Conference school::sports_memorabilia

    
    Hey John!
    
    There's a turnip truck swinging by your place later today.
    
    Be on it.
    
    -rjk

    
    I agree.  Unfortunately, everything's ruled by the investors.  Sure,
    collectors hated getting gum stained cards, but they learned to live
    with it (actually, I hated wax stains, and very rarely, with new cards,
    had any gum-stained cards).  Their biggest complaint with Topps was,
    why not put your caca contest card where the wrapper gets sealed.
    
    So Topps decides to stop putting gum in their cards for the
    "collectors".  Too bad.  Tho' I hated the stuff, I still remember
    eating it as a kid.
    
    Imagine what they'd say if METAL (rust?) coins were inserted again?
    I love taking out my '71 wax-pack, and holding it, and remembering
    what it was like to open those packs ...
    
    Heck, Topps advertisements even have a bunch of smart-alecky, smarmy
    kids smirking about only "collecting the cards and not caring what
    they're worth".  NOT.
    
    I saw a picture on the latest Beckett's of a '69 Wills card.  Don't
    ask me why, but I sat there looking at that card for a long time,
    remembering what it was like to open wax packs as a kid.
    
    And I wish you and Tony would stop making me ride in back of the
    truck with the manure ...
    
    -rjk

    
    Twwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeet!
    
    "Spearing, #LS, 15 yards ..."
    
    Ooops.  Wrong season.
    
    -rjk

    That was the best collision since Pete Rose crashed into Ray Fosse in
    the All-Star game back in the 70's which ended his career.  I can't 
    believe Harper got up.  Do you guys think that was a cheap play by
    Smith?

    
    It depends.  If the player is making a concerted effort to reach
    home base, NO.  If the player is doing nothing more than trying to
    jar the ball loose, then I don't agree with it.
    
    Speaking from a catcher's perspective (you should see the photo in
    my office 8^), that plate is MINE.
    
    

    Clean...he who blocks gets them put to him.

RE: 3 series

That's good news.  One of the things I miss about collecting from when
I was a kid (phisically, not just mentally) was that the cards came out in
6 or 7 different series.  

This will make collecting by the pack a lot more fun!

Dan

    
    Got my Topps mag the other day. Read an article about the '92's.
    They will make sets with gold foil on the bottom(players name and team)
    These cards will also be inserted in the boxes(about 1 per box). the
    sets will be available through an offer discribed in the packs.
    
    Jim
     

    I like the looks of TOPPS this year; it's not the Same-Ole-Topps, IMO.
    
    Spag's has boxes of them for $13.99 and rack packs for $1.29 each.
    
    Dan

    
    I have also heard about one gold per box, two if you're lucky.
    Problem is there are gold versions of all 792 cards in the set,
    with the only difference being the name portion og the front
    embossed in gold.  Best way to get these is to win the game insert
    and typically the prize is one pack of 10 golds.  My son managed
    to win one out of about ten tries.
    
    jeff
    

    
    They're going to have a couple thousand (3,000?  5,000? can't
    remember which) factory sets of these available for the
    princely sum of $345 (or thereabouts).
    
    Similar to the tiffany production numbers, but at four+ times
    the price ...
    
    -rjk

    I open a few packs today from a box I purchased, and found the Gold
    card.  It was one of Kevin McReynolds (card #625).  In looking closely
    at the card and admiring the gold feature, I noticed that there could
    be (dare I say) an ERROR??!!  Let me try to explain it.  You know how
    each card has that inner frame around the picture, then the picture
    coninues a bit, and then the white border.........well in the bottom
    left corner under McReynolds' name, the picture doesn't continue.  It's
    just green....and you can see a little of McReynolds' foot.  None of
    the background you would expect to see it there.  All the other cards
    seem to have the extension of the picture down there.  I also got the
    regular card of ole Kev, and it's the same way.  It kind of reminds
    me of the Mark McGwire Record Breaker card a couple years back and the
    error that card had.
    
    As I said, the only reason I noticed this at all was because I had the
    Gold card version, so please, don't anybody hold this against me.  
    
