Christmas Box Break: 2009-10 Panini Basketball Hall of Fame

Call me glutton for punishment, but I opened another box of Panini Hall of Fame because I can’t afford things like $300 boxes of 2007-08 Upper Deck Chronology.  More of the same:

Base cards (numbered to 599): Rick Barry, Moses Malone, Andy Phillip and Ed Diddle

Black borders (numbered to 199): Bob Knight and Clyde Lovellette

Inserts: Clyde Drexler Dream Team (065/349) and David Robinson High Praise (127/399)

Autos: Nancy Lieberman (174/496) and a redemption card for Cheryl Miller (/499)

Jersey: Scotty Pippen Dream Team jersey (819/875)

So, out of four boxes of this product here’s the breakdown of some of the stuff that I’ve gotten:

• Scotty Pippen Dream Team jersey cards: 3 out of 4
• Autograph redemption cards: one in 3 out of 4 boxes. 3 out of 8 total autographs
• Male/Female ratio of autographs: 4/4
• Duplicate autographs that I’ve received: Pat Summitt and Harry Gallatin
• Base card duplicates: Dolph Schayes and Buddy Jeannette (black border)

I’ve really beat the odds in a bad way with this product.  I purchased two more boxes (from Dave and Adam’s this time instead of Blowout) and those will make or break my opinion of this product.  I’m not looking for a Larry Bird auto patch card numbered to 5, just something other than the same cards that I keep pulling over and over again.  I hate the fact that Scotty Pippen seems to have sold Panini twice as many of his USA jerseys as the rest of the team.  I also think that I hate the fact that Panini has destroyed these historic jerseys.  I also hate the fact that a piece of these historic jerseys can sell for as low as $8 on eBay.

 

Technorati Tags: Panini,Basketball Hall of Fame,David Robinson

Box Breaks: 2010 Rittenhouse Justice League of America Archives

I’m behind on box breaks so I’m going to do the new few a little more quickly than I normally would.  I didn’t pull anything significant or I would have rushed it right to the site.

I got a box of Justice League of America Archives when there was a big sale on them.  Wow, these base cards are terrible.  The front is an image from a Justice League comic.  All that’s on the back is the cover from that issue and the issue’s number and date of publication.  That’s it.  Nothing about the story or a character or anything of that sort.  Nowhere near as good as the Marvel sets that Rittenhouse has produced.

 

 

 

 

The insert sets are a lot of fun though.  If only you got more of them in a box.  I got three of the Super Friends insert cards including the pictured Apache Chief along with The Flash and Batman.  I have two of the Other Earths cards: the pictures Owlman and Johnny Quick.  You only get one JLA membership card and I got the Big Blue Boy Scout.

These days, non-sports sets are all about sketch cards.  I pulled a Green Arrow sketch card drawn by Dezi Sienty.  It’s an interesting sketch of a character that was brought to new heights of popularity when Kevin Smith took over writing his title for a year.  Smith is extremely popular, but Sienty… not so much.  That’s the chance you take when you buy these boxes just like any other boxes.  I just wish that I had seen the base cards before buying this box because I may have passed on this set.  It really seems like DC mailed it in on this one.

 

Technorati Tags: box break,Justice League of America,sketch card,Green Arrow,DC Comics,Rittenhouse,Dezi Sienty

Dewey on eBay

One of the things that I like about collecting a player such as Dwight Evans is the lack of interest across the country.  People love him in Boston, but not as many people even know who he is as you travel further away from New England.  That being said, there are enough collectors out there that when really nice Dewey cards pop up on eBay, there can be some bidding battles on them.

Check out this auction for a 2001 Fleer card from the Red Sox 100th Anniversary set.  Many of the hits from this set go for a premium since they are tough to come by.  This simple, unnumbered, on-card autograph from Fleer recently sold for $58.95.  You don’t find them very often though.  There’s also a Dwight Evans autographed hat from this set that could be found randomly in the box sets that were also produced.

Seeing a card such as this one is kind of refreshing.  These days when jersey cards are commons and most autographs sell for a dollar on eBay, it’s nice to look back to when autographs were tough to pull out of packs and actually held some value.

This next card is a good example of modern cards that are worth something due mostly to manufactured scarcity.  This auction is for a Sweet Spot 1 of 1 that is signed with green ink on black leather.  This card sold for $247.55 which is way out of my price range.  It’ll make one Dwight Evans collector very happy though.

I am a fan of the various 2007 Dwight Evans Sweet Spot autos that are out there.  It’s just a shame that this card is from 2007 when Upper Deck used the wrong substance for the “baseball” cards and all of the signatures have faded.  All of the bat and leather cards look great though.

Speaking of cards that look great, I’m completely happy with this card that I added to my collection for $6.76 with shipping.  It’s one of the more beautiful relic cards that I’ve seen and it helps me understand why so many people miss Topps Archives.

 

Technorati Tags: Dwight Evans,eBay

What Do Card Companies Owe You?

My disastrous 2010 Topps Chrome box break got me thinking.  What are you actually buying when you slap your hard earned cash down on the counter to purchase a box of trading cards?

I’m not a prospector.  I don’t purchase cases of product to bust and then flip on eBay.  I’ve got a limited budget and therefore have to be selective when it comes to what I buy.  I have fun opening oddball sets just as much as I do anything else.  So, what happens when you open a box of cards and it becomes a chore instead of a pleasure?  Does the manufacturer owe you anything more than a replacement for all of the damaged cards?

No, the card companies don’t owe a collector anything more than the cards promised to come in the box.  That being said, it would be nice for them to acknowledge that this is a hobby, one that can be pretty expensive, and people collect cards as a way to relax and enjoy themselves.  If people give up on this hobby then that’s it for these companies, but often times it doesn’t seem like card manufacturers think that way.

When I sent back over half of a box of Topps Chrome to Topps for replacement, I included a note explaining that this is supposed to be a fun hobby for me, I was robbed of the fun of opening packs and asked if there was any way that they could make that up to me.  I didn’t care what it would have been.  It could have been half of a hobby box, a blaster, a handful of random Topps packs or a single redemption pack.  I just would have liked for them to do something.

