TOPPS OFFERS EXCLUSIVE GLOSSY 2011 ALLEN AND GINTER COMPLETE SET

Topps announces that for the first time ever it’s offering its popular Allen & Ginter Baseball line in complete set form, but with a twist! 

Reminiscent of the 1980s Topps Tiffany sets, this 360-card glossy-coated base set will be offered exclusively online at ShopTopps.com and will be limited to just 999 copies.  In addition, each card in the set is sequentially numbered in gold foil.

And this Allen & Ginter offering will have something extra special…10 cards not found in the standard Allen & Ginter pack product including the rookie cards of the highly-touted Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Dustin Ackley.

The special edition set is available for $99.95 and is the company’s first ever exclusive ToppsShop.com sports product.

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Dear NBA Owners & Players,

I’m writing this letter to you as a fan.  Sure, I sell trading cards and it does hurt my business if there is no NBA season.  But, I’m not writing this for that reason.  

First off, the NBA really needs to learn one thing.  Don’t tell everyone how serious you are about getting a deal worked out.  You’re so serious that you meet for four hours on Tuesday and call off the meeting because it’s not going well.  And you have no more meetings scheduled at a time when every wasted second causes more cancellations and delays.  Yeah, it really sounds like you’re taking this very serious.  You want to take it serious?  Lock yourselves in a room with food, water and a bathroom until this deal is figured out.  

The second thing that both the players and owners need to learn is that none of your fans can relate to you.  You can all complain about losing money.  You can all complain about getting a bad deal.  You can all complain about not getting what you want.  It doesn’t matter to us.  As far as we are all concerned, you’re all lazy and greedy.  Nothing you say or do changes that.  We don’t feel bad for you if a new deal “costs” you millions of dollars.  We just want basketball.

This isn’t about getting a good deal or a bad deal.  I don’t want to hear about how unfairly the players are being treated.  I don’t want to hear about how much money the owners lost last year.  Hey owners, quit signing the Rashard Lewis’ of the world to $100+ million dollar deals.  It’s not the players’ fault that you give them stupid contracts.  Hey players, quit complaining about making less money in the future.  You play basketball for a living.  I know hundreds of people who would do what you do for free.  So, I’m tired of hearing about making $3 million instead of $7 million.  You all sound stupid to middle class people like most of your fans.

You guys had one of the greatest years in your history last year.  Now you’re throwing it all away.  You all claim that this is for the good of the league.  It’s for the future, you say.  It’s for all the new owners and the young players, you say.  I’m fairly confident the best thing for the league is to actually exist.  How does the NBA get better by missing games?  If you think you’re not going to lose a lot of fans over this, you’re crazy.  I know people that still boycott Major League Baseball because of what happened over 15 years ago.  I’ll admit that I’ll come crawling back whenever you decide to settle on a deal.  However, casual fans won’t.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that many of them have already moved on.  

I love the NBA.  I think it’s an amazingly fun sport to watch (both in person and on TV).  I feel like I invested 2 months of my life last season to watching the playoffs.  The games were so competitive and amazingly close.  It’s tough to think about not being able to watch that this year.  I will surely miss that.  However, I’ll fill my evenings with other things.  And maybe once the league starts up again, I’ll jump right back in.  Maybe everyone will jump right back in.  I highly doubt it.  As I said before, I know I’ll come back.  It might not be right away, but I’ll be interested again.  Some will take time to come back.  Some won’t come back at all.

Just like any other professional sports league, the NBA needs fans.  You can negotiate all you want for a higher percentage of basketball income.  You can haggle over salary caps and guaranteed contracts.  If there are no fans, it won’t make any difference.  What all of you owners and players don’t seem to recognize is that the fans are the ones being punished.  You will all still have your money (and if you don’t, we certainly don’t want to hear about that).  And when the league comes back, you will all jump right back into the swing of things.  You say you care about the fans, but you really don’t.  If you did, you get this thing settled and get back on the courts.  

I wish all of you could take a step back and look at this from the fan’s perspective for just a moment.  Take a good look at just how insane all of this sounds to a fan who spends a tenth of his yearly income on season tickets.  Listen to the fan who stays home 3 or 4 nights a week just to watch you play a game on his TV.  Think about the kid who wanted your jersey for Christmas and nothing more.  Now consider how much you’re disappointing all of these people and then tell me that you really do care about the fans.  Tell me that this isn’t all about greed and selfishness.  A good thing doesn’t last forever and someday you all may have to learn this the hard way.  

