The 2013 Icons Messi Card Collection Is Live

A few days ago the watered down European version of this product was apparently released in at least Spain. As of the 29th of March the high end Japanese version of the product went live with some singles making their way on to Yahoo Japan Auctions. Not too much stuff has been listed as of the writing of this post, I've only seen one auto so far (pictured below).  Below are links to samples of the different type of insert cards to be found in the product.

One of the first ever certified Messi autos

Messi On-Card Autograph

Messi Match-Worn Jersey

Messi Event-Worn Patch

Messi 1/1 Base Card Parallel

I'm expecting a couple of these boxes in the mail soon and I will of course be posting my box break results here on SCB. Be sure to watch this space...

What Could Have Been...

Originally posted on 29 February 2012.

A while back I came across a very interesting blog (http://sportscollectorinparadise.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/the-story-behind-the-collectible-my-beckham-mancrush/) about the excellent Manchester United trading cards Upper Deck produced years ago. The article offers insight into the blog author's experiences working on the products, his fandom of David Beckham and getting to meet Becks himself, among other things. What really caught my attention however was the excerpts that are quoted below:

"After a trip to London the next day to talk with distributors and to make a pitch presentation to get the English Premier League trading card license, I went back to Manchester for more meetings.

He would be sold to Real Madrid after the season and with him went the sales of Upper Deck’s trading cards. Real Madrid was unrealistic in their expectations for Upper Deck to get a trading card deal done, so we didn’t follow Beckham there. Further, it would take the next Man Utd #7, Cristiano Ronaldo, a few years to become one of the top players in the world and a household name, so Upper Deck did not continue producing Manchester United cards."

Upper Deck producing cards for the Premier League and even Real Madrid, was apparently a real possibility. It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Upper Deck's trading card products in terms of design and quality, so I would have been absolutely thrilled with UD having both of those licenses. Obviously none of these possibilities came to fruition but all of this leaves me wondering about what could have been...

Upper Deck's 2011 World of Sports Is Now Live

Originally posted on 24 February 2012.

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 autographed trading card so that'll definitely keep me tuned in...

Trading Card Games Suck

Originally posted on 9 February 2012.

Panini and Topps are at it again with their soon to be released Adrenalyn XL and Match Attax branded Euro 2012 collections. The preliminary images I've seen show the same old tired, boring, fugly design we've come to know from these two card maker's flagship soccer card brands. I would post an image but it's not even worth it. I suppose they'll stop milking this TCG crap when people stop buying... Surely I'm not alone in my dislike for this shit?

Official Lionel Messi Card Collection: Jerseys, Patches and Autographs!

Despite being widely considered the best footballer in the World for quite a while now, Lionel Messi had never had a proper certified autograph card ever issued before.That is about to change as UK-based football memorabilia company Icons is set to release a dedicated Leo Messi card set. Apparently this collection will feature 89 regular cards as well as numbered parallels, jerseys, patches and the aforementioned first ever certified Messi autographs. I know, I know, Messi has some Futera 1 of 1 autos but as I've made clear before I don't trust Futera's signatures which they don't even bother to back up with a guarantee of authenticity and for good reason me thinks.

Back to the Messi collection before I go on another Futera rant, here's what's known so far.

• The collections consists of 89 regular cards with gold parallels serial numbered to /1.
• There are 5 on-card autos with gold parallels numbered to /3.
• 5 different match-worn jerseys with an autographed match-worn jersey numbered to /1.
• 5 different event-worn jerseys with an autographed event-worn jersey numbered to /1.
• Auto odds (1:400 packs) - Jersey odds (1:21 packs)

The configuration of the product is 3 cards per pack, 20 packs per box and 20 boxes per case. Apparently the product will only be distributed in Japan, the cost per box is currently ¥10,500 Yen (about $115.00 USD).

As far as design goes, to be honest the design of the cards looks a bit amateurish to me but hopefully the cards look better in person than in these mock-up pics. Still I'm very much looking forward to this release. Hopefully I can pick up a box or two and report my pulls on a future entry here on SCB. Check out the images of the product below.