What's In A Name ? PSA Doesn't Know (or care)

There is an elephant in the room and no one seems to care its shitting on the rug. Professional Sports Authenticators a.k.a. - PSA - is a business that slabs collectibles. Its President, Joe Orlando, claims they are instrumental in  furthering the hobby.

 

I beg to differ, and back my words with further proof of malpractice -

 

EXHIBIT "A" is the graded rookie card of the great soccer star "PELE".

 

A few years ago you could have passed off any card of the superstar made before 1980 as his debut or "rookie" card. But todays' soccer collector is much more informed and far more knowledgeable.

 

You need not be the sharpest tool in the shed to know that the above card is shared with another World Cup star - "GARRINCHA".

 

What PSA lacks in knowledge they make up in false profits ! Someone paid good money to have this item graded and identified.

 

Well, PSA got it only HALF right !

While it would not technically be incorrect to label the slab with a player's full given name, it would be almost a sin to do so for a Brazilian player. As most soccer fans know, Brazilians go by their nickname and not their actual baptismal title.

 

EXHIBIT B

 

A comparison to of the 1958 card with the above example is clearly proof that Garrincha is featured on the Exhibit "A" card.

 

Not knowing that the card was shared by a a superstar such as Garrincha, is like baseball card collectors not knowing that a guy named Nolan Ryan also appears on Jerry Koosman's rookie card.

The misleading label is also paramount to identifying Babe Ruth as only George Herman. I pity the fool who pays such money only to be duped by PSA.

 

As our cartoon heroes GI JOE's used to say - Its good to know, "and knowing is half the battle".

 

PANINI To Continue World Cup Tradition - Sticker and Cards

Recent press release from Panini America had announced at least 2 upcoming sets for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

2014 World Cup Stickers and Albums
The last time Panini sold the stickers and albums, it sold 1.5 billion worldwide with 12 million in North America. These will be available in April.


2014 World Cup Prizm
This will be a worldwide product. Each continent will get its own Prizm-colored borders.
Autographs in this product include Pele, Lionel Messi and David Beckham. It is due out in June.


Panini debuted a World Cup sticker card set in 1970. This past year, a complete set of the 1970 sold for over $4,000 on ebay. Panini supplimented its sticker release with standard trading cards sets beginning with the 1998 World Cup.

1970 Panini World Cup - Pele'

 

1998 debute of Panini World Cup cards

 

1998 Panini World Cup card - Klinsmann

 

I am looking forward to seeing what will be produced by Panini for this tournament. Hopefully, Panini America will put this on the front burner as sticker-mania comes into full swing.

 

As we find out which teams round out the field (after November play-off matches), it will be interesting to see what regional sets will be produced.

 

Stay tuned as I find out, I will present them here. I will also be looking back at some of the more memorable issues of World Cup collectables in the coming months.

 

 

ONLY ONE WILL GO - IBRA or CR7 - 2014 WORLD CUP

The good and the bad of a great party is that some people get to go - others do not.

 

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be a big party. After all, it will be hosted by soccer's party nation - BRAZIL.

 

As World Cup Qualifying comes to a close, the end is marked by the final play-offs that pit the many also-rans.

 

Uruguay, blessed with talented strikers like Liverpool's Luis Suarez and PSG's Edison Cavani, will have to play Middle East upstart, Jordan.

 

While 8 European teams will battle it out for the 4 final places, the draw pitted two of today's fan favorites:

SWEDEN'S IBRAHIMOVIC

PORTUGAL'S RONALDO

 

The home and away series to be played this month was drawn as follows:

 

GREECE v ICELAND

UKRAINE v FRANCE

CROATIA v ROMANIA

SWEDEN v PORTUGAL

 

While it is a possibility that France, the 1998 World Cup Winners, may miss the tournament, it is a fact that either Portugal or Sweden - with their super stars, will sit this one out.

 

Zlatan has 46 international goals (93 caps) for Sweden while Cristiano has 43 goals (107 caps). Ronaldo has appeared in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. Ibrahimovic has made it to the 2002 and 2006 tournament finals with Sweden.

 

Cristiano scored both of Real Madrid's goals in its Champions League match this week. Ibrahimovic score 4 of PSG's goals in its 5-1 crushing of Anderlecht.

 

see it here - http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ibrahimovic+anderlecht&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=6CF11227762DD97DE4476CF11227762DD97DE447

 

Only one will be in Brazil ...

 

 WHO WOULD YOU RATHER SEE AT BRAZIL 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP ?

USA Gold Cup High Lights Topps MLS Players

TOPPS has got a winner on its hands. The US National Team's CONCACAF GOLD CUP victory put a spotlight on MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER. With a majority of the European based Americans taking a summer break, USA Manager Jurgen Klinsmann opted to use a domestic league "B side".

