Dateline: 01/21/98
There is no off-season to sportscard collecting. While your favorite athletes are hitting the links enjoying the break, the manufacturers keep us going with one release after another. This week I'm going to take a quick look at what's happening in each of the five major collectible sports.Basketball
As reported at Tuff Stuff Online earlier this week, Topps has announced that it will not be producing Chrome Basketball this year. Last year's most popular product appears to be a one-time release to help out the NBA. Apparently the NBA needed a retail-only release for Wal-Mart and it gave Topps the opportunity to make Chrome. To make it this year would take away a precious license (and require NBA approval) which Topps is not planning on requesting.
Speaking of Chrome, have you seen the prices of the hot rookie cards lately? No, I don't mean the price you see in this month's Beckett, but the buy prices online. I did a Deja News search today for Kobe Chrome and came up with over one thousand results. The highest buy price I noticed on Bryant was $220 (but the buyer wanted a PSA 10) and many of the buy ads were paying over high book (which is currently $120). The same was true when I searched for Antoine Walker. When do you think it will end?
Hockey
As the NHL passes All-Star weekend on its way towards the Olympics, the hobby saw 97-98 Leaf arrive this week and the hunt for the ever-confusing Fractal Matrix parallels begin. The ratios have stayed the same as last year's football and baseball, but here's a couple things to keep in mind. 100 of each Z-axis die-cut , 200 of each Y-axis die-cut, and 400 of each X-axis die-cut exist regardless of color. The toughest pull is a non die-cut X-axis card (only 50 of each). There are five of these and I know the first two are Gretzky and Lindros, but I haven't seen the final three names. Leaf has done a good job of showing you the axis even on non die-cut cards, a major improvement.
Baseball
Pinnacle released their main 1998 set this week, but I still can't get excited. I know that spring training is just a month away, but I live in Connecticut and it's freezing outside so I can't seem to get my mind to turn to baseball. Pinnacle has a similar to last year's New Pinnacle and includes the continuation of the EPIX insert set. It is definitely time to get some release information on this cool insert set. I know that Orange is the easiest, Purple in the middle, and Greens are the tough ones, but we need to see a complete list of some odds of what looks to be turning into a possible 288 card insert set (12 variations of 24 cards).
I guess a perfect time to get the lowdown on EPIX will be next Tuesday, January 27th from 6-7pm CST (7-8pm EST) when we'll be hosting the first ever "Meet the Manufacturer" chat with Pinnacle! If you haven't heard about it yet you should check out the info page. The chat promises to be fun and informative so I hope to see you there.
NASCAR
We are still a few weeks away from the Daytona 500 and the official start of the NASCAR season, but Press Pass has got the jump on us with their 1998 base set. As they have in the past, Press Pass is good at not short changing us. They don't just look at the top 25 drivers and put out a small set, they cover the lesser names, crews, and BGN drivers too. This set is 150 cards big not counting the inserts. The big search this year is for Triple Gear, which puts race-used rubber, a piece of firesuit, and some sheet metal all on one card!
Football
Super Bowl. What more can I say? I made my prediction last week and I'm sticking by the Pack. If you haven't made your prediction yet then check out the bulletin board where making the right choice can win you an official Mining Company t-shirt! The only big release in football this week was Totally Certified and I'll be giving you my thoughts on that in this week's Inside Info Newsletter.
That's it for this week. I'm off to pick up some shrimp for Sunday's party, but I really hope to see a lot of you at the Pinnacle chat on Tuesday evening.
CHAT