Lazy Friday

I apologize for the lack of real content lately, but the state of the third floor just isn’t conducive to doing much of anything.  I’m up here right now for a little while, but I don’t plan on staying for long.  I’ve been told that things should be finished Monday or Tuesday which is cool since I’ve got Monday and Friday off next week and could get a lot done putting the room together and loading it back up.

Topps sent out a PDF with a ton of images from National Chicle.  For a set that was almost universally shit on when the first images were released, I think that this is a set that is going to end up pleasing most people.  The majority of the cards are nice looking and you get two on-card autographs per box.  If the product contains a strong autograph checklist then this product will be popular.

Since these cards were done by a variety of artists, some are better than others and cards that one person loves will be hated by another.  I have a feeling that the on-card autos will sell a lot more boxes than bad paintings might keep away.

I leave you with a couple of other cards that caught my eye.  A lot of the retired player cards have these same clouds in the background.  I’m guessing they were all done by the same artist.

Love the Eck in a BoSox uni.  He’s become a pretty good analyst for NESN.  He didn’t do that good of a job willing in for Jerry Remy though.

One thing that I dislike about many short prints is that you don’t know who is short printed until the company releases a list and without that list you have no way of knowing what is a short print and what isn’t.  That’s why I don’t mind when all of the SP are at the end of a set or on a different card stock.

Panini sent out information about the short printed Rookie Ticket cards in Contenders Basketball.  They just weren’t very specific about it.  Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, Tyreke Evans, Jordan Hill, Brandon Jennings and Tyler Hansbrough were all printed to 499 or fewer copies.  There are a lot of numbers that are fewer than 499.The cards themselves aren’t serial numbered so you have no way of knowing just how limited they are.  To me, it sounds like Panini started with 499 copies, threw out any that got damaged and then packed out the rest.  Blake Griffin, Dante Cunningham, Earl Clark, Jonny Flynn, Stephen Curry and Terrence Williams have cards printed to 649 or fewer and I’m assuming greater than 499.

In more Topps news, they’re taking a page out of Panini’s book and offering a prize to collectors who pull a certain card out of packs.  The first person to pull the triple signed Dana White, Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz card out of UFC Main Event will be flown to Las Vegas, NV and be Dana White’s personal guests at the UFC Training Center.  There are 10 copies of this card in existence and the other nine people that pull the card will get a pair of UFC gloves signed by the three fighters.

Panini sent out some news about their Adrenalyn Tour.  While it sounds cool for those lucky enough to go to games when the tour is visiting, I don’t think they’ll find enough players by just focusing on game crowds.  They need to be outside of the arenas as well.  If it turns out that they’re inside of the arena when they come to Boston I might have to think about making a trip to the Hoops Hall instead and see them there.  Probably not worth it though.

It looks like the big site news will have to wait until next week.  I’m excited for it to happen and to share it with all of you.  Have a great weekend everyone!