Just three hours left to get bonus entries in our Stanley Cup Contest for auto, mem and inserts cards

The puck is just about to drop in Boston and you have three more hours to get in on our contest as an "early adopter."   Anyone who gets their entry in before 7:00PM EST today get 2 guaranteed slots in our randomized drawing in addition to having their correctly guessed entries doubled in value.

To enter our contest , click on this link for details on how to enter.

Our Stanley Cup Playoffs Contest Featuring Great Donruss Hockey Prizes

Don’t know if you saw our STREET-break™- Toronto at the Hockey Hall of Fame where we ripped into a box of 2010 -11 Donruss Hockey, the winner of our All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award for Best Hockey Trading Cards. If you didn’t, here it is.

As you can see it was a great break. The location was awesome, Kevin was a great interview and the box we broke had some strong hits.

Don’t know if you saw our review of 2010-11 Donruss Hockey Cards. If you didn’t, here it is.

As you can see, the cards look great and the box we broke had some strong hits.

We’ve been feeling the need for a contest here on the old blog and we wanted to do something Hockey related. We contacted Panini America. As usual, they were extremely generous and agreed to supply us with a prize for our contest. So after two strong boxes of Donruss Hockey we decided to push our luck and go for a third box.

Just like our other boxes, this one did not disappoint. Dare I say it might be the best one we’ve opened yet? Guess what... I just did.

So here are the three prizes you’ve got a shot at in our Stanley Cup Playoffs contest.

Third Place

Over 200 base cards and 6 Rated Rookies

Second Place

Inserts and a Zenon Konopka Game Worn Memorabila Card

First Place Grand Prize

Jordan Eberle Rated Rookie Auto

How’s that for some sweet prizes?

Here are the rules for this contest.

1 – You can only enter this contest here on our Blogger site. One entry per person.

2 – You must be following our site for your entry to be valid.

3 – To enter, leave a comment on this post with your prediction for both the Eastern Conference finals and the Western Conference finals. Your entry must include the team you predict will win and how many games it will take. For example – “The Bruins in 6 and the Vancouver Canucks in 5”  (Please use the same name in your comment as your follow name.)

4 – Once your entry is posted, you may not change or alter it, so review your entry carefully before sending it. If you delete your entry, you MAY NOT enter again.

5 – You have until May 19th, 2011, 7:00PM EST to enter.

6 – Only one prize can be won per person.

And those are the rules.  (By the way, you are allowed to consult a blaster of 2010-11 Pinnacle Cards for your guess.  As you can see by using this link, they are very accurate.)

After the Conference Finals are over, we will review the entries and award points as follows:

Guess both winning teams and the number of games in the each series –4 points
Guess both winning teams and the number of games in one of the series - 3 points
Guess one winning team and the number of games of that series - 2 points
Guess both winning teams only – 2 points
Guess one winning team only – 1 point
Get it all wrong – 0 points

Each point you get earns you a slot in our randomized drawing.

“But wait!” you say, “All About Cards always rewards its “early adopters” in contests. What about this one?”  We say to you, “Sure! We can do that.”

For our true early adopters we have two bonuses. If you give us your guesses by May 14th, 2011, 7:00PM EST before the first puck is dropped, we will give you 2 guaranteed slots in our random drawing and we will double whatever points you get. So you could potentially wind up with 10 slots in our drawing.

If you give us your guesses by May 17th, 2011, 7:00PM EST we will give you 1 guaranteed slot in our random drawing.

We will announce the winners of our contest on the evening of the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals.

So good luck, enjoy the playoffs and a big thanks to Panini America.

The Mysterious Powers of 2010 – 11 Pinnacle Hockey Blasters

We have witnesses.  

Just before Blogger “shut down” we posted a video box break of a 2010-11 Pinnacle Hockey Blaster.   Now that Blogger is back, our post of the box break is gone.  You may call it a conspiracy theory, but we are positive the 20.5 hours of “maintenance” was an elaborate plot by Blogger to try and hide the truth... that blasters of 2010-11 Pinnacle Hockey have magical powers.

Let’s see how long this post stays up, Blogger!

We used our video box break to predict the outcome of Thursday night's Red Wing – Sharks game.  With one goal scored for every corresponding player card pulled, the blaster revealed to us that the final score would be Detroit 2, San Jose 4. 

"Correct winning team... yes.  Close on the score... yes.  But maybe not so magical." you say.  Perhaps... until you look carefully at the cards pulled.  The first card we pulled was San Jose Sharks goalie Antero Niittymaki.  He never hit the ice Thursday.  All other players pulled did have shifts and playing time.  If you disallow Niittymaki’s card, not only do you wind up with the correct score, you also wind up with the correct sequencing of how the goals were scored. 

Any doubters left?  I think not.

Blogger may think they can hide the power associated with Pinnacle Hockey, but for those of you who saw “The Tourist” you know that even destroyed evidence, burnt to a crisp, can be pieced back together, and rather quickly I might add.  While the Google link for the post leads you to an error page, we have pieced together the post by grabbing snippets of verbiage, a few words at a time, from multiple Google searches.  You can find that wording for the original post below the still existing video. (By the way, YouTube might be in on this too because our first upload attempt had audio errors so it had to be re-uploaded) 

See for yourself the power of the blaster. 

UPDATE:  Here is a link to our Stanley Cup Playoffs Contest

The winner of tonight's Detroit Red Wings / San Jose Sharks game revealed to us in blaster of 2010-11 Pinnacle Hockey.

People love to speculate. When it comes to sports, there is endless conjecture about the outcome of important games.  Vegas lays odds, sports radio offers hours of statistical analysis, sometimes video games, like Madden , are used to simulate play to determine the winner.

But in the end, all of this doesn't matter because it's about athletes on the field of play where any team can win on any day and, ultimately, the outcome is all in the cards.

That is why, to determine the score of tonight's Detroit Red Wings / San Jose Sharks decisive playoff game, we used the single most effective tool for determining the outcome of a game, 'the cards.”

We opened a blaster of 2010-11 Pinnacle Hockey and the final score of tonight's game was revealed to us. Watch this box break video to see for yourself who will go on to face the Vancouver Canucks for the Western Conference title.

And make sure to come back here to All About Cards after the game for details on our Stanley Cup Playoffs Contest.

The winner of tonight's Detroit Red Wings / San Jose Sharks game revealed to us in blaster of 2010-11 Pinnacle Hockey.

People love to speculate.  When it comes to sports, there is endless conjecture about the outcome of important games.  Vegas lays odds, sports radio offers hours of statistical analysis, sometimes video games, like Madden, are used to simulate play to determine the winner.  But in the end, all of this doesn’t matter because it’s about athletes on the field of play where any team can win on any day and, ultimately, the outcome is all in the cards.

That is why, to determine the score of tonight’s Detroit Red Wings / San Jose Sharks decisive playoff game, we used the single most effective tool for determining the outcome of a game, ‘the cards.”

We opened a blaster of 2010-11 Pinnacle Hockey and the final score of tonight’s game was revealed to us.  Watch this box break video to see for yourself who will go on to face the Vancouver Canucks for the Western Conference title.  That and you'll get to see some pretty cool cards too, so its a win win.  

And make sure to come back here to All About Cards after the game for details on our Stanley Cup Playoffs Contest.  We will be giving away some nice cards.

Get you pre-release deposits down on 2010-11 Dominion Hockey from Panini

Yesterday we pointed out the amazing Basketball products being released by Panini.   We also told you that The Knight's Lance should be part of your daily read list.

Today we did our daily reads and got a sneak peek at what looks to be another amazing product from Panini, but this time its a Hockey release and it looks to be a pre-order must.

2010-11 Dominion Hockey appears to have some fantastic design, drool worthy signatures and comes in one of our favorite configurations, "small box, monster hits."

The suggested retail price is $350, but I have a feeling will only go up once it's released because there has been a buzz about these cards for a while.  My gut tells be supply will exceed demand on these.   With Dominion you are looking at eight cards which easily sends this into our ultra premium category.   Of those eight cards, six will be autographs or memorabilia hits.  At least half of those hits will be autos.

The highlights of the inserts include;

Kindest Cuts 1/1 cut signatures honoring the greatest hockey legends of all time

The hockey debut of Pen Pals autographs featuring signatures of two, three or four hockey greats on one card, with Duals numbered to 50, Triples numbered to 25 and Quads numbered to 5

Peerless Patches Dual and Quad booklet cards featuring the choicest pieces of memorabilia from hockey’s greatest stars of yesterday and today

Engravatures cards embedded with pieces of real silver that are engraved with the names of former Stanley Cup winner – just like on the real thing — limited to just 10 copies

The return of Nifty 50, one of the hobby’s most famous insert names, complete with hard autographs of hockey’s fabled single-season 50-goal scorers

Brass Bonanza on-card autographs that pay tribute to the legends of the Hartford Whalers, all numbered to 50 or less

The unique Tape to Tape insert featuring autographs from stars on actual tape sliced from their game-used hockey sticks

I was going to include photos of these amazing cards, but I think for this one you should go over to The Knight's Lance.   It's absolutely worth a look.

