Category Archives: Ridiculosity

Talk About A Ridiculous Price For A Ridiculous Pull!

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Over the last few years, SP Authentic has offered a cool chase card for the buyers of the product. Basically, for each of the last few sets, there has been one or two redemptions per year that offer a complete set of low numbered rookie patch autos for the lucky person that pulls the card.

This year, the person wisely put it up for auction and let it run. To say that the ending price is a little surprising is like saying the Happening was just “a bad movie.”
After getting news of Upper Deck’s settlement yesterday, I have been assured that all will remain the same, however, investing thousands in a redemption is still risky regardless. I would maybe have thought twice about this one, just because of the shear price of it.
Oddly enough, many people are speculating that the hand numbered “platinum” rookie patch autos numbered to five, were actually supposed to be this redemption’s reward. Im not sure if that is actually the case, but it seems like that would have been the case for previous incarnations of this chase.

These Are Ridiculous Cards

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Right now, two cards are up on eBay that will never be produced ever again. In fact, they are custom 1-of-1s produced by Upper Deck for a collector, both of which have sold for over $14K together.

After some detective work by the users over on freedom card board, they have figured out that these cards were likely used as part of a settlement due to the counterfeit Ruth quad cut auto that was featured on HBO, and possibly one other situation. For the Ruth quad, More than one of the card’s cut autos were found to be fake, and Upper Deck had to make good for the collector who spent thousands to obtain the card.
The users speculated that Upper Deck either offered or was forced to provide these cards, which are not part of any set, and are not ever going to be available ever again in any product. The Tiger features two player worn swatches and an auto, and the LeBron/Jordan features two of the best autos I have ever seen on one of their cards, as well as a GU swatch from each. They are foil numbered 1/1, and could actually be two of a few others. Im guessing there is at least a Jeter/Griffey card that he may have kept.
Either way, I have an email in to Chris Carlin, maybe more light will be shed on this subject.

SPX 2009: The Shadow Box Cards Explained

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After months of trying to get an idea as to what these cards are actually going to be, here is an explanation from Chris Carlin:

The card is five layers so it’s a little thicker. Three of the layers have images, two of the layers are filler to add depth. The images and scans we show don’t speak to the three-dimensional look of the cards so it’s hard to understand fully how unique these cards are unless you have one in front of you.

Im guessing this means that two of the three image layers will have acetate as the stock they are printed on, with a very, very thick result. For the third Image layer, its probably a solid cardstock background slide or another acetate style design background. It should be amazingly cool, especially when they have the signed versions.

They are going to serve as case hits for the upcoming SPX release, and you can bet that they are going to be pretty valuable as well. Hopefully they arent too much to buy, as I know I wont be lucky enough to pull one.

Here is Mario’s take on it, he should have a sample to show everyone next week sometime.

Could A Scrub Be The Most Expensive Chrome Auto Of The Year?

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Demetrius Byrd played his college ball at LSU, was picked late in the 7th round of the NFL draft, and Topps couldnt even get a uniformed pic of him for the cards they produced. Crazy enough, the odds of pulling his auto out of chrome are MORE THAN the odds of pulling a Superfractor, thus making this cardthe most expensive scrub auto ever made.

Now, this could easily be a mistake, but Byrd’s odds are listed at 1:7000 packs for his autograph. To pull a 1/1 superfractor, the odds are one in just under 3700 packs. Im guessing that if the odds are true, Topps must not have gotten many signed stickers back from him, therefore limiting the amount produced and inserted. There were enough to put him on the checklist, but so few that the odds are closer to one every 24 cases. Based on that, you can expect that the amount of Byrd’s total signatures are less than any other player ever produced in a Chrome set. Crazy.
Factor in that Topps Chrome is one of the most widely collected sets of the year, and this autograph may be worth more than most of the other players from the past few years. Rarity drives price in these cases, and saying this card is Rare is an understatement.