What did I get back? Replacement cards for all of the damaged cards that I sent.  They’re all still as curved as the ones that I sent back so apparently Topps doesn’t deem that as a defect.  It must be a feature of 2010 Topps Chrome.  I also got the typical bullshit form letter from Topps explaining what the procedure is that I just went through to get these cards replaced.  No acknowledgement of the letter that I sent to them and nothing from them to say, “Sorry you had such a bad experience with a Topps product. Please let us make it up to you.”  So much for their renewed commitment to customer service.  It’s all just PR smoke screen to cover their asses on some cheaply made sets and burned collectors who paid way too much money on pre-sells amidst the Strasburg hype.

The only thing that made this whole process slightly better than just tossing all of the cards in dumpster was the fact that Topps is out of base versions of the Strasburg card that I sent back and so I got a refractor instead.  They also sent me a purple Tyler Colvin.  If I had gotten a purple Strasburg then this might have been worth my time, money and frustration.

Since this set is so ridiculously cheap these days, I purchased a complete set on eBay.  I now have a ton of extras for this set so if anyone is looking to complete it, drop me a line and I can help you out.  Also, if you won my last contest and don’t have this year’s Chrome cards of your favorite team/player then let me know and I’ll throw what I’ve got into your prize pile.

 

Technorati Tags: 2010 Topps Chrome,Stephen Strasburg

Why Sticker Autos Suck

Or: Sometimes Things Go Your Way

Last week, I made a trip to the local (to work) card shop during my lunch break to scratch a wax busting itch.  The only new thing there that caught my eye was the new Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects.  I was hesitant at first because of both the Bowman overkill and the Chrome Warp.  (Let’s do the Chrome Warp again!)  It looks like the warping of the Chrome cards is fixed for the most part in this release so that’s a relief.  The fact that there’s two Red Sox draft picks that I’m looking for in this set got me to purchase packs from yet another 2010 Bowman set.

I’m glad that I purchased those packs because I pulled this beauty.  Here’s my first Bryce Brentz card and it’s an autographed one to boot.  It’s always nice when you pull an autograph out of loose packs, but when it is of someone that you are going to add to your collection, it’s so much better.

Look at that big, beautiful signature.  Do you think that would fit on a tiny little sticker?  Hell no.  That’s the main reason that I’m a fan of on-card autographs.  It doesn’t matter that much to me if the athlete touched the card or the sticker as long as it really is his autograph.

I’ve seen Brentz’ autograph on Panini stickers and it doesn’t look anywhere near this nice.  It won’t look this nice when Topps slaps labels on next year’s Pro Debut sets.  It will only look this nice when there’s plenty of space for the signature.

This was the only Brentz card that I pulled, but I’m looking for more.  If anyone out there pulls any cards of Brentz or BoSox draft pick Kolbrin Vitek, I’d be more than willing to send some cool stuff your way for it.

 

Technorati Tags: Bryce Brentz,2010 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects,Red Sox

Looking for Red Sox Draft Picks

If any of you come across cards of the 2010 Red Sox Draft Picks as you are busting packs, you know where you can send them.  Hopefully I can find something to make it worth your while.  I know that both Bryce Brentz and Kolbrin Vitek both have cards and autographs in the new Draft Picks and Prospects.  Send anything you don’t want on over to me.

Box Break: 2 Boxes of 2009-10 Panini Basketball Hall of Fame

I’m a big fan of this Panini release and fell it was really the only set this year that looked very good across the board.  I may sound like a broken record, but Panini’s sets won’t reach the level achieved by other major manufacturers such as Topps and Upper Deck until they stop designing their base and inserts cards with autograph and patch space in mind.  I liked Panini/Donruss a lot more when they were just the company with all of the numbered parallels.

When I saw that these boxes had dropped in price again, I had to jump on them with a little bit of extra cash that I had.  A couple of mouse clicks later and two boxes were on their way to me.  After opening them, my feeling are a little mixed about the contents of the boxes, but I still love the set.  How could I not love a set that has so many Celtics in it?

The first box was heavy on Celtics starting with Red Auerbach.  He was an innovator in the game and looked past race when many others in the sport still weren’t willing to do so.  Red was around for 16 of the team’s 17 NBA Championships; nine as head coach and seven more as a team executive.

Next up is the player that was most responsible for much of Auerbach’s success.  Russell won 11 titles during his career with an amazing 8 of those coming consecutively.  When it came time for Red Auerbach to retire as Celtics head coach, he named Russell player-coach, the first African-American coach in the NBA.  Things were tough for Russell during his playing days due to racism and he seemed to carry the hurt from that with him for a long time.  These days, he’s a lot more outgoing and can often be seen at NBA events and on NBA programming.

Next up is one of the inserts in this set and my favorite thing about this set.  This year, the 1960 and 1992 USA Basketball Teams was inducted into the Hopps Hall of Fame. Panini wisely jumped all over this and made that team a major focus of this Hall of Fame set.  This is one of the few cards that Panini did design with room for a swatch that doesn’t look bad in the base card style.  USA jersey numbers are pretty meaningless, but they’re showcased over a basketball in the space where you will sometimes find a jersey swatch.

These’s one jersey card per box and while most of these cards are going to be single color swatches, you’ve got a shot at some very cool swatches.  Panini has acquired USA Basketball jerseys to include in this product.  I would think that the cost of this would be huge and that these jerseys wouldn’t be readily available, but here they are.  “The enclosed swatch is guaranteed by Panini America, Inc.”  Of course, I don’t think it says anywhere that these are actually from Olympic game worn jerseys, so who knows where these cards actually came from, but I guess that’s the risk that you take with any relics cards these days.  This Scotty Pippen card is unfortunately one that I already have which is disappointing.

Now we’ll get to the reason that these boxes can possibly be such a great buy.  You get two on-card autographs from Hall of Fame players per box.  Yes, there are much larger print runs on the players who you may not have heard of unless you are a fan of the particular team that the athlete played for, but there is a chance at some really great autographs in this product.

Willie Worsley is pictured in his Texas Western uniform and the card back speaks of his part in winning the 1966 National Championship over the favorite Kentucky.  This is a good example of a card that may only appeal to alums of Texas Western.  There are 850 copies of this card available.

