A nice Panini Redemption mail day!

I had called and got a redemption card replaced. My original card was supposed to be a Asante Samuel Panini Certified prime signature materials card numbered to 25. They replaced it with this Ausin Pettis National Treasures auto/patch rookie card numbered to 99. Not too bad of a trade off. I just hope it's equal value. Will have to wait til the next Beckett comes out. But either way, it's a nice card!

What do you guys think?

Brands I miss....Upper Deck Black Diamond Football

This particular card was produced in 1998. They made the brand for a few years then it fizzled. I enjoyed the design and found it fun to chase down the many levels. One diamond was the base. There was also double, triple and the one that is pictured is a quadruple diamond. Each level was also a different colored background making it easier to distinct which one you have.

Game Day Recipes: Meatloaf with topping

Meat Loaf

Now most people grumble about having to eat it. Believe me, I once did. But I took a basic recipe I found and improved upon it. The topping is to die for! Give it a try! I will be posting a side dish of mashed potatoes to go with this for my next recipe.

Meat Loaf

1 lb of Ground Chuck
1/2 cup of oatmeal
1 small onion chopped
1 Tablespoon of garlic
1 Tablespoon of Italian seasoning
dash of salt and pepper

Topping:

1/2 cup of ketchup
1 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
Optional (1 teaspoon of Yellow Mustard)

Mix all of the Meat loaf ingredients together and form into a loaf. I use a small size glass pan to bake mine in. Mix the topping ingredients together and pour over the top of the meatloaf. I sometimes will taste the topping ahead of time. Some people prefer more sugar. Others more ketchup and cider vinegar. So make sure you take a taste to figure out what balances well for you. I will also sometimes double it to have more topping.

Bake the Meat Loaf at 350 or 375 to make sure it doesn't burn the topping. You can either cover it with aluminum foil with baking or not. It takes about an hour to bake. Take it out and enjoy!

World Peace's Elbow Incident

I think the man formally known as Ron Artest wasn't spreading any World Peace when he elbowed James Harden after making a slam dunk. This is one of many incidents he has been involved in. He may have a name change, but the same type of player is there. A dirty cheap shot player.

He may deny doing what he did on purpose, but if you were to watch the highlight or look at the picture up close, you can tell it was intentional. Hopefully he will get suspended. I don't think one game is enough. I don't even think 4 is enough. This kind of things cannot happen in the NBA. They have tolerated enough from this guy. He needs to be taught a lesson. If I was commissioner Stern I would suspend him for all of the playoffs. Let's see how he feels about that. Or maybe it won't make a difference. For a cheap shot like he did, a severe punishment should be shown and let the rest of the league know this is not tolerated.

Products we miss: Pinnacle Mint

This was always an amazing collection to me. Cards and coins together. Wow! It was like having 2 hobbies in one. The cards also had a die cut design in the middle where you could place the coin in the I did on the card below:

Each pack had roughly 4 cards and 2 coins depending on the sport whether it was football or baseball.

The product also had random chances for Solid gold coins, nickel brass, gold plated, solid silver and proof coins as well. If you haven't ever seen or tried these, you can find lists of them and still unopened boxes and packs on eBay and many other places. Try not to get too addicted!

Review: Sp Authentic Football 2011

Been wanting to bust a box of this and finally got one. Heres how we did:

Box: Kinda bland.But good player on the front.

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Wrapper: Read Box

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Base: Not too bad looking. It does lack the great Photography Upper Deck is known for, however Sp Authentic has always had this form of design. The base set is made up of 100 rookies, which in a box should land you a set and some doubles. But there are also SP's in it as well:

The Future Watch is the Sp set and is made up of veterans and rookies. The best we pulled was a Demarco Murray. We landed 6 of these in our box.

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Memorabilia: Check autographs. They are only with autographs. No plain memorabilia here.

Autographs: 2 no namers to us for the first 2 had us concerned.....then we pulled the rookie auto patch card of Christian Ponder and all was better. And its signed on card. Upper Deck also used some pretty sick patches in these. We got just a one color, but if you ebay this product you will see what we mean.

