Cashing In On Spain's Historic Dominance

Little less than a week ago Spain were crowned 2012 European champions in impressive fashion after defeating Italy with a resounding 4-0 scoreline. After their latest conquest there's now even talk of this Spain team being the greatest national side of all time and at the center of Spain's historic success has been the UEFA Player of the Tournament, 'Don' Andrés Iniesta.

Recently I came accross this auction for an extremely scarce Iniesta Panini autograph. This is one of only two certified autos he has out there, mind you I'm not counting any dubious Futera autos he may have. Apparently the card ended up selling for ¥74,500 (see below) which at the current conversion rate from yen to dollars, comes out to nearly $1,000 USD!

2012 Upper Deck Soccer Preview

The latest 2012 Upper Deck MLS product's sell sheet was recently made available. based on these pics I'm not sure I like the design yet. I did notice a few interesting tidbits with the new additions to the collection in the form of MLS throwbacks and the update set redemptions. I'm not exactly sure what they're about but I'd be thrilled if the throwback set had something to do with the various legendary footballers which have had stints in MLS such as Lothar Matthäus, Hugo Sánchez, Hristo Stoichkov, Carlos Valderrama, etc.

I seriously doubt this is the case though since Upper Deck seems to be having a hard time paying for athlete's signatures lately with UD continuing to face legal woes, the latest being a lawsuit from the NFL (gridiron) for breach of contract. Apparently UD have not been paying paying money owed to players for obtaining their signatures on trading cards. Surely if they can't meet the obligation of paying for auots then that's a sure sign that UD are in dire straits. I fear this may be the end of the line for UD and their soccer cards so this very well could be the last of UD's MLS products. Hopefully it's a good collection in case they do go out of business so they can at least go out with a bang.

Shocking Price For Messi 1/1 Futera Auto

This Messi Futera 1 of 1 autograph card recently sold for a whopping $4,500.00.

I'm not convinced either way regarding this particular autograph's authenticity but it never ceases to amaze me that someone is willing to pay this much for a Futera auto considering the questions surrounding that shady company...

This Is Why I Don't Collect Futera Autos...

Aside from the typical crap Futera design this card has a serious problem, the signature on the back is clearly a horrible fake. Shockingly, someone bought this turd for $620.00 on eBay. At these kind of prices it looks like Futera has a nice little racket going.

Pictured below is an authentic sample of a pre-printed Ribéry auto on an officially licensed Bayern card from Panini. Notice how the signature is nothing like the Futera autograph.

Checking on the web there's no shortage of discussion questioning the authenticity of Futera's products. Futera themselves do little to dispel collector's concerns as there's no explanation to be found on their site about how they obtain the signatures or any guarantees as to their authenticity. In fact this is all I could find on Futera's official website regarding their 'signed' cards.

"AUTOGRAPHED CARDS: Some card publishers get players to sign pieces of clear tape and stick them on to a card to create their ‘Autographed’ cards, but whilst there is a nice uniformity in that method, we prefer for the players to sign direct on the card surface. This means that the players will sign where and as they want to sign - sometimes over the design or their own image - but from a collector’s viewpoint we feel that’s a good thing, as it adds character and gives each card a unique touch from the next."

These people are unbelievable...

Soccer Cards Desperately Need Upper Deck's Touch

Upper Deck has a bit of a shady history with past incidents ranging from their production of counterfeit yu-gi-oh cards to unauthorized baseball cards as well as the Beckham "error" autographs from 2010 World of Sports. Despite these troubles as far as I'm concerned they generally produce the best quality trading cards of any manufacturer around. Unfortunately at the moment the only soccer license UD hold is with MLS. Obviously for collectors that's not the most attractive league around, however in terms of card content, collectibility and quality UD's MLS offerings are vastly superior to the garbage TCG products from Panini and Topps (who both have the trading card rights to all major football leagues and competitions around the World). Just take a look at what's available on eBay from Panini and Topps.

Both Panini and Topps have actually released nice looking higher-end products within the last year, Panini with their Premium Champions League set and Topps' Authentics Premier League brand but unfortunately these types of products lack high end cards of the top players that everyone wants as well as being very poorly marketed and distributed, (Topps Authentics is a direct order only product) not to mention these collections seem to be an afterthought for both manufacturers. UD on the other hand produced some of the better collections ever seen with their excellent Manchester United collections among several others. I for one sorely miss UD's presence in the market of international football cards and hope they can soon get back into the global game.

My Thoughts On 2012 Futera Unique

Well the latest Futera Unique high end product was released earlier this month and from the images I've seen I have to say I'm not very impressed. Apparently Futera was going for a retro/vintage look but it just doesn't work due to the poor design, especially considering that the product retails for around $70.00 per pack.

The autographs are lazy and unimaginative, not that it really matters to me since I now avoid them due to questions over the authenticity of the signatures. The memorabilia cards are quite simple which is something I don't mind. The 'Legends' cards however are especially horribly designed, check out what I mean: 'Legends' inserts.

One of the bright spots of the collection, at least in terms of secondary market value, is the super short printed 'Mythicals' insert set.

These cards have been selling for absolutely CRAZY money. The one I posted above sold for a whopping $1699.99! I don't really know what makes these so valuable, they're very powerful cards in the Futera World Football online game and are serial numbered to only /10 each so I suppose that helps but it still seems a bit ridiculous to me. Apparently they're also encrusted with 5 diamonds but I doubt these are legit...

Sadly when it comes to high end international football cards Futera is pretty much the only option out there. I would normally be inclined to buy some of the more interesting singles such as a Lionel Messi jersey but the authenticity issues that continue to plague Futera products (more on this subject in future blog entries) will prevent me from picking them up for my PC. Overall I would say this product is a typical Futera disappointment.