Best football product in 2004 - what is your opinion?
slvnumber2
Posts: 270 ✭
Year in and out what does everyone think the 2 best boxes are in terms of value and re-selling the singles? I think that SPx typically holds it's value fairly well, but Bowman Chrome has way too many rookies that you have never heard of. Any thoughts?
"Why is it that Superman could stop a bullet with his chest, yet he ducked when somebody threw a chair at him?"
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" Go ahead and get your fancy barely visible cell phones that get the internet, play DVD's, and can speak 5 languages. As for me and my Atari cell phone it works, it weighs 7 pounds, it is 14 inches long, and it looks like I could call in an airstrike from a remote desert it is so large!"
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" Go ahead and get your fancy barely visible cell phones that get the internet, play DVD's, and can speak 5 languages. As for me and my Atari cell phone it works, it weighs 7 pounds, it is 14 inches long, and it looks like I could call in an airstrike from a remote desert it is so large!"
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Comments
For the past several years, I would say these are the top football products:
1. Leaf Certified
2. Upper Deck Ultimate
3. Playoff Contenders
4. SP Authentic
5. Donruss Elite
6. Donruss Classics
It obviously depends on what price point you are looking for. Ultimate, Contenders, and SPA will be $100+ per box. Leaf Certified, Elite, and Classics will be in the $70-$85 range. Topps Finest and Topps Chrome will probably be in that price range, also. Bowman Chrome is a nice buy at the $50-60 price tag.
Contenders and SPA seemed to be very hit-and-miss last year compared to previous years. I saw a lot of bad box breaks - even with Contenders delivering 4 rookie auto's per box. Leaf Certified boxes seem to always go up in price. Leaf Limited came out last year for the first time and was a real exciting product....not sure if they are producing it this year though. SP Authentic rookie auto/patches are always highly collected. Fleer Hot Prospects seems like a vastly improved product this year and there is a lot of excitement around their rookie auto/patch cards. If you give me more details about what you are looking for exactly and what price range, I could probably give you a more focused analysis instead of the rambling thoughts above:>}.
Ken
I really like the Fleer Tradtition set, too, with the clean, sharp 1960 (?) retro design.
2005 Origins Old Judge Brown #/20 and Black 1/1s, 2000 Ultimate Victory Gold #/25
2004 UD Legends Bake McBride autos & parallels, and 1974 Topps #601 PSA 9
Rare Grady Sizemore parallels, printing plates, autographs
Nothing on ebay
Here's the goods:
2004 UPPER DECK ULTIMATE COLLECTION FOOTBALL (4/4)
Price $100.00 UDFULT04
Order due before Monday September 20th, 2004
Release date Thursday November 11th, 2004~;~
Configuration: 4 boxes/4 packs/4 cards
SRP $100.00
THIS PRODUCT WILL BE HIGHLY ALLOCATED!
ORDERS BY REQUEST ONLY!~;~
CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
ONE NUMBERED ROOKIE (EITHER SIGNED OR UNSIGNED) IN EVERY PACK ONAVERAGE!
TWO SIGNATURE CARDS ON AVERAGE INEVERY BOX!
FIND 1 OF 1 ROOKIE AND VETERAN ULTIMATE LOGO SIGNATURES!
PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:
Regular Set - Rookies inserted 1 per pack on average, gold parallels inserted 1 per box on average!
o Regular Player Cards - #'d to 750 (gold parallel #'d to 75)
o Ultimate Rookies - Tier one #'d to 250, tier 2 #'d to 750
o Ultimate Rookies Gold Parallel - Tier one #'d to 75, tier 2 #'d to 250
o Ultimate Rookie Signatures - Tier one #'dto 150, tier 2 #'d to 250
Game UsedCards - 3 per box on average
o Ultimate Game Jerseys - #'d to 175 (gold parallel #'d 25)
o Ultimate Game Jersey Duals - #'d to 99(gold parallel #'d to 15)
o Ultimate Rookie Jerseys - #'d to 199 (gold parallel #'d to 25)
o Ultimate Patches - #'d to 150 (gold parallel #'d to 25)
o Ultimate Patch Duals - #'d to 25 (gold parallel #'d to 10)
o Ultimate Super Patches - #'d to 15
SignatureCards - 2 autographs per box on average
~;~ o Ultimate Game Jersey Signatures - #'d to 25
o Ultimate Dual Game Jersey Signatures - #'d to 15
o Ultimate Patch Signatures - #'dto 10
o Ultimate Dual Patch Signatures -#'d to 5
o Ultimate Signatures -
Tier 1 #'d to 25, tier 2 #'d to 100, tier 3 #'d to 275
o Ultimate Signatures Dual- Tier 1 #'d to 25, tier 2 #'d to 50
o Ultimate Quadruple Signatures - #'d to 5
o Ultimate Buyback Signatures - Varied numbering
~;~ o Ultimate Rookie Logo Signature - #'d to 1
o Ultimate Logo Signature - #'d to 1
Proudly buying your rookie cards since 1987.
