Danielle Edlund
Doug Kale
Keith Hower
The Hammer
dinkfod
Brian Fleischer
danhitt
Andy Broome
dsliepka
escaladefan
Tim Trout
chrisoldsFiled under: Beckett Baseball, Memorabilia, Sports Cards, Topps | Tags: Target, Topps Factory Set
My wife loves to shop at Target.
Then again, who doesn’t?
Her love for Target is so engrossing that for some reason she has signed me up for the company’s weekly email blast.
Typically, these emails head straight to the trash bin but today’s special holiday edition piqued my interest.
Wanting to see if Target would be offering an exclusive 2007 Topps Holiday Factory set I opened the solicitation, and sure enough, they are.
Like last year, the set will include a special edition game-used Mickey Mantle card that is modeled after the historic 1956 Topps design.
I picked one up for myself last year because I buy a factory set every year. And what type of collector would I be if I couldn’t use a guaranteed Mantle relic card in my collection?
This year, I think I’ll do the same. For $59.95 you can’t possibly beat the price.
Filed under: Autographs, Beckett HQ, Donruss, Sports Cards, Upper Deck | Tags: AFL
Trusted Beckett colleague and all-around good guy David Lee penned a blog two weeks back rattling off a list of the things he misses. Apparently, it struck a chord. More than 80 people have since commented on his whimsical pining, a Beckett Behind the Scenes record.Inspired by Lee’s lovable leap down memory lane, I thought I’d tell you what I miss. It’s short, simple and virtually guaranteed to appeal to absolutely no one else on this site: I miss Arena Football League trading cards. I do. I miss ‘em bad.
For two years (2005 and 2006), all three of us diehard AFL fans had real-life, honest-to-goodness trading cards to collect thanks to the fine folks at Upper Deck. We had base cards and inserts and jersey cards and autographs, just like the big boys on the outdoor field. It was awesome.And then, just like that, they vanished.
I know I was probably the only real customer UD had . . . (more…)
Have you ever noticed on the backs of 1950 Bowman baseball cards there is a red “Picture Card Collectors Club” logo?
Ever wonder what the logo meant?
That logo was the official seal of the Bowman Picture Card Collectors Club, a club used to promote card collecting with kids and increase interest in Bowman products. The collector club had its own newsletter called, what else, “The Collector”. The banner of each issue read: “The Collector Dedicated to: Child, Church, Home, School, Community through Cartophily”. Each issue featured new Bowman card releases and tips on collecting. You could apply for membership to the club and receive a nifty membership card!
The newsletter featured such self-fulfilling articles as: “Your friend…the Storekeeper”. The article starts out “Your candy store man is your friend. He is always ready to serve you with good things for a penny. He sells 
Bowman Quality Bubble Gum.”
The best feature to ever appear in the newsletter is the “Ask Uncle Bob” column. Uncle Bob was the editor of The Collector and in each newsletter Bob would tackle the tough issues of collecting. Bob had to deal with issues like “How do you play card toss?” and “How to mount cards in an album.” Bob offered tips like “An old shoebox makes a good filing cabinet for preserving your cards” and games you can play with your Bowman cards. One game Bob suggests playing is the Jigsaw scramble.
Bob says cut up extra cards that are soiled or cannot be traded into odd shaped pieces and race to complete the puzzle! I can’t wait to get home and cut my ’51 Mantle. Golly gee, that will be a fun puzzle to complete with my swell pals in the neighborhood. The newsletter did delve into deeper card collecting for the more advanced collector. Uncle Bob told readers about Charles Bray’s mail auctions and about Jefferson Burdick and his American Card Catalog. “The more serious card collector will want a copy.” Says Bob in one article. There were even classified ads and a spotlight article on a collector and his collection. Collectors such as J.J. Carter where featured.How successful was the Bowman Picture Card Collectors Club?
We may never know how many kids started collecting cards because of the club. How far Bowman would have taken the club is left to speculation since Topps bought out Bowman in 1955.
Filed under: Beckett Football, Beckett HQ | Tags: BCS, College Football, NCAA Tournament
While college football fans have been begging the NCAA for a national tournament for years, college basketball will have a third one, starting this spring.
The College Basketball Invitational will tip off March 18, and it will be a single-elimination tournament until two teams are left standing. Those teams will play a best-of-three championship series in a home-away-home format, beginning March 31.
The CBI field will be determined after the teams are selected for the NCAA Tournament and the Postseason NIT. The teams will be placed into brackets based on geography in the East, West, South and Midwest.
Last year, a record 104 teams had 20 wins or more, all vying for a spot in the NCAA Tournament, which has just 65 slots open.
Since college basketball has made it seemingly so simple for anyone to start their own post-season “championship” tournament, why can’t college football take the necessary steps and follow their lead?
