Holo Grammys

It's the Academy Awards of music tonight but I don't really care. While your significant other scours People Magazine's website in the morning, here's a random bunch of holograms:

 1992 Denny's Grand Slam 26. Joe Carter

I remember begging my parents to take me out for pie and coffee when these were available. They just turned to me, told me it was a 30 minute drive and that I was too young for coffee as they sipped their instant "coffee." They neglected to mention that Denny's also had gross key lime pie. Denny's sucks. This set was the best thing the restaurant had to offer in 1992. 

 1995 Score Dream Team Gold DG11. Greg Maddux

I'm not sure why Score abandoned the shirtless grandeur of the Dream Team cards for holograms. I can't say that I mind either. The whole "Gold" label, though, doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery 32. Wil Cordero

This card is a part of some oddball Upper Deck box set. I hadn't heard of it before and may have to track it down seeing as how it's an oddball hologram box set. Just 123,600 sets were made, which must make it extremely limited ; )

1997 Stadium Club Instavision Highlights I13. Andy Pettite

You can't capture the greatness of this card in a scan. Well, it is a hologram so it is instantly great, but that there hologram shows Pettite's hurling prowess. Yes, it's got motion technology without the creepy factor of Sammy Sosa's 1996 SPx card winking at me.

And now a trio of static non-sport holograms:

 Marvel Universe: Series One (Impel, 1990) MH1. Cosmic Spider-man

Although these are probably the most recognizable non-sport holograms (my guess is that it's due to the seemingly millions that are out there and just about everyone collecting the set at the time had one or two), I also rank them amongst the worst. Sure, they're shiny but there's nothing else going on. Plus, the card backs are identical for all five in the set. Yes, Virginia, holograms can be boring sometimes. Can anyone tell me what makes this Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man?

 DC Comics: Series One (Impel, 1992) DC Hologram Hall of Fame DCH8. Superman

This card suffers somewhat the same fate as the Spidey above. It's pretty boring. However, at least with this set Impel wised up a bit and gave something of an interesting background. Too bad Superman's face resembles that of a stick man I doodled while waiting on hold yesterday.

Marvel Universe Series Three (Impel, 1992) H-5. Ghost Rider

Finally, Impel is getting somewhere. While I'm not a big fan of Ghost Rider, the way his motorcycle is popping out of this card is pretty bad ass.

Super Sunday: Kingdom Come Xtra #6

This week's over-sized beauty comes from the 1996 SkyBox Kingdom Come Xtra set.

The set was based on the blockbuster (for the comic world) series Kingdom Come that looked at a grim future for the DC universe. And while the story was great, it was Alex Ross' illustrations that really hooked me. Likewise for the cards. They're not the most informative, but each frame of the books and each card is a masterpiece.

Ross didn't stick to the familiar designs of the comic heroes and villains. I chose this particular card for this week because it showcases so many different character designs. You've got Superman and his racing stripe gray hair, a fully armored Green Lantern, an old-school uniformed Flash, cougar Wonder Woman and others.

The mid-90s were a great time for comic cards. There was lots of variety and sets based on short series as opposed to what have been made in the last couple of years that are driven largely by the promise of a sketch card and the base sets seem somewhat secondary.

Beginner's Luck

On Friday I made a rare stop to get some packs. After a dozen packs of 2010 Topps Series One Baseball, I came away with nothing too terribly interesting other than a solid start on a set. Here's the results of two packs of Rittenhouse Archives' LOST: Seasons 1 Thru 5:

Pack 1:

It's Boone! Not a bad start. Autographs are 1:8 packs. I'm really liking the vertical design Rittenhouse came up with. It does a good job of capturing the feel of the show. Also, the pictures are a lot sharper than those in the Inkworks sets.

Pack 2:

 Another autograph! That's two-for-two, kids. Not only that but both autographs are 'limited' by Rittenhouse standards, which make them rarer than about half of the rest of the signature cards.

I'd say I pillaged that box as there's likely only one autograph left, unless it was pulled among the few packs that were already sold. And don't worry, these packs were grabbed from the top of the pile. No shenanigans were going on.

Who Are These Masked Men?

A couple of days ago, I received an email from In the Game containing a brief peek at the upcoming goalie-centric 2009-10 In the Game Between the Pipes set and four of its subsets:

What I find so fascinating is that In the Game continues to produce excellent-looking products despite the face that they don't have an NHL license. You wouldn't even no it by looking at these. And they don't even do it by seeing what they can get away with, going to court and reaching a settlement later. 

No date for Between the Pipes has been announced.

Around the Hobby

I've let the tidbits and news bites pile up, so here's an info dump.

• It's National Hockey Card Day up here in Canada. Participating hobby shops and retail stores have free cards to give away. Upper Deck has produced a 15-card set for the promotion. Each free pack will have five cards. The set focuses exclusively on Canadian-born players.  Click here to see a list of participating hobby shops.

• Many shops are giving away other stuff too. An Edmonton shop I visited on a city trip yesterday was busy blowing up balloons and there were lots of shirts, hats and other swag sitting on the counter ready to be given today. Something I didn't see on the counter but must have been sitting in the back was an autographed helmet from Upper Deck's rookie photo shoot. It turns out (as I was suspecting) that this shop was one of those selected to have a prize in Upper Deck's second holiday Treasure Hunt. In total, Upper Deck had 11 prizes to give away. To win, collectors would have to be the first to figure out which shop the prize was at, go there, make a qualifying purchase and say the somewhat embarrassing phrase, "I love Upper Deck's holiday hunt." Here's what I potentially missed out on by going to the city yesterday instead of today:

• The first 10,000 fans at the Detroit Red Wings game on February 11 against the San Jose Sharks will receive a pack of six exclusive cards from Upper Deck. The checklist includes Johan Franzen, Dan Cleary, Henrik Zetterberg, Chris Osgood, Pavel Datsyuk and Brian Rafalski. But that's not the whole set. A special seventh card of Nicklas Lidstrom will be available from arena shops with a purchase of Upper Deck products.

• In case you haven't heard by now, Upper Deck and Konami settled their lawsuit over Upper Deck counterfeiting Yu-Gi-Oh game cards. While Konami was calling for tens of millions in damages, which may have put Upper Deck out of business, the settlement is presumably much less because Upper Deck seems to be flaunting it in a press release. Here's the copied text:

Upper Deck Ends Dispute with Konami

Favorable outcome for the trading card giant

Carlsbad, CA (January 29, 2010) – Upper Deck is pleased to announce that it has come to a successful resolution with Konami over their year-long dispute regarding Yu-Gi-Oh!® trading cards. On the eve of trial, the court issued several rulings in Upper Deck’s favor which eliminated and gravely threatened many of Konami’s monetary claims requests. These rulings sent Konami and its attorneys into retreat as Konami’s case was disintegrating. These events, and these events alone, provided the framework for the case to be resolved after opening statements were presented to the jury. 

"Upper Deck is extremely pleased with the cooperative resolution with Konami. Sometimes it simply takes a courtroom, the presence of a jury, and the start of a trial for a party like Konami to finally recognize that it will be unable to live up to its pre-trial rhetoric," said Richard K. Howell, a partner at Rutan & Tucker in Costa Mesa, California.

Upper Deck had a long history with Yu-Gi-Oh! and is proud to have been such a vital part of the brands success in North America and Europe over the past six years. By creating a top notch organized play program and spending tens of millions of dollars on marketing and television broadcast, Upper Deck built a solid foundation on which Yu-Gi-Oh! will benefit for years to come.

“Though we are delighted that Konami was finally forced to see the light regarding its claims, there is, of course, a bittersweet side to the ending of this dispute,” added Richard McWilliam, Upper Deck CEO. “During the six years we spent building the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand we formed strong ties to the playing community, and, in the end, they are the ones that suffered most because of this lawsuit. Instead of focusing on the merits of the case, Konami focused its efforts on pursuing exaggerated claims and damages which it could not establish in the courtroom.”

I don't know of all the courtroom proceedings, but after being caught and owning up to the counterfeiting, I'd have to say that Upper Deck has a brass pair for issuing such a press release. Here's some excellent insight from Bob Brill.

• There was a card giveaway last night at the ECHL's Bakersfield Condors had their third of five scheduled hockey card nights. The first 3,000 fans received cards. The final two team card giveaways are set for February 19 and April 2.

• Topps has changed the name of its next UFC set. Formerly called UFC Uncaged, it is now called UFC Main Event. The set is slated for a March 3 release.

• StarWars.com has a preview of Topps' upcoming Star Wars Galaxy 5 set, as well as an interview with Topps Editor of Entertainment/Licensing David Waldeck.


