February 2011 Sports Card Radio E-Mail Questions

February 2011 E-Mail Questions

Question: I have a 2009 John Elway TTR-90 10/18 and have not been able to find any info on this card. Even the Topps web site itself does not itemize this list. At least not that I have found.  Can you help me find this complete checklist and also to find info on this specific card?

Answer: I’m leaning toward the Sepia (Brownish) version which Beckett has listed as serial numbered #/15. I’ve seen some copies of the Red – it looks like it might go by the color on the “bottom stripe” where the HOF jersey is. I’m still not 100% sure, but I’ll keep looking to try and find pics of every card except the gold.

Beckett could very well just have that as a mistake on their site – they get the info from Topps back in 2009 – so perhaps Topps ended up with a few more Elway jersey cards then they initially thought and didn’t pass the correct info over to Beckett. I will continue to look into finding pictures and let you know what I find out.

Question:  Do you know if there will be a National Treasures Basketball for 2011 or is Gold Standard replacing it?

Answer:  I believe there will be National Treasures Basketball – Gold Standard is a new product… possibly replacing Studio or Court Kings. My guess is that NT will come out after the season as last year was around August when it finally released.

Hope that helps, I haven’t seen any info on it, but last years set was huge for Panini – and I’m sure they want to build on it this year.

Question:  I would like to know the difference between a retail box and a Hobby box.And what would be the best to by between both?

Answer: Thanks for the e-mail, that’s a good question. The traditional definition is Hobby Boxes can be purchased at Card Shops & ‘Hobby’ Stores, where Retail boxes are purchased Target, Wal-Mart & other ‘Retail’ stores that sell a bit of everything.

Now you can usually find retail & hobby boxes online – but you’ll never see a ‘hobby’ box sold at Target or Wal-Mart.

Retail packs tend to have harder odds to hit the autographs/jersey cards. There are some 1/1 hits that only make it into hobby boxes, where Retail will sometimes have a special insert or manufactured patch card.

If you are strictly looking for ‘base’ cards or non-autographed & jersey cards – retail is not a bad way to get cards. If you are looking for Autographs and other big hits on a regular basis — you should just save up a little more money and buy the hobby box.

Also, hobby boxes sometimes move up/down in price based on collectors interest, where retail product hardly ever goes on sale.

Hope that helps!

Question: Can you tell me or help me find out more info about this card I pulled out of a Jumbo Box  the other day. Its a 2010 Topps Football Emmanuel Sanders Rookie Premiere Auto in “RED INK” why does mine serial #5/9 in Gold on the front of the card?  On your site it says that the “RED INK” 2010 Rookie Premiere Auto’s are #/10.

Answer: Nice card!  I’ve seen other 2010 Topps Red Ink Auto’s that are #’rd to #/10 – for some reason, looks like Emmanuel Sanders only has #/9. I believe these cards are signed in person at the Rookie Premiere Photo Shoot – perhaps Sanders messed up on one of the cards – or one became damaged before the pack-out – and thus they only were able to put 9 into the set. Thanks for emailing me – I will be sure to make note of that on my site.

Question:I recently opened a pack of 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter and inside was a Henry Hudson Sailors of the Seven Sea card. But the right top corner has the factory cutter blade marks and the roller marks on it. Is this a rare find and how much would it be worth. See picture.

Answer: Thanks for the e-mail – that’s an interesting card, but not all to particularly valuable, especially last season when Topps had many issues similar to this. Most collectors send these back to Topps for a replacement (if you have lots of them I guess)

While it is rare, on today’s market – it doesn’t carry any significant value over a regular card – and in most cases, it devalues the card. Its possible the trend reverses, but with it being something that could be faked, I don’t see that likely.

Thanks for sending me the picture of the card, you normally see them straight across the top where they press the packs together for sealing, but that one looks like it came off the roller.

Best of luck with your collection, thanks for the e-mail.