#header -->

Author Archive for Shawn

Collecting Sports Cards in 2008

Published
by
Shawn
on October 24, 2008
in Blog Exclusive
.

Many collectors have had a conversation with non-collectors about sports cards and the hobby in general. The most generic question always seems to be a “what’s it worth” style question about some Joe Montana or Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card, or the common phrase heard -  “I used to have a huge collection of baseball cards before they were thrown out”. One question that I was recently asked by an old friend is why people still collect. I think it is obvious that different people are involved in the hobby for all kinds of different reasons. What I wanted to lay out is a list of reasons why people collect sports cards. If you would like to share your opinions or why you collect/think people should collect please comment on the post.

* It’s Fun - Whether you like busting new products, buying singles, putting sets together, or digging through garage sales and dollar bins for old cards there is always fun to be had in collecting sports cards.

* It’s a Rush - Opening a package and seeing what cards are inserted has been enjoyed for many years. From older products with key rookie cards to new products full of jersey cards and autographs, finding your favorite player or a big “hit” in a pack always brings excitement.

* There are Many Levels - Whether you want to invest a lot of time and effort into collecting, or casually pick up some cards here and there you can still truly enjoy the hobby. Collecting what interests you is key. If you like busting packs then get your favorite boxes, if you want to put a set together than chase down every last card, if you want to remember your favorite player growing up then buy his rookie card.

* It’s a Great Way to Make Friends - Most collectors would tell you that the community of collectors is generally a pretty close knit community. There has never been a better time to connect with other collectors via the internet, shows, and in person.

* Sharing it With Your Family - Seeing a father/son combo or a sister and brother collecting really shows you how much bonding can be accomplished through sports cards. What better way to pass down traditions for sports fans, or to pass on a legendary player’s memories. Check out this article from the New York Times about a Father and Son’s connection through baseball cards.

* Gets You Closer to Your Favorite Team or Player - Having a personal collection of a team or player is the ultimate for a lot of die hard fans. Every Chipper Jones fan out there doesn’t have the card featured in this ESPN Article, but every Chipper Jones collector might. Whether you have a high end collection of a player, or stick with more basic products having a pc can be a great challenge that is highly rewarding.

I think there are plenty more, but I will leave that to you. If you are a collector, what is your favorite part and/or reason to collect?

1 Comment

“Fantasy Football Card” Sleepers

Published
by
Shawn
on September 3, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and Hot Products
.

The NFL season kicks off tomorrow with the Redskins taking on the Giants, and the football card market is starting to heat up. Recent 2008 releases such as Topps Chrome, Upper Deck SPx, and Playoff Absolute Memorabilia have gotten into the hands of collectors and are packed with this year’s top rookies. There are a variety of top players who are expected to have immediate impacts such as Darren McFadden, Joe Forte, Rashard Mendenhall, Felix Jones, Johnathan Stewart, Joe Flacco, and Matt Ryan just to name a few.

2008 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Football Cards

As many collectors know, the impact of these athletes on the field can directly affect their hobby importance and value on a week to week basis. If McFadden has an outstanding game in Week 1, products with his rookie card will be on the rise. Let’s take a look at a few rookies who may be flying a little under the radar, and could be termed “fantasy football card” sleepers.

1.) Tim Hightower - Arizona Cardinals RB. Hightower has the backup running back slot locked up in Arizona and will look to take carries away from Edgerrin James this season. Hightower has been impressive during the preseason. If he can continue to run hard and control any fumbling issues look for him to have a strong year and a bunch of hot rookie cards.

2.) Steve Slaton - Houston Texans RB. Slaton is in a 3-way jumble right now in Houston with Ahman Green and Chris Taylor. Slaton may be the back with the biggest upside for the Texans and is a dynamic player. His home run abilities on the field may equal a big hitting rookie card.

3.) Ray Rice - Baltimore Ravens RB. Rice is backing up a dinged up Willis Mcgahee and will get a lot of carries this year for the Ravens. Rice is a powerful rusher who could find his way in the end zone more than a few times in 2008. Coming from a school without a huge following (Rutgers), Rice’s rookie cards may still be flying under the radar at this point.

4.) Mike Hart - Indianapolis Colts RB. Hart may have to be considered a “Super Fantasy Football Card” sleeper, but with his huge fan base coming out of Michigan Hart’s rookie cards could really take off. It may take some depth chart shuffling or an injury, but the undersized Hart has the ability to be a dynamic situational player in the NFL.

5.) Now it is your turn. Who do you think is flying under the radar right now and has the ability to heat up the football card market?

0 Comments

1935 National Chicle Football Cards Acquired

Published
by
Shawn
on August 14, 2008
in Blog Exclusive, News and Vintage Collectibles
.

Reed, our Director of Purchasing, recently acquired over 60 cards from the legendary 1935 National Chicle Football set. Considered the top vintage set in football, collectors have long considered completing this 36 card set as a lifelong pursuit. The set is so tough to put together that only seven collectors have a complete set in the PSA Set Registry.

