2012 ASCC Trading Card Awards

The first ever 2012 ASCC Trading Card Awards! Here we go.

The “best of the best” Award

2012 Football Draft Prospects (AFL)

It’s amazing when you have a card maker (footycards in this instant) actually take the time to understand the collector and show some innovation what can happen. Released early in 2012 at three cards per box no one had ever seen a release like it in Australia. They were produced in limited quantity and collectors sold the product out in a matter of weeks. It was so popular that the greedy AFL had Select step in with Future Force to take the market out of footycards hands. Well executed and of a great quality – we can’t go past it as the release of the year.

The “best of the rest” Award

2012 Select Dynasty (NRL)

The last major release by Select before they let ESP take over the NRL rights and they nailed it. Such a pity that they left it so late to produce something so good. While there was some of the same old with this release the League Leader cards meant that cases were full of hits and provided great value for money for collectors. Some of the black league leaders are selling for more than the signature redemptions. It was nice to see Select go out on a high. Hopefully ESP can continue the momentum. 

2002 Select Future Force (AFL)

Even after Football Draft Prospects laid the ground work for this type of release I was shocked at just how successful it was. Sold out in weeks the prices being paid by some collectors for guys that had not played a game was stunning ($1,125 paid on ebay for a Joe Daniher Gold Signature card!). Whether this rampant speculation will pay off in the future is yet to be seen but no one can doubt the success of this release. 

 

The “disappointed” Award

2012 ESP Limited Edition (NRL)

By far the most disappointing release of the year was ESP’s Limited Edition (that was not exactly limited). ESP’s first problem was that they got cocky about the competition and ended up getting punked by a very strong Dynasty release from Select. Add into that over production (at 8,000 odd boxes), overpricing, unnumbered signature cards, a poor mix of inserts and unhappy sellers stuck with unsold stock this release had far more negatives than positives. I wonder if ESP is regretting the decision to jump in so quickly into this release. They should be. 

The “not again” Award

2012 Select Eternity (AFL)

As they say in Thailand – everything is ‘same same’.  All Australian cards, premiership commemorative cards, Draft Pick signatures, Medalist signatures…..yawn….what else can you say. The only reason to get out of bed for this release was the Hall of Fame update set. We did see some innovation with the Club Logo patches however they were not without their problems. The glue leeched through the material on the card and they were supposed to be a 1 per 2 boxes but ended up getting packed out at 1 per box. How do you accidentally make double the amount of product?? Not sure but we would love to see some fresh ideas from the series 2 set in the future.