Author Archives: Sports Card Blog

Blowout Cards vs. Dave & Adam’s Card World

  By Sports Card Blog | May 26, 2011 - 10:33 am |
1 Comment

Recently many of you have been reading and viewing my card reviews on YouTube and on this very blog. Since I have not been in contact with the sports card companies yet as far as helping review products, I have purchased those boxes in which I have reviewed. The exception being 2010 SP Authentic football and 2010 World of Sports as I won a contest on Upper Deck’s Facebook and those were my prizes.

When I purchased the 3 recent boxes, I used two different companies online in order to kind of rate and review each company on customer service, price, and shipping methods. Basically each of those things is something important when you are purchasing your cards online. After this post, you will have the information you need to make the best decision if you are choosing between these two online dealers.

Customer Service – Edge DA Card World

DA Card World has a premier buyer program which I qualified for the last time I made a purchase from them in which they will give you even lower prices then they have on their website. Having a little reward program for being a customer who has bought from them before is definitely an incentive when choosing to buy from a store. Including these incentives is the free product they give out for purchases. Now the products they choose aren’t great and aren’t worth a lot, but it’s nice to get free things just for ordering from them. Lower prices + free stuff is always nice for being a repeat customer. Blowout has never contacted me for anything after I have bought cases of product from them in the past.

Price – Edge Blowout Cards

Blowout Cards name exemplifies the types of prices they sell their products for. Blowout prices. I would guesstimate that 85% of their products are the lowest prices on the internet, or anywhere for that matter. Every product I purchased in total was cheaper on Blowout then anywhere else online. Not only did they beat DA Card World in price, they beat all the competitors in price. If you include the free stuff I received from DA Card World, you could buy that amount at Blowout Cards and still save money. That’s how low Blowout Cards prices are. Plus, the box I pre-ordered from Blowout Cards didn’t even have a price on DA Card World. Obviously I’m going to choose the store that has an item up for sale and the price.

Shipping – Edge Blowout Cards

Both companies provide free shipping for orders over $150 which is great. There is nothing I like better then free shipping. But free shipping often is the slowest shipping available. Blowout Cards leaves this open for their choice of shipping at the cheapest rate. Here is the skinny on my shipping experience:

Ordered on Monday.  I ordered 2 boxes from Blowout and 1 box from DA Card World. But this is the most important part, one of the boxes I ordered from Blowout Cards was a pre-order on an item that didn’t come out until Wednesday. DA Card World shipped that Monday. Blowout Cards shipped the Wednesday the product came out.

First package arrived on Friday. Which one do you think it was? Definitely not what I expected. Blowout Cards’ package actually arrived in 2 days via USPS. I had to wait a full week for the DA Card World package to arrive via UPS. Both companies shipped from the east coast to the west coast. I was very impressed by the speed and choice of shipping by Blowout Cards in this transaction.

Overall – Edge Blowout Cards

Overall with these transactions I would go with Blowout Cards. The fast shipping and lower prices are definitely the more important things then customer service. The only thing that makes me sad is that DA Card World is an authorized Upper Deck dealer and Blowout Cards isn’t. I don’t know why Upper Deck ruled them out, but I’m sure it had something to do with politicking and all that mumbo jumbo. I will continue to use both companies as I see fit. If you can find a lower price on DA Card World, by all means, go for it. They are still a great company and their services are top notch. I will still use both companies as I see fit per transaction. But this time around Blowout Cards took the cake, and that cake is not a lie.

You can go to their respective sites by these links. Blowout Cards & DA Card World

Related Posts

Preview: 2011-12 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey

  By Sports Card Blog | May 25, 2011 - 1:20 pm |
2 Comments

Upper Deck Artifacts hockey is the first hockey product of the new season. Featuring all your stars of the previous seasons and some of your newest rookies, Artifacts is what hockey collectors get excited for, it means hockey season is right around the corner.

This year’s rookie that everyone will want to get their hands on is Cody Hodgson of the Vancouver Canucks. Upper Deck has that covered in 2011-12 Artifacts. A box of Artifacts this time around will contain at least 3 multi-swatch memorabilia cards. At least one of them will be a dual/triple player card. One of the new memorabilia cards in Artifacts this year is a fight strap card containing the fight strap of a player’s jersey. Also, finally, making it into products more often is pieces of a game used stick. It seems that stick cards have only been reserved for the higher end of all brands but it’s nice to see them a little more often. Returning is the great patches from last year, so don’t forget about those.

The box will also contain 2 rookie cards and 1 rookie redemption. Yes, you hear the word redemption and you think of terrible things. But with the NHL rules on rookie cards, they must step foot on the ice, it gives the company a chance to get more rookies out with their initial product. Again, it might take awhile, but the rookies will be made and they will show up in your mailbox.

Finally, as far as hits go, there will be one autographed card inserted in a box. This year though, they have added some autographed memorabilia hits to the foray so it adds a little bit of value to the possible hits.

The base set will be 100 cards and you will find one base parallel numbered to 100 per box. There will also be two Legends or Stars insert sets included as well.

At 4 cards per pack and 10 packs per box it will take a few boxes to complete a set.

I have to say that the design hasn’t changed much from the past couple of years so if you’re looking for something different then it’s not going to come. The Auto-facts design for autographed cards look a little sharper this year, so I’m impressed with that. But one thing I would like to see is to incorporate some of the designs from UD Ice into this product. A lot of their Artifacts designs have some sort of wintery feel to them and I think the acetate designs from Ice would make a great insert or memorabilia set inside Artifacts. Just an idea.

