2008/2009 Topps Match Attax Football

Hello again!

Hot off the presses is the new series of Topps Match Attax.

We don't like change here in the UK, so this new series is very similar to last years, except this year there is a whopping 425 cards (326 last year) to collect and they come with a blue back (Red last year)

The inserts are;

Star players 1 in every 2.3 packets

Man of the match 'Rainbow' foils 1 in every 5 packets

100 club rainbow foils 1 in every 100 packets

plus they succumb to the 'limited special insert'. An Autograph insert of Fabregas Card of which there are only 100.

To coincide with the rise in everything due to the credit crunch the price is now 40p a packet (up from last years 35p). Still 6 cards per pack though.

Pack 1

Steve G Liverpool Rainbow foil Man of the Match

Edwin Van der Sar Manchester United

Ricardo Vaz Te Bolton Wanderers

Peter Halmosi Hull City AFC

Marek Cech West Bromwich Albion

Michael Essien Chelski

Pack 2

Gary Cahill Bolton Wanderers

Robin Van Persie Arsenal

James Morrison West Bromwich Albion

Didier Digard Middlesborough

Phil Bardsley Sunderland

Fabricio Coloccini Newcastle

We are on a short break at the moment for some international matches. Which is a big relief for some teams such as Newcastle and Tottenham who have had their worst starts to the season for decades. While other 'unfashionable' teams like Hull City have had a blistering start. Fulham I'm sad to say are just above the relegation zone - but it is a long season.

Some packs of these will be going out to the usual suspects.

Hope you enjoyed.

2001 Pacific Baseball

It shouts it on the front of the pack 'Pacific Ornaments'.

I was really hoping that this pack would contain one of the 24 Christmas ornaments cards. The pack says 2 in 37, so the chances are not bad. To some it is probably a stupid idea but the oddball in me was hoping....

Lets see-

113 Pokey Reece Reds

425 Bill Haselman Rangers

146 Larry Walker Rockies

450 David Wells Blue Jays

40 Javy Lopez Braves

178 Moises Alou Astros

354 Mike Matheny Cardinals

108 Danny Graves Reds

205 Blake Stein Royals

287 Glenallen Hill Yankees

440 Jose Cruz Jnr Blue Jays

319 Travis Lee Phillies

Nope.
No Luck. Not even a seasonal name.

Maybe next Christmas.



On an additional note
I am trying to find good homes for some of loose cards I have. Trades have been arranged with some of the teams but the Expos, Tigers, Angels, Twins, Yankees, Athletics, Mariners, Bay Rays, Rangers, Blue Jays, D-backs, Cubs, Rockies, Marlins, Dodgers, Pirates, Padres, Giants and Nationals are still begging to be place in a friendly environment.
I cannot guarantee they will be worth a fortune but they may fill some of the holes you have in your team sets.
E-mail me a line if your interested.

2008 National Rugby League

My brother Peter from Australia visited recently for a short while. He bought some baseball packs with him and what I am posting today.

Now Rugby League may be as well know as say Aussie Rules or cricket in the US of A, but that's not what this post is about. Rather, how this set was released.

The photo above is the whole set of 240 cards, including a collector book with 6 pocket pages. The set was collected over a period of 15 weeks.

Each week a pack of 16 cards was released.

Each pack cost $2.00 and to receive the pack you had to collect tokens.

The collector book was free with the first pack.

Nice card stock, action shots, bright co-ordinated colours and about the same size as a Goudey.

The pack contained a checklist telling you the names of the players inside the pack.

Each pack contained:

• 12 player cards

• 1 club card

• 3 inserts; gold, silver and green foil cards

The pack that I chose randomly to show is week 14 of 15.

