On Tuesday, Upper Deck announced that they were withdrawing their offer for The Topps Co.

Upper Deck, which had offered $10.75 per share ($425 million), said in a letter that Topps put up roadblocks to the deal as apart of a “deliberate effort” to discredit Upper Deck publicly and within Topps, defeat its offer and justify management support of a $385 million offer from private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and Tornante Co, an investment group led by former Walt Disney chief Michael Eisner.

Collectors everywhere are rejoicing!!!

Donruss is offering one lucky collector the chance to attend the first NFL regular season game in London on October 28. The game will be played between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants.

The grand prize includes two game tickets, hotel and airfare. Ten runner-ups will receive an autographed mini-helmet from NFL rookies. 20 second place winners will receive a 2007 Score football factory set.

Collectors can enter by sending in an entry card found exclusively in 2007 Score Football at Walmart or a 3 1/2″ x 5″ piece of paper mailed to NFL “Game In London, England” Sweepstake, 2300 E. Randol Mill Rd., Arlington, TX 76011-6333.

Donruss will be distributing a special six card set during the game. The set will include Eli Manning, Steve Smith, Jeremy Shockey, Jason Taylor, Ted Ginn Jr. and Ronnie Brown.

A 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Cut Autograph card of Mother Theresa has sold for $10,099.99 via eBay.

The 1/1 card received over 105,000 views and 45 bids. The cut signature also has an inscription that says “God Bless You”.

The card has been authenticated by Beckett Grading Services.

Topps announced the final 2 redemptions from 2007 Topps Finest Baseball. Card #9 is Philip Hughes of the New York Yankees and Card #10 in an autographed Joba Chamberlain also from the New York Yankees.

Here is a list of all ten redemptions:

1) Hideki Okajima, Boston Red Sox
2) Elijah Dukes, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
3) Akinori Iwamura, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
4) Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
5) Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox
6) Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
7) Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, Boston Red Sox
8) Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks
9) Philip Hughes, New York Yankees
10) Joba Chamberlain, New York Yankees (Autograph)

Topps company president Arthur Shorin has issued a letter to shareholders laying out the facts and asking them to vote for the Michael Eisner led Tornante Holdings acquisition for $9.75.

Upper Deck has also been trying to acquire Topps and has offered $10.75 per share but according to the letter: “…in spite of the Board’s best efforts, we have not reached a consensual transaction with Upper Deck to date and the Tornante - MDP transaction for $9.75 per share in cash is the only binding offer received.”

Donruss has announced that they are producing a special 6-card set for members of the Dallas Cowboys Kids Fan Club. The players featured in the set will be Tony Romo, Terry Glenn, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware, Roy Williams and Terence Newman.

Every child that registers will receive the following Cowboys collector items:

• Personalized welcome letter from Jerry Jones
• Rowdy Rookies exclusive Donruss football cards
• Autographed 8 x 10 by Rowdy (The Official Mascot of the Dallas Cowboys)
• 8 x 10 Official membership certificate
• Drawstring bag with the Rowdy Rookies logo
• Rowdy Rookies coloring book
• Rowdy Rookies sticker set
• Die-cut Rowdy Rookies logo sticker
• Logo button with Rowdy Rookies logo
• Rowdy logo fridge magnet
• Personalized wallet-size membership card
• Access to the Kids Club website featuring games, downloads and Football 101 for kids
• Two free tickets to a Dallas Desperados home game

For more information, visit www.DallasCowboys.com

Topps announced that rookie redemption card #8 of 10 from 2007 Topps Finest Baseball is Justin Upton of the Arizona Diamond Backs.

So far the seven announced redemptions are:

1) Hideki Okajima, Boston Red Sox
2) Elijah Dukes, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
3) Akinori Iwamura, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
4) Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
5) Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston Red Sox
6) Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
7) Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, Boston Red Sox
8) Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks

Beckett has posted a chart of the letters within a player’s name that are available in lesser quantities.

You can take a look at the chart here.

Topps has announced the list of short printed autograph and relic cards from the newly released 2007 Allen & Ginter Baseball.

AUTOGRAPHS

Donruss announced at The National that they will be releasing Donruss Studio Americana in November.

Former WWE diva and Dancin’ with the Stars finalist, Stacy Keibler, was on hand to sign promo cards at the Donruss booth.  Donruss also handed out promo cards of Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, Cedric the Entertainer and Wayne Newton.  Other names will be released throughout the next few months before the November release.

[tags]Donruss, Donruss Studio Americana[/tags]

Topps has released a series of cards that depicts players in Topps sets that were never issued in that particular year.

Some of these include:

• 1952 Topps Joe Dimaggio
• 1954 Topps Stan Musial
• 1952 Topps Whitey Ford
• 1967 Topps Nolan Ryan
• 1982 Topps Ryne Sandberg

The cards are available exclusively through etopps.com.

[tags]etopps, Topps[/tags]