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Overall: You get 3 autos per box. We did ok there. If not for Ponder, box might have not been worth it. There are no inserts. But its nice clean base set we did get. But this product has, and always will be about the Rookie Auto patches. Year in and year out and even without a NFL license, this is the hottest product with the most sought after rookie cards.

Jersey/Auto Mailday!!!

Received this beauty in the mail!! It was won from a contest we entered. Thought we would share this awesome card with our fans!! Its a Damian Williams Panini Plates and Patches 2010 Prime Autograph Patch rookie card.

Fenway Parks 100th....the way I wanted it celebrated :)

There is nothing better than not only watching the Yankees win, but watching them beat their rival Boston. And to put the icing on the cake, it was a day that they were celebrating their stadiums 100th year opening. Something that brought also all of the former Red Sox, Red Sox retirees and legends to the stadium as well.  Which makes the win for the Yanks a great one. Just to rub it one more time to the current and former Red Sox players. Sorry, if you are a Red Sox fan reading this.

To me, the Yankees had their best pitcher on the mound yesterday. Sorry C.C., you just don't have it this season. Now the question is, is it time to start chasing down his rookie cards? He had an incredible rookie season winning double digit games and now if off to a hot and fast start.

Another surprise in yesterday's 6-2 win over the Sox, was the surprising 2 home run game by Eric Chavez. He showed some of his old likeness when he was an all-star third baseman with the A's.

I don't know how the Yankees will fare for the rest of the season. I see their pitching as a definite weak point. Freddy Garcia reminds me of Kevin Brown, past his prime. C.C. Sabathia doesn't look the same. And the rest of the staff besides Nova have not pitched well. I am sure as the season progresses they will get better. If not, the Yank's will most likely make a move for a pitcher at the Trade Deadline. The offense is as powerful as always and Jeter is off to a good start. 

But despite how rest of the season goes... yesterday's win, was a great one.

Products We Miss...Oversized Donruss Diamond Kings

Diamond Kings in general are a miss in this hobby. Panini has revived them a little but I think if they were to get a MLB license they may bring back some of the great things Donruss had to offer.

This version of Donruss Diamond Kings were done in 1993 and included in boxes of Donruss as box toppers.

3,000 views...what this means for you!!!

We have reached 3,000 views this week!! Very exciting!! So tomorrow we are throwing in an extra contest!! 2 contests will be announced tomorrow!! And there will be a couple of twists....one, as something different probably never done on a blog before you can win a unused redemption card for an autographed football card and the other twist is you can earn extra entries in both contests! You will have to come back tomorrow to find out how!

Favorite Card Thursday!

One of my favorite pulls this year still. That amazing blaster of Leaf Rookies And Stars Basketball 2010/2011. If you missed it, check back on our search and search review Leaf Rookies And Stars Basketball 2010/2011 and you will see what we mean.

Despite Jeremy Lin being down with an injury right now, his cards are still on fire. The Knicks are heading towards the playoffs and hopefully for them and for my collection, he makes his return before then.

Odd Ball Collectible: Skybox Batman+Robin Cards '95

Skybox produced these cards in 1995. Being a huge Batman fan and a fan of this cartoon. It was a must have. At least one pack. Every pack came with roughly 8 cards and came with a popup card, a puzzle card and a gum "card". I got one of Robin. Pretty cool overall.

Flashback: Pinnacle Inside Baseball

John Smoltz is the '97 version and Ripken Jr is '98

Gold Can Version of Vlad Guerrero

Each can came with a pack of cards inside. You would have to open the can like a can of soup. Each pack came with roughly 5 cards and cans ran around $2.99 at that time. There were randomly inserted autograph cards, inserts and more.

This was one innovation I loved and I wished could be brought back. The first year they came out, I collected every can from the set. The '98 set I could not put together.But I did managed to find a Gold can that were randomly inserted and hard to find. I still own 4 cans that are not opened. Sometimes the temptation is there....but don't think I will ever do it.

