Here are some previews of the Autographs from the new Leaf Pete Rose product that is scheduled to release sometime in late October.  

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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

I don’t often talk of being in love with a product.  Normally I think something got screwed up with the checklist or the design.  Normally I don’t like the size of the patches or the sticker autographs.  Normally I think there is a superior product that “could” have been made.  Normally the product isn’t Panini Dominion HK.  I have to say I can’t really complain about anything from this one.  I thought that The Cup would dwarf this product.  I have to tell you that is not the case.  If anything, it is the opposite.  Especially when you consider the price.  

Now some may say that I’m only spouting this off because I can’t sell The Cup.  It’s true that I can’t sell The Cup.  But, that has NOTHING to do with this.  I’ll show you why in a minute.  Let me also say that this is not saying that The Cup isn’t a good product.  As always, it is.  I don’t see anything major wrong with it.  However, it’s not as cool or as fun as Dominion.  Okay enough of my ramblings, onto the evidence…

Let’s start simple shall we?  First off, you just get more stuff out of Dominion.  A typical box of The Cup has 6-7 cards in it with usually 4-5 hits.  Typically you don’t get more than 3 autographs.  With Dominion you’re getting 8-9 cards.  You’re getting 4-5 autographs almost every time.  And you’re getting at least 6-7 hits in every box.  

Secondly let’s look at the RAP a.k.a. Rookie Autograph Patch cards.  You do get one of these in every box of The Cup and that’s not true in Dominion.  However, the patches are jumbo in Dominion.

Those are examples of what I’m talking about.  In addition to Jumbo patches, they are all #ed to 99.  So, no short printed good RCs.  That’s not a huge deal as what it really means is that the good guys are just as “hard” to pull since they are #ed to 99 in both products.  Let’s also not forget that Taylor Hall is a redemption in The Cup.  As far as I can tell, none of the good RC Auto Patches are redemptions in Dominion.  That makes a big difference. 

Now for the not so simple explanation.  Basically, Panini did a better job of being creative and putting cool, fun cards into the product.  Sure, some of these cards exist in The Cup.  But, they are MUCH harder to get.  This could be because there are less of them.  This could be because there is a lot more of The Cup out there.  Anyway, let’s take a look at a few of these cards.

“Tape to Tape” Autographs.  These cards feature a piece of tape from the hockey stick that is signed by the player.  Some of the autographs don’t come out great, but these are pretty unique cards.

“Stickside Signatures” are my favorite cards in the set.  They feature the outside edge of a hockey stick or the “patch” part of a stick.  The player has also signed the card (on card, just like every other card in this product).  The wood pieces look very cool and the autographs are super clean on the white background.

“Strapping Lads” is another very cool insert set.  It features a piece of game-worn fight strap.  Some of them, like the Kovalchuk pictured, include the button or snap that holds the fight strap in place.  These are not that hard to pull and a pretty cool addition.

“Tag Team” feature a tag patch from 2 different players.  These are pretty cool looking cards.  Pretty much all the tag patches in The Cup are 1/1s.  The card below is #ed to 12.  So, these type of cards are going to fall more frequently in Dominion.

“Had It Stamped It” is very similar to the “Property Of” from The Cup.  A very cool design that usually sells extremely well from The Cup.  

“Pen Pals” featuring multiple autographs from some of the top players.  Some will complain that these cards aren’t the same thickness as the regular cards.  However, does that really even matter?  Sure The Cup has multi-signed cards.  But, they are not as easy to get as they are in Dominion.  Especially not the triples.  I did a search on eBay for “The Cup triple auto*” and found 1 card from 2010-11 UD The Cup.  Doing the same thing for Dominion gives me 7 cards.  Considering Dominion didn’t release until today, that makes the triple autograph much easier to hit.

“Heritage Classic Manufactured Patch Autograph” feature a manufactured patch with an autograph.  The Cup stays away from manufactured patches for their product.  For the most part, I agree with that.  However, Panini did a good job with these.  In addition to that, these are never the “hit” of the box so they are just additional cards.  

In addition to all of these, Dominion has the same basic stuff as The Cup.  NHL Shield Patches, Tag Patches, Logo Patches, Dual Signatures, Jumbo Patches, etc.  Here are a few of those from Dominion:

As you can see, there are some more very cool cards in the Dominion.  The big test is how the single cards do on eBay.  So far they look pretty solid.  If they can sell for 70-80% of what The Cup cards sell for, then this product is absolutely killer.  And when you consider The Cup will cost you about $2500 per case and you can get Dominion for around $2150-$2200, you have to like your chances with the Panini product.

Josh

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STRASBURG AUTOGRAPHS AND MORE ADDED TO BOWMAN STERLING

To celebrate the return of Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg, one of the brightest future stars in the game, Topps is adding his autograph card along with other items to 2011 Bowman Sterling Baseball.

Bowman Sterling, which is currently soliciting, will now include:

*25 Stephen Strasburg Autographs featuring photography from his return

*25 redemption cards for a Stephen Strasburg Autographed Baseball

*And a 1 of 1 Redemption Card good for a meet and greet with the pitcher himself

In 2010, Strasburg captivated fans and collectors alike with his blazing fastball. One year later, after recovering from Tommy John Surgery, Strasburg returns to the Majors with as much anticipation as the first time around…and he looks as ready as ever.

