Heisman Highlight: Gary Beban

Name: Gary Beban
Position: Quarterback
College: UCLA Bruins
Class: Senior
Winning Year: 1967 – 33rd Award
Official Heisman Profile: Click Here
 
 
 

Interesting Notes: Beban was a key part of a UCLA squad that won 23 games in three years while he was at the helm…won a tight three-horse race in which O.J. Simpson had the second highest second-place finish of all time and LeRoy Keyes had the highest third-place finish in Heisman voting history…had a short professional career with the Redskins…has been a very successful real estate manager with CB Commercial…was elected to the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1988.

Featured Card: 2009 Press Pass Legends #91. As a success college player without much of a professional playing career of which to speak, we look to a very recent legends set for a card of Beban. Sets like this are interesting in that it is a newer set with (supposedly) higher quality controls yet still features Beban in his college uni from over 40 years ago. Copies of this card go for just a few dollars on eBay. There is also an autographed version that generally sells for less than $20.

NOTE: You can find all of my Heisman Highlight Features by clicking the post banner above.

Product Review: 2010 Topps Prime

Tax season is slowly moving along for me in my day job. That means long hours at the office and actually having a lot of things to fill those many hours (unlike some of the summer months where I knock off early after having spent several hours of “miscellanous nonchargeable time”). That also means significantly less time to spend with frivilous things like filling blog-o-land with meaningless, no-where-near-timely product reviews. But some how I still find time. Like now. Here’s a review of 2010 Topps Prime. Enjoy.

The Box – Click for Detail

Hobby boxes come with 10 6-card mini-box packs for a total of 60 cards. Turns out though, that if you pull a fancy-pants booklet card, you’re not getting 6 cards in that pack. I purchased this box from Dave and Adam’s Card World for $73, which translates into a moderate $1.22/card ratio. That is definitely branching into my uncomfortable zone, but certainly isn’t dizzyingly scary like products that run $10+ per card.

“Pillow-Box Packs – Fun to Open, Hard to Scan”

The Breakdown:
Base Cards (#/499): 34 (0 duplicates)
   Rookies: ? (I forgot to separate them for some reason)
Parallels
   Silver (#/999): 3
   Gold (#/699): 2
   Gold (#/199): 1
   Blue (#/199): 1
   Blue (#/50): 1
Inserts
   Prime Rookies: 2
   2nd Quarter: 2
   3rd Quarter: 2
   4th Quarter: 4
Hits
   Prime Rookie Jersey (#/420): 1
   2nd Quarter Dual Jersey (#/355): 1
   Autographed Rookies (#/599): 1
   Prime Level 2 Autographed Relics (#/15): 1

Click image for full-sized scan

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: In a word, these base cards are “great.” And I’m not using quotes in the sarcastic sense. I’m using them in the quote way. I was not recording the experience, but I’m pretty sure that as I opened the very first pack, I said, “Wow. These are sweet base cards!” The cards have a slick glossy sheen to them and are printed on premium thick stock. We’re not quite talking mid-90s Flair here, but it’s in that same ballpark. The photography is crisp and excellent. I love cards that show an entire photograph (vs. player cut-outs), without cluttering up the frame with other things. These cards have a very clear player emphasis. The design is simple and elegant. People like simple. Google figured that out. Apple figured it out. Now, at least for this product’s base card, Topps has also figured it out. My first thought when looking at these cards was that Topps Prime may finally be the replacement of the now defunct Stadium Club line. Perhaps an even better rendition. The only things I would complain about is that silver foil stamping is hard to scan and occasionally hard to read (although it seems most of these cards were brightly colored, so the stamping stood out more) and the use of the RC logo. I know why they use it and I can appreciate the effort. I’m just not wild about that logo.