Next up is Joe Dumars who played with the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons.  He wasn’t a thug like Bill Laimbeer or a trash talker like Isiah Thomas, he just scored and paired up with Isiah to be one of the all-time great backcourts.  Dumars has also had a very successful career off of the court as President of Operations for the Detroit Pistons.  This is definitely a cool card to pull and since Dumars is a more popular player, this card is only numbered to 399 copies.  That’s the only downside to this product and the main reason that the price has dropped so much.  There are too many players whose cards aren’t going to draw much interest on the secondary market and you’re paying at least $20 for those autograph cards even at these discounted prices.  You could probably put together a pretty good collection of these autographs just from sticking to those selling for less than $10 on eBay.

Box two’s insert was a High Praise card of Phil Jackson.  Let me start off by saying that I can’t stand Phil Jackson.  He’s arrogant and has been lucky enough to coach the past two best players of their generation.  Yeah, Red Auerbach had a lot of talent playing for him as well, but he never went and took a new job where players the caliber of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were playing.  He’s got the record for all time NBA Championships as a head coach though and it is what it is.  Even if Red hadn’t handed over the reigns when he did, he’d most likely only have eleven championships and be tied with Jackson.  Mr. Triangle is the record holder though.

I’ll finish things off on a positive note with the Dream Team insert of Larry Legend.  Bird just might be the best pure shooter of all time.  Everyone always wants to compare him and Jordan, but it’s apples and oranges.  Jordan could finish at the hoop like no other and has a better defender, but if I needed someone to hit a long jumper then I’m picking Bird.  Overall, even as a diehard Celtics fan, you have to give the nod to Jordan.

Both of the signatures in the second box were ones that I had gotten in my first box that I opened a while back.  Very shitty collation on Panini’s behalf.  So, now I have duplicates of Harry Gallatin (numbered to 699) and Pat Summitt (numbered to 599).  The only saving grace is that the Summitt has been a pretty popular card due to her lack of licensed autographs out there.  This card here is one of the great reasons why this set exists.  Where else are you going to get a certified autograph of Summitt?  She’s a coaching legend and there’s nothing out there for her.  So, by selling this redemption card on eBay, I’ll have some funds to either pick up another box or some singles from the set.

After these two boxes, I’m not sure where I stand on this set.  I’d love to bust a case of it, but I don’t think that I’ll ever have the funds for that.  I’m wary of purchasing single boxes again and getting more duplicates.  Along with my duplicates of the Pippen jersey card and the two autographs, I also have a duplicate in the base set and another in the black parallel set.  That’s too risky of a chance to take in my opinion.  I will take singles and boxes in trade for any cards I post here that you might be interested in though.  <grin>

 

Technorati Tags: Panini,Basketball Hall of Fame,Larry Bird,Magic Johnson,John Stockton,Bill Russell,Red Auerbach

Something To Be Thankful For

I know this is a few days late, but I work retail and didn’t have a heck of a lot of free time over Thanksgiving weekend.  I am thankful for those who have followed me to the new blog and are actively participating.  I originally stated that I would have seven winners for the contest, but since there were only eight entries in total… everyone is a winner.

So, BA Benny, night owl, longlivethewho, Fuji, Section 36, joe, Steve D and AdamE, please send me the following information at offy@sportssyzygy.com so that I can get you your prizes:

Favorite Team:
Favorite Player:
Mailing address:

It might take a little while to get things together and sent out, but you should have your winnings before the holidays.

Thanks again for participating!

Collectors Proof

Has anyone else out there on Facebook seen the ad for CollectorsProof.com?  It’s another website that lets you enter your collection.  I haven’t joined yet because I’m wary due to the Facebook integration and the sometimes lacking security in regards to Facebook apps and their access to your information.  If I do join, it will probably be without linking it to Facebook and Twitter at first.  Although, if you remove that functionality form this site, it’s not really anything of note.  Maybe it’ll look really cool once I sign up, don’t know.  Has anyone out there signed up for this site and if so, how do you like it?

Fantasy Baseball: Keeper Time – Outfield

My outfield is a little crowded at the moment due to some late season signings.  Since I was out of the running, I started looking at players who had been injured to see if I could find any potential bargains for 2011.  Here’s who I have on the roster:

• Bobby Abreu
• Nick Markakis
• Grady Sizemore
• Coco Crisp
• Felix Pie
• Domonic Brown
• Chevez Clarke
• Bryce Harper
• A.J. Pollock

Abreu was actually the last outfielder that I signed before last season started.  I’m not a huge fan, but he ended up being my best outfielder last season.  His salary dropped from 4786 to 3797 and I could see his production dropping yet again as he gets older.  I’m not sure if I want to spend a keeper pick on him.

My outfield was full of underachievers last season.  Nick Markakis saw his salary drop from 4634 to 3750.  After drops is both homers and RBIs, hopefully Markakis can rebound in 2011 and be a little bit of a bargain.

Right now, Grady Sizemore is set to return to action during spring training.  If he can put up anything close to his 2008 numbers then he’s going to be a huge steal at his 2011 salary of 1120.  Hopefully he hasn’t lost any of his speed when he returns.

Coco Crisp was another late season addition, but he saw some playing time late last season when he was red hot and stealing bases right and left.  If he can stay healthy and put up numbers like he did when healthy in 2010 then he’s going to be a steal at a salary of 749.

Felix Pie seemed like he might actually be putting it all together in Baltimore late last season so I took a chance and added him to my roster.  His salary of 570 isn’t much so he can start the season as a fourth outfielder with potential to move into the starting lineup.

I’ve got some very nice outfield prospects that will be earning 100 this season: Domonic Brown, Chevez Clarke, Bryce Harper and A.J. Pollock.  I’m curious as to how quickly the Nationals will call up Harper especially now that Strasburg is injured.  They’ve got to sell tickets somehow.

So, which outfielders do you bring back to start the season?  Is Abreu in decline?  Will Markakis rebound?  Should I be excited about Sizemore?  What kind of deal would it take to pry Harper away from you?

Technorati Tags: Fantasy Baseball,Benchwarmer Baseball,Robot Baseball

Fantasy Baseball: Keeper Time – Catcher

The catcher position is a little crowded for me.  When Victor Martinez went down with an injury last season, I ended up grabbing John Buck who ended up being one of last season’s nice surprises.  He signed a nice deal with the Marlins and may see his numbers increase with more games played.  Here’s the current catching situation:

• Victor Martinez
• John Buck
• Taylor Teagarden
• Jesus Flores
• Tony Sanchez

Victor Martinez is another player whose salary is lower this season due to an injury.  His numbers also dropped a little bit in 2010 and so his 2011 salary is 2525 after earning 3519 for his 2009 season.  Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll end up sticking around in Boston, but I will definitely keep Martinez around here.  Having first base eligibility is also a big plus.

