Daytona 500 Results and Contest Winner

Didn't see that coming.   In a race that had cars dropping out by the handful, Trevor Bayne took the checkered flag at the 2011 Daytona 500, becoming the youngest driver to win the race at one day past his 20th birthday.   This is his card from the 2011 Press Pass release of Element, just one of the two boxes provided to us by Press Pass for our Daytona 500 contest, the other one being the just released 2011 Eclipse cards.

 Now for the winner of our contest.  No one had Trevor Bayne as their driver, as a matter of fact there was only one person with a driver that finished in the top three.  So the contestant with the first driver to cross the finish line, Carl Edwards in car 99, was RollinRick.   Congratulations, you'll be receiving the hits from these boxes.

As usual, we like to throw in a surprise, which I guess is not much of a surprise anymore, so lets just say we also have a previously unannounced winner.  Congratulations to Matt Pederson for winning the pole position in our contest.   I'll put together something nice for you too.

Once again, thanks to Press Pass for providing the boxes for this contest.   Look for video SPEED-breaks (how perfect is that) of these boxes during the week.

Joe Torre set to return to Baseball

In his day, Joe Torre was a good ball player but he excelled off the field when he became a manger.  The reason?  Torre knows this game and has an incredible mind for baseball.  He left the Dodgers last year and many thought that would be it for Torre.  Now there is news coming out of NYC that Bud Selig will announce on Saturday that Joe Torre has been hired as Vice President of Baseball Operations for Major League Baseball.  As a fan of Torre, I'm happy to see that he will still be involved in the game and that great baseball mind will be put to good use.  More details on this story after the announcement.

Topps UFC Knockout Hobby Box, Another All About Cards Box Break

From Down Under, Jon Finch will be hitting the mat with B.J. Penn in UFC 127 this Saturday.   As these two prepare to enter the Octagon, we've prepared for you this box break of Topps YFC Knockout Cards.

Press Pass Eclipse 2011 NASCAR trading cards. An All About Cards Review.

Press pass calls their release of Eclipse 2011 “The art of speed.”  They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there is no denying just how great these cards look.   From card one of the base set all the way through to the inserts and memorabilia/autograph cards, Eclipse is smartly designed and a welcomed addition to any collection.

Eclipse 2011 falls nicely into our premium cards category.  Each hobby box contains 24 – 5 card packs with one autograph and three memorabilia cards per box.  You’ll also receive the entire base set of cards in each box.  Lets take a look at the cards we pulled from the box.

First from the base set

 

NSCS Drivers

Horsepower

Honor Society

Sandblast

Speedscapes

2011

and there is also gold versions of the base cards numbered to 55

From the inserts

Bud Moore is the subject of this release's Hall of Fame cards

In Focus

Encore

Rides

Our hits were

Joey Logano Spellbound driver worn shirt numbered to 250

Jeff Gordon Spellbound driver worn shirt numbered to 250

Bill Elliot Spellbound race used tire numbered to 150

Ryan Newman On-Card Autograph

Overall Look

The art theme is completely carried through the entire packaging, to the incredible photos that have been given a painting look, to the canvas texturing for the front side of the cards.  Kudos to Press Pass for carrying through on a theme.  The Speedscape cards in particular are stunning.  The Spellbound series is a nice touch, creating an insert card for every letter in the driver’s name.

Quality and Variety of Drivers

The front of the set is just NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers so you will not find the depth here that some of the other card sets have, but it is a quality field.   Other stars of the track do make appearances in the insert and memorabilia cards.

Do the Hits satisfy?  Are the cards too base heavy?

On-card autographs are standard.  The variety of materials that can be used for memorabilia cards is unmatched in any sport and Eclipse takes full advantage of that.  In addition, there is a large base set, but the cads are fantastic so you’ll want those too.

Will you keep coming back for more?

In short... yes.  With a complete base set included in each box you might find yourself searching for singles elsewhere or just buying more boxes and selling off the base sets.   For the really uber-collector, you can go from complete sets of driver’s Spellbound cards like this one.

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

Press Pass Eclipse 2011 is a showcase piece for any collection.

2011 Topps Baseball Series 1 Hobby Box Break, Another All About Cards video SPEED-break™.

Just in time for the start of our newly created game "Blaster Baseball" comes this SPEED-break™ of a hobby box of 2011 Topps Baseball Series 1.   Our full written review will be up here on the blog soon.   So for now, enjoy this video.

Hank Aaron and Frank Thomas go to bat for Topps

Hank Aaron and Frank Thomas have a busy week ahead of them.  As part of Topps 60th Anniversary launch, “Hammerin’ Hank” and “Big Hurt” will be Topps pitchmen this week.

The nationwide media tour will start tomorrow and will be highlighted by Aaron as a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman.

They will also appear in USA Today, New York Post, New York Daily News, WFAN, WGN, FOX, ESPN and Sporting News. 

Nice to know that these big names are behind the hobby.

Virtual Blasters for our contest are being sent tonight.

For those of you that have followed the instructions, virtual blasters will be sent out tonight via email.  More contest instructions and game play rules will be posted this week.

To get in on this contest and receive your blaster of cards, use this link.

The winner for Best Baseball Trading Cards announced.

There are five nominees for Best Baseball Trading cards.  With Topps’ exclusive MLB license you would expect a clean sweep, but two other companies made it onto the list and for good reason.  Here are descriptions of the nominees for the All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award in the category of Best Baseball Trading Cards.