2nd Down, Inserts: This was definitely the weak point for this box. The single Prime Rookies aren’t bad and even the 2nd Quarter cards are decent, if both players are from the same team. But a majority of the 3rd Quarter and 4th Quarter cards seemed to have no correlation to who was paired with whom and the overall design suffers for trying to get so many guys on one card. Add to that the fact that there is OBVIOUSLY jersey parallels of these cards, and you have a full-blown Panini-Patented backwards design issue…in a Topps product. I don’t get it either. The autographed card was decent. Not the greatest design, but it was a unique design, rather than just slapping a label on a base card or basic insert, so that is always appreciated. The booklet card…interesting. This is the first booklet style card I’ve ever pulled (well, other than 1993 Pacific Tri-Folds). I like the concept. It gives the collector a bunch of different swatches from different types of material and an autograph, without completely taking up the card front. I like that I can still see Brandon’s photo. My issues with these: 1) How the hell are you supposed to store these things? You can fold them up and put them in mass storage easily enough, but I am not aware of any toploaders thick enough for the folded card or nearly long enough for the unfolded card. I’ve already sold this card and wound up shipping it in a hard 25-count snap case because I didn’t have anything else that would work. 2) If this is supposed to be a super nice, high-end insert, why bother with B-list rookies? Granted, I know it’s impossible to tell who will turn out to be the next studs of the NFL early enough for production runs, but do they really need to include anyone not highly prized? Maybe a way around this would be to only include veterans in this type of insert. There you already know who is popular and who people care about. Just a thought.

3rd Down, Collation: I feel like a broken record in this category. Once again, with only 60 cards, it’s awfully hard to accurately guage the collation of the print run. I guess in reality, this 3rd down has become just a beacon of whether or not there is a glaring problem with the particular box I busted. In this one, I got was I was supposed to. I didn’t get what I wasn’t supposed to get (duplicates). So yay Topps Prime. You pass the test of blatant problems with collation.

4th Down, Overall Value: At just over $1 per card, this is probably a well priced product. The hits should pull in a decent pricetag and with such nice base cards, even the plain rookie cards may sell well. Granted, in the jaded, greed infested Hobby of today, no one seems to be willing to pay a premium for a well designed card that doesn’t have a swatch of fabric or sticker label auto attached to it. So I would say this is a decent product for those who are looking for a quality to collect, not flip. If you’re in it for the money, you’re barking up the wrong tree. But then again, if you’re in it for the money, you’re probably in the wrong hobby to begin with…

RED ZONE RESULTS: FIELD GOAL I admit that the secondary market value may not be quite in line with the primary market box price. I also admit that the inserts are nothing to brag about. But I will say that there have been very few base cards that have impressed me this year. There was also a heightened sense of fun when opening this box. The outer box was HUGE, especially considering there were only 60 cards enclosed, and the pillow-box packs offered a different flavor than the usual foil packs. I’m not sure how well it protected the cards and I wasn’t able to add one to my collection of wrappers, but it was still fun regardless. So in the end, I thought 2010 Topps Prime deserved to get on the board. I wasn’t “wowed” enough to warrant a touchdown, but the effort won’t go unnoticed on this blog. Topps, I loved your work with the base cards. Try a little harder to design nice inserts, and you’d have a winner on your hands with Prime. Next year?

NEXT UP: 2010 Panini Gridiron Gear

HOF Spotlight: Wayne Millner

Name: Wayne Millner
Position: End
Pro Career: 1936 – 1941, 1945
Team Affiliation(s): Boston/Washington Redskins
College: Notre Dame
Induction Class: 1968

Brief Bio: The epitome of 1930s primetime players, Wayne Millner always showed up for the biggest games of the year. Millner was the favorite deep threat for fellow HOF member Sammy Baugh. The apex of this tandem may have come during the 1937 championship game against the intimidating Chicago Bears. Millner and Baugh connected for touchdown tosses of 55 and 78 yards and Millner was used as a decoy for the game winning touchdown pass to Ed Justice. Millner’s illustrious career was cut short when he enlisted with the US Navy after the 1941 season. Millner did return for the 1945 season as a player/coach and ended his career as the greatest receiver in Redskins history at that time.

Career Stats: 76 games played; 124 receptions, 1,578 receiving yards; 12 receiving TDs

Featured Card: 1952 Bowman #57. Playing his entire career between nationally distributed football releases, Wayne Millner’s rookie card was actually released 7 years after his playing days (while a coach for the Eagles). Current eBay prices are roughly in the $50 ballpark while that token much-higher-than-anything-else-because-it’s-graded listing comes in at $1,200 – a long shot from the trivial $90 Beckett value.

