Lions and Bears are here, but no Tiger? OH MY!

So, looking at my calendar, we are coming up on 2 weeks since Exquisite has been released, and we have yet to see a Tiger Woods auto pulled. This is pretty crazy considering how much of the product has been probably been opened so far, and how many of the cards are supposed to be in the set.

Per Upper Deck’s site, Tiger is supposed to have 14 cards in this set – 10 normal “patch” autos, 3 gold, and 1 platinum. With 14 cards, you would expect at least one to have made it onto youtube or onto eBay. Hell, even a story would have surfaced somewhere from someone right?

Just for kicks, lets take a look at the Rare Materials cards /10, a card with 4 less in the print run than all of the Tigers. Per my snooping on ebay and the forums, all of the players in the set have had at least 1 card pulled that has been posted for sale or as part of a break. Im not saying this proves anything, its just a comparison.

Lets say for instance, that Gregg’s original count of 5 Tigers was correct and that the web is mistaken. If each of the 5 tigers was put into a different case, you would expect that 5/2500 cases would have a Tiger in it. You would expect that 1/500 cases would be your odds. Then, if you consider that 500-700 cases are probably opened in the first few weeks and as far as we know, no Tiger has been pulled, it would leave 5/2000 which lowers the odds even more to 1/350-400 cases. Add into it that almost every other card out of 10, and most the cards out of 5 have had at least one pulled, people are beginning to rumble as to where these cards are. We are already at the odds for one to be pulled, and moving further past every day.

As of right now, I am giving UD the benefit of the doubt, only because we saw one of the cards pictured during the course of the previews for the product. If it comes out that the cards are stashed away somewhere, and were mistakenly not included in the pack out, you can imagine what the backlash will be from the collector base. I hope that things are good, and that eventually someone will pull one of them so that we can see what they are going to sell for. At this point, with the bubbling needs of the Exquisite lovers out there, I would put the value at 4 or 5K minimum for the first, and a bit lower for the rest.

NOTE: Per Gregg, there are 5 Tigers in the cases, and he personally witnessed them being packed out into the product. That makes me feel a lot better, lets hope one surfaces soon, I am eager to see them.

Info On Exquisite Black and Gold Redemptions

This year in exquisite’s gold packs, there were quite a few people who pulled the black and gold redemption cards for a key member of all 6 of the Steelers’ championships. I thought it was a cool idea, as it really hasnt happened before that Exquisite has had a set like this. It gives the team collector an amazing set to complete, and the player collectors get cards that are commemorating one of the Steelers proudest moments. If I were a Steelers fan, I would be really happy about this.

The problem is, the checklist doesnt include some of the most “key” members of the teams:

CHECKLIST
bg-br Ben Roethlisberger /25
bg-ds Donnie Shell /150
bg-fh Franco Harris /100
bg-ha James Harrison /101
bg-hw Hines Ward /32
bg-jg Joe Greene 150
bg-jh Jack Ham /150
bg-jl Jack Lambert /150
bg-lg L.C. Greenwood /150
bg-lw Lamarr Woodley /150
bg-rb Rockey Bleier /150
bg-tb Terry Bradshaw /25
bg-tp Troy Polamalu /44
bg-wp Willie Parker /100

Now, the question I have is, where is the Bus, and where is Santonio Holmes? Both were important parts of two of the championships, but are not included. I know that you cant necessarily have everyone, but those were key to me. Otherwise, the checklist looks pretty good, with Harrison’s card being one of the only autos, if not the only, he has, and also Polamalu getting some love. You can tell these cards will be in pretty high demand once redeemed, due to the set builders, and the Steelers collectors. I know 2 or 3 people that would pay out the nose for the Roethlisberger and the Ward.

It will be interesting to see how these turn out.

h/t Card Informant