I may try to shop Buck around since he’s a little pricey to keep around as a backup catcher.  His 2011 salary will be 1113.  If I’m not able to trade him then I think I have to keep him since I don’t really want another team snatching him up.  It all comes down to what I’ve got available for salary.

I think that Taylor Teagarden is currently penciled in as the opening day catcher for the Rangers, but right now I think that I’d rather have Max Ramirez on my roster.  Not that either one of them did anything of note last season.  Teagarden’s 2011 salary is 146.

Jesus Flores might end up being healthy for the 2011 season, but I’m not sure if there will even be a roster spot for him with the Nationals if he is.  If healthy, he could end up being a nice bargain with a salary of 158 if he sees a decent amount of playing time.  There’s no guarantee that will be the case though.

Tony Sanchez is the Pirates super prospect.  For 100 there’s no way he’s going anywhere.

What do you think I should try and do with Buck?  Any thoughts on Teagarden or Flores?  What would you do with these five players?

Technorati Tags: Fantasy Baseball,Benchwarmer Baseball,Robot Baseball

Fantasy Baseball: Keeper Time – Third Base

What’s up next?  I don’t know… third base.  Here who was manning the hot corner for my team when the season ended:

• Chase Headley
• Kevin Kouzmanoff
• Alberto Callaspo
• Kaleb Cowart

Last season, I was able to slot Chase Headley into the outfield, but he isn’t eligible there this season.  Right now, he’s the favorite to win the position.  His 2011 salary will be 2446.

Last year’s starter, Kevin Kouzmanoff had a very disappointing 2010 season and saw his salary drop from 2076 to 1891.  Right now, there’s no guarantee that I keep Kouz around.  He is eligible to play both second and third which is a bonus, but even if he bounces back it isn’t to a stat line to get excited about.

Callaspo actually ended up outperforming Kouzmanoff and saw some time at third base later in the season.  Both Callaspo and Kouzmanoff suffer from low averages, not a lot of power and no speed.  Even though they are both eligible for both second and third, there isn’t much of a reason to keep them around.

Kaleb Cowert is another prospect and will stick around for 100.

So, what moves do you make here?  I like opening the season with Headley.  Anyone out there think that Kouzmanoff or Callaspo are worth keeping around?

Technorati Tags: Fantasy Baseball,Benchwarmer Baseball,Robot Baseball

Fantasy Baseball: Keeper Time – Second Base

Next up in the fantasy baseball discussion is second base.  Here are the players currently on my roster:

• Brian Roberts
• Kolbrin Vitek
• Willy Aybar
• Jamey Carroll

After suffering through Brian Roberts’ injury plagued season in 2010, I have to keep him around this year.  I’ll be getting him at a huge discount this season at 1682 down from 4293.  If Roberts puts up his usual numbers then that’s going to be a huge bargain for me.

Kolbrin Vitek is last year’s first round pick by the Red Sox so he’s sticking around at a salary of 100.

Willy Aybar is interesting only because he qualifies for three positions: 2B, 3B and 1B.  His salary next season will be 536.

Jamey Carroll also qualifies for three positions: 2B, SS, and 3B.  If I keep these two guys on my bench then I’ve got my whole infield covered as long as they’re playing.  Carroll’s salary will be 799.  I’m not sure if a couple of utility infielders are worthy of keeper picks though.

What are your thoughts?  Do I roll the dice and see what’s out there for utility players in the redistribution draft?  Should I feel secure going into the season with Roberts as my starting second sacker?

Technorati Tags: Fantasy Baseball,Benchwarmer Baseball,Robot Baseball

Fantasy Baseball: Keeper Time – First Base

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while have probably seen previous mentions of my Benchwarmer Baseball fantasy team.  They’ve just released preliminary salary information for the upcoming season and so it is time to decide on keepers and maybe do some early trading.  My team’s coffers currently contain $45738 (in millions) and I can keep up to 28 players (on a roster that can consist of up to 40 players).  I’m going to go through my team position by position to get some feedback on what all of you think that I should do.

Here are the first basemen that are currently on my roster:

• Joey Votto
• James Loney
• Yonder Alonso
• Lars Anderson

Votto is a no-brainer.  For one, he’s easily the best hitter on my team.  In fact, he won the MVP award for the league.  I also don’t have to pay anything to Votto this season since I extended his contract for two more years during last season.  Votto’s salary would have been 4133 up from 2200 last season so I saved a big chunk of cash with that move.

I’m leaning towards keeping James Loney around as my DH.  The only problem that I have with that is he puts up solid, but not spectacular numbers.  I’d like a little more out of the DH position.  I don’t want to just let Loney walk though so maybe I’ll shop him around a little bit.  Loney’s salary for 2011 will be 3039.

Alonso and Anderson are prospects that will be on my minor league roster.  I may look to shop some of my prospects since I’ll be opening the season with a full minor league roster and you don’t want to have to release any of those guys if you can help it.  The salary for both of these guys will be the league minimum of 100.

So, what do you do in this position?  I’m loaded at the C and OF positions so a DH might come out of those positions if I don’t retain Loney.

Technorati Tags: Fantasy Baseball,Benchwarmer Baseball,Robot Baseball

Contest Reminder

Just a reminder to enter the contest.  There hasn’t been a lot of activity since the original post so I’m leaning towards closing it up on Sunday.  So, if you’ve been putting it off it is now the time to reply and take a shot at a nice stack of cards for your collection.

Welcome Back Delonte

When I first got back into collecting cards around the beginning of this decade, I was a little put off by wax boxes, especially basketball wax boxes.  Suddenly, rookie cards were short printed and serial numbered.  Sure, it temporarily added a little more value to the cards, but it also meant that you now only got a handful of rookies in a box instead of most or all of them.  There’s nothing worse than opening a box of hoops, getting only 4 rookies and having them all be late second round picks.

Through most of 2004 and 2005, I bought lots and lots of singles and mostly basketball cards.  I put together nice collections of Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Delonte West rookies.  A few years later, none of those players remained on the Celtics roster.  Big Al and Gomes went to the Timberwolves in the deal that brought The Big Ticket to Boston while Delonte left town with Wally Szczerbiak in the deal that brought Ray Allen and Big Baby to the Garden.

