Saturday, December 18, 2010

Sneak Peek at part of our Contest Prize

We are getting emails asking "what is in that prize package."  Thanks to Panini, Press Pass, SAGE and Topps, it will be a great.  We don't want to give it all away just yet, so we will reveal the contents of the package one item at a time until voting is over.

So here is your first sneak peek at what will be in the prize package.  This first box comes to us thanks to Press Pass.
It's a Hobby Box of Press Pass 2011 NASCAR Racing cards. Just released this week, this box comes with 30 packs of cards and it can be bought for around $70 to $80.  For more information about this box and a checklist, you can visit their web site page using this link.

On our next reveal, we will show you one of the boxes that has been sent to us from Topps.

A quick voting update, please use the polls you see to the right side of this page to make your vote count.  Leaving a comment is not enough.   It might appear from the comments that certain cards are clearly in the lead to win but the numbers from the polls do not reflect the comments and if we were to stop the voting today, the winners might surprise you.  For more information on voting and entering the contest, use this link.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Enter to win our year end contest. Voting is open for the 2010 Sports Card Awards

UPDATE: LEAVING A COMMENT WITH YOUR VOTES WILL NO LONGER GAIN YOU ENTRY INTO OUR CONTEST.

Fan voting for the 2010 Sports Card Awards is officially open.  Use the polls on the right side of this page to cast your votes.   To see a description of the nominees, use the following links

The Sickest Card of the Year - use this link
Fan Favorite Set of the Year and Box Most Likely to Contain Mojo - use this link

We are still pulling together our prize package for fans who vote.  Thanks to Panini, Press Pass, SAGE and Topps, it will be several different boxes of cards and a maybe even a loose hit or two.   I will announce the prize package shortly.

There are three ways to enter our contest.

1 - Leave a comment on this post telling us how you voted.
2 - Leave a comment on our Facebook page telling us how you voted.
3 - If you want to enter but keep you choices private, send us an email telling us how you voted to AllAboutCardsAwards (at) yahoo (dot) com


Want to pick up another bonus entry?  There can pick up one per person using one of the following methods

1 -  Setup a link on your blog sending people to this post, then email us the link so it can be verified.  If you can update the link when we announce the contents of the prize package, that would be appreciated.

2 - If you don't have a blog, start a topic on your favorite card forum or Facebook card collecting group linking to this post, then email us the link so it can be verified.  To get the entry, you must be the first person to set up a link on that forum.  It will be easy to tell with time and date stamps who is the first.

Stay tuned to this blog in the coming weeks as we announce our nominees and winners of the 2010 Sports Card Awards in the following categories

Best Baseball Trading Cards                                            Best Premium Baseball Cards
Best Basketball Trading Cards                                         Best Premium Basketball Cards
Best Football Trading Cards                                             Best Premium Football Cards
Best Hockey Trading Cards                                             Best Premium Hockey Cards
Best Alternative Sports Cards                                          Best Ultra Premium Cards
and Best Sports Cards of the Year

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Here are the nominees for The Sickest Card of the Year

Let’s face facts; its doubtful that anyone out there has seen every single card produced this year.  So narrowing down and picking the sickest card of the year is a daunting task.  Even getting it down to a few nominees is difficult.  So we decided to go to the people who know these cards, the companies that make them.  We posed the question, “What was the single sickest card you produced this year?”  What we found was even having intimate knowledge of every card they’ve designed this year, our question was not an easy one to answer.  But after much internal discussion, they did come to a consensus.  

But now it’s out of their hands because you, the collectors, will have the final say.  You will decide which of these five cards is “The Sickest Card of the Year.”

Here are the Nominees
 2010 Panini Certified Football Immortals Ernie Davis Game Worn Materials

Panini had a lot of ways to go with their selection this year.  The depth of their insert cards is impressive.  This card may not be as loud as some of their others but it is sick and an excellent, meaningful choice.  This card is the first ever memorabilia card for Ernie Davis.  Davis was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, the number one NFL draft pick of 1962, died of leukemia at the age of 23 before he played a single down of football in the NFL, and was profiled in the movie “The Express.”  The piece of material used for this card is from Davis’ 1962 College All-Star Game that Panini bought at auction for $23,900.  There is a behind the scenes video story of the jersey and the how this card came to be at Panini’s Blog, The Knight’s Lance.

2010 Press Pass Five Star Racing Classic Compilations Dale Earnhardt Sr./Dale Jr. Patch Auto Booklet

Press Pass is the only card company covering racing.  You would think with that kind of monopoly and control they could phone it in.  But they don’t.  Their releases look fantastic. With the tons of logos and wide variety of materials that racing has to offer, from firesuits to tires to sheet metal, they are able to come up with some really sick looking cards.  This is from their recent Five Star release and the booklet speaks for itself.  Not only two of the greatest drivers of all time, a father/son combo.  With the great autographs and fully embroidered patches that are as good as any we’ve seen in any sport, even if you are not one of the 38% of people in the US that identify themselves as racing fans, you can tell this is one sick card.

