Basketball collectors have had to make some difficult decisions about what to collect over the past few seasons as Topps and Upper Deck each signed top rookies to exclusive contracts. That meant no sets had all of the top picks available for autographs and memorabilia cards.

Not so this season. There are no exclusives for 2008-09, meaning both companies can really take advantage of an exciting rookie class led by Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo. In fact, Topps isn't even waiting for the 2008-09 products to come out before it does just that.

Topps announced yesterday that 2007-08 Topps Letterman Basketball includes special redemption cards for autographed letter patch cards from ten of the top rookies from the incoming crop. Each player signed 25 cards for each letter in his last name, meaning the total number of cards available is 100 for Rose, 175 for Beasley, etc. The redemption cards are inserted one in four master boxes, making them fairly reasonable pulls.

Letterman Basketball was originally solicited for a May release but finally went on sale this week. Among the intriguing cards in the product are folding autographed letter patch cards that spell out a player's entire name, like the Larry Bird card pictured here.

Image courtesy of and copyright Topps.

Chicago Cubs import sensation Kosuke Fukudome has a legitimate 2008 rookie card in recently released Bowman Chrome Baseball. Sharp-eyed collectors may also have spotted a Fukudome autographed rookie card from the same set floating around - except it isn't autographed.

Confused? Topps helped shed some light on the situation earlier this week when it announced that 1900 copies of the latter card were mistakenly inserted into packs of Bowman Chrome. Perhaps the company created the cards in the hopes that he could be included among the signed rookies, but Topps never solicited a Fukudome autograph and never intended for such a card to be released.

Though they aren't signed and won't be considered true rookie cards, the relatively low print run of the error cards may very well make them a hot commodity. Those seeking an honest to goodness Bowman Chrome Fukudome rookie will find it as an unnumbered base card, along with seven different levels of Refractor parallels.

• Review: 2008 Bowman Chrome Baseball

With the start of the 2008 NFL season bearing down on us, football card collectors got an interesting piece of news when the Atlanta Falcons announced Sunday that Matt Ryan will start at quarterback immediately. The No. 3 overall pick will have his hands full on a team that is in definite rebuilding mode, but he'll at least have some intriguing pieces to work with in running backs Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood and emerging wide receiver Roddy White.

Highly drafted quarterbacks don't always fare too well in the long term if they're thrown into the fire right away - for every Peyton Manning, there's at least one Ryan Leaf - but in the short term, the visibility Ryan receives by becoming the new face of the franchise should do good things for his rookie cards. Certainly, I feel good about naming him the No. 2 rookie to collect in 2008 behind Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden.

Speaking of top newcomers and their cards, there's a pair of rookie runners who didn't make my list but are players to watch nonetheless because of the opportunity for early playing time. The Bears' Matt Forte has a chance to be the consistent, move-the-chains type of back Chicago thought it had a few years ago in Cedric Benson. And Kevin Smith of the Lions could be the answer to restoring balance to the Detroit offense in the post-Mike Martz era. Hold on to any Forte and Smith rookie cards you come across and see if they get the same early chance to shine that Ryan is getting in Atlanta.

Related link:

• Top 10 NFL Rookies to Collect in 2008

If you've been a visitor to www.tuffstuff.com - the website for Sports Collectors Monthly, one of the hobby's top publications - there's a decent chance you felt the same way I did about it: lots of useful information, but not very friendly to navigate or easy on the eyes.

The staff of Sports Collectors Monthly is hoping to change that with a brand new look for the site that they unveiled earlier this week. The address is the same, but just about everything else is different.

Much of the change is for the better. The interface is definitely cleaner and offers quick paths to numerous parts of the site. It's especially successful in emphasizing the forums, video and audio content, which is a must in this day and age.

From a personal standpoint, I'd like it if the hobby news section got more play (a comment I also made about Beckett.com's recent redesign) and one would think the free online pricing the site provides would have more prominence on the main page. There are also a lot of ads, but the same could be said of just about any high-traffic site in 2008.

If you haven't been to the site in a while, take a look and see if you find the changes to your liking.