The National Recap - Sportscaster Cards From Another Country

I saw a few more Sportscaster cards than usual at the National this year.  Once again there was a dealer who had a decent amount.  Otherwise, I saw a few here and there and one dealer with a bunch of Hockey cards from Finland,  The lot included Gretzky.

I picked up a few track and field cards from Finland and for the first time I picked up a Sportscaster card from France.  I actually picked up four of the French cards.  Here's what one of them looks like.

Here is a detailed view of the numbering system for the French cards.

I'm still working on getting cards from Denmark, Germany and maybe another country or two that I don't have.

My Third Sportscaster Card Autograph

On Friday night I went to a cross country race.  At the last minute I went online to confirm the race times.  That turned out to be a great thing to do.  I found out that the race added an Olympic gold medalist to the Mix.  Bob Schul was going to be there selling/signing his book "In The Long Run".

I'm not an autograph collector, but I do try to support track and field athletes and I don't mind the $10 fee compared to many other athletes who charge triple-digit amounts.

I'm also not a fan of the autograph process at big shows where many players don't even talk to the person who is buying the signature.  This was quite different.  When I went to the tent to see Schul there were about five people there.  When it was my turn he gladly talked to me about the Olympic race, the US Olympic Trials and many other topics.

If you get a chance to see him, he's a great ambassador for track and field.  He's still involved in coaching too.

I guess that I will need to post about the other two autographs that I have.  Hint - both are also Olympic gold medalists.

I Read This on Collector's Universe Message Boards About Sportscaster Foreign Cards

A discussion thread on Collector's Universe was discussing whether to get Sportscaster cards PSA graded.  I was surprised at the cost being $18, which is way too much for all but a few of the stars and high numbered cards.   Stars and high numbers from some of the foreign sets would also be worth grading.  

Then people posted on the availability of Sportscaster cards from some of the different foreign sets.  A few people ordered them from most available to least available.  Here is a link to the thread - Collectors Universe Discussion on Sportscaster Cards

Since the thread might disappear at some point, here are some of the highlights.

I've heard all along that the Dutch cards are the most rare.  That was echoed by the comments.  The Belgian set was listed as being the next most difficult to find.  These were both considered to be much more rare than any other sets.  

It seems as though the German and Italian sets are the next most difficult.

There weren't many comments about the Swedish and French sets.   They fall somewhere in the middle.

I was surprised to see comments that the Finnish set was easier to find than the United Kingdom set as well as the North American set printed in Japan.  I'm not even sure if I have more cards in my North American sets from Japan or Italy.

These comments don't surprise me based on what I've seen on ebay and at card shows.  I will be looking for these cards at the National soon.

My Sportscaster Goal for the National Convention

I'm only going to the National on Saturday this year.  I've got lots of other fun running events keeping me busy when I head out to New Jersey.

I don't have goals to complete the entire set yet since I've yet to completely sort my mountains of Sportscaster cards.  As a result, I will go with some other challenging goals.

1.  Find a card from each of the countries that I don't have.  I think I've gotten only four or five different so that leaves a few more.  I prefer that the cards come from track and field or the major US sports, but any card will do if I don't have that country of origin.

2.  Find out more about the unopened decks from someone.  Why?  I'm guessing that these can easily be resealed.  Maybe I can learn how to determine if a pack is legit because I'd like to own a few more unopened packs and maybe someday all of them.

Sportscaster Series #09 Variations That I've Found So Far

In Sportscaster Series #09 I don't have any cards from print runs "B" and "C".

For the first print run, I only have 12 of the 24 cards.  All of these were printed in Italy.  Is there a blank print run from Japan?

I do have all 24 cards from print run "A", so I can at least compare them to the 12 cards in the first print run.  Here are the three back variations I've seen.


9-16 Basketball - A Game for Giants - 'A' has different text
9-19 Alpine Skiing - The Two Garmisch Races, 1973 -  'A' has added results
9-24 Alpine Skiing - Use-Marie Morerod - 'A' has added text

I have a lot more from Series #10 so stay tuned for more variations.

I Just Added Another Country To My Collection - A Great Start For a Track Fan

I purchased my first Sportscaster cards from the set originating in Finland.  It was quite a nice start as I picked up both Steve Prefontaine cards.

So far I've gotten cards from the USA, UK and Sweden sets.  Those three all have specific codes that identify the country of original sale.  These cards from Finland don't have a specific number code.  The cards are identified by their pack (deck) number and a cumulative card number in the entire set.
A USA card might be 19-05 but this card is 19-440.  The card on the right is from set 40 so it is numbered 40-948.

It seems like all of the other sets have the identifying code.   Here are some nice details (http://www.atlaspicturecards.com/Sportscaster_cards.html).

Rosemont Added a Third Annual Show - It Was This Weekend

I was excited to check out Rosemont's (IL) new addition to the show schedule.  The same people that run the March and November shows, formerly known as the Sun Times Show, were running this one.  That gave me the impression that it would be another large show like those two.  Not quite.

When I walked in it was easy to notice that the room was about one-fourth of the size of the other large shows.  Admissions was still $10 so I had hopes for a similar show.

On a positive note, there was ample time to look at everything in the room.  There was a bit of all of the usual stuff - old, new, miscellaneous, supplies and autographs.  I found a few Kellogg's cards and some Hostess cards, but there was not a single Sportscaster card to be found.  That's why there are no photos with today's post.

Once I'm done with school I will get back to more variations and whatever else I can find.