A 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball Cards Blaster of Mass Mojo Proportions that defies the odds.

They seem impossible to find but as they say, anything worthwhile is difficult to attain. After a week of seeing posts about 2010 Topps Gypsy Queen Blasters hitting shelves in select areas, except my own, and repeated trips to Target that turned up nothing, I finally found one.  When I say one, that’s literal, I found exactly one blaster.

It was on a trip to get some cleaning stuff like Windex that I bypassed the place I always get supplies, my local supermarket, and drove an extra ten minutes to my slightly out of the way Target. With gas at $4.35 a gallon, I figured I could justify the disappointment of another fruitless search for Gypsy Queen by combining it with an errand.   This way, I was defiantly walking away with something from my excursion.

I was going to head directly to the cleaning supplies isle and then casually make my way back to the cards, but decided to change that mid stream.   There is was, in a see of blasters of previous release, one lone box, barley visible, a lucky find that provided to be more lucky than I could have known.  As a matter of fact, this blaster wound up shattering the odds.

I’ve already posted the video of the blaster break.  If you haven’t seen it, use this link to check it out.  

Here in picture form is the entire content of this blaster with stated odds. 

 Base Cards

Short Print Base - Odds 1:4 packs

Checklists

Base Mini Parallels

For sizing purposes, Regular Base and Mini parallel

Mini Gypsy Queen Back - Odds 1:6 packs

 Mini Back Border - Odds 1:12 packs

 The Great Ones - Odds 1:4 packs

 Home Run Heroes - Odds 1:4 packs

Future Stars - Odds 1:4 packs

Wall Climbers - Odds 1:4 packs 

 Sticky Fingers - Odds 1:4 packs

Matt Holliday Framed Paper

Robinson Cano Mini Framed Relic - Group B - Odds 1:362 packs

David DeJesus Autograph - Group A - Odds 1:108 packs

Here are the complete stated odds for blasters.

Approximate odds per pack of finding (*Sequentially Numbered):

Short Print Base Variation 1:4

The Great Ones Insert 1:4

Home Run Heroes Insert 1:4

Future Stars Insert 1:4

Sticky Fingers Insert 1:4

Wall Climbers Insert 1:4

*Base State Stamp Parallel 1:530

Base Mini Parallels:

Short Print 1:24

Gypsy Queen Back 1:6

Black Bordered 1:12

*Framed Paper 1:11

*Sepia Tone 1:94

Gypsy Queen Autographs:

Group A 1:108 - JOSE BAUTISTA, CLAY BUCHHOLZ, ANDREW CASHNER, BRETT CECIL, NELSON CRUZ, DAVID DEJESUS, PHIL HUGHES, TOMMY HUNTER, JOSH TOMLIN

Group B 1:127 - YONDER ALONSO, DOMONIC BROWN, JASON CASTRO, NEFTALI FELIZ, FREDDIE FREEMAN, JON JAY, JOSH JOHNSON, NICK MARKAKIS, ANDREW MCCUTCHEN, MIKE MINOR,CHRIS SALE, PABLO SANDOVAL, DANNY VALENCIA, SHANE VICTORIND, BRETT WALLACE

Group C 1:2,400 – GORDON BECKHAM, JOSH HAMILTON

Group D 1:1,380 - AROLDIS CHAPMAN, JASON HEYWARD, EVAN LONGORIA, DAVID ORTIZ, CAL RIPKEN JR., CC SABATHIA, MIKE STANTON

Group E 1:3,200 - HANK AARON, ROY HALLADAY, RYAN HOWARD, SANDY KOUFAX, FRANK ROBINSON, RYNE SANDBERG.

*Gypsy Queen Framed Mini Autographed Relic 1:3,800

*Gypsy Queen Autographed Relic 1:3,800

*Gypsy Queen Dual Autograph Relic 1:12,000

*Gypsy Queen Triple Autograph Relic 1:18,000

Gypsy Queen Relics:

Group A 1:139 - RYAN BRAUN, JACOBY ELLSBURY, KOSUKE FUKUDOME, BRETT GARDNER, TOMMY HANSON

Group B 1:91 - PRINCE FIELDER, DEREK JETER, JOSH JOHNSON, DAVID ORTIZ, JORGE POSADA, HANLEY RAMIREZ, CAL RIPKEN JR., ALEX RODRIGUEZ, JAYSON WERTH, KEVIN YOUKILIS

Group C 1:362 - ROBINSON CANO, RYAN HOWARD, YADIER MOLINA, DUSTIN PEDROIA, SCOTT ROLEN

Gypsy Queen Framed Mini Relics:

