In the Game Poised to Celebrate the 100th Year of Hockey Cards With a New C56 Set

The first known set of hockey cards is known today by its catalog index C56. Put out by Imperial Tobacco in 1910, the set is celebrating its centennial anniversary. A couple days ago In the Game announced they're going to be honoring the set with their own modern spin on C56, announcing that the design will be the basis for the tenth edition of In the Game Ultimate Memorabilia. The pair of images they passed along are drool-inducing.

The company also announced that they'll be inserting redemption cards good for graded versions of original cards.

Preview: 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Hockey (It's Looking WAY Better Than Last Year)

In the interest of full disclosure: I probably give the O-Pee-Chee name a little more of a pass than it sometimes deserves. Call it my personal form of Canadian patriotism mixed with equal parts nostalgia. That said, after a handful of jumbo packs, I was extremely apathetic towards Upper Deck's 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hockey release. The design was pukish, which for a release geared towards set building, was a kiss of death.

But from the early images for 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Hockey, it looks like Upper Deck has things back on track. The base card design has a fair amount of white space and is probably the most modern since Upper Deck took over the brand. The picture window on the front may end up being too small for some action photos, but the Jarome Iginla shown on the initial promo materials looks very solid - it feels kind of like 2002 Topps Total or 2003 Topps Bazooka Baseball to me. The Marquee Rookies return once again. Although there's no mention of them being short printed, I'd assume they will be as in years past. In all, the base set will have a whopping 600 cards.

As far as inserts go, there's no guarantees with a guaranteed hit in every box. Overall odds have O-Pee-Chee Signatures and O-Pee-Chee Souvenirs each falling at a rate of three per case, or one autograph or memorabilia card in every other box. O-Pee-Chee Souvenirs are quad jersey cards featuring four different players. I like these odds as it emphasizes the set building as the focus of the set, rather than tossing in a bunch of hits for the sake of having them and only driving up the cost.




2010-11 O-Pee-Chee isn't rocking the boat with a lot of changes. Each pack will contain a Retro parallel. One in every four packs will have a Retro Rainbow parallel, while there will be a Black-Bordered Rainbow Retro parallel or two in every hobby box. Boxes also promise one In Action insert and nine additional inserts, although details on these are not yet available.

Packs of 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Hockey will have six cards with 36 packs in a box. It is scheduled to be released in December, a little before Christmas.

Topps Confirms Strasburg Autograph Numbers for 2010 Topps Tribute Baseball

Topps has confirmed numbers for autographed relics of Stephen Strasburg in 2010 Topps Tribute Baseball. In total, there are 500 cards - 250 signed single relics and 250 signed dual relics (because two pieces of base are better than one). The relic pieces are pieces of a base used in Strasburg's debut with the Nationals.

The breakdown for each version is as follows:
Base - 99
Blue Parallel - 75
Black Parallel - 50
Gold Parallel - 25
Red Parallel – 1

According to Topps, cards will be available within the next three weeks. Collectors will be sent one of the five versions at random.

2010 Topps Tribute Baseball Stephen Strasburg Autographed Relic Redemption

When a Little Goes a Long Way

I like to take pleasure in the simple things. Mac and cheese is my favourite food, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a good read and Dumb and Dumber cheers me up on a rough day. Although most of my days are packed with activity, I love to revel in the quiet as much as one possibly can in a house with two young children who have a knack for running laps around the main living area as if they were Usain Bolt basking in his own greatness.

As far as cards go, simple can be a great thing too. Done right, white space is aesthetically pleasing. Other than Topps' recent blank sketch cards they put in Topps Baseball, here's a card that has some of the most white space I can recall off hand:

Scooby-Doo: Mysteries and Monsters Case Card CL1 (Inkworks, 2003)

Scooby-Doo: Mysteries and Monsters Case Card CL1 (Inkworks, 2003) (Back)

The card comes from Inkworks' 2003 Scooby-Doo: Mysteries and Monsters. It was a case topper. I recently picked it up for a few dollars simply because it made me laugh. I grew up loving (and being scared of) Scooby-Doo and I love cards about cards. This self-referential masterpiece gets them both with hilarious results. Even the back takes the minimalist approach. Clearly, this is an instance where less is more and there's some complex thought behind its simplicity.

