The articles that make up Issue #008 of the FootyStars “Collectors Edition” newsletter can be found in this newsletter archive by following these links.

Editorial
http://newsletter.footystars.com.au/2007/08/supreme-and-invincible-make-a-big-splash/

Footy Card Collectors Tips
http://newsletter.footystars.com.au/2007/08/whats-an-error-card/

Footy Card Spotlight
http://newsletter.footystars.com.au/2007/08/error-cards-in-the-2007-supreme-and-invincible/

Protecting Your Investment
http://newsletter.footystars.com.au/2007/08/one-touch-magnetic-footy-card-holder/

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Dedication

This issue is dedicated to the memory of my Grandfather Bob Thatcher who sadly passed away this morning in his sleep after a short battle with Bowel Cancer.

We love you “Pardy” and congratulate you for everything you achieved in your 80 years of life.

Ian, Emma and Robbie
22 August 2007

I feel it’s appropriate to begin this month’s newsletter with the following message to Select Australia…

“Thank you! You’ve created two great releases that have brought smiles to the faces of many collectors and footy fans. Well done.”

Credit where credit is due.

The response from collectors of every kind, from all around Australia has been enormously positive.

We have received so many positive comments from people like you who purchased the latest sets on our site. The set really hit a chord with collectors.

We must have received over 20 emails just from parents who wrote to us and told us just how happy their son or daughter was when their footy cards arrived in the mail.

It’s really nice to hear that we help put a smile on a child’s face and helped make their day a little brighter. We hope it gets children into the hobby of card collecting because it will bring excitement to their lives for many years to come.

I get great enjoyment when I see the reaction on the face of my own son Robbie when we give him a few cards for being “a good boy”.

Even though Robbie’s only 2 and a half (and doesn’t really understand card collecting) we still love seeing his reaction.

He is so proud to have his own footy cards… he takes them to pre-school, talks about them with his Nana and Poppy and shows them to anyone who visits our home.

We appreciate the short stories from other parents who are introducing their kids to footy card collecting. It’s really rewarding for us. If you’ve got a great story about children in your life collecting cards please use the comment link at the bottom of this article and share it with other readers.

Older collectors have also been keen to share their praise for the AFL and NRL Series 2 releases. Most are keen on the Insert Cards from each set and we thought we should give you a list of the top 3 inserts from both the AFL and NRL so far.

The 3 most popular cards from the NRL invincible Series so far are (links below each type):

1. Club Player of the Year 2006
2. NRL Team of the Year 2006
3. NRL 2007 Premiership Predictors

And the 3 most popular cards for AFL footy card collectors include:

1. All Australian Team
2. Medal Winners 2006
3. AFL 2007 Premiership Predictors

The only thing that some collectors have expressed disappointment about is the lack of the 1:72 cards… that is the cards that are found one in every 72 packets of cards.

These scarce cards make it even more exciting and challenging for collectors to compile a complete set of ALL cards in the release.

However, most comments we received have been overwhelmingly positive.

If you want to see the Promotional Flyers for the 2007 Series II releases they are available here(1 meg in size):

AFL Supreme 2007
http://FootyStars.com.au/Free_Stuff/AFL07SupremeFlyer.pdf

NRL Invincible 2007
http://FootyStars.com.au/Free_Stuff/NRL07InvincibleFlyer.pdf

Of course… if you want more than just the flyer you can get the cards in your hands by visiting the Footy Stars store at http://www.FootyStars.com.au/store and placing your order today.

Enjoy this month’s newsletter. We will catch you again soon.

Ian

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This month we’re going to take a look at Error Cards.

You might be asking, “What’s an Error Card?”

They are cards that simply contain an error. There are many different types of error cards… and all of them are possible despite the best checking processes, including proof readers and fact checkers.

Some of the more common error cards involve:

• Text Variations
• Graphic Design Errors
• Wrong Backs
• Mis-cuts
• Blank Backs
• Mis-Prints

And in case you’re wondering… errors are not new… they happen in virtually every release, although they are sometimes only small and less obvious.