Your fan,

Josh

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Hello All!

Please check out our first video case break @ the following links: 

http://www.blogtv.com/shows/2539301/ZmVuYeZHZWFtZ2ZGbuTw&pos=ancr  (Part 1)

http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/2539301/date/ZmVuYeZHZWFtZ2ZGbuRH (Part 2)

http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/2539301/date/ZmVuYeZHZWFtZ2ZGbuRF (Part 3)

We will be using this forum for Hobby updates, info on Pre-Sells, and Box Breaks, both live and taped.

So enjoy the run-through of my hits from 18 boxes of Topps Chrome, and come back here and get yourself some of that action!  Boxes available and theyre just a super break!

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE POP-UP BLOCKER OFF TO AVOID THEIR POP-UP ADS!  THANKS!

Jamie

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About this time last year everyone was bashing Topps Chrome BB.  And for good reason.  2010 Topps Chrome BB had some serious quality control issues.  You know what I’m talking about if you opened it.  There was also WAY TOO much made so it was fairly hard to get a parallel autograph or parallel at all.  The inserts were very tough to get and this made set building nearly impossible.  With all that said, I still think it’s a bargain at the current price.  There are a ton of good autographs in there, but that’s not what this blog is about.  2011 Topps Chrome really only resembles 2010 in that it is still Topps Chrome.  The quality control issues are gone.  Sure some people still get scratched cards from time to time.  And some cards are still off centered.  But in general, the cards look great and most don’t have any complaints.  Topps also scaled back the printers for this one.  Sure, there is still a decent amount out there.  But, nothing like last year.  You notice this by opening 1 box.  You get a ton more inserts.  And chances are you’re going to hit a couple of Black, Blue, Sepia or Red Refractors.  These are all #ed to 100 or less (in the non-autographed form).  Try opening 2010 Topps Chrome until you hit a parallel #ed to 100 or less.  Waiting… Still waiting…  Okay, 5 or 6 boxes later you might have some luck.  

Check out some box breaks if you think I’m wrong.  I looked around and here is what I found (all 2011 Topps Chrome BB):

3-Box Break- 1 Black Refractor /100, 2 Sepia Refractor /99, 1 Blue Refractor /99, 1 Gold Refractor /50, 1 Blue Refractor Auto /199 & 1 Gold Refractor Auto /50.

3-Box Break- 1 Blue Refractor /99, 2 Sepia Refractor /99, 1 Heritage Black Refractor /62, 2 Gold Refractor /50, 1 Blue Refractor Auto /199 & 1 Gold Refractor Auto /50.

1-Box Break- 1 Sepia Refractor /99, 1 Blue Refractor /99 & 1 Refractor Auto /499.

6-Box Break- 3 Sepia Refractor /99, 2 Blue Refractor /99, 2 Black Refractor /100, 1 Heritage Black Border Refractor /62, 2 Refractor Auto /499, 2 Blue Refractor Auto /199 & 1 Printing Plate 1/1.

Now, those are just four random box breaks.  As you can see, every box is yielding at least 1-2 nice parallel cards.  

Moving on to the checklist.  It doesn’t have the high end autograph chase of Strasburg like last year.  However, I think the autographs are a little better across the board.  I’m not sure the player selection is that much better, but the “newness” so to speak, is much better.  I’ll explain.  

Last year the big autographs were Jason Heyward, Mike Stanton, Austin Jackson, Starlin Castro, Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Santana, Ivan Nova, Ike Davis and we’ll throw in Mike Leake for good measure.  You know how may of those had autograph cards before Topps Chrome?  All of them except Nova.  So, other than Ivan Nova none of these guys were “new”.  And Heyward, Stanton, Jackson, Santana, Davis & Leake all had autographs in sets that came out at least a year before Topps Chrome.  And I’m not evening counting Elite.  This is the difference between last year and this year.  