New Pack Formats Leading to a Fundamental Change in Non-Sports

The winds of change are blowing and it's leading to a fundamental change in non-sport collecting. More and more releases are coming out strictly in pack form that offers at least one premium card and only a couple of base cards. The movement is a controversial one that is bound to divide collectors, depending on their collecting goals.

Last summer 5finity emerged as a player in sketch cards based on niche licenses. They started with Archie and The Greatest American Hero. Both sets had no base cards, just sketch cards. Autographs and prizes added a chase element to the releases, but it all revolved around packs that guaranteed at least one sketch card. Both 5fininty and Sad Littles have continued with this trend using sketch cards to drive releases, with the latter having a small base card presence. Breygent recently jumped into the mix with similarly styled releases for Cartoon Sketch Cards and Golden Age of Comics. Again, cards were released in packs only, each of which guaranteed a sketch card. Breygent also introduced Metallogloss inserts in Cartoon Sketch Cards and inserted them one per pack. There were also 40 reproduction sketch cards in Golden Age of Comics that made up a sort of base set.

But now Breygent is moving beyond sketch cards for the pack-only format to release some smaller sets based on current films and television shows. First up is Paranormal Activity. For about $30 collectors will get five base cards, two basic chase cards and two premium chase cards (autographs, costumes and/or film cell cards). Breygent is going to follow suit with similar releases for their latest Classic Vintage Movie Posters series, Woodstock Generation Rock Posters and The Tudors.

Non-sport collecting has long revolved around the base set, I'd argue more so than any other type of cards except maybe the annual Topps Baseball set. Sure, chase cards have been trickling in at an ever-increasing rate. But even still, most manufacturers marketed base sets very prominently offering guarantees in boxes. But a funny thing has happened in the past decade. Despite some stunning sets being put out, you can pick up these base sets for less than the price of a couple packs of cards. I regularly buy the ones I want now for a couple of dollars. The problem with the box format is that they lead to a glut of base sets floating around. Supply is far greater than demand. I'd regularly get two complete sets and almost a third from a box of Inkworks cards. As much as I love the look of many of these sets, I simply don't need that many. The real draw for many sets became the hits. Who was signing? became the question that drove box and case purchases.

With the pack-only format, base sets should hold some value again. By their very nature, they should be much more limited. Still, I don't expect base sets to be too expensive. A quick scan of eBay shows one dealer selling a Paranormal Activity set for under $25. It's far higher than the $2-3 that I'm used to spending but nobody's going to be tripping over excess cards either. The biggest change for base set fans will likely be the transition from ripping boxes to tracking down an already-made set. Sure, it's not as fun but, for me, neither is nine extra sets of Lord of the Rings Evolution.
 
In the realm of sports cards, it's been this way for years. It's just phrased a little differently. Instead of being sold individually as packs, sets like Upper Deck Exquisite and Upper Deck Ultimate offered one-pack boxes. If this is the way things are headed, this format way of packaging has some advantages over simply sending out packs.

Boxes, no matter how small, can prevent some searching as there's an outside layer around the cards. With products offering costume cards, sketches, autographs and other hits, I doubt it'd be very hard to feel the pack up and figure out what the big card of the pack is. With boxes, it's awfully hard to do the same without mangling the box. I can think of a couple other ways that some might try to get around this, but I'm not going to get into that as I don't want to offer any ideas.

The spin-off of this for dealers could be good. If cards stay in pack form then it's going to be essential for collectors to fund dealers that they trust so they know their packs aren't being searched. There are lots of them out there (on and off eBay), but it just takes one shady experience to turn someone off of the hobby altogether.

Another nice thing about boxes is that they offer added protection when being shipped through the post. There's lots of folks out there who simply don't know how to properly ship things. I don't want to chance $25-30 on a  pack of cards only to find they tossed it into a bubble mailer loose and slapped some stamps on it only to find a side bashed in by the time it arrives.