This product is set to release in September and although I don’t have a price for it, I can expect it to be about the same price as last year, around $80 to $90.

Related Posts

Minor Victory: Daily Views

  By Sports Card Blog | May 25, 2011 - 11:57 am |
4 Comments

This is a minor victory in the scheme of things, but a victory nonetheless.

Yesterday was the first day that this blog has reached over 100 views in a single day. It not only went over 100, it hit 133. In the grand scheme of things this is not very impressive. However, for a blog that is a month and a day old, it’s not bad considering I haven’t done much in the way of promotion other then links on forums and talking cards in other blogs.

So I would like to say “Thank You!” to everyone who has come to visit to read my stuff. It may not be anything ground breaking, but it is the information you need to stay up to date in the hobby. I try to keep it somewhat entertaining and informative and I hope I have done that for you.

In celebration, hopefully this weekend, I will be posting a contest for all to enjoy. It’s going to be something you have never seen before, and there will be a few winners if I can get enough entries. Stay tuned for that, as it will be pretty cool. I have some cool stuff including autographs, game used, and a mighty mystery box!  But how will the winners and prizes be chosen? You’ll have to wait and see.

So make sure you subscribe to this blog here on the left. Make sure you subscribe to our Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter. Subscribe on YouTube, and if you’re really inclined, sign up for our RSS Feed. Or even bookmark us, I don’t care.

This is only a minor victory and the first goal of a ton of goals. My next goal is to try and get the companies to send me boxes to review and then give away the contents to readers. That’s probably going to be one of the harder goals to achieve, but it will be done!

So keep reading and supporting this blog. Your loyalty will soon be rewarded.

May the mojo be with you!

Note: Don’t worry, I’ll get something important up for you all today. Just thought I would share the news.

Related Posts

Vote For NBA Hoops Insert Design

  By Sports Card Blog | May 24, 2011 - 2:19 pm |
Leave a comment

Just a quick PSA for those out there.

I’ve noticed a lot of people like to get on Panini’s behind for some of their design choices across a number of products. I understand some of their arguments, but now is your chance to be heard.

Votes will pick the design of an 2011-12 NBA Hoops insert set.

You can read the article and place your vote:

‘A Night To Remember’ Checklist Selected; Collector Vote on Final Design Starts Now!

Now if only Panini had a “Design A Card” contest. I know a ton of people who would enjoy that and could see some awesome designs. For the record, Press Pass a few years ago had a “Design A Card” contest on Sports Card Forum and Trader Retreat that went off pretty well. I’d like to see Panini step up and bring this back. Panini could pick a low end product or a product they want to revitalize their designs. They could have their collectors design a card as part of a contest to have it featured in a set. The winner could get their design featured plus a box of that product. The back of the card could even have a blurb about the design in small print. The voting process could be done by Panini designers and the faces of marketing, or it could be a public vote. Not only do I think it would be great for marketing by Panini, it would shut up some of the people who dislike every design Panini puts out there.

Scott and Tracy, don’t miss this opportunity.

Related Posts

Preview: 2011 Topps Finest Baseball

  By Sports Card Blog | May 24, 2011 - 11:04 am |
Leave a comment

When Topps announced information regarding Topps Finest baseball recently, a lot of the hobby community seemed very excited for the possibilities this year. Far gone are the manufactured patches of the past few years and included are autographed on card rookies. It seems like Topps has listened to the die hard collectors out there and have made positive changes. For that, we thank you.

As always this will be a two mini box to one master box product. Each mini box will have one rookie autograph in it. One of those rookie autographs will be a rookie autograph with dual relics. Since there are other veteran autographs from the Finest Moments subset and the 60th Anniversary subset I am guessing you may find as many as three or four autographs per master box. Don’t hold me to that, but I’ve seen it in years past. Also returning are the large number of parallels. There will be 14 different parallels for each base card, which will give player collector’s a fit trying to find each card of their player. Thankfully, the parallels don’t look to be just border color changes and will be seen across the whole card. The aesthetics of the card really look that much better then just a different border color as you might see in Bowman.

New this year are rookie jumbo patch cards featuring 26 rookies with nice jumbo patches. These will be hard to find with the easiest parallel to get will be numbered to 10. These will also feature SuperFractors which should be awesome to pull. Also new, is the new inserts which are seeded 1 per mini box. Finest Freshmen featuring rookies, Finest Foundations featuring veterans, and Finest Moments featuring the best moments of a player’s career. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the 60th Anniversary autographed cards will be running in this product also celebrating Topps 60th birthday.

Finally, your case hit this year will be a Finest Moments autographed relic card featuring some of the top players in the game. Roy Halladay, Carl Crawford, and Joe Mauer are featured on the sell sheet of this product.

This product will be 5 cards per pack with a 100 card base set. There will be 12 packs per master box. The parallels of the base set include refractors from the past as well as a Die-Cut Mosaic numbered to 10, and a Canary Diamond numbered 1/1 celebrating Topps 60 years, totaling 14 different versions. You want to know who’s on the checklist? I can give you 2011 Topps Finest Baseball Checklist.

I believe this is set to arrive in September 2011, so you have plenty of time to get your money saved. This looks to be the best Finest product in years.

Here’s a pretty patch card to keep you occupied.

Related Posts