Duck Dynasty Musings

Normally I don't get into reality TV but this show has me laughing every time. Just got into it after the headlines; wanted to see what the fuss was all about. This is my favorite clip so far....

2013 Finest Andrew Luck # 60

This card is of a player that's pretty hot right now. Luck has taken his team to the playoffs and that's pretty impressive for a second year QB. None of the rookie quarterbacks are doing nearly as well as Luck. Card companies smartly put his veteran autograph in many products like finest to help bolster the weak rookie class this year. Even this base card has been known to sell for a dollar or two on Ebay. I'd say this and Peyton Manning are the hottest base cards in the set. Luck's rookie numbers are pretty close to what Manning's were in 1998 and that's eerie considering their careers will be forever linked.

Last card of the year!

2013 Finest BenJarvus Green-Ellis

Today's addition is my first "Law Firm" card. Since the Bengals handily knocked off the Ravens yesterday I'd have to say we're going to see a brief spike in Dalton, Green-Ellis and Giovani Bernard cards unless they do the unspeakable and go really far in the playoffs. Due to past performances I'd say this is not likely but I'm hoping it will. I've got an Andy Dalton Elite RC Auto that I'm selling on Ebay and I could end up making money on that card. My strategy for selling cards is simple. I start out by asking the highest amount that the card has ever actually sold for in the last 60 days. Each time the auction ends unsold I will lower the price very slightly until it ends up selling. This may be a slow way to sell cards but I'm always happy when they do sell. This means I got the maximum possible value for the card and the card has time to sit on the market for a while. While this can backfire (injuries, suspensions and the like) 9 times out of 10 the card sells for more than if I had listed it for 99 cents and just let bidders decide what it goes for. Exceptions to the rule would be if the player is super hot (see Kaepernick in the playoffs last year and Foles in the middle of the season this year). At that point it's best to set it at 99 cents and let it go because you WILL see a good profit on the card. And you don't want to risk poor performance or injury in a week or two. A good example was when I sold my Case Keenum SP Authentic AU RC for 29 dollars when I purchased it last year for 6.00. The bottom dropped out a couple weeks later when he got benched. So it's a bit of luck and some planning needed on your part but Ebay can be fun and profitable for collectors and investors alike!

2013 Finest Chris Johnson # 57

Here's the next card in my growing 2013 Topps Finest set! This card is # 57 in the set so I'm about a third of the way through my base cards.

On a side noteI usually am a Panini basher just like Adam Gellman of Sportscards Uncensored but I gotta say their new Hoops Basketball game on Facebook is really cool and revolutionary. You purchase "Packs" from the store and are able to fill up your album with their basketball set. What's really cool is you can examine these cards closely front and back. They correspond to the real Hoops set which is beyond awesome. You can even get jersey and autograph cards from the better packs. It's similar to the idea introduced on the Madden franchise. You then have a ""pack war" element which I've never been into in real life but I can see how it might be cool. Anyway, you gotta check it out if you get the chance!

Today's card is one I pulled about a year ago, box hit appears to be nearly worthless.

The card I pulled last December and am finally adding to my stash illustrates the dangers of breaking a box on your own. This was the main box hit. If you look on Ebay right now you will see 15 of these for sale, some of them with a buy-it-now of 5.99. For a 100 dollar plus box that isn't very good at all. That being said, there were not too many patch autos that you can pull to save the box value. The only ones that come to mind is Lesean McCoy and Matthew Stafford. Even the Mike Wallace and the Knowshown Moreno would only fetch 20-30 dollars on the secondary market. Same thing with Mark Sanchez since he's not the starter in New York any more. Sanchez was one of those players I never understood the attraction of collectors seeing as he never really showed much to me the whole time he played. Guess it's just the blind collectors assigning value to starting quarterbacks in the NFL regardless of the chance of them being a long term solution to a bad team (see Matt McGloin).

This particular pic I grabbed off of Ebay but my specific serial number is 384/999 and at least is a multicolored name patch nearly identical to this one.

Football Challenge Card (2002 Pacific Heads Up Josh Reed # 133)

Today's card comes from Ebay. I offered less than the initial price because this is not going to be a high-demand card any more since it's in the "ten year old or more" dead zone of cards. This one is machine numbered to 1090 copies using the old "dot matrix" printer style of stamping. As you can see from the photo it has a foil finish and features the Bills wide receiver in his LSU threads. The back of the card erroneously compares this rookie to Jerry Rice, of course hindsight is always 20/20 but that's a bold statement. Apparently Reed was a pretty darn good college player though as he got the Biletnikoff Award in 2001 (awarded to the nation's top College WR) but it just didn't pan out in the NFL. I snagged this one for about 3.00 including shipping.

The next card on my challenge list (the card ending soonest on Ebay once this card was in hand) is a base card from 2011, more specifically 2011 Panini Threads # 8 Roddy White. This card might be better to try to track down at the local card shop because shipping will be more than the card is worth. I'll see if I can track it down this weekend. Until tomorrow, good luck on your personal football card quests!

Next card is a 2013 Elite "Hard Hats" Alex Okafor card

These acetate rookie cards "step outside the box" and I really like the way these look in person. The autographed versions are even better. The Cardinals have been doing surprisingly well this season despite the fact that this is one of the 4 rookies they lost this year due to injuries. I scoffed at their choice of grabbing Carson Palmer but it looks like I was wrong. I don't know how well they will do in the playoffs but they have a chance to knock off another NFC team in the playoffs; I don't think anyone wants to play them right now during this hot streak they've been having.

This card is from 2013 Elite and I pulled it at the beginning of the football season, just now adding it to my collection! Looks like the next major football release will be Panini Contenders on 1/3. I can't wait to see how those turn out!