Penny Sleeves Thoughts on Cards, eBay and Sports in general

26Feb/100

Panini Announces Contenders Short Prints

Per a press release from Panini, the following players are short prints in the Contenders set:

"The following players are printed to 499 or fewer: Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, Tyreke Evans, Jordan Hill, Brandon Jenningsand Tyler Hansbrough.

 These players were produced to 649 or fewer: Blake Griffin, Dante Cunningham, Earl Clark, Jonny Flynn, Stephen Curry and Terrence Williams."

 We here at Penny Sleeves guessed that Harden, Evans, Jennings and Clark were SPs but we did not see it coming with Griffin and Curry.

Clearly, the big names get listed en masse like Griffin and Curry and we believe that's what threw us off.

Additionally, although there are SPs in this set its really not quite the same as football with guys #'d to 21 etc.  Click the player names above to see what of the SPs is available on eBay!

13Feb/101

Contenders SP Tracker: 2/13/2010 Update

There are now 1,100 items open if you search Contenders in basketball on eBay and an additional 2,100 closed. When I started this tracker there were only 400 open.

I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.

Player Listed Sold
Brandon Jennings 6 16
Tyreke Evans 8 17
James Harden 8 11
Blake Griffin 13 18
Jrue Holiday 13 14
Ty Lawson 22 37
Jonny Flynn 14 14
DeJuan Blair 19 28
Earl Clark 8 8
Stephen Curry 7 23

To see what's listed of any particular player, just click their name. It will take you to the eBay search for their Contenders Autos. So here are my predictions:

Non-SPs: Griffin, Lawson, Blair, Curry

Possible SPs: Harden, Evans, Jennings

Sure SPs: Clark

All the others, it is too early to call, do you think my predictions are right?


Click Here

10Feb/100

Contenders SP Tracker – 2/10/10 Update

There are now 1,100 items open if you search Contenders in basketball on eBay and an additional 1,500 closed.  When I started this tracker there were only 400 open.

I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.

Player Listed Sold
Brandon Jennings 6 12
Tyreke Evans 10 8
James Harden 9 7
Blake Griffin 13 12
Jrue Holiday 9 9
Ty Lawson 23 22
Jonny Flynn 14 9
DeJuan Blair 21 19
Earl Clark 5 5
Stephen Curry 8 13

To see what's listed of any particular player, just click their name.  It will take you to the eBay search for their Contenders Autos.  So here are my predictions:

Non-SPs: Griffin, Lawson, Blair

Possible SPs: Harden, Evans

Sure SPs: Clark

All the others, it is too early to call, do you think my predictions are right?


Click Here

8Feb/100

Contenders SP Tracker – 02/08/10 Update

There are roughly twice as many Contenders auctions in the basketball category than when I started this tracker.

I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.

Player Listed Sold
Brandon Jennings 8 8
Tyreke Evans 3 6
James Harden 6 6
Blake Griffin 17 6
Jrue Holiday 7 6
Ty Lawson 19 16
Jonny Flynn 12 6
DeJuan Blair 17 14
Earl Clark 6 3
Stephen Curry 6 11

If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.

It seems like Lawson, Griffin and Blair are out of the running for SPs and the early Contenders (sorry) for SPs are Earl Clark, James Harden and Tyreke Evans.

Another note, there are 963 auctions currently when you search "Contenders" in the eBay category basketball.  There are 1,081 closed auctions under the same search parameters.  That just isn't very many auctions, this product is not being busted en masse even though I view as Panini's best basketball effort to date.

5Feb/100

Contenders Basketball SP’s – 2/5/10 Update

There are roughly twice as many Contenders auctions in the basketball category than when I started this tracker yesterday.

I will continue to update the numbers as often as I get the chance.

Player Listed Sold
Brandon Jennings 11 5
Tyreke Evans 1 6
James Harden 5 4
Blake Griffin 11 4
Jrue Holiday 6 4
Ty Lawson 17 7
Jonny Flynn 8 4
DeJuan Blair 10 12
Earl Clark 4 2
Stephen Curry 6 6

If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.

