Here’s the final list of products that we Panini be accepting for the wrapper redemption.

FIVE HOBBY PACKS WILL GET COLLECTORS ONE WRAPPER REDEMPTION PACK FOR THE FOLLOWING:

Season Update Basketball

Classics Basketball

Contenders Patches Basketball

Prestige Football

Elite Football

Rookie & Stars Football

Donruss Hockey

Pinnacle Hockey

Zenith Hockey

ONE HOBBY PACK WILL GET COLLECTORS TWO WRAPPER REDEMPTION PACK FOR THE FOLLOWING:

Totally Certified Basketball

Absolute Basketball

Luxury Suite Hockey

ONE HOBBY PACK WILL GET COLLECTORS FIVE WRAPPER REDEMPTION PACK FOR THE FOLLOWING:

Century Collection

Gold Standard Basketball

ONE HOBBY PACK WILL GET COLLECTORS TEN WRAPPER REDEMPTION PACK FOR THE FOLLOWING:

NATIONAL TREASURES BASKETBALL OR FOOTBALL

Panini will also going to be holding a National Treasures Drawing Thursday-Sunday for those purchasing boxes of Treasures. For every box collectors open at their booth, they will be entered into a drawing at the end of the day for a black box. Panini will award FIVE black boxes a day, each with a 1 of 1 and other auto’s/mem. One box will have a card AND a Panini Authentic item in it.

Nothing in particular that I feel like blogging about today, so I figured I’d just hit some random topics.

First off, I find it strange that Topps moved Series 1 up by 2 weeks.  I haven’t seen a product move up on the release calendar in quite some time.  I suppose it is good since it will give us a longer window to sell off before Series 2 comes out.  It will also give everyone longer to sell the product before the season starts.  Part of me wonders if this was their intended release date all along.  Maybe they listed the initial release date 2 weeks later in case they run into production issues.  I know from when I worked at Upper Deck that it is nearly impossible to push a product up 2 weeks this late in the game.  Not to mention the fact that this is a product that requires a lot of cards being printed.  Either way, it’s at least a good sign that Topps may start hitting more of their release dates.

It seems as though 2011 will be quite a bit different than 2010 was, in regards to trading cards at least.  In 2010 we saw the beginning of the year go crazy with Topps 1, Bowman and a few others.  Topps then produced the everliving ton out of the later products.  This caused them to drop significantly in price.  Meanwhile, Panini stuff didn’t really do much all year.  Some of the football did okay, but none of it really moved too much.  And 09-10 basketball really didn’t do much as far as movement.  In addition to this, we didn’t see a lot of older products go up much.  There was a little interest here or there, but nothing major.

So far in 2011 we’ve seen a big hike in almost everything.  2005 football stuff has gone crazy with Aaron Rodgers making the Super Bowl.  2009-10 basketball has also gone crazy with Blake Griffin playing out of his mind.  A lot of the 2010 football stuff has started creeping up a bit as there just isn’t a lot of any of it out there.  There haven’t been many football products lately that have come out and gone crashing down.  We’ve even seen a little comeback from products like Topps Platinum and Crown Royale.  Maybe this is a sign of things to come.  2010-11 basketball has also sold relatively well.  Again, I think a lot of it is limited production.  I see most of the 2011 baseball stuff being pretty hard to find.  Topps is not going to overproduce like they did last year.  We may see a stinker or two, but I’m pretty confident in just about everything I’ve seen so far.

I am very interested to see how the Topps Five Star and the Panini National Treasures FB products do this year.  It will be the first time that we don’t have an Exquisite product.  Even if UD ends up making a collegiate Exquisite, it won’t have the same impact.  If the Five Star and Treasures are put together correctly, I could see them both doing very well.  One thing we learned last year was that the absence of Exquisite does make the other high end cards more sought after.  You can see this in basketball with the way the Blake Griffin RC sells.  I’ve seen them go for over $3K.  That wouldn’t be happening if he had an Exquisite Auto Patch RC too.

I haven’t seen a whole lot about the Treasures yet, but the Five Star looks fairly decent.  It looks a lot like an Exquisite product.  Hopefully both Topps and Panini do these products the right way.  The three main keys to me are nice patches, good collation and limited redemptions.  If they hit on all of those keys, we should see solid products.  I don’t think there will be a ton of either one of these out there, so that should help as well.

Totally changing gears here as I dive into the weekend of sports.  The Packers and Steelers both held off comebacks and won their respective conferences.  Both looked to be pulling away at the half, but stumbled a bit in the 2nd half.  I give the early advantage to the Steelers, but I’ll discuss this more in my Super Bowl preview later in the week.

