Sobering thoughts on the industry or crazy man subway rant you decide...

Exclusivity sucks.  I think we can safely say that.

So think about this.. starting next year all four major US sports will have exclusive contracts with just one card manufacturer.  

Topps has baseball.

Panini has basketball and will have football all to itself as well.  And I'm sure will continue to put out unlicensed MLB stuff.

Upper Deck has hockey.

This might be great for the companies, but for collector's and fans that really sucks. I don't collect hockey or basketball. I've come to realize that we shouldn't expect anything extraordinary from Topps so this is aimed at Panini and it's football license.

As a guy who has really culled down his set building I can safely say I probably won't be putting anymore football sets together in the future.  Panini really only has one brand aimed at set collector's and that's Score and they ruined that this year by taking it upscale.  Hey Panini I'll help you out here. Make a set call it Panini Football, get some good photo's, don't crop out the player and put them on a background, don't use foilboard, make the set at least 400 cards, limit your parallels, put in some inserts that aren't half-assed, create something new, from scratch, don't go back to the same well, we don't need a Donruss football, we don't need Pacific football, don't short print anything in the base set, don't number in autographed rookie cards to the base set. Here's a few more ideas, feel free to use what you want.  How about Ref cards, haven't seen those in a few decades, cards of the head coaches, they don't get enough love, team checklist cards that either feature the full team or perhaps their stadium.  Have the set come out a little later so you know who made the cut and feature those rookies instead of the 100's of guys you get auto's from who didn't make the team.

Whew ok rant over, I've got to get back to work.  

Comments welcome.

cb out

Just think how the guy feels....

Let's do a little thought experiment.  Lets say you get off of work and you just got paid.  You head on down to your local card shop and peruse the shelves.  You spot a box of that new Topps Supreme baseball.  Sure the seasons over, but I hear those cards are nice. So you plop down your 80 or 90 bucks whatever it's going for there. You're so excited that you decide to open the box there, because the shop owner and the two other guys looking though the dime boxes want to see what you got.

You open the box and inside is a small gold foil packet.  You open the pack and the first of your two cards you get in that box is this one.  It's a snazzy auto of Milwaukee Brewers up and coming shortstop Jean Segura.  Bah you say and quickly list it on ebay. Where I promptly win it with a whopping bid of $2.58.  Yikes, I sure hope the other card was a Cal Ripken autographed laundry tag printing plate 1 of 1.

However I'm very happy with my new card. Even if it's a sticker auto.  

This is why I don't bust high end products.

This is a thing

Seriously, fan boy.

Another trade with the Night Owl

The Night Owl ripped a few packs of 2014 Topps Chrome a while back and pulled this die-cut Darth Braun.  Since I needed the card for my team set I put in dibs and sent the nocturnal one some Dodgery goodness.  

He in return sent the Die Cut Connections card, some other Brewers for my team set needs and a nice stack of 2013 and 2014 Allen and Ginter for my set needs.  

:Not all trades are flashy, but I love being able to check off 30 or so cards from my needs list.  

Thanks Greg.

Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web -- The Winners

Well hell I have to say I'm glad to see that game 7 was a real chess match. I didn't see Hudson only lasting 1 2/3 innings, but after Bumgarner came in I think it was over for the Royals. Anywho...

Congratulations to Paul Hadsall who writes the great blog Paul's Random Baseball Stuff.
Paul was the only person to correctly pick that the Giants would win the World Series.  And honestly that's the whole contest.  Here's Paul's winning entry.

Paul Hadsall - San Francisco over Detroit, 5 games, 6 HRs, pimped

Here is what a winning entry and all the correct tie breakers are

Giants over Royals, 7 games, 5 home runs.


But it's always nice when we don't have to go to the tie breakers.  And we had a great turn out this year.  43 people signed up without even knowing what I was giving away! Suckers.  Last year we had 30 entries, 2012 we had only 12, frowny face, and for the inaugural contest way back in 2011 we had 21, so a great turn out this year for sure.  I'm hoping for over 50 entries next year and hopefully I won't be in the throws of new baby, home renovation, work distopia and be able to assemble a great prize package for my 5th contest.

We had a great match up going into the World Series with 5 players making it to the final round, but only two really in contention and if the Royals had won, Jupiterhill would have correctly predicted the winner and the match up and the correct amount of homers.

So congrats to Paul, who's a Mets fan and will be getting a nice little Mets bonus in with his other prizes.  

But I know you're all waiting for the door prize drawing.  I had a nice box set of 1991 Score Rookies that contained a sweet Tim McIntosh rookie card.  I also have other stuff to include in the package, but I'll let that be a surprise to the winner.  

So I entered all 43 people into a list randomizer over at Random.org.  If you promoted the contest you got an extra entry.  I randomized the list 3 times and here are the results.

Congratulations to Nick from Dime Boxes - The Low End Baseball Card Collector's Journey. 

And thanks again everybody who entered. 

Schweettttttt 2014 Panini Playbook Game of Inches

Seldom am I impressed anymore by anything any of the card companies put out anymore.  Usually it's a tweak of the same old same old over and over again.  If you like Triple Threads don't worry it's almost exactly the same every year.

I digress, the point is I was looking at the drool gallery for the new Playbook Football on Panini's blog the Knight's Lance and was pretty impressed by one set of cards.

These Game of Inches cards are pretty insane.  Just a great layout. I love the die cut player in the middle of the card flanked by two insane swatches.  I think for a player collector this might be one of those cards that would be the crown in their collection.   Whats even better is that instead of cutting the player out and putting them on some generic background Panini left the field of play back there as the border.  Luckily for me there aren't any players I collect in the series, as I'm sure these will set you back some bucks.

I think the only thing that would have made these better was if Panini had figured out a way to incorporate an autograph on the card.

Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web IV - It's almost over...

Could be over tonight, who knows?  Looked like Kansas City was going to roll over the Giants, but wow has the momentum shifted. And holy crap has Bumgarner put up a couple gems.

Anywho it was pointed out after my last contest post that there were really only two people left, even if 5 qualified for the final round and that's because Paul was the only one to pick the Giants and Jupiterhill was the only one to pick the Royals opponent correctly.  It'll be interesting to see how all the stats line up with it's all said and done.

Up for grabs was some great mid-nineties box sets, a couple relics and autos and of course the most coveted prize of all ...

The ATEWSCOTW4 certification of awesomeness.

Here were the final five's picks


Josh D. - Royals over Dodgers. 7 games. 6 HRs

Jeff S - KC Royals over Pirates in 7 games, 5 HRs. pimped

Paul Hadsall - San Francisco over Detroit, 5 games, 6 HRs, pimped

Jupiterhill -  Royals over the Giants in 6 games, with 5 homers.

Fuji - Royals over Dodgers, 6 games, 8 home runs

And I'll have the door prize drawing later as well.

Thanks everybody enjoy the game(s).

cb out