Text variations include things like name mis-spellings, incorrect facts and incorrect statistics. These are somewhat common and occasionally go unnoticed.

I can give two recent examples of this.

David Wirrpanda’s card in the 2006 Supreme Series shows no space between his first name and surname name. It’s card number 172.

The other, from the same series is the Draft Pick Signature card for Jordan Russell (DS9).

The card lists his Date of Birth as 6.11.80 when in actual fact he was born in 1986. You can see for yourself by visiting his Player Profile on the Carlton web site

The misplacement of a logo or some other graphic design element are a little more obvious and as such are usually picked up by the proof readers prior to production. Some still get through however.

For an example of this see the card for Jason Saddington of the Carlton Blues from the 2006 Supreme Series. It is card number 29. The Carlton Logo in the bottom right hand corner is positioned differently to EVERY other card in the series.

Another common example is the card featuring Tim Clarke from Hawthorn in the 2005 Dynasty Series. His card is number 93 and on the front right hand side you will notice that one of the graphic borders has been misplaced. It appears higher and to the left of where it should be.

Wrong backs are exactly that… they have the wrong information on the back of the card . They have one player on the front of the card and anothers info on the back.

In the 2004 NRL Authentic Series 3 cards featured the incorrect player image. All three were re-printed and distributed to correct the error.

Another variation of the Wrong Back is a colour variation. This happened more often in the 1970’s and 1980’s and rarely happens any more. This is when a card should be printed in say Red text on the back and is actually printed in Black.

Mis-cuts are also a descriptive name. This is the term we give a card that has been cut incorrectly by the guillotine. It might be noticeably shorter than it should be, it might show some of another card down the edge.

I’ve even seen a few cards like the Jersey Die Cut card below that was cut upside down. This would be classified as a mis-cut.

Blank Backs are a lot like Wrong Backs… except… you guessed it… they have nothing on the back of the card. They are blank! This is pretty rare nowadays… but certainly still possible.

Mis-prints happen during the printing process and they are usually picked up by the quality controllers before being packaged up and distributed. This happens when one of the print plates slips and causes the card to be printed out of alignment… almost like a 3D card.

These are more likely to be one-offs and will be replaced by Select as a printing error — just as this one was.

In the following section we will discuss some of the error cards contained in the current releases from Select.

As I mentioned earlier… errors aren’t new. They occur in virtually every set released. So with that said, what errors have you noticed in the 2005, 2006 or 2007 AFL and NRL releases?

Click on the Comment Link below and share the details of the card number, player name and a description of the error that you’ve spotted (email me a scan of the card too if you can and I will post it for you).

We decided to discuss Error Cards in this issue because both the 2007 NRL Invincible Series and the 2007 AFL Supreme Series contain errors.

The NRL error is a Wrong Back (actually it’s a wrong front). Card number 130 in the base set is Craig Gower from the Penrith Panthers.

The back of the card correctly contains Gower’s information, BUT… the front of the card featured the picture of Tony Puletua.

Tony Puletua is correctly featured on his own card which is card number 126. If you have the complete set, or a Panthers Team Set take a look for yourself.

Select have already printed and distributed a replacement card for this error. We have a limited supply on hand and will soon be sending out the free correction card to people who have purchased either a Complete Set or Panthers Team set from us recently. Another benefit of buying your cards through us.

We also include both the original card and the correction in the Panthers Team Set for 2007 at no extra cost.

The AFL Legend Hall of Fame sub set includes an error on each of the four cards and the checklist for the entire Hall of Fame set.

While not as obvious as the Craig Gower error it is none-the-less an error — one that unfortunately won’t be fully corrected by Select.

This error falls into the Text Variation category. The cards were printed with the following card numbers.

