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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Our Video Box Break of 2011 Panini Crown Royale Football Cards

Take some of the best looking cards out there, mix in one of the best rookie classes to come along in some time and you've got the makings of a great box break.  Our box of 2011 Panini Crown Royale did not disappoint.  Check out this video to see who we pulled.

For more details on Crown Royale Football, read our review after viewing this video.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Our Video Box Break of 2011 Topps Tier One Baseball Cards

One box... one shot... not bad.   We hit some Royal mojo with our box break of 2011 Topps Tier One Baseball.  For less than the price of a Jumbo box of Topps Baseball you get a shot at some really nice hits.  Check out this video of us opening this brand new product.

For more details on Tier One,  read our box break review after viewing the video.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Highly Graded Action Comics No. 1 Breaks Record Selling For $2.16 Million

An amazing copy of Action Comics No. 1, graded a 9.0 by CGC, sold for a record setting $2.16 million US on Wednesday.  It is the highest amount of money ever paid for a single comic book. 

The auction was held at www.comicconnect.com with a reserve price of $900,000.   Reasonable when you consider a copy that graded an 8.0 just sold for $1 million US. 

Before this sale, the highest price ever paid was in 2010 when a copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold for $1.5 million US.  That copy was graded at 8.5, a half point below Wednesday’s record setter.

Action Comics No. 1 is highly sought after because it features the first appearance of Superman.   It is believed that there are only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 in existence and only a small number of those are in good condition.  

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

2011 Topps Tier One Baseball Box Break Recap and Review

The majority of the people on this planet like to live in the middle.  Low risk does not provide enough of a chance for high reward, but at the same time they prefer to avoid high risk.  20111 Topps Tier One Baseball provides the potential for some big pulls without having to go too far out on a limb to get them.  In that, it takes its place as an important product for collectors.

Topps Tier One Baseball falls under our premium cards category.  Each box contains 7 cards with 2 Autograph and 1 Relic card per box.

Here are all of the cards we pulled from our box.

Derek Jeter #/799, Front and Back

Rogers Hornsby #/799 and Bob Gibson #/799

Paul Molitor #/199

Jose Reyes 3 piece Game-Used Memorabilia #/25

Jordan Schafer On The Rise On-Card Auto #/999

Eric Hosmer On The Rise On-Card Autograph Redemption Card

Overall Look
Topps has done a great job of striking a balance between foil accents, photo fading, and graphics. The backs of the cards work really well here.  The different color parallels are nice. Space provided for the autographs is ample without seeming empty and really make the autos stand out.  Integration of the photography and graphics with the relic swatches is some of the nicest this year.

Quality and Variety of Players
This does fall a little heavy on the rookies here, but the big names, past and present are also represented.  From viewing a lot of breaks, it seems that you can pretty much count on at least one rookie auto per box with two rookies showing up a lot of the time.

Do the Hits satisfy?
Hit any Tier One and you’ve got a special hit, but there is plenty besides that to satisfy.  Chances at Manny Pacquiao Autos, 60th Anniversary Continuity Autos, Cut Autos, Some big time multi-auto cards and Jumbo Patch cards make this a satisfying break.

Will you keep coming back for more?
This is the type of product that crosses lines, working for different types of collectors.  Multiple box breaks should be common with deeper pockets trying out cases.

Rating 
4 out of 5

2011 Topps Tier One Baseball finds a comfortable place in the middle of the pack, providing opportunities for a wide range of collectors.


Review box provided by Topps

Here Is The 2011 Topps MLB Rookie All-Star Team With Cards To Match

Starting back in 1959, Topps selected one rookie in each baseball position in addition to a left handed, right handed and relief pitcher to form a Rookie All-Star team.  Then rookie, Willie McCovey was selected to the first team.  They’ve continued this tradition each year with Hall of Fame players like Joe Morgan,  Rod Carew, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, Andre Dawson and Ozzie Smith making the cut.  Last year players like Starlin Castro, Jason Heyward, Buster Posey and Austin Jackson made the roster.  Here are their selections for the 2011 Topps Rookie All-Star team:

1B -  Mark Trumbo, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (149 games, 29 HR, 87 RBI, .254)
2011 Topps Heritage