• VizKids will include a card in each of their upcoming comic releases for the anime title Dinosaur King. Volume One releases February 2, while Volume Two is set for an April release.

• Dual-sided trading card will be included in the upcoming DC Origins action figure line. The line features two figures packaged together matching current incarnations of DC Comics heroes with the way they looked in the past. The cards will be packaged inside the figures. The toys hit shelves in September.

• BOOM! Town, a new imprint of comics publisher BOOM! Studios, is producing a 36-card set based on the creations of comics legend R. Crumb. The set carries a suggested retail price of $11.95. According to this press release, the set appears to be a reprint/update of the Kitchen Sink Press set made in 1991.

• Southeastern Louisiana University will be the spot for yet another card giveaway this afternoon. The first 150 fans at the women's basketball game will receive a card of senior guard Kim Edmonson.

• Penn State Baseball released their promotional schedule for the upcoming season. This includes Trading Card Night on May 9 versus Iowa.

• Over the past couple of weeks, the Uiversity of Wisconsin had a trio of trading card giveaways: men's basketball (January 20), men's hockey (January 22 and 23) and women's hockey (January 22 and 23).

• The Dayton Gems of the IHL had their first trading card night of the season on January 24. Cards were given to the first 500 in attendance. This was the first of four scheduled giveaways throughout the season.

• The AHL's Peoria Rivermen have produced a team set of cards. They can be purchased for $6 at the team's online shop.

LOST Has Officially Returned With New Set

I've been counting down to the start of the final season of LOST from the moment season five concluded. Like an expectant mother, the long build-up is about to pay off with the premiere next week.

Conveniently timed comes the show's return to the hobby with Rittenhouse Archive's LOST: Seasons 1 Thru 5, which as the title suggests, recaps the first five seasons. The license was previously with Inkworks, who had releases for the first three seasons and the spin-off LOST: Revelations set. But with Inkworks gone, Rittenhouse has taken over the franchise. Rather than picking up where Inkworks left off, they're giving a condensed version of everything thus far. With new designs and inserts, it looks to be a fresh take on a great license.

And they're live on eBay!

The base set is 108 cards deep, which serves almost strictly as episode recaps from all five seasons. Traditionally, there's also character cards in non-sport sets but Rittenhouse has saved them for the 25-card LOST Stars Artifex insert set. Falling at 1:6 packs, they're a painted look at the massive cast.

I'm a big-time geek for lenticular cards so I'll be tracking down the LOST In Motion inserts as well. There's nine in all, inserted 1:12 packs. The final basic insert is the six-card Oceanic Six set (1:24).

The chase is 34 autographs, which are a combined 1:8 packs (three per box). While the big trio of Jack, Kate and Sawyer are absent from the autograph list, there's a formidable line-up that includes first-time signer Michelle Rodriguez (who has also starred in Avatar, The Fast and the Furious and one of my favorite recent boxing movies, Girlfight), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), whose only other previous autograph was in one of Inkworks' Alias sets, and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond).

The incentives include an L. Scott Caldwell autograph case topper, a Harold Perrineau autograph 3-case incentive and a Kate costume card for every six cases ordered.

The big drawback for me is that many of the big signers have already penned autographs for the Inkworks sets. In fact, Yunjin Kim (Sun) signed for two Inkworks sets as well as a couple of sets in the Donruss Americana line. Sure, the vertical full-bleed Rittenhouse autograph design is attractive, but is yet another Sun really necessary when there's people like Hurley who have yet to appear even once yet? I understand that not everyone is willing or able to sign but the list of 34 signers is very different from the 40-plus that was originally stated. One name that did slip out but was later retracted was that of Cheech Marin, who I believe was originally going to be one of the case incentives.

Shrunken autograph line-up aside, I'm still very excited for both the set and the show. In fact, I have already picked up my first autograph, which I think I got a great deal on:

Here's the autograph checklist for the set. The checklist also notes the  LOST sets some signers had autographs in with Inkworks. In total, 15 of the 36 signers (including the two case incentives) have appeared on LOST autograph cards already.