The player cards were(I guarantee you won't recognise any names)

Team in Italics

David Stagg Brisbane Broncos,

Terry Campese Canberra Raiders,

Jason King Manly Sea Eagles,

Ben Cross Newcastle Knights,

Petero Civonicea Penrith Panthers,

Ben Pomeroy Cronulla Sharks,

Rangi Chase St George Illawarra Dragons,

Willie Mason Sydney Roosters,

Jeremy Smith Melbourne Storm,

Carl Webb North Queensland Cowboys,

Manu Vatuvei New Zealand Warriors,

Sonny Bill Williams Canterbury Bulldogs.

The Club card was

South Sydney Rabbitohs (which is incidentally owned by Aussie actor Russell Crowe)

The Inserts

Green Foil Andrew Johns Record Breaker

Silver Foil Steve Rogers Modern Legend (and dead)

Gold Foil 'Big Norm' Provan Team of the Century.

Every single person who bought this weeks cards received exactly the same cards.

So at the end of the 15th week you had the entire set.

Job done, set finished, $30.00!

Easy peasy.

2004 Topps Cracker Jack Baseball

I don't know about you but I am a complete sucker when it comes to retro themed and oddball sets. I was reading a blog about a guy who is trying to collect cards that were given away with dog food!

So this was of some interest. I knew Cracker Jacks from the song 'Take me out to the ball game' as in buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks.
But in the UK it is unknown snack.

This particular set is a recreation of the 1915 Cracker Jack brand Baseball Card Set, complete with JACK and BINGO. I presume the original cards were included in boxes of Cracker Jacks which were more than likely eaten by children rather than cards inside tobacco products that were eaten by adults.

I bought two packs, on one of the packs it says $2.99.

It includes 8 cards plus 1 secret surprise.

The pack includes

12 Cornelius J. McGillicuddy

WOW, no wonder he changed his name.

15 Bret Boone Seattle Mariners

21 Paul Lo Duca Los Angeles

22 Geoff Jenkins Milwaukee

82 Xavier Nady San Diego

120 Pedro Martinez Boston

138 Sandy Alomar Arizona

143 Wade Miller Houston

And the Secret Surprise!!!!

138 Sandy Alomar Sticker and a checklist 1 of 2!

Oh well, maybe next time.

Hope you enjoyed.

1995 Comic Images The National Pastime Baseball

Hopefully someone can help me out with this unusual set.

Packs of baseball cards are rare in the UK, let alone boxes. So when a box of 'Phil Rizzuto Baseball' cards with 36 packs and 7 cards per pack came up for auction on e-bay, I jumped and won. Nobody else bid, so they must have known something I didn't.

Phil Rizzuto Yankee Legend. Check.

Comic Images? Right..

ALL CHROMIUM ! OK.

It should work, shouldn't it? But I'm not sure it does.

The box offers the possibility of:

• 6 Phil Rizutto MagnaChrome cards,
• 1000 Phil Rizutto Autograph cards,
• 'Diamond covers' 3- card subset,
• Limited Edition Medallion Card.

Here's one of the 36 (actually 30ish now-I gave some away)packs.

Judge for yourself.

47 Japanese Poster.

A 1950's poster advertised a game in the Japanese major leagues' Pacific Division.

40 Patsy Dougherty

A 1910 tobacco card featuring a well-known outfielder for the Chicago White Stockings.

33 Lorillard Chicago BBC

Lorrillard a tobacco company issued four trade cards in 1885. Each card featured a different team; this one is of the Chicago Base Ball Club, otherwise know as the White Stockings.

58 Scorecard Artwork

A 1940's illustration of a postcard issued by the St.Louis area tourism board.

25 Cincinnati American Association

An 1882 team photo. The card goes onto explain that uniforms were not worn by teams but that each position had a specific uniform. As a result, every catcher in the league could be identified by his uniform as could every left fielder, pitcher, second base, etc. Apparently it was a short lived practice.

64 Casey at the Bat

The art of the weekly children's magazine 'St Nicholas'. The message of the cartoon encouraged children to follow their dreams just like Casey.

48 Safe Hit Vegetable Crate Label

Baseball was all the rage in the 1930's and its images were popping up all over. This is label for fruit and vegetable crates.

Sorry there it is no MagnaChrome, autographs or Diamond studded subsets in this pack.

Plenty of plain old CHROME though and factoids about baseball.

Help me out!!

1988 Topps American Baseball

Long ago in 1987 there was an attempt (albeit a very short one) to introduce the world of card collecting to the English masses. In 1987 and 1988 Topps Ireland produced two sets of American Sports Picture cards. In 1987 it was American Football and in 1988 it was American Baseball.

There was 88 cards to collect in the whole set. Cards came 5 per pack and enclosed in a sealed see through cellophane plastic wrapper.
There is a seller on eBay UK selling an empty display box of these for £4.99.(not inc postage/packaging) It clearly says on the front that the packs cost 15p each in 1988, however you can also see a 'special price' sticker where they were trying to offload them for a princely 3p each.

I think I know why they weren't popular!

Look at this bubble gum.

That is not the pink, lovely looking, flavoursome, delicious gum they serve in the US of A. No! This is a greyish, beige looking stuff you might mistake for another card.

We want the American Gum! Just like in the War.

The cards are small too. Here is the comparison with the Topps US edition in 1988.

The one on the left is obviously the more inferior UK card. About the same size as the album stickers being produced at the same time.

The cards in the pack were:

16 Vince Coleman Cardinals

70 Larry Sheets Orioles

79 Alan Trammell Tigers

88 Checklist

51 Lloyd Moseby Blue JaysI think the most enjoyable part of these cards is the back and the section called 'TALKIN' BASEBALL. A short definition, a dummies guide to baseball for those unknowing Brits.

On the back of Vince it's Stolen Base,
Alan is Dead Ball,
Larry is a Save -

"In order to earn SAVE, a pitcher must finish game won by team, not earn Win and (optional) enter game leading by 3 or less runs and pitch one inning. (See#69and #71 for other save conditions)"

I need to see those other cards!

But my favourite is on the back of the Lloyd Moseby card - Throw.

"A Throw is the act of propelling the ball with hand and arm to a given objective. A throw is to be distinguished from and not to be confused with a pitch.(See #52 for PITCH definition)"

Hope you enjoyed.

1994 Upper Deck World Cup Football USA94

This will be the last of my soccer for the time being and what a pack it is. The World Game came to the US of A in 1994. There are a few thing I remember about this World Cup.

1. England were not there.
2. Indoor football - a first for a world cup
3. It was really hot.
4. and Alexi Lalas!

Yes Alexi Lalas. The Ginger, long haired, goatee bearded, musician. What a character. What a player.

There was 210 cards in the set with some inserts 3D holograms, International All stars and Postcards from Pasadena. The last two inserts were a way to make collecting the set more interesting for those countries not at the World cup. Another notable feature was that they were bi-lingual. They came in English/German, English/Spanish and English/Italian. If memory serves me correctly they cost £1.99 a pack.
There were three USA squad members who plied their trade in England at the time- John Harkes, Roy Wegerle and Juergen Somer. Also members of the squad were Brad Friedel and Claudio Reyna, they were part of Soccer America?

I will bust two packs.

Pack 1

UD1 'Postcard from Pasadena' Brian Laudrup Denmark (Who were not at this World Cup.)

156 Aitor Beguiristain Spain

168 Terry Phelan Republic of Ireland

36 Frank De Boer Netherlands (with twin brother Ronald.)

57 Jan Eriksson Sweden (Who never actually went because he was injured.)

54 Dunga Brazil (Captain of the winning country, possibly better know for a having a fight on the field with team mate Bebeto in the 1998 World Cup.)

Pack 2

19 Gianluca Paglica Italy

102 Stephane Chapuisat Switzerland

81 Michel Preud'Homme Belgium (Belgium Man-I just want to be swadding well rescued Ford! )

247 An odd card with a crying Paul Ince on the back- just to remind the English they weren't there I suppose.
14 Eric Wynalda USA! USA!

WC8 Enzo Scifo Belgium (An impressive hologram insert card.)