2010 Bowman Baseball

Solid design, chrome inserts and the card that made collecting headlines this year with one name, Strasburg, Bowman Baseball is a great product.  When you have a rookie class like this year, sets like these benefit.  Perhaps its not as flashy or unusual as other sets, but there is something to be said for a set that delivers time after time.

2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Baseball

This is the set for prospectors.  6 autos per box, 200 base card sets and hot boxes to be found, collectors willing to roll the dice on future players covet this set.

2010 Topps Allen & Ginter

With a wide variety of inserts, every thing from Regis Philbin to Zeus to Tony Hawk to Rip Cards to... oh yeah... some baseball cards too, this is still a fun set to collect, with “still” being the operative word.  Like a magician who repeats his tricks, Allen and Ginter runs the risk of losing some of its appeal next year, but for this year, it still holds up.

2010 Topps Baseball Series 1 & 2

The thing that pushed this set over the top this year was the Million Card Giveaway. A great base set and some solid inserts made this an easy choice for collectors.

2010 TRISTAR Obak Baseball

There is a lot to like about this set.  Nothing out there quite looks like this set.  With there matte finish and raw cardboard backs, these cards scream throwback.  Lots of hits, 4 autos per box, plenty of short prints, and parallels this is a fun box to open and collect.  If you are lucky enough, you can hit the case hot box with 35 hits and 10 autos.

And now… the All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award for Best Baseball Trading cards goes to:

We are going against the grain a little with this pick.  Look at almost any fan poll done and you see Allen & Ginter is the clear choice, but this year you can’t overlook what the Bowman line did for collecting in general.  And with the rookies in the set and the fact that these are the Rookie cards to have, we had to go with 2010 Bowman Baseball as our pick.

Now for our Baseball Card Contest. Read this to get your virtual blaster.

Spring training is just around the corner so let the games begin. 

Some of you know I've been working on developing a game around the contents of a blaster of 2011 Topps Series 1 Baseball cards.  Well I’m still working out the details for th game I call Blaster Baseball, which is a mixture of fantasy baseball and pack wars.   Here are some basic details to get us started. 

You will be assigned to a team in either the Cactus or Grapefruit league, where you will play divisional, league and inter league games.  All games, regular season and playoffs will coincide with spring training.

You will receive a virtual blaster of 50 base cards. From the players within that blaster, you will have to choose a starting roster of one player for each infield position, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, C and three outfielders.  You will also choose a pitching rotation of five starting pitchers.  For your bench you’ll need one pinch hitter and one relief pitcher.  So all together your team will consist of 15 players.  After choosing your players, you will then select a batting order and an order of rotation for your starting pitchers.  You must submit your starting lineup and pitching rotation by 10:00 PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME on Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Then each day, you will be required to submit any changes to your starting lineup and your selected starting pitcher for the day by 11:30AM EASTERN STANDARD TIME.  No exceptions.  If you do not submit anything, your starting lineup from the previous day will be used as well as the next pitcher in your rotation.

I will have a post later in the week with more game and rule details, but for now I need to get virtual blasters out.

If you follow us and have a working email address so we can send you the virtual blaster and you can play.  It will be too difficult to organize this otherwise.

So who wants a virtual blaster?  Leave a comment telling us you want in and then send us an email to allaboutcardsgame (at) yahoo (dot) com telling us your blogger name and that you want to play.

Daytona 500 Contest pole position and driver assignments announced.

Our qualifying round is complete and here is the order of entries.

So congratulations to Matt Pederson who takes the pole position.

This year's Daytona 500 is going to be a very different race.  The newly paved track has been causing tremendous speeds so downsized holes in the restricter plates are being implemented.  You'll also see tandom drafting, something that might even come into play in our contest.  

Here are the driver assignments.

1. Matt Pederson - 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet


2. Play at the Plate  -  24 Jeff Gordon, Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet



3. dgreen1899 - 22 Kurt Busch Shell/Pennzoil Dodge


4. cubsfan731 - 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet



5. Michael Rubin - 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet


6. Sam - 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet



7. The Lost Collector - 29 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet


8. Matt Hickes - 15 * Michael Waltrip NAPA Auto Parts Toyota



9. BA Benny - 17 Matt Kenseth Crown Royal Black Ford


10. TJ - 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Toyota



11. dawgbones - 4 Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota


12. Shawn Ross -  92 * Brian Keselowski # K-Automotive Dodge



13. JVoorhees - 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet


14. cornwellfamily - 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet



15. Ryan G. 43 A J Allmendinger Best Buy Ford


16. Mark - 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Dodge



17. irish.man10 - 5 Mark Martin GoDaddy.com Chevrolet


18. Kev2380 - 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota


19. Mariner 1 - 27 Paul Menard Menards/Peak Chevrolet


20. felixpotvin97 - 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota



21. misfit61 - 39 Ryan Newman U.S.Army Chevrolet


22. RollinRick - 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford



23. Mark A. - 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet


24. I Don’t Know...3rd Base 00 David Reutimann Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota



25. BASEBALL DAD - 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet


26. Captain Canuck - 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford



27. Don WickedOrtega - 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota


28. Sports Jerks - 37 Robert Richardson Jr.(i) North Texas Pipe Ford



29. Casey - 09 * Bill Elliott Phoenix Construction Chevrolet

Good luck to all, check back during the week to find out who won and what cards we pull from the boxes.