As a brief aside, while most of the press was about the Garnett trade we had to give up a huge talent in Jefferson and a big role player in Gomes to acquire KG.  We gave up next to nothing in return for both Ray Allen and Big Baby.  West was the most valuable piece of that trade, but he was expendable because of what Rajon Rondo had shown the team and was given the keys to drive Boston’s new Big Three.  This trade, especially since it provided a player that may be a part of Boston’s future after the Big Three Part Two, might be remembered years from now as the better of the two.

Tonight, after serving out a ten game suspension to start the season, Delonte West played his first game back in a Boston uniform.  He’s now the back-up point guard behind Rondo, but with his addition to the Celtics second unit, they’re got a bench squad that could beat some of the starting fives in the league.  If Kendrick Perkins, Shaquille O’Neal and Jermaine O’neal are ever all healthy at the same time and you’ve got the O’Neal twins playing as part of the second unit, this team is going to be scary.  Favorites to win it all scary.

So, in Delonte’s first game back in Boston he played 21 minutes and scored 12 points with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 3 turnovers.  Some of that was in garbage time at the end of the game, but it was definitely a successful return to Boston for Delonte.  Hopefully he finds happiness here in Boston and can the problems that plagued him in Cleveland behind him.

As far as cards go, it’s nice to take some of the cards in the “Former Celtic” section of my collection and move them back into the “Current Celtic” section of my binder.  Hopefully I will be doing the same with Big Al’s cards when KG is ready to call it a career.

 

Technorati Tags: Delonte West

Music Syzygy: The Push Stars/Chris Trapper

The main passions in my life are my family, sports and music.  From time to time on this new blog, I’ll write a little bit about what I love musically.

The Push Stars are a local band formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts back in 1996.  Their Wikipedia page is kind of lacking, but I’ll share with you what is on the back of this trading card:

Won the 1999 Boston Music Award’s “Rising Star” category; Won ‘98 BMA’s “Outstanding Rock Band” & songwriter Chris Trapper won “Outstanding song/songwriter”; Named “Best Unsigned Band in America” in EMI Music Publishing’s Radio & Records ‘zine competition in ‘97.

The film “There’s Something About Mary” features The Push Stars song “Everything Shines” & their music was on a Feb 99 episode of “ER” [which I’m pretty sure was George Clooney’s final one] and is played on MTV’s “Singled Out” & “The Real World” shows.

Even though they’re a local band, it took someone living in Texas to introduce me to the band.  My first Push Stars show was on October 11th, 1998 where I was literally introduced to the band after the show.  The friendship with the person who brought me to the show didn’t last all that long, but my love of The Push Stars’ music has.  Without that brief friendship though, who knows if I ever would have discovered this band.

When the Boston Band Cards set was produced in 1999 by Kaos Kards (see card from set above), The Push Stars were newly signed with Capitol Records and poised to takeover the airwaves.  So, why aren’t they a household name?  Not long after the release of the first major label album After the Party, Capitol Records decided to change their focus to R&B and Hip Hop.  Suddenly, bands such as The Push Stars and Marcy Playground weren’t getting the attention of the label any longer.  Having developed a strong fan base through constant touring, the Push Stars decided to ask for their release from Capitol and released their next album, Opening Time, through Tower Records’ Co-op Pop label.  Their final album of all-new material, Paint the Town, was released in 2004 on 33rd Street Records.  In 2005, the band released a live album before slowly winding down as a threesome.

Even though The Push Stars never became households names, they had a very successful career.  The band had lots of devoted fans who would fill up nice sized venues whenever the band came to town.  You may have heard their songs in “The Devil Wears Prada” or Farrelly Brothers’ movies “There’s Something About Mary” and “Me, Myself & Irene.”  Push Stars songs have also been used on TV shows such as “All My Children,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and “ER.”  Additionally, you might have seen the band performing with Matchbox 20, Morphine, Guster, Vertical Horizon, G Love and Special Sauce, Train, Great Big Sea, Live and Better Than Ezra to name a few.  So, it’s very possible that you’ve heard a Push Stars song without even knowing it.

Here I am singing with The Push Stars at Harper’s Ferry in 2005

The end of the Push Stars wasn’t all bad as the lead singer, Chris Trapper, started doing more and more solo gigs.  Chris released his first solo album in 2002, but that was sold mainly at Push Stars shows to people looking for a copy of Chris’ funny and much improved version of The Birthday Song.

I found something in Chris’ solo work that wasn’t there as much in the songs that he wrote for The Push Stars.  Chris wrote amazing pop songs for The Push Stars, but many times they were just songs.  Chris’ solo work is much more personal and heartfelt.  While Chris’ current music is most often classified as folk, a genre that I didn’t really listen to before this, his is far and away my favorite musical artist.  (I prefer Chris’ website’s classifications of roots-pop and alt-acoustic.)  Chris’ shows have gotten even better as of late with the addition of stories about his life and the songs that he is playing added to the performance.

My wife and I enjoy Chris’ music so much that we had him sing at our wedding which made a special day so much more so.  Seeing Chris perform has become a family event (even if my daughter sometimes doesn’t stay awake all the way through a show) and it’s just as much fun talking to Chris about our families as it is the music.

Chris’ strong songwriting has earned him two SOCAN awards for collaborations with the band Great Big Sea including the song “Sea of No Cares.”  Chris was chosen to write an original song for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and performed it at The United Nations.  Chris’ solo work has appeared as the theme song for The WB’s Pepper Dennis, in the movie “August Rush” (performed by Jonathan Rhys Meyes), as the theme song for NESN’s Sox Appeal and ABC’s All My Children.

Chris did something interesting with his latest LP release, Into the Bright Lights.  He released it in a “pay what you can” format.  If you think the album is worth $5 then pay that.  If you think the album is worth $100 then you can pay that price.  If you really want to put the songs on your iTunes at work and left your iPod at home then you could pay nothing.  (Totally hypothetical situation not at all drawn from my life.)  Check out the songs and download the album if you dig it.

For those of you who didn’t run for the hills when you saw this post (and I’d understand if you did since this is a sports card blog after all) and read through it, I’ve got something special for you.  I actually have an extra copy of what I think is Chris’ best album, Til the Last Leaf Falls, up for grabs.  All that you have to do is check out some of Chris’ music and if you like it and think you’d enjoy this CD, reply to this post with the song that you liked best.

 

Technorati Tags: Chris Trapper,The Push Stars

A Mini Contest

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for a little help in getting readership back up to where it was at the old site.  Between a lack of posts and then changing to the new site, readership has trailed off and I’d like to get it back up again.  This isn’t the type of contest that’s going to bring all kinds of new readers to the blog and that’s not what I’m trying to do there.  That will be another contest for another time.  I’m just looking to make sure that everyone that was reading is still reading and have a little fun whilst sending some stuff out to those people.  (New readers will, of course, be welcomed with open arms and welcome to participate in everything.)

There are six ways to earn entries to this contest.  Everything will be done in this post with the exception final method of entry.

1. Follow the blog.  If you like it, please follow it.  If not, then don’t.  There are plenty of other ways to obtain entries so please don’t feel obligated to click the follow button.
2. Add Sports Syzygy to your Blogroll.  Also, if you notice that your blog isn’t in mine, let me know and I will add it.
3. Feedback on the new site. I know there weren’t huge changes, but what do you think of the new blog.  I’m interested in things like the look, name, theme, etc.
4. Feedback on my box break videos. What do you think of box break videos and how do you like mine in comparison? I’m definitely not looking for blind praise.  How can I make these better.  I dug out an old mic to try and address the issue with my voice being so soft.  I may add a webcam to my Christmas list if people are enjoying these since it will improve the quality greatly over using the built-in iSight cam.
5. Feedback in general. What do I do on this blog that you like?  What do you dislike?  How can I improve things?  Are posts too image heavy?  Do you like/dislike having inline images rather than images between paragraphs?
6. Follow sportssyzygy on Twitter.  I’ll pull the list of followers from there and add them to the mix.

To make things a little easier on me, try to put as many of the first five entries into one post as you can.  This will be open until next Sunday at the very least so you’ve got plenty of time.  Just post that you’ve completed the first two, if you have, and then put your feedback in that same post.

I’m going to have a random drawing for each of the methods of entry as well as one big final drawing from all of the entries.  You can only win once to ensure that things get spread around as much as possible.  There wouldn’t be any benefit to winning multiple times anyway.  Each of the seven winners will receive a nice stack of cards consisting of their favorite player(s) and team(s).  I’ve been busting a lot of stuff lately and need to send some of it away.  There may be some fun surprises in there as well.  Once this contest is done, I’ll be posting a lot of trade bait from what’s left over so stay tuned for that.

P.S. For those of you with basketball card blogs, if you could mention this blog to some of the other hoops bloggers out there it would be greatly appreciated.  With less people interested, the hoops stuff piles up ever more than the baseball stuff.  I’ve got all kinds of fun stuff there to trade and send off to better homes.

Thanks to everyone!

Mike Piazza: Trifecta and More

Borrowing a little bit from a post on DrewsCards, I’m going to post a recentlt completed Trifecta with a little extra sauce.  It’s great to be back up and running on Windows Live Writer.  There is absolutely no good blogging software for the Mac so now I’ve got Windows running virtually on my Mac.

This right here is the card that started it all.  I first read about Mike Piazza while doing research for my Robot Baseball fantasy league.  He was listed as one of the top prospects in the book that I had and so I grabbed him for my team.  By the time 1992 Bowman was released, Piazza was in the midst of his Rookie of the Year season and most dealers had his card hidden away.  I was lucky enough to find one person willing to sell it for the first Beckett listing of $3.  It wouldn’t stay there for long as the whole set shot up in popularity and this soon became a $60 card.  Even thought the price or both the complete set and this card have dropped since the 90s, this still remains one of the few sets from that era which is still worth a good amount of money.  This is also one of the best looking cards of all time in my opinion.

Piazza’s other rookie, form the 1992 Fleer Update set eluded me up until this year.  This set carried a high price tag from the day it was released due to Piazza tearing things up his rookie year.  There also didn’t seem to be nearly as many sets out there in 1992 as there are these days.  I was finally able to pick up the whole set for a great price on eBay which also allowed me to add the Tim Wakefield from this set to my collection at the same time.

I’ve picked up a decent assortment of Piazza relic cards over the years.  I like these kinds of cards, but I don’t love them.  I pick up the ones that I like, but by no means do I have to have all of them.

This jumbo swatch is something that you don’t see every day.  Most swatches are tiny little things, but the Super Sweet Swatches from 2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot are great looking cards.  Only 299 of these cards exist.

Of all of the Piazza bat cards that I have, I think that this one would have to be my favorite.  The framed minis from Topps always look pretty good and this card is no exception.  The bat chip is a little small, but then again so is the mini that it is encased in.  This was an eBay acquisition back in 2007 for a whopping dollar plus shipping.

In second place is my 2005 Bowman Sterling shiny refractor bat card numbered to 199.

Back in the year 2005, I had a little more disposable income than I do now.  I had also soured on opening wax because of all of the short prints and other annoying things that were going on at the time.  So, I bought a lot of singles on eBay.  There was one card that I kept buying and buying and buying even though I already had a copy in my collection.

That card is Donruss 2005 Prime Patches PP-20.  While they all have the same card number, there are different variations and even different looks within the same variations.

This first card here is one of the most plain variations that you can get.  This card is numbered to 150 and should contain jersey swatches from a Dodgers jersey and a Mets jersey.  There are even corresponding pictures on the card.  This is something that Upper Deck would fail to master right up until the day they lost their baseball license.

This next version has more relics, but it is still numbered to 150 copies.  From the top and proceeding clockwise, this card contains a white jersey swatch, black show swatch, gray jersey swatch and a white pants swatch.  You can’t really tell which swatches are from which team’s uniform, but I don’t think it’s really all that important.  It would be more of an issue if I was only a fan of Piazza while he was with a certain team.

The next card is where things start to get interesting.  This card is now numbered to 88 so you know that it must be almost twice as good as the previous card.  This card starts out similarly to the previous Piazza card, but then it ends with a bang.  The first three relics are black shoe, white jersey and black show.  The final windows contains a three color prime jersey patch.  I know this is above the Dodgers logo, but I think this most likely is from a Mets jersey.  I could be wrong though since it is tough to keep track with all of the jersey variations that exist.

I forget exactly what order I purchased these cards in, but after acquiring one, I would see another one with a nicer looking patch piece and would purchase that one as well.  I’m now cornering the market with three of the 88 copies of this card.

I’m guessing that this might have been the first version of this card that I purchased since the patch leaves a little to be desired.  There are three colors again, but this time there’s orange instead of black.

I would have liked more variety on the other relic pieces in these cards.  I don’t understand the need for two shoe swatches.  I would have loved a piece of bat or even pants just to have something different in there.

Here’s the final version of PP-20 in my collection.  This one isn’t as nice as the first patch, but looks like it is probably taken from the same section of the jersey.I like this one a lot because it has a different colored swatch in the second shoe window.  The white jersey swatch isn’t quite big enough for the window which is a little disappointing.  The card still looks good though.

These days with limited funds, I don’t think I’ll ever go crazy grabbing multiple variations of a card like that.  The closest that I’ve come is probably the Topps Tek cards or the awesome Polo Grounds inserts.

This Tools of the Trade card from 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia is an example of what I was talking about in regards to variety in the types of relics in a card.  Here you’ve got little swatches from a jersey, pants, a bat and a shoe.  What else do you need?  Oh yeah, there is one more thing.

Here’s the Piazza Sweet Spot card that I just picked up on eBay.  Luckily this is from the 2006 set so the ink won’t fade into Bolivia. /miketyson  It’s not the lowest numbered Piazza autograph out there and it’s technically not an on-card auto like I was searching for, but it’s an awesome card and I’m so excited to add this to my collection.

One more card for good measure before I go.  Here's the Topps Update Bat Barrel card that I picked up at the big Shriners Card Show.  I may have a hard time picking up the regular version of this card for the same price that I picked this one up for.

My take on manufactured cards: All cards are manufactured.  If they decided to stick a patch or bat barrel in there doesn’t matter to me as long as it looks good.  All of these manufactured cards look much better than any of the millions of boring, plain jersey swatch cards out there.

So, there you go.  A little glimpse into the highlights of my Mike Piazza collection.  Hope you enjoyed!

Technorati Tags: Mike Piazza,baseball cards

Box Break: 2010 Topps WWE

This past Friday night was the biannual Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club show at the Aleppo Shriners Hall in Wilmington. While this show is heavily weighted towards vintage cards, there are usually enough modern product there for me to have a good time. Heck, I could have a good time just walking through the show looking at all of the amazing cards for sale. There's tobacco cards, '52s and just about anything you could imagine. Rows of Mantles in various grades by half grades, Babe Ruths, Teddy Ballgame and more.

So, what did I purchase at this show that could almost pass as a sports card museum? Wrestling cards. That's right, I purchased a box of 2010 Topps WWE trading cards. I'm not that into Bowman Chrome and want to wait and see if the price drops any lower before I possibly buy any of that. I decided to try something different especially since I have yet to pick up a box of the 2009 edition of these.

So, what did I think of the box? There are far too many insert sets in this stuff. I pulled 57 insert cards out of my box. It is just like 2010 Baseball in that regard. I did not get a complete set and still need 5 cards to complete the set. I got three doubles and one damaged card that I wasn't putting in the set. That annoys me when it comes to a product such as this one. Singles can be tough enough to find these days for popular sets. Forget it when it comes to non-sports and wrestling sets.

How can you complain, you pulled the best non-parallel card in the whole product? That's true and I'm still buzzing about the dual auto pull, but I'm looking at the box in terms of just the base set first off. The majority of the boxes out there aren't going to contain a card as good as this one and if someone gets a dud auto or no auto in their box (autographs fall one in every other box) then this is something that's going to bother them. When it comes to smaller, oddball sets there has to be a complete set in every box.

I'll speak briefly on the various insert sets:

• National Heroes (1:8) - I really like these cards. The design is simple with the wrestler in front of the flag of their homeland, but it works. These would have been even cooler in the 80s when nationality was such a huge part of wrestling.
• History of... (1:8) - These are completely unnecessary and I could have done without them. It's easy to sum up the history of The Miz or Kelly Kelly in one paragraph, but how do you sum up the history of wrestlers such as William Regal or Chris Jericho in one ten sentence paragraph?
• ToppsTown (1:6) - Sure, if you are copying the format of the other Topps sets, why not. They're actually limited in this with four found in each box.
• Favorite Finishers! (1:4) - This is the first insert set that absolutely belongs here. Finishing moves have become such a huge part of wrestling these days. I almost wish that these were one per pack like ToppsTown is in every other product. The simple design of these cards leaves plenty of space for some great photography.
• Championship Material/World Championship Material (1:6 each) - These cards are a bit of a mess. There are 50 cards of wrestlers who have held the various WWF/WWE titles. Then there's a different 25 card set of wrestlers who have held the World Championship. Then there are variants of these cards with picture puzzles on the back of title bels that fall once in every 12 packs. There are three different puzzles so you'll end up with six of these parallels in the box in addition to eight of the regular cards which is a second layer of unnecessary.
• Blue Parallels (1:1) - Again, it's a Topps staple so I don't mind it. With all of these inserts, there really should have been 8 cards per pack.
• Gold Parallels (1:29) - It looks like these aren't even one per box. Gold makes a lot more sense for a parallel numbered to 50.
• Superstar Swatch Relic (1:28) - It is what it is and what it is is boring. I never really understood wrestling relic cards unless it is from something really unique to the wrestler. Yellow with black polka dots for Dusty Rhodes, a piece of Rick Rude's tights would have been awesome with the airbrushing he had on them or piece of a Hulk Hogan bandana (oh wait, TRISTAR already did that in one of their TNA sets). Yawn.
• Dual Autograph (1:162 or 6.75 boxes) - I really beats the odds just in getting one of these and I was even luckier in pulling the best of the bunch. It looks like this card has sold for around $80 on eBay, but I think that I'm going to hold on to it.

