 points, 3 TO

Shane P. - Ravens over Falcons , 39 points, 5 TO

Eric L - Broncos over 49ers, 58 points , 3 TO

Adam E - 49ers over Broncos, 48 points , 2 TO

Wilson - Patriots over Seahawks, 63 points, 4 TO (pimp)

hiflew - Falcons over Texans, 41 points , 3 TO

Jeff Wilk - Falcons over Pats, 38 points, 4 TO

Brian Conrad -  Patriots over 49ers, 52 points, 2 TO

CaptKirk42 - Redskins over Texans, 48 points, 3 TO

High Five Man - Broncos over Packers, 43 points, 3 TO

arpsmith- 49ers over Broncos, 36 points, 3 TO

Johngy - Broncos over 49ers, 62 points , 2 TO

Tim Byrd - Broncos over Redskins, 55 points, 6 TO

The Dimwit - Broncos over Packers, 47 points, 2 TO

The Diamond King - Patriots over 49ers, 49 points , 3 TO

Fan of Reds - Texans over Packers, 53 points, 4 TO

Spankee - Packers over Broncos, 40 points, 2 TO

Skroeker - 49ers over Patriots, 45 points, 3 TO (pimp)

Josh D. -  Seahawks over Patriots, 54 points, 1 TO (Dammit Josh I thought a girl actually entered my contest)

Chunter - Patriots over 49ers, 42 points, 4 TO (pimp)

Brads Blog - Patriots over Falcons, 56 points, 3 TO

Robert - Ravens over Packers, 47 points, 3 TO

irondequoit36 - Broncos over Seahawks, 48 points, 3 TO (pimp)

daddyohoho - Patriots over 49ers, 49 points, 2 TO

Richard Nebe Jr - Falcons over Redskins, 35 points, 3 TO

It's interesting once I started putting all this in and looking over the picks a few things stand out.  One that the Broncos have a lot of love here.  Also a Patriot/49er's Super Bowl is the most predicted match up.  And no one chose the Bengals.  At all. Not even to show up.  And if you remember last year, which I'm sure you don't we didn't have anyone guess the correct team. No one picked the scrappy Giants last year.  Here's the official contest winner post from last year.  Who knows, who knows.

Well good luck.  I want to thank everyone for making this the best contest yet, and don't be surprised if the prize pools keep growing as I dig through boxes and teams get eliminated. I love to throw in s few surprises.

2 Blasters of WWE Heritage Break

I tried yesterday to find a hobby box of WWE Heritage, but to no avail.  I still have to stop down at my other great LCS, Don's Sportcards, but I hit up Bosco's first thinking if anyone would carry a box or two of WWE Heritage Hobby it would be Bosco's, nope.  So I ended up stopping at Wally World and they had blasters and rack packs.  I opted for the 2 blasters mainly because you get a relic per box  and for the same price You would get the same amount of cards but aren't guaranteed anything in the rack packs, although you probably get one of every insert in a rack pack.  Not that I won't pick up a rack pack or a hobby box now if I can find one.  Anyway...I don't really follow professional wrestling much anymore. As a matter of fact I only recognized a handful of names of the current stars.  But back in the 80's growing up I was a huge WWF fan.  I would watch the shows even thought the stars fought nobodies and I would make sure that I had my Saturdays cleared when the Saturday Night Main Event would come on on NBC instead of Saturday Night Live.  So half of this set is for me.  Plus it's on old school cardboard.  No gum though. And of course this isn't the first Heritage WWE set that Topps has put out either, but I don't ever remember seeing the mid 2000's releases and those sets were based on classic Topps baseball designs not Topps classic wrestling cards.

Here's a box label for anyone who's not going to put there set in a binder.

First lets look at the base design.  It's based on the original 1985 release, there was also a 1987 WWF set, which is the one I remember collecting, so we might see a second WWE Heritage set next year if this one is a big hit.  There are 110 cards in the set. The first 55 are current stars and the last 55 are classic stars.

Here's the Rock in the current stars pile.

Really Fast 5? I think I could have picked a few other movies that were bigger blockbusters than that.

And here we have the Andre the Giant from the classic pile.  You'll notice that they couldn't use the original WWF logo since the WWF was sued by the World Wildlife Fund and they won so the WWF became the WWE.  Not really the same. I always thought the WWF had such a cool logo. And it just rolled off the tongue.

Grenoble, France huh?  Damn that would make a good trivia question.

This set has some parallels and lots of inserts, with relics and autographs.

I did get one parallel.  I'm not sure if it's retail exclusive but odds on the side of the box say they are 1:90, so a harder pull from retail.

I got a silver border Koko B. Ware card.  I remember that guy!

The backs are the same. There are also suppose to be gold and black numbered parallel cards and printing plates you can hit.


The first insert set is the Family History set.  I only got two of these so about one per blaster. I think the odds are actually like 1:6 like most of the inserts.

There is also a cool Fables Tag Teams insert.  Although looking through the checklist there are also some great Tag Teams missing.

Next up is the Ringside Action inserts set.  The largest of the insert sets at 55 total cards you get one per pack.  Here are four of my favorites.

Next up you have the Superstars speak.  I ended up with 4 of these and there are 20 cards in the set.

Next up we have Jerry "the King:" Lawler Portraits. I only pulled one of these.  There pretty neat, but not original.  There are original sketch cards in the product though.

Next up one of the inserts I will be collecting the Andre the Giant Tribute cards.  I only got 2.

And there are also stickers in the set. Another one of the inserts I will be trying to put together.

There are 18 stickers in the set and if that seems odd it's because the back of the  first 9 and the last 9  form puzzles.

The Red Bordered puzzle is Sgt Slaughter.

I'm not sure who makes up the yellow border puzzel just yet.

But my favorite insert set and the whole reason I wanted to pick some of this up is the Allen and Ginter mini inserts. Totally out of place in this set, but that's what I love about them. Plus they are just so cool.  I only ended up getting 2 from my two blasters and oddly enough they came from the same blaster.  At 1:6 odds you would expect to get at least one per blaster and I'm happy that I got my two. It's a big set with 30 cards and will probably be one I'm working on for a while.

I was also lucky enough to get one of each type of relic possible out of my two blasters.

I have no idea who Dolph Ziggler is, but I like the retro 80's card design and the big WrestleMania logo.  Really 27?  Man I can remember the original WrestleMania and Battle Royale.

I like how Topps tells me that I now OWN something.   Damn right I do.  At least for awhile.

And I also got a Randy Orton T-Shirt relic.  Also someone I know nothing about.  And I could have done a quick Wikipedia search and found something out for you, but I didn't.

Overall I really like this product.  I wish it were a bit cheaper more like the 80's releases when you could get it for a quarter a pack, but we ain't in the 80's no more. There are quite few classic stars missing, but I'm sure that's all contractual BS or something.  I love a few of the inserts. I love the classic card stock and mix of current and classic stars, even though I'm a classic guy.  And I really like the A&G inserts.  Out of two blasters I didn't have a single double card and almost put a full set together, I'm only missing 12!  You can see what I need to complete my set and insert sets on my Help me Complete a Set page.  It's right on top.  I promised Colbey I'd help out with his insert needs so he has first dibs.  The relics are up for trade for a few days and then I'm going to be putting them up on ebay to help the cause.  The Stickers, A&G and Andre Tribute cards I'm keeping.