Blake Griffin put up another huge game this weekend.  I thought he was going to get a triple double as he had 8 assists at halftime.  He had some absolutely insane dunks in the game.  The ally-opp reverse was something that not many guys could pull off.  Then his three pointer as the shot clock expired was just icing on the cake.  Golden State left him wide open about 4 feet beyond the arc and he nailed it.  He really is something special.

In other NBA news, we continue to wait on the Carmelo trade.  I think he will end up getting trading, but I just wish it would happen.  I’m kind of tired of hearing about “how close” a deal is when nothing ever happens.  I still believe he will end up a Knick.  We also saw Kevin Durant hit his first game winner.  It was quite a shot.  You should definitely check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.

Not a ton of news in hockey.  I’m still awaiting the return of Sidney Crosby.  It’s sad to see the league without its best player.  Hopefully this won’t have any long term impact on Crosby.

The Australian Open has been pretty solid so far.  Nadal looks as unbeatable as ever.  Federer has shown a few signs of rust so far.  However, until someone beats him, he still has a great shot.  Andy Murray has looked remarkable as well.  On the women’s side, it’s much more wide open.  Wozniacki and Clijsters appear to be the favorites, but I could see any of the final 8 winning the whole thing.  Sadly the U.S. did not represent.  There is not a single player left.  It would be nice to see some male U.S. players spring up as Roddick just doesn’t seem to be able to make that next step.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.  I’ll definitely post something later this week about the Super Bowl and perhaps something before.

Josh

I’ve seen some really nice stuff out of the new products from this week.  I figured I’d share some of them with everyone.  Enjoy the links and feel free to let me know if you have any questions/comments about all these new products.  They are all still in stock on the site.

2010 Topps Platinum:
Tim Tebow Auto Patch /99
Dexter McCluster Auto Patch /800
Ryan Mathews Auto Patch /200
Jahvid Best Auto Patch /10
Troy Aikman Auto Patch /10

2010 Sweet Spot:
Sam Bradford Auto Helmet /100
Ndamukong Suh Auto Helmet /400
Jimmy Clausen Auto Helmet /100
Mike Singletary Auto Helmet /125
Steve Young Auto Helmet /30
Rocket Ismail Helmet Auto /100
Paul Hornung Helmet Auto /50

2009-10 Hall of Fame Basketball:
Jerry West “Mr. Clutch” Auto /25
Paul Endacott Cut Auto /10
Hakeem Olajuwon Auto /299
Magic Johnson USA Auto /44
Cynthia Cooper “Coop” Auto /294

2010 Topps UFC:
Rich Franklin Auto /88
Jon Jones Auto
Vitor Belfort Auto
Chuck Liddell SP Auto

HUGE, HIGH END HITS FROM A $60 BOX!!!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week. Look for specials this weekend.

Thanks,
Josh

It should be an exciting week this week. We have 2010 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Football, 2010 Topps Platinum Football, 2009-10 Panini Hall of Fam Basketball and 2010 Topps UFC all shipping this week.

Keep in mind that we will price match any products on our site. So, if you see a lower price somewhere else, don’t hesitate to contact us via e-mail or phone.

Have a great week and look for more specials and blogs coming later this week.

Thanks,
Josh

Sorry for not posting anything in quite some time.  We had some issues with the website.  Then there were the 2010 Bowman and 2010 Topps Series 2 which have gone bananas, and it’s been keeping me on my toes for sure.  We have several new products in that I’ll go through.

First off, make sure you pre-buy ANYTHING you think you might want.  Everything is going up like mad and you will miss out if you don’t pre-buy it.  I’ve never seen anything like 2010 Bowman in my experience in this industry.  This product goes up every single time I look at it.  The single card sales continue to amaze me as well with some of the Strasburg Autographs going for over $3,000.  It’s the only product I can remember doubling in price and still not being a total rip-off to open.

Topps Series 2 is on its way up now.  It’s increased quite a bit in the last day or two.  I haven’t seen any of it opened yet, but I’m assuming it’s going up mostly because of the Million Card Giveaway program.  Also, since Series 1 is so high, some people don’t mind paying more than normal for Series 2.

2009-10 Panini Absolute also came out.  I’ve seen some really awesome stuff out of here.  However, it seems like the content is too similar to some of their other, low-end, products.  I was really hoping to see a lot of really cool patches and veteran autographs.  From what I’ve seen, most of the hits are RCs and most of them are just jerseys and not patches.  Football was loaded with jumbo patches, but those seem to be much harder to get in basketball.  The autograph memorabilia redemptions are cool, but they aren’t very easy to get.

