Blast From the Past: Sean Burroughs

I came across a startling headline today while surfing the net " Sean Burroughs called up by Diamondbacks". Sean Burroughs? The Sean Burroughs who was drafted 9th overall in the 1998 draft by the San Diego Padres. The same Sean Burroughs who disappeared back in 2007? The same Sean Burroughs who last appeared in the majors in 2005? Yes, yes and yes. I couldn't believe it. Back in the early 2000's Burroughs was a MAJOR prospect who everyone felt would develop power to go along with a high average. It never happened  and Burroughs gave up the game in 2007.

I did a little research to discover that Burroughs moved to Vegas with his girlfriend after baseball and spent his time in the Casinos and on the golf course. The constant talk of not hitting for power got to Burroughs head and in his last few years he tried to swing the bat harder hoping it would produce more power. It didn't and it just led to more strikeouts and low batting average. Much less then he was capable of.

Through support of friends and family Burroughs is now back in the major leagues after being called up by Arizona. He was signed after a November workout when scouts mentioned how he looked like the Burroughs of 10 years ago. The guy who hit singles and doubles to the tune of a .300+ batting average.

1996 Re-Visited

It's been a while since I posted thanks to some computer issues. Thankfully I'm back with a new computer.

When the warm weather starts coming I start thinking about summer and it takes me back to the days when I was young. There were no crappy summer jobs, no responsibility at all in fact, actually I stand corrected as I was expected to cut the grass once a week. This bumped up my weekly allowance from $5 to $10.

I spent my summers playing NES, street hockey, baseball, bike riding and collecting. The first summer I really started collecting was 1996. I had been collecting for a few years, although I was lucky to score a half dozen packs a month.

In the summer of 1996 things began to change, my family got really big into flea markets and we would go at least two times a month. Secondly, my Mom and Grandma dragged me to the mall at least three times a week to look at clothing and I was usually awarded with a few packs for not complaining.

 My Mom and Grandma were also good friends with a lady who ran a convenience store in the mall, who's husband was actually a collector himself and sold singles and packs. While my packs were usually bought at the dollar store, I was lucky to get a high end pack every once in a while from the convenience store. Usually Zenith or BAP. I also collected Cujo back then and would pick up singles from the store, which always sold for 100% book value!

The hobby was hot in the mid to early 90's and all the kids in my area collected, even the computer nerds who knew very little about hockey. When the summer got too hot we would always retreat to someones air conditioned basement and trade.

In 1996 companys really started to put effort into inserts and foil cards were really popular. Serial numbered cards were starting to pop up and you thought you had something really rare when you pulled a card numbered to 5000. I really miss those days.

It's nice to see that Painini is making an effort to bring back 90's staple products such as Pinnacle and Zenith. More effort is going into non autographed and non jersey inserts and I see more collectors going after regular inserts again. Certified as really made an attempt to bring back the  parallel card and with most collectors it's really hit or miss. You love the parallels or you don't.

I will always associate 90's cards with my care free summer, childhood day's. Family camping trips were a great opportunity to memorize beckett prices, flea market's offered a wide variety of product and card shows seemed to pop up everywhere. It would be nice to see card collecting going back to a hobby instead of a business. I think everyone would have a lot more fun that way and collecting would become more popular with youth again.

Mailday: 90's Style as Usual

I picked up a few 90's inserts from one Ebay seller and got a great deal!

I have been working on the 1995-96 Between the Pipes set and I really like the look. I have always liked the look of the 96-97 set as well but have never been able to grab them at a good price, until now!

I always liked the Red version of Eddy's Hawk mask and never understood why he painted it black at the start of the 1995-96 season.

I picked up the last 4 cards of the post for my 1995-96 Topps master set I have been working on. I have been very lucky to have picked up a lot of my wants from the set lately for great prices and trades. If anyone has any card from 95-96 Topps please let me know and maybe we can work out a trade!

The State of the Hobby

Lately I have really been noticing some trends in the hobby. For starters, most products sell at there highest right after release, with the exception being prospect/rookie heavy releases. I have noticed with this years Between the Pipes that some cards have really been selling high, much higher then they should be.

