I pulled a cut sig today!

So I bought a pack of Celebrity Cuts. I pulled a presidential auto of Thomas Jefferson 1/3. Nah, just kidding, I still haven't bought any American Sports Cards this year. In fact, I might start making my own presidential cut signatures since ya know, the cut autos might not even be signed by the Presidents. This also has been reported on Wax Heaven, The Sports Card File, and Sports Card Uncensored.

The sports industry is not like any other business industry in the world. Not only do customers come into venues to watch the event or their favorite players, but they take in the atmosphere that comes with it. That hot dog you chomp on during a day game on July 4th, standing in the friendly confines of Wrigley during the 7th Inning Stretch, watching your favorite football team launch a 40 yard TD pass and high fiving the other frantic fans around you. This is your product you purchased. Those same people do not go to their job and high five when they get their budget reports sent on time, there is no wave at the Monday morning briefing. Hell failed "executives" and "managers" in sports aren't shunned from the industry when they fail, they are simply recycled from one team to another because they've already made it this far, so how bad could they be? In any other industry, they screw up, kiss goodbye ever trying to get a job in their respective field again. And that's why so many people take to sports. It's a place to take their minds away from reality, and why so many of us stay wrapped up in sports and write these blogs.

Sports cards are no different. We can all sit around and rip open packs and talk about the cards we pull in them. Pulling that autograph or memorabilia piece of your favorite player can leave you on a Cloud 9 high for days or even weeks. Slowly for a lot of us, the passion we have for this industry is fading away by crooks. The people running this industry are destroying it while they swindle plenty of ill-advised collectors of their hard earned cash.

Razor seems to be the worst of the bunch as of late. And that's unfortunate because they are a new company trying to get a foothold in the game. They picked up some good first round picks to exclusive deals. Throw in some presidential cut sigs and the brand now has some power in the industry. They can now play with Topps and Upper Deck. Unfortunately they are not playing against them, they are playing with them. People are dropping insane amounts of cash on cards that might not even be legit. That should never have ever happened from major companies. Gimmick cards that show players throwing no hitters in the future, superstars from one club being in jerseys of another, parallels that aren't parallels. This stuff has got to stop. The sad part is, it never will because it makes money off of sucker customers.

Unfortunately for those of us who know enough about this industry (bloggers for the most part), we are watching our childhood past-time die slowly every day.

Topps, Upper Deck, and Razor make nice products but I won't see myself buying any of their products this year if all of this gimmick crap keeps up. I already am welcoming Panini and it's line of basketball cards into America with open arms.

March Update

This is my first post since February 19. In that time span there have been quite a few releases of baseball cards from the big two. Having read about them and scouring Ebay, I honestly have no desire to collect any of those cards. Error cards and rare chase cards plus the whole "black" parallel set that is in Wal-Mart and Target, unreal. A Hanley Ramirez in a Sox uniform that says "2008". I literally refuse to spend money on this garbage anymore. It also doesn't help the fact that even if I wanted to buy cards, I can't. Over the last few months I barely have money to do anything, let alone buy cards. The economy has killed what little income I have not to mention the fact that bills are coming in at a resounding rate, but I guess this is what I have to look forward to in growing up.

Most likely, I'm going to end up selling a majority of my cards for whatever I can get, which will probably end up being around $5, if I'm lucky. I'd much rather trade what I have away for Grady Sizemore cards, so if you'd be interested in that, let me know. I do still have to mail out John's cards to England (sorry it's taken forever!). I appreciate your patience and you'll be rewarded for it all throughout this summer when I move back home.

Also, tickets for the National have gone on sale, so if you plan on attending you should get them soon before they increase the price. I should be in attendance one of the days.

Lastly this blog will still talk about sportscards but as of right now, posting on here will not be frequent. Hopefully I'll have time to write some decent articles this summer.