Stupid relic cards
 

I don't even understand the point of some of this crap. What is a Lou Gehrig sapphire? And what is this? And why is it 10 or 10.? And what kind of sapphire sells for $10. Crazy train. Paging PT Barnum.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2017-Panini...4AAOSwVNxaOt4x

That's really strange. Are they claiming that they crushed a sapphire from, let's say, a cuff link once owned by Gehrig, and placed fragments of it in cards?

No - it's not a "relic" card in the sense that it was ever owned by Gehrig. It's just a tiny, low-quality sapphire mounted into the card.

The sapphire is just a shard of glass/gemstone. Has no connection to Gehrig except it resides on the same card. They made 10 of them with an embedded "sapphire." This one is the last one that got numbered.

Five bidders in over $10k
 

Still trying to wrap my head around <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-17-Panini-Flawless-Basketball-Diamond-Rookie-Card-RC-6-Ben-Simmons-13-25-/372139963820?hash=item56a54535ac%3Ag%3AgIUAAOSw1JV aD7r4&nma=true&si=gw04smbJkmHLQLU2vVLSTAd2yiY%253D &orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557" >this one.

Saphire aside, it's a strange design. The blue part looks like a running shoe insole.

The gems are just aesthetics added to show rarity. Like the colored boarders topps did/does. It's just artificial scarcity. The first issue of flawless basketball looked much much better imho. I have some gasols from it.

Here's one even better {even though this is my item; I think it's a joke}

https://www.ebay.com/itm/263377660247

I'm completely against these relic pieces. Every time I see something like "Babe Ruth used game bat", or, "Lou Gehrig game worn jersey", a part of me dies inside. I suppose if Topps, or Panini, or whoever makes the card pays for the item, they can do what they want, but it's just wrong to me. Why not just insert a random card in one of the ten billion packs they sell with a Willy Wonka-like Golden Ticket.

"Congrats, you've just won a Babe Ruth baseball bat"

Then ship the winner the damned bat in a preservation block to protect the history of the item.

This Gehrig card is just stupid. They printed ten cards (manufactured rarity to begin with, as there's nothing making them special but a foil stamp on the card). Then, as if to somehow make it "extra cool", they hot glued some stupid little piece of plastic.

Steve your funny lol hope your well

Not trying to belittle anyone. . . . but you really have to be pretty far out there to think this 2017 concoction is a special collectible, or has some kind of intrinsic value. As someone said, it does look like a piece of plastic that busted off someone's running shoe.

I agree. I don't know much about marketing (took a 3-hour course in college nearly 50 years ago) but I think I could come up with a better idea for selling cards in my sleep.

I understand what you're saying, and I'm not a fan either, but everyone has their thing. When you boil it down, there's not much of a difference between modern shiny and a T206.

+1....if anything it's the modern market that drives our hobby. Most modern collectors have also shied away from relics and just want on card certified autographs.

Sorry, but no. This is a scam to get card collectors to pay over a thousand dollars for a pack of cards that really has little value. Collectors have stopped buying this. It is now breakers selling lottery tickets to gamblers, a chance to win a specific player or team if it comes out of the pack. Gone are the days of collectors buying a box of cards to get an autograph card or relic card, that is a rarity today. The "modern" market is no more than legalized gambling, no different than playing slots at Vegas. Panini only made 10 of this card to hope someone buys in to their scheme.

I'd love to bring this card to a jeweler and ask him what he'd give you for the stone. I'm sure he would laugh uproariously.

My philosophy is one should collect what one wants to collect.

Though my other philosophy is about how seriously you take things.

double post

yep!

But as has been said...people enter the hobby are are confronted with this SHIT...but it gets them in...and after they get burned by these worthless contrived cards they seek a more stable and predictable investment vehicle...such as a t206 cobby...or a goudey ruth...and the wheels go round and round!

totally disagree with this statement, btw!

I thinking cutting up bats and jerseys and buttons is an abomination . . .and I assume 99.98% of that stuff is completely bogus. But at least it is baseball theme. But why pair a baseball player and a bogus stone? Just absurd. Next maybe someone can combine a Babe Ruth card and a microscopic fleck of titanium.

