Saturday, April 23, 2011

An extensive sneak peek at SAGE Autographed Football 2011. Another All About Cards first look.



There have been numerous mock drafts, tons of speculation and anxious prospects but by the end of next week, all we will have left are facts.  That and some pretty sweet autographs.  

The 2011 NFL Draft takes place April 28-30 in NYC, but two days before that you’ll be able to get your hands on SAGE Autographed Football 2011.   Every three-card pack will feature one autographed card with an Authenticity Guarantee built in and without any redemptions.

There will be five parallel levels of autos, Red and Silver, both without numbering, Gold numbered to 200, Platinum numbered to 50 and Master Edition 1/1 Autographed Cards.  There will also be rare Triple Autographed Cards and Aspire Autographed Cards both numbered to 5.

If you’ve followed the mock drafts, you know one of the top prospects, 2010 SEC Offensive Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, and the 2010 Heisman Trophy recipient, Cam Newton, has gone up and down in the rankings.   There are five teams predicted to go after a Quarterback as their first pick this year, Carolina (#1 overall), Buffalo (#3), Cincinnati (#4), Arizona (#5), and San Francisco (#7).  With the question “Who Will Draft Cam?” looming, an series of insert cards have been created called “Draft Cam” with Newton named on those teams.  So there will be a Cam Newton Carolina card, a Cam Newton Buffalo card, one for Cincinnati, Arizona and San Francisco.  These are numbered to 11, for a total of 55 cards and there are autographed parallels numbered to 2.   That’s right... I said two cards per team for a total of ten autos.  The backs of these cards are signed by Tom Geideman, President of SAGE Collectibles for authenticity purposes.

Here is an extensive sneak peek of SAGE Autographed Football 2011.

Aspire Auto Inserts
A. J. Green and Cam Newton

Mark Ingram and Julio Jones

  Jake Locker and Christian Ponder

 Ryan Mallett and Blaine Gabbert



The "Draft Cam" inserts
Front and Back of Buffalo

 Cincinnati and San Francisco

 Carolina and Arizona



The entire collection of autographed "Draft Cam" cards
 San Francisco

 Cincinnati 

 Carolina

 Buffalo

 Arizona

Mystery... Intrigue... Black Box. 2011 Upper Deck Industry Summit Black Box Break

Recently Upper Deck ran a contest on their Facebook Page and I won.  The prize?  A Black Box from the 2011 Las Vegas Industry Summit. 

You can’t buy a black box.  Upper Deck gave them out to retailers at the Industry Summit and they must have had one left over.   I’ve looked at YouTube videos of store owners opening these boxes at the Summit and there were signed cards of some big name athletes.   I saw a Gordie Howe, LeBron James, Derek Rose and I think there was a Bobby Orr auto.  

The contest was based on a blog post that featured Bryan Berg.   Berg makes a living stacking cards.   He holds Guinness World Records for the size of his structures.  Here is one of them.
To win this box I had to build a house of cards at least three levels high with Upper Deck cards from my collection and let me tell you, it was deceivingly difficult.   Here is my structure.
Pretty sad in comparison, huh?  The reason you see a lot of cards around the structure is I was planning on building it much higher, but that never happened.  

I was selected at random out of all the entries and the box was just shipped to me.   So thanks to Upper Deck for the contest and the black box.   Here is the video of the break.   Give it a view to see which card I pulled.

Direct link to video

Friday, April 22, 2011

It's Earth Day and we are going green. Here are some free giveaways for doing right by the planet.

It's Earth Day!  Time to respect the planet.  So we are going green here on the blog.

Take care of your planet and it will take care of you.  Here are some fine examples of opportunities to receive something gratis in exchange for looking after your world.  By the way, we will also be giving away some free cards pretty soon, so make sure you keep checking in.

Recycling definitely helps our planet, eliminating waste from our landfills.  But for an even greener experience, use you own Non-Disposable Container (Travel Mug, Ceramic Coffee Cup) when ordering your cup of Joe.
Today Starbucks is giving away a free cup of coffee or tea for customers who bring along their own mug to participating locations.  
The Disney Store giving away a free reusable Mickey Mouse tote bag to customers in exchange for five plastic shopping bags.
So if you are into the Mouse, go get it.

Plant a tree, save the planet.   Tomorrow Lowes is giving away 1 Million Trees.   Check with your local store if you want to get in on this.

But most important, find a small thing you can do as part of your regular daily routine to help.  Your planet will thank you.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

To Bid, Perchance To Dream. A look at REA - Robert Edward Auctions.



Catalogues.  We get them in the mail, whether we want them or not.  Most wind up in the trash.   Those that we look at might contain, at most, a few items of interest.  Try to imagine a catalogue that is 741 pages long, an inch and a half thick, weighing over 2 pounds where it's a challenge to find an item you DON'T want.

I have that catalogue in hand.

The REA, Robert Edward Auctions catalogue just arrived and contains all 1747 of their items up for bids in their current auction.  Final day of bidding for these items is Saturday, May 7, 2011.  This gorgeous tome includes Pre-1900 Beaseball Cards, 1892-1985 Hall of Fame Baseball Player contracts, Autographed Baseball-Flats-Photographs-Bats, Game Used Jerseys and Bats.   Mostly likely some of these items will wind up as swatches or cut autos for future card releases.

While most items are beyond the price range of mere mortals, there are some items that are estimated to end at a few hundred dollars.  

Here are some of the amazing items available.

 
 
 
 

There are Basketball, Football, Hockey and Entertainment items too.  Head over to REA to see them all using this link.