The good autographs from this year are Craig Kimbrel, Eric Hosmer, Freddie Freeman, Brandon Beachy, Brandon Belt, Michael Pineda, Julio Teheran, Alexi Ogando, Darwin Barney, Jordan Walden and Mark Trumbo.  It’s harder to pick the good guys for this year since it’s so new.  But, we’ll stop at 11 since we only used 9 from last year.  Of those 11, Kimbrel, Beachy, Ogando, Barney and Walden have never had a mainstream autograph card.  Hosmer had only had 1 autograph card and it was from Razor.  And Trumbo had autographs back in 2004, but they were in SP Prospects and Elite.  So, 7 out of 11 were the first Topps/Bowman autograph for these players.  On top of that, Belt and Pineda are true RC/first year autographs.  In 2010, we had exactly 2 of those guys (out of the good players).  Nova and Strasburg.  That’s it.  

Let’s look at the average sale price for autographs from 2010 and 2011.  

2010:

Stephen Strasburg- Base variations are hard to find.  They sell for around $125-$150.

Starlin Castro- Base sell for around $25-$30.

Mike Stanton- Base sell for around $20-$25.

Jason Heyward- Base sell for about $20-$25

Ivan Nova- Base sell for right about $20.

Ike Davis- Base sell for $5-$10.

Carlos Santana- Base sell for about $5-$10.

Austin Jackson- Base only sells for about $5.

Mike Leake- Base sell for about $5.

Honestly, no one else really sells for more than $5 on average.  There are 46 autograph RCs in the product.  There are 9 out of 46 that sell for $5 or more.  That’s about 20%.  If you put a $2 value on average of the other 37 autographs you come to an “average” value per autograph RC of $7.15.  That’s assuming they are all equally inserted.  As we know that isn’t true, the average would be at best $5.

2011:

Eric Hosmer- Base sell for about $100-$110.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka- Base sell for around $60.

Craig Kimbrel- Base sell for $20-$25.

Michael Pineda- Base sell for $15-$20.

Brandon Belt- Base sell for about $15.

Freddie Freeman- Base sell for about $15.

Mark Trumbo- Base sell for about $15.

Brandon Beachy- Base sell for $10-$15.

Julio Teheran- Base sell for about $10-$15.

Alex Ogando- Base sell for about $5-$10.

The checklist shows 32 autographs on it.  However, Conger, Hellickson and Dominic Brown don’t actually seem to exist since there are zero on eBay.  I don’t see anyone on eBay who is not on the list, so I’m going to assume there are 29 autographs.  So, we’ll say 9 of the 29 sell for at $10 or more.  That’s about 31%.  And if you give a $2 average to the 19 not listed above, we get an average price of $11.07.  Again, not all of them are seeded evenly so you can assume the actual average is somewhere below $10.

Now, let’s compare the two.  The “average” (I’m putting average in quotations because it’s not taking seeding into consideration) for 2010 is $7.15 and the “average” for 2011 is $11.07.  This is a tad mis-leading because 2011 is obviously newer.  Come this time next year some of the guys above will be selling for less than they are right now.  Of course some will mostly likely be selling for more as well.  Starlin Castro and Ivan Nova weren’t selling for what they do now this time last year.  Especially not Nova.  A thing to remember as well is that there is a lot less of the 2011 product.  So, the autographs are more rare just because they didn’t need to make quite as many. The biggest difference to me is that there are a whopping 46 autographs is 2010.  This year it looks like only 29.  Essentially that means 17 guys who should never have been in the set made it into 2010.  This was because they made so much.  When autographs fall 2 per box, there has to be a lot of them if you want large print runs.  I think the above is a pretty clear indication (at least for what the cards sell for right now) that 2011 is a better buy than 2010.

This is not even considering how much easier it is to hit the parallel versions.  I can guarantee you that if you open a case of 2010 you’ll be doing well to hit 3-4 parallel autographs in a case.  In 2011 I’d be shocked if you didn’t hit at least 6.  That’s a huge difference.  

The other thing to consider are all the inserts and parallels that you hit in 2011 compared to 2010.  I know this sounds stupid, but some of the “stupid” stuff sells great out of Topps Chrome.  Check out some of the Heritage Black Refractor #ed to 62 sales:

Pujols- $54.00 

Pujols- $72.79 

Josh Hamilton- $33.26

Jeter/Cano- $40.00 

Jeter- $45.00 

Pretty much everybody sells for over $10.  Not bad for a “non-hit”.  (Non-hit meaning not an autograph or memorabilia card).

