Derrick Rose Appearance

 

I got a phone call from my brother on Wednesday night that Derrick Rose was going to be at a Nissan dealership in the suburbs of Chicago on Friday between 6-8pm.  I of course posted it on HobbyKings in case anyone was interested in going.  Richie (MJCredentialKING) said he would meet me up.  I planned on getting there about an hour and a half early to get in line - hoping there would be only 50 or so people in front of me.  Friday morning comes, and my friend Abby is getting an oil change in the same Nissan that Rose would be signing at later that day.  She sends me a message that there's someone lining up already at the dealership, at 9AM! Hard core! Apparently they had a cooler and everything.  I admit, I was a bit worried knowing that people were actually camping out for Rose.  I mean he was easily the best player on the team last year, but seriously? Waiting 8 hours in line for him?

Richie texted me at 3PM and told me that he had just called the store and found out there was already 50 people in line.  I planned on being there an hour and a half, so I was just hoping we'd be there in time to even get an autograph at all.  I zoomed through traffic from my work and got there at around 4:45PM to find a line of about 150 people.  I wasn't quite sure I would make it or not.

 

Richie got there shortly afterwards and we were just chatting about the hobby and catching up on life and such.  He's actually friends with my brothers too.  Soon enough, it was 6PM, but the line wasn't moving.  Finally at around 6:30PM the line started moving.  The guys that were in front of the line at 9AM came out with their signed goods.  But then they went to the back of the line in hopes to get a second shot at some more autographs.  Wow.  They just spent 8 hours to get an autograph so they figure they would try for another one?  Sorry, I would just go home.  Behind us was about another 75-100 people waiting and hoping to get an autograph.  I don't know if all of them ever got in.

We started talking to some of the guys in front of us and they were telling us about some of the regulars at these types of events.  Apparently there are some older grandparent-like couple that get their autographs and then try to bribe some kids behind them in line to get more autographs.  Another guy brings four of his kids so he can get multiple autographs.  Being that I am not really into the whole in-person autograph community, I am not sure what to think about this.  But it does sound kind of shady business going on, and some of the guys in line would tend to agree.

Anyways, we finally got inside the building around 7:15PM.  I completely forgot that B.J. Armstrong is Derrick Rose's agent.  I totally wished I had a sweet B.J. Armstrong picture for him to autograph too, but Richie and I settled for a picture:

 

We got to Rose, but weren't able to get a picture with him, while he was looking at the camera.  Seriously, would it have taken THAT long? Anyways we were happy with the items he signed, turned out real nice!

 

 

 

 

...and here are the final results:

 

It was definitely a much longer line from when Nissan had Ben Gordon a few years back! It really did open my eyes to this new community and side of the hobby that I had never known about.  Needless to say, I am glad that this experience was a pleasant one!

- joe

Another Box of Bowman Baseball and Absolute Basketball

After selling the Strasburg Gold Refractor on Ebay, I absolutely had to try again.  Didn't go as well.  And of course had to give some of the new basketball a shot as well!

Bowman Baseball Box break!

So each year when Bowman comes out, I like to get a box or three of it. It's fun actually having no idea who or what I pulled. All I know is I like refractors. Blues are nice, Golds are better, Oranges even nicer, Red are sweet, and of course superfractors rule. Yeah, that's all I know, kinda sad. If I pull the player that is on the box, then I guess that's a good sign, haha. I actually didn't get any Bowman last year. In 2007 I got a Jason Heyward refractor, probably my best hit that year. Sold it for $20. Probably should have held it back then since he's blowing up this year. Looks like those are selling for around $50-$60 now.

So maybe I should hold onto this hit?

So what do you think?

:)

- Joe

Play "One on One" with Kobe!

PANINI AMERICA LAUNCHES PLAY KOBE “ONE-ON-ONE” ADRENALYN PROMOTION

ARLINGTON, Texas (May 3, 2010) – As the NBA Playoffs continue to heat up, Panini America (www.paniniamerica.net), a subsidiary of The Panini Group, the leading global publisher of sports and entertainment collectables launched today the “Play Kobe One-On-One” Promotion with four-time NBA Champion Kobe Bryant. Basketball fans beginning May 1 through June 17, 2010 will be able to log-on to www.PaniniAdrenalyn.com to compete against other fans, the leading scorer at the end of the promotion will get a chance to meet Kobe Bryant and play him “One-On-One” in a game of Adrenalyn, the new interactive trading card game from Panini.

The Kobe “One-On-One” promotion coincides with the recent launch of the Panini Adrenalyn Xtreme game mode that features new enhancements to gameplay following player feedback during the beta-phase of the game. The new enhancements offer more strategic gameplay along with more shot opportunities, resulting in higher NBA scores. Matchup results are based on a player’s chance of scoring, eliminating players ability to load their decks to guarantee they win a matchup. Instead, higher ratings increase a player’s chance that they will score.