I'm sure that in some sense this is true. Just like in some ways there's not much difference between a Porsche and a Volkswagon. But for me, I'll take the Green Cobb and the 911.

Yes, it is an abomination. I take comfort in the thought that anyone who is unprincipled enough to destroy a valuable historical artifact in order to put a fragment of it in a baseball card is also unprincipled enough to lie about destroying the valuable historical artifact in the first place.

On the other hand, a Joe Jackson card with a speck of Kryptonite would get my attention.

Now I get it... I had to look closely at the card. At first I thought someone put the image of a band-aid in the middle of the card. Ok, there's a real blue sapphire in the middle of that thing... yeah, that's a really cool baseball collectible....NOT.... What are these companies thinking? Yeah, let's sell a card with Lou Gehrig on it, maybe the baseball card collector will like a blue sapphire to go with it...

They're not bogus stones. No need for that. Non-gem grade sapphires, rubies or diamonds are abundant and cheap. The idea is stupid.

As for modern, I collect some because I enjoy it but I am all about the visuals. If the card is FUGLY I don't care if they glue a chunk of the holy grail to it, I ain't buying. That Gehrig in the OP is a particularly crappy looking one. Some modern sets are pretty interesting with intricate cuts, non-traditional materials, etc.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...8%20Koufax.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...c%20Thomas.jpg

This one seems appropriate for the season:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...You%20Card.jpg

Looking to start a crypto-code baseball card currency.

Need backers!

First 10 people with $10,000 to get me started are guaranteed to double their money after I get about 40 more people to invest.

Anybody available to help me out (I mean to double your money)? :D

Bitcards?

batcoins?

These are probably considered closer to vintage than modern now for all I know, but of cards with a shiny look to them, I have long thought both of these hold up well.

Hasn't there also been a few times when it was revealed that major card companies bought jerseys, etc. and put them in relic cards only later to discover that they weren't authentic? I would have thought a couple revelations like that would have put a stop to all relic cards, because even if it says "certified used" or whatever on the back, it might not be true! But alas, companies are still producing them...

Even though I pulled one and have it, I agree. I keep it because I was there looking over the wall so it is a memory for me. I couldn't bring a part of the wall back, but then again, never thought of it at the time.

If a 13/25 went for this amount what would a 1/25 go for? Wish I had it and could offer it on EBay!! Maybe these bidders would bite again.

What was the first insert of note? I remember a Lombardi trophy hologram card in the 1990 or 1991 Pro Set but was there a true watershed one, or series, that sent the hobby down this path?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I think the first numbered cards in the 1991 and 1992 sets (Donruss Elite Series, UD Heroes autos) were probably what set the whole thing in motion. Of course inserts were part of Topps cards back in 1956 when they started putting in the mail in cards for gloves and transistor radios for predicting game scores. Then lucky penny in 1957.

1986 Fleer All Stars. The first numbered insert was the 1990 Upper Deck Heroes Reggie Jackson auto. The Lombardi trophy and Donruss Elites were after that.

The 73 and 74 baseball team checklists were inserts.
And the 68 game, and 69 deckle edge.
71 coins
64 coins

Probably others.

1984 Topps racks had the all star inserts. Those lasted till 1990.

The modern ones already mentioned were the beginning of the escalation, the UD signed cards were a big deal, and the 93 Finest refractors were a big deal at the time.

Those were in every pack. The 1986 Fleer All Stars were the first modern insert. You didn't get one in every pack. They were seeded one in six packs, so it was a big deal to pull one. It started what became an insert craze in the early 90's. The inserts, then memorabilia and autographed cards became all people cared about and the regular cards, outside of rookie cards, became an afterthought.

In 1965 Topps put gold foil inserts in a few packs. They were mostly star players, 72 players in all. And they were butt ugly. There's still a lot of them on ebay.

Yeah! It's new so it's crap!! Only old stuff is cool! Some of you guys sound as ridiculous as the cards you are bashing. I guess my son is a moronic idiot because he likes new cards and not old ones. Anybody want to say that? Smart move, didn't think so. How about like what you like and don't worry about what others collect? How does someone collecting new stuff have any effect on vintage collectors? Just because a 12 year old kid (or a 55 year old man for that matter) doesn't know who Rube Marquard is, doesn't make him stupid. Maybe a shiny card of an older player sparks an interest in finding out about the history of baseball where a T206 holds no interest or value to him (they are small and many are down right ugly).
Food for thought, back to slamming new cards.
PS - by the way, ALL cards were new at some point.