Sam Anderson as Bernard Nadler *Season Two*
Anne Bedian as Amira
L. Scott Caldwell as Rose Nadler (Case Topper) *Season Two*
Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert (Limited) *Season Three*
Francois Chau as Dr. Pierre Chang (Limited) *Season Two*
Tom Connolly as Young Charles Widmore
Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond David Hume (Limited)
Alan Dale as Charles Widmore
Monica Dean as Gabriela *Season Two*
Andrew Divoff as Mikhail *Season Three*
Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus (Very Limited) *Season Two, Season Three*
Alice Evans as Eloise Hawking
Patrick Fischler as Phil
Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau (Limited) *Season One*
Billy Ray Gallion as Randy Nations
Jon Gries as Roger Linus (Limited)
Evan Handler as Dave
Doug Hutchison as Horace Goodspeed
Malcolm David Kelley as Walt Lloyd (Limited) *Season One*
Yunjin Kim as Sun-Hwa Kwon Very (Limited) *Revelations, Season Two*
Eric Lange as Stuart Radzinsky
Sung Hi Lee as Tricia Tanaka
Ken Leung as Miles Straume (Very Limited)
William Mapother as Ethan Rom (Limited) *Season One*
Terry O'Quinn as John Locke
Mark Pellegrino as Jacob
Harold Perrineau as Michael
Tania Raymonde as Alex Rousseau *Season Two*
Michelle Rodriquez as Ana Lucia Cortez (Very Limited)
Andrea Roth as Harper Stanhope
Kiele Sanchez as Nikki Fernandez (Limited)
William Sanderson as Oldham
Ian Somerhalder as Boone Carlyle (Limited) *Season Three*
John Terry as Dr. Christian Shephard (Limited) *Season One*
Sonya Walger as Penny Widmore *Season Two*
Titus Welliver as Man in Black

2009 UD Signature Stars Baseball Is Live and with More Hat Logos

Yesterday some images of 2009 Upper Deck Ultimate Baseball started popping up. Now some 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars Baseball has emerged as well. After much speculation, it looks like Upper Deck has tipped its hand: all things are go save for the actual logos and nicknames. Clearly these cards show logos and there's no real attempt of even hiding the fact. For the casual collector who doesn't bother following the legal wranglings of the hobby, they likely wouldn't notice any difference from Topps licensed cards. As evidenced by the Hanson, they've even come up with their own answer to the rookie card logo.

On the one hand, I give Upper Deck credit for making some nice looking cards. On the other, I'm really getting tired of them wanting to make up their own rules. Yes, they're a business that's out to make a profit, but they're not the rebel start-up that they once were.

Back in 1989 Upper Deck was something fresh and new. They really did revolutionize the hobby. It was easy to get behind them because they were forcing everyone to do a better job at producing cards. But more than two decades later, they're the establishment. They've got a massive market share in North America. These moves in baseball equate to me like a big, old flipping of the bird at Topps, Major League Baseball and anyone else who's bothering to pay attention. This is just the latest move of many that haven't been so much about competition as they've been about appearing petty to at least this collector. Other instances include the Sweet Spot Michael Buysner and the blatant ripoff of Topps designs masqueraded under the guise of O-Pee-Chee.

It seems obvious that Upper Deck is ready to fight with these baseball cards. Otherwise, why would they hold back releasing images? Just remember Upper Deck, you do hold an exclusive with hockey, which is going to make your argument seem a little superficial. But then again, maybe a small chunk of baseball is worth more than all of hockey.

In the long run, I find it difficult to see how Upper Deck will be successful in landing future licenses. By sticking their thumb up to baseball (not to mention the whole counterfeiting CCG thing), they're showing disrespect to the hobby that has made them what they are today. I know if I were a licensor with a brand name and image to protect, I'd be very leery when dealing with such attitudes. I may be way off base here, and if I am I'd love to hear different perspectives.

Update:

This card from the Signed, Sealed and Delivered insert set shows Upper Deck is still willing to mention the team names as well, not just the cities:

Gorgeous Portraits Highlight Set That Focuses on Italian-American Baseball Players

The National Ethnic Heritage Foundation and the Order of the Sons of Italy have teamed to produce a 100-card set that celebrates baseball's Italian-American Baseball Heroes. Available with a $49 donation, the 100-card set consists of original life-like oil portraits from a team working under the supervision of George Kotsovos.

The set has a print run of 10,000 and cards are printed with metallic gold foil. Card backs include biographical information and lifetime stats.

The checklist ranges from Hall of Famers like Joe Dimaggio and Roy Campanella to recent stars like Craig Biggio, John Smoltz, Mike Piazza and Jason Giambi.

