Upper Deck announced that it will offer "The Exquisite Experience" to five lucky collectors from the U.S. or Canada this summer for 2007-08 UD Exquisite Basketball. These collectors will get a preview of the set, including a behind the scenes look at this year's product and an opportunity to create their own pack of cards according to the set ratios in place for the product.

One golden ticket will be randomly inserted into 2007-08 NBA SP Authentic (releasing Feb. 13), 2007-08 NBA UD Black (releasing Feb. 27), 2007-08 NBA SP Rookie Edition (releasing mid-March), 2007-08 NBA UD Premier (releasing early April).  A fifth golden ticket will be awarded through a no-purchase-necessary program.  The five lucky winners will receive airfare and accommodations to attend the packout of 2007-08 Exquisite Basketball this summer.
 
Collectors will have only five minutes and won't be able to put together 1/1 packs, but will be able to select the players and inserts they want in their packs in line with the ratios.
 
“The Exquisite Experience’ is another innovative and exciting way to give collectors an opportunity to see the large undertaking we go through for packing out a product this important," said Chris Kollmeyer, Upper Deck NBA brand manager. "The other thing winners will enjoy is just how awesome it is to see all of these cards in one place for that brief time before they all are packaged and sent out. It’s the type of behind-the-scenes type of experience that any hardcore collector would salivate over.”

Salivate is right. Exquisite consistently comes up with the most demanded rookies of each player every year and has the exclusive rights to Kevin Durant autographs so there's plenty to be excited about. The build-your-own-pack concept with these Exquisite golden tickets will make a trip to the chocolate factory seem like the prizes given away by Steve Martin at the "Guess Your Weight" booth in The Jerk.

***********

In completely unrelated "news," did you see this auction on eBay? Someone is auctioning Ryan Braun's game-used and autographed jock strap and cup. This is one game-used item that I'm actually kinda hoping doesn't show a lot of use.

Mile High Card Co. has been known for offering some of the best vintage sportscards and memorabilia in the hobby and its Feb. 13 auction is no different. The auction is live on the site and is one of the strongest I've seen from them.

Mile High is known for having elite graded cards. First, they offer a variety of Shoeless Joe Jackson cards in this auction, including a 1914 Cracker Jack PSA 5, 1916 Herpolsheimer’s PSA 6 and a 1909-11 American Caramel E90-1 SGC 10.

Next, there are dozens of vintage PSA 10 cards, led by the following:

• 1956 Topps No. 110 Yogi Berra
• 1959 Topps No. 350 Ernie Banks
• 1962 Topps No. 213 Richie Ashburn
• 1963 Fleer No. 42 Sandy Koufax
• 1967 Topps Tom Seaver RC
  
• 1968 Topps No. 280 Mickey Mantle

Other card-related highlights include hundreds of PSA Mint 9s in the sale, dozens with populations of one, including: 1950 Bowman No. 98 Ted Williams, 1954 Topps No. 10 Willie Mays, 1957 Topps No. 10 Willie Mays, 1957 Topps No. 328 Brooks Robinson and 1958 Topps No. 1 Ted Williams.

Other card highlights include several high-grade T-202s, including Ty Cobb, along with several graded sets, many of which land in the top 10 of PSA’s Set Registry. Among those are a 1948 Leaf set with variations, 1955 Bowman Football, 1955 Topps Baseball, 1963 Topps Football and 1973 Topps Baseball.

Finally, some of the top memorabilia items include a 1934 Tour of Japan team-signed ball featuring Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx, among others, as well as several high-grade 1908 Rose postcards, including an Addie Joss example. There's also a nice selection of cut autograph cards, including a George Washington and Thomas Jefferson dual-cut card, and examples from Thomas Edison, Ruth, Tim Keefe and Honus Wagner.

Although my time running SCD Authentic, a now-defunct grading company, definitely wasn't the highlight of my career, I did learn a lot about launching and running a business, managing employees and meet a lot of people. One of those people I got to know pretty well was Larry Fritsch, arguably the most significant dealer in our hobby, who passed away Saturday at the age of 71.

