Legends of the Diamond chase card pops up

Legends of the Diamond’s big chase card was apparently hit. According to this eBay auction, the big card is out of the product.

These boxes are hard to find right now. If you do, the price is close to $300.

So what happens when a big chase card is hit? This product was filled with enough decent vintage cards that it may still warrant a $285 price tag, but how many people still want to pay that price knowing the big card is no longer available.

In Razor’s other graded packaged product, Razor Rookie Retro, the 2010 Bowman Stephen Strasburg superfractor seems to still be out there as well. If it’s not, someone is keeping quiet.

How many people bought the product hoping to hit this card knowing it sold for more than $15,000 both times it hit the secondary market? Sure, most people don’t actually think they are going to pull the card, but we all know how it goes.

You go to open the shrink wrap on the box, but can’t seem to find a seam. Finally, after fighting with it for five minutes, you grab a scissor and run the sharp side over the plastic that melts as easily as butter. Anything keeping you from your precious card is just a nuisance, so you fling the shrink wrap into the garbage, only for it to get stuck on your hand.

Your hearts speeds up a little as you finally get the shrink wrap on the floor next to the garbage. Now, it’s time to take off the stickers and get to your money card. You pull off the stickers, which slide right off, forgetting they aren’t there for anything more than show. You slowly open the box, but it is stuck.

As you fight with the box, trying to figure out which side is supposed to come off easiest, you drop the entire box and your card goes flying across the floor.

You think: “My kid’s college fund!”

You run after the card. Slowly pick it up. But your eyes are closed because you’re too afraid to see if there was any damage. Thankfully, you think, it’s in a slab, but how strong can these things be?

You flip the card over to the front. You peek with one eye. There’s light shining against the chrome. Your eyes pop open.

Can it be?

You find: Colby Rasmus.

That’s when you kick the card under the dresser and shred your credit card.

But in the moment before you saw the card, you thought you had it. You thought that your box had the chase card. That’s why we buy. That’s why we spend money we don’t have on cards. All for the chase.

Razor Rookie Retro checklist coming together

The last Razor branded product should be coming out at the end of August, if not sooner, Brian Gray said on Twitter. Razor Rookie Retro is a set of some of the most popular graded rookie cards of the top players over all sports.

Gray bought the 2010 Bowman Stephen Strasburg superfractor when it was re-listed and bought it for $21,403 exclusively for this set.

Razor had success with a similar product, Legends of the Diamond, where every card is slabbed by PSA. The boxes go in the $200-plus range and include one pre-1970 vintage card.

There is no checklist yet for Razor Rookie Retro, probably because cards are still being bought. However, if you look at this eBay account (hint, hint), you will get an idea of what cards will be included. Some of the rookies include Alex Rodriguez, Michael Jordan, Lebron James and 2007 Jason Heyward superfractor.

Like every hobby box, these boxes are a gamble. While at the National, I saw two Legends of the Diamond breaks. One had a card that was immediately sold for $60 (after paying $200) and another had a 1969 (I think) Nolan Ryan.

Gray has said the average return on the Rookie Retro boxes will be around 80 percent of factory cost across the print run. As of Monday night, pre-order boxes are going for $219 on Atlanta Sports Cards.

Gray has purchased money cards from collectors to fill this as well. At the National, many sold graded cards of well-known players and some of today’s hottest prospects. Imagine if they opened this product and got their own card back. Ha!

In other good news, Gray also said the boxes will have security stickers in hopes of preventing tampering.

While this set is out of my price range, I am looking forward to seeing some of the breaks of this product.

Update: View the checklist here.

Day 1 National Report

The National is one biiiiiig card show. Here are the highlights from the first day of the show.

1. Brian Gray has launched a new endeavor. He is bringing back the Leaf brand and acquired all the non-baseball brands from Razor.

2. The Strasburg Heritage will be very difficult to get. We got to the show around 5 p.m. and the line was already more than 100 people long. Only 100 were given out on the first day. However, a bit disappointing is the centering was not good on many of these cards. We saw one and the centering was off and after speaking to some folks, they all said the same thing.

Dave and Adam’s has a sign saying they will pay $80 for any Strasburg redemption.

3. There is so much vintage here. I don’t like it. There are many people who collect vintage and there should be vintage at the show, but the number of vintage is way more than the number of modern cards. This is not a good thing for someone like me. I’m looking for Derek Jeter and Kevin Kouzmanoff cards.

4. Here’s a crazy story: A person many of us are friends with on Twitter had a large shipment of 2010 Bowman cards off the get graded and got lost in the mail. This person had somewhere between 40-50 cards in that order and some very low-numbered cards including a superfractor.

Two members who are volunteering for FCB walked passed a booth with lots of 2010 Bowman and, amazingly, sitting in the case were two of these cards, including said superfractor.

The guys called out the dealer and told them exactly what happened and how this person lost their cards in the mail. He said he bought it off eBay, but eventually gave in and handed two cards over, a superfractor and red refractor.

Craziness.

2009 Razor Babe Ruth cut pulled

A tweet from Blowout Cards this morning informed me of the the best card from Razor was pulled and thrown up on the Bay.

2009 Razor Sports Icons Cut Auto 1/1

This is definitely a beautiful card. The eBay auction has a asking price of $8,000 right now. And, should I buy it for the BIN price, I would make $160 in eBay bucks. Great deal!

When a card like is pulled from a set, does it stop collectors from buying that set anymore? I haven't bought any Razor or thought about purchasing any Razor, so any feedback is appreciated.

Gimmicky or sincere? (Updated)

Donruss released a statement about its Razor product saying the company "inadvertently" released some copies of prospect Wade Miley's card. This was on Beckett's site.

"A limited number of Razor exclusive player Wade Miley, a pitching prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, were inadvertantly released in 2008 Playoff Prime Cuts.
Donruss issued this statement Tuesday:

Due to a production error at the time of pack-out, some 31 copies of a Wade Miley card mistakenly were inserted into packs of 2008 Playoff Prime Cuts Baseball.

Donruss officials believed they had a deal with Miley during the production cycle of Prime Cuts, but when it became apparent Miley was exclusive property of another manufacturer, Donruss pulled Miley cards before pack-out.

“These few just slipped by,” a Donruss representative said. “It’s an honest mistake, and one we regret.”

There are no Miley autograph redemption cards."

Does anyone believe this was an actual mistake?

I'm on the fence about this one, although, I'm not someone who is going to get caught up in this type of hype. (Jeter/Mantle Topps, I was all over that).

This is seemingly one of the cards here on eBay. But how is this card /25 if 31 were released.

Update: The current listing is up to $88 with two days left. I just wanted to add to ended listings, so you see what "hysteria" can do these cards.

Here's one that is numbered to /25.

Here's the 1/1.

The current cards is going to sell for more than five times the amount of the 1/1. HURRY UP! Snatch up your boxes to get the other 28 of these cards.