Panini’s Baseball Card Experiment: Triple Play 2012

Ever since Major League Baseball signed a deal giving Topps the exclusive rights to make official Major League Baseball cards, it has significantly diminished the variety of baseball card sets being produced every year.  But Topps did NOT get an exclusive deal with the Major League Baseball Player’s Association (MLBPA), so it is possible for other companies to make baseball cards with a deal with only the MLBPA.  The problem is that even if they can use the player’s likenesses, they can NOT use any official team names or logos, subsequently causing difficulties in what can be produced.  With Panini’s deal with the MLBPA, they can produce products like the one I’m reviewing today, the set, Triple Play 2012.

Triple Play 2012

In the early 90’s, Triple Play was a short-lived series of baseball cards that only lasted two years.  It is interesting that Panini has decided to resurrect this brand name. I guess time will tell if that move will pay off.
As you can see from the packaging below, this set is clearly designed to cater to children.  Even the price (99 cents for 7 cards) is geared to try to lure kids in.

                                              

Panini solves the problem of keeping the logos off the uniforms by simply making caricatures of all the baseball players, as you can clearly see from the card fronts…


          

…and of course the corresponding backs.

                        

You can also collect big-sized pictures of these cards , as some subsets are simply 1/9th of the picture. Presumably if you collect all 9 you’re able to make a super-sized picture of the player.  In this pack I pulled parts of Carlos Lee and Yoenis Cespedes.

                              

           

I also got a card in a subset of cards called “Baseball 101” that is designed to teach children the basics of baseball.  The particular card I got explains how to score runs during a game, as you can see:

                        

And finally, I got a sticker that seems to be representative of no particular player at all, but is baseball themed:

                   

Overall, this seems like it would be a good set to use if you’re interested in introducing your kids to baseball card collecting for the first time, but it’s probably not a mainstay if your into serious collecting.

Here is a video of my breaking the pack, if you care to check it out:

Selling Update

Pricing Scheme Change

As I was discussing in my previous entry, I did go ahead and change how I do the price of shipping.  Now instead of having free shipping on everything, I charge $1.25 ($2.25 to Canada) for it.  This allows for me to offer shipping discounts for people who buy multiple products. Every additional item bought, regardless of their geographical location, is only an additional $.25!  This will hopefully encourage people who come to my store to buy multiple items.  For products that were already on the site I dropped the price $1.25 so the cost to the consumer would remain the same, and, in fact will be a little bit cheaper for those who decide to buy more than one item.

More Items for Sale

I've posted several more cards for sale.  In fact, I've added several just today! Here are some of them:

Upper Deck Victory 2002 Gary Matthews Jr. #454

Upper Deck Victory 2002 Doug Davis #132

Topps Series 1 2012 Mike Napoli #37

Topps Update Series 2011
Brooks Conrad #US129

New Payment Option Available

Along with adding several new products to my store, I've now made Amazon Payments available as a method to pay for merchandise.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Amazon Payments, I will tell you that it is basically like PayPal, the online payment facilitator, except it's run by Amazon instead of Ebay.  PayPal is still an option for payment, as are personal checks and money orders. I'm hoping to be able to add more options in the future.  The more ways people can pay, the easier it is on them, and hopefully that will result in more sales!

The first two cards are officially up for sale!

Where I'm At Now


Well, it took far longer than I would've liked, but I officially now have two baseball cards online and available for purchase at my atomicmall.com store!  Now, for those of you who actually clicked on the link to my store, you're probably thinking something to the extent of, "What's the deal with this?  He's linking me to a video game store, not a storefront for sports cards!" 


Now, don't worry, you're not crazy, but there is some method to my madness. I promise!


As I've mentioned in previous posts, I have had a history of, and am currently, selling video and computer games online as well.  Since I wanted to get these up ASAP, I simply added them to my existing storefront.  These are the specific cards I've put on thus far, and they're linked to their individual listings:

Topps 2012 Series 1 Shaun Marcum #262
Milwaukee Brewers

Topps 2012 Series 1 John Danks #311
 ChicagoWhite Sox.          

The biggest challenge in getting the cards to scan in was the white borders.  Since the top inside of my scanner's cover is white, my software kept insisting that the border wasn't really part of the image!  I don't want my prospective customers thinking that I cut the borders off of all the cards before I sent them!  Granted, I think that most people are smart enough to figure this out, but I've learned in the world of e-commerce, it is best to factor things out to the lowest denominator, if you catch my drift!   In any case, I solved this problem by putting a piece of black construction paper down behind the card on the scanner, and it solved the whole problem.  The other problem that I've encountered is the lettering on the players' names.  These cards, like last year's set, have shiny silver lettering, that for whatever reason insists is going to come out black on the scans.  After searching through various card listings for this year's set, I've come to the conclusion that nobody else seems to have done much better with this situation, so I figured I might as well go ahead and run with it the way it is for the time being.