It seems like Lawson and Blair are out of the running for SPs and the early Contenders (sorry) for SPs are Earl Clark and James Harden.

3Feb/100

2009 Playoff Contenders Basketball on eBay – SP Tracker

2009 Playoff Contenders cards have hit eBay! On-card autos, NBA jerseys and possible SPs to be announced later all add to the excitement of this product. Contenders has been a huge hit in football since 1998, it remains to be seen how the basketball card collectors will react to it.

One of the most exciting parts of this release is trying to guess what players will be SP'd. Often, after SP information is released, huge price spikes happen. So lets try tracking 10 notable rookie autos. I will update this list as time goes on and educated guesses will be made on who, signed how much, of what. I will track the player and the amount of each autograph listed and sold:

Player Listed Sold
Brandon Jennings 4 0
Tyreke Evans 2 0
James Harden 2  
Blake Griffin 3  
Jrue Holiday 2  
Ty Lawson 2  
Jonny Flynn 4  
DeJuan Blair 5 1
Earl Clark 1  
Stephen Curry 3 1

If you are interested in checking my totals, or finding out what of each player is listed, you can simply click through on the player's name and see the total cards listed presently.

It is too early for prognostication upon what cards are short prints and which are not. The next few days should bring us a great deal more information as this product makes its way into the hands of more collectors.

12Nov/090

Panini Base Basketball AUs hit the market

Curry Photo Shoot AutoPanini's second basketball effort is now on the secondary market. The Stephen Curry on-card auto is by far their nicest card so far.

The auto is on-card, using a nice pen and on a lighter surface, so that it can be seen easily. Cheers Panini, that looks great.

Unfortunately, it appears the on-cards are the exceptions and not the rule as there are many more that look like this:

Jennings Panini AU

Sticker autos are a reality for the hobby. However, when done, they must be on a surface with colors that provide some contrast so that they can be seen!

29Oct/090

10 Observations from 10/28/09 NBA Games

Jeff Green Dunk

First night with a full slate of games...10 obersvations from them.

Ten Observations

1. Cavaliers start 0-2 ouch, Lebron remains his studly self with a triple double.
2. Thunder beat the Kings 102-89. 25 for Green, 24 for Durant and 14 points and 13 assists for Westbrook. They sure are young and they sure are talented.
3. In 22 minutes, DeJuan Blair has 14 points, 11 boards and 3 assists for the Spurs. You want to talk about production per 48 minutes, wow.
4. Al Horford, whom I've liked for a long time, has 24 points and 16 boards in his first game of the year.
5. The Bobcats scored 59 points, yes, in the whole game.
6. Jonny Flynn was the high scorer of all the rookies making their debut, 18 points.
7. Brook Lopez was an absolute beast, 27 points, 15 boards and 5 blocked shots.
8. Being an Illinois alum, I love Deron Williams - 28 points, 13 assists and big time efficiency, 9-15 from the floor.
9. Charlie Villanueva starts for the Pistons, plays just under 17 minutes...seems low but still manages 3 blocked shots
10. Stephen Curry only attempted one three pointer and he missed it. He still had 14 points and 4 steals in 36 minutes though.

20Oct/091

2009 Leaf Limited Basketball – Preview

Leaf Limited 2009

Just received some information from Panini on Leaf Limited 2009, Basketball Style. Obviously, now that they have him on board, Kobe is going to be the poster boy for all these prodcuts, including this one.

Lets go through a sequence of pictures:

1. What you can expect from a box

2009 Leaf Limited Box Break

2. On-card Kobe auto? You want'em, they got'em.

Kobey Common Gold On-Card

3. Blake Griffin Autos? You bet

Griffin Material Phenoms

4. Jumbo Patch Autos as well!

Curry Freshman Jumbo

There are also a variety of other autographs, including duals and triples. Overall this product looks nice pretty nice but we'll have a better idea once we see it in person.

15Oct/090

An intro to the Rookie Class of 2009-10

Lets play get to know you...All the youtube clips are nice and short so you can enjoy them all.

Blake Griffin


Hasheem Thabeet