Leaf offers Jose Abreu cards on eBay

Jose Abreu is the hot player right now – on the field and on cards.

With his autographs just hitting the market, his card prices have blown up. Expect his cards to be everywhere now just like they were last year with Yasiel Puig. The good thing for Abreu collectors is that cards have hit earlier in the card cycle than it did with Puig.

Everyone wants to cash on this young star – including Leaf.

Leaf created a “Welcome to Chicago” card that it’s selling exclusively through eBay.

Of course, since it’s not Topps, it’s mean no logos or team names – and lots of airbrushing.

What do you think of this card?

Ichiro autos coming back to cards

When was the last time we really saw Ichiro autograph cards?

It's been roughly six years. One of the best players of this generation just hasn't put his name on cards - or even stickers - for quite some time, which left a gaping hole in the industry.

While at the National, Leaf announced it signed Ichiro to an autograph deal, which apparently cost a lot of money (link to Beckett article).

Why is this a big deal?

Since 2001, Ichiro has about 110 autographed cards, most of which are numbered to /100 or less. There just aren't as many Ichiro autos out there one would expect of a superstar player. This all comes down to price. For years, Ichiro has been way too expensive to sign, and pretty much still is. Leaf's Brian Gray said he had to blow him over with the amount of money he offered.

Currently on eBay, when you do a search for "Ichiro auto" there are 167 listings. Of these listings, probably less than 100 are for certified autographed baseball cards.

Consider when you put in Jeter or Pujols, you get 615 and 306 listings, respectfully. Of course, these listings don't just include cards, they include pictures, memorabilia and people who get creative with headlines.

The Ichiro autos on eBay aren't cheap.

Look at these several Ichiro cards, all on sale in the thousands of dollars range:

2004 Upper Deck Etchings auto/jersey /15
2005 Upper Deck Stars Signatures auto /25
2003 Ultimate Signatures /99
2002 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Signatures /145

For under a grand, you can still get SOME Ichiro autos

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot (non-numbered)

And, even the non-certified by card company autos going for several hundred like this and this one.

Completed auctions (here and here) have ended between $600 and $900.

Getting Ichiro back on cards is probably a good thing. The influx of Ichiro cards on the market might help lower the cost of other to help collectors get some of his stuff.

What do you guys think about the new deal?

Stickers on RRR are just for show

Screen capture  of Razor Rookie Retro stickers

There was hope with Razor Rookie Retro, the boxes would be tamper proof. Brian Gray stated there would be stickers to prevent tampering with the boxes.

That’s great! Right?

On Wednesday night, Andrew from All in Cards did a three-case break on Ustream (watch it: there was an amazing hit ... here's a hint) and it showed the stickers, which are supposed to help prevent tampering, are for nothing more than display. These boxes can easily be searched and put back together.

(I’m not giving out those details on how to do it, but there are many who know it.)

The stickers were literally silver foil with Leaf imprinted in black. Leaf stickers on a Razor product, I might add. Andrew shows at the beginning of the video just how easily the stickers come off.

Upper Deck had it right with Ultimate when part of the sticker would rip off and the other part would stay on the box, so collectors would know if the box was previously opened.

Live and learn. Get better stickers if you are truly into preventing tampering.

Thanks.

Why so many secrets?

The first product to come out under the Leaf brand will be Leaf MMA,, which is set to release next month.

But what is in this set?

That’s a good question. There are eight packs per box and each pack will have eight cards with one autograph and seven base cards, according to the company’s website. Some autos included in the set are Fedor Emelianenko, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Forest Griffin and Gina Carano. Here is the sell sheet for the set.

The picture is from the company's website, which also has two other shots of base cards if you want to see them.

According to the site, over 100 fighters will be featured in the release, 40 of which will be making their trading card debut.

But who are those people?

Another good question. But this time I have no answer. The checklist for this product has not been released. Perhaps it was Leaf finalizing cards or maybe the set isn’t ready yet.

But it looks as though it‘s neither. Leaf is apparently protecting its assets.

Brian Gray wrote on my favorite message board Freedom Cardboard:

“Honestly, one of our competitors as (sic) been calling around to distributors trying to get our checklist for MMA in an effort to make last minute additions to have the first ever autographs of some fighters which we have. We have purposely (sic) withheld that checklist to date, in an effort to perserve (sic) our status as first autographed cards of many athletes.

“I do feel comfortable letting that list roll in the next 10 days... I can assure you that the checklist of over 100 fighters autographed is very strong. Ill make sure you guys know when we post it to the website, leaftradingcards.com”

The checklist is coming soon, but it seems Leaf just wants to keep that to themselves right now keeping it a secret for as long as possible while other companies who create MMA cards are left guessing.

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.