Do any of you own these unique items? Do you wish they could come back? Do you wish companies had the same kind of innovations now?

A little late...Ken Griffey Jr tribute to Jackie Robinson

This was meant to be posted the other day during Jackie Robinson Day 2012..but better late than never!!!

This is an oversized card from Upper Deck's Collectors Choice in 1998.

What are your thoughts on this card and what Jackie Robinson day meant to baseball?

Remembering Upper Deck MLB, NBA, NFL Cards Part 2: 1996 Spx Football

This is one of my favorite sets of all time. I will also post about the 1997 version as well. But the base cards rock. And a chance at autographs makes this product really top notch. This to me was a high end product in the late 90's due to the fact it came with one card and packs ran around $6.99.

A box broke down into the following. There were 36 packs per box. 1 card per pack. Gold Parallels could be found 1:7 packs. Inserts also were a HoloFame Collection, a Marino Record Breaker and Montana Tribute. The Marino and Montana inserts had autographed versions found 1:433 packs.

Base Card

Autographed Joe Montana, Montana Tribute Version

Gold Base Parallel

Autographed Dan Marino, Record Breaker

The diecut hologram base cards made the set worth collecting. Parallels were fun to chase as well. I wished Upper Deck would dip back into this technology and give it another run!

Upper Deck Redemption Lawsuit

The other day I was on www.beckett.com and came across this article:

http://www.beckett.com/news/2012/04/upper-deck-loses-court-case-over-redemption-cards/

Then now I have to rant. First off, Upper Deck, why didn't you check the rules before you sent a non full time employee to the case???!! You lost what should have been a winnable case because of that move. But that isn't my main rant. My main rant involves the plaintiff in this case. Any card collector, especially us seasoned vets, knows, first off, Upper Deck doesn't have an MLB license. Secondly, we know that every product for any company is bound to have redemptions that are "time sensitive" not to mention those words are put right on the outside of every card box. And thirdly, we all know that buying older product is a risk especially when it comes to the chance of finding a redemption or 2.

To me, I avoid buying anything a 1 year old. Its just what I stick by and what I recommend other collectors stick by. I would not want to buy lets say a 2007 MLB product because its cheaper and a product I love then pull a Nolan Ryan autographed redemption card that is worthless. Something that had a date that was dated for 2010 that can no longer be used. Something you can give to your dog for a toy. I avoid all of their older product due to that. These are things every true card collector knows. And especially when it comes to Upper Deck who could no longer legally make those cards anyways because of lack of licenses. The cards were never made because the athlete hadn't gotten the cards back to Upper Deck. Which opens a whole new debate over redemptions. Should companies skip out on Star players just to make sure all autos are in the product?? I can go both ways on that topic. But we will save that for another day.

In closing, it just infuriates me that a guy who claims to be a collector knew none of this. Then wins the battle because Upper Deck made a mistake. I know as you will see when you click on the link that Upper Deck has a lot of lawsuits coming down on them, but this one should have been an easy victory. However, by the plaintiff winning this case this could have opened a whole new can of worms in a negative way. And not just for Upper Deck, but for the overall hobby we love.

Any of you agree or disagree with me or with the case? Any thoughts?

Oddball Collections: Lebron James Gum

Well, if this isn't the oddest "piece" in anyone's collection, tell me what is? I bought this pack of gum in 2003 or 2004. Its still not opened. Just a collectors piece. Or collectors pieces :)

How to Store Your Sports Cards Part 4: Base Cards and Sets.

550 ct box

800 ct box

 The top box I use to store my base cards or as I call it, cards I don't put into a binder, top loader or jersey box . But since all cards to me have a place in the hobby and my collection, I have got to find a place to store them.
The bottom box I use to put my complete sets into. If your set is less cards than that, using Styrofoam or paper towel to fill in the rest of the empty area works really well. You can also use the rest of the box for another set if you don't mind combining them. The boxes can be easily written on which makes them easier to label your sets or what cards you have in them.