Helionaut is correct....if you hit one of the top 2-3 rookie cards in SPx you will do well. SPx has gone downhill in my opinion though over the past 2 years. The card design is busy and the boxes typically deliver 2 auto/jersey rookie cards only. Contenders now has 4-5 rookie auto's per box. If you don't pull big name rookies....you will likely be disappointed in the product. I think that some of the other sets are a better value with less risk.
The price of Ultimate is pretty steep, but I agree with J that it's a really nice product. Last year, it seemed like most people were happy with what they pulled for the money.
Ken
redemptions! They came back the next few years and really messed it up. Unlike baseball, where I think
UD has lost its market control, they still have quite a following in football. SPA, no matter how bad still
keeps its value...the unautographed Brady RC is a great example of that. I think Ultimate is a great product
but it still seperates itself from the mainstream by the high pack price.
If anyone will take the market away from UD it is playoff. Contedenders has been solid 6 of the past 7 years, and
have included some of the best rookie autographs out there. Can anyone forget the onslaught of short
prints in 2001? There is a guy who visits here who did a master set! Amazing. Every year there are a few
cards in that set that take off...Steve Smith was the man last year...a 10 dollar common one year boom the
next. Leaf Certified was easliy the best product of 2003. Coming off the heels of baseball, it included many
autographs and patches....big names too and all the rookie cards were GU. low numbered parallel cards that people can
actually pull, is what keeps bringing people back to certified. I just hope they keep the patches this year, they
disappointed in baseball this year! All for around 80 bucks a box!
The great thing about football is that there are no exclusive deals, everyone can have a shot at the biggies and
that means they HAVE to spend money to get the good players. If Fleer or Topps tries to cut corners on
a product then I won't even look at it! There will be over 40 football products out there so if something isn't
awesome, then it won't sell. Hold your money there will ALWAYS be something better.
Lets hope this rookie class kicks butt!
Good Luck
Kevin
2001 SPx Ladanian Tomlinson - BV around $200? $250. No Auto, but a jersey piece. 250 or 500 copies exist. Not sure which one.
2001 Titanium Tomlinson - BV is $150. No Auto, but a nice game worn patch. 75 copies exist.
There are several collectors who are, or already have put together the Titanium rookie sets. There's a ton of rookies in the set ( I believe like 80 or so ), so the set isn't really easy. But just think - All you need is like 75 collectors to have the desire to put this set together, and you would have a hell of a time trying to find these rookies. I finally got the elusive Michael Vick from this set. I said I would pay whatever it took once one surfaced again. I had to pay $330, which was $80 over book. But only 75 out there....
I'm with Stalin when it comes to getting some other sets over the SP Authentic right now. The Brady is a great card, but hardly limited with 1250 copies. No auto or jersey either. I'll pass.
I will also vote on Ultimate Collection unless something else sneaks in there.
TheRoach
Good points, actually I think you meant 2001 SPA Tomlinson which has no auto...there are 500 of them and they
are supposed to feature a patch.
Personally I think the crown royale autographs from 2001 are some of the most beautiful cards out there. They
are somewhat limited at 250, with most of them autographed. Pacific has gotten a bad wrap because of losing
their license and the whole Man Ram thing. I still question many of the Pacific GU as far as authenticity.
It funny, Tomlinson's cards are hyped before every year. It was like that in 02 and in 03...then the Chragers
suck and his cards do down.
Roach...I would love to see a scan of that Vick!
Kevin
I currently have:
2 Kevan Barlow
3 Travis Henry
3 Koren Robinson
2 Anthony Thomas
1 Deuce Mcallister
1 Justim McCariens
1 Chad Johnson
1 Chris Chambers
1 MICHAEL VICK!!!!!!
1 Rudi Johnson
1 David Terrell
3 Reggie Wayne
2 Freddie Smith
1 Drew Brees
1 Quincy Morgan
6 Steve Smith
I just picked up my 6th Steve Smith the other day. Nice 3 colored swatch.
I have about 15 or so more of the no name wide outs, running backs ( Alex bannister, Eddie Berlin, TJ Houshmadaezsh???, etc.. )
90% of these cards have 2-3 colored patch pieces. Really nice cards. Hell, even if the jersey isn't authentic, they still only produced 75 copies.
I will try to get a scan up, but I am completely clueless. Can I send a scan to someone's email address, and then they throw it up for me? I would appreciate it. Thanks!
patch you have? So you can't be far from a complete set by now right?
Kevin
There are 3-4 other collectors who are actively buying these, and they have put together a set or 2 already. I have had one guy email me and ask me to stay out of an auction for a Michael Bennett because he wanted that specific card. He was really cool about it, and did not want to have to outbid me. I asked him to stay out of the Steve Smith auction and we agreed.
There are like 80 rookies in the set. I am only about 20% the way through because of all the multiples. I gave up on the set think. 65% of the rooke are like commons, so I could not see spending $15-$25 per common rookie just to build the set, when I can use that $$$ to pick up multiples of the good rookies.
The Tomlinson, Mcallister, Barlow, and Vick usually go for close to book or above when they surface. Guys like Chad Johnson, McCariens, Rudi Johnson and Travis henry go for around 60% of book which is still great.