Upper Deck, Topps Not Infallible

In today’s hobby, it’s impossible for a card company to make a mistake without someone pointing it out on a blog or message board. It’s this kind of interaction that makes places like Freedom Card Board one of the premier forums to discuss trading cards.

Check out this very embarrassing mistake made by Upper Deck in their so far excellent release of 2009 Sweet Spot. It features a bat barrel by Yankees’ Hideki Matsui or so it was believed. In reality, it’s that of Kazuo Matsui of the Houston Astros.

Just as bad is this disaster of a card by Topps Company in 2009 Updates & Highlights. An incredibly tough pull of superstar Prince Fielder was ruined by terrible sticker placement and a misspelling of his name.

Odds of pulling the card was 1:13,000, according to the seller.

While it’s easy for collectors who prefer one company over another to start pointing fingers and cursing at “yet another error”, it’s easy to forget that at some point every card company has made an error, intentional or not.

Despite the overall terrible look of the “Fiedler” card, it still sold for over $150 dollars. It will be interesting to see what the fate of the Sweet Spot bat barrel will be and if Upper Deck will choose to make a statement on it.

UPDATE

Statement from Upper Deck:

“We’re working with the seller to get this one back so we can correct this.”

2009-’10 Fleer Ultra Review

Being the furthest thing from a fan of hockey, it’s strange to me that some of my favorite cards come from hockey releases. Last year I had a blast bustin’ 2008-’09 Fleer Ultra so you can imagine my excitement when I found a box of Fleer Ultra 2009-’10 at my doorstep.

Take a look at last year’s Fleer Ultra release. Now, take a look at the scans from the new Ultra. Clearly, Upper Deck took one step backwards as everything from the base cards to the parallels are downgrades from the previous year.

Thankfully, Upper Deck brought back the Fleer/Skybox “E-X” inserts and this year they look better than they have ever looked. If this is Upper Deck’s secret weapon in baseball for 2010, Topps better tread lightly.

Information:

Current eBay price – $60-$65 per box

Guarantees – 192 cards with 2 relics per box

Look for – Hard to find autographs, rare Jambalaya inserts

The Good:

E-X inserts look simply amazing

Relics are designed well despite featuring tiny relics

The Bad:

Fun brand brought down by bland designs

Results:

Relic – Adam Hall

Relic – Jonathan Cheechoo

Final Grade: B

Upper Deck Conspiracy pt. 3

For the record, I don’t believe there’s a conspiracy. I just title these to make a statement and that is … Upper Deck doesn’t care about baseball collectors.

Alright, let me take off my Kanye hat for one moment and talk to you about the card below. It comes from 2009-’10 Fleer Ultra, a product that will be reviewed tonight.

In case you missed it, Upper Deck seeded E-X inserts into Ultra this year but what I did not know (cause I didn’t pull one) is that it also brought back the very popular 90’s insert, Jambalaya, and they look amazing.

These new Jambalaya inserts are tough pulls, too. Odds are listed at 1:288 packs which means you will have to open lots of boxes before you find one. As for the popularity, see for yourself what the big names are selling for.

As an old school collector, I have to personally thank Upper Deck for bringing back beautiful, well-designed inserts that don’t have to rely on an autograph or piece of memorabilia to be valuable for collectors.

If only they’d throw baseball a bone …

Do You Want Masterpieces In 2010?

Where were you the day Steven Judd broke your heart?

I was sitting at work surfin’ eBay when it was reported on the industry blog, The Sports Card File, that Upper Deck had discontinued the Masterpieces brand.

This year Upper Deck gave us a strange-looking Goudey and a wonderful release of Goodwin Champions but it just wasn’t the same. We need, no, demand the return of Masterpieces in 2010.

While it is not known exactly what brands besides the flagship will return in 2010, we do know the exact number of releases at this time is six. How many of the current brands deserve a comeback in 2010?

Spectrum? No. A Piece of History? No. UDx? Yes. SP Authentic? Maybe. Goudey? Possibly. Upper Deck, think outside the box and give us the grand return of Fleer and Masterpieces.

Eric, a Wax Heaven reader and Andy Pettitte super collector sent me a list of events in baseball he’d like to see commemorated in 2010 Masterpieces, should it be brought back from the dead.