    This was much better than the other Gold I got.........Juan Berenguer!
    Him and that wonderful set of teeth he's sporting on this year's card.
    Geesh, do the players get to approve what picture of them Topps uses?
    WHAT was he thinking?  What was Topps thinking?  A distant in-action
    shot might have complimented him just a bit more (except maybe for his
    girth).  
    
    Sorry all you JB fans....lost my head a bit.
    
    PM

    
    So PM, you got 1 gold in each of your boxes?
    
    Jim

    ...yes, one Gold in each box.

    I opened 2 cello boxes and got 1 gold card in each.
    
    John

    I opened 2 packs and got 1 gold card... must be doing pretty well.
    Anyone see the article about the game cards being easy to win?
    

    
    Walt you have some incredible luck with packs, maybe we should
    all have you buy packs for us :-).  Didn't see the article, what
    rag was it in and what did it say?
    
    jeff
    

    I didn't read the article but a card dealer told me about it.
    He said that there's a way in which you can hold a flash light 
    on the back of the game and see where the outs are and have a 
    winner every time. He also said that Topps is honoring all 
    winning cards. 
    So he went on telling me that the packs are now error packs and
    the price is $1.25 per pack.
    Unbelievable...................................................
    
    Miguel

    
    	Went to SPAG's today, they have Rack packs for $1.30.  There was
    	a guy there looking thru the rack packs, and he claimed that you
    	can see the gold cards thru the cello wrapping, and he showed me
    	3 that he had found.  I started looking, and found 2 of them
    	myself.  There is a whole bin full of rack packs. There were only 
    	about 5 boxes of 36 packs each left, and by the time I left, they 
    	were all gone.

    The article was in USA today.  I didn't look in the packs to find
    the card...

    I have opened 2 boxes, and won 36 packs of 10 gold cards so far, and I
    haven't scratched them all off.

    
    	RE: .32
    
    	I tried using a strong flashlight behind the card, but still 
    	couldn't see the "out".  A dealer told me that you need a high
    	intensity bulb like the one used in flood lights in order to see 
    	them, but I haven't tried that yet.  Is that the way you did it ?.
    

A little Mag light will do it.  I've sent in 70 packs already...

    
    Be forewarned that gold cards claimed with the old-style
    scratch tickets (supposedly they've fixed this "problem"), will be
    stamped with the word "winner", as opposed to the new ones which
    will not.
    
    This means at least three variations for EVERY card (four if you
    count the tiffany/glossy):
    
    - regular
    - gold stamp
    - gold stamp "winner"
    
    -rjk

    
    	RE: .35
    
    	Thanks.  What is "a little Mag light" ?.
    

    
    	RE: -1
    
    	Forget my question about the "little Mag lite".  Today, when 
    	I went to the store, I was looking at the flashlights, and saw
    	a new mini light called "Mag", I guess that is what he was
    	talking about.
    
    	I guess that shows you how long it has been since I bought a
    	flashlight.  I answered my own question.

    I found that a flashlight works, but it helps if the room is dark, I
    screwed up on the first couple, but after I started concentrating and
    found what to look for I did fairly well, 36 for 40 isn't too bad. 
    Some of them you can't see through.

    
    What stores around Hudson are selling the 92 topps I stopped in a few 
    variety stores on the way in today and they said they haven't seen them
    yet?
    
    ?

    
    Also what's a good price for a pack of 92 topps going for ?
    
    

    
    	Yeah, $.55 is the regular price, but Caldor in Framingham had
    	them on sale a week ago for $.40 per pack. Of course, they're
    	all gone now for that price.  I went to SPAG's yesterday, and
    	the rack packs are all gone.  I couldn't believe it, just a few
    	days ago they had a whole bin full of them, and now they're gone.
    
    	I tried the "little Mag lite" last night, it works better if you
    	are doing it in the dark, but even so, some of the spots are
    	very hard to make out what's under them, and you spend a lot
    	of time trying to make sure you found one.
    

    At a show this past weekend, I saw a guy selling prescratched winning
    game tickets for $10 and people buying them.  His thinking was that
    each of the cards is worth at least $1, so people make out in this
    purchase (yey right!).
    

    
    	I opened a few rack packs, and found some cards that have scratch 
    	lines going down the card in a vertical axis; at first I thought it
    	was the material itself, but on closer inspection, it looks like
    	that's the way they were printed.  My guess would be that the
    	lines are either in the negative, of in the camera lens itself.
    