NOTE: You can find all of my Hall Of Fame Spotlight Features by clicking the HOF Spotlight banner above.

Heisman Highlight: Steve Spurrier

Name: Steve Spurrier
Position: Quarterback
College: Florida Gators
Class: Senior
Winning Year: 1966 – 32nd Award
Official Heisman Profile: Click Here
 
 
 

Interesting Notes: Spurrier was one of the most successful career college quarterbacks of all time…broke many Florida and SEC records at the time…amassed 4,848 and 37 TDs over 31 collegiate games…beat another future Hall of Fame quarterback for the 1966 Heisman (runner-up Bob Griese of Purdue)…was very successful quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers…was very successful as head coach of Duke and alma mater Florida and is currently head coach of South Carolina…was elected into the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 1986.

Featured Card: 1972 Topps #291. “Super Steve’s” success on the collegiate, professional, and especially collegiate coaching levels have obviously kept his name in the forefront of collectors minds. 1972 Topps isn’t a hugely collectable set a la 1935 National Chicle or 1952 Bowman, but Spurrier’s rookie still commands a $75 – 100 price tag. There is also Pro Action subset card from the same set that seems to be popular amongst eBay sellers, but this is not considered to be a pure rookie card.

NOTE: You can find all of my Heisman Highlight Features by clicking the post banner above.

Product Review: 2010 Panini Limited

As we slowly chug through my backlog of product reviews, we almost find ourselves in December 2010…so we’re only 2.5 months behind schedule. Well, I guess just over a month because I didn’t order these until right after Christmas. Still. I must be shooting for the least relevant product reviews award. Anyway, here’s 2010 Panini Limited, one of the very few Panini products to NOT feature Peyton Manning on the packaging.

The Box – Click for Detail

Hobby boxes come with just a single 8-card pack. For all of you English Lit. majors, that’s a total of 8 cards per box. I purchased this box from Dave and Adam’s Card World for $78, which translates into a salty $9.75/card ratio. As you’ll see below, my box had a ninth card, but that is still a $8.67/card average. Yikes. What was I thinking? There’d better be something good in here!

Single-pack boxes rarely leave much to the imagination

The Breakdown:
Base Cards (#/499): 5 (0 duplicates)
   Veterans: 2
   Legends: 1
   Phenoms (Rookies): 2
Hits
   Legends Jersey (#/130): 1
   Initial Steps Relic (#/80): 1
   Team Trade Marks Prime Jersey (#/50): 1
   2009 Banner Season Jersey Auto (#/15): 1

Click image for full-sized scan

FIRST AND GOAL’S FOUR DOWNS:
1st Down, Design: The base cards are decent. The scans are fairly accurate in that the cards do appear pretty dark in person. But overall, it is a clean design with simple graphical elements and symmetry. There is also a tinge of team color, which is good, but there is still that glaring lack of team logos. I don’t know that I was a big fan of the cut out player image and huge “LEGENDS” lettering for the legends subset, but it’s something I can live with. The cards had an odd mix of gloss and matte feel to them, which reminded me of old Pinnacle sets from the mid 90s. The card backs are surprisingly busy for a product of this caliber. Most higher end releases have very simplistic backs with no stats. I’ll be honest in that I’m not sure which I prefer, but I will say that this fact made these cards seem less valuable to me.

2nd Down, Inserts: There is definitely a range here. The first, the Legends basic jersey card, is a waste. It’s always cool to get relics from retired players, but there is absolutely no thought or effort behind this card. Make a nice base card and then just lop out a chunk from the middle for a plain white jersey swatch. Works everytime, right? Well, no actually. In fact, it never works. So stop doing it. The Trade Marks jersey card has a nice look to it, but I’m always left wondering why a plain color swatch is “prime.” I guess it came from a stripe or inside a number or something, but without multiple colors or stitching, I have to second guess if this swatch was immediately beside another swatch that wound up in a low-end insert #/599. The Initial Steps relic on the other hand is cool. The hobby has become inundated with jersey relics in the past decade, so it’s cool to see something different. It also had a much different texture than a jersey, so that was fantastic for my inner young-child-with-ADD-that-feels-the-need-to-touch-every-relic-he-pulls-from-a-pack. Lastly we have the big hit in the box, the prime swatch autograph card of Vernon Davis. This card actually has a really nice design and even though Panini refuses to get on-card autographs, the sticker label doesn’t look terrible here. All in all, not bad cards. Especially for Panini.

