Another Great Mailday Batch - With 1 Exception

I got these purchases from eBay in the mail recently and was absolutely stoked with the first two, both of them will be going strsight into my PC.

First up this Thierry Henry 2011 Upper Deck SP Game-Used jersey card. IMO the card has a solid design and I got it for a bargain price so I'm definitely thrilled about that.

Next up I got a Rafa Márquez certified auto from the 2012 UD World of Sports product. I'm especially happy about picking this one up since it's my first legit certified Márquez auto.

Lastly I picked up this 2009 UD MLS Cuauhtémoc Blanco jersey. Sadly the card was mailed in a plain non padded envelope without a toploader and arrived damaged being significantly creased, also had quite a bit of chipping on the side edges. It was "reinforced" with a piece of cardboard but obviously that wasn't enough protection, check out the 3 creases around the jersey window cutout to see what I mean. Not happy at all with this shit so I will no doubt be looking to be reimbursed by the seller for this dud.

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.

Women's Soccer Cards, Who Knew?

Lately I've been quite busy with a move to a new home and hadn't the opportunity to login to my computer much let alone my blog. As I get settled in the new entries will come. In the mean time a piece of news from the World of women's soccer caught my attention, WPS (Women's Professional Soccer) suspended it's 2012 season and has pretty much ceased to exist. Apparently this happened a couple of months ago but I only heard the news last week on the BBC's 5 Live World Football Phone In. To be honest, although bad news, this isn't of much consequence to me since I'm not really a fan of women's soccer. It may be the same sport as the men's version but it's a different game entirely, if you know what I mean.

However this news does have implications for Upper Deck's trading card products. Unlike the WPS league, women's cards are surprisingly popular. Cards of the likes of Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Marta, Abby Wambach, Hope Solo and especially the newest starlet in Alex Morgan, are highly sought after and command hefty prices for the higher end type of cards such as autos and jerseys. I have even seen a Morgan UD auto sell for over $400.00 on eBay, the rest of her autos do very well at auction too!

Alex Morgan

I would normally be opposed to having any WPS cards in an MLS collection but there's no denying that they add value to the product so I can't really complain. With UD's upcoming 2012 MLS soccer release and the success of women's cards on the secondary market I can only see UD finding a way to incorporate them into their future soccer products even now that WPS has folded. I'm guessing they'll have to include them in their collegiate uniform or maybe even in international kits? I suppose only time will tell...

Upper Deck's World Of Sports Is Now Live

I must say I'm not a huge fan of this multi-sport release which includes basketball, American football (gridiron), baseball, track & field, hockey and even politics as can be seen below.

Well at least they didn't use the other, infamous, corndog pic. LOL :)

Of interest to this blog though, there are quite a few soccer cards to be found in this product of which there are the standard base cards as well as jerseys, autos and - in a first for soccer cards, SPx 'shadow box' inserts. I understand these shadow box cards are very tough to pull and very popular with collectors of other sports. I'll have to keep a eye out for them as they do look to be cool cards but what I'll really be searching for out of this year's product is the Rafa Márquez auto. It appears as if it's one of the short printed sigs so it probably won't come cheap. Also of note, I saw a preliminary checklist which listed a Thierry Henry auto. I have yet to see one on eBay so I suppose only time will tell if such a card actually exists. If it indeed does exist that would be Titi's first certified auto on a trading cards so that'll definitely keep me tuned in...

Upper Deck's High End SP Game Used Soccer

Unfortunately it appears this product has tanked. Sales don't appear to be very strong as sealed boxes which began at around $180.00 online, have already been reduced in price several times by the major retailers I've seen. There are however several singles which are quite innovative in the soccer card World and they selling very well on the secondary market. Specifically the 'supreme fabrics' jumbo patch cards and especially the 'by the letter' nameplate patch cards.

The jumbo patches are generally selling from about $30.00 to $50.00 and this includes scrub players, which In the grand scheme of things, most MLS players would fall into this category. The letter patch cards though are the real attraction though with the going prices currently at about $150.00 to $200.00, the few superstars seen so far, namely Beckham and Henry, are commanding much higher prices. It looks as if SPGU soccer is destined to continue falling in price since nobody seems to be busting any of this product, I see relatively very few singles on eBay.

If this type of high end format and brand were applied to say a Champions League or Premier League product I have no doubt this would be a winner even at the original price point dare I say.