New Retail Store Opening!

Most of us are very familiar with the Freedom Cardboard website, and message boards by now. If you are not, well you need to crawl out from under your rock and make your way over there.

The site owner recently started working on opening a retail location in addition to being able to purchase items online from the site. The store is scheduled for a Grand Opening on Saturday June 4, 2011. So if you are in the Atlanta area, you will not have a new favorite hangout and place to buy cards. Here is the information that was in their press release.



On Saturday June 4th at 11:00 AM FCB will open it’s doors a bit early to
accomodate one of the best prospects in all of baseball. Atlanta Brave
Julio Teheran will be signing autographs live in the store from 11:00 AM to
12:30 PM. These autographs are free on a first come, first serve basis.
We will hand out tickets as people arrive insuring that no one waits in
line for a couple hours only to get turned away.

The event is brought to you by the good people at Onyx Authenticated, hobby
new comers who offer up a mystery balls type product called The Preferred
Players Collection. They also have an extensive roster of young players
signed as autograph exclusive such as Yankee super prospect Manny Banuelos,
the previously mentioned Julio Teheran, and Mariner flame thrower Michael
Pineda. A full list of clents can be found at the Onyx Authenticated
website. Game used and autographed items can be purchased via thier online
store.

We will also have an absentee mail order program. You may send in your
item to get signed for a flat rate of $15 plus return shipping cost.
Please note that inscriptions are not allowed, but personalizations are.

We will also offer special FCB Retail Store grand opening items. Item one
is a Rawlings Major League Baseball autographed on the sweet spot with a
special COA from Onyx and FCB. The ball will be limited and serial
numbered to only 100 copies. The price for this item including a ball cube
and shipping is $39. The second item is an autographed 2010 Bowman Black
Border Julio Teheran rookie card with an Onyx and FCB COA. Copies of this
card are limited to 20 copies and will cost $20 each. These items can be
purchased on the FCB Blog. They will
be shipped out Monday after the signing.

Thank you for your support of FCB, it's been a fun ride. I look forward to
more years of growth and milestones.

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Santa Gilmo delivers an early Christmas

I bet most of you are like what the hell is a "Santa Gilmo"? Well, let me tell you. Santa Gilmo runs the website Freedom Cardboard, if this is the first you are hearing of his site I will assume you live under a rock or just started collecting today. They actually just opened a physical store and are now selling cards at the store and online, so if you need anything please go to them first.

I don't post much over there but I do troll the boards every now and then and see what's going on. Despite the fact that I don't post much doesn't mean I don't enjoy the site, just a lack of time on my part with studying and other things going on.

Anyway, Gilmo is a really nice guy and he pulled a card that he thought I would like to have. Boy was he right since every time my cheap ass tried to bid on one on eBay I was instantly outbid. I gave up days before he told me he had something Cano for me so the message was fun to hear. Mrs. Claus (Gilmo) did the middleman job of getting it shipped and into my mitts.

Here is the AWESOME Robbie Cano:


2011 Topps Tribute Robinson Cano dual GU/Auto /75


So I guess this means I'm not on the naughty list? Hopefully one of these days I have something equally awesome to send in return.

Anyone open any boxes of 2011 Topps Tribute? At $400+ per box I have a feeling most people have not done so.

P.S. If you think this was generous go over to Freedom Cardboard right now and leave a comment on the blog for a chance to win your own BOX.

How to keep a rumor going on the Internet - Leaf baseball edition

This is how a rumor starts.

As I continue my love fest with the fellas over at Freedom Cardboard, I came upon a thread where Leaf’s Brian Gray left a cryptic message. The OP mentioned how he wished Panini had baseball license.

Essentially, the OP wanted there to be more than just Topps. NO MONOPOLIES!

Gray's first response on the thread was this:

It says: "You may well get your wish for competition imminently ...
BG"

Does that mean there will be competition in the baseball world again?

Perhaps, but certainly not of the likes of the Topps and Upper Deck competition. Topps still has an exclusive license for at least the next four years – I believe – with the MLB. The only way there would be a new license is with the MLBPA, which means faces but no uniforms and logos.

Gray also posted there should news in about 2-3 weeks regarding this matter. So, I will sit here and twiddle my thumbs in the process.

This blog post is how you keep adding fuel to the fire.

Got the winter baseball blues? Head to Target!

The baseball card world has been stale lately, even with some of the new releases.

Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects is set to be released later this month and the next MLB-licensed release isn't supposed to come out until January with 2010 Bowman Platinum, a new baseball product that gets its foundation from football.

But what's this?

Seems as though some folks over at Freedom Cardboard have found sealed blasters at local big box stores and there is even an auction on eBay with a guy ready to shop five blasters right now for a low, low price.

Here's another auction with 10 blasters that a guy is selling individually for a pretty ridiculous price. The seller is looking to cash in on the impatience of people thinking you'll spend that much money just to get a product more than a month early.

Here's a picture from the previous auction at the some of the base cards in the product.

With the set being 'leaked' early, it makes me wonder as to how and why this happened? Was there a mix up at the Topps factory where retail product of this was released a full month before the release date? How are hobby shop going to feel when they get their cases of this product and collectors don't come out because they might have had their fill from retail?

Was it released early so Topps could see sales figures and see if it needs to do another wrapper redemption program?

But, more importantly, I want to know what this set adds to the current marketplace?

Ready ... Set ... GO!

This weekend Freedom Cardboard is hosting a Halloween event sponsored by Panini.

On Sunday, you can trick or treat all day with FreedomCardBoard.com. There will be special codes hidden in random threads on the board.

SOOOO ... the more you read, the more chances you have to win.

When you redeem a code, there will be two choices. You may either a) be "Tricked" and have your profile adorned with an icon signifying some classic moments in FCB History or b) receive a "Treat" and win a wonderful prize that was provided by FreedomCardBoard.com and Panini.

Prizes include autographed cards from all sports, as well as several unopened hobby boxes provided by Panini.

They have PLENTY of prizes to go around, and would love for everyone to come in and try to win one.

This event will be running all day on Halloween starting at Midnight EST! So be sure to check out www.freedomcardboard.com this Sunday to WIN!

Have I told you lately....

how much I love the people I have met from Freedom Cardboard? Oh, well I do. On the message boards they do a ton of group case breaks of all different products with All In Cards (@allincards on Twitter), and they recently broke a some 2010 Topps Tribute.

One of my new friends, Lisa was lucky enough to pull a Robinson Cano /50 auto out of her stuff. Lucky for me she is a super nice person who sent me the card a few days later. So the score is Lisa 1, Marie 0 but I wrote an I.O.U. and will hopefully pull something I can send back in return.


There is something interesting about this autograph. If you click and enlarge the scan, you can see what appears to be a mistake by Robbie signing his name, he left the "b" out and went back trying to make it look like he didn't, or the end loop of the b just got carried away. Normally this is the sort of thing that makes me want to punch the Quality Control blind mice at Topps, but the signature kind of grew on me. It is unique in it's own way, and it's a Robbie writing error (maybe), which makes it a little more charming.

I also picked up one other card on eBay and it was actually one night in the hotel room at the National I purchased it. Yup, I bought a card on eBay after spending hours surrounded by them. Did you not read the title of this blog/website?

This card was picked up on a dirt cheap buy it now. It was the lowest BIN I have seen on these, and I might have purchased it even if I already had it.

For those of you that don't know this, Robinson Cano has FOUR variations in this set, all with 4 color versions (Face palm). Due to poor planning and over anxious behavior (as usual), I had no plan of attack on this years cards and ended up with one of each right now. I would love to end up with a rainbow of one version but I am not sure how realistic that is at this point.

If anyone has any of the Robinson Cano auto's for trade please let me know.

Sketch cards inspires collector to create his own

Sketch cards have done more to the hobby than add new types of cards to collections. Sketches have inspired a number of people to come up with their own representations. Topps noticed this trend and created a contest for collectors to send in their own cards on 'You Sketch It' cards, which were given away in 2010 Topps Series 2.

Eric Gabrielson, a member of Freedom Cardboard, decided to delve back into his sketching background and give his artistic style a chance when he saw the boom of sketch cards and the prices on some of them on the secondary market.

"A few years ago when the 1/1 sketch cards started to make a splash in the hobby, I was blown away at how much some of them went for, especially considering how poorly some of them were done," Gabrielson said in an email. "Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing artists for these as well. However, they were all selling for a ton and some were not very good."

Gabrielson created few sketch cards over the years and while at work one day, a co-worker saw him drawing on a blank card from 2008 Donruss Threads. She asked if he could create a Ken Griffey Jr., card for her son. He did, posted his work on Freedom Cardboard and received immediate positive feedback.

