2012 Press Pass Total Memorabilia Video Box Break

I was eagerly anticipating this product as it is the Press Pass debut of Amber & Angela Cope, Maryeve Dufault and other rising stars. It contains 5 mini-boxes for about $120, and each box has a big hit.

Check out what I found...

SIGnificant Cards - 2011 Press Pass Premium Carl Edwards Premium Signatures

It was a fight to the finish for the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup and while on paper it looked like Carl Edwards was the guy to beat, Tony Stewart had other plans. It was a great season of racing. Never before have two racers finished with the same amount of points and Edwards took second place with a tremendous amount of class.

Edwards was the most consistent driver this year for sure and he also had a pretty amazing run in the Nationwide series notching 8 wins. He earned a lot of new fans, including yours truly. There wasn't a race he was in where he didn't hover near the top of the pack.

He's going to continue to be successful with the strong Roush-Fenway team behind him and a solid backing of sponsors for the #99 Ford including Aflac, Scott & Subway. Take a look at the highlights of the Homestead 400, one of the best races I've seen in a long time.

It took awhile for me to find an Edwards auto, but 2011 was a great year to enhance your Press Pass racing card collection. With a series of strong products including Premium, Showcase, FanFare, Legends and my favorite Main Event, they have produced and packed out some of their most impressive cards yet.

Press Pass Premium provided me with this foil board auto of the Ford Fusion driver and it's an interesting card to me. Usually Edwards is all smiles, well unless he is mixing it up on the track with Kevin Harvick or Brad Keselowski. He look almost perturbed in this photo which made me laugh. It's like he'd thinking he'd rather be just about anywhere other than in front of the camera.

I also commend Carl for the signature on the card. Not only is it completely legible, but you can tell that he was really paying attention to signing the stickers because he kept his signature completely within the confines without getting any cropped off the edges. Kudos to him and Press Pass for doing sticker autos in the correct fashion. There's a right way and a wrong way to sign a sticker, and this is an example of the right way. If its gotta be a sticker and the card can't be signed, take notes... this is how its done.

SIGnificant Cards -- 2009 Press Pass Premium Tony Stewart Premium Signatures

It's been awhile since I posted, I took a vacation, and quite frankly didn't want to return to writing on a daily basis right away. I've been busy with life, trying to get some priorities in order, in addition to adding a second night of programming for the Cardboard Connection Radio show, so I took some time to regroup. I'm excited about today's entry though, because it's about a card I had wanted to add to my collection for several years and finally did. Best of all, it came from a pack, and to me, that always makes it better than buying it from the secondary market.

With a victory in Texas this afternoon, Tony Stewart edged closer to overall points leader Carl Edwards, now only trailing by 3 points with 2 races left to determine the Sprint Cup Champion. It was Stewart's fourth win in eight races and he is either going to be the 2011 champ or go down fighting until the last lap.

I've been a fan of "Smoke" since his Indy days and he is one of a handful of signatures I have sought out of Press Pass Racing Products. In 2009 I finally scored the Stewart auto. It came from a pack of 2009 Press Pass Premium and while it is a sticker, it is a nice, clean auto on a great looking card.

Ironically, I am also a huge fan of Kyle Busch and his autograph was pretty much the only major racer from NASCAR who has eluded me since I've been opening racing product back as far as 2001. However, his actions this weekend (intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday) have made me rethink being a fan. You see, my 6-year old son loves him. It began with the car. Of course he loves the M&M car, but then Kyle started to win big and dominate. He nearly shed his bad boy, punk attitude until he tried to kill Hornaday. Try explaining that to a little kid!

Much like my feelings towards other sports, I like to watch and root for individuals other than teams. So I'd be happy to see either Stewart or Edwards win because throughout the year they have been the most consistent. I'll be posting more NASCAR autos with the SIGnificant Cards column, look for them soon!