You can make your donation here to receive the set. You can also go there to see a complete gallery of the paintings.

Here's a handful of what you can expect:

Awkward Cards: 1936 World Wide Gum 112. Zeke Bonura

So I'm taking a look around some auctions last night and came across a Canadian seller with a bunch of pre-WWII stuff. It was all priced out of my range but it was fun to browse and do a little studying up. Here's a 1936 World Wide Gum card that caught my attention, largely because I wasn't sure if it was a baseball card or not. With the newspapers in the background and the suit and tie, I wondered if it was a profile mugshot and some non-sport news set from the day.

If you ask me, Mr. Bonura looks like a youthful Joe Torre.

Here's the back:

"By golly, that looks an awful lot like the style of Goudey backs," I think to myself. I'm very unfamiliar with really old cards, so this was new. If you're taking an SAT exam and you get one of those relational questions, here's what Wikipedia is telling me:

Topps is to O-Pee-Chee as Goudey is to World Wide Gum.

I learned something new last night.

Here's where the awkwardness comes in. Let's zoom in on the text on the back, shall we:

So that's what they called it back in the day.

I guess I learned two things last night.

Lion King: Voltron Sketch Cards Coming From 5finity

When I was nine Santa brought me a massive box for Christmas. Could it have been that G.I. Joe Tomahawk helicopter I'd been asking for? Or maybe some off-road RC car with batteries that lasted about 10 before needing a charge. Nope. I got Voltron.

I watched a whole lot of TV growing up and loved just about anything that involved guns or lasers. But Voltron to me looked like some sort of Transformers rip-off. I never gave the lion robots a chance. It wasn't because the toy looked cool - it did - but probably more because my circle of friends was into G.I. Joe and Transformers and all of our parents knew this. My guess is Santa thought I'd be excited to have a Transformer-looking thing that fit my G.I. Joe figures. It was the best of both worlds in their logical minds. And that's the way it sometimes was behind closed doors. But, sorry Santa, I was a kid who loved the brands and Voltron just was no comparison for my shallow thinking.

Fast forward a couple of decades and now I see what I was missing out on. I'm no Voltron expert by any means, but now that I catch clips here and there, I'm wishing I at least gave it a chance. Lions, robots and lasers - oh, my!

Next month 5finity is releasing a series of Voltron sketch cards. And good luck finding them. The 999 packs 5finity had for dealers sold out in less than 12 hours. Another 300 packs will become available on the World Event Productions website on February 15 and sell for $22.95 each.

With more than 60 artists on board, there's bound to be a variety of styles and limited editions.

Here's the posted list of artists:
Amber Stone     
Andy Carreon    
Angel Gabriele    
Anthony Hochrein    
Ben Dunn    
Ben Glendenning    
Ben Hansen    
Brian Shearer    
Bruce Gerlach    
Bryan Turner    
Chad Cicconi    
Chad LaForce    
Chris Henderson    
Dan Schoening    
Daniel Campos    
Danny Kuang    
David Namisato    
Drew Moss    
EJ Su    
Eric Merced    
Fraim Brothers    
Frankie B Washington    
Gerard Conte    
Hanie Mohd    
Hayden Davis     
Howard Bender    
j(ay)    
Jamie Snell    
Jason Worthington    
Jayson Kretzer     
Jerry Gaylord    
Jeremy Treece
Jess Hickman
Jim Kyle
Joe Rubinstein
Josh Lyman
Juan Fontanez
Justin Chung
Kelly Everaert
Kevin Graham
Lak Lim
Lorenzo Lizana
Luis Diaz
Manny Mederos
Mark McHaley
Matt Minor
Melissa Uran
Michael Duron
Nathan Ohlendorf
Nicole Goff
Paul Ballard
Paul Gutierrez
Ryan Odagawa
Ryan Orosco
Ryan Wilton
Scott Rorie
Sean Moore
Sherry Leak
Ted Dastick
Terry Tibke
Thomas Tuomey
Tim Baron
Uko Smith

Although I couldn't find any record of pack-issued cards, Voltron isn't totally new to the hobby. Topps and O-Pee-Chee each produced tattoo sets back in the mid-80s. Panini also made a sticker album and set in 1986. A quick check of eBay also turned up a couple of video cards, presumably distributed with tapes or DVDs.