20% off all Football Rookie Cards

It’s our end of the season football sale! 20% off all football rookies cards at Sportsnutcards.com through February 5th! This includes all graded and ungraded cards! Now is a great time to stock up on the 2011 Rookie class and other stars and hall of famers at great prices!

                        

Cyber Monday Sale at Sportsnutcards.com!

We are having our annual cyber Monday sale at Sportsnutcards.com. All cards on the site are 10-40% off their normal prices! This sale will run from Monday through Sunday, December 4th!

The Basics of Collecting Game Used Cards

Collecting Game Used Cards

A game used card refers to a card that has a piece of equipment that was used or worn by a player and then was cut up and built into a card. There have been various types of memorabilia included in game used cards through the years including jerseys, pants, bats, helmets, cleats, gloves, masks and hockey fight straps. There have been many different variations of game used cards that have been made through out the years, including some really colorful and highly sought after patch pieces and rare types of bat cards including pieces of bat barrels and pieces of bat knob.

Game used cards were originally designed for 1997 Upper Deck Baseball. The first game used cards were very tough to find and fell at a rate of 1 in 800 packs. The first 3 players used were Ken Griffey Jr., Tony Gwynn and Rey Ordonez. That same year, in 1997 Upper Deck Football, they expanded the program to a 10 card set, but they fell at a much tougher rate of 1 in 2600 hobby packs. This set featured Brett Favre, John Elway, Troy Aikman and others. Game used cards became very popular in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and were the most widely collected cards during that time period. Because of this, the manufacturers began putting them into boxes at a much higher rate and the price of the cards came down in value. In 2001 the first product was made that guaranteed 1 autograph or game used card per pack which made game used cards easier to get, but also brought the value down to some extent. Now, it is much easier to buy game used cards at a cheap enough price to add many to a collection without having to spend a lot of money.

Some of the most collected game used cards are multi colored patch cards. Patch cards started being produced more often due to collectors’ demands for something different then plain swatches that were starting to come down in value because they were in every product. These multi- color pieces are cut from areas on the jersey where there is more color, whether it be from the nameplate, the team logo, the League emblems or other colorful sports from a player’s jersey card. These patch cards usually sell for a premium over a plain colored swatch because of their uniqueness and rarity and have become a favorite of many top level collectors who are looking for something unique to add to their collection.

 Unfortunately, because of their popularity, unscrupulous collectors and dealers have started to fake the patches that are on cards. They do this in various ways, but the main way is cutting pieces from other patches that are bought from the store and not used or worn by the players and replacing them into the card. Sometimes these fakes are easy to spot, but sometimes the fake patch is so good it is very hard to distinguish from a real one. Like anything else, you have to trust the dealer you are buying from that he knows how to spot the fake. Sometimes, the patch faker uses a card that was never made with a patch, so sometimes with a little bit of research one can figure it out on their own if a patch is fake or not.

Check out our site www.sportsnutcards.com  to see or full selection of game used cards as well as other top quality modern cards of your favorite players from the past and present!

 

Website specials through October 31st!

The following are our special sales through October 31st available at www.sportsnutcards.com

15% off all Current football Player autograph cards

2000 Bruce Mathews Topps finest auto $20

1992 Classic Jeter Item rc rookie $7

2007 Pro Bowl Steve Smith jersey  $3

08-09 Upper Deck Starting Five Derek Rose rookie $10

Panini to make a cut Autograph based product similar to Sp Legendary Cuts

A story was posted on Beckett.com earlier today preview a product from Panini titled 2011 Donruss Limited Cuts. This product mimics the release of 2011 Sp Legendary cuts with a mixture of cuts of Major athletes as well as other celebrities and personalities. Hopefully Panini can provide enough value to collectors on a box by box basis to make for the shortfalls that this product could potentially have. Without pictures on the cards, it is extremely important to have a good design and quality cuts to make this set a success or it could fail miserably. From the initial looks of the product it seems like Panini is using a nice design with quality cuts but it could just be a mock-up and we will have to wait and see what is actually contained in the product before making a final judgment. I also am not a fan of using living players in a cut product even if they are paired with deceased players, although it is cool to have a tiger woods auto with a Ben Hogan.

 

Product Preview: 2011 Topps Heritage Rookie Edition

Recently, Beckett posted a preview of 2011 Topps heritage Rookie Edition here. This product will be using the design of the 2011 Topps heritage set but it will be rookies only.  While I like the idea behind this set, there are some major flaws right out of the gate.  First of all, do we need another rookie based product? We have Bowman, Bowman chrome, Bowman draft, Bowman platinum, Bowman Sterling, Topps Debut and Topps Chrome which are all primarily rookie driven. Do we need another new product for rookies? Couldn’t this product have replaced another product line or at least have been added to it? Another issue I have with this product is the use of stickers for the autograph cards. Every year of Topps Heritage baseball has featured on card autograph cards and that has been one of the main draws to the set, but this 2011 Topps Heritage rookie set looks to have sticker autographs and ugly ones at that. This might change, and they might have only used stickers for the mock-up, but from the pictures the autograph cards look pretty ugly. I do like the look of the patch cards and I do like the design of the heritage set itself, but I am not sure if this is the right set for Topps to do right now, especially when there entire product line is lacking qood, quality sets that appeal to all collectors and not just the rookie collectors and prospectors.