Eric’s 2010 Dream Masterpieces List:

Celebrating Bonds’ #756
McGwire’s #62
Canseco’s first 40/40 season
Jeter’s infamous “flip play” when he backhanded the ball to home plate
Griffey returning home to Seattle for one final season
Randy Johnson winning #300
Kirby Puckett’s catch/walk-off HR in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series
Rickey Henderson’s #939 SB
Any number of Nolan Ryan’s milestones
Bo Jackson two-sport showcasing him swinging the bat and running as a Raider
George Brett flying off the bench for the pine-tar incident
Kent Hrbek flipping Ron Gant off 1^st base in the 91 Series
George W. Bush throwing out the 1^st pitch in the World Series after 9/11
Roger Clemens chucking the busted bat at Mike Piazza
Josh Hamilton’s HR Derby showcase from 2008
Mark Buehlre’s perfect game
Nick Adenhart/Harry Kallas tribute cards
Ted Williams in his golf cart at the All Star game, surrounded by the current All Stars

Would you buy 2010 Masterpieces if all those cards were included?

eBay Full of Bryce Harper Customs

Bryce Harper isn’t old enough to vote and hasn’t played a single game in the Minors yet but that hasn’t stopped collectors from spending thousands of dollars on his Upper Deck Team USA autographs.

Hyped as the “Next Big Thing”, Harper has already graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and Beckett Baseball. Thanks to those appearances as well as lots of talent, his cards have skyrocketed.

Aside from his one Bowman Aflac card given away for free and his Upper Deck USA releases, there’s not much official Bryce Harper trading cards. That’s where the custom card makers have stepped in.

Jump on eBay on any given day and you will find dozens of custom-made cards. Earlier this year someone went to Topps-owned MyTradingCards.com, printed Topps cards with a Harper photo, had it signed and threw the items on eBay.

Along with some pretty lousy-looking cards, you can find a few interesting items that should whet the appetite of collectors until we are treated to more Harper cards, more than likely to be released in 2010.

Ugly cards aside, there are some decent looking sketch cards that could someday become highly sought-after should Harper become a success in the Majors a few years from now.

Click here to see one of the best, in my opinion.

The Winner Is …

When I thought up the idea for the Halloween contest I was hoping for a huge turnout. Unfortunately, the two weeks that I had planned to promote the one of a kind contest, my computer died.

There weren’t many entries but those that came in were really inspiring.  As it turns out, kids still love baseball cards as many chose packs of Upper Deck over candy and other junk food.

Out of the entries, “Big Tony” won the drawing through Random.org this morning. As you can see from the pictures he submitted, he not only put in the required three packs of Upper Deck but also created grab bags that were all gone in less than an hour.

Big Tony will receive the four Manny Ramirez 1/1 printing plates provided by Upper Deck and will be one of the very small number of collectors that can say they own a rainbow of plates.

Stay tuned for more contests coming soon!

Classic Box Break: 1996 SPx

One of the goals I have set with Wax Heaven is to expose collectors to old school products. In the two years I’ve been writing I’ve been able to bust what in my opinion were some of the best products of the late-90’s.

Today I am lucky to bring collectors a video & review of what I believe is Upper Deck’s best brand of the 90’s and one of their greatest releases, 1996 SPx. It was a release that featured holograms, a gimmick they had been employing for years.

1996 Upper Deck SPx Baseball

36 packs per box, 1 card per pack

eBay $36 dollars delivered

Here we have Upper Deck’s second to last baseball brand to feature holograms. The cards look beautiful and despite today’s low cost, this was “high-end” in 1996.

There are no memorabilia cards in the product but there are two very hard to find on-hologram cards. One is of Mike Piazza and the other of Ken Griffey Jr, both with odds of 1:2000.

Results:

Total cards – 36

Parallels – 5 (all Gold)

Inserts – 1 (Bound For Glory, Cal Ripken Jr.)

Final Comments:

Alright, no autographs as expected but I was totally bummed out that I didn’t pull a Jose Canseco. Aside from that, pretty much all the big names were covered.

If you can find a box for under $40 dollars and can appreciate some classic wax featuring a perfect design and don’t need relics or autographs to be guaranteed, 1996 SPx is for you.

You can watch a video of the break HERE.

Other episodes of Classic Box Break:

1997 Bowman Chrome, 1997 Certified, 1997 E-X2001, 1997 Finest