Winner Announced – Elite Non-Auto Parallel Contest
In a previous post, I asked you how much money you thought I would get from my Elite non-auto parallels I pulled.
As a reminder, in my 3 cases of Elite I pulled the following:
In my 3 cases of Elite, I pulled the following:
26 Gold Status Diecuts /50 - Chapman was the highlight
41 Red Status Diecuts /100 - Tate was the highlight
99 Blue Aspirations Diecuts /200 - Ackley was the highlight
My total sales were as follows:
26 Gold Status Diecuts /50 - $93.29
41 Red Status Diecuts /100 - $57.72
99 Blue Aspirations Diecuts /200 - $117.40
Total sales were $268.41, that makes Thomas, who guessed $252.52 the winner of an Elite auto. I'll be sending him and email and getting the prize out.
Thanks to everyone for participating!
Straight out of left field – Elite Series Insert Set
I've been posting a lot lately about opening 3 cases of 2009 Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Much of this posting is for entertainment value alone, however, the analysis is also fascinating.
When analyzing an Elite Case Break several things should come to mind: low #'d autos, names like Ackley, Tate and Chapman, Hot Boxes, a Pujols Auto #'d /20 and so forth. During my consideration of opening 3 cases, all of these things ran through my head. One thing that didn't was inserts, no, not the autographs, just the inserts.
On a whim, I decided to sort my Elite Series inserts into player lots and auction them off, I started them at $.99 and ran them for 7 days. My results were as follows:
Tony Sanchez7 Elite Series Inserts $7.39
Donavan Tate 4 Elite Series Inserts $0.99
Nolan Ryan 8 Elite Series Inserts $1.25
Dustin Ackley 4 Elite Series Inserts $3.25
A.J. Pollock6 Elite Series Inserts $0.99
Mike Minor 7 Elite Series Inserts $1.54
Al Kaline8 Elite Series Inserts $3.54
Albert Pujols8 Elite Series Inserts $10.49
Will Clark8 Elite Series Inserts $0.99
Total sales for my 60 Elite Series cards were $30.43. Now, you may say, that really isn't that much and right you are. However, when you consider that Donavan Tate /999 Autos were a "big hit," in the product and sell for less than that, $30.43 isn't all too bad. When you are trying to recoup case moneys, anything works.
School Colors and College Ties inserts are now for sale in my auctions, I wonder if I'll have the same kind of luck.
2009 Elite Extra Edition – non-auto parallels
Non-auto Elite paralells are the pulls that you don't want to see. You see a little hint of gold...you start thinking, "this could be that Gold Status Autograph out of five I have been dreaming off, IT IS Aroldis Chapman
!!!!...but but but, it doesn't have an autograph, its /50, it's all over."
This sums up the range of emotions I went through when pulling the card above. An Aroldis Chapman Gold Status Auto would sell in the 100s, the card above sells in the 10s and by 10s I mean 10 
.
In my 3 cases of Elite, I pulled the following:
26 Gold Status Diecuts /50 - Chapman was the highlight
41 Red Status Diecuts /100 - Tate was the highlight
99 Blue Aspirations Diecuts /200 - Ackley was the highlight
The question is, how much value will these provide me in sales? I have ever non-auto parallel I haven't already sold up in my auctions. If you want to flip through the auctions to see who is being auctioned feel free.
Post your guess here on my total sales, both on and off eBay and the closest to the ending total will win a random card I pulled from Elite. No, it will not be a base card, it will be something worthwhile, the auctions end Tuesday, winner will be announced Wednesday. For your guessing information, I've sold about $30 worth of non-auto parallels offline so far.
Let me know what you think!
A mighty flood – 2009 Elite Extra
If you've got "a guy" from 2009 Elite, you should probably consider buying now. The market is flooded with singles. Let me give you some examples of eBay searches and the stunning results they yield. All are confined to the baseball category.
2009 Elite- 4,591 results
2009 Elite AU*- 2,406 results
Elite Aroldis Chapman-54 results
Elite Dustin Ackley- 83 results
Elite Tate - 57 results
Plus you've got 2009 Bowman Sterling and 2009 Bowman Draft
competing for buyer's attention. That's another 3600+ listings right there. So perhaps the time has come for those of you wanting to load up on a particular prospect or brand to enter the market? It certainly seems that way to me but I'm open to dissenting views.