 

 

 

Product Review of 2010 Topps Magic Football

2010 Topps magic football is the second year of this product line. Last year’s set was very similar to this year except that all of the players were in their college uniforms. This year’s set is very similar in content and layout in that includes a very large autograph set as well as dual and triple autograph cards of various themes. The cards themselves look nice, and although the autographs are all signed on stickers, the sticker blends into the card quite well. The autograph set includes some retired big name players such as Emmitt Smith, Joe Namath,  Steve Young as well as current stars Sam Bradford,  Tim Tebow,  Ray Lewis and Peyton  Manning.  The set will be a challenge to put together, because there are a ton of shortprints, but I think it will be attempted.

While I think this product was made with the right idea, it is hurt by the fact that there are way, way too many scrubs also included in the set. Do Brian Brohm, Kellen Clemens, James Hardy and Devin Thomas really need an Autograph in this set? I think this set would have been much better received it included more retired mid level players or key current players who aren’t used in every set but would still have some demand, such as offensive or defensive lineman or maybe even kickers? Instead they include a lot of players who appear in every single product!

Overall, I think many singles in this set have great long-term value because the good ones are nice and hard to pull but if they bring this product back next year I think they should improve the autograph selection to make the whole checklist more collectible.

Make sure to check out our football autograph cards for sale at http://www.sportsnutcards.com/footballautographcards.html

Post Thanksgiving Sale at Sportsnutcards.com all cards 20-30% off!

We are having our annual post Thanksgiving sale on www.sportsnutcards.com. All single cards are 20-30% of their normal prices! This includes all Certified Autograph cards, Rookie cards, Game used cards, Inserts and more! If you are an email subscriber you will also receive an extra 10% off! This sale only runs through December 2nd so shop now to save!

Crazy Lebron James card collection On Youtube

One of my customers brought this video to my attention. It highlights what I would guess is the best Lebron James collection out there right now.  Every single card is either a 1/1 or #D 23/xxx, including what could be considered the best non-graded modern rookie card, the exquisite rookie patch #D23/99. Even though Lebron has changed his number to #6 once he signed with the heat, his rookie cards #D23/xxx should still maintain a significant premium over similar numbered cards from his rookie year. This is probably one of the greatest accumulations of a single player that I have ever seen!

Click Here to view our selection of modern basketball cards for sale!

Collecting Certified Autograph cards

This article will discuss collecting certified autograph cards. It will discuss why and how to collect and give a bit of information  that will be useful to the modern card collector.

            Certified autograph cards are the most widely collected modern cards by all different types of collectors. The first autograph cards were found in packs of 1990 Upper Deck baseball. In 1991, Pro Line football became the first full sized autograph set of 300 cards and included autograph cards of Troy Aikman, John Elway, Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and many other current and retired football players. These cards were very popular even though you got one in 1 out of every 3 boxes. In 1996 Leaf Signature series became the first product to have one autograph per pack. This was also the first product that had a deep checklist of star players and commons.

Throughout the years, some of the most popular insert cards, rookie cards and sets have been autograph cards. The 2001 Bowman Chrome Albert Pujols autograph rookie and the 2001 Sp Authentic Tiger Woods autograph rookies are two of the most sought after modern cards on the market. They regularly sell for $2000- $2500 when they come up for sale and many are locked up in private collections. Other heavily collected sets are the 2000 Greats of the Game Baseball and Football. Both of these sets are challenging with quite a few expensive shortprints.  

Recently, more and more cards have been signed on a sticker which is then placed on a card. An on card autograph, or “hard signed” refers to a card that has been actually physically touched and signed by the player on the actual card stock. A sticker auto refers to an autograph that was signed on sheets of stickers and then the stickers are placed on the card stock. In this case the player does not actually touch the card. Most collectors would rather have an on card autograph, because they generally look better and because the player actually touched the card.

            The one major positive is that all certified autographs are guaranteed authentic by the companies who produce them. You do not have to worry about getting the cards further authenticated by PSA/DNA or JSA. Certified autograph cards are also not as expensive as a full signed ball, jersey or piece of equipment.   

Unfortunately, there have been a few issues with unscrupulous sellers selling fake autograph cards. These sellers are using blank, unsigned cards and faking the autograph on them. The main sets this has happened with are Topps Photo shoots in football and basketball, as well as the 2006 Bowman Originals. Fake stickers are also being put on cards that were originally designed not to be signed. These are usually bad fakes with the autograph not even being close. The best way to look out for these cards are to look at the autograph and compare it to other issues of the players.