By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

The NFL Players Rookie Premiere wrapped up Saturday with players running around the field in their full NFL uniforms for the first time at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles while getting their photographs taken in various poses.

These are the images that collectors will get to see on a number of football cards this season.

It’s a busy and long day for players and card companies. Besides taking the photos under the hot sun in their uniforms, players are trying to catch up on the rest of their autograph duties.

The Rookie Premiere is vital to Panini America and Topps for the upcoming season. Without this three-day session, the companies likely wouldn’t have rookie autographs in their earliest products – or maybe many products at all during their first year.

Photos might even be a bit iffy for the first couple of products, which comes out before the start of the regular season. That means no action shots from NFL games and instead Photoshopped college photos. So, the posed photos are very important going forward.

Some of the fun from the Rookie Premiere was shared by the companies with a non-stop stream of posts on social media sites. Twitter and Facebook took the bulk of the frenzy as several people from Topps and Panini tweeted from the event. They posted photos of athletes, videos with interviews and retweeted many of the players from the event.

For any fan that wasn’t at the Rookie Premiere – that’s pretty much all of you – it provided a great way to get inside the festivities.

So while the Rookie Premiere is over, the results of the event will be far-reaching.

Take a look at the gallery from the last day of the Rookie Premiere the companies released.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

Sure seems like Topps is into its oldschool designs this football season.

First, we featured a post on tallboys coming back, inspired by 1965 Topps. Now, let’s fast forward two decades.

Topps is bringing back the 1984 Topps design for another special round of autographs from the NFL Players Rookie Premiere this past weekend.

While the 1984 design may seem unspectacular to some to bring back for another round, there were a couple of rookies from that year that make the set popular to this day. John Elway and Dan Marino – two of the most famous quarterbacks in NFL history —  both have Rookie Cards in that set. (Need a 1984 Topps Football checklist or OPG? Click here.)

Perhaps Topps inspired by the two quarterbacks in this year’s draft to go with the first two picks: Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. Or maybe 1984 was just a good year.

What do you think of Topps bringing back some vintage-ish designs for the 2012 card season?

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Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

When 2012 Topps Archives arrives in hobby shops on Wednesday, some collectors will start getting their hands on a unique card that someone else already laid a hand on.

Cal Ripken Jr. to be exact.

As one of the box-topper inclusions in the multi-decade, multi-design throwback set, there will be 100 Touched By Greatness autograph cards that feature a signature from baseball’s ironman as well as an inked hand print from a Franklin batting glove that Ripken wore to do his “other inking.”

Ironclad Authentics was, well, on-hand to document the process. Check it out in a video after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Need a Cal Ripken Jr. checklist or OPG? Click here.)

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

A circa 1920 New York Yankees road jersey worn by Babe Ruth sold for a record $4.4 million early this morning through SCP Auctions.

Including a buyer’s premium, the final price was $4,415,658 after 36 bids — the most ever paid for a single piece of baseball memorabilia by a wide margin. In 2007, SCP sold a PSA 8 Honus Wagner T206 baseball card for $2.8 million.

The auction opened with a $250,000 minimum bid and the winner of the jersey was another auction house, Lelands.com.

“We are ecstatic about the acquisition of what we consider one of the most important pieces of sports memorabilia in history,” said Lelands President Michael Heffner in a statement. “We are always on the lookout for high-quality sports memorabilia and this artifact represents the pinnacle.”

Ruth, of course, was one of the world’s most-recognizable athletes in his time and remains so today. His 714 home runs were an MLB record well beyond his playing days until Hank Aaron topped the mark in 1974.

The Spalding flannel has Ruth’s name stitched into the collar, and the placement of the New York patches on the front have been photo-matched to images included with the auction.

In 2005 Donruss/Playoff purchased a Ruth home gamer from around 1925 (one of three known pinstriped Ruth jerseys), which it cut up and placed into baseball cards. That jersey cost the company only $250,000.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

Topps is going vintage.

At least part of its 2012 football card product line.

The company debuted one of the 2012 autographs sets at the NFL Rookie Premiere this week, which is a design from one of its popular products in the 1960s.

Topps has brought tallboys back, the nickname given to the 1965 Topps oversized football card set — as a miniature version that may be found in 2012 Topps. (That product is confirmed to have unsigned 1965 cards.)

Could they have the same effect from the 1965 version? Most of the cards from this product are pretty valuable, however, in large part to the many of the cards being short-printed and tough to store (Need a 1965 Topps checklist or OPG? Click here).

Joe Namath’s only Rookie Card is in that set and as a short-print. Of course, Namath’s card being so rare won’t happen to the players currently at the Rookie Premiere because Topps is going to want these guys in as many products as possible.

But will these autographs be a hit with collectors just as the original non-autographed product was?

The bright cards are more narrow than regular cards. The city of the player is written across the top with a portrait of the player underneath and the name at the bottom of the card. The lower portion of the card fades to white, which is where the player has signed.

The original cards were oversized (2 1/2”x4 11/16”). These will fit into packs — just narrower than the standard width of a card.