An interesting set of cards that I'm not sure set the world of card collecting on fire.
Again if your interested in some packs I have about 8 more.

Hope you enjoyed.

2008 Panini Championship Soccer

The first football (soccer) post went down quite well so I thought I'd do another but Thorzul beat me to post another Premiership pack after the first round of the competition.

However there is life outside of the Premiership. The second tier of the football competition called 'The Championship'. The three teams relegated from the Premiership at the end of the season join 'The Championship' and the first three teams from the Championship join 'The Big League' (and usually go straight back down again).

The teams may not be as well known but as just as eagerly supported as the teams in 'The Premiership'. Whereas in the Premiership it is won by one of 'The Big Four' (Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal). The Championship is much more evenly contested and well over half the teams have realistic possibility of gaining promotion.

I support a team called 'Charlton Athletic', a London club like Fulham, Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham. Who until recently were a premiership team but were relegated two seasons ago.

The cards are produced by Panini, an Italian company, who also produce a wide variety of football stickers.
These are 35p a pack for 5 cards. You can also buy an attractive binder with 9 pocket sleeves to keep your cards in.
There are no inserts, short prints, parallels or super dynamic ultra special shiny cards. Just your 288 base cards ( about 12 cards per team.)It is fairly easy to collect the whole set or your club of preference.

Pack 1

89 Gary Borrowdale Coventry City

21 Wes Hoolahan Blackpool (a beautiful bright orange strip)

128 Sylvain Legwinski Ipswich Town

166 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Plymouth Argyle

15 Billy Sharpe Sheffield United ('The Blades')

278 Darren Ward Wolverhampton Wanderers

Pack 2
150 Lee Croft Norwich City (love that green and yellow strip and great nickname 'The Canaries)
193 Joe Murphy Scunthorpe United
202 Paul Hayes Scunthorpe United
54 Gavin Rae Cardiff City (losing FA Cup team)
16 Michael Jackson Blackpool (no not that one, a different one)

Pack 3

180 Neil Mellor Preston North End
6 Rohan Ricketts Barnsley

211 Michael Tonge Sheffield United (cockney rhyme slang for something going wrong-as in 'It's all gone Pete Tong')

62 Yassin Mountaouakil Charlton Athletic(Come on you Reds)

109 Boaz Myhill Hull City (Premiership new boys)

Hope you enjoyed. There are a few Americans playing in the Championship (and a few Canadians as well).

Again if you want any packs just drop us a line and they are yours.

2007/2008 Topps Match Attax

Hiya, I'm John from the UK. I asked Ben if I could join in-so here I am. Although I am a baseball card collector, I thought I would do my first post on something very English- Premiership football (soccer to you).

I would think there are maybe some of you who view this site who are interested in soccer. I know that Thorzul follows Everton and I've seen Chris Harris wear a Fulham shirt. Besides the fact that three of the bigger clubs are owned by Americans.

Manchester United by Malcolm Glazer,

Aston Villa by Randy Learner and

Liverpool by George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Who have incidentally fallen out over the running of the club.

Fulham has the largest contingent of American born players-Eddie Johnson, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride.

There are 360 players to collect. There are some parallels to collect called Star Players and Man of the Match. They cost 35p (70cents) a pack. It's also a card game with defense and attack points. (beats me?)

Onto the cards.

Pack 1

Hayden Mullins West Ham

Robert Malcolm Derby County

Liam Ridgewell Birmingham

Tal Ben-Haim Chelsea

Victor Anichebe Everton

Michael Johnson Derby County

Pack 2

Frank Lampard Chelsea 'Star player'

Luke Moore Aston Villa

John O'Shea Manchester United

Philippe Senderos Arsenal

Ryan Nielsen Blackburn Rovers

Michael Ballack Chelsea

So there is my first post done. No big players except maybe Lampard, Senderos and Ballack. If your interested in any packs just send a message and I'm sure I can send some out.

Hope you enjoyed!