The Trouble With Redemptions And Player Collecting

Posted on 08/09/2009 by gellman

Over the last two years, Peterson has become a 100% redemption player due to his unwillingness to adhere to the normal signing schedule that card companies require. There will always be stickers that can be reused from as far back as the offseason from 2007, but, for the true on card sweetness, its a waiting game for the new shit. This leads to a problem when you see a card that you know is going to be ridiculously amazing, but you know that its going to be six months before the package shows up at your door.

Such is my dilemma, and I know a lot of you out there have similarly experienced the months that are necessary to get a card you have wanted. The question remains as to whether or not the wait is worth the end result. I say yes and no, but it also has a lot to do with your connection to the card and your connection to the player.

For a player collector, sometimes redemptions are a necessary evil, especially if you are waiting on some of the cards that will be the best of the year. Since my favorite products are always SPA and Exquisite, I have to come to terms with the fact that I will have to wait for Peterson to sign his stuff. Since UD cant produce these cards far enough ahead of time, the cards need to be redemptions – I get that. But do I risk my money under the auspices that at any time he can just decide not to sign any more?

I have risked it before, at least twice, once with great results, once with a replacement outcome. This time, I think I may risk it again and buy a card out of Philadelphia that should be one of the best auto cards until SPA in January. Thats the impatience in me, despite the fact that the card probably wont be signed until SPA actually hits shelves. Thats me, though, and I am positive that the card is something I need to buy. Yet, if I had pulled it out of a pack of a player I didnt collect, it would be on ebay faster than you could say boo.

The problem is, that redemptions are practically only there for the player collectors around to begin with. People who pull the redemptions rarely ever hold them if they dont collect the player in some way, and I believe that is why so many of them end up on eBay. Now that its also very easy to do it online instead of sending them in, its even easier to just throw it up there as an incentive for the people out there that like it. Hell, you dont even need to ship the card most of the time.

Call me a junkie for hard signed cards now that I am spoiled enough by UD’s great commitment to those sets, but I wonder if others out there are willing to take the same chance on some of these as I am. I realize that most collectors blame UD and their replacements for the redemption dilemma, but there have to be other addicts out there like me looking for their next fix. Otherwise the market for these redemptions wouldnt be what it is.

Product Review: 2009 Philadelphia Football

Posted on 08/05/2009 by gellman

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of watching a case break of Upper Deck’s first retro football product in a long time. Philadelphia hits stores today, and it should be a pretty popular release, a la O-Pee-Chee in baseball. Collectors love retro products, and this one should get them pretty excited, mainly due to the way the boxes are structured. Even though my friend’s case wasn’t great, it was enormously fun to open, which from early reports, seems to be the case (pun intended).

Design/Creativity

Starting off, the cards look good for a retro set, something that is evident in the original Philadelphia design. They incorporated uncropped game shots into the base cards, which is always a good thing, preventing the players from looking like they are fatheads stuck onto a wall. The border design is also very simple and is not a focus of the card in general, just the way I like it.

I also think that the National Chicle minis and normal sized cards are EXTREMELY well done. They look great, and really capture the essence of the originals. These are going to be a popular set for people to collect, and I think UD got that when creating the cards. Even though the set itself is sparsely populated with non-set collector offerings, these cards should be pleasing to everyone.

As good as the National Chicle cards look, its pretty ridiculous that non-auto’ed cards of the rookies still show them in their college uniforms. Its now August, and we still havent had a post-premiere product from upper deck, despite multiple sets from both Topps and Grilled Italian Sandwich. I understand that when you do everything hard signed, the NFL uniforms are pretty much impossible at this point without breaking stalker laws, but the other stuff is about as inexcusable as it can get.

When it comes to the rest of the product, I couldn’t help but get a little bored with everything. To someone like me who has no clue why retro sets continue to be produced, I just don’t get why this product isnt just an insert set in base UD. Topps has taken their base product and ramped it up with things that made it more worthwhile for collectors, why not do the same thing with the awesome looking cards from this set? Put the National Chicle minis at one per box, with an auto per case, put the base cards as one per pack or something. No need to waste a spot that something like SP Game Used edition could have taken. Set collecting in baseball is much, much, much, MUCH different than set collecting in football, mainly because of the history of the hobby. Football doesn’t have as large of a history, and I don’t like it being forced on me.

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Autograph Cards

Before I go into anything, I want to say how great the autograph cards in this set look. If you think about the Goudey ‘Graph set in baseball, this is very similar. The autos are all on card, signed on full game shots or national chicle cards, and I think I may buy a few – even if I don’t collect the players. UD has also taken notice of people like Albert Haynesworth, who hasn’t had autographs ever (I think), as well as Jared Allen and the like. For this I give an ovation to the checklist people, because defense is a forgotten side of the ball in this sport. If you arent a rookie linebacker or top pick, you don’t have many cards outside of your rookie year. People like Haynesworth and Allen are primed to be two of the most popular players on their respective teams, which means that autographs in products are definitely warranted.

The National Chicle autographs are also ridiculously cool, and were a big focus of the coverage at the NFL Rookie Premiere. UD took on card signatures a step further by adding great inscriptions and making those cards some of the most collectible of the year. When we busted the case last night, we were hoping to pull one, but alas, our Vontae Davis was not inscribed. Regardless of the signature inscription, it was still one of the better signed rookie cards I have seen in a long time. I cant wait for some of the Sanchez and Stafford ones to pop up, as their inscriptions were pretty extensive.

So far, Philadelphia has been the best looking product in terms of autographs this year, and it didn’t take any manu-letters, no gimmicks, no graffiti under a bridge design. Its just a photo on card, signed by the player. That’s all it takes.

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Relic Cards

Philadelphia promises a relic or two per box, and they are pretty good looking for relic cards. They don’t have floating swatches as far as I can tell, and even play to the set collector side of people by doing them the way they did. Instead of naming it some ridiculous name like other products in the past, they just took the base design and added the swatch. Because of this, the Philadelphia Fabrics subset looks better than 99% of the rest of the jersey cards out there. Good for them.

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Value to the Collector

I have said a million times that on card signatures will always be valuable for any collector, especially ones that are as good as the ones in Philadelphia. Add in that this will be the set collector’s dream set, and you make the SPs and everything similar in the set that much more valuable. As Philadelphia is already pretty cheap, I can see the box prices staying put or even going up as time passes.

The autographs with the inscriptions will also hold their astronomical value, without a doubt. Anytime you can get extras out of a player with low numbered outcomes, you will have a card that will not lose value, even though they
are not in pro uniforms.

I would say, if you have the choice between buying a box of jumbo Topps, a box of classics, and a box of this, Philadelphia should pull out a convincing win. There is a lot to chase in this product, and it should hold at least until Mayo comes out. Then once people see the sticker autos on mayo, it will become evident how important this set is for retro collectors.

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Overall Impressions

Philadelphia, as far as retro sets go, is an exercise in less is more. A simplistic design, a deep auto checklist, and a good price will give staying power to this product. It looks as if this will be that one product that people go back to when the lull hits in January. Although it has some major issues with rookies, and a little bit of boredom for people like me, the hits make everything all better.

I wouldn’t say rush to the store to buy a case, but definitely set your snipes on eBay. It’s a great way to get some auto cards from your favorite rookies that look amazing, and collecting the set for the set collectors should be a blast.

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2009 Product Leaderboard (SO FAR)

1(t). UD Philadelphia Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). Topps Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Icons Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Heroes Football (3/5 GELLMANS)
1(t). UD Draft Edition (3/5 GELLMANS)
6(t). Donruss Classics (2/5 GELLMANS)
6(t). Donruss Elite (2/5 GELLMANS)
6(t). Playoff Prestige (2/5 GELLMANS)
6(t). Bowman Draft Picks (2/5 GELLMANS)
10. Score Inscriptions Football (1/5 GELLMANS)

2009 Upper Deck Philadelphia Is Live

Posted on 08/04/2009 by gellman

Some of the first Philadelphia cards started to pop up on eBay last week, and today, many of the higher dollar cards started to surface as well. The on card signatures look really good, and the cards look like they would be a hit for many of the retro collectors out there. The Philadelphia Signatures are well done, as the full color game photos make these that much better. Usually with retro sets, many of the cards are painted or sketched, which this set also has (with autos), but uncropped action shots are completely underrated. I know most of you feel the same way, when your player cards look more like a Fathead on a background, more than a player on a field. I may have to pick up a few signatures solely for that.

On the other hand, I really dislike that we STILL havent had a UD product in NFL unis. I understand that the on card stuff has no ability for the players to be in rookie premiere garb, but the unsigned stuff has no excuse. I will trade on card sigs for rookies in college uniforms, but I will not accept regular cards at this point of Matt Stafford in a Bulldogs uniform.

I still have no interest in buying boxes of these cards, and still think they would have been better as an insert set, but I can also see the massive appeal this set will have. To see that UD managed to many of these cards hard signed puts this set above any other retro sets this year. We can compare apples to apples when we know that sticker autos are the rule, but when you see the actual exception in practice, it makes all the difference in the world.

Full review will be up tomorrow, more pics as they are posted.