 

Topps' 2013 MLS card set is loaded with variations of cards that feature Gold Cup Champions -

 

A late call up, Sporting KC's MATT Besler was tough on defense.

 

Chicago's goalkeeper SEAN JOHNSON recorded a clean sheet in his one chance between the posts.

 

EDDIE JOHNSON scored 14 seconds after coming on as a sub. He also scored in the semi-final.

GRAHAM ZUSI was seen as the successor to Landon Donovan.

 

LANDON DONOVAN erased all rumors of his demise. His 5 goals netted him of the Golden Boot as top scorer (tied with 2 others) and the Golden Ball as tournament MVP.

 

Once forgotten midfield enforcer, KYLE BECKERMAN was a surprise to everyone except maybe Klinsmann.

With the # 1 and # 2 U.S. netminders playing in England, NICK RIMANDO was called to duty and came up big. He's going to Brazil - but maybe as the # 2 not # 3 goalkeeper.

 

The dangerman, and Mexico's nemesis, was FC Dallas'  Panamanian star - BLAS PEREZ.

Top scorer in MLS over the past 2 seasons, CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI came to play. Wearing and extra "W" on his jersey nameplate, the error resulted in a hattrick against Belize.  He tied for the Golden Boot with 5 goals.

 

Other MLS players who fared well were Marvin Chavez and Clarence Goodson of the San Jose Earthquakes, and Alvaro Saborio of Real Salt Lake.

 

The Gold Cup has come a long way and is a showcase for many of the regions best players. It might be time for PANINI to step up and do a sticker set for the next tournament.

Mail Day: Das Post - 2013 TOPPS Fussball

The most redeeming part of blogging is connecting with fellow or new collectors. My latest connection crosses over the Atlantic to Armed Service Member - Noel.  Noel began like many of us collecting baseball cards. Today, he is an avid collector of vintage soccer and a pretty good one at that. His want list is one to drool over.

 

2012-2013 Topps Match Attax pack

 

He sent me a package with the lastest Bundesliga (German Premier League soccer) cards and stickers. I got 4 packs of Topps Match Attax (above).

 

 

A good assortment of clubs and type cards were in the packs including foil cards of the "100 Club", a "Team Crest" and "Match Winner" (all middle row above).

 

Two Americans - Williams and Jones

 

I was happy to pull two current U.S. Internationals - Danny Williams (Hoffenheim) and enforcer Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04).

 

There were 2 packets of Topps stickers (below) which I have not seen since the 1980's football sets. I have yet to open these as I may wait for the sticker album before I rip them.

 

 

Front and back of the Topps sticker packets.

 

Lastly, there were 3 packs of the Panini Uefa Champions League cards. I say you just can't go wrong with this set. They are filled with all the big club teams of Europe and there are players on the lesser known clubs whose cards you will only find in this compellation. I got at least two pack wrapper variations -

Iniesta (Barcelona) / Torres (Chelsea) / John (Nordsjaelland)

Pato (AC Milan) / Hart (Man. City) / Ferdinand (Man. Utd.)

 

2012-13 Panini Champions League - pack types

 

As I said, there are no bad packs. I drew Maicon (Porto), Zabaleta (Manchester City) ...

 

 

Sanchez (Barcelona), Ribery (Bayern Munich) and Khedira (Real Madrid).

 

And if I was to wish - the top player to pull in ANY pack these days ...

 

 

LIONEL MESSI (Barcelona).

 

Curriosly, he only rates a "90" on his card. Is there a card for "Superman" ? Because there aren't too many players I know that rate higher.

 

What current players would you rate higher than the above Messi ?  What number rating would you give them ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TYPHOO TEA - International Football Stars

 

One of the best thrills for my generation was going up and down the food store isles and finding products that has the words" FREE inside" on the package. For sports card collectors, this was probably the most common post-war theme after the extinction of the cigarette card.

 

So while I was collecting Kellogg's and Hostess baseball cards, fellow enthusiasts across the Atlantic were collecting biscut and tea cards. I recently acquired two of these food issues.

 

TY-PHOO, the Chinese word for doctor, was a brandof tea that produced many trading cards on various subjects. For a 10 year period (1963-1973) they issued soccer cards on the side of their boxes. Like many of the sets from this era, the size of the cards were depedent on the discretion of the person cutting the package.

 

1969 TyPhoo Tea - International Football Stars - Bobby Charlton

 

The sets, which almost always consisted of 24 cards, featured the best players from England and the 2 Glasgow clubs of Scotland. Manchester United, European Champions in 1968, led the set with 4 players. Their Captain for club and country was BOBBY CHARLTON who appears as # 57 on the Football League 100 top players.

 

1 Mike Bailey - Wolverhampton

2 Colin Bell - Manchester City

3 George Best - Manchester United

4 Billy Bremner - Leeds United

5 Bobby Charlton - Manchester United

6 Martin Chivers - Tottenham

7 Charlie Cook - Chelsea

8 Ron Davies - Southampton

9 Mike England - Tottenham

10 Tommy Gemmell - Celtic

11 John Giles - Leeds United

12 John Greig - Rangers

13 Pat Jennings - Tottenham

14 Brian Labone - Everton

15 Rodney Marsh - Queens Park Rangers

16 Bobby Moore - West Ham United

17 Terry Neill - Arsenal

18 Keith Newton - Blackburn Rovers

19 Peter Rodrigues - Leicester City

20 Ian St. John - Liverpool

21 Nobby Stiles - Manchester United

22 Mike Summerbee - Manchester City

23 Ian Ure - Manchester United

24 Graham Williams - West Bromwich Albion

 

Kellogg's made the jump across the pond when they issued a set of 12 International Football Stars which also included Bobby Charlton (see below).

1961 Kellogg's - International Stars - Bobby Charlton

 

Collecting The FOOTBALL LEAGUE 100 - # 49 BERT TRAUMANN

Today, Manchester City has a payroll well into the millions. There are plenty of foreigners on the English squad including two Argentinean players. Argentina, once an enemy combatant of England, are now expensive imported stars at City.

But it was not like that in the 1940's after the end of World War II. The ruins of Maine Road, Manchester's one time stadium, had to be abandoned due to an unexploded German bombs on the pitch.

Yet by 1949, a German man who was once a sworn enemy of England, took his place between the goal posts at Maine Road.

BERNHARD TRAUTMANN was a Nazi Paratrooper captured by the British and incarcerated in a camp inside England. He never left.

1959 National Spastics Society card # 1 - BERT TRAUTMANN

According to the story, the Brits called him "BERT" as Bernhard was not something they could not or would not pronounce. 

Bert took up farming in the small town of St. Helens and soon attracted the attention of 1st Division Manchester City while playing for the local club team.  Perseverance in the face of hate and animosity left over from the war, eventually became admiration and later adulation.

Trautmann went on to be voted "Player of the Year" in 1956 - the first goalkeeper to do so.  His legend was sealed when it was learned that he played the remainder of the 1956 F.A. Cup Final with a broken neck after a collision with an opposing player.

Bert played over 550 matches for Manchester in all competitions.

In 2004 he was awarded an honorary Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Collecting The FOOTBALL LEAGUE 100 - # 7 William FOULKE

He was known as "Fatty" Foulke because he weighed as much as 24 stone - the British equivalent of 331 pounds ! However, at 6 ft. 4 inches he also covered the goal which he kept safe for Sheffield United, Chelsea and Bradford City. 

He appeared once for England at the International level in 1897. 

1908 OGDEN'S Cigarette card issue of William Foulke.

In later years he became quite the crowd attraction. He placed two boys behind his goal to distract the opposition. They often retrieved balls for him, by fortune, inventing the first use of "ball boys".

In my pursuit to collection all the one hundred top Football League players, here is my count so far:

75 of 100 player cards = 75% finished

8 of 100 first issue cards = 8%

budget: $100

spent: $5

balance: $95

Suddenly, Last Summer: trade with Arbitrary Crap - Pt. 1

ALMOST LIVERPOOL

Well, "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in again !" Summer is gone as of 10:40 PM today and Euro 2012 and the London Olympics are a distant memory ...

... almost. As you see from the cards (above and below), I got some Euro hangover from my friend Martyn over at Arbitrary Crap. These are some sweet Panini Euro game cards.

Knowing that I am a Liverpool supporter, Martyn sent me a few of the guys that USED to play at Liverpool.  He also added some Panini Champions League cards:

Sami Nasri - Manchester City

Alou Diarra - Olympique Marseille

Franck Beria - Lille F.C.

Vyecheslav Malafeev - CSKA (GOAL STOPPER foil)

Eric Abidal - Barcelona

Marek Hamsik - Napoli

We featured a few of Topps Olympic cards earlier, but the Brits had there own version mad by Panini. I got the card of the greatest player NOT to play soccer at in London 2012.

DAVID BECKHAM looks like he's training for some other sport on his card. I also got a Ladies footballer and a 7-a-side footballer. Interesting, I guess ?

Martyn sent along a three unopened packs so I can try my luck at a later time.

Here is a Liverpool player from the past - EMLYN HUGHES. I like this sample as it is a cigarette card size issue. There are several companies making retro sets and reprints in the UK. I'm not a fan of reprints at all, but these retro sets are nice if you have favorite players or teams from another era and don't want to spend a lot searching or spending big money.

The last card in this group is a 1979 TOPPS sticker from the NASL logo set. What's cool about this is that the NASL is back (as a 2nd division) and so are the Earthquakes. San Jose is in 1st place and may win the league this year. I featured their top gun Chris wondolowski before in an earlier blog.

coming next: part 2 of the trade

Quakes, Kookie cards and more Stan ...