I remember our initial meetings with him and his son, Jeff, when we were considering launching the grading division. He could tell a story like few others. He had more cards, and more rare ones, than anyone on the planet and seemed to remember where he got every one of them. As we continued to work with them and I became more trusted and friendly with him, the stories continued to flow.

I was told about him buying railroad cars of 1972 Topps Football High Numbers for the cost of the freight alone. Topps couldn't sell them so they called Larry with an offer something like "you pay for the freight from Chicago to your place and they are yours". This wasn't the only time he did this as he capitalized on these deals long before most others even realized that the cards might eventually be worth something.

We'd hear about him hunting down some scarce food issue card or leaving 1952 Topps High Numbers under Jeff's pillow as the tooth fairy close to every day. It was a great way to break the stress of long workdays grading cards at their place when Larry would come in near the end of the day, say hello and usually give us some new story about his lifelong love of cards.

There were two days that stuck out more than any though. First, was one of the very early days of grading where we lowered several grades because, once in the case, they just weren't quite good enough to hold the grade they were originally assigned. Without getting into too many details, Jeff wasn't happy about the adjustments made and was voicing his displeasure loudly in the back, while I was alone in the lobby. Larry came out, trying to play referee and told me I'd better get out of there until he calmed down. Even before I really got to know him, he was caring enough to make sure I got out before anything too harsh was said. Everything calmed down in a few weeks and Jeff and I still laugh about that day when we talk about it. After all, the Fritsch's were grading cards before the hobby knew what the term meant. Of course, they weren't slabbed or anything, but they were assigning conditions for most of their lives so I understand why they had trouble with someone telling them their card was only NM/MT.

The other day I'll never forget at the Fritsch's is when a co-worker and I were there and Larry popped in and threw down a box of cards on the table for us to look at. The cards inside the box were worth more than my house, collection, cards and retirement. We got to look at his T206 Honus Wagner, Eddie Plank and two Doyles. And both of his 1932 US Caramel Lidstrom cards, which happen to be the only two that exist. Amazing stuff and just the tip of the iceberg. It was never that shocking to have him hand several 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards to you and say, "Which one would grade the highest?"

The last time I saw Larry was when he called me up at work to see how I was doing. I dropped by a week later with my one-year old and hung out in his living room for a couple hours, talking about work, cards and a lot of other stuff, while he played with my son. He was a great guy with hobby vision beyond any of us and will be missed.

There's virtually no better time of the year than right now for shopping in auction houses. Hunt's Louisville Slugger auction ended a couple weeks ago. Collectible Classics, Clean Sweep, HistoricLelands.com and have all recently ended. Then Dec. gets rolling with Grey Flannel, Memory Lane, Vintage Authentics, Mastro Auctions, Premier, Universal Rarities, ITPC and others. SCP Auctions/Sotheby's ends in late Jan. Like I said, it's a great time of year and a decent time to pick up some bargains too.

First, it’s impossible not to mention the Babe Ruth photo that sold for $26,349 in Lelands.com recent auction. It pictured Ruth surrounded by admiring fans in the 1920s and is the highest price for a photo that I can remember seeing. There was also a Josh Gibson photo that his $18,470, while the highest priced item was a Yogi Berra home Yankees uniform, which sold for $66,441.

Some of the major highlights in Dec. include:
• Grey Flannel Auctions is featuring a game-worn Jackie Robinson jersey in its sale that ends Dec. 5. The home jersey, from the 1951 season, carries a $50,000 minimum bid.
• Memory Lane’s current catalog auction ends Dec. 8 and features three Christy Mathewson-signed item, which I’ve mentioned in past blogs.
• Mastro Auctions’ will wrap up its current auction Dec. 13. Among the highlights is a box containing thousands of rare documents, letters and memos that supposedly detail events surrounding the 1919 World Series Black Sox Scandal.
The papers, examined by the Chicago Tribune, appear to contain documents from the 1921 criminal trial against eight White Sox players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series as part of a gambling scandal. The papers also include documents from a 1924 lawsuit in which some of the players sued the Chicago franchise for back pay.
• Vintage Authentics has game-used bats from Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, all graded by MEARS, in its Dec. 13 auction.

While none of these items will go for bargain prices, the fact that there are so many top-notch items all in the same month means that plenty of other items may fall into a more affordable range for consumers.