What's Up Next

Obviously, the current store setup isn't ideal.  

I do want to keep a combined storefront for both video games and sports cards at atomicmall.com for a couple of reasons.  First, I first heard about the Atomic Mall when it was still being developed and before it went online.  As such, I had the opportunity to have input in how the site was put together and run. It's actually pretty interesting to see what goes into developing an Amazon-style website from scratch. Therefore I admit I have a bit of personal interest in the success of the site. Second, and possibly more importantly, as a "charter member," as I'm called, I get to have a permanent discount on seller fees on my first storefront.  I was thinking of renaming my store to be something to the extent of "Stu's Cards and Games." This would be a broad enough name to allow me to sell both products and still be in line.  It would also potentially allow me to sell other related products in the future, like board games, figurines, collectible card game cards, etc.  I like keeping my options open. I'll have to redesign a logo for that, but I think I can manage

With a combined storefront, it brings the problem of shipping fees.  My current gig is to include shipping costs into the cost of the product, and subsequently offer free shipping.  This works rather well when you're shipping video games, but not so much for cards.  With cards, people know that if you buy more than one card from a particular seller, they're going to stick them all into a single (hopefully) padded envelope, and their additional cost for sending the additional cards is very low.  My two cards are currently $1.75, but if somebody wanted to buy both, they would know that they're paying shipping twice, for all intents and purposes, and they probably won't like that, and there's also no incentive to buy more than one card at a time.  Therefore I'm thinking of switching to charging more for shipping, but then offering a shipping discount for each additional card they buy in the same transaction.  For example, they could pay $1 shipping for the first item, and $0.25 for each additional item purchased.  I haven't entirely decided how to handle things on the video game side of things, plus there's the time involved in changing the shipping settings for all the products already online, so it may be a little while until I get this implemented.  

Stay Tuned...

As I get more of this figured out, I'll keep you guys posted. If anybody has any relevant ideas that might help, feel free to let me know!  I make no promises as to whether I'll implement your idea or not, but I'll at least consider it.  

Finally!

  I know I haven't written on my card blog for a while, but I concede that I haven't really had a lot to report for a while. But I have big news that will significantly enhance my ability to sell trading cards!  


I HAVE A WORKING SCANNER!


FINALLY!


I just completed a successful test on this John Danks card:

This is the front of Topps 2012 Series 1 John Danks # 311

...and, of course, the back:

This is the back of Topps 2012 Series 1 John Danks #311

I found this scanner while I was helping my mother move apartments. It is a hp psc 1315v all-in-one printer/scanner.  Interestingly, unlike my other printer/scanner, where it only prints correctly, but the scanner is flawed, this one the scanner is good, but the paper intake is broken, so therefore it can't print.  It's kind of annoying to have to have two separate pieces of equipment in my already cluttered apartment, but at least I am relieved to finally have an effective outlet to sell off some of these extra cards I have kicking around!


Off to selling!


I'm going to go set up a place to sell this thing, and let the selling begin!  Don't worry, I'll be sure to keep you guys posted and give you some links to the site and so forth.

Jason Vargas Update

Well, since I last wrote, I've been desperately trying to get this scanner that my mother gave me, for free, to work, so I can more easily put pictures up here of cards for you guys to enjoy.

But, in other news, I have...

A Jason Vargas Card Update


Well, as many of you saw in my previous blog post I posted a video to YouTube depicting the erroneously printed Jason Vargas card in the new 2012.  Well, somebody, (specifically user TheChaseman19), commented that the statistics that were printed on Vargas' card are apparently the stats of  Vinnie Pestano of the Cleveland Indians.  


But Where's the Love for the Mariners?


I grew up living in the greater Seattle metropolitan area, and subsequently I grew up a Mariners fan.  Therefore, I was also rather disappointed when the same commenter also informed me that Topps apparently misprinted the card for Mariner Center Fielder Franklin Gutierrez!  I know the Mariners are far away from their "glory days" of the late 90's/early 2000's, but still...  Well, if I get one of these cards, I'll get it up here, working scanner or not!

New Topps 2012 Series Out, But Jason Vargas is Misprinted!