Gabrielson started taking custom orders for a small fee on FCB, but eventually stopped after the requests became overwhelming. However, Gabrielson's newest venture 'New York Yankees: Passing the Legacy' has caught the eyes of many collectors (link).

"I wanted to have the player that most represented the team during their era with the Yankees," said Gabrielson, who estimated it took eight to 10 hours to finish the project. "The player selection is definately debateable and fans could argue for someone not included or against someone who is there, but in my opinion, each player depicted in the series, carried the team mantle at one point."

Gabrielson created the cards on Topps' 'You Sketch It' cards. He intended to enter Topps' contest, however, realized midway through the set the sketches were supposed to be from images in this year's Topps product.

He plans to contact Topps to see if they still want the cards. If not, he will either sell them or give them away as part of a contest.

Gabrielson is debating on doing more sketch cards. He  has plenty of ideas floating around and will likely do more - provided he could get more You Sketch It cards.

One of the best parts of the National

While I only have two posts (including this one) in my brain leftover from the National, this is the better one I think. The other will be a post of the loot I bought. Aside from all the wax, singles, memorabilia and autograph guests at the National there were far more fun things/people to see and talk to.

What was so great? For me it was meeting many of the people I talk to everyday and sometimes trade with.

On my way down to Suzy's house (we left from there), I stopped off to hang out with Pete and Kim from Dropped Third Strike. They were in Jersey visiting family, and had some free time to entertain me. We had a good time, stopped at the Backstop (yes, I went to a card shop on my way to the biggest show in America) and even got to see where the Jersey shore morons work.

Once we arrived at the National, there were so many people that approached one or both of us to say hello. We met Beardy, Dan from Grand Cards, Rob from Voice of the Collector, Chris Harris from Stale Gum (whom we have both met before), Matthew from Number 5 Type Collection, Chris aka sruchris, and many other readers who don't really blog. We even met a guy that reads the blog but doesn't comment, which is fine, but we like talking so feel free to leave a comment (a nice one, otherwise we (read: me) will get bitchy.

Then there were the people who e-mailed us, or tweeted to us that they saw us at the National. Not really sure why you didn't say hello, but it's cool. We'll make sure when you say hi next year to make a big embarrassing production out of it.

We also got to meet FINALLY(!) Chris, owner of Freedom Cardboard who was kind enough to bring me and Sooz out to the show to help promote his site and hang out with the guys from his message boards. Sooz and I really had a great time meeting the guys from FCB and hanging out after hours with all of them. I strongly encourage you all to sign up for an account over there to at least check it out and meet some new people either to trade with or just B.S. about sports with. They have a live chat room which is very entertaining, and sometimes there is a live stream.

While walking around and looking at cards for 5 days sounds glorious, it does get a little boring. Yes, I said it. The fact that there were so many good people to hang out with and talk to made the trip worth while.

If I learned one thing on the trip it was this: pizza subs don't have meat.

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.

Finally, some news on 2010 Bowman Chrome

Yes, no or maybe? Many collectors were asking that question about 2010 Bowman Chrome.

The sales on 2010 Bowman have been impressive - it would be hard to imagine that any of those cards will be left on shelves by the end of the year - but rumors spread that perhaps Bowman Chrome wouldn’t make an appearance this year.

Topps released information on 2010 Bowman Chrome today, finally. It will be released mid-October and will have one autograph per every 18-pack hobby box, Beckett said on its blog on Wednesday. The autos will be of 24 prospects that did not appear in 2010 Bowman.

Click here for the sell sheets on Freedom Cardboard.

That set is coming back, but there were a couple of interesting notes about the set.

1. 2010 Bowman Chrome will include a Chrome autograph of Stephen Strasburg.

2. Some of the names mentioned in the prospects set were guys who signed exclusive contracts with Razor: Tim Beckham, Yonder Alonso and Brett Wallace., which you can read about on Freedom Cardboard by masonphillip. There are some more notes in the thread on their board.

With Bowman Chrome, only the 18-and-under USA guys will be included. The college national team is in Topps Chrome and 16-and-under in a future product.

2010 Topps Series 2 video box break (kind of)

I did a video box break and then learned I never hit the record button. Imagine what it must have looked like as I held up cards to a camera that was never working.

Good times.

So, I did another video of just the highlights.

Before I forget, I want to think FreedomCardboard.com for sponsoring the box break. Marie got a box too, which she opened here.