I bought five packs of the newest Black Diamond Hockey last Tuesday from a card store in Streetsboro. Nice card store and have been going to them occasionally for the last 3 years. The store itself has gotten a face lift on the inside and looks really nice now. It's on Route 14, and coming from the West, is just past Route 43, on the right side in a small strip of stores.
Anyways, my big pull was a quad jersey of Thomas Vanek (Buffalo). I've never pulled a Quad Jersey out of a pack, although I do own a few quad jerseys. The pull happened in my second pack, which was unusual, as I never really hit for anything in my first two packs.
After the first 4 packs, I decided to try one more pack, out of hope I get another decent pull. Sure enough, this pull was better than the Vanek Quad Jersey. A level 4 Black Diamond Rookie Card of Derick Brassard, who was a strong candidate for the Calder Cup. Unfortunately, he is out of the year now due to hurting his shoulder in a fight about a week and a half ago. That is the worst thing to happen for him and for Columbus, since the team is showing signs of promise between him and Ryan Mason between the pipes
I don't have enough time to blog about the current Browns season and recent firings of Savage and Crennel, but there will definitely be a solid blog in the near future. Between them and Tottenham, I don't really know what to say about my sports teams. And I refuse to blog about the Cavs, because the moment I dedicate a blog to them, they'll start doing bad. I have been watching every game and am completely lost for words the way the team is performing.
Also hope to put up a series of blogs about the Indians whole system and what I hope to be done for our 2009 campaign.
First off, Merry Christmas to everyone, hope your Christmas goes well.
The other day I purchased some of the Donruss Sports Legends packs. And by some, I mean one pack. And I'm so glad I did. The moment I opened the cards, I hated them. Gold foiled, why? The pictures themselves are nice and the layout of the card is nice, but the gold is a bit too much. I pulled a Cliff Hagan (who?), Jennie Finch, Whitey Ford, Dennis Rodman parallel /250, and Amanda Beard. The Whitey Ford is my favorite card of the pack.
I'm about to leave to go see family, so I'll have an update with photos on my pulls from 2008/2009 UD Black Diamond Hockey.
This card has solid imagery. Although it looks like Klesko just missed a curve ball, the picture is an excellent full body photo. From the top to the bottom, left to right, Klesko covers the entire center area of the card. It's always important when making a card to focus on the player because, regardless what card companies want you to believe (jersey patches, bat cards, George Washington hair pieces), it is all about the players. I mean, if I pulled a Ryan Klesko jersey I wouldn't be nearly as happy as pulling a Grady Sizemore because of the player. Anyways, Klesko's picture is in the center of the card, and the background is his home field, with no fans to create any color disturbance. Photo rating is a 7 out of 10.
The creative staff of Leaf has never exactly known what they are doing. The overall style of the card is fairly typicial. There is a white outline with the company logo in the top left corner. The name and position are faded-in on the bottom. Nothing over the top or out of the ordinary (in a good or bad way) with this. But then one takes a look at the sides of the card and wonders what is going on. No, it's not bad photagraphy that makes the right side of the card blurry, that is the actual style of the card. I guess pixel stretching was a fad I never knew about. For some reason, Leaf thought that it made the card look better. I also have a problem with the location of the Padres logo. The fact that is says Padres on both sides of the card at the exact same height is less than desirable. Leaf, your buyers are (generally) not retarded, you don't need to beat it into their heads that Klesko is on the Padres. One reference and the jersey should be sufficient. The style has some good ideas, but overall lacks direction and has some serious flaws, 5 out of 10.
With the ability to do basic math, it is pretty obvious this card is slightly above average, an overall rating of 6 out of 10.
Late last night, I was searching everywhere to find Futera cards to purchase. After witnessing the box breaks of Unique (a post below), I wanted to bust some of the packs pretty bad.
The first step in achieving this would be to find out where to buy the cards State-side. Futera's web-site doesn't really offer much help in that regard, mostly due to them updating the site.
The next logical step was to contact them about information regarding purchasing in the United States. What I received back this morning was a complete shock. Not only did I get a reply, but I received it from the CEO of the Company.
Here is the email:
Hi, Andy
Great to hear from you, and thank you for taking the time to write to us, really appreciate it.
Yes, we ship internationally, and we’d be very pleased to send you some details about the collections.
Right now we’re into the production of our new World Football Online Game Card Collection which is an interactive online football game using the trading cards which carry codes enabling different player card ratings and ‘power play’. The Collection also features Limited Edition Memorabilia Cards of top international soccer players. We’re scheduled to run a Trial Tournament of the Game in a few weeks’ time (January) where people can get a chance to ‘play for free’ and get a general feel of the game. The actual Card Collection and the full Game is due to release mid February. We’re actually going to give EVERYONE 15 free cards to start with anyway, so everyone CAN still play for free when we launch. Obviously the more rare cards are randomly inserted in packs to hunt for and collect which will help improve your team’s winning chances, but we hope many people will be able to enjoy this new trading card game which we believe brings a new, unique dimension to the hobby.