We also had 2010 Razor Poker come in.  This one seems to me like a good break for poker fans or those who just want to sell everything and not lose too much.  You get a lot of stuff and it will sell relatively well, as the poker stuff always does.  The Stu Unger stuff is pretty cool as well.  I saw 2 boxes opened and both of them had an autographed printing plate 1/1.

I was finally able to get some of the 2010 Panini World Cup Stickers in too.  It’s been very hot and seems to selling extremely well at the retail level.  With the World Cup only about 3 weeks away, this one should continue to sell well.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great week.  Thanks for all the orders and please let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you.

Thanks,

Josh

The NBA and NHL playoffs have been pretty exciting so far.  The big stars are definitely rising to the occasion.  Sidney Crosby and LeBron James have been especially good.  Crosby had 14 points in six games to lead his team past Ottawa.  And LeBron just had a monster game to go up 3-1 against the Bulls.  Some of the other stars of the playoffs so far include: Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, Jameer Nelson, Deron Williams and Brandon Jennings in basketball and Alex Ovechkin, Mikael Samuelsson, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Zetterberg, Evgeni Malkin, Brian Boucher, Evgeni Nabokov and Ryan Miller in hockey.

The Western Conference NBA playoffs have been very intriguing so far.  All four lower seeds have a chance to advance.  The biggest upset would definitely be Oklahoma City over the Lakers.  They have looked amazing so far and will be an absolute force a year or two from now.  They are young, under the cap and have tons of draft picks.  The Eastern Conference hasn’t been quite so exciting.  If Atlanta wins tonight, all the top seeds will be up 3-1 or have already won.

Hockey hasn’t been quite as intriguing.  All the top seeds have already advanced or are winning except for Phoenix.  It could be an interesting next round if Pittsburgh and Washington meet up.  It’s always fun to watch Crosby and Ovechkin square off.  I’m rooting for a Pittsburgh/Chicago final.  I think that would be a great matchup.  We shall see though.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We had some good specials and it seems as through a lot of people took advantage of it.  So, thank you all for that.  We’re trying to keep the prices low on some of the new stuff.  The prices have gotten a little insane on some of this stuff and we’re trying to maintain normal prices.  Have a good week and look for more specials this up coming weekend.

Thanks,

Josh

Upper Deck has lost the Football License for 2010.  This is huge, as I’m sure you are all aware.  In my opinion, this really hurts the football market.  There were several products every year that I really looked forward to.  I don’t think Panini or whoever else might also have a license (Topps? Press Pass? someone new?) can fill that void.  SPx, SP Authentic, Ultimate Collection and Exquisite Collection are four products that everyone looks forward to each and every year.  With all due respect to National Treasures, Leaf Limited and any others, they don’t touch these products.

The designs, the on-card autos, the nice patch cards.  All of these things make products like Exquisite, SP Authentic and Ultimate Collection much better than anything else on the market.  I just don’t see any possible replacements for these types of products right now.  Maybe Panini will surprise me and make something awesome.  However, I think there will be a serious void in the high end section if they don’t.

The NFL must be very confident in Panini and whoever else gets a license.  I feel confident in saying that if you asked the average FB card collector what their favorite products were, UD’s would be at or near the top.  Certainly single cards show this as SP Authentic and Exquisite always carry the most value for RCs.  And Ultimate has some of the highest Legend type of single card sales.  On top of all of that, I feel like UD is more innovative.  They do tons of inscriptions.  They do tons of super patch cards.  They do a lot more multi-signed cards.  They definitely stand alone in terms of on-card autographs.  If Panini wants to really be successful, they should take these ideas and run with them.  Sure, they could keep doing their products the same as always.  I’m sure they’d probably sell fairly well since there won’t be as much competition.  However, they could really grab the bull by its horns and make some awesome stuff.

The sad thing is that the end consumer is ultimately who gets screwed.  With a lack of competition, we’ll probably see inferior products.  This is not a knock against Panini.  This is simply economics.  And because there are less products, they will probably all sell fairly well.  Meaning the demand won’t force the companies to load any products or improve them.  Single card sales will ultimately tumble and every product will be a loss for the box/case breaker.  Not to harp on Panini, but we’ve seen this in some of the Basketball this year.  Products like Panini Limited, Panini Certified and Panini Threads have all sold well for me and for most.  However, they are nearly impossible to get your money back out of when you open them.  I would challenge anyone to find a lot of super high end Panini cards that sold well.  I just looked on eBay real quickly and only found 9 Panini Autograph cards form 2009-10 basketball that sold for over $200.  UD only made 4 products for 09-10 BK and there are over 20 cards that sold for over $200.  I think this is a direct result of not having designs that match UD and not having on-card autographs.