3rd Down, Collation: For a box that promised 8 cards, 3 of which would be autographs or memorabilia cards, I would have to feel pretty luck that I pulled 9 cards, 4 of which were “hits.” However, I would rather have had at least two autographs. The box price tag is way too high to have a single autograph. Hell, for $15 more, I bought a box of 2010 SAGE Hit High Series and got NINE autographs. Granted, I realize that the entire feel and style of those two products are completely different, but it does put some things into perspective. Overall, 40% of my base cards were rookies and 44% of the entire box was some sort of hit. I definitely hit the stated odds, so there is really no room to argue in this department. Unless of course you hate Vernon Davis. Then the collation was terrible because 22% of my box was Vernon Davis.

4th Down, Overall Value: Not to confuse my sports, but Panini once again stood up to the plate, took a strong swing, and competely missed in the value realm. These cards are actually pretty nice. The only reason my review of them above wasn’t more gushing is because I knew this portion of the review was coming. There is just very little value in a box that demands a hefty price tag. I know we’re not talking Upper Deck Exquisite prices here, but $9.75 per card is still way to high for this quality of product. All of these cards have been listed on eBay and so far I’ve only sold the Golden Tate shoe relic. In my opinion, this was the second-coolest card in the box. My final selling price? $5. Woo. I guess if you pulled an autographed patch card of Sam Bradford you’d be singing the praise 2010 Panini Limited. I did not. Therefore, my vocal chords are resting.

RED ZONE RESULTS: MISSED FIELD GOAL, TURNOVER ON DOWNS 2010 Panini Limited tried. It really did. Most of the cards are well designed and have a nice feel to them. But on the other much larger hand, some cards still had the same old Panini swatch window problems and the value just isn’t present in a box. This is definitely a product where you’d just want to pick up some of your favorite singles off eBay and leave the lottery ticket scratching to people with money to blow. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people with tons of money to blow and I still bought a box. It’s $78 I’ll never get back, but hopefully I’m not too late to forewarn a few readers. The designs and collation kept the offense on the field, but the placekicker, Mr. Overall Value, pushed the chip-shot field wide right. WAY wide right.

NEXT UP: 2010 Topps Prime

HOF Spotlight: Crazylegs Hirsch

Name: Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch
Position: Halfback/End
Pro Career: 1946 – 1957
Team Affiliation(s): Chicago Rockets (AAFC), Los Angeles Rams
College: Wisconsin, Michigan
Induction Class: 1968

Brief Bio: A shifty All-American halfback who led the college All Stars in an improbable victory over the professional L.A. Rams, Elroy Hirsch would eventually be become the greatest long threat end of his generation for that same Rams franchise. After spending three years in the upstart AAFC and a year on the bench with the Rams, “Crazylegs” was moved to end and never looked back. Hirsch received his nickname for his absurd leg motions when running full speed downfield and he did it so well. Of his 60 career reception TDs, a majority were long-bombs and he ended his career as the career leader in receiving yards. Hirsch led the NFL in receiving and scoring in 1951 and was named the all-time NFL flanker in 1969.

Career Stats (AAFC & NFL): 127 games played; 387 receptions; 7,029 receiving yards, 60 receiving TDs; 3 rushing TDs; 1 passing TD; 1 kick off TD; 1 punt return TD; 15 INTs

Featured Card: 1950 Bowman #52. His rookie card may have been released in his fifth professional season, but interestingly enough, Elroy Hirsch’s rookie card was released in his first breakout season. The colorful albeit airbrushed 1950 Bowman set is attractive and this HOF RC is no exception, particularly with the “Crazylegs” nickname allusion. Current prices on eBay are all over the place with the highest coming in at $4,299.99. It seems you always find that one ridiculously priced vintage graded card. Is anyone actually buying those? One side note I noticed while researching, this card does have a few reprints, so watch yourself and make sure you get all the facts if you’re looking to add this card to your collection.

NOTE: You can find all of my Hall Of Fame Spotlight Features by clicking the HOF Spotlight banner above.