If you're shopping for sports cards or sports memorabilia on eBay, why not get some cash back so you have more money to spend next time?
There are a couple of promotions out there that will easily help you get eBay cash back. There's no real catch. You just have to sign up and follow the rules, which aren't difficult at all.
The first one is directly through eBay itself. It's something we introduced you to several months ago but it's still going strong and works really well. It's called eBay Bucks. The program records 2% of any eBay purchase you make and at the end of a certain time frame, eBay will send you that amount. For $1,000 in purchases, you get $20 back. Not bad if you're buying vintage cards, high-end modern cards, wax cases or anything else.
The other option is through BigCrumbs.com. This one works for eBay as well as dozens of other merchants, so if you do online shopping of any kind, it's really exceptional. You just have to enter those sites through BigCrumbs.com and you'll earn cash back. You also earn money for referring it to others. You get referral fees each time someone you refer utilizes Big Crumbs--forever. Just don't turn into Joe Spammer.
I'm a big fan of cash back programs on credit cards and these types of programs. Most are very easy to work with if you're a responsible buyer. I get 5% back for putting a certain kind of gas in my tank. 3% on another card for the three merchant categories in which I spend the most each month. Airline miles for staying in hotels, taking plane trips and signing up for their rewards credit cards.
Just about anything has an incentive program. Signing up for them doesn't cost anything and puts money in your pocket that you wouldn't otherwise have. Nothing wrong with that. Why should the other guy keep all the cash?
As we showed you several days ago, Bill Simmons, the 'Sports Guy', dove into the National Sports Collectors Convention with a great..and very funny..take on the whole affair while carting off some more items for his collection.
Now, ESPN.com's Jim Caple is recalling his childhood with a trip to a Washington card shop where he busts a box of 1989 Upper Deck in hopes of nabbing a Griffey Jr. rookie card that was the holy grail for modern era collectors and kids that season.
Will Upper Deck survive the loss of equal partner with Topps in the eyes of Major League Baseball?
Those of us who grew up in an era when you bought cards just as much for the gum as you did the cards know that even Topps hasn't always had the rights to use team and league logos for its trading cards.
One look back at some early 1970s basketball sets is graphic evidence of that. I vividly remember trying to figure out why all of the guys in those sets seemed to have their shirts on backwards. Was the photographer trying to make sure the guys at the plant didn't have any trouble trying to identify the players? Were the players great practical jokers? Did they get out of the shower in a hurry and not look in the mirror? It was a funny sight but without any competition, we didn't know any better and it wasn't something that made us all decide that cards weren't worth having.
The NBA Players Association had given Topps rights to produce cards but there was some hangup over using the logos on the cards themselves. They could produce stickers with logos, but that's it. I still collected with a fervor and the lengths to which Topps used to go to avoid using logos and trademarks made for some pretty interesting cards.
I think Upper Deck will be just fine. The company is known for being pretty creative so I would suspect they'll come up with unique ways to present next year's cards. A number of collectors have complained for years about UD's customer service. While things may have improved, maybe the lack of a deal with MLB will make them embrace their customers even more to keep them in the fold.
A man who consigned some vintage baseball cards to Mastro Auctions when the company was in the process of disbanding had a difficult time getting his money from the company after the auction. He got in contact with the Chicago Tribune's "Problem Solver" and here's the story. We hope most of the consignors who were owed money from the company's final auctions has been paid or are now in the process of being paid.
Even with only two companies producing licensed baseball cards, over 30 different baseball products still hit hobby store shelves during the course of one year.
Is it too many?
Pure collectors will tell you yes. Life was much simpler back in the days when we had only Topps and Bowman (early 1950s). Or only Topps (1956-1980). Or even only base brands of Topps, Fleer and Donruss (1981-1987). You could still buy every major issue without going broke.
That all changed, of course, by the late 1980s when Score and then Upper Deck entered the fray. Who really needed five different sets of baseball cards?
Little did we know.
By the middle of this decade, there were dozens of different products on store shelves. Long-time collectors left in droves, offended by the overproduction and the fact that there was now truly no prayer of sampling everything, let alone having a set of all of them. The quality of the cards was better, but many times the product was not. At worst, it strayed from what cards were supposed to be about.
So now that we're back to square one with Topps in command (sort of), let's do baseball cards the way they used to be done in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s.
By series. Not just two big ones that are both on shelves by Easter. Real, calendar-mulching, old fashioned, checklist-checking series.
Go ahead and print some products full of the shiny stuff with autographs and memorabilia to appease those who prefer it, but take the base set back in time.
Topps would offer Series One in late January. Series Two by Opening Day. Series Three around Memorial Day. Series Four on the 4th of July. Series Five just before Labor Day.
It would be a tidy set. No frills. Just up-to-date cards at a reasonable price. 132 cards per series. 660 cards just like the old days. Slap stickers or some other kind of label on the wax boxes to indicate the series inside. A set that could chronicle the end of the last season and the bulk of the current one.
Stick bubble gum in the packs and maybe an insert set. Run coupons in newspapers and magazines or online. Buy one get one free to get collectors started building sets. Make sure there are boxes in every drug store and gas station.
I'm actually not much of a modern card collector. I sometimes buy them just because I feel like I should and to see what the companies are up to but I still prefer the old stuff.
Cards by series might win me over again.
Kids would anticipate the arrival of the new series just like we used to. Some things don't change. But adults are the purchasing power these days and anyone who remembers cards before the 1980s remembers the reasons we collected.
Cards are supposed to be beautifully simplistic. This is one way to get back to that.
We mentioned the mouth-watering display of unopened material Baseball Card Exchange had at its booth during the National.
Recent purchases built up the company's stock to include some 1950s-early 70s boxes you never see. Our video had issues, but Beckett's crew shot the same stuff and put it on You Tube so you can now have a look at some of the boxes and packs:
Editor's Blog
One look back at some early 1970s basketball sets is graphic evidence of that. I vividly remember trying to figure out why all of the guys in those sets seemed to have their shirts on backwards. Was the photographer trying to make sure the guys at the plant didn't have any trouble trying to identify the players? Were the players great practical jokers? Did they get out of the shower in a hurry and not look in the mirror? It was a funny sight but without any competition, we didn't know any better and it wasn't something that made us all decide that cards weren't worth having.
Topps would offer Series One in late January. Series Two by Opening Day. Series Three around Memorial Day. Series Four on the 4th of July. Series Five just before Labor Day. 