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Sunday, 03 May 2009 |
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By the time you read this, the Robert Edward Auctions annual sale will be over. The PSA 1 T206 Honus Wagner card has already set a new record, closing in on $400,000 as the minutes dwindle.
No one has ever answered the question of why so few T206 Wagner cards were printed a century ago. There are three primary explanations that have been offered over the years:
1) He didn't want kids to have to buy cigarettes to get his card or
2) He wasn't being paid enough or
3) He didn't approve of smoking
Since Honus was known to chew tobacco, it's hard to fathom #3 although that's been the most popular belief for years. #1 is certainly plausible although it would be an exceptionally strong move 100 years ago for a player to make such a fuss that the sponsor actually stopped printing the cards. #2 is a possibility, but was Honus really that greedy?
What about the possibility that the 'short printed' Wagner card was the first 'chase card' in a major series of baseball cards? Is it possible that American Tobacco decided it could sell more packs of cigarettes by making the Wagner card rare? He was among the top three or four most popular players of the day--#1 on many lists. Card producers have been doing it for years.
What do you think? Become a fan and discuss it via the T206 Facebook page.
One of the card companies has a new blog. If you're a fan of the company, check out the Upper Deck blog.
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009 |
 Rare fossils from prehistoric creatures are inside its 2008-09 Champs Hockey and the million year-old-plus bones are now on their way to collectors.
Upper Deck shared some of the finished cards last week at the industry’s annual trade show in Tampa, Florida.
The cards are extremely thick, roughly ten times the thickness of a normal card so it was necessary to make them available as “exchange” cards so they could not be detected and cherry-picked in packs. Collectors who found and registered the exchange cards with Upper Deck are now starting to receive their cards.
“There has never been anything like these cards before, especially the cards with the teeth,” said Josh Zusman, Upper Deck’s hockey brand manager. “The cards are very thick and it is almost as if the specimen is showcased in a miniature shadowbox. |
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Monday, 27 April 2009 |
In our never-ending quest to find anything relevant written about the sports collectible industry, I've often run across stories about the 'down' market, how card shops have dried up, etc.
Much of it has some inherent truth, but that makes our industry no different than any other business segment that's struggling in this economy. When employment rates near or exceed 10%, it's going to take part of the buying market out of the game. You hope that by the end of the year, things will have turned the corner.
Don't believe the gloom and doom about the hobby going away for good, though. As long as there are popular spectator sports, fans will want to reach out for a tangible piece that connects them to their team or favorite sport.
High tech gadgetry helps us follow games, but it doesn't mount on a wall and can't tell a story. Same goes for video games. People will always want autographs or cards or programs...anything that they can display or use to help them escape for a few minutes.
The market will be there, even if the marketing efforts change. The survivors will learn to adapt to those changes.
Hey...if you're a fan of the T206 set, become a fan of T206Card.com on Facebook. |
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Monday, 20 April 2009 |
Have a baseball card that's been sitting on your want list forever? Everyone does--unless you happen to be independently wealthy or easily pleased.
Many years ago, I came across a nice little stash of 1954 Dixie Lids and decided to build the set. It was never a huge priority, but about a year ago, I got out my long-neglected list and saw I still needed Enos Slaughter and Richie Ashburn to fill out the set.
I found Slaughter pretty quickly online and that left only one to get before I could cross the set off my list for good. Usually that's when I really get serious.
I can now report that a year's worth of searching later and I still haven't found one at a reasonable price. What's the deal with this card? Anyone?
There are a lot of vintage oddball sets that have some really tough cards. The 1960 Post Cereal "woodgrain" cards are tough, too--I still need Mantle and Killebrew-- but even they're easier to find for me that a '54 Dixie Lid Slaughter.
What's the card that seems permanently etched into your list? Let me know and we'll post them here. Maybe someone can help.
One other note...Chris Nerat, former writer for Sports Collectors Digest (no relation), has started his own sports memorabilia blog (http://www.collectgreenbay.com). Chris has a business buying and selling Packers memorabilia and he's going to write about that--and the hobby as a whole.
Sorry..make that two other notes: Steve Hart, who runs Baseball Card Exchange, is blogging about his travels in search of unopened sports card packs and collections of cards. It's always fun to read about a dealer's constant quest to find inventory and some of the obstacles he runs into. Steve logs thousands of miles a year by land and air and there are few in the hobby who put as much into customer service (http://www.baseballcardexchange.com).
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Saturday, 18 April 2009 |
I believe every player who took the field for Jackie Robinson Day this month wore #42. It's been sort of voluntary since the tradition began a few years ago. It's still one of the coolest ideas MLB has put into action in the last couple of decades.
Just what happens to those jerseys is still a bit of mystery. The Orioles quickly announced they were putting theirs up for bid at MLB.com. A couple of other teams have followed suit, but there's no real organized effort to let fans know what's happened to them. Surely, some players want to keep them, which is fine, but you'd think they could come up with a way to put a second jersey on for part of the game and sell one of each. Word gets out, but if you ask me, MLB is probably leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table by not getting serious about informing the collector market of what's out there--and making sure there are at least a couple hundred on the market.
Same goes for the pink Mother's Day bats and other special event items. Fans might bid more for some items than serious collectors would, but other pieces aren't bringing what they should...and it's for a great cause in the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
And one last note on that...Jack's widow, Rachel is still going strong--a wonderfully elegant spokeswoman for the Foundation and still a huge baseball fan. She's a treasure. |
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