We’re currently updating our website with information, checklists and facts about the historic Futera collections together with sample pictures of some of the cards from each collection since the brand started around 20 years ago... so that might be of interest to you. And we’ve also got a Collectors’ Forum where people can discuss things, ask questions, find answers, trade/swap/buy cards....
If you can bear with me for a few weeks whilst we get through the launch of the new collection, I’d be pleased to try to put together some information about the collections/card/history of Futera and its cards – if there is specific information/detail you would like please email me so that we know how best to be of help to you.
I hope the above is of some help/interest to you; please let me know if I can be of further assistance, Andy.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us, and have a great Christmas!
Kind regards,
Gwyneth Glascodine
CEO Futera FZ LLC
The new game that is talked about reminds me of the Japanese game WCCF. Some of those cards fetch top dollar on Ebay. Plus the addition of memorabilia cards in the set is something I always thought would be a good inclusion.
Also part of the emails were attachments for the new game, which are shown below:
This set features 350 base cards and 50 Future Stars for a total of 400 cards. That's quite a big set, but seeing as how it's players from around the world, with such a huge array of footballers it's probably pretty tough to narrow it down to 400.
There are two main insert sets, Heroes (1:12 packs) and Legends (1:50 packs). The memorabilia set is just six cards, not serial numbered. One of which is French stricker (and Barcelona foward) Theirry Henry. These cards are (1:100 packs). It'll be very interesting to see how much money these memorabilia cards sell for since they aren't numbered, but seeded (on average) 1:100 packs.
I plan on testing the online game out sometime this week, with even a possibility of tonight.
Once again, I'd like to thank Gwyneth Glascodine to take the time out and answer my questions.
The European Exquisite is what I'm calling this set now. Luckily one Youtube member has opened quite a few packs of this already and more than graciously allowed me to put his breaks onto Attic Insulation. Thank you very much johnsmithysmithy.
Just like Exquisite, these boxes are not cheap. They are about 400 British Pounds, and for johnsmithysmithy, that runs him about 800 Australian dollars. For us Americans, we'd be looking at spending roughly $600 on this. Now onto the breaks.
Break One:
Thierry Henry auto. Amazing card of a phenomenal player, and that pains me to say it since he is an Ex-Gunner. Also that legends of Football Zidane card is a card I would love to own.
Pack Two opens up with Jermaine Defoe, former Tottenham player. Currently plays for Portsmouth, but rumor has it he's coming back to Spurs. Pull of this card is a jersey card /285 of Brazilian and AC Milan player Ronaldinho. Completely gold plated too!
Break Two:
Pack One is highlighted by Tottenham Winger Aaron Lennon, a Legends card of Pele, and coach Tassoti. Also got a Paul Robinson, which is a bit unfortunate, but still a nice card regardless.
Pack Two has Aussie Harry Kewell and a David Beckham and Wayne Rooney patch card /350. Another legends card which got my attention is Paolo Maldini, who has spent his whole career (15+ seasons) with AC Milan. Just like his last big gold card pull, this time it's fellow countrymen Ronaldo, a legend footballer. Unfortunate his career was cut short by recurring knee injuries, but that still didn't stop "Fat" Ronaldo from having scored the most goals in World Cup History.
Break Three:
Hit one features a jersey of Wayne Rooney, the second Rooney jersey card pulled.
Pack Two features Frenchman and Inter Milan player Patrick Viera. The jersey card pulled is of AC Milan and Ballon D'Or winner Kaka. Great pull.
Break Four:
Legends of Football Diego Maradona. Arguably the best player to ever grace a pitch. American Carlos Bocanegra is featured in this pack as well. Shortly after Carlos was pulled, a two-colored jersey was pulled of Dutchmen Ruud Van Nistolroy and Roben Van Persie. Unfortunately it is an Arsenal shirt, /350. The pack also gives another Aussie, Timmy Cahill, currently at Everton.
This pack gives us two doubles, Patrick Viera and Carlos Bocanegra. The jersey this time is the same that was pulled earlier, a Ronaldinho. Not a bad double to have if you ask me.
Break Five:
I'm not sure, but I think the first two cards pulled (Michael Owen and the other player) are autographed. It'd be something to have an auto'd card of Owen, the former Ballon D'Or winner (in his days at Liverpool). Another big pull, another double. This time it's Van Persie and Van Nistoolroy again. It's kind of unfortunate to pull the big hits and already have one in the box, but it's trading material and the guys pulled are some of the biggest in the game right now.
This box is just loaded with Arsenal scum. A nice jersey but of an unfortunate player, Robin Van Persie. This pack ends off with Manchester City's super star, Robinho.
The final pack gives a rookie card of Samir Nasri, who I used to love when he was with Olympic Marseille, but he has since moved to Arsenal. Gennaro Gattuso jersey card from the 05/06 Champions League. Wow! That's quite a pull. The box comes to an end with Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo.
Overall a very nice product. Except the only problem is the overwhelming influence of Arsenal scattered throughout this product.
In my time of being a soccer (football) fan, I've never really been able to purchase cards of my favorite players that are currently playing. All I've ever found were Football Champions, which I've covered on this blog. However, last night while scouring Ebay for Alessandro Del Piero (best Central Foward ever) and Zinedine Zidane (best midfielder ever) items, I came across some game used cards of other players. I had never seen such cards, and did a bit more research. Turns out, the cards are made by a company called Futera, who in the early 90's dabbled in MLB and NBA cards as well as Football.
The first thing I did was search Ebay to see if I could buy a box of this stuff. Unfortunately, I was not able to find what I was looking for. Right after this miss, I scoured Youtube for a bit, when I came across a Futera set called World Football. To me this set would most likely be a mid to high level set.
What's neat about World Football, is that the 2007 set is 200 cards deep, and every player featured is in their National (Country) Team Jersey. Of course, there are the jersey and autographed chase cards in there as well. The 2007 set had a print run of 6900 boxes, and all are hand numbered.
Here is one of the cards you can find in this set, a game used swatch of French Midfielder, Claude Makelele. The card is numbered to /275.
The second set I came across I believe would be the end all of sports card sets if it were produced in America. It is called Futera Unique World Football. So you could get an idea of what this is comparable to in America, I'd go with Exquisite, on crack. There are quite a few of these cards on Ebay currently, and are priced very high, but then again so are the boxes. I went right to Youtube to see if I could find any breaks of this set, and was lucky enough to find a couple of videos all done by the same person, whom I have contacted and will be putting his box breaks on this site in the next post.
Example of a Futera Unique Card below, former Tottenham Manager, and favorite of mine, Martin Jol. Jol is now the coach for German team Hamburg, who have been simply dominating in the Bundesliga. I'm glad for Martin as he didn't deserve to get fired by Spurs and the evil empire that was Levy/Comolli.
This card is surrounded by a Gold Plate and a 1/1 stamp on the bottom right. The back of the card is Jol's autograph, written on the WHOLE CARD. Unbelievable card.
Having the urge to break any Futera Product, I emailed Futera directly about if they shipped to card stores in the United States. I didn't expect a reply due to it being nearly Christmas time coupled with the fact that they probably receive these emails all of the time. What I did get though, was a direct response from their CEO, Gwyneth Glascodine, which I will also post a little later. Not only am I shocked that the CEO of the company would directly respond to my inquiries, but I'm very appreciative of this, and wish the heads of American Card Companies would do the same to the many bloggers and customers out there. Thank you very much Gwyneth.
The most I have ever purchased of any Tri-Star Products was back in 2006 when I purchased 5 packs of those secondary re-sale packs. The only reason I purchased them was to get a free Jeremy Sowers autograph later that afternoon. While the packs will never contain any of those super rare chase cards, I had fun opening the packs. Where else could you open a BRAND NEW pack and pull a 1993 Topps Otis Nixon followed by a 1970 Joe Charboneau Rated Rookie? Nowhere.
However, at my work, we sell the Tri-Star one per pack Graded Cards. I don't like Graded Cards at all. I think they are a waste of time, especially on any current cards. I can understand getting a pre 1960's card graded just to keep it sealed forever so it won't be damaged by time any longer. However, if I pay about 20 bucks for one of these packs and pull a 1999 Upper Deck base card of Will Clark and it's only an 8, I want my money back. However, nobody should spend money on this product anyways.
Then they also have the 1 Autographed ball per pouch. There's plenty of variations of this, but usually I see the Hot Prospects version, the Hall Of Famer/Random Award Winner/Team Favorite/Milestone pouches. Both of these products, to me, suck. I'd never spend 65+ on one of these. And the people that do buy them have the look of shame when they open it and pull a Scott Williamson ROY. The usual end result I hear from the customer is "Do you know who this person is?" I usually reply with, "yeah, sorry about your luck!" with plenty of apathy in my voice.
A new product that we got in a few weeks back, are Autographed Bats from Tri-Star. This product hasn't been opened in front of me, and I highly doubt I'll ever see one being opened. I can't seem to find any breaks of it on Youtube, so I'll just take a guess and say that it's probably not worth a purchase, ever.
What does interest me that we just got in from Tri-Star is the Autothentics where it's a small blaster with an autographed baseball of a rising star, along with 3 packs all which contain autographs. The back of the blaster shows the big names that can be found, guys like Joba, Lester and co. However, I don't think I'd ever pull any of those, and I'd be left with 4 auto's of guys that will end up like Andy Abad or Jose Hernandez. I have been tempted to purchase one of these for about a month now, but I just can't bring myself to do it, even with a massive discount I currently have.
Going to Ebay and watching a few breaks I've come to think the cards themselves are very nice looking. One video I've watched has a guy pull a worthless ball auto and in the first pack pull a very nicely auto'd Jose Tabata card along with a parallel of Max Ramirez who is now with Texas. Pretty sure all the cards are on-card too, which is something I love.
I think I won't buy one of these, instead I'll scour Ebay to pick up a few of the autographed cards just because of how sharp these cards are.
One of the big hits of this set, above is Evan Longoria. His card is on Ebay right now, currently sitting at $6.50 (w/o S and H) and about 20 hours left. Glad I made the right choice not to buy one of these things.
