I know this is a sports card focused website, but I did some writing about Americana last week for the sister magazine, Sports Collectors Digest. I spoke with Larry Rosenbaum at EAC Gallery about presidential collectibles and other historic and political items that have been popping up with more frequency in sports auctions. And I'm not talking about the 1-of-1 cut sig presidential cards or the other inserts found in packs today.

I'm talking about real documents with the presidents' signatures. Can you guess who the top three are in the category. Good ahead and think about it.

Got it?

It's Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.

OK, now how about the rarest signatures as president? Think it's the top three mentioned above? Nope.

The two rarest signatures as president are William Harrison and James Garfield. Why you ask? Well, Harrison caught pneumonia at his inauguration (hey, someone get him a coat!)  and he died 30 days later. That doesn't leave a lot of time to have documents signed by Harrison as president, much less have enough available today in decent condition.

Garfield was assassinated while in office, not long after he took the oath, so the same scenario exists for him as to the rarity of documents with his signature as president.

I had never thought of it in this fashion. I just assumed that the holy trinity of presidents were the most coveted and that was that. If you take a step back and realize the facts behind the history, it makes sense. Rosenbaum said a Garfield signature as president can run into $15,000. That's quite the jump from a Garfield signature while he was in the Army that brings $500-$600.

Just some food for thought before all my attention turns to my bracket this week. Happy selecting everyone.      

I'll kick this blog off with a note from Topps regarding its eTopps cards:

With the start of the 2009 World Baseball Classic, eTopps is excited to offer cards featuring players taking part in this year’s WBC tournament.  eTopps is issuing a special limited 12-card collection of cards featuring the biggest stars from some of the participating countries.  
 
Collectors who acquire the complete 12-card set of eTopps 2009 World Baseball Classic cards will receive a free patch card. This card will highlight a patch commemorating the winning country, and will be featured in eTopps technology.  For each 12-card eTopps 2009 WBC set in your online portfolio as of 10:59 PM (EDT) on Monday, March 30, you will be guaranteed one free patch card in your portfolio as well (at $0 value).
 
The first eTopps World Baseball Classic cards are available for purchase via online offering. Each card will be available for seven days, and will be sequentially numbered to limited quantities.

Next Monday (March 16), additional eTopps World Baseball Classic cards will be offered as the tournament kicks into high gear. Like the first one, this IPO will begin at 1:00 PM (EDT) on Monday, and will remain open for one week, closing at 3:00 AM (EDT) on the following Monday.


That's not a bad deal for folks into the eTopps line. But I'm curious - is this appealing to collectors or is this mostly geared toward younger collectors?

I never really caught on to this branding of collecting or trading, but I guess it's another option, especially in this online world.

The world of trading cards is becoming a little more three-dimensional. In case you missed the articles in the "NEWS" portion of the Tuff Stuff site, Topps is offering a unique feature on its Topps Town site – something is calls 3-D Live virtual reality baseball cards.

The idea goes something like this. You know the Topps Town cards that are in packs of Series 1 Baseball? Well, you need to actually keep those cards. Oh, and buy a Web cam, if you don't already have one.

The next step is to visit the Topps Town site, enter the code on the card and then hold up the card to your Web cam. And then, according to Topps and this pretty cool video, the player on the card will come to life as a 3-D hologram from the card.

Think Princess Leia's message via R2-D2 in the Star Wars movies.

Now if this works as advertised, it would be pretty darn cool. Especially when you consider that you can then play 3-D games with this card.

This sounds fun, and something that would get kids into cards more. While it's like a video game, kids have to buy the cards to get the cards that allow access to the games.

I think the only thing better would be to have a virtual reality helmet where you swipe the card and then you can either bat or pitch against said player in a virtual world. Now that would be fun!  

If anyone has the tools as their disposal to give this 3-D Live technology a whirl, I'd love to hear about the results. 

A recent blog post by Sports Collectors Digest Editor T.S. O'Connell made me chuckle. In it, he decided a good way to pass the time if he were to ever end up in prison. He didn't name the offense that would land him in such a predicament, but it he were there, he would pass the time by rattling off the stats on the Strat-O-Matic cards. He knew them from heart since he was a teen growing up.

While I didn't play Strat-O-Matic, I did play RBI Baseball on the first generation Nintendo, a practice I am proud to say I still enjoy from time to time. The copyright date on the "start" screen says 1987, which sounds about right. I had to play Nintendo at other people's home since I didn't get a Nintendo until some other systems were already in vogue, like the Sega Gensis and others.

A few years ago, I purchased a used Nintendo to replace the one I sold just after high school. And I bought RBI Baseball off of eBay. Last weekend, I challenged a friend of mine to a friendly game and we dove into an two-hour-long marathon. While we played, my friend kept asking me who the players were and I rattled them off like nothing. He said, "How do you remember that."

Part of that answer is easy - these were the guys I watched in my formative years and the ones whose cards I pored over nearly every day. (Who would keep Tony Armas on the bench with that home run total?) The second part of that answer was I played this game until my fingers bled and the book that came with it included the rosters with full names. Recalling this information was like riding a bike. I can tell you almost the entire roster of that game if I tried hard enough.

So now I ask you, are there any sports games that you can replay in your head easily and spit out "facts" from that game until you're blue in the face? I know there are a lot of other people out there like me and T.S.

I'm off to a Milwaukee Braves reunion in the next few months, attending as a fan, though I might slip some work into the mix by sharing the doings of the event in Sports Collectors Digest.

The guest list includes Bob Uecker and Andy Pafko, among others. And, yes, there is an opportunity to get some autographs. So I'm toying with the idea of having them sign some of the Milwaukee Braves yearbooks I have or have them sign a baseball. I like the look of autographs on a clean baseball, and they display well.

If I had them sign the yearbooks, I would have them sign their photos inside and then the only people who would know it's there is me. And maybe that's all that maters. After all, I'm not in the game of seeing how much I can get for my collectibles. I'll keep them forever and pass them along to my son. I don't acquire real high-end stuff anyway, so it's more sentimental value.

I display the yearbooks on a wall, in a sleeve that allows for easy removal. In one of the yearbooks, I found a scorecard someone filled out and I might enjoy that scorecard more than the yearbook. You don't see many people filling out the scorecard any more. So if you're yearbook hunting, make sure to flip through the pages, because you just might find some more goodies hidden inside than just the photos.

 

It's Friday, and that means a wrap-up of the week's events. Actually, it's been a pretty quiet week.

A gentleman from Pensacola, Fla., became the second member to accumulate the entire UD Yankee Stadium Legacy set. I do admire such determination. I don't think I could accumulate 6,661 pennies, much less a card set of that size. To do that would mean buying a lot of packs of cards and trading and keeping track of what you need and don't need. But after a while, I suppose you say what the heck and go for it. Maybe - I stress maybe - someday the set itself will be a cool, niche collectible.

A report on CNN.com said that autographed memorabilia is a $4 billion-a-year industry. I think to the average person, that would seem ridiculous, but it's probably pretty accurate, especially when you consider presidential stuff, celebrities and even musicians and other politicians. Would I would be interested in is how that market is doing. Is it going up with more emphasis on autographed stuff, or is it suffering with everything else in the world right now?

Grey Flannel is offering Roger Clemens' items that reportedly come from Roger Clemens' trainer, Brian McNamee, as part of its April sale. Hmm, I know that might get your attention, but is that really what you want as your spotlighted items going into the sale? Most people will immediately say, "I don't want that" and move on to another auction. It's been made abundantly clear by the public and sports that he's trial has already taken place and he's in the pen with Bonds and the rest of the gang. My guess is that these collectibles are worth a fraction of what they were a few years ago.

And finally, spring training took off this week, and Kerry Wood is already complaining about some injury. One healthy year turned in to get another decent contract and he's hurt again. And to think he had all the promise in the world nine years ago. That probably happens a lot, but he's a celebrated case.      

A comment was made in the office today, and it went something like this: "They (the PGA) have the 'Jordan' problem - when one guy gets bigger than the sport."

Of course, this was in reference to Tiger Woods and how his play in tournaments (such as this week's match-play tournament) has a direct impact on the revenue for the sport. If Tiger makes a tournament's weekend, it means an extra tens of millions of dollars for the port through TV viewers, fans making the trek to the course to watch and other factors. When Tiger is not around, even somewhat loyal golf viewers don't make the extra effort to tune in.

With Tiger's layoff since last June, how many tournament winners can you name? How many did you watch? I can count on one hand how many minutes I watched golf after Tiger was done, much less watching more than one event.

Now the comparison to Michael Jordan and the state of basketball when Jordan left might be stretching it a little. Yes, Jordan was clearly the best player in the league, but the NBA get a little more attention than golf, and there are other players who can capture an audience on a given night. I say that, but does the average person remember the other big names on the court when Jordan retired? Think about it.

Tennis might have been close to this situation when Andre Agassi was flashing his Nikes and long hair around, but he was never the undisputed top player in the world – he just played rock 'n roll tennis, if there is such a thing.

Of course, if you're talking hobby lore with Woods, it's no question he carries the sport and will for a long, long time. Jordan pretty much reigns the basketball hobby, though there are some worthy contenders.

And tennis? Well, they have a bit of catching up to do in the collecting world.        

Happy Spring Training Opener everyone! While we in Wisconsin are staring at a winter storm for tomorrow (6-10 inches of snow), it's nice to know I can flip on the radio and hear some baseball being played in warmer climes. What a beautiful thing.

Tuff Stuff's Sports Collectors Monthly does a great job focusing on sports cards, and we'll be adding some interesting articles in 2009. In a series dubbed "Best Vintage Card Sets," we'll review some of what are considered the best trading cards sets in baseball, football and basketball. T.S. O'Connell, editor of Tuff Stuff's sister publication, Sports Collectors Digest, will review the cards' designs, interesting features of the set, notable missing players and other tidbits of the time.

The first one will be 1954 Topps Baseball, appearing soon.

This leads me to ask a rather general question for the hobby, but one that generates some decent debate: What's the best card set that has even been produced?

Older collectors will harken back to the glory days when completing sets was attainable, while newer collectors enjoy the modern bells and whistles of patch cards, autographs and other inserts.

I guess it depends on your preference. Some might argue the older sets are easier to obtain these days than the current offerings since they don't have the parallels and other nuances that drive collectors batty.

So dive in and let me know your thoughts. And watch for those articles coming.

This is going to be an interesting test. In a time when people are trying to distance themselves as far away from Roger Clemens as possible, Grey Flannel auctions just fired off a press release that it will be selling some of Clemens' items that he gave to trainer Brian McNamee, including a 2000 World Series Trophy.

This item and more will be in Grey Flannel's auction that ends April 29.

The consignment Grey Flannel received consisted of approximately two dozen items, including apparel, equipment and memorabilia originally owned by both Clemens and Andy Pettitte. All of the high-profile collectibles were previously part of the McNamee's personal collection, and each is accompanied by a letter if authenticity signed by McNamee.

 The 2000 World Series trophy is from the 2000 "Subway Series." the sale will also include All-Star game jerseys, autographed baseball and game-used fielding gloves.

“Each of the lots in the upcoming sale is likely to be viewed by future generations of fans as symbolic of a turning point in Major League Baseball’s evolution,” said Grey Flannel Auctions’ President Richard E. Russek.

So what do you think folks? Is Clemens damned so much that this stuff will sell really cheap? Or do you feel he's still one of the game's best and it's a good shot to own some personal items of his?

It will be interesting to watch the bidding unfold. I'm a little curious if Grey Flannel got this through McNamee directly or though another party. I guess if it was my auction house, I'd like the publicity but I not sure it's worth listing.