Pat Stapleton recently finally admitted he has the puck from Paul Henderson's famous 1972 Summit Series goal. Of course, people are now going nuts about what Stapleton should do with it -- donate it to the Hockey Hall of Fame, selling it at auction, keep it.
I made a similar suggestion to the following for the Barry Bonds home run ball, and I'll suggest it now for Labatt's, Research In Motion or some similar Canadian company:
1) Determine a fair market price for the puck.
2) Labatt's writes a cheque in that amount to Pat Stapleton. They also write another cheque for the same amount in the name of every single player on the '72 team and give it to Stapleton's favourite charity.
3) Labatt's, Stapleton and whichever team members want to attend then hold a press conference and donate the puck to the HHOF.
Whatever Labatt's (or whomever) pays for the puck, the company will get 10 times the amount of positive publicity for the gesture, the puck ends up in the Hall of Fame where it belongs and everyone goes home happy.
Oh, and I'll promote the card show/autograph signing surrounding the '72 players being in town. :D
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Scourge of Pack Searching
Adam McFarland over at The Sports Lizard has an interesting article on pack searching where he used calipers to find the thick packs in a football box.
Adam actually picked a product that is a little weird in this respect, as Donruss tends to seed its autographs in packs that don't have a memorabilia card. Other possibilities for search were raised by readers, including weighing the packs.
And it's not even that tough. There are any number of products that come out every year that can easily be searched. 2007-08 Upper Deck SPx, for example, generally contains four jersey cards per 18-pack box. It's very easy to feel which packs have the jerseys in them because UD doesn't put decoys in the other packs.
There are tons of other examples, and they are the reason we don't allow customers to pick their own packs.
The more insidious problem, however, is store owners searching the boxes. I pledge to you that we don't, and here's why -- we have a reputation to maintain. We have a large enough number of regular customers that even if we decided to go the dishonest route, they would quickly ascertain that we were searching our boxes and stop frequenting us.
We also regularly tell our customers to be careful purchasing from retail outlets because no one at Wal-Mart is watching for searchers. Of course, there's already so few good cards in most retail products, it's tough to pull anything great even if you aren't cheating.
As for eBay, caveat emptor is the best policy. It's possible the best boxes have been pulled from cases, or boxes have been opened and resealed -- and I would never purchase a single pack on line, period.
If you have concerns, ask us, whether you're buying from us or anyone else. We're here to help. But as for us and pack searching -- never have, and never will.
There are also a couple of other blogs linked in Adam's article -- be sure to jump over and read those also.
Adam actually picked a product that is a little weird in this respect, as Donruss tends to seed its autographs in packs that don't have a memorabilia card. Other possibilities for search were raised by readers, including weighing the packs.
And it's not even that tough. There are any number of products that come out every year that can easily be searched. 2007-08 Upper Deck SPx, for example, generally contains four jersey cards per 18-pack box. It's very easy to feel which packs have the jerseys in them because UD doesn't put decoys in the other packs.
There are tons of other examples, and they are the reason we don't allow customers to pick their own packs.
The more insidious problem, however, is store owners searching the boxes. I pledge to you that we don't, and here's why -- we have a reputation to maintain. We have a large enough number of regular customers that even if we decided to go the dishonest route, they would quickly ascertain that we were searching our boxes and stop frequenting us.
We also regularly tell our customers to be careful purchasing from retail outlets because no one at Wal-Mart is watching for searchers. Of course, there's already so few good cards in most retail products, it's tough to pull anything great even if you aren't cheating.
As for eBay, caveat emptor is the best policy. It's possible the best boxes have been pulled from cases, or boxes have been opened and resealed -- and I would never purchase a single pack on line, period.
If you have concerns, ask us, whether you're buying from us or anyone else. We're here to help. But as for us and pack searching -- never have, and never will.
There are also a couple of other blogs linked in Adam's article -- be sure to jump over and read those also.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Welcome to our newest collector!
Big Mike Jenkins, one of our best customers and a big baseball guy, has a new addition to his family -- 8 lb, 2 oz Chelsea! Congratulations, Mike!
The IceBox II -- The Empire Strikes Back!
Okay, so it isn't that big a deal, but we're in our new digs! The store is more than 2,000 square feet, with a big pack wall (and only getting bigger), plenty of singles, NHL RBK replica jerseys, gameworn items, replica masks, autographs, framed pieces, custom framing ... well, you get the idea!
In addition, we now have The Brick Collectible Comfort Zone ready for your viewing and relaxing pleasure! Thanks to the fine folks at The Brick, we now have:
* A 52-inch Samsung plasma screen HD TV
* An 11-foot leather sectional couch with a pair of recliners
* A full wireless surround-sound system and DVD/iPod/CD/XM receiver
* A nice foldout coffee table for breaking boxes!
Stop by and check us out, and we'll post pictures soon!
In addition, we now have The Brick Collectible Comfort Zone ready for your viewing and relaxing pleasure! Thanks to the fine folks at The Brick, we now have:
* A 52-inch Samsung plasma screen HD TV
* An 11-foot leather sectional couch with a pair of recliners
* A full wireless surround-sound system and DVD/iPod/CD/XM receiver
* A nice foldout coffee table for breaking boxes!