• LGD13 - Kevin Bartlett
• LGD14 - Bill Hutchinson
• LGD15 - James (Jock) McHale
• LGD16 - Darrel Baldock

However, as the sub set was a continuation of a previous set of Legend cards the numbers should have been:

• LGD17 - Kevin Bartlett
• LGD18 - Bill Hutchinson
• LGD19 - James (Jock) McHale
• LGD20 - Darrel Baldock

Select have only agreed to reprint the Checklist card for the Hall of Fame Sub Set. Not quite as good as the Craig Gower solution, but one that I can fully understand.

Imagine the additional cost to Select in having to reprint 5 cards and distribute them to collectors, as opposed to reprinting just one checklist card. It would be a VERY expensive exercise.

Another Text Variation in the current AFL Supreme release is on the Darren Glass card from the West Coast Eagles (card number 176). On the back of the card, Darren’s name is spelled with 3 R’s. DARRREN.

Why is it important to know all this information? To be sure you don’t get scammed like this next person did!

Unfortunately here’s a little proof that eBay can be a very harsh place for uneducated footy card collectors.

I hope this little piece of information helps protect you if you ever make footy card purchases on eBay.

The story goes a little like this…

A handful of eBay sellers thought they would take advantage of unwary collectors who didn’t understand the situation with the Craig Gower error card (as discussed above).

The sellers lead visitors to believe the error was a rarity… and they neglected to tell anyone just how common the error actually was.

One eBay seller in particular was able to trick a collector in to paying $30 for a single common card.

A pure rip off.

The card would be lucky to be worth $0.50, no more than any other common card released in the series.

I would like to provide you with a link to the item on eBay, but to protect the identity of the BUYER who was tricked into buying the card I’ve decided not to.

Other eBay sellers with a lack of morals tried to jump on the bandwagon and make a quick dollar too… but before long, word had gotten out that the error was indeed printed on every single Gower card produced… and that it was no more valuable than any other common card.

Thankfully, we noticed a number of these sellers sold the card on auction for only $0.99 as collectors became educated.

I understand that eBay sellers have a goal of getting the highest price possible for their items, what I take offense to is the mis-leading tactics (almost trickery) that some eBay sellers resort to, in an effort to rip off collectors.

Karma will get them in the end, but until that happens IF you buy footy cards on eBay please be sure you are comfortable with the reputation of the seller BEFORE bidding. You don’t want to be the person caught out!

EDIT:  This is the scan of the Joel Selwood card mentioned by Kuzjuxcan in his comment below.  It’s hard to see but the last “word” of the description is ??.  Another error.

The latest addition to our Ultra Pro range has gained huge popularity in the world of card collecting in a very short space of time.

I’m referring to the new One-Touch Magnetic Card Holder.

Similar to the Screwdown range that we’ve mentioned in this newsletter a few times before, the magnetic One-Touch uses a small magnet located at the top to hold the 2 pieces together instead of a screw.

The one touch magnetic holders have a recessed area to fit the card so that the card isn’t squashed between the two pieces of plastic — instead it merely sits between the two halves in the recessed area.

Even better than that… it has Diamond Corners to prevent damage to the corners of your cards.

Just to clarify before our female readers go crazy over this… the corners don’t actually have diamonds in them… they are diamond shaped!

The diamond shape means that the corners of your card will never come into contact with the holder itself, thereby protecting the corners from damage.

The advantages for collectors are that you can gain access to your card much faster than a screwdown (you no longer need a screw driver to open the holder), and it gives a much neater appearance in my opinion.

The one touch magnetic makes it virtually impossible for your card to be creased or folded, and it protects the sides and corners from damage.

If you would like to see what these one touch magentic holders look like please click here.

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All the Ultra Pro Accessories mentioned in this newsletter at great prices on our website at:
http://www.footystars.com.au/store/ultrapro-c-25.html

Each month we highlight a different Ultra Pro item, taking a look at who uses it and why, and discussing if it will suit your requirements.