Tag Archives: College Football

We Built this City on Baseball Cards??!!??

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Although I was born in the ’80s, musically, I’m not a child of the ’80s, rather, I am a teen of the ’90s.  I’ve written previously about the fact that I continue to adore both the cards and music of the ’90s.  The song “We Built this City” by Starship came out smack in the middle of the ’80s and honestly, annoys me greatly.  However the phrase “we built this…..” is an oft said one and thus the annoyance resurfaces, as someone who was born after 1985 interrupts a company meeting to cut off the CEO as he says “we built this organization on…..” here comes the kid….. “ROCK AND ROLL!!” Thus Starship remains in our conscience, despite the fact that their relevance has long since passed….and so have many of the former members.

So, the question becomes, if there was a song about FCB, set as a parody of “We Built this City”, what pray tell would the catchiest line that won’t leave our heads be?  I would advocate for “we built this forum, we built this forum on baseball cards!”  And it’s true, baseball cards dominate the landscape here at FCB and it still seems to me that no matter where you go whether it be a shop, a show, a forum or other hobby outlets – baseball cards are at the core of any of these things.  There is tradition in baseball cards not found in other sports cards and frankly, there is tradition and longevity in the sport of baseball itself.  Think about it this way, the grand majority of the subjects in the Leaf Oval Office product lived in a time where baseball was played.

All this however, should not distract us from the fact that the landscape of American sports has changed a great deal over the past couple of decades.  Soccer and professional bowling have absolutely taken over, or not.  Football, football, football, football and no, not the futbol americano variety.  From a viewership, revenue and general overall following perspective, football is the game today.  Rabid followings exist for both college football teams and for NFL teams – in some cases there is overlap but there are certainly large and distinct groups that follow both the NFL and college.  As I was thinking about the early release of 2012 NFL football products this week, it was something that struck me – this is a large part of the reason that licensing matters less than many of us thought it did.

People are buying Robert Griffin cards from 2012 Leaf Metal at absurd prices because they love his absurd upside, mostly from an NFL perspective. However, there are also dorks like me bidding on A.J. Jenkins cards, not because we are sure he will light it up in the NFL but because we think there’s a least a small chance and because we love the Illinois jersey in the photo.  That’s the thing with the non-licensed cards – the college jerseys (logos or not) attract more buyers.  There are many who like Mark Barron in an Alabama jersey, versus whatever jersey he’ll wear on Sunday and that’s significant.  It’s important because it means higher secondary market value, which means collectors will open packs, which means manufacturers will make more and better products early on.  If you don’t believe me then check the prices being realized by early Leaf Metal sales.

I personally love it, I’m all for more products, more diversity in products and manufacturers trying new things.  To some degree the licensing issue has forced the hand of some, to do just that and now collectors get to reap the benefits.  I’m also just excited because it means more new product for the card world at large and that’s always fun.  Every time the consensus says, oh, this issue will kill the market, the market comes along and figures out a new way to draw people in and the cycle is certainly fun to watch.

 

 

UPPER DECK : BOLD STEP WITH 2011 UD COLLEGIATE LEGENDS

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As I’m sure you’re well aware, Upper Deck has been limited to producing collegiate football cards since 2011 when they gained the exclusive NCAA license but no longer held an NFL license. In this time we’ve seen Upper Deck produce some of the same brands we were used to—just with players pictured in their collegiate gear. This included the same typical checklists; you had your big name rookies, the scrub rookies to fill a checklist, your current NFL stars, and then a few NFL legends.

Upper Deck has decided to break the mold and do something relatively unheard of to this point: Build a checklist set catering to the collegiate game exclusively. In the upcoming UD Collegiate Legends set you will still have your traditional mix of NFL rookies and stars in their collegiate uniforms, but you will also get an unprecedented checklist filled with collegiate stars the NFL has long forgotten. Perhaps the fact that the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners sets were so well received by fans of those respective schools had something to do with UD focusing more on college collectors.

If you ask an NFL fan who Ron Dayne was, they’ll say some mediocre guy from the Giants. If you ask an NCAA fan, they’ll recall how Dayne used to ram the red W helmet of the Wisconsin Badgers through opposing linebackers on the way to winning the Heisman. Jason White? Oh, that guy who had weak knees and couldn’t stick with a team? No, I mean the best football player in the nation (circa 2003) as the Heisman Award winner of the Oklahoma Sooners. I could go on and on.

The set’s checklist is littered with names like these, and college collectors are going to eat up every bit of cardboard they can get their hands on. Players also included in this release are Gino Torretta, Todd Marinovich, Brian Bosworth, Ty Detmer, Danny Wuerrfel, and many other “gods” of the college gridiron. You’ll also get the legends and stars of the NFL who also shined in college like Aaron Rodgers, Steve Young, Earl Campbell, and Adrian Peterson. Of course, there are the big rookies like Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and Julio Jones.

It will be interesting to see how this set is received once it hits shelves and how singles do on the secondary market. Upper Deck has proven that collegiate cards can establish and maintain value with 2010’s Exquisite XRCs and 2011 SP Authentic. It’s also been proven that collegiate uniform cards can stand the test of time for those “NFL scrubs.” A great example is a 1993 Classic Four Sport Rick Mirer autograph, which recently sold for $100. Not too shabby for a guy who many would label an NFL draft bust from almost two decades ago. .

 

2010 Razor US Army All American Bowl Inscriptions

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As fans of the set already know, the format change in this product from last year is that this year it will have a traditional pack out format rather than boxed sets. This seems like an interesting and risky move to me, as you will need to drastically improve the amount of value in the packs to match the price point of the product. Last years set was missing many of the key players of the recruiting class, as stars like Julio Jones, Trent Richardson, Matt Barkley and DaQuan Bowers opted for the under armor game instead. A few impact players elected not to sign for the set, and others only signed for 42 cards making them impossible pulls.

This year seems to be a completely different story as Razor Entertainment sent out an email today with some scans for the upcoming Army All American Bowl product set to release in late spring. These scans are from the “inscriptions” subset and feature a customized inscription chosen by the players. Here are scans of USC’s Kyle Prater, Alabama’s Deandrew White and Oklahoma’s Tony Jefferson.

2010 Razor US Army Inscriptions Kyle Prater2010 Razor US Army Inscriptions Deandrew White2010 Razor US Army Inscriptions Tony Jefferson

You can view scans of the rest of the players here.

This particular subset gives us a peer into the ever changing world of recruiting. Ahmad Dixon’s inscription says “Sic Em”. That is Baylors catch phrase inscribed by a guy who originally committed to Texas, then flipped to Baylor only to open his recruiting back up and commit to Tennessee. With the Lane Kiffin saga, who knows where this athlete will end up going to school at.

Matt Elam, one of the better players in the set was at one time considered a stone cold lock to go to Florida. That was before the Urban Meyer non incident. Now we see his card inscribed “Go Noles”.  Did I mention that Elam recommitted to the Gators at this game?   High stakes college football recruiting, gotta love it.