Look, I’m not saying UD was without fault.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  They had WAY too many redemption cards.  They had collation issues.  Their customer service can be laughable at times.  Panini has these things already going for them.  Why not push it over the top and make the products superior as well?

Anyway, it will certainly be interesting to see how this re-shapes the Football market.  Please feel free to leave comments about how you feel.

Thanks,

Josh

We have put a bunch of products on sale for the weekend.  These specials will only last through the end of this weekend.  Here is a list of everything that we are offering:

Baseball:

2002 Leaf Certified- $59.99 per box, $349.99 per 6-box case

2006 Upper Deck Epic- $104.99 per box

2007 Upper Deck Black- $83.99 per box, $459.99 per 6-box case, $799.99 per 10-box case

2007 Upper Deck Exquisite Rookies- $109.99 per box, $529.99 per 5-box case

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition- $52.99 per box

2008 Razor Letterman- $31.99 per box, $319.99 per 10-box case

2008 Razor Signature- $31.99 per box, $319.99 per 10-box case

2009 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects- $52.99 per box, $619.99 per 12-box case

2009 Bowman Sterling- $193.99 per box, $789.99 per 4-box case, $1549.99 per 8-box case

2009 Donruss Elite Extra Edition- $72.99 per box, $1469.99 per 20-box case

2009 Topps T-206- $68.99 per box, $689.99 per 10-box case

2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars- $69.99 per box, $1409.99 per 20-box case

2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic- $85.99 per box, $1029.99 per 12-box case

2009 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection- $85.99 per box, $1289.99 per 15-box case

2010 Topps Series 1- $47.99 per box, $569.99 per 12-box case

2010 Upper Deck USA National Team Set- $78.99 per box, $789.99 per 10-box case

Football:

2008 Bowman Chrome- $42.99 per box, $429.99 per 10-box case

2008 Donruss Threads- $54.99 per box, $649.99 per 12-box case

2008 Leaf Certified- $52.99 per box, $414.99 per 8-box case, $1239.99 per 24-box case

2008 Topps Chrome- $43.99 per box, $529.99 per 12-box case

2009 Bowman Chrome – $46.99 per box, $469.99 per 10-box case

2009 Playoff Contenders- $104.99 per box, $1249.99 per 12-box case

2009 Topps National Chicle- $67.99 per box, $819.99 per 12-box case

2009 Upper Deck SP Signature- $35.99 per box

Basketball:

2009-10 Donruss Elite- $80.99 per box, $969.99 per 12-box case

2009-10 Panini Limited- $80.99 per box, $1219.99 per 15-box case

Hockey:

2009-10 Upper Deck Black Diamond- $76.99 per box

2009-10 Upper Deck Black- $156.99 per box, $1569.99 per 10-box case

In addition to these sales, we have 2010 Upper Deck Series 1 BB, 2009 Topps Platinum FB, 2009-10 Upper Deck Trilogy and 2009 Topps Sterling BB all ready to ship.

We have also added several retail items to our site.  They include:

Packs:

2009 Donruss Classics FB- $.99 per pack or $74.99 for 100 packs

2009 Donruss Elite FB- $.99 per pack or $49.99 for 100 packs

2009 Donruss Threads FB- $.99 per pack or $74.99 for 100 packs

2009 Playoff Prestige FB- $.99 per pack or $49.99 for 100 packs

2009 Donruss Americana- $.99 per pack or $59.99 for 100 packs

Blaster Boxes:

2009 Donruss Classics FB- $11.99 per box

2009 Donruss Elite FB- $9.99 per box

2009 Leaf Certified FB- $14.99 per box

2009 Leaf Rookies & Stars FB- $11.99 per box

2009 Playoff Prestige FB- $9.99 per box

2009 Score FB- $9.99 per box

Retail Boxes:

2009 Donruss Elite FB- $19.99 per box

2009 Donruss Gridiron Gear FB- $24.99 per box

2009 Donruss Threads FB- $24.99 per box

2009 Playoff Absolute FB- $34.99 per box

2009 Playoff Prestige FB- $19.99 per box

2009 Score FB- $19.99 per box

2009 Donruss Americana- $24.99 per box

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Josh