Yesterday afternoon as I was running errands around town, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the brand-new Baseball 2012 Topps Series 1 has hit the store shelves!  Therefore I thought this would be a fitting opportunity for me to write a pack-review.


I decided that pack-reviews would be a good subject to write about in this blog, so that way my readers would be able to have an idea of what they might expect if they go buy a pack of cards at their local store, so they can decide if they want to try it or not.

PACK:  Topps Bseball 2012 Series One Jumbo Pack!

PURCHASED AT: K-Mart, Pocatello Idaho

CONTENTS (In Order Pulled):

TOP PART:

#311 John Danks, CWS
#290 Curtis Granderson, NYY

#37 Mike Napoli, TEX
#63 Nate Schierholtz SF
#76 Ian Kennedy, ARI
#GS-7 GOLD STANDARD, Frank Robinson, BAL (Insert)
#CW-6 CLASSIC WALK-OFFS, Mark Teixeira, NYY (Insert)
#TT-18 TIMELESS TALENTS, Albert Belle, CLE/ Mike Stanton, MIA (Insert)
#41 Devin Mesoraco, CIN
#79 Austin Romine, NYY
#104 Brett Anderson, OAK
#222 Chris Coghlan, MIA
#110 Mark Teixeira, NYY
#48 Wade Davis, TB
#318 Erik Bedard, BOS
#273 David Freese, STL
#45 Jhoulys Chacin, COL
#181 2011 NL Batting Average Leaders, Jose Reyes, NYM/Ryan Braun/MIL/Matt Kemp, LAD

BOTTOM PART:

#281 Mark Trumbo, LAA
#64 Michael Martinez, PHI
#310 Adrian Beltre, TEX
#112 Juan Nicasio, COL
#54 Jhonny Peralta, DET
#GM-5 GOLDEN MOMENTS Adrian Gonzalez, BOS (Insert)
#TM-36 Mariano Rivera, NYY (Insert, this card is roughly 75% the size of a standard-sized baseball card, and is done in the style of the Topps 1987 style)
#252 Dellin Betances, NYY
#219 Jordan Pacheco, COL
#221 Luke Gregerson, SD
#12 Wilson Ramos, WAS
#56 Geovany Soto, CHC
#143 George Kottaras, MIL
#124 NL Active Batting Average Leaders, Albert Pujols, STL/Vladimir Guerrero, MTL/Todd Helton, COL
#269 Jason Vargas, SEA (misprint)
#302 AL 2011 Home Run Leaders, Jose Bautista, TOR/Curtis Granderson, NYY/Mark Teixeira NYY
#272 Nyjer Morgan, MIL (2011 NLDS Brewers Game 5)

Overall, it seemed like a pretty solid pack of cards, and personally I like the look of this year's set, so I'm pretty excited about that (why they made a Mariano Rivera card in the style of those ugly 1987 Topps cards, I don't know).  I still haven't gotten an actual scanner, so I won't go to the trouble (for now, at least) of putting up pictures of all the cards just yet, but I did go to great lengths to take a couple pictures of the Jason Vargas #269 card.  The flaw was that the wrong statistics were printed on the back, so it should still give you a pretty good idea what the set looks like as a whole.

I made this extra-large so you could read the stats printed on the card yourself.

 If you're wondering, Jason Vargas has never played for the Indians.  If you want to see his correct statistics, you can click here to get to his stat page at mlb.com.


I'm interested in what you guys think about the new cards!  If you have bought a pack already yourself, please feel free to chime in!  I finally have the Internet at my home, so hopefully I'll be able to write on here more often.

Frustration!

Well, it has been nearly two years since I've done any significant selling online, and I am feeling a tad frustrated now that I'm trying to get back into it.  Data feeds to Google and similar sites were a fairly new thing when I was last doing this are now the total norm, and I feel like I have to go and learn how to do it all from scratch!  It is rather frustrated.  I know it probably sounds rather dramatic, but I feel like my time away from being able to get onto the Internet constantly is like being in prison for a couple years and now I have to relearn how to function in normal society again now that my sentence is nearly over. I can handle running around in the "real world" just fine, but I almost feel as if I have to relearn how to do Internet sales again, because of all this feed stuff.  I'm a pretty smart guy, I think, but reading lists of technical details on what kind of things are allowed in a feed and watching equally technical, monotone-voiced videos about data quality aren't exactly helping me any.  I just feel like banging my head on the wall sometimes when I try to go through figuring all this stuff out.

See, this video above is the kind of helpful videos that they give you to watch!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! (ha ha)