What is most impressive about this find is not so much the quantity of cards in the collection, but the spectacular condition of some of these gems. Fourteen of the cards were graded by PSA or SGC as NM-MT or better, including six graded SGC 96, all of which are considered the finest known examples of each card! While this collection did not include the highly coveted Bronko Nagurski (referred to as the Honus Wagner of football cards), it did have other HOFs such as Ken Strong, Clark Hinkle, Turk Edwards, Dutch Clark, and Knute Rockne.

Isola National Chicle Football Card

1935 Hinkle Chicle National Football Card

While we sold quite a few of these cards at the National earlier this month, there are quite a few gems available on the Graded Vintage Football Singles page. Graded Vintage is our fastest growing category at Dave & Adam’s, and deals like the National Chicle football collection proves we will become a major player in this industry.

0 Comments

National Convention Wrap Up

Published
by
Shawn
on August 5, 2008
in Blog Exclusive, Dave and Adams News and News
.

It was a fun week for the Dave and Adam’s crew at the National Convention. We brought a ton of product and set up our largest booth ever; complete with a large display of unopened boxes and cases, autographed memorabilia, and vintage graded singles, packs, and boxes.

National Convention Booth
National Sports Collectors Convention Booth
Dave and Adam's Corporate Display
Hourly Box Giveaways

There were some awesome pulls from our booth at the show. None were as stellar as the Carey Price/Johnathan Toews Dual Autograph 1/1 NHL Logo Shield from 2007/08 Upper Deck Cup Hockey. Check out that card along with some of the other pulls below:

Mickey Mantle/Ted Williams/Joe Dimaggio Bat Card from 2008 Topps Triple Threads Baseball

John Stockton/Steve Nash/Jason Kidd 1/1 Triple Auto from 2007/08 Upper Deck Black Basketball

Dimaggio/Cobb/Ruth/Gehrig/Williams/Mantle Bat Card from 2008 Topps Triple Threads Baseball

Felix Jones Saturday Stars Autographed Jersey Card from 2008 Donruss Classics Football

Adrian Peterson Autographed Jersey Card from 2008 Donruss Classics Football

Ryan Howard White Whale 1/1 Auto Jersey Printing Plate from 2008 Topps Triple Threads Baseball

John Mackey Jersey Auto with HOF inscription from 2008 Donruss Classics Football

Tom Landry Cut Auto from 2008 Donruss Classics Football

We also gave away a ton of free boxes and autographed memorabilia in our hourly giveaway drawings. Below are a few of the lucky winners, including one young man who took home a box of Ultimate Collection Football Cards.

Thanks to all those who came by and said hello to us at the National. We had a great time getting a chance to speak with you.

Thanks from everyone at Dave and Adam’s Card World!

0 Comments

How To Series: Tell if an 86/87 Fleer Basketball Box is Legit

Published
by
Shawn
on July 22, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and How To
.

1986/87 Fleer Basketball is one of the most well known products of all time in the card community. Much of this is due to card #57 in the set, the famous Michael Jordan RC. Along with MJ’s rookie, the set contains rookies of Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Dominique Wilkins, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, James Worthy, and Chris Mullin. That is an incredible list of NBA stars. What a great list of nicknames as well that includes Sir Charles (or the Round Mound of Rebound), The Mailman, Clyde The Glide, Hakeem the Dream, The Beast, The Human Highlight Reel, Big Game James, and Zeke.

Michael Jordan RC

Michael Jordan RC

Anyways…lets discuss how you can tell if a 1986/87 Fleer Basketball Wax Box is clean and unsearched. With this being such a rare box with a high dollar value, it is especially important to ensure that the box is untampered with. Below are the steps that our experts follow:

1986/87 Fleer Basketball Box

1986/87 Fleer Basketball Box

1. Inspect the overall condition of each pack, ensuring the seals are intact, no presence of suspicious wear on the corners and folds of the wrapper, and confirm the gum slides within the pack and is not stuck to the top card in the pack.

2. Count the number of Jordan stickers on the back of the packs. The sticker card is always back side up at the sealed end of the pack, and can be identified through the translucent wax paper. Look to find three to four Jordan stickers, which is consistent with a clean and unshuffled box. Every wax box has at least three stickers of each player (11 players in all), and a fourth sticker for three of the players.

3. Identify the specific cards on the top of the pack through the translucent wax paper. Possessing the proprietary information regarding the sequencing of cards within a pack/box, verify all the cards that should be present in a box are there. The 1986/87 Fleer basketball set has only 132 cards, so a full box makes three complete sets, with a few cards left over to start a fourth.

We have specialized in 1986/87 Fleer basketball products throughout our company history. Our team of experts has handled tens of thousands of singles, hundreds of sets, dozens of wax boxes, a couple of sealed cases, and even an uncut sheet.

These tips come from our team of experts, and are what we go through to make sure the boxes we inspect receive our stamp of approval.

Anyone out there ever opened any boxes of packs of 86/87 Fleer Basketball?

