2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Baseball UPC Redemption For Missing Hits

Question: I heard that if I send in the UPC code off the bottom of the box I will get an additional auto for each one. If this is true please let me know where to send them to and can I send them all at the same time?
Thank you

Answer:
Yes, you can mail in your UPC code off the bottom of the box to receive an additional autograph if you were shorted. I believe you can send them in all at once - as Topps has allowed this in the past - and encouraged it with other redemption programs. But you might want to give customer service a call and find out if that is okay with Gypsy Queen boxes: 1-800-489-9149 between the hours of 8:30am-4:30pm (ET), Monday through Friday.

Here is the address to send in the codes:

The Topps Company Inc.

PO BOX  2036

Duryea, PA  18642

Question: Is it known yet who the players are for the Rookie Bookmark Y redemptions???

Answer: It is not known yet. Upper Deck wanted to leave room because they were not sure whom they were going to get to sign for their set. I'm not a big fan of doing redemptions that way but it appears as though Upper Deck will start doing them like that. At the Industry Summit in March 2011, Upper Deck got positive feedback from store owners who liked the idea of 'mystery' redemption cards - as Upper Deck could fulfill them with the players they could readily attain. Also, the theory is if its a 'mystery' redemption, there is a good chance the company could redeem them all. The challenge is, on the secondary market - its tough to buy/sell them. I would expect the announcement to come first via the company Twitter and/or Facebook.

1988 Sporting News Publishing Company Conlon Collection 30 Card Set

Question: I have come across this set a guy is wanting me to sell for him. He says he has been told from several people that it is extremely rare and valuable! Here it is and thanks for your help!

Baseball Immortals
1905-1935 Edition Conlon Collection
1988 Sporting News Publishing Company
30 cards in the set and there are no numbers on the back of the cards
Some players he mentioned are Ruth, Plank, Adams among others
Any help on this would be great! I hope he has something here!

Answer: I'm not 100% sure on complete set value, but it appears the cards are not all that particularly rare (as most weren't in 1988)

for example - I believe this is one card in the set:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1988-Conlon-series-4-TY-COBB-Athletics-As-Tigers-/220324479446

Based on the price of the Ty Cobb, I would consider the retail/book price of the set to be possibly around $100, but its possible there are cards within the set that are more valuable.

Hope this helps, if they were actually from 1905-1935, they would certainly be rare ... and much more valuable. 1988 - 1999 happens to be when they produced more cards than any other era, so the majority of cards have little value.

Let me know if this helps.

2011 Upper Deck Football Dan Marino Card

Question: You show the Dan Marino card on your site but there is no Marino card in the set. Is this card a short print or will it be part of a series 2  later in the year?

Thanks

Answer: That was a picture of a very early mock-up that UD released several months before the release of the set. Thanks for letting me know. As far as I know - they do not have plans on a Series 2 and they probably just canceled the Dan Marino Card for some reason.

2011 Upper Deck 25 Stripe Football Cards

Question: Can you tell me what kind of cards you would get for these redemption cards?

Answer: You receive 25 of the players regular rookie card from 2011 Upper Deck. The same ones found in packs - just with no stripe. Its an idea that stems back to the early 1990's when a company called Wild Card did a similar promotion. The 'unredeemed' version of Brett Favre RC Card sell for good money.

2011 Upper Deck Football SP Autographs

Question: Do you guys know if any of the Rookie Autographs are SP'd? Some are claiming that a few are, but I haven't seen anything yet. For instance, Jacquizz Rodgers. His auto SP'd? Thanks guys! Love the site!

Answer: That is a good question - I've seen some sites throw up a 'Sp' list that maybe they researched on eBay.  Upper Deck probably did put some Sp's within the auto set. I will have to wait for UD to come up with an official list - because I would hate to be wrong.

Jacquizz Rodgers is a good candidate to be Sp'd because it looks like he only signed 245 letterman cards which is even less then someone like A.J. Green.