Here are some of the Red Refractor sales:

James Loney- $27 

Ichiro- $41.00

Adrian Gonzalez- $23.30 

Julio Teheran- $20.49 

Robinson Cano- $42.00

These are not quite as good as the Heritage as some of them don’t sell for much more than $5.  But if you get the right player, they can be very nice.  And don’t think I’m searching and searching to find good sales.  All 10 of the cards above appeared on the first page of completed auctions.  And ALL of them were auction style meaning this is true value and not some crazy collector hitting a hit BIN.

So, as you can see 2011 Topps Chrome BB is a solid product.  It’s an EXTREMELY fun rip.  It’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg.  Cases will be on sale this weekend for $689.99 and boxes will be $58.99.  Don’t look now, but this might just be the best BB product of 2011.  I say this because of the content AND because it’s not shooting up in price like some of the other products have.  Have a great weekend.

Josh

Please check out the link to the Case Break Listing (this is for the Red Sox)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220794068543&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Hit “see other items from seller” to get the other teams.

*********GIVEAWAY*********  The NY Mets is not for sale….I will be giving it away to an ASC customer or reader!

TRY AND GET IN OUR FIRST LIVE CASE BREAK!  IF YOU BUY A TEAM FOR THE MARQUEE BREAK, YOU WILL GET FIRST SHOT AT THAT TEAM FOR ALL OTHER BREAKS!

BONUS WAX WILL BE BROKEN AS A THANK-YOU AT NO EXTRA COST!

THIS 12 BOX CASE WILL HAVE A CASE HIT – AN AUTO /10 THAT IS MIND BLOWING.   240 TOTAL CARDS….EACH TEAM SHOULD AVERAGE 8 HITS

THE CONTEST:  FIRST PERSON TO GUESS THE TOP 3 PLAYERS ON TOMORROWS HOT SHEET WINS THE METS CARDS FROM THE BREAK!

JAMES KENNEDY

With 2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Baseball set to hobby shelves, collectors will be pleased to know that this year’s Chrome Prospect Autograph checklist is one of the brand’s strongest offerings to date. The checklist (below) features not only the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th overall picks of the 2010 MLB Draft, but is also highlighted by 23 of the top 32 picks.

Michael Choice Oakland (10th Overall)
Zack Cox St. Louis (25th Overall
Bryce Brentz Boston
Chance Ruffin Detroit
Mike Olt Texas
Kellin Deglan Texas
Yasmani Grandal Cincinnati (12th Overall)
Kolbrin Vitek Boston (20th Overall)
Justin O’Conner Tampa Bay (31st Overall)
Gary Brown San Francisco (24th Overall)
Mike Foltynewicz Houston (19th Overall)
Chevez Clarke Angels (30th Overall)
Cito Culver Yankees (32nd Overall)
Aaron Sanchez Toronto
Noah Syndergaard Toronto
Taylor Lindsey Angels
Josh Sale Tampa Bay (17th Overall)
Christian Yelich Florida (23rd Overall)
Jameson Taillon Pittsburgh (2nd overall)
Manny Machado Baltimore (3rd Overall)
Christian Colon Kansas City (4th Overall)
Drew Pomeranz Cleveland (5th Overall)
Delino DeShields Houston (8th Overall)
Matt Harvey Mets (7th Overall)
Ryan Bolden Angels
Deck McGuire Toronto (11th Overall)
Zach Lee Dodgers (28th Overall)
Alex Wimmers Minnesota (21st Overall)
Kaleb Cowart Angels (18th Overall)
Mike Kvasnicka Houston
Jake Skole Texas (15th Overall)
Chris Sale White Sox (13th Overall)

Capitalizing on the most collectible draft class in recent memory – with Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, Ryan Mathews and others setting the hobby on fire – 2010 Press Pass PE Kickoff Edition Value Boxes is available for the holiday season.

Each box contains 4 previously Non-released On Card Exclusive Autographs, along with 5 packs of the immensely popular Portrait Edition FB. The autos feature four levels:
• Saturday Signatures
• Saturday Signatures Platinum: #’d to 25
• All American
• All American Platinum: #’d to 25

Each of the five packs is valued at $2.99 for a total of $14.95 in each box.

