Something seems amiss

I'm still relatively new to the concept of how products are put together, but something piqued my interest when watching the production line video of National Treasures Football that Panini posted on their blog last night.

At 4:52 the camera hovers on a patch card of Steve McNair that's waiting for an autograph. Now this is where things seemed a little odd to me. I assume that the autograph will be sticker and not cut, but Steve McNair passed away in July of 2009, so we can assume that the autographs being used weren't originally intended for this product. I'm not sure whether it's common practice for companies to hold back reels of sticker autograph's to use in multiple sets, but it must have done so in this case. I'm sure many Titans fans are excited about having a chance to pull an amazing looking cards of one of the best players in franchise history, for me however it get me questioning whether other auto's in this set (and other sets) are simply left overs from other products. Don't get me wrong I love the look of this set, but for such a high price I would expect more than left over sticker autograph's, then again this could be common practice that I'm just not aware of yet. I have tweeted Track Heckler to ask where the McNair autograph's came from, but at the time of writing this I haven't received a response. If this is a one off it's understandable, but for such a premium product to simply be using run off stickers (and this possibly affecting the checklist and design of the cards) seems a bit lazy to me.

Panini Timeless Treasures: First Impressions

People always say that it's important to make a good first impression, and wow does timeless treasures do that. Panini have released the second round of images of their soon to be released high end football product. The main selling points are on card autos for all the rookies, massive jumbo game worn patch autos, and a checklist featuring some of the best players to ever play the game. Panini have also managed to get cut auto's from legends who sadly no longer with us including Walter Payton and Jim Thorpe.

The only set back is that the 8 card pack (2 base, 6 auto or mem cards) will set you back $400! If I could afford it I would definitely take a gamble on this set. Topps are really going to have to step up their game if Five Star Football is going to compete with this.

Below is a few of the cards feature and a video looking at some of the mem cards that are yet to be signed. For a more complete gallery check out Panini's blog post here.

A Funner Contest alert!

I think most of you may have seen this, but if not it's a great contest with some great prizes.
http://thingsarefunnerhere.blogspot.com/2011/02/contest-and-its-easy.html

Bowman Sterling Bang For My Buck

Despite my university work piling up and my blog posting slowing down my collecting hasn't. Bowman Sterling is a product I would never be able to afford to buy a whole box of, however when looking on the bay I discovered I could get a lot of the lesser hits for around $1. I really love the design of these cards, and so a new PC was born. I'm going to try and complete as much of 2010 Bowman Sterling Football for under $2 a card, I so realised how difficult it would be if my limit was only a dollar. Here's what I've managed to get hold of so far.

Base Cards

Vladimir Ducasse, Gold Refractor /50 

I know he's a O-lineman (who may not even be starting any more), but I got this card for less than $0.10

Antonio Brown, Refractor /299

Jersey Cards, Unnumbered 

Anthony McCoy

Jermaine Gresham

Demaryius Thomas

Armanti Edwards

Jersey Card Refractors /299

Santana Moss

Steve Slaton

Andre Roberts

Blue Rafractor Jersey Cards /99

Ben Tate

Mardy Gilyard

Dexter McCluster

Unnumbered Auto

Anthony McCoy

Panini Responds

So Panini has finally put out a statement about the Bradford 1/1 card, and while it makes, I still find my self not completely satisfied. The full statement can be found here, but the short of it is that the card was pulled for a box opened for quality control purposes, and then found it's way to customer services instead of being repackaged. While the reason it turned up makes sense, the fact that Panini would be doing quality control to late to have it repackaged doesn't. I think we are also forgetting that the person who posted this also claims that he was sent other cards with really low serial number, and if I remember correctly another 1/1. Did these come the same way? If so how come Panini seems to have a lot more luck ripping boxes than you or I?

Bradford-Gate

Looks like the whole mess of why the Black 1/1 auto patch of Sam Bradford wasn't inserted into packs may finally be cleared up today. Panini's head marketing manager (and former Beckett employee) Tracy Heckler tweeted this late last night.

@TracyHacklerTracy Hackler

Official "Bradford-Gate" statement coming Tuesday. #collect

9 hours ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet Reply

So hopefully it will all be cleared up tonight, though I imagine it will be nothing more than the overrun explanation, which can be found here. Whatever the explanation is it's taken over 5 days for Panini to issue a statement, which is quite a while considering the uproar it's caused. In the meantime I'll leave you with the image of the beautiful card at the centre of all this.

Sick Days Roundup

I'm finally feeling better so I thought I'd catch you all up with what's been happening with my collecting while I've been ill.

I busted a few hobby packs at the beginning of last week. Including a pack of 2010 Topps platinum baseball, which I was really disappointed with, for some reason I can't explain I'm really not a fan of the design. The highlights of the packs was

DeMarcus Ware, Topps Chrome 2010, Blue refratcor /250

And if I understand the Topps Magic checklist correctly

Ahmad Bradshaw, 2010 Topps Magic, Base short print

Bradshaw is a strange choice for a short print if you ask me, but not according to Topps.

I also got in on  $5 pack break of Panini Certified over at the sports card radio forums. If your not a member I'd highly recommend signing up, a great little community with some great contests. The highlight of the pack

Anquan Boldin, Mirror Red /250

Today I also got a package from BA Benny (Check his blogs out here and here). Inside was a couple of cards to help with my 2010 Topps Chrome Football Rookie collection.

Thanks again Mike.

Until next time (which hopefully won't be so long!) happy collecting.