Sometimes you can look at sets that have come out (or the letterman print run) - like Press Pass and Sage and you can get an idea from print runs on that set - "who is charging the most to sign". :)  I noticed Nick Fairley had very limited amounts of autographs and that is probably because he (and his agent) were asking way too much $$$ for his autograph and therefore they only put a few out there. I noticed Upper Deck didn't have him sign at all.

I would imagine UD will release a list shortly. I would think the Sp lists that are floating out there are pretty accurate.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Selling A 2008 Bowman Chrom Jesus Montero Auto

Question: Should I sell my 2008 Bowman Chrome Jesus Montero Autographed Baseball card? It is going for $60 - $70 on the bay. He is hitting .400 right now. And you know once someone goes to the BIGS their AVG. goes down ...look at Brandon Belt. Please reply, because you are my sportscards financial advisor!

Answer: I'm always looking to sell, even though it doesn't always work out every time (as some guys just continue to go up).

It also depends on your budget - if the 60 - 70 will help you purchase some new cards or pay a bill, than for sure move it. But if you feel like risking the $70 for even higher gains - Usually like in Belt's case - he would have had to tear it up for his cards to be selling for more than Posey and other teammates. I feel that a guys cards are sometimes hotter when they are in the minors --- and there is still a chance they could be the next Pujols. Jason Heyward and even Starlin Castro -- who is doing good this season ... don't get the huge 'pop' because they aren't the 'new kid' anymore.

I'd sell it, but I'd turn around and buy more 'cheaper' prospects that all could go up too.

Let me know what you decide. Best of luck

2010/11 Panini Hall of Fame Basketball Pat Riley #115

Question: I put together the base set of the 2009-10 Panini Basketball Hall Of Fame set. My set contains 149, but the Panini checklist states there are 150 cards. I checked the Beckett Price Guide and they have 149 cards. The missing card is #115 Pat Riley. Do you know if the #115 Pat Riley card exists?

Answer: Good question - a quick search around and there are no Pat Riley cards from that set that I can find. I'm guessing they just canceled it for some reason towards the end of production. My guess would be that there was a production error on the card that couldn't be fixed in time, so they just scrapped the card. I'll make a note of that on the checklist and thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Hall of Fame Basketball Status In 2011/12

Question: Do you know if Panini is coming out with another Basketball Hall of Fame set this year?

By the way, your site is awesome...your checklists are very helpful.

Answer: I'm not sure on Hall of Fame for this season. I haven't heard anything about Studio, Court Kings, Crown Royale, National Treasures or Hall of Fame - which were sets last year. I'm guessing that Gold Standard replaced one, if not two sets (probably Studio, but I'm not sure) ... My guess would be that they would do another HOF set, since they had an agreement they signed last year with them, but it would be a post-season release like last year.

I know box prices dropped below wholesale on this product - so in order for it to return, Panini will need to make some enhancements or configuration changes to make it more profitable for the dealers. Studio, Court Kings and Crown Royale were the same until Blake Griffin started playing.

Hope this helps. I haven't heard anything about a new basketball set in a while - so I'm guessing that in the next couple of weeks we should hear something. (As Absolute and Classics are live, and Gold Standard is a month away)

Glad you enjoy the site, good luck with your collection.

UPDATE: The day I send this e-mail, Panini announces 10/11 Panini Totally Certified Basketball, and I have early release dates for Season Update, Hoops and National Treasures basketball here. Still no word on Hall of Fame Basketball.

What Sports Card Wholesaler To Choose

Question: Read your list of wholesalers and wanted to know from your experience where would be the best place to go If I wanted to sell boxes of cards on ebay. Which wholesaler would I go to be able to make a profit.
Thanks for your time.

Answer: Thanks for the e-mail. I would try as many as you could ... Including All Sports Marketing, Global Sports, Peach State Sports, Edgeman and others. Upper Deck and Panini have recently changed the rules regarding sales online of new product without a physical store-front, so you'll want to check into that before you plan on selling their current products. Having as many options as you can is usually the best way to shop around when you find a box that is selling well online.