2B - Danny Espinosa, Washington Nationals (158 games, 21 HR, 66 RBI, .236)
2011 Bowman

SS - Dee Gordon, Los Angeles Dodgers (56 games, 0 HR, 11 RBI, .304)
2011 Topps Finest

3B - Brett Lawrie, Toronto Blue Jays (43 games, 9 HR, 25 RBI, .293)
2011 Bowman Chrome
OF - Desmond Jennings, Tampa Bay Rays  (63 games, 10 HR, 25 RBI, .259)
2011 Topps Allen & Ginter

OF Josh Reddick, Boston Red Sox (87 games, 7 HR, 28 RBI, .280)
2010 Topps

OF Ben Revere, Minnesota Twins (117 games, 0 HR, 30 RBI, .267)
2011 Topps

C - J.P. Arencibia, Toronto Blue Jays  (129 games, 23 HR, 78 RBI, .219)
2011 Topps Chrome

Starting Pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, Tamp Bay Rays (189 IP, 13-10, 2.95, 117 K, 72 BB)
2011 Topps Lineage Mini

Relief Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves (77 IP, 46 Saves, 2.10, 127 K, 32 BB)
2011 Topps Tier One

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Ken Griffey, Jr. Autograph Cards Will Be In 2012 Topps Baseball Releases

First Topps announced they got the “Say Hey Kid.”  Now they’ve got “The Kid.”

Just added to the line-up of autograph signers for 2012 Topps Baseball cards is future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr.  This will be the first time ever that “Junior” will autograph cards for Topps.

Griffey's first autograph will appear in 2012 Topps Tribute and 2012 Gypsy Queen.


Sunday, November 27, 2011

2011 Panini NFL Stickers For Week 12 And Pop Warner, Reasons To Be Thankful.

We are in week 12 of filling in our 2011 Panini NFL Sticker Collection Album and the football season. 

Normally we pick players to watch for the week, but it is Thanksgiving, so keeping in mind reasons to be thankful, there are plenty of kids out there who are thankful for Pop Warner Football.

Pop Warner Football is a non-profit organization that provides youth football participants in 43 U.S. states and several countries around the world. Pop Warner is the largest and oldest national youth football organization in the United States. It is also the only youth sports organization with an academic requirement. Pop Warner's commitment to academics is what separates the program from other youth sports around the world.

It was started in 1929 by Joe Tomlin to keep idle kids in Philadelphia occupied and out of trouble.  In 1933, Joe Tomlin met Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner, a legend among active football coaches and then the coach for the Temple Owls, at a winter banquet and asked him to lecture at a spring clinic Tomlin was planning for his organization’s teams.

On the evening of the banquet, it was pouring rain mixed with sleet. Of the dozen area college football coaches scheduled to speak at the clinic, only Pop Warner showed up. The 800 excited young football players kept Warner talking and answering questions for two hours. By the end of the evening, by popular acclaim, the youth program was renamed the Pop Warner Conference.

In 1960, Walt Disney filmed a two-hour show, "Moochie of Pop Warner Football." It aired on ABC in 1960, and helped to spread Pop Warner Football to over 300 teams from coast to coast.

Today, there are over 5,000 football teams, playing in eight different age/weight classifications with the annual Pop Warner Super Bowl, held each year at Walt Disney World.

The Pop Warner Adrenalyn Bowl presented by Panini America is an exhibition of Pop Warner football teams featuring NFL Players serving as Pop Warner Coaches. Two of the coaches for 2010 were Tim Tebow and DeAngelo Williams, who are featured on this week’s stickers.

At the top, 3 Pop Warner highlight stickers
DeAngelo Williams, Tim Tebow, Pop Warner Football, Pop Warner Adrenalyn Bowl

 The Completed Pop Warner page

In addition to these stickers, there are a limited amount of stickers that have letters on the back, like this one with the letter "A."

Collect enough of them to spell "Pop Warner" like this...

send them to Panini following the rules and you could win some great prizes.  All the details and contest rules can be found on the Pop Warner page in the NFL Sticker Album.

To find out about Pop Warner Football and the other great programs run by the Pop Warner organization for both boys and girls, check them out at www.popwarner.com

Be on the look out for more additions to our sticker album next week.