A group of collectors on the PSA message boards have gotten together to buy an unopened box of 1986-87 Fleer basketball (Jordan rookie year) from Baseball Card Exchange. The cost was.about $277 per pack. It was a great deal if you managed to land one of the Jordan rookie cards or stickers, which a couple of guys did. At least with the old Fleer products, there were no worries about distribution. You pretty much knew what each box would yield, so the odds were about 1 in 8 for landing an MJ.

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Several weeks ago, Upper Deck told the story of Tommy Baxter, a 36-year-old trading card collector from Little Rock, Arkansas who pieced together the 6,661-card Yankee Stadium Legacy (YSL) Collection. Baxter seized the opportunity to become the first collector to complete Upper Deck’s enormous insert set, which pays tribute to every Yankees home game ever played at the historic venue since its doors opened April 18, 1923.

He also did an on-camera interview with Upper Deck. Nice to see a father/daughter connection through cards. Young Madeline is about the most well-spoken 11 year-old I’ve ever seen. Here’s the video:

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The sports card industry is still facing an image problem. Virtually every story that appeared in mainstream media outlets and tech blogs made reference to the “struggling” or “flailing” baseball card business. Nearly all refer to the boom of the late 80s and early 90s and corresponding sales figures compared to the current marks. While many consider some of what’s happened a market correction, like the drop in shops across the country, it’s still a negative impression. Hopefully for the industry, kids don’t care about what things were like 20 years ago. I’m still convinced the major problem is the high price of packs—even base products and the perception that base cards aren’t worth collecting. I’m frankly not sure how you get around that. The super premium genie has been out of the bottle for years and there may be no going back.
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Several of the Upper deck SP Legendary Cuts “Mystery Cuts” have been creating a lot of interest in online auctions. One that has been drawing significant attentions is a “Mystery Cuts” card of Napoleon Bonaparte. This rare card is limited to only two copies and it includes a signature of the famous French military leader. Bidding had approached $2000 as of late Wednesday night.
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eTopps is offering cards featuring players taking part in this year’s WBC tournament. eTopps is the exclusive online trading card of the World Baseball Classic, and starting today, will be issuing a special limited 12-card collection of cards featuring the biggest stars from some of the participating countries.
The first eTopps World Baseball Classic cards have been produced. Each card will be available for seven days, and will be sequentially numbered to limited quantities. The first card was released last Monday.

Next Monday (March 16), additional eTopps World Baseball Classic® cards will be offered as the tournament kicks into high gear. Like the first one, this IPO will begin at 1:00 PM (EDT) on Monday, and will remain o

pen for one week, closing at 3:00 AM (EDT) on the following Monday.
On the day of the World Baseball Classic® Finals (Monday, March 23), eTopps will be offering a final group of WBC cards, through a limited 4-hour offering. These cards will go on sale as usual at 1:00 PM (EDT), but this offering will close at 5:00 PM (EDT) that evening. Cards from this offering will then be allocated immediately following the close, and will arrive in a collector’s portfolio prior to the start of that night’s Championship Game.