    	Has anyone noticed this ?.  
    	Does anyone know if the cards be sent back to Topps for replacements ?.
    
	                                   

    
    I admit it.  It's all a rumor I started.  I wanted to find out how
    many people would sit alone in a dark room with flashlights and
    baseball cards.
    
    You preverts ...

    
    I bought 20 packs last night and used the flashlight it was simple,
    I now have 20 winners for 10 gold cards each.  Has anyone sent them
    in all at once or do you have to individually send them in?
    
    I'm going back to the store I bought them at and buy some more. I take
    it they are the old style game tickets. 

    
    	RE: .47
    
    	I was wondering the same thing, and decided to send in 18 of them
    	in the same envelope.  Also, the instructions say to hand print
    	your name, address and prize won in a 3 x 5 card.
    
    	I wonder what would happen if you send in one of those commercial
    	name and address labels that you get on the mail.  Since the
    	instructions don't specify that you have to send in each ticket
    	in a separate envelope, I'm assuming it's OK to do so, and I'm
    	keeping my fingers crossed.

    
    Has anyone actually received any of their winning gold cards back yet.
    If so how may winners did you send in per envelope? Just curious I
    have quite a few to mail out.
    
    Thanks,
    Mark

    
    	The instructions on the back of the game card says that it will
    	take about 8 weeks to get your gold cards.  I sent 18 game cards
    	in one envelope, because I didn't know any better.  Yesterday,
    	at a card show, I was talking to one of the dealers, and he said
    	that you should not send more than 4 game cards in one envelope
    	in order to keep the value of the prize under $20, otherwise,
    	you have to send it registered mail and request a return receipt.
    
    	Make sure you read all the instructions on the back, the printing
    	is so small that I needed a magnifying glass to read it.
    

    
    >> .45 <<  
             Yes they will replace them card for card as long as you
             specify it.
    
        John M.
    
    
    

    Has anyone else seen Topps cards with no stats on the back? It looks
    like the cards are printed in a 2 or 3 step process. That is, I have 
    cards with only the background picture...no stats, no card number. 
    Others have the picture and only the stats which are printed in red 
    ink ( the league leader stats ). These are not exactly like 'blank
    backs', because they do have some of the info on them.
    Just curious if anyone else has seen anything like these.
    
    dennis
    

    Just dropped by my dealer this afternoon, and he had Topps 92' Factory
    sets for $32, they include 10 gold cards.  He also had Sealed Factory
    GOLD sets for $600.  They are supposed to include an autographed card.
    These are the real gold cards and not the one with winner stamped on
    them.  He also had vendor boxes, and out of 10 that he had opened while
    I was there, 2 contained all gold cards.  Some guys have all the luck.

    
    Jiminy, even HSC only wanted $450 for the set ... $600 is a felony.
    
    (Heck, I think Topps is only charging the dealers $200, with a SRP
     of $350 -- Mike Kelly can probably confirm this).
    
    BTW, MHO is this.  They are producing 12,000 gold factory sets.
    They annually produce 5,000 Tiffany factory sets (which include
    the update set too!).  Almost 2.5 times as many gold as Tiffany.
    
    The Tiffany sets are on ultra white stock, with a high gloss
    coating -- in other words, much nicer than the regular cards.
    These "gold" sets are the regular cards, with a little gold foil
    (which can chip or be wiped away btw), and there's twice as many
    of them as there are Tiffany sets (which no one cards about), and
    everyone's clamoring for them.  Go figure.
    
    What was it PT Barnum said ... ?

Hi

My son wants a complete set of '92 Topps.  Both Child World and ToysRUs have 
only '91 sets. Am I looking in the wrong place, or are the '92s really not 
out yet?

Also, why are the Topps better than Upper Deck or Score or some of the
other sets I see around?

Thanks for any tips.

Rookie Bob

       Your best bet is to go to a show. Should be about $15-$20. They're
    'better' because they're cheaper than a lot of the other sets.
                                           Denny

    HI...
    
    
     Walmart has a complete set of 92 topps... for about $29.00, also have
    the mini sets...
    
    mikeb