TOPPS REVEALS DIAMOND SAPRKLE VARIATIONS

The Diamond Anniversary of Topps Baseball is off to a feverish start and collectors are uncovering rare Diamond Sparkle Variation cards in 2011 Topps Baseball Series 1. (image attached)

Following is the list of 60 players who have a “sparkle” on a few of their cards.

Upper Deck Adds Buyback Cards to 2009 SPx Baseball in Celebration of Company’s 20th Anniversary

Each box includes an autograph or game-used buyback card showcasing Upper Deck’s rich baseball history

North Las Vegas, NV (March 26, 2009) – Upper Deck’s 2009 SPx Baseball debuted this week and collectors have been buzzing over game-used and autograph buyback packs added to the product. Collectors can find one of these packs in each box along with four jersey cards and one autograph card, on average. With nine 20th Anniversary cards and four Joe DiMaggio “Career Highlights” cards per box, 2009 SPx Baseball is loaded.

The game-used and autographed buyback cards have been purchased from hobby outlets over the last several months. Upper Deck pulled out all the stops and had Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) slab 10 of the most limited cards in the buyback packs and they are now being offered as exchange cards. Some of those cards include the 1992 Upper Deck Ted Williams autograph card, the 2001 SP Legendary Cuts Joe DiMaggio Cut Signature card and the 2001 SPx Baseball Albert Pujols autograph rookie card, to name a few.

“Adding meaningful content like this is a great way for us to highlight many of the unique cards that helped make Upper Deck the leader in the sports card industry,” said Gabriel Garcia, Upper Deck’s associate brand manager for Baseball. “Collectors will also find tremendous value with each box already with the four memorabilia cards and one autograph card on average.”

Another addition to 2009 SPx Baseball is the return of mystery rookie autograph exchange cards. Collectors who pull these cards can find out which card they will receive by registering the cards online. Upper Deck will announce which players those cards are good for throughout the season. The first card (RR1) will be exchanged for pitcher Koji Uehara of the Baltimore Orioles, a former Rookie of the Year in Japan and two-time Sawamura Award winner for being the top starter in Japan. Uehara signed 25 of these cards in Japanese as well which should create some additional chase.

Start the season off right with 2009 SPx Baseball available in stores now.

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:

o Find four (4) jersey cards, two which will be a Dual, Triple, or Quad swatch card, in each box, on average!

o Find One Jersey Autograph or Rookie Signature per box, on average!

o Find a 20th Anniversary buyback pack in each box!

o One (1) 20th Anniversary Memorabilia card per case, on average!

o Look for Three (3) patch cards, one which will be a patch auto per case, on average!

o Look for four (4) Joe DiMaggio Career Highlight insert cards numbered to 425 per box, on average!

o Look for nine (9) 20th Anniversary insert cards per box, on average!

o Collect the complete 100-card SPx set printed with Light/FX technology!

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN

Regular Cards and Rookies

o Base Set – 100 cards – Base set printed with Light/FX technology!

Inserts and Parallel Cards

o Joe DiMaggio’s Career Highlights #’d to 425 (Celebrating Joe DiMaggio’s greatest highlights)

o Nine (9) 20th Anniversary cards per box, on average!

Autograph Cards: (One per Box)

o SPx Rookie Signatures #’d up to 99

o SPx Game Jersey Autographs

Memorabilia Cards: (Two per Box)

o SPx Winning Materials

o SPx Game Jerseys

Memorabilia Cards: (Two per Box)

o Flashback Fabrics

o SPx Winning Materials 2

o SPx Winning Materials 3

o SPx Winning Materials 4

Autograph Cards: (Two per Case)

o SPx Rookie Signature Redemption

Memorabilia Cards: (Three per Case)

o SPx Game Jersey Patch // #’d up to 99

o SPx Winning Materials Patch // #’d up to 99

o SPX Game Patch Autograph #’d up to 50

Throughout the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Topps has announced the subjects for the 10-card WBC Redemption program. Each Topps Series 1 Hobby Box includes (1) WBC Redemption, which can be redeemed online at www.topps.com/redemption. Once collectors enter the pin code, they will be given a designated number that is assigned to a specific player.

The cards will be printed on Topps Chrome technology and shipped to collectors first week of June.