The biggest knock against boxes and additional packaging is the cost. I'm guessing a big reason why manufacturers are moving toward this new format is that it cuts expenses and allows them to try out licenses that might not have otherwise been released. I'm not privy to the behind-the-scenes stuff when it comes to licensing but there is something worth noting that a small company can manage to put out sets - no matter how small a print run - for TV's The Tudors, yet Topps is forced to cancel their planned Avatar release.

I suspect that the pack-only trend is something we're going to see more of. It'll likely take on different forms as manufacturers try out different things and approaches. For collectors, it's going to take some time to change. For some, they're beloved hobby is changing. Things aren't the way they used to be. Autographs and premium chase cards drive the hobby today. They did five years ago, but I think a lot were in denial. Don't get me wrong, I love the base set and believe it needs to be the cornerstone of the hobby. But at the same time, fewer base cards not only make them hold some value, but it lowers the overhead of manufacturers as they're not printing a bunch of extra filler that sits in inventories for years, gets sold for almost nothing or simply gets tossed out.

Personally, I don't know what to think of this new format. On the one hand, I love the impulse possibilities of grabbing a pack of cards from the store for a few dollars. But when you're looking at $20 or $30, the impulse element disappears. On the other hand, these packs offer far better value. Plus, you're guaranteed to get some cool premium cards. Ideally, I'd love some mix that offers the best of both - something like the recent Ringside Boxing set that had two levels of releases, one for the more casual collector with a budget and one for those that can afford to drop a few hundred on a handful of cards.

As with any case of change and transition, I'm willing to give it some time and be flexible with my collecting. I learned a long time ago that this is the only way one can stick with cards and be happy in doing so.

Leaf Revived By Razor (Sort Of)

Credit heads-up to Beckett.

Today at the National, Razor Entertainment head Brian Gray announced that he was bringing back the Leaf brand, which had been last controlled by Playoff/Donruss/Panini.

According to the newly launched Leaf website, Razor is not becoming Leaf. They're still separate companies. They just happen to be run by the same person (Gray) and several of Razor's previously announced sets have been "acquired" by Leaf to be re-branded. All the jargon is sort of confusing, but it boils down to this:

Razor was set to release Razor MMA in the not-too-distant future. Now it'll be released as Leaf MMA.

Also announced was that Leaf has a two-year agreement with Muhammad Ali Enterprises to create sets based on the legendary boxer and pop culture icon. Collectors can expect the first set either late this early or in early 2011.

A New Player in Baseball Cards - In the Game

Today, In the Game announced they're entering the baseball market. Like they've been doing with hockey for years, it looks like they'll be doing it without a major license.

They'll be kicking things off with 2010 In the Game Heroes and Prospects Hits that will offer a mix of up-and-comers and old-timers. Why the emphasis on "hits" you ask? Because there's no base cards, just hits (the press release's language, not mine). Four hits per four-card box, to be exact.

Another statement from the press release that made me chuckle:

On average, there will be 3.5 Prospect Autographs per box and every other box will contain one Heroes Cut Signature or Heroes Game-Used Memorabilia card featuring some of the greatest players to step out onto the diamond.

If I read that literally, you're going to get half a signature so people can make up their own imaginary prospects using a first name on one card and a last name on another. Of course, the statement is meant to offer an explanation of how things will be seeded.

There's little other info available at this time other than names like Jason Heyward and Tim Beckham being the headline prospects and cut signatures of Joe Dimaggio, Ted Williams and Hank Aaron covering the heroes portion. The mock-ups of the cut signatures show pictures of the players, which could signal a shift in exclusive contracts. A few months ago I recall Upper Deck had an exclusive with the Dimaggio estate. But that was before the lawsuits started flying. So whatever the case, at least one Joltin' Joe autograph will lurk in boxes.

In the Game has been working around licenses for many years and they know how to make a card that looks great without infringing on rights. So while these cards might be missing a logo here and there, I'm still very interested to see where the company goes with baseball.

2010 In the Game Heroes and Prospects Hits is scheduled for release on November 1.