RCCA Blog

GREETINGS FROM CHINA!

I have my ear to the ground at Early Light in China. We have some really cool programs coming up in 2009!

Don’t forget to tune into NASCAR COLLECTOR this weekend on Sirius.  Tony Stewart will be calling in for an interview – as well as me calling from China.  Our giveaway this week pays respect to our special interview guest, Tony Stewart, and is a 2008 ARC Platinum No. 20 Home Depot die-cast of his final year with Home Depot and only year in Toyota.

We’ll be stepping outside of the die-cast collectible world and discussing trading cards; the market now – where the industry has been in the past and where it is now.

Have a great Holiday Season.  I’ll be in touch early in 2009 with some new and exciting things!

A quick note from the trenches….

There are a few special paint schemes to look out for at the Dickie’s 500 at Texas Motor Speedway this Sunday.  Petty Enterprises announced that the Richard Petty Driving Experience will be the primary sponsor of the #45 Dodge, driven by Chad McCumbee. "Mad Max” Papis will be behind the wheel of the #13 Geico Toyota Camry. Joey Logano, who has tried three times to race the #02 car in the Sprint Cup Series, but qualifying was washed out by rain, will try to qualify again. And, Jamie McMurray’s #26 Crown Royal will promote the ‘Your Name Here 400’ contest on its hood, where they name the May, 2009 Sprint Cup Series event at Richmond International Raceway after an adult fan.

On Saturday, Tim Trout, Beckett’s Racing Magazine and co-host of NASCAR Collector, will be joining 10 lucky RCCA Platinum members, and their guests, at Texas Motor Speedway for the President’s luncheon at the Speedway Club with Mark Dyer, President and CEO of Motorsports Authentics, special guest Jim Hunter from NASCAR, Jeff Hammond from SPEED and Marty Smith from ESPN.  They’re going to go on a tour of the garage and do a few meet and greets, be out on pit road for driver introductions for the Nationwide Race and watch that race from a suite at the Speedway Club.

Tune in to NASCAR Collector tomorrow morning from 7:00 to 9:00 on Sirius Satellite. Terry Labonte, one of Texas' favorite NASCAR drivers, will be joining us live.  Tune in to participate in the show and have a chance to win one of our great giveaways including 1:24 scale autographed standard paint scheme die-cast of two-time Cup Champion (and winner of last fall’s Texas race) Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne.

Check out the NASCAR COLLECTOR show LIVE tomorrow!

Saturday morning, the crew from NASCAR COLLECTOR will be LIVE from the Sam Bass Gallery directly across the street from Lowes Motor Speedway at the fourth RCCA Elite Member Appreciation event.

There will be several special guests joining us on NASCAR COLLECTOR tomorrow morning.  Kyle Petty will be stopping by to talk about the special Ride To Victory that will happen on Sunday. Motorsports artist Sam Bass will be joining the crew and Motorsports Authentics President and CEO Mark Dyer will be there.  Ted Jenkins, who is the top DIN registrant will be joining us live.  He won a trip to Charlotte in May on the NASCAR COLLECTOR radio show for the most DIN registrations.  He’s registered nearly 500 cars, and has even more in his collection.  A few other RCCA Elite members will be with us at the gallery too.  In addition, Crew Chief for the No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet Chad Knauss will be calling in.

Lot’s of exciting things happening tomorrow, so tune in!

Diecast Update from Dr. Diecast

It's been a real exciting week! Jeff Gordon revealed his new paint scheme.  This is only the third change in design for this car over Jeff’s career. It was great to see Jeff mainstream doing morning TV shows in NY!  How exciting!!  The design keeps the trademark flame design but now with a black base car.  Great stuff!  We have been working with the art and on samples for about two months, I reviewed the diecast car while in China a week and a half ago, very complicated color fade on the hood because the colors transition from one to the other; there are no hard breaks.  There are still changes to be made as colors, sponsors and deco are all finalized.

It was great being able to bring this to life for the collectors.  Check out the video of the car being decorated at http://www.myspace.com/drdiecast.

I returned from China last week. There are many of exciting cars in the works for 2009.  Everyone is busy working on finishing up the last programs and cars for 2008.  Dale and the Duke is shipping soon as well as the Sam Bass Christmas cars.

Lots of raced-wins are working their way through the process also. Dale Jr’s Ride with Jr car that he is running this weekend is on the docket too.  I will be returning to China in Dec. to make sure production is on target for Jan / Feb receipts.

NASCAR Collector will be live from Sam Bass Galleries next week in Charlotte on 10/11 and then again from TX at the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine, just down the road from Texas Motorspeedway - race weekend 11/1.  In both cases we have RCCA Elite member events planned.  I am looking forward to meeting all the great RCCA collectors!

Rolling into August

The Indy event was great for those Elite members that attended the breakfast and the lunch.  We are planning to do many more of these going forward so stay tuned for more details.

The August catalog is posted to the website and should be arriving in your mailboxes any day now.  Several new items in this issue including die-cast for Richard Petty, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Smoke, DW and Ashley Force.  Don't forget about our value of the day program and the Wednesday closeouts.  Please call Customer service for more information on these programs.

Doctor Die-cast will be on QVC Friday, Aug 1st.   He apologizes for not getting to his blog before he left but he promises to start posting when he returns.  He has a special unveiling during this broadcast that you don't want to miss.

Look for annoucements about special events for RCCA Elite members in August, October and November.   These will be posted on the forum section under RCCA annoucements.  Forum activity has certainly picked up, you guys are providing great feedback and definately keeping me on my toes.  Please remember to respect the opinions of others and try to keep it clean.  We want to keep this as a place where RCCA members feel welcome and comfortable sharing their passion!

Thanks for your patience as we gear up the E-Points program.  Additional website changes are coming that will allow you to view your points online. 

From the Director

Now that the forum is up and running, we are going to start using the blogs as they are intended.  Doctor Die-cast and I will update you periodically about what is going on at Motorsports Authentics, RCCA and in the world of die-cast.

Our first RCCA Elite member only event is planned for this Saturday in Indy.  Dr. D. and Tim Trout from Beckett's will be on hand, along with Mark Dyer, President and CEO of Motorsports Authentics.    You never know who else might be dropping by.   Big annoucements are scheduled this weekend,so there should be a buzz in the air.

We are in the planning stages for two additional RCCA Elite member events this year during the Texas and Charlotte race weekends.  More information about these events will be coming soon.

The August catalog will be dropping in the mail this week and should be posted to the website by Friday.  Thunder and other new items will not be available for pre-order until the 1st but you can get your shopping list ready.

I will check back in when I return from Indy.