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Panini America Lands Woodson, Polamalu!

* Company to deliver first Charles Woodson autos since 1998, first Polamalu autos since 2003

* Autos to appear in 2011 Absolute Memorabilia, 2011 Crown Royale, 2011 Certified and more

* Average value of existing certified autograph trading cards is a staggering $350

Nine years. That’s how long Joe White has doggedly pursued Green Bay Packers superstar cornerback Charles Woodson to sign autographs for Panini America’s NFL trading card products. For nine years, White, the company’s football acquisitions specialist, has never received so much as a counter offer from Woodson or his representatives.

So you can imagine White’s utter shock late last month when Woodson unexpectedly acknowledged his offer to sign a small number of autographs for Panini Americas’ 2011 lineup. Indeed, after almost a decade, one of the game’s premier shutdown corners finally stopped shutting White down. After a brief bit of back-and-forth negotiating, a deal was struck. White’s feet haven’t touched the ground since.

In a related note, Panini America has also secured an autograph deal with Troy Polamalu, the 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and will deliver his first autographs in eight years.

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HOSMER ADDED TO TOPPS CHROME AUTOGRAPH LIST

Topps announces it has made a very nice addition to its list of autograph signers for 2011 Topps Chrome Baseball….super rookie and future star Eric Hosmer. Topps Chrome, releasing on September 7th, guarantees 2 on-card Autographed Rookie Cards in every hobby box.

In addition, Hosmer will have autographed cards in Triple Threads, Topps Finest, Topps Updates, Bowman Chrome and Bowman Sterling.

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Topps announces that Ohio State star and recent Oakland Raiders signee Terrelle Pryor has signed a deal to ink his signature on the company’s trading cards.

Pryor will appear as an autograph subject in Topps products starting with 2011 Bowman Sterling Football.

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For every $300 you spent on in-stock baseball items on www.AtlantaSportsCards.com you will receive 1 free pack of 2010 Bowman Chrome Redemption pack.

These packs can contain the Bryce Harper Chrome USA Buyback Autographs!

This offer only lasts through the end of Memorial Day! So, don’t miss out on this special.

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Atlanta Sports Cards

Bowman Case Break #3- 12 box wax case

By James Kennedy

Autographs (17 total)

RC Logo Autos (2) – Yunieski Maya, Aroldis Chapman

RC Logo Auto refractors /500 (2)- Kyle Drabek, Jeremy Hellickson

Bryce Harper Base Autos (1)

Prospect Base Autos (7)- Paul Goldschmidt, Rymer Liriano, Jedd Gyorko, Dee Gordon, Jurickson Profar, Jared Cosart (EXCH), Sean Coyle

Prospect Refractor Autos /500 (3)- Addison Reed, Allen Webster (2)

Prospect Blue Refractors (2)- Addison Reed, JD Martinez

Red Refractor /5 (1)- Stetson Allie

Red Base Parallel 1/1 (1)- Brian Roberts

Triple Patch /99 (1)- Jerulys Familia

USA LOGO Patch /25 (1) - Brad Miller

Blue Refractors (1)- Juan Nicasio

Refractors /799 (11)- Garin Cecchini, 11 others

Bryce Harper Cards (14)- 7 Chromes, 4 Base, 1 Auto, 1 Topps 100, 1 Bowmans Brightest

Notes:  Im 3 cases in (1 jumbo) and now have 2 Harper Autos.  Theres plenty of good stuff besides Harper, but its evident if you are cracking a case, a Harper auto is going to make or break it, unless you pull a good 1/1 or different Harper refractors.  All in all, pretty good for a case that was under $1000. 

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Tired of logging in to see this?

Welcome to the Topps Online Redemption System: Redemptions

I am.  If you read through the case break, you’d remember I got 5 autographs that were via redemption cards:

I thought they were “to be determined” autos.  I was kind of excited.  Until I hIt the redemption center.  The deal is, they are just substitutes for guys who didnt sign all their cards.  I mean, I pulled a Aroldis Chapman auto!  Why did I get a redemption for one /500?  So, no, its NOT HARPER (they all say chrome, his auto isnt on chrome), IT ISNT HOSMER, AND IT ISNT PINEDA.

MINE WERE:

(3) FREDDIE FREEMAN AUTOS (2 WERE /500)

AROLDIS CHAPMAN AUTO /500

DARIN MASTROIANNI AUTO

Topps, you’ve done it again.  Please come out with a product that isnt 10-20% exchange cards.  This, along with missing Gypsy Queen autos, boxtopper bowman platinum autos, heritage big hits all were exch cards, all strasburgs were….STOP THE INSANITY!

(COMING IN TWO WEEKS: THE BIGGEST ARTICLE IN THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBY.  IT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT CARDS.  “THE TWO LEBRONS” DEBUTS MAY 29TH, 2011 ON ATLANTASPORTSCARDS.COM.

WILL YOU GET DUPED?

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