Topps released several photos of players signing. Some of them include Russell Wilson, Brock Osweiler, Coby Fleener and Robert Griffin III.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

The 2012 NFL Players Rookie Premiere is a great way to preview the upcoming football card season. With the pictures card companies are putting together, every little image helps in helping collectors find the cards they want to chase.

On the first day of the Premiere, the companies were big on getting on-card autographs.

In Panini America’s session, the company showed off dozens of photos. But take yours off the athlete and look at what they are signing. Some autographed strips of leather from a football or manufactured patch cards.

But what is so special about the picture above with Robert Griffin III?

Check out the card. Is RGIII signing a black card with a red marker? Nope. It’s a clear card he’s signing with the color of the table showing through.

It seems as though the clear Rookie Inscriptions are going to appear in 2012 Elite. And, apparently, these were quite the popular card.

“A highlight-filled first day included Panini America unveiling the welcome return of acetate Rookie cards (a development met by rave reviews from both the players who signed them and the football-loving),” Panini spokesperson Tracy Hackler wrote on the company’s blog.

The cards are reminiscent of other acetate cards in 2000 Bowman Football or hockey’s 1996-97 Upper Deck Ice Acetate parallels. But they more closely resembled other acetate autograph sets such as Upper Deck’s 2003-04 Hardcourt Clear Commemorative Autographs where players signed on top of a clear panel with no background or the baseball product 2001 Topps HD Clear Autographs.

The newest cards by Panini will feature some of the best rookies from this year’s draft. The top three draft picks from 2012 were at the Premiere: Andrew Luck,  Griffin and Trent Richardson. In total, 35 rookies made it to the Los Angeles-based event.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

Tarzan is remembered for his unique pets and hearty yell while banging on his chest. We still remember him and can mimic his mannerisms.

But Tarzan is old. Really old.

The character first appeared in 1912. Think about that — this is its 100th anniversary, and Tarzan has appealed to all these generations via movies, TV shows and books that have all been made in honor of the first comic Tarzan of the Apes.

Now, the iconic character is coming to trading cards in special set by Cryptozoic. The set, scheduled to arrive this summer, will highlight the last 100 years of comics, books and movies.

The Tarzan 100th Anniversary Trading Cards several lines such as Tip Top, Gold Key, Dell, Marvel and Dark Horse. Cryptozoic doesn’t want to leave anything out. The movies and books will be represented as inserts in the 100th anniversary set. The hits include autographs, sketch cards and special redemptions.

Tarzan has been so popular over the years, comic companies picked up the rights to create his comics whenever it became available. He was published in more than six publications. But part of his rise in popularity the newspaper comic strip, which started in 1929. The newspaper print ended in 1972, but some the old comic strips are still reprinted today.

In honor of the how Tarzan first started, Cryptozoic instilled the work of several artists to create sketch cards. Here’s a gallery of many of the sketches that will be found in the Tarzan set.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.

Beckett Hockey‘s Dan Hitt and Andrew Tolentino tear into a box of goalie-centric 2011-12 Between the Pipes from In The Game. What will they find inside? Watch and find out.

By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

The auctions have ended, the numbers have been crunched. The ranges have been tabulated and the OPG has been posted.

The 2011 Limited baseball card set from Panini America has arrived on Beckett.com with the prospects, legends and more all in tow. Let’s take a look inside the numbers crunched by Beckett Baseball Senior Market Analyst Brian Fleischer  — and see even more — after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Total value … of all priced cards in product: $9,423.25.

Average price … of all priced cards: $14.43.

Highest-priced card … 2011 Limited Hall of Fame Gear #1 Ty Cobb/25 ($150-$250)

Notable card … Tigers catcher and All-Star Alex Avila’s first certified autograph can be found here. It’s limited to 49 copies and has been a surprisingly strong seller.

Other notable cards:
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #1 Josh Bell/149
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #10 Trevor Bauer/99
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #12 Archie Bradley/99
– 2011 Limited Draft Hits Signatures #26 Danny Hultzen/99
– 2011 Limited Greats Signatures #14 Pete Rose/30
– 2011 Limited Match-Ups Signatures #2 Gerrit Cole/Josh Bell/25
– 2011 Limited Match-Ups Signatures #4 Archie Bradley/Trevor Bauer/25

Fleischer’s Focus: While the product may seem like it’s loaded with prospect autographs, there many attainable hidden gems to be found from game-used cards from Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb to autographs from top sellers like Frank Thomas, Will Clark and Ken Griffey Jr.

Olds’ Opinion: Limited’s lower price point (compared to Prime Cuts) makes it a bit more fun, but it seems that some cards are still a bit soft. To me, that’s an invitation to buy right now as there is plenty available. The singles route on cards could be fun for some sets in the product — check out sets such as the Limited Gamers for something different, affordable and collectable.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

With The 1990s Issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly in hobby shops now and in newsstands soon, editor Chris Olds decided to rip into some 1990s packs for a Ripping Retro video from the early part of the decade.

What will he rip? What will he find inside? Watch and find out …