1986 Topps FB cello box break....

CDsNuts

As mentioned in another thread, I dug down deep and bought an 86 Topps FB cello box at $400 from Steve Hart. With 744 cards, I'm paying around .53 cents a card, as opposed to .44 per card in the vending boxes. I was willing to spend a little extra hoping that the cello's would yield better corners. Here's how I did (pics below):

1 Rice- looks like a solid 8 with decent centering. Keeping this one.
1 Young- has a gnarly white "smudge" down the left side. Not submitting it, may just keep it.

A slew of Boomer, Bruce Smith, Kosar, Andre Reed, White, etc... RCs. Only a White and Reed have a shot at 9 or better.
A slew of Marino, Elway, Montana, etc.... A couple decent Marino's, but no potential 10s as far as superstars go.

Cards with a reasonable shot at 10- Winslow, Randy White, Tommy Kramer x2, a few commons.

86-1
86-2
86-3

Conclusion- What this set has going for it is the optical illusion the border creates that can hide a tilt. What it doesn't have going for it are the extremely condition sensitive corners. I think the corners on these were slightly better than the ones coming out of the vending, but I'm not sure if it warrants spