At the end of the “Special Release Bulletin” we sent out in February I asked this question.

What would YOU like to see in Series 2 released by Select later in the year?

We had a bunch of people reply with suggestions, however I selected the three that I thought offered the best alternatives for improvement.

So here goes…

Darren G - a Carlton supporter suggests they include a few Game Day Jersey Cards or Guernesy Cards in the Series 2 release.

Game Used cards are HUGE in the American market across Baseball, the NBA and the NFL. It would be great to have them in the AFL and NRL again.

Not since 2003 have these been in a release - they were included in the NRL XL and the AFL XL Ultra series.

Each of these releases featured three players and the card included a small swatch of the players game worn jersey or guernsey.

These cards were limited to just 300 cards each and remain VERY popular. They are extremely hard to find, let alone buy.

The NRL XL series also included 100 Game Day Jersey Signature cards. Similar to the above card, they also included the players signature making them EVEN more collectable.

It would be fantastic to see Select include something as highly prized as this in the Series 2 release.

The next suggestion was from Mal S - a West Coast Eagles fan. While many people suggested Select should include more signature cards, Mal’s suggestion had a slight twist.

Mal said he would like to see a Signature Redemption Card featuring a “great” past player from EACH club, preferably from the last 20 years.

Although this would be a difficult task for Select, I would love to see something like this in both the AFL and NRL sets this year.

Both codes are celebrating major milestones (AFL 150 years and NRL 100 years) so there is no better time than now to honour our past.

Imagine how good it would be to have one player from each club AND only a short run of say 50 cards per person! That would be one signature in every six boxes in a release of 5000 boxes.

Super rare… very scarce and people who collect only “their team” would still have something to collect other than a Draft Pick Signature or a Top Prospect.

Daniel H - a long suffering collector and New Zealand Warriors fan wrote to us with what I think was the best suggestion of them all.

Daniel’s first love of card collecting is Rugby League, but he recently also got hooked on the Grand Slam Tennis cards produced by Ace Authentic.

Daniel got hooked on these cards because in his words:

“When you buy tennis boxes, you are guarranteed to find something exciting.”

He finds them that “little bit more interesting”, and ultimately more collectable than the NRL cards that he’s been collecting for over 20 years.

Here are some of the key things that Daniel likes most about the Tennis Grand Slam series that he would like to see Select incorporate into their release.

Daniel suggests they include more parallel sub sets. In fact he suggests they include three parallel sub sets for each of the 195 common cards.

Think of it like a Gold, Silver and Bronze Parallel Sub Set for each card.

• The Gold Sub Set sequentially numbered to just 24 cards
  The Silver Sub Set sequentially numbered to just 48 cards
  The Bronze Sub Set sequentially numbered to just 100 cards
  

Essentially these are the same card, however each sub set has a different coloured foil highlight!

He believes serious collectors could try and build full 195 card sets at each of the different print runs.

This would add many different levels of inserts in EACH box and more importantly for EVERY box you buy, you will own something of value to someone else (encouraging trades).

For instance you might “bust out” a /#48 card of Joe Average, but for the collector trying to collect the /#48 parallel sub set this will have high DEMAND and is already very SCARCE.

I like this option because it’s simple and economically affordable for Select to produce - which in turn keeps it affordable for collectors to buy. The cards would feature the same design so there is no additional cost to design the card (no extra photos or new presentation styles).

Interestingly Select had dabbled in the area of parallel sub sets. In the last few years we’ve seen Jersey and Guernsey Die Cut Cards, Holiofoil cards (in the Champions releases), and the Footy Face Die Cuts.

All that needs to change is the addition of the sequential numbering on the back of the cards.

I’d love to see it happen in real life because it introduces a greater level of scarcity to the collection, and with scarcity comes high demand.

If you are interested in learning more about the Tennis Grand Slam Series, click here to visit the Ace Authentic website.

And before we finish up with Daniel’s suggestions, he also felt it was important for Select to go back to cards with a 1:72 insert ratio, suggesting there is nothing more disappointing than getting a box with NOTHING rare in it. And I agree wholeheartedly!

Some fantastic suggestions from Darren, Mal and Daniel. Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts with us and our other subscribers. Thanks to the other readers who submitted suggestions also… we appreciate it.

We wait in hope to see what Select have in store for us in the 2008 Series 2 release… and there’s not long to wait now.

I reckon about four to six weeks before they are available to us all.

Add you thoughts in the comment section below. What would you like to see in Series 2?

Enjoy the rest of this issue… I’ll catch you again next month.

Ian