Delivering extreme value, one in every two boxes delivers at least 1 autograph from the following:

Player Note
Tim Tebow Greatest collegiate player of all time
Sam Bradford #1 overall pick, starting St. Louis QB
Jimmy Clausen Notre Dame QB, new starting QB for Carolina
Ryan Mathews Starting RB for San Diego
Ndamukong Suh Defensive MVP candidate
CJ Spiller Starting RB Buffalo
Jahvid Best Starting RB for Detroit
Dexter McCluster Significant offensive contributor at WR for Kansas City
Toby Gerhart Significant offensive contributor at RB for Minnesota
Mike Williams Starting WR for Tampa Bay
Montario Hardesty Significant offensive contributor at RB for Cleveland
Demaryius Thomas Significant offensive contributor at WR for Denver
Golden Tate Significant offensive contributor at WR for Seattle
Arrelious Benn Significant offensive contributor at WR for Tampa Bay

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Topps announces for every 18 wrappers (HOBBY ONLY) of 2010 Bowman Chrome Baseball sent to the company, collectors will receive an exclusive 5-card pack of exclusive BLACK-BORDERED PARALLELS of 2010 BOWMAN BASEBALL cards . All 110 prospect subjects from 2010 Bowman Baseball will be included.

In addition, randomly inserted into these packs will be:

· 37-card USA Baseball Bowman Chrome Black Bordered Autographs #’d to 25…featuring the 2010 Collegiate National Team and the 2010 18U National Team.
· 5-card Bowman Chrome Rookies & Prospects Autographs #’d to 100… Featuring Buster Posey, Mike Stanton, Mike Moustakas, Miguel Sano and Dustin Ackley.
· And because of a production error, the previously announced Autographed 2010 Bowman Chrome USA BUYBACK program will now be included as part of this wrapper redemption. Cards will be sequentially numbered with foil stamping to 100 and will include Bryce Harper, James Taillon, Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, Michael Choice, Christian Colon, Manny Machado and Bryce Brentz.

The deadline for the promotion is 3/31/11

Wrappers should be sent to:
PO BOX 2230
Duryea, PA 18642
ATTN: Bowman Chrome Promotion

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Topps has made a significant addition to its recently-announced 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball Wrapper Redemption Program.

The company will be seeding autographs of National League Rookie of The Year contenders Buster Posey and Jason Heyward into its 3-card Topps Chrome Wrapper Redemption packs.  There will be 100 autograph versions of both Posey and Heyward available with Refractor versions foil stamped to 90 and Green Refractor versions foil stamped to 10.

The Program:

For every 24 wrappers (HOBBY ONLY) of 2010 Topps Chrome Baseball sent to the company, collectors will receive an exclusive 3-card pack of Topps Chrome Rookies & Legends Refractor variation cards.  In addition, every tenth 3-card pack will feature special Green Refractors.  The deadline for the promotion is 2/28/11.

Wrappers should be sent to:
PO BOX 2230
Duryea, PA  18642
ATTN: Chrome Promotion
 
The 15-card set includes:
 
Jason Heyward                        Rookie
Austin Jackson                        Rookie
Stephen Strasburg                    Rookie
Mike Leake                              Rookie
Buster Posey                            Rookie
Starlin Castro                           Rookie
Ike Davis                                 Rookie
Carlos Santana                         Rookie
Mike Stanton                           Rookie
Tyler Colvin                            Rookie
Babe Ruth                               Legend
Lou Gehrig                              Legend
Jackie Robinson                      Legend
Ty Cobb                                  Legend
Mickey Mantle                        Legend

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Topps Announces Bryce Harper Plans
On the heels of announcing that it signed an exclusive agreement with Bryce Harper, Topps reveals its initial plans for the # 1 Draft Pick.
2011 Bowman
Harper will make his first appearance as a Washington National in 2011 Bowman. In addition, Harper will sign autographs for this release.

2010 Bowman Chrome
Harper will be added to the recently-announced Autographed 2010 Bowman Chrome USA BUYBACK program. Cards will be sequentially numbered with foil stamping to 100 and will also include James Taillon, Yasmani Grandal, Drew Pomeranz, Michael Choice, Christian Colon, Manny Machado and Bryce Brentz. These on-card autographs will be available via redemption.

2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects
Harper’s 2009 AFLAC Autographed cards will be inserted into packs of 2010 Bowman DP&P. Each of Harper’s on-card autographs from the 2009 AFLAC All-American Game will be sequentially numbered with foil stamping.