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Football Heroes contest

Unclemoe, you won the U.D Heroes Football lot… e-mail me ASAP.

A very special 90’s mailday!

In reality, Jaime is supposed to be my nemesis. As a fellow hardcore Jose Canseco collector, we should be spending our days battling it out on eBay. Instead, Jaime, a Super Collector by all meanings of the term surprised me today with a nice stack of Jose Canseco doubles I desperately needed.

Originally, the idea was to buy up some of his doubles but when I saw mostly high-end relics and autographs I knew I had better dig through his less valuable cards to get a decent price. By last week I had gotten a good 20+ cards for around $15 dollars.  When I didn’t hear from Jaime for a while I figured he had lost interest.

Below is some of the best cards he sent over. Just in case the scan doesn’t show it, the 1998 Bowman Chrome is a Refractor and the two 1997 SPx cards are not doubles but actually the Gold and Bronze parallels. The two buttons come from Topps and despite their oddball reputation, are actually very well designed and produced.

CLICK HERE to check out Jaime’s awesome Jose Canseco site!

Upper Deck comes through big time!

For several months I have been writing about the genius that is Upper Deck’s Spectrum of Stars insert set. After all, Wax Heaven’s slogan is ‘Trading Cards and Pop Culture’. How could I not love a set featuring autographs of Al Bundy, Cheech & Chong, and Kim Kardashian?

Two weeks ago, Upper Deck’s baseball license was renewed. As a thank you for the blogosphere’s support, the men & women of U.D sent over an entire set of Spectrum of Stars. I’m talking about autographs of Leslie Nielsen, Burt Reynolds, Playboy’s Kendra and so much more.

Now I am torn on just how to give these awesome cards away. My original idea was to have multiple contests with several winners but money is tight and shipping would kill me. My second idea was to give away the entire set to one lucky winner but then hundreds of readers would be left in the cold.

The only thing I know right now is that I am giving away every single card because without the readers of the site, this place would not be 1/4th of what it is today. So if you’ve got suggestions by all means let me know through the comments section, by e-mail, and/or through the Wax Heaven Twitter account.

As always, many thanks to Upper Deck for supporting the blogosphere.

(thumbnail leads to very large scan)

Tony Clark: What could have been

Last night, the Arizona Diamondbacks released Tony Clark.

While young baseball fans will remember Clark as a “good guy” who hadn’t played full-time in over a decade, older fans will think back to his meteoric rise with the Detroit Tigers back in the mid-90’s. From 1996 through 1999, Clark was one of the league’s most feared sluggers.

Despite his decade-long struggle (not counting 2005), Clark is truly one of the nicest, most genuine players in the game. In 2008, after a loss to my Marlins, Mr. Clark made his way to the team bus with at least two items in each hand. When Tatiana and I called him over he did everything in his power to make our night.

Tony Clark is 37 years old and will likely announce his retirement.

Matt Wieters no longer exclusive

Once a Razor exclusive, Baltimore Orioles’ Matt Wieters has just made his Upper Deck debut in 2009 SPx. The rumor is that Razor sold Wieters autographs to Upper Deck. So now that Wieters has his first card in a Major League uniform, what’s that going to do to his three Razor releases?

Wieters, who has three home runs in his first 30 games in The Show, can be found in Razor Signature, Razor Metal eBay exclusives, Razor Lettermen, and in a few weeks through Razor National exclusives. Seeing as the first SPx autograph sold for close to $300, it appears this will be one of Matt’s most-desired cards next to his 2007 Donruss Elite Extra Edition.

Matt Wieters will also have an autograph in 2009 Upper Deck Ballpark Collection.

More reasons Fleer is dead…

You are looking at a rare 1999 Fleer Ultra insert. ‘Diamond Producers’ is a 10-card set featuring the biggest stars of that era on a die-cut design with a Refractor-like finish. Odds of pulling one of these cards from 1999 Ultra were 1:288. Despite the high odds, they usually sell for about $5-$10 dollars.

Fleer’s Ultra line has a long history that began way back in the early-90’s as a “high-end” product. By the time the memorabilia revolution swept over The Hobby they went ahead and gave these Diamond Producers inserts a little make-over to please those collectors looking for their shredded relic fix.

Check out this 2004 Fleer Ultra Diamond Producers relic. There were no posted odds on this insert but the production run was estimated to be 1,000 cards of each player. Maybe it’s just the old school collector in me but that card sure lacks a lot of what made Diamond Producers great in the 90’s.

Fleer was retired killed-off after two disastrous U.D produced releases in 2007.

Now I understand why Fleer is dead

Seriously, what the hell were they thinking?

This card is an example of everything that is wrong with collecting today. All emphasis placed on memorabilia, little to none on design & photography. Sadly, many collectors don’t even care anymore as long as they get their guaranteed “hits” per box.

In case someone is interested in the soon to be retired Yao Ming, there is a “1 of 1″ logo patch of this card currently on eBay with an asking price of $450 dollars. It’s a must-have for the collector who can’t stand “retro sets” and wants all the flash of today’s fancy releases.

(hat tip: intelliracer)