Stop by and check us out, and we'll post pictures soon!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Say hello to Mario in Sweet Shot!
We just picked up a few more tins of 2007-08 Upper Deck Sweet Shot Hockey, and Clarence stopped by to pick up a card and decided to try his luck with a tin with oddball numbering in relation to the others on the shelf.
As his reward, he nailed the Sweet Show Stick Signatures Mario Lemieux autographed stick card numbered 12/15. Nice pull, Clarence!
As his reward, he nailed the Sweet Show Stick Signatures Mario Lemieux autographed stick card numbered 12/15. Nice pull, Clarence!
A kind word to the folks at Inkworks!
Just a shout out to the folks at Inkworks, makers of fine non-sport cards such as Family Guy and The Simpsons, among others. I was fortunate enough to meet Inkworks owner Allan Caplan at a distributor's day a few years back, and he is a super-nice guy.
One of our customers, Chris, picked up a box of Scooby Doo 2 and cracked it with his kids. They were fortunate enough to pull the redemption for an autographed Alicia Silverstone card.
Unfortunately, the redemption expired September 30, 2004!
Both I and another of my customers advised Chris to send in the redemption anyway, just to see if there was any chance of getting the autograph. Lo and behold, in his mailbox this morning:
Thanks, Allan, and everyone else at Inkworks!
One of our customers, Chris, picked up a box of Scooby Doo 2 and cracked it with his kids. They were fortunate enough to pull the redemption for an autographed Alicia Silverstone card.
Unfortunately, the redemption expired September 30, 2004!
Both I and another of my customers advised Chris to send in the redemption anyway, just to see if there was any chance of getting the autograph. Lo and behold, in his mailbox this morning:
Thanks, Allan, and everyone else at Inkworks!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Kane do!
We've blown through more than a case of the new 2007-08 SP Authentic since Thursday! Congrats to Marty, who nailed the Patrick Kane FW authographed rookie card in the last pack of his box!
Of course, he also pulled the die-cut HoloFX Sidney Crosby in the first pack -- nice box!
We're out temporarily, but we will have boxes back in stock on Monday! Grab them before they go even higher!
Of course, he also pulled the die-cut HoloFX Sidney Crosby in the first pack -- nice box!
We're out temporarily, but we will have boxes back in stock on Monday! Grab them before they go even higher!
Friday, March 28, 2008
A little insight into our autograph business
We've recently had a discussion over on the Spawn boards about bringing in players for autograph signings. Rather than rehash everything here, here's a link to that conversation.
If you have any questions, feel free to make a comment here or send me an email.
If you have any questions, feel free to make a comment here or send me an email.
Friday, February 8, 2008
What's up with this year's SP Game Used?
Every year I'm a huge fan of Upper Deck's SP Game Used. Even two years ago when the player selection for the base jerseys was awful, I cracked boxes and wholeheartedly recommended it to my customers.
This year, the cards are fantastic. Dual jerseys as the base memorabilia cards, lots of interesting patch inserts and autographed cards -- UD really could have hit a home run here.
Instead, there are tons and tons of damaged cards coming out of packs. Take a look at the people breaking it on the Beckett Hockey forum -- complaints galore. I have pulled two patch cards and both of them have had huge chunks out of the sides.
When will this stop? It's annoying for me, because by the time I get these cards back from UD, the resale value will be half of what it is now. For customers, it's frustrating to pony up big $$$ for a box and then get cards that look as if Richard McWilliams has been tap dancing on them.
I also don't know if this is substantiated or not, but I've heard the reason SPGU was delayed was so Upper Deck could work on quality control in these cards. I hope that's not true.
I trust Upper Deck to make good on these cards -- they generally do. I also understand damage will happen (despite the fact I mailed out an entire box of damaged cards last year for a customer and never received anything back from Upper Deck). But there's no excuse for the frequency with which these cards are coming out trashed.
This product will still sell and sell well. Heck, I'm still going to crack another box. But come on, UD -- pick it up a little. This is embarrassing.
This year, the cards are fantastic. Dual jerseys as the base memorabilia cards, lots of interesting patch inserts and autographed cards -- UD really could have hit a home run here.
Instead, there are tons and tons of damaged cards coming out of packs. Take a look at the people breaking it on the Beckett Hockey forum -- complaints galore. I have pulled two patch cards and both of them have had huge chunks out of the sides.
When will this stop? It's annoying for me, because by the time I get these cards back from UD, the resale value will be half of what it is now. For customers, it's frustrating to pony up big $$$ for a box and then get cards that look as if Richard McWilliams has been tap dancing on them.
I also don't know if this is substantiated or not, but I've heard the reason SPGU was delayed was so Upper Deck could work on quality control in these cards. I hope that's not true.
I trust Upper Deck to make good on these cards -- they generally do. I also understand damage will happen (despite the fact I mailed out an entire box of damaged cards last year for a customer and never received anything back from Upper Deck). But there's no excuse for the frequency with which these cards are coming out trashed.
This product will still sell and sell well. Heck, I'm still going to crack another box. But come on, UD -- pick it up a little. This is embarrassing.
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