Mailday and Panini Laziness

I was rooting for Panini to put out some great products when they took over the NBA trading card license from Topps and Upper Deck, but so far I've been mostly disappointed. The only boxes that I've purchased are one box of the flagship set and one box of the Hall of Fame set. I really wanted to like Studio, but the fact that the base cards are designed for autograph and relics ruins them. The fact that Panini mostly guarantees "hits" and not autographs means that a lot of their boxes don't even come close to being worth what you have to pay for them. Hopefully things improve in 2011. I'm very excited about the upcoming Donruss set. They are by far the best base cards that Panini has "designed" for the NBA to date. I put designed in quotes because they're reusing an old design.

That being said, there are some nice Panini cards out there. The Skylines cards in Studio were one example. Check out these four Celtics cards that I mentioned recently in a previous post.

Most of the cards in the Hall of Fame set are great looking. The Famed Fabrics cards are very nice looking. That's where the good design ends unfortunately. The Old School card suffers from bad design with that huge empty area where the Celtics logo is just waiting to contain an autograph sticker or jersey swatch. The two Big Baby cards are a good example of Panini's laziness. First off, Davis is a Prestigious Pro? I'm a big fan and I don't even think that I would say this. It's just another reason to throw more cards out there and then they make it worse with a floating jersey swatch in the card. Want to see another example of this? Check out the picture below.

Here's where things get even worse. I've seen the same card come in jersey and patch versions, but this is a new one on me. You can find this card with a square window over the jersey swatch as well as die cut windows of Pierce's number 34. This is the kind of crap that really has to stop if Panini wants people to take them seriously.

Why do I have these cards if they're so terrible you might ask. Well, they were all available very cheaply which made it worthwhile to add to my collection. Buying singles is a lot different than slapping down a wad of cash to purchase packs or a wax box. While I have no problem picking up Panini singles, especially with how cheaply many of them sell for, I have yet to be motivated to purchase many of Panini's wax offerings.

Sketch Cards

While I still don't understand the inclusion of sketch cards in sports products, they make perfect sense in non-sports card sets. Most people won't ever be able to afford a page of original art from their favorite artist, but a simple sketch or sketch card is the perfect way to own some original art in an affordable manner.

Last month, Wizard World decided they were going to do the comic book convention thing here in Boston. They last tried in 2005, but it was in a bad location and attendance plummeted when the only real big names invited to the con, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, had to cancel due to Clerks 2 post-production. This year's convention was disappointing for me. It was tiny and there wasn't much of interest there other than a bunch of people from the Buffy TV shows. One person that was there was Brian Kong who many card collectors will know from his sketch card work for Topps including the Baseball Highlight sketches in 2009 Allen & Ginter. A couple of his prints caught my eye and while I was at his table, I started flipping through his sketch card binder and came across this beauty. I asked about the price even though I knew that most sketch cards were well out of what I considered to be my price range. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that it wasn't even near the upper range of my self imposed price range so I took it home with two prints. I like Brian's work a lot and it's likely that these aren't the last items featuring his artwork to be added to my collection.

I usually don't buy loose packs of non-sports cards. There really aren't any cards of value to pull except for the box hit sketch card, but the other day I made an exception. There were only 3 or 4 new issues that I was buying so I decided to add a couple of Marvel Heroes and Villains packs to my purchase. In the second pack, I pulled this beauty. This is a sketch of Storm and Magneto by Scott Rorie (who is an extremely limited artist to pull). This sketch is obviously of Storm right after her plastic surgery. Either that, or she's using updrafts to give herself a little boost.

This is by far the best sketch card that I've pulled out of any of the Rittenhouse products. It's seems to be from a fairly popular artist and so now I'm wondering what to do with it. If I can sell it for enough to purchase a whole box (which will include another sketch card) then it seems like a no-brainer. If it goes for less than that the decision isn't as obvious. I did only pay four dollars for the pack that the sketch card came in so anything that I get for it is a pretty big return. What do all of you think? Would you hold onto the card or throw it up on eBay with a Buy It Now listing?

A Winner Is Me

Sorry for all of the eBay posts recently, but I've been having a pretty good streak of luck there lately.  I'm pretty sure that this card continues the streak.  Honestly, I'm completely shocked that I won this card given the low bid that I placed on it, but it held up and the card is now mine.

The nice thing about this time of year is that there's plenty of overtime opportunities at work and it's nice to reward yourself after a little extra work with something nice for the collection.  Want to see what it is?  Check this out.  There's part of me that thinks it has to be fake or creased down the middle for it to sell for what it did.  It's not exactly on-card like I wanted, but it is close enough.

Wow, this is a huge addition to my collection and something that I've been hunting for for a while now.  I was actually 2 feet away from Piazza and an in-person autograph at one of the Pepsi Softball Challenges, but I couldn't bring it upon myself to shove little kids out of the way for an auto.  I couldn't be that guy.  When I saw many of those kids selling their autographs to adults or getting money in return for getting the signature for them, I wish I could have been that guy, but it still wouldn't have been worth it.

This, this makes all of it worth it.  All of the waiting and passing up other cards and opportunities.  While I've only ever purchased one pack (and pulled a Ken Griffey signed bat card), I've grown to love Sweet Spot and have tracked down a bunch of the Dwight Evans cards (and need to hit the lottery before this auction ends.)  This card is going to make an excellent addition to the collection.

What Did I Pull?

Ok, here's a chance to get a bit of a spoiler for an upcoming box break.

Wrestling fans, take a look at the 2010 Topps WWE Checklist.  Excluding parallels and super rare pulls such as printing plates, I feel like I pulled the best card possible in the product.  Take a look at the checklist and guess which card you think that may be.

Dewey

This lot just might be my all-time favorite eBay auction win.  99 different Dewey cards for $6.75 shipped?  Yes, please.  It doesn't come close to the $54 book value stated in the auction title due to the condition of the cards, but there is some nice stuff in here.  The '75 is very nice and the '79 O-Pee-Chee is by far the oldest Canadian baseball card I have.  One day I'll track down an O-Pee-Chee Dewey rookie, but they always go for an arm and a leg when I see them.

Speaking of an arm and a leg, that Dwight Evans Sweet Spot 1/1 is already up to $215 with 7 days left in the auction.  Looks like that one won't be coming to my collection.

It's the oddball stuff that makes this lot fun for me.  There are a couple of Kellog's 3-D cards and a few Classic cards from the board games.  It's all topped off with some newer cards that I don't have yet.

Hope to have two new box breaks posted on Monday.  I also still have a backlog of breaks from my big shopping spree to get posted.