You Gave Us A Double Dog Dare To Tear and We Didn't Back Down

Talk about peer pressure, we polled you to see if we should Dare To Tear this Jeremy Roenick 5X7 card.  A few of you thought it would be barbaric to rip this card apart, but the overwhelming majority, 84.21% decided to Double Dog Dare us to destroy Roenick to see what card was waiting inside.   Even Panini America tweeted us to "rip away" and one of you gave us the dreaded Triple Dog Dare.

We never back down from a challenge.   So what did we find inside?  

It was an Epix card of Michal Neuvirth.  Here it is, front and back.

We will have a full review of our 2010-11 Panini Zenith Hockey box break tomorrow and a video box break later in the week.

I would post the review now, but I'm off to play with my new Red Ryder BB Gun.

Video Box Break of 2011 Donruss Elite Football Cards

We were hoping to have a big announcement from the NFL to go along with this video box break, but that will have to wait for another day, hopefully soon.  For some reason, things are looking more positive than in the past.

So the really good news here is 2011 Donruss Elite.   These football cards look great and it was a fun break.   Check it out.

Enjoy the video!

Steven Stamkos Inks a 5 Year Deal and More on a Great Mailday

All-Star center Steven Stamkos has just inked a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The signing come on the heals of helping the team make a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals.  Both the Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman and Stamkos himself said it was never in doubt that the number 1 overall pick in the 2008 NHL draft would remain with the team, even though the deal took several months to put together and Stamkos was restricted free agent.

So what’s the “and More” for our headline, and what does a Great Mailday have to do with a contract signing?  The Stamkos deal is not the only thing he inked.  Today I received a package from Panini America and inside was this.

Seems Stamkos has been inking some cards too.  This is the redemption card from the box of 2010-11 Panini Playoff Contenders that has now been fulfilled.  It’s a super cool card and a great way to enter into the weekend.  Thanks Panini!

Video Box Break of 2010-11 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey

This video doesn't take long to view this, just a little over 3 minutes, but it packs a powerful punch of prime hits worth checking out.

Here is our video box break of 10 11 Panini Luxury Suite Hockey NHL Trading Cards.

Newly created 2011 Topps Heritage Rookie Cards made exclusively for The National will be available at the Topps Booth

Topps has announced that 5 rookies, including Michael Pineda, who is just coming off of pitching a hitless, 2 strikeout inning in his first All-Star game appearance, will be featured on their own 2011 Topps Heritage cards exclusively available at the upcoming National Collector’s Convention.  These rookies did not have cards in the regular 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball release. 

These cards will have their own exclusive subset card numbering and each card will be sequentially numbered to just 299 copies.  Only one player will be given out per day.

Here is the daily schedule of releases;

Wednesday, Aug. 3rd              Dustin Ackley

Thursday, Aug. 4th                  Dee Gordon

Friday, Aug. 5th                       Mike Moustakas

Saturday, Aug. 6th                   Michael Pineda

Sunday, Aug. 7th                     Zach Britton

All cards will be available via wrapper redemption.  To claim any one of these cards, you must open 5 packs of 2011 Topps/Bowman branded trading cards at the Topps booth. 

There will be limited to one card per day, per person.

The First Topps Prime 9 Redemption Card is Live!

We told you about the release dates for the Prime 9 redemption cards found in 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2 hobby and jumbo boxes.  Week 1 is upon us, so if you have one of these...

...its time to go visit your HTA Local Hobby Shop and redeem those cards.   Want to know who is on the card for week 1?   Of course you do.  Week one is Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench.   Here is a look at the card.

In the previous Topps Player of the Week promotion, the cards were very nice, standard cards.  Bench was not one of those 25 players given out.  These Prime 9 cards are limited edition Chrome Refractors.  The backs of the cards have “Prime 9 Moments” which for Johnny Bench include MVP of the 1976 World Series and Holds catcher’s record with 10 straight Golden Gloves.  They are really great looking in person so make sure to get to your participating LCS and redeem those cards.  And don’t forget to fill out the back of your redemption card to be entered into a sweepstakes.  You could win a trip to the 2012 World Series.

Check in next week to find out who is on the card for week 2.

When is a sparkle not a sparkle? The Curious Case of Domonic Brown and his 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2 Card.

This is a card that is causing some confusion.

It is card number 271 from 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2, Domonic Brown.  Look for this card on eBay and in most cases the listing will be for Brown’s sparkle card.  But is it actually sparkle card? 

As you know, cards on eBay are often incorrectly listed as SPs even when they are just regular base cards.  We covered all of the listing mistakes on eBay for 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball cards.  With the aftermarket demand and premium being paid for these sparkle cards, its important to know how to spot these cards.  So let’s take a close up look at the “sparkle” on Domonic Brown’s helmet.

At first glance that does look like a sparkle, but then again so do all of these.

 I haven’t just repeated the same photo three times over.  All three of those cards are in my possession.  But that doesn’t prove anything.  There is a very small chance I just got extremely lucky and pulled three sparkle cards.  But let me show you one card I have that I know for sure is a sparkle.

The top Mark Reynolds card is the regular base card and the bottom one is the short print sparkle variation.  Here is the sparkle up close.

This sparkle is very sharp, almost unnatural, as if someone placed it there, which is the point.  It is very different from the Domonic Brown sparkle. 

Both Mark Reynolds cards are numbered 378 and nearly identical on the back.   There is one tiny but crucial difference. Once again the base card is on top and the sparkle card is on the bottom.

The difference is located on the lower right of the cards.  Notice there is a code number.  Here they are up close.

Base

Sparkle

The last two digits of the base card code are 01 and 29 for the sparkle card.   You’ll find these codes on every card in the series.  Every base card will end in 01, 02 or 03 and every sparkle card will end in 29.

Here is the back of the Domonic Brown card.

Here is a close up of the code.

So this card is a base card.   But in the future, what happens if there is no picture of the back of the card and the seller won’t tell you what the code is on the back of the card?   The simple answer is look at the other parallels of the card.   Here are some for Domonic Brown.

Gold

Diamond Anniversary

The "sparkle" is on both of them.  As of right now, sparkle cards do not exist in parallel form.  So it’s safe to say that a sparkle parallel of card number 271, Domonic Brown, in 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2 does not exist.

Keep checking here for a complete list of 2011 Topps Baseball Series 2 Sparkle cards.   We hope to have it up soon.

2010 - 11 Panini Totally Certified Basketball NBA Trading Cards Box Break Recap and Review

There has been a lot of buzz around 2010-11 Panini Totally Certified Basketball.  Most of the buzz is coming from the new HRX video trading cards.  Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant and John Wall, or as we are dubbing them, "The Panini 4" are featured on cards with video highlights, and for those cards that are autographed, footage of the actual signing of the card.  But what happens once you look past the HRX cards?  Does this set stand on its own as something worth owning?  In short, totally.

Totally Certified Basketball belongs in our premium cards category, HRX video card or not.  Each hobby box contains 6 packs with 5 cards per pack. Each box contains 6 autograph or memorabilia cards with at least 2 autographs #/599 or less. Case hits include an autograph from one of the Panini 4, Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant or John Wall, a 1/1 card or an autographed card #/5 or less.  Here are the cards we pulled from the box.

The base cards are #/1849.  

Tim Duncan, front and back

Here are the rest of the base cards we pulled.  These appear silver in person like the Tim Duncan card above, but come off as somewhat blue in the scan.

These include Carmelo Anthony and Pau Gasol.  All are #/1849.

Red parallels of Rajon Rondo, Stephen Jackson, Tyson Chandler and LeMarcus Aldridge #/499

Blue parallels of Chase Budinger, Baron Davis and Chauncey Billups #/299

Josh Smith Fabric of the Game Memorabilia #/299

Caron Butler, Manu Ginobili and Russell Westbrook Red Memorabila #/249

Laundry Fields Gold Rookies Autographs #/25

Michael Beasley Certified Potential Autograph #/5

Overall Look

These cards remind me of the REM song "Shiny Happy People."  They are shiny with bold colors and there is something intangible about that combination that makes you happy. 

Quality and Variety of Players

The checklist is a little bit of a mixed bag, but the vast majority of names on the list are extremely desirable.  Once you get into the special inserts, the checklist becomes a roll call of amazing players.  

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

Rookie autos are on card.  Every card, including the commons, are numbered.  The low numbered Fabrics of the Game really compliment the colorful nature of this set.  So yes... the hits satisfy.  Now pull one of the HRX video cards and you'll be singing too.

Will you keep coming back for more?

Upper end collectors will try to construct entire base sets and thrill seekers will purchase Totally Certified by the case or multiple case order.  For most of us, taking the chance on one box will be easy, but don't be surprised if you feel the need to return for another one.     

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

If you are interested in getting your hands on a box of 2010 - 11 Panini Totally Certified Basketball, do it now.   This is the type of product that gets rush orders and then sells out, which, in turn, makes it hard to find and pushes prices up. 



Review box provided by Panini