The complete WBC redemptions checklist:

Lee Jin Young, Korea
Derek Jeter, USA
Gift Ngoepe, South Africa
Ubaldo Jimenez, Dominican Republic
Sidney De Jong, Netherlands
Yoennis Cespedes, Cuba
Dae Ho Lee, Korea
Yu Darvish, Japan
Jung Keun Bong, Korea
Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japan

Upper Deck Hits Grand Slam with 2009 Series One Baseball Release

Trading card giant packs plenty of pop into action-packed insert card lineup

North Las Vegas, NV (February 4, 2009) – Sports card manufacturer Upper Deck has just released a very ambitious series of special insert cards inside its flagship baseball brand: 2009 Series One Baseball. Led by 89 signed and several hundred unsigned buyback cards of its very first card ever released, the coveted 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card (# 1), the company has also sprinkled in unique cards chronicling 10 “Historic Firsts” that took place during 2008 and nine “Historic Firsts Predictors” that could come true in 2009. What’s more, the card behemoth is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, so the company has produced a special 2,500-card insert set that will be featured inside each of the company’s ’09 baseball trading card releases starting with Series One, which hit store shelves earlier this week. The retrospective “20th Anniversary” cards, appearing at a rate of one in every other pack, celebrate special events from the past 20 years that have occurred in sports, politics, pop culture, world history and even technology.

“This year represents a special one for the Upper Deck Company, so we knew that our original brand – Upper Deck – would have to have some special bells and whistles associated with it,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s senior sports brand manager. “I think we really captured some pivotal pieces to the puzzle, from the autographed Griffey rookie buybacks to the 20th Anniversary retrospective cards, we’ve really packed a lot of cool content into this year’s flagship release.”

The 500-card base set, which is 100 cards bigger than last year’s UD1 effort, truly has something for every collector. Hobby boxes will yield, on average, two MLB memorabilia cards, one of which is either a dual, triple or quad serial-numbered to 199 or less. In addition, hobby boxes will bear, on average, one “Inkredible” autograph card as well as up to four “Yankee Stadium Legacy Update” cards and four “MLB Documentary Update” cards. And to honor the card that started it all, Upper Deck had Griffey sign 89 of his 1989 rookie cards and include the special inscription: “20 years.” These cards were randomly inserted into the product. To add heightened rarity to these autographed cards, Junior signed the first 13 cards in black ink and the remaining 76 cards in blue ink.

The “Historic Firsts” cards, meanwhile, inserted at a rate of 1:6 packs in Upper Deck’s 2009 Series One Baseball, include notable achievements including from the political arena: the “First African-American elected to the U.S. Presidency” (Barack Obama); the “First Female Candidate on GOP’s Presidential Ticket” (Sarah Palin); from the military sector, the “First Female to be Promoted to U.S. Four-Star General” (Army General Ann E. Dunwoody); and from the science-and-technology region, the “First Privately Developed Space Launch” (SpaceX Falcon 1).

The “Historic Firsts Predictors” cards, also inserted at a rate of 1:6 packs, include gas prices plummeting to 99 cents per gallon, and the first African-American woman being confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. Other historic firsts predictors cards topping  the list are ones predicting that an AIDS vaccine is developed, that alien life form is discovered on another planet and that the Dow Jones reaches 15,000 points!

True to its roots, Upper Deck also included a few sports-related predictions. The scenario most likely to come true is that the National League ends a 10-year drought and actually wins this year’s MLB All-Star Game, which is being played at St. Louis’s Busch Stadium. The two remaining sports predictions include Chicago being named host city of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, and college football adopting an actual playoff system to determine the national champion.

For a sneak peek at some of the other cards featured in the 2009 Series One Baseball set, visit Upper Deck’s Diamond Vision website at http://upperdecksports.tv/video/The-Card-Condo-UD-Series-1-Base.

Thanks to Chris Olds from Beckett.com for posting these images from 2008 SPX Baseball. The following is what information he had on the product.

The 2009 SPx set should go live sometime in March. Each 18-pack box will include four memorabilia cards and one Rookie Signature or Jersey Autograph. The product also includes three patch cards per case numbered to 99 or less as well as a Joe DiMaggio career highlights set with cards numbered to 999. The basic set is 100 cards and, like last year, there will be seven rookie autograph redemption cards.