Group A 1:56  - MIGUEL CABRERA, PRINCE FIELDER, JOSH HAMILTON, RICKEY HENDERSON, MATT HOLLIDAY, DEREK JETER, MATT KEMP, BARRY LARKIN, EVAN LONGORIA, STAN MUSIAL, DAVID ORTIZ, CAL RIPKEN JR., FRANK ROBINSON, JACKIE ROBINSON, CHASE UTLEY, DAVID WRIGHT

Group B 1:362 - ROBINSON CANO, RYAN HOWARD, NOLAN RYAN, OZZIE SMITH, DAN UGGLA

Group C 1:1,200 - LOU GEHRIG, THURMAN MUNSON, BABE RUTH

Gypsy Queens Insert 1:24

Gypsy Queens Insert Parallels:

Tarot Back 1:96

Autograph 1:920

Relic 1:610

Prince William Relic 1:11,500

Rookies, Legends of the NBA and ABA are featured in a Sneak Peek at 2010-11 National Treasures

We’ve talked a lot about what a great site The Knight’s Lance is for tracking the latest and greatest coming out of Panini America.  If it isn’t already, it should be a part of your daily reads. 

Today, The Knight’s Lance offered a few early glimpses of 2010-11 National Treasures Basketball.  As you will remember the 2009-10 release of National Treasures Basketball won our All About Cards 2010 Sports Card Award for Best Ultra Premium Cards.

We are already excited and eagerly awaiting 2010-11 Panini Gold Standard Basketball,  2010-11 NBA Season Update, and 2010-11 Panini Totally Certified Basketball that will include Panini's first video card HRX, so seeing these images of National Treasures has just fueled the fire even more.

Here are two of my favorite images.

This John Wall card looks like it might just be awaiting a logoman patch.

These ABA Legends inserts are awesome, love the design.

In Panini’s post there is also a sneak peek at the Fabric of the Game Jumbo designs slated for 2010-11 Totally Certified Basketball.

To see those and more of these National Treasures, head on over to The Knight’s Lance.

2011 Press Pass Premium NASCAR trading cards. An All About Cards review.

Press Pass has issued their annual release of Premium.  I’ve always felt it would be more appropriate if “Premium” were named “Portrait”, “Season Update” or “Suits & Schemes” because the real point of this set is to provide photos of the 2011 Firesuits and Paint Schemes for the first time this season.

We classify 2011 Press Pass Premium as premium cards and clearly so does Press Pass.  Each hobby box contains 20 – 5 card packs with a promise of one autograph and one memorabilia card in each hobby box.

Lets take a look at the cards we pulled from the box.

First from the base set

 Contenders

 Machines

 500 Club

 Suited Up

 Draft Pick

 Premium Performers

 NASCAR Preseason Thunders

 and Studio Insider cards

and their are 10 SP variations, our pull was a Jeff Gordon SP

From the inserts

David Pearson is the subject of this release’s Hall of Fame cards

 Danica Patrick and Carl Edwards Crystal Ball

 And Hot Pursuit cards in 3D with a pair of 3D glasses included in each hobby box. Our pulls were of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Mark Martin.

Our hits were

Kyle Bush Hot Threads Race used memorabilia card

David Gilliland Premium Signatures Autograph card

Overall Look

The current firesuits and paint schemes are all on card.  What is not on card are the autographs.   As with past releases, these cards come with sticker autos, but they are done well.  Press Pass has always had amazing design elements, but for this release, they have toned those elements down, leaving a lot of subtle white and grey areas, giving these cards a more sophisticated feel.  It also brings your attention directly to the point of the release, the new driver firesuits and paint schemes.   There is nothing to detract from the point of these photos.

Quality and Variety of Drivers and Subsets

This set concentrates on the Sprint Cup Drivers so the quality is there but it does limit the variety.   But, of course, Danica is in the base set and insert cards so you might not notice who else is missing.  The 3D cards are fun, but as is inherent with all 3D, the novelty wears off after a while.

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

With the release’s concentration on firesuits, a lot of the usual memorabilia materials that are so unique to racing do not play a major role here. But if you pull one of the high odds cards like a Dale, Sr. Continue the Legend Memorabilia, Double Burner or Premium Pairings, you are sure to be a happy customer.  As mentioned before, these autographs are drop stickers.  The only reason this is even worth bringing up is because every other Press Press release features on-card autos.  I have a feeling the reason sticker autos are used here is the limited amount of production time and the quick turnaround needed to get theses cards out.  On cards autos are probably not even a possibility with this product.

Will you keep coming back for more?

Most likely one box will do it and then some smart aftermarket acquisitions will complete your needs.

Rating

 4 out of 5

2011 Press Pass Premium is a great record of the look of this year.