I collect plenty of new cards. I though this particular thing was horrible.
Now back on your soap box.

Proset had a Santa Clause insert too. I think upper deck started the auto thing in 1990 with Reggie Jackson. I think Score did it around the same time with Mantle.

+1

It's already happening, but at some point down the road there will be very low demand for the super vintage cards that many of us like, and our niche will be obsolete in terms of being a valuable commodity. Personally I don't care, I just like the cards. But given that, I don't see what the big deal is with liking these new relic cards. It gets kids into the hobby. You're bashing your own kind and pushing young people away from the hobby when that's exactly who is needed down the road. I mean if we're going to go down this route then, why don't I just say that a lot of those t206s and OJs are commercial crap just trying to market to the masses? If you want the real stuff, you need to get soil samples from Elysian Fields and those 1850s potato sacks they used as bases. Those are the "pure" baseball collectibles.

You make some valid points - I collect old (vintage) and new. The primary difference I see is a 12 year old kid can't afford vintage so should be encouraged to buy, trade and maybe try and sell new cards by all of us. I didn't know who Rube Marquard was when I started collecting my new stuff in 1952. (I also thought they were ugly and quit). Then the 53 Topps came out and then, my favorite, then 53 Bowman black and white. I quit when I went to high school primarily because in my town of 1500 there were no other collectors and no one to talk to. It wasn't until 1975 that i started back again. I now had some resources to spend on cards and started buying everything. Long story but point is we need to encourage kids to collect the new cards - all too many are just playing games on their phones. By encouraging them we build a new generation of card collectors who will maybe learn and care who Rube Marquard was and Johnny Logan and Dave Winfield and all the others that came before and after them. That is what will keep this hobby alive. We won't because we will be gone.

Couple points:

My comment on the Gehrig card was not intended to slight collectors of modern cards but rather to note that there is no apparent nexus between Gehrig and the gem. Seems gimmicky to me.

No kids are buying Panini's Diamond rookie cards (Simmons). On the other hand, bidding shows five bidders with boatloads of transactions willing to pay > $10,000. I'm obviously missing something. It is hard for me to believe that prices based upon a contrived low supply will be maintained over time.

It seems to be a gamble. Much of what new card collecting is.

It's not just a Gehrig thing. The entire set has multiple parallel sets with different colored gemstones at varying rarity levels. The gem is based on the rarity.

My objection is not that the cards are new. A Trout RC, a Judge RC, etc. is fine. The problem is their turning to gimics to sell cards. Then doing Jersey cards and using fake jerseys (Thorpe). Doing bat cards and using fake bats (Gibson). Doing cut autograph cards with fake cuts (1st 5 hofers). Getting players autographs and not witnessing them and ending up with fakes (Shaq). Now they aren't satisfied with rookie cards and they now put a logo on cards to make "fake rookie cards" years after their real rookie cards. Now they only want to sell to breakers and not hobby stores/dealers. They want their cards to be a form of legalized gambling and not a hobby. So the problem isn't with the cards and when they were made, but the card companies and their business practices.

+10000 to Packs.

Speaking of business practices, artificial scarcity was rampant among pre-war card manufacturers. The Goudey Lajoie is a prime example.

Goudey sent one to any collector that wrote a letter to them requesting one. One collector was sent 10 of them. Nothing like today where they deliberately make a 1/1, /5, /10, /25, etc.

Kind of like the 'gimmick' that the American Tobacco Company used to get young fellas to buy cigarettes back then.

I just saw a Kyle Seager uni relic card. That should go for about a nickel.

Not at all alike. The kids had a product, cigarettes, that they could resell.

So so many salty old men in this thread.
"Only my bit of old cardboard has value".

If you look at the top of the page it says Vintage WW2 and older. Why are you surprised people have a preference for that here?

Up until 2 years ago, I had a huge modern collection. I got tired of all the bs from card companies and sold it off to concentrate on Pre WW2 vintage and Roberto Clemente.

Happy holidays. Looking forward to your 32nd post