2009 Elite Extra Edition – what we know
If you ever watch Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls, you are aware of the fact that the man eats some pretty disgusting things. No, I'm not talking about raw fish, I'm talking about maggots from a rotten tree stump. There have been times where I have literally yelled, "oh sweet mercy, why would he eat that," out loud. The answer, he's hungry.
This explains why threads grow so quickly on an information board when long awaited information starts to trickle out. Ever since we found out who was in Elite Extra Edition, we wanted to know print runs of said autographs. Today that information started to come out via Facebook, Twitter and FCB. So in summary, here is what we know regarding print runs.
Aroldis Chapman Base Sticker Auto Print Run: 695
Dustin Ackley Base On-Card Auto Print Run: 899
Mike Leake TOTC Sticker Auto Print Run: 356
Jared Mitchell Base On-Card Auto Print Run: 370
Alex White Base On-Card Auto Print Run: 599
Tom Mendonca Base On-Card Auto Print Run: 569
Slade Heathcott Base On-Card Auto Print Run: 754
Jiovanni Mier TOTC Sticker Auto Print Run: 825
Donavan Tate Aspirations Sticker Auto Print Run: 100
Brandon Jacobs Base Sticker Auto Print Run: 725
These really make me happy. Heathcott, Chapman and Ackley will be three of the best pulls in the product. They are attainable, yet not overproduced. Perfect.
We of course have lots of print run information yet to find out, including parallels etc. but this is an awfully good start.
Enjoy the pictures.
Its not long now — DEEE 2009, first break in a long time
Like most of you, I have really enjoyed following the pulls and sales of 2009 BDP and those breaking it.
To be quite honest, I think that there are some very good buys to be had at the current prices. Since I'm still buying, I'm not going to name names but you sure do have to love the times where the market is flooded, flooded with opportunity.
That being said, BDP does not excite me from a wax breaking perspective....Elite does. Getting some good prices and using the bing.com discount, I feel like I have purchased my two cases at nice buy-ins. I am so looking forward to breaking them and seeing what is inside. This is me rattling the Christmas presents under the tree to a factor of 10.
Elite is really just a far different product from BDP, although their are endless comparisons between the two, it probably doesn't make sense. Elite is probably more of a hybrid of BDP and Sterling. More autos per box, more expensive boxes, less valuable base cards and so on. Wax breakers will love the early big money for guys like Ackley, Tate, Meija, Chapman and so forth. Prospectors love that there are 150 guys to sort through and that they can stock up on their guys' autos for $4 each. From what I've seen thus far, I love it all...and I can't wait.
I usually try to offer information, an opinion, some humor, a unique observation or a combination thereof in my blog...not really in this case. This blog is more just a verbal picture of me waiting, with excitement...just like kids do when they open their gifts under the tree.
I will post a full breakdown of my entire two case bust, in what some might consider gory detail on the blog after I finish it. For now, well, you will have to drool along with me at the pictures.
The on-card autos look to have come out very clean and very clear.
This really just reminds me of a Simpsons' episode, as does much of life. Homer has started a business, Mr. Plow (if you know what I'm talking about you remember the jingle). As a result of that, he has purchased a 30 second block of advertising on late night TV. The family is crowded around the TV at midnight, waiting for the 3:30 a.m. ad, Homer then says "lets play the waiting game!" There is silence for about 15 seconds and Homer then says "oooooooooooh, the waiting game sucks, lets play Hungry Hungry Hippo." The point is, waiting does suck and in fact, Hungry Hungry Hippo isn't exactly the most interesting game either but it beats waiting by a long shot.
Tom Petty was no Socrates but he sure was right, "the waaaaaaiiiiting, is the haaaaarrdddest part."
I am so happy pt. 2 – Elite Preview Picture
On November 3rd, I wrote that I was happy. If you aren't into clicking links, then you should know that the reason I was happy was simple; Panini had announced they would be producing 2009 Elite Extra Edition. This product has become a hobby favorite over the past couple years and it significantly added to what looks to be an otherwise mediocre year of prospect products.
Additionally, Panini had said that some autographs would be on-card, yesterday we got a taste of what that looks like. It looks like gloriousness. I can't wait for my two cases.