“I’m looking forward and excited to play a fan one-on-one in a game of Adrenalyn. I’ve been practicing, so I’ll be ready,” said Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers Guard.

An integrated advertising campaign that includes TV spots on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney XD channels, as well as online and viral will support the Kobe “One-On-One” promotion along with integration into more than 1,000 movie theatres in select markets across the country. To watch the Kobe Bryant TV ad click here:

As the leading global publisher of sports and entertainment collectables, Panini has license agreements with three of the major U.S. sports, including the NFL/NFLPA, NHL/NHLPA and an Exclusive Trading Card and Sticker Partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA). Panini’s other partnerships include an exclusive license with FIFA for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and with four-time NBA Champion Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. Panini also has a successful collectibles business with consumer brands including DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon, Disney’s Toy Story 3, Hannah Montana and High School Musical, and Warner Brothers’ Harry Potter.

For more information and full rules and guidelines, go to http://nba.paniniadrenalyn.com. There is no purchase necessary to participate or win and the promotion is open to legal residents of the (50) U.S. states & DC, who are 13 years of age or older as of 5/1/10.

ABOUT PANINI:
The Panini Group, established almost 50 years ago in Modena, Italy has subsidiaries throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. Panini is the world leader in officially licensed collectables and is the leading multi-national publisher of comics, children’s magazines and Manga in Europe and Latin America. Panini has distribution channels in more than 100 countries and employs a staff of over 800. For more information visit us at www.paniniamerica.net or www.paninigroup.com.

For more information contact:
Jason Howarth, Conover Tuttle Pace
jhowarth@ctpboston.com, (617) 412-4000/508-353-0063 (Cell)

Scott Prusha, Panini America
sprusha@paniniamerica.net, 817-983-0303

Panini Classics CONTEST!

CONTEST DETAILS:

The three late games on Monday 4/12 are:
OKC vs POR
HOU vs SAC
DAL vs LAC

What will be the combined PAR (Points, Assists, Rebounds) of these three players:
1. Kevin Durant
2. Tyreke Evans
3. Dirk Nowitzki

The closest 4 answers to the correct answer (without going over) will have the opportunity to choose from the 4 hits. Each of the 4 winners will PM me their preference from the hits:
Omar Casspi auto
Chase Budinger auto
Dwight Howard GU
Jermaine Taylor GU

Each member gets one guess, and each number can be guessed once. If there are multiple users with the same guess, the one who posts first will be taken. So if two people guess 90, whoever posted 90 first gets the guess.

Entries will be accepted till 8pm Central on Monday, 4/12

SIGN UP FOR THE CONTEST HERE!

Have fun!

FREE Panini Classics Box Break and Contest!

Once again, Panini has been so kind to send HobbyKings.com a free box to open and share with our members. Today's box is 09/10 Panini Classics Basketball. Thank you Panini!



We will be giving the HITS from this box as a contest prize on our site on this thread. Feel free to participate to have your chance of winning these great cards!

- joe

Upper Deck loses NFL license

News just came out recently that Upper Deck lost its license to make any NFL products. Here's the tweet we all received on the Upper Deck Twitter account:

So in the span of two years, Upper Deck loses its license with two of the major sports: Basketball (NBA) and Football (NFL). It's no secret that some of the business practices of Upper Deck have been questionable, but the fact is that Upper Deck has been a major player in the trading card industry for over 20 years now. And a hit like this on the industry will cause a lot of people to possibly turn away from the hobby. I will be honest that I have always been on the collector side of this hobby, never really getting into the business side of it all. So most of my opinion comes from what this means as a collector. Upper Deck's designs have always been superior to its competitors. Lately they have gotten lazy, with the design as well as just using the same photos over and over. And of course sticker autographs and the dreaded redemptions *GAG*. But even with all of these pitfalls, I still liked the products, they just "felt" like better quality. Even if they used a similar design from a different product from the year prior, I are it up! I may have been brainwashed by the UD marketing team, but I always thought products like SPX and SP Authentic were just great products. It's probably because you KNEW what you were gonna get out of those products. They were staples in the product release for the year. Since this was the first year Upper Deck didn't release any NBA products, I actually found myself less interested in the hobby. Will this happen to football collectors next year?

So what does this mean for the trading card industry? What does it mean for the survival of Upper Deck? It seems that Panini is taking a strong hold on the industry. I hope that they could do right what Upper Deck has done wrong!

I enjoyed this post by the Voice of the Collector on this situation: VOTC Blog - check it out

I'd love to hear what other collectors think about this as well. Feel free to leave a comment!

- joe