They will all have similar prices - and you'll have to pick and choose which boxes are hot at the time. Often times the price on eBay will be the same or lower than what they are offering. Usually when RC's within the set start getting hot (like Blake Griffin) you can make a few bucks selling 'older' product. You can make money on pre-orders, but at the same time - you can get burned if the price drops after release.

Selling other fan items from Wincraft or other distributors is another good way to keep a steady profit line coming in, as sports cards can be somewhat inconsistent depending on what is happening in the leagues. Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon are also good to sell, I remember selling as much Yu-Gi-Oh online as sports cards back 10 years ago.

There is no 100% guarantee make money product, but if you stay up on the hot players/teams - you can make money when the fans get excited about a team or player.

Hope that helps, and best of luck. Let me know if you have further questions.

2010 Topps Heritage Baseball Dice Game Variations

Question: I just found your website while trying to find info on this set of cards. Great stuff by the way!! I appreciate any help you can provide as to which players are part of the game and if there is any info on how to play the game. I have one card with Chase Utley but it is not numbered that I can see. I would like to try and get the other 18 if possible but need to know who and what I am looking for. I went to a local card shop and they had no idea what I was talking about. Thank you for your time and look forward to hearing back from you.

Answer: It sounds like you found the rare dice game variation cards from 2010 Topps Heritage Baseball.  Those cards pay homage to a set Topps released back in 1961.  I believe these are all the cards from the set:

Albert Pujols
Joe Mauer
Grady Sizemore
Alex Rodriguez
Matt Kemp
Justin Upton
Mark Teixeira
Chipper Jones
Chase Utley
Adam Jones
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Derek Jeter
Ian Kinsler
Ichiro
Hanley Ramirez
Vladimir Guerrero
Victor Martinez
Tim Lincecum

Your best bet is to look at cards either online or in person from 2010 Topps Heritage Baseball. Most sellers online list the cards under "2010 Heritage Dice" - that will yield 34 cards on eBay. They are popular - and sell for around $3-10 depending on the player.

Let me know if you have any other questions - good luck on your quest and let me know if you ever need any more help.

2011 Topps CC Sabathia Gold With No Serial Number

Question: I have added scans of both the front and the back of my Topps 2011 Gold parallel CC. Sabathia card, as I understand it all of these cards are serial numbered to 2011, but as you can see this one has nothing?!  I can't find anyone else who has had a gold parallel like this one, so any help would be great and how much value would this card have if any?

Answer: The value would all depend, you'd really need at least 2 people bidding against it to get a big price on eBay, or find a CC Sabathia fan that really wanted the card. I'd think that it would have a similar value to a non-auto CC Sabathia card #1/1 or #/5 or less, considering there is possibly less than a handful of these around. But its possible you could get more if you could get verification from Topps. My guess is that it was a printing error - as its possible the cards are made, then serial numbered. For quality control purposes they probably keep some gold cards un-numbered, just in case they need to re-print a particular card. This card is probably the 'extra' CC Sabathia's that they had, and it accidentally made it into real packs.

Hope that helps

2011 Topps Opening Day Baseball Toys R US Exclusives

Question: I really enjoy your site and just wanted to let you guys know that there are special inserts only available at Toys R Us. Geoffrey the giraffe has been added for one card to 5 teams. I've included the checklist if that helps you out. If you guys are already aware, I'm sorry just thought I'd help out :-)

#TRU1 - New York Yankees
#TRU2 - Boston Red Sox
#TRU3 - Philadelphia Phillies
#TRU4 - Chicago Cubs
#TRU5 - San Francisco Giants

Please continue the great work and I hope you enjoy this years season

Answer: Thanks for the heads up!  I never would have noticed those cards. Took me awhile to find a picture of one! I've updated the Opening Day Checklist with your information. Thanks again, if you ever notice anything is missing from any of our checklists feel free to send me an email anytime! Thanks for coming to our site!