Congrats to Micheal for getting into Hall!

I’m gunna try to make more and show you them here.

As of right now (3 days, 12 hours to go) this is going strong at 31 bids and 10,300 dollars. As cool as this lot is, it is a sad fact because what is going on is a large card shop is going out of business because of places like ebay, and dacardworld.  (Nothing against those places at all) 

All the pictures take a while to load, if you give it a some time to come up, its well worth the wait. And prepare to spend a good chunk of time looking at the amazing cards this out of business shop has to offer.

OVER 100 HALL OF FAME AUTOGRAPHED ITEMS!

25+ HIGH END 1/1′S

300,000+ SPORTS CARDS!

THOUSANDS OF VINTAGE CARDS AND ITEMS

RARE CUT AUTOGRAPHS / SIGNATURES

HUNDREDS OF GAME USED CARDS AND AUTOGRAPHS

VINTAGE MICKEY MANTLE CARDS

PRESIDENTIAL AUTOGRAPHS!

LOTS OF AUTOGRAPHED ITEMS

AUTOGRAPHED MEMORABILIA WITH COA’S FROM PSA, GAI, JSA, STEINER OR UDA

15+ AUTHENTIC MICKEY MANTLE AUTOGRAPHS

10+ AUTHENTIC TED WILLIAMS & JOE DIMAGGIO AUTOGRAPHS

PLUS MANY OTHER GREAT AUTOGRAPHED ITEMS!

1/1: 25+!

This is truly the Ebay Auction of the Week.

If you go to ebay and type in 2009 Topps Chrome Error, you will find about 6 different auctions of error cards all from Will Venable. Topps really messed up on a Venable blue refactor that is missing its card number and autograph and is #’d to 199. This leaves me to wonder what other error cards will be pulled.

“Looking ahead to 2010, we are 100% committed to building the highest quality and most innovative baseball cards in the industry,” said Upper Deck CEO Richard McWilliam. “We look forward to announcing more details on our product portfolio in the coming weeks.”

Since its inception in 1989, Upper Deck has been the market leader for both its ability to create top-quality super premium products and to develop innovative programs that promote baseball cards to kids. In the past four years alone, Upper Deck has committed more than $21 million dollars to increase kids’ interest in baseball cards. Through annual television advertising campaigns, numerous retail promotions and online initiatives such as Upper Deck’s Kids Rewards and the current UpperDeckU virtual world, Upper Deck has led the way in dramatically increasing household penetration of kids collecting sports cards from 8% in 2005 to a reported 44% in 2008.

The MLBPA license agreement provides access to more than 1,200 current Major League Baseball players, including all of its stars. Fans can look forward to finding cards featuring autographs and pieces of game-used equipment from the biggest names in baseball including Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr., and hundreds more. “Great cards of great players will continue to be the cornerstone of all Upper Deck products,” added McWilliam.

The license agreement between Upper Deck and the MLBPA ensures the company’s continued commitment to its existing consumer base, while at the same time building on its extensive investments to stimulate even greater interest among new users and kids.

“We’re looking forward to continuing the partnership with Upper Deck, a licensee that is clearly focused on the long-term growth of the trading card category,” said Judy Heeter, MLBPA Director of Business Affairs & Licensing. “We believe strong competition is generally good for consumers, and expect that our ongoing relationships with both Topps and Upper Deck will ensure consumer choices that lead to category growth.”

Wow, 21 Mil on trying to interest kids in cards?? Dontcha think Upper Deck would just realize that kids aren’t real big in this hobby? Guess Not. After maybe the 5th million maybe Upper Deck might consider investing their money somewheres else, maybe down the toilet I might suggest.  Oh…or improving their cards so they dont lose their Major League license, that too.

Oh, you’ve probably noticed that we have changed our theme, we needed a little extra room on the sides so we switched. Love it? Hate it? Let us know.

This is what I’ve thought up:

1) They might just take the Donruss route and produce unlicensed trading cards without major league logos.  Looking through ebay at listings of 2008 donruss threads, prime cuts, and so on, they have some decent looking cards (trying to go without MLB logos that is.)

Take a look at this Sandberg out of Threads, you can clearly see some of the logos, but i dont know, is it not considered showing if you cannot visibly make out the whole thing? Not Sure.

Or this Lou Gehrig, you can tell that the end of the lettering on the front of his jersey is there, but you cant make it out, and the classic NY Logo on his hat is either not visible from the angle, or it was photoshopped out.

2)They could try to get a license with college baseball and go like a Topps Magic for baseball and picture players in there college uni’s, but that would interfere with the players that came straight outta high school or immediately went to a minor league affiliate.  Plus, the colleges of baseball players aren’t known as well as football players in my opinion.

3) You might have heard A Cardboard Problem suggestion of topless cards. Hey, ya never know.

4) They could come out with a history set ala Topps American Heritage.

5)They could use action shots that flat out dont show the logo, like this 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces card here:

6)They could come out with a set commemorating Major League Stadiums(once again I dont know if this is violating the whole logo thing or not)

Thats what all I’ve got, if i come up with more ideas, I will post them here. These are some ideas that could very likely show up in your pack of cards next year.

If you have any other ideas I did not mention, by all means tell us what it is in the comments.

So why am I calling it weird, because for one, I’m still wondering why there are this many Obama cards in the hobby. I know hes the first African-American President, but why all the cards.No, I’m not going to get into politics right now. The second reason, this card just looks weird with the umpires cap on. Of course, no disrespect to the painter as they did an excellent job.

Bill Simmons and Paul Lukas attended the National in Cleveland this year, and had some stuff to say, and some of it made me want to blowup something(not litterally). Bill Simmons provided a 20-page gallary of pics from the National, each of them with a comment under it. While he tried to make it funny, some of his comments were like a punch in the gut. Paul Lukas on the other had, came right out and bashed us though he did point out he found one collector he liked.

He can view Bill Simmons review of the National here, and Paul Lukas’s here.

Oh, and PTI also said that the hobby of collecting is dead. Wonderful, just wonderful.