2010 SAGE Autographed Football Jimmy Clausen, Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy Triple Auto

SA-GE is a small company putting out a big product.  With collectors trending heavily towards rookie speculation, this company is producing an exclusive run of cards to satisfy that craving.  But as with any boutique company making a carefully watched over product, its gonna cost you big time.  Not so with these cards.  This hand numbered, triple auto came from a box of 2010 SAGE Autographed Football.  For about $100 you get 12 packs with one auto per pack, and you’ll never see a redemption card.  That many pulls at that price point is sick and this is their sickest.

2010 Bowman Baseball Stephen Strasburg Red Auto 1/1

It’s Topps so it had to be a Strasburg, but which one. Even more than the Superfractor, this Red Auto 1/1 caused a huge buzz in the collecting community this year.  With bids on eBay reaching near one million dollars and then quickly going away, this card was moved to Huggins & Scott Auction House and finally sold for $19,975.  In the process, it pushed the value of all the Bowman Strasburg autos sky high.  Being able to get that kind of return on your collecting investment makes this one truly sick card.

2009/10 Upper Deck SPx Hockey Shadowbox Wayne Gretzky Auto

Originally when I posed the “your sickest” question to Upper Deck, their pick was this card.

It's a Great Walking Leaf Entomology Card from their redemption program included in the 2009 MLB Goodwin Champions release.  This card is working the sick angle on a whole bunch of levels.  That is an actual bug... in a card... and the card is 5 inches by 7 inches... and its about the thickness of a summer paperback novel.  You can see a great video on all the cards from the Entomology series using this link.  If you want to see what these are reselling for now, follow this link.

The first thought was “it’s a bug, what does that have to do with sports?”  But if Allen & Ginter can have Chihuahua inserts, why not a bug?  The problem is the release date for the set was September 2009.  Even though the redemptions took until 2010 to fill, we can’t count it for these awards.  But it certainly gets an honorable mention. 

Then Upper Deck came back with the 2009/10 Gretzky Shadowbox Auto.

Pictured above is the insert card without the auto.  No picture of the complete auto card was available.  This highly innovative set of inserts from the SPx Hockey line was very popular with collectors.  The insert without the auto goes for close to $100 on eBay and with Upper Deck's exclusive on “The Great One,” pulling this card had to have been sick.

So that will do it for this year’s nominees.  Attempts were made to get nominations from other companies.  No one was excluded from the process.

Voting will begin on this category along with Fan Favorite Set of the Year and Box Most Likely to Contain Mojo in the next day or two, so you have some time to think about your picks.

You’ll also have the opportunity to enter to win a prize pool of several boxes of cards, all of which will be explained when voting begins.

Stay tuned for details.

UPDATE:  TO VOTE AND ENTER OUR CONTEST, USE THIS LINK

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Nominees for Fan Favorite Set and Mojo for the 2010 Sports Card Awards.

Here are the Nominees for the 2010 Sports Card Awards in the categories of Fan Favorite Set of the Year and Box Most Likely to Contain Mojo.  Nominees for The Sickest Card of the Year will be announced Wednesday.  At that point, voting will be opened and details on how to enter our year end awards contest will be released.

Fan Favorite Set of the Year
There is a reason this category is called "Fan Favorite"  You selected the nominees and you will select the winner.  Taken from your suggestions, these are the cards you love to collect, the cards for set builders.  You have no problem buying boxes and boxes of these because the goal is to collect them all.  Here are the nominees.

2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition

2010/11 Panini Rookies & Stars Basketball

 2010/11 Score Hockey

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball

2010 Topps Chrome Football

2010 TRISTAR Obak Baseball

Box Most Likely to Contain Mojo
Base cards?  We don't need no stickin' base cards.   Hits.  That's what this category is about.  Your Billionaire Uncle (Everyone has one of those, right?) is buying, so price is no object here and should not be taken into consideration in your voting, but not all of these boxes will break the bank.    These are the high hit percentage boxes that speculative collectors are ripping into with screwdowns and magnetic holders at the ready.   Yes, its a lottery system but you have to be in it to win it.

2010/11 In The Game Ultimate Memorabilia 10th Edition Hockey

2009/10 Panini National Treasures Basketball Cards

2010 Press Pass Five Star Racing

2010 SAGE Squared Football

2010 Topps Triple Threads

2009/10 Upper Deck The Cup Hockey

Once again, The Sickest Card of the Year nominees, contest details and voting instructions will be announced tomorrow.

UPDATE:  TO VOTE AND ENTER OUR CONTEST, USE THIS LINK.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Box Break of 2010 Panini Limited Football Cards

Here is a little football sorbet to help cleanse your palette of today's games.  A box break of 2010 Panini Limited Football Cards. Bon appetit!

Phase 1 of our awards contest is closed

Congratulations to all our "early adopters" you've earned yourselves extra entries.  To what?   You don't know... yet.  Expect some more information mid-week.

There will still be chances to enter when the nominees are announced as voting begins.  But now, the window to pick up these early entries is officially closed.