1 Comment

Upper Deck Cup Hockey Returns.

Published
by
Shawn
on July 14, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and Upper Deck
.

One of the most popular hockey card releases of the year is approaching fast with Upper Deck Cup Hockey slated to release on July 23rd. The product originally made a huge splash in 2005/06 with an unbelievable rookie crop led by Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, not to mention some other very popular rookies including Dion Phaneuf and Henrik Lundqvist. With a stable of inserts including some of the all time greats in hockey (Gretzky, Howe, etc.) Cup Hockey became a huge brand.

2005/06 Upper Deck Cup Hockey

As far as rookies go, last year’s release was led by a pair of Pittsburgh Penguins - Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal. Also in the mix of top rookie hits were Phil Kessel, Anze Kopitar, and Paul Stastny. Although none of these NHL rookies had a following in the hockey card community as large as that of the 05/06 class, last year’s Cup Hockey was still a very strong product. Besides the rookies, the ability to pull autographs from Crosby, Ovechkin, Gretzky, Orr, and Roy make the Cup an extremely popular product.

Upper Deck Cup Hockey

With 2007/08 Cup Hockey on the way, it will be interesting to see what value is placed on the top rookies. Players like Carey Price, Johnathan Toews, and Patrick Kane lead the way as the cream of the crop from a rookie card perspective. With a stellar line up of autographs and jersey inserts along with the addition of redemption cards for Uncut sheets, look for this year’s  UD Cup Hockey to be a huge hit in the hockey card world.

Any excitement among the Hockey Card Collectors out there?


4 Comments

2007/08 O-Pee-Chee Premier Hockey

Published
by
Shawn
on July 2, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and Phenomenal Pulls
.

O-Pee-Chee Premier Hockey released last week, and collectors have been pulling some awesome cards. With each tin delivering one manufactured patch card, one signed rookie jersey card, one autograph, and one other hit, the hockey collecting world has received the product very well.

One of our customers, Darin M. from Missouri just pulled a redemption card for a Triple Auto! Thanks to Darin for sending in the scan.

O-Pee-Chee Premier Triple Auto

Bobby Orr/Gordie Howe/Wayne Gretzky Triple Auto #ed 35

0 Comments

Vintage Baseball Cards

Published
by
Shawn
on June 26, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and Vintage Collectibles
.

Our buying team has been all over the country in the last few months buying vintage baseball cards. Actually I may be short-changing them, they have been traveling for years (and the box truck has the wear to prove it).

While they are constantly seeking large quantities of older unopened boxes and cases of sports cards, they have also expanded our inventory of vintage baseball singles. After speaking with them, I can tell you that this inventory is still growing. PSA Graded Baseball Cards of some of the all-time legends including Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson among others can now be found at Dave and Adam’s.

Mickey Mantle PSA Baseball Card

Jackie Robinson PSA Baseball Card

Once I start flipping through some of the pages of vintage cards on the site I can certainly see why vintage collectors seem to enjoy their cards so much. By the way, how sweet is that Mantle card?

Oh, and if you ever have anything you are looking to sell to Reed or our buying team you can contact them anytime.

3 Comments

Jackie Chan Featured in Donruss Americana II

Published
by
Shawn
on June 24, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and Donruss
.

Donruss announced that Jackie Chan will be one of the few international celebrities to be featured in Americana II. In addition to being a part of the American II base set, Chan will be featured in the Cinema Stars subset as well as having autograph and memorabilia cards. Americana II is scheduled to release July 16th.

Jackie Chan Cinema Stars

With Chan performing most of his own stunts, he has always had a pretty large fan base. His most popular work may come from the Rush Hour movies in which he co-starred with Chris Tucker.

Assuming that you have seen one or two, what is your favorite Jackie Chan movie?

6 Comments

Tips for Protecting Your Baseball Cards

Published
by
Shawn
on June 5, 2008
in Blog Exclusive and How To
.

One of the most important parts of collecting sports cards is to protect them properly. No matter what level of collector you are it is important to take care of your collection. Here are a few tips to take card of your cards.

  • Purchase essential supplies – this includes cardboard storage boxes for sets and commons, and soft-sleeves and top loaders or snap-tights/one-touch holders for singles.
  • Never try to “jam” a card into a top loader or case. If you are dealing with a thicker card get the proper supplies for it. The supply companies do a great job matching their products with all different card types and sizes, take advantage of that.
  • Store your cards in a cool, dry place. This will help prevent the negative effects of humidity and temperature extremes which can be especially damaging to your collection.
  • Even after cards are put into top loaders or one touch cases don’t just stack them in any old box. Supply companies make boxes that fit all types of cases, even graded cards.
  • If you have a set that is just short of filling a box, make sure to use foam box filler pads to keep your cards upright and tight, preventing them from sliding around.
  • If you want to be able to easily view and show off certain cards use high quality pocket pages and a binder or display book. Consider looking into pages that hold actual cases in them for maximum protection.

If you have any other tips or suggestions for storing your cards please post them in the comment section and they can be added to the list.

3 Comments