I just wanted to thank everyone at Dave and Adam’s for this amazing pull I had.  I purchased a box of 2011 SP Legendary Cuts Baseball and pulled the George Washington Presidential Emblem Cut Signatures 1/1.

Some of the more interesting additions in this year’s product will be actual pieces of space debris, meteorites, and civil war relics. Here are some additional things to note about this year’s release:

- Find (10) Goodwin Champions Minis per box!  Look for rare numbered parallels!

- Rare Goodwin Masterpieces 1888 Originals – Hand pained images of the 50 cards in the 1888 Goodwin Champions Set

- It Came from Outer Space! Relics (Meteorite and Space Debris Relics)

- Museum Collection Relics (Pieces of actual Civil War Items)

- Two Military Machine Cards Per Box featuring a selection of famous military planes, ships, submarines, tanks, and more

- New Butterfly, Beetle, and Bug Entomology Cards

- Hard Signed Autographs from Michael Jordan

Check out our the complete product description for 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions here. It’s scheduled to release May 20th, 2012.

But first a little background…..I am an avid autograph collector for the past 15 years. For most of those years I worked in the food industry, which is not great for autograph collecting, unless you collect autographs of waitresses with 25 or more pieces of flare. About four years ago I see a baseball card store called Dave and Adam’s Card World that seems to have athlete signings every other day, and I decide “I should work there!”. Long story short I get a job in the retail store, my autograph collection is growing nicely, and then I get “the phone call”. You see, Dave and Adam’s 4 stores are kind of like a baseball team’s farm system for developing prospects. So I have good stats at the AAA Sheridan store, and I get called up to the majors…..the warehouse.

So I feel I know everything there is to know about autographs and I can’t wait to lend my expertise to the website. My dream job. My first day the big bosses sit me down in the conference room, welcome me, and tell me I am now in charge of gaming singles.  Dream job over.

I have never played a collectible card game in my life, and suddenly I’m in charge of buying and selling Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon cards. In reality the job turned out to be pretty simple. All I had to do was see what all the other companies were paying on gaming singles, and then pay more.

The first real test was a large gaming convention called Gen-Con where I took $50,000, spent it all, and my bosses seamed to be pleased with this.  I was officially a gamer “who also collected autographs”.

A year goes by and the person in charge of autograph memorabilia leaves the company to purse other interests – AKA he got canned.  I finally get my dream job back. My official job title is now “Gaming Singles and Sports Memorabilia Purchasing Manager”. When you consider the fact that there is virtually no cross-over between the gaming community and autograph collectors, (yeah not much of a shock there), I am 100% certain that no one else in the world has, or ever will have my job title.

It Gets You Closer to the Game

Most card collectors you find will also be sports fans. If you’re a big fan of a team or a player, sports cards give you a great way to expand on that. Whether it’s a piece of a game worn jersey, an autograph, or a rare insert commemorating a big game or moment for your favorite player, cards provide a further connection to the teams and players that fans love. Collecting also keeps you involved in sports and furthers your knowledge of the players in the game.

It’s Something You Can Share with Others

Many collectors get started from a family member passing cards down to them or simply sharing the hobby with them, which made their start that much more meaningful. Today, there are tons of ways to share the hobby with others. You can hang out with like minded collectors at the hobby shop, or join the collecting community online. The internet has given collectors a great way to share the hobby with others – group box breaks, trades, product discussions, showing off your collection, and video box breaks are just a few ways to connect. You can also return the favor that got you started and help someone else be informed about the hobby by sharing your knowledge or cards with them.

You Can Build Your Collection in Any Way You See Fit

Collecting sports cards provides a great freedom to build your collection however you see fit. Some of the basics include collecting your favorite player or team, but everyone seems to collect something different. Want to build a complete insert set of autograph cards? Go ahead. Build a vintage set from your birth year? Get started. Only want to collect cards of basketball players over seven feet tall? No one is stopping you. Personal collections and accomplishments can also bring great pride and fun when showing them off. You can use photobucket, forums, facebook, and youtube to show the world what you put together.

There’s Always a Chase

Whether it’s opening boxes to pull a big hit or scouring the internet to add to your personal collection, there is always a chase. It can be the thrill of a big hit or the thrill of finding that last card you’ve been searching for to complete a set. There’s always that next thing to work on.

It Can be Lucrative

There are plenty of ways that collectors make money in the hobby. You can speculate on unopened product and wait for it to go up. You can collect a rookie or player you think is going to increase in value with on field performance. You can even pull an extremely valuable card out of an unopened box.

It’s a Distraction

Spending some time looking for cards or enjoying opening some boxes can be a nice distraction from daily worries. Clearing your mind and flipping through your collection or going through cards can be a very positive thing.

It Brings Back Memories

Cards can bring back all kinds of memories. It could be memories from your childhood, your favorite player, a sports memory, or even the joy of a big hit you pulled from a box of cards. Perhaps a family member got you started with a certain set of cards. Chances are you’ll always have fond memories when you see those cards.

It’s Fun

Out of all the reasons that people collect, the most important one might be that it’s just plain fun.

Everyone has different reasons for collecting, what are yours?

Package Wrappers must be sent to Topps and postmarked no later than February 29^th, 2012 (Gold Rush, PO Box 2008, Duryea, PA 18642)

Topps was also able to insert limited quantities of two of baseball’s biggest free agents into the product.  Look for both Albert Pujols Angels cards and Jose Reyes Marlins cards!

Boxes of 2012 Topps Series 1 Baseball deliver 1 Autograph or Relic Card Per Hobby Box and 1 Autograph & 2 Relic Cards Per Jumbo Box. There are tons of other new inserts and promotions centered around the “Gold” concept. To check out all of the product information on all the great stuff you can pull as well as some product preview images visit our 2012 Topps Series 1 Baseball Hobby Box Page.

To stay up to date on the Topps Company and the February 1st release of 2012 Topps Series 1 Baseball check out the official Topps Facebook Page and follow @ToppsCards on twitter.

Years ago I would frequently visit a card shop in Niagara Falls to “get my fix” of cards. I liked this store because it carried a lot of oddball items and there was always something new to see.

Back in the late 1980’s there wasn’t a basketball price guide. Why would there be? Everyone collected just baseball cards, right? I walk in one day and they had just opened a case of 1986/87 Fleer basketball to make sets. Why would they waste their time on a product that nobody cared about? Wouldn’t it make more sense to spend the money that they paid for the case to fill the store with Gregg Jefferies rookies?

I remember the store owner telling me I should buy a set because this Jordan card will be worth a lot of money some day. How could a basketball card be of any interest to anyone? This shop had a stack of Gretzky rookies for $25.00 each and no one was buying those, I figured they would be stuck with the Jordan cards too. I passed on the set because the $12.00 (with the stickers) just seemed ridiculous to me. Where did he come up with this price?

The following week I went back to the store and the store owner was again trying to convince me that this is a set I should buy. There had to be around 40 of them sealed in plastic, stacked on the counter in a huge pyramid display. Obviously I was right, nobody wanted these sets.

Another week passed. I returned again and saw the display exactly as it was the last time I was there. It didn’t look like a single set sold. For some reason that day, I decided to waste $12.00 on one of the sets. I picked one up and said “I’ll take it.” The store owner replied with “The sets are $20.00, now I get $12.00 for the Jordan alone.”

“Well that’s just ridiculous” I said. “That card will NEVER be worth $12.00.” I put the set back & bought another box of 1989 Topps baseball.

I have bought and sold many Jordan rookies and 1986 Fleer sets since that day but I have never had one in my personal collection.  Anyone interested in some Steve Avery rookies?

Back in November we received a call from a gentleman in Pennsylvania who informed us he’s been putting away cases for “quite some time” and had them all stored in a rented warehouse space. Right off the bat, this deal sounded big. Once we received the inventory list we realized we were wrong, the deal was huge. After some negotiation with the seller, Bob, Steve, and a few other employees made the trip to Pennsylvania from our Tonawanda, NY, location to get this deal packaged up and ready to go. The agreed upon price was just over a half million dollars!

Over the course of a couple days and a few Pennsylvania dinners, the crew finalized everything and prepared it for shipping up to the Dave and Adam’s warehouse.

The picture you see below is Bob and Steve in our warehouse with just some of the  unopened case buy. It is literally thousands of unopened boxes and cases ranging from all years and sports (there’s even some non-sport)!

The seller was a pleasure to work with. He told us that he knew from the start we were the right buyer to handle this amount of inventory. We were glad to pay him over a half million dollars for all of the cases he’s been putting away over the years!

Deals like this allow us to add to our vast inventory and bring our customers the largest selection of unopened boxes and cases of trading cards. Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding tons of older boxes and cases from this purchase to our website.

Purchases like this just go to show us that you never know what’s out there. And as long as it’s out there, we’ll be looking to find it and buy it.

If you are interested in selling your cards, we’re always buying. Whether it’s unopened product or single cards, you can reach our Senior Buyer Bob Snyder via email vintage@dacardworld.com or call him toll free at 1-888-440-9787 x.100 You can also use our contact form.

It’s also numbered 23/25!

We are constantly looking to purchase quality product to offer our customer base. Whether it’s adding to our older unopened inventory or stocking up on vintage singles, we pay aggressive amounts in order to bring it in. This year we’ve not only bought more, but sold more vintage cards than in any other year past.

It was a record year for the Vintage Division & we hope to be even busier in 2012. Thanks to everyone we’ve had the pleasure of working with in buying inventory and collections.

Bob Snyder

Dave and Adam’s Card World Buyer

(If you are looking to sell cards, you can fill out the form on our site here, or contact me at 1-888-440-9787 x. 100.  You can also email me at vintage@dacardworld.com)