A better example would be the regular Upper Deck hockey series. Right upon release singles, especially the Young Guns sell for an absurd amount but within a year can be had for roughly 25%-50% of the first month (after release) selling price. Packs upon release are usually sold for around $5 and can be had the year after for a $1 or $2 (usually retail packs only). It seems that many collectors, collect from year to year, forgetting about last years issue's for new product. As long as a card is not too short printed, you can easily have many of the singles you desire for a much discounted price (for the most part), if you wait 8 month's to a year after a product's release.

I don't really understand how many collectors focus on acquiring new product only, forgetting about past releases. In my personal opinion, after 20 years of collecting the price of cards has sky rocketed and the value received for money spent just does not add up.

A big reason for the drop off sale prices on cards is thanks to Ebay. While it's much easier to find what you desire, it's also much easier to find product for much cheaper then you would at a card show or hobby shop. Ebay has contributed to the death of hobby shops. I only know of 3 hobby shops in a 100 mile radius of me and I don't buy from any of them because compared to the Internet, they are too over priced.

From a buying perspective I can't really complain about lower prices on Ebay. From a collecting perspective and selling perspective, I have much to discuss. In regards to placing value, I once loved Beckett magazine and I treated it like a collectors bible. I trusted it, felt like it was accurate and most seller's died by Beckett prices. Now Beckett's value's do not remotely reflect actual sale prices in the market and has become obsolete. You may still find dealers trying to sell or trade by beckett value and if you do, don't expect to get what you want at a fair deal.

I once dreamed of making a living buying and selling cards with the ultimate goal of owning my own shop. This dream has died hard for me as I see that this is not really possible anymore. I begun selling on Ebay and quickly realized that all profits got eaten away by the insanely high fees. I then moved on to Flea Markets to realize that card collecting is just not very popular in my area anymore. I was lucky to make $50 a day.

While I may never make a living selling cards, I have managed to make some good choices when it comes to selling. I picked up a Stamkos FW Auto Rookie when the set came out for $45. I later flipped that card for three times that amount. Now if only I had purchased many more of these cards I would be laughing now.

At this point I think I have done enough ranting! I have a few ideas that might make the hobby more interesting and promote growth.

1) Can someone please limit the amount of releases per year?

I think it's gotten out of hand with how many releases come out by one company and it's doing more harm in the long run then good. I have heard of many player collectors who simply gave up collecting because they can't keep up with all the releases every year. It's much better to take the time to put out a solid product, then rush it and have many redemption's. I'm sure Upper Deck has gotten more people out of the hobby, then into it with redemption's. Each company should be capped at 5 releases in one calendar year per sport.

2) Give ITG an NHL license

ITG has shown that they can produce a very creative and unique product. While the company has produced some nice product, there growth is rather limited without an NHL license. The possibilities are endless for great products ITG could produce if they were allowed to show NHL logos.

One thing I've noticed is that young kids enjoy jersey cards and ITG is well known for producing some nice game used product. Many kids do not know Junior players, so having nice cards of NHL players would promote more kids getting into the hobby. As long as ITG can keep the price point for there packs at around $5 I'm sure more kids would take to the product.

3) Change Distribution Methods

Most collectors only have the chance to purchase products online and there is always a major risk of product being tampered with. It's hard to know what you are buying and where it comes from. I have never really done well busting boxes or cases and I wonder sometimes if mine had been searched before sent.

I really wish that is was possible to buy boxes and cases straight from the company, although I know this will never happen. I personally think that it would be a neat experiment to produce a set and have each card sold individually directly on the companies website. This way, the company could determine a value for the card, selling it at that amount. In a way this would be like e-Topps but for a full set of cards sold individually. The set would have to be small as a lot of cost would be associated with this due to many employees needed to fill orders. It would make things interesting as I can picture someone with a lot of money buying all of one card then re-selling on Ebay for any price they like.

I hope someone actually read's this post and takes the time to comment and reflect. I could have gone on with other idea's but I'll keep it at this for now.

Mail Day #18: Small But Nice

It's been a while since I've added to my Barrasso or Irbe collection so it was nice I could add to both my one card. This is a dual sided jersey card with Barrasso's side featuring a two color jersey. I have been eyeing this card for some time and I finally picked one up. I hope to add more of these dual jersey cards in the future as I believe their is a Cujo/Healy dual.

I landed another 1995-96 Topps Home Grown Canada for my set and I spent less then $5 with shipping for this one. My scanner does not scan foil cards very well, so unless you can see this card in hand you won't appreciate it completely. The back drop for the card is really nice and I'm thrilled to add this card to my collection.

I have a large Marquee Men Power Booster lot from 1995-96 Topps Hockey coming in and I'll post it as soon as it arrives in the mail.

1991-92 Score Re-Visited

1991-92 was perhaps the worst year for hockey cards. The hockey card industry was in the heat of the mass produced era and this is clearly evident by the amount of un-opened Score product around today. I've heard countless people say that they busted so many boxes of this stuff to try and find the Bobby Orr autograph, yet still boxes of this product are easily found usually going for $5-$10 a pop.

Their are so many variations for the set, it makes your head spin! The red bordered card is the Canadian variation, clearly marked on the back with a Canadian Flag. The second series of the Canadian issue has a blue border. The American variation was marked with a purple border and released as a one series 440 card set. Furthermore, the Rookie and Traded set was produced as an addition to the American set and features a green border.

While pulling the base cards could grow really tiresome, the series included subsets such as "The Franchise" and "Dream Team". These cards were such a thrill to pull as a kid and they looked great! Other subset's included "Trophy Winners" and "season" leaders. My Dad brought home a few packs for me one night after work and I pulled a Dream Team Wayne Gretzky card. I cherished this card for a long time and even kept it a secret from the kids at school for fear that they would keep on bugging me to trade it to them.

As I grew up and became a "serious" collector I despised set's like 1991-92 Score but since going back to my collecting roots, focusing on 90's hockey, I appreciate this set considerably now. I began collecting in 1989 and 1991 was when I really came into the hobby full swing. I have large 3,000 count boxes full of early 90's singles sitting in my closet. While many consider these cards to be junk, I consider them childhood treasures.

The Eric Lindros Hot Card was the second best must have card of 1991-92 next to the Pro Set Patrick Roy Mask card. I managed to land one of these about 5 years after the set came out from a kid in my neighbourhood. This card was simply too tough to find during the Lindros craze of the early 90's. These Hot Cards came inserted 1 in every bubble pack of 100 cards.

These Bobby Orr cards were inserted in packs and featured six different cards. Bobby Orr signed a reported 15,000 cards, roughly 2,500 of each card. I just found this information now and I can't believe they made Orr sign that many cards! No wonder he is so crusty when it comes to signing now. Orr is so popular that despite so many autographs of his on the market, they still go for a good chunk of change. 1991-92 Score was so mass produced that even with 15,000 Orr cards inserted, they are still a VERY tough to pull.

Next time I see cheap boxes of 91-92 Score I'm going to pick up two: one to bust and one for my wax box collection. Maybe I'll get lucky and pull an Orr autograph.

Mail Day #17: Some Nice Pick Ups!

I haven't posted a mail day in a long time. I have been getting mail, I've just been too lazy to post them. I've had a pretty good haul lately so I figure I'll show off some of my favourite's.

A nice low numbered card for my Brathwaite collection. This card is numbered 1/74. I obtained this through a trade.

These patch variation's are getting tough to find. This one is numbered 383/400. It's a very nice card and I love the Titanium design from this year. My Brathwaite collection is becoming really nice, although I know the collection would not be appreciated in most collector's eyes. I don't know of any other Brathwaite collectors.

When I was in my early teen years I would go camping with my family a lot during the summer's. I would always pick up a beckett before I left and I would spend hours going over the pricing section. This is one card set I drooled over: 1996-97 Skybox Impact Zero Heroes. I'm happy to have picked up my first one!

I have been working on the 1995-96 Topps set. The OPC variations are very tough and I have never seen an OPC Marquee Men until I received this card in trade. It's a beauty.

I love these Marquee Men Power Booster cards and I'm happy to have picked up the Moose! I love his bucket.

Another nice Eddy card. I really like those old Hawk jersey's. In the 1995-96 season Belfour switched his mask from red to black. I like the red one much better.

I'll be sad when Osgood retires as he will be the last of the goalies with the helmet/cage combo. I highly doubt that Rick Dipetro will continue to wear his once his face heals.

A nice card sent to me by Dodger Bobble! Thanks a ton man! It's been a while since I added any card to my Leafs collection.

Saving the best for last, the ultra rare 1995-96 Topps Home Grown series. These cards rarely pop up and I was happy to grab this one at a steal for $10. I really need to clean my scanner!