One of the great things about surfing the web for your favorite cards is finding stuff that you've never seen. One of the worse things about surfing the web to find your favorite cards is finding stuff you've never seen ... but now want.

Case in point - this Greek card, of a French movie poster, of BRUCE LEE from Enter The Dragon, depicted as "Kato", from the Green Hornet TV show. Phew !

Just plain kookie, but pretty cool in another way, as it is quite colorful and may be a very rare card.

With all the art cards / sketch cards being produced (I should know, as I used to make them for Topps and Co.) it is interesting to find vintage memorabilia with some quality pencil work. Here are two samples from the 1978 Coca-Cola SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES set.

This is PARVIZ, the Iranian Soccer Captain at the 1972 and 1976 Olympic games. He joined San Jose after the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Two other Iranian stars who also came to the NASL were Andranik ESKANDARIAN who joined the New York Cosmos and Iraj DANAEIFARD with the Tulsa Roughnecks.

This is LES CHAPMAN, who racked up an amazing over 700 games in English League. He spent one season with San Jose.

I really like these sketch cards, albeit they are just prints and not actual sketches. Upper Deck could learn a few things by making the MLS sets a step up from less boring. 

And the results of more searching is this fantastic 1 of 1 art card of SIR STAN MATTHEWS from the 2012 SPORT KINGS set. From what I understand it went for over $1000.00 to a private buyer. 

That's really too bad. Or should I say good - because I really, really wanted this. And I have a grand burning a hole in my wallet ... NOT.

So I have to settle for some other Stan Matthews cards to add to my collection. I will feature these in an upcoming blog. 

Add SPAIN to The Champions Roll

After a great month of watching EURO 2012 and collecting PANINI stickers - we have a new winner - Congratulation to SPAIN or ESPANA !

I have duplicates of the bottom half of the 2 foil stickers that make up the trophy. Oh well.

Up next: the 2012 Olympic Soccer Games.

A Knight of Sport Kings

It is few and far between that I am excited about new products. Don't misunderstand me, I have interest in lots of the new stuff, but that different from EXCITEMENT !

The SPORT KINGS GUM series that has been revived of late. It is a continuation of the classic cards of various sports stars from the 1930's. And it is only fitting that the 2012 set contain a players that was a star from that pre-war period.

Stanley Matthews was featured in several tobacco and trade cards from the 1930's all the was to his last playing season in 1965. He was first dubbed "the wizard of dribble" for his skillful artistry with the ball. 

As an ambassador of the game to all part of the world, he was never sent off and never booked during his career. He was knighted by the Queen of England in 1965, the first soccer player to be honored as such.

Sir Stanley Matthews is seen in the colors of Stoke City FC with which he began in 1930. He served in WWII and returned to the "Potters" until he was transferred to  Blackpool in 1947. He returned to Stoke City in 1961 while earning 54 caps for England. (he had an additional 29 war-time appearances)

The Sport Kings set contains a subset of  "papercuts", unique one-of-a-kind autograph cards.

If I could own one card, to add to my present collection, it would be this one.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Sir Stan and found him to be the very essence of class. I asked him to send me a postcard when he returned to Stoke, England. A few weeks later I received a postcard in the mail. Neatly written on it " Best Wishes from Stan Matthews".

1975 TOPPS - Manchester United

Adding to my 1975 Topps soccer set with the "red" side of Manchester. The mid 70's finds today's world's most expensive club absent of its legendary trio of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best. However, the side still has some very good international players:

MICK MARTIN - earned 51 caps for the Republic of Ireland. After 147 appearances for Newcastle United, he caught the end of the NASL wave by joining the VANCOUVER WHITECAPS.  Son of Irish soccer star Con Martin. 

WILLIE MORGAN - won 21 caps for Scotland including the 1974 World Cup. First came to America on loan to the Chicago Sting and then spent 3 seasons with the MINNESOTA KICKS. 

ALEX FORSYTH - winner of the 1977 F.A. Cup with United. Capped 10 times for Scotland. 

STUART PEARSON - another 1977 F.A. Cup winner. Also won the 1980 F.A. Cup with West Ham.  Earned 15 caps for England including the match against Team USA in 1976.

ALEX STEPNEY - the last holdover from the Manchester's great 1968 European Championship. He made an astonishing 546 appearances for United after which he joined the DALLAS TORNADO in America. 

Although I don't think I will ever complete this set, I have hopes of finishing my LIVERPOOL players list and a few more of the special cards like CENTURIONS and the TOPPS SELECT cards.

NEXT:  here is a clue - I'll be STUCK to the TV screen, watching EURO 2012 while eating my  PANINI ....