Saturday, February 12, 2011

Cubs Breakdown - 2010 Upper Deck World of Sports

2010 Upper Deck World of Sports
Apparently this is the type of stuff we can expect to see from Upper Deck in the near future, given that they have lost most of their major licenses. Overall, this issue is very hit and miss. The good parts are some pretty good photos (on some cards) on some decent set designs, and some interesting subjects from the world of sports who don't have a lot of cards. The bad parts are some fairly bad photos (on some cards), more baseball legends in golf shirts and yearbook type photos, and an absolutely vomit-inducing insert set. I'm talking about the Athletes of the World auto set, which features sticker autos on blank cards, and has to be among the worst card sets of all time. Since Upper Deck doesn't have a baseball license of any kind, this is another one of those sets which features players related to the Cubs organization, but which I'm not really sure if I classify them as Cubs cards. The cards picture the players in their college jerseys. Here's a rundown of what is in the packs with the players related to the Cubs noted.

Base Set - 2 Versions - Base & Autos (not all players have autos)
#134 Justin Bristow - Base & Auto
#148 Ryan Flaherty - Base & Auto


All Sport Apparel - 2 Versions - Relic & Relic Auto - No Cubs Included
Clear Competitors #/550 - No Cubs Included
Sports Nation Autos (Dual, Triple & Quad) - No Cubs Included

Athletes of the World Autos
#2 Derrek Lee

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Heavy Hitters - Major Auction House Results from January

It was a very light month on the auction house circuit in January, with only Huggins & Scott having a significant auction on January 27th. And there was only one Cubs related item in that auction. But it is a very cool item!

1894 Chicago Colts Pamphlet Style Scorecard Program - Huggins & Scott Lot #174 - $1,175.00




I have a thing for programs and this one had me drooling. I've only seen one or two other pre-1900 programs for the Cubs. This one is from 1894, from a game at West Side Grounds against the Baltimore Orioles. It is neatly scored in pencil, revealing that it is from the game on Sunday, June 24, 1894. The Colts were 11-10 losers on that day. The Orioles were the National League champions in 1894 and had 5 Hall of Famers in their everyday lineup. In this game, Dan Brouthers scored their 11th run with 2 outs in the top of the 9th inning to give them a seemingly meaningless insurance run and extend the lead to 11-5. But the Colts put on a rally in the bottom of the 9th to make it 11-10 before Cap Anson made the final out of the game. It looks like it was quite a game! The selling price was somewhat lower than I thought it would be, but I guess there is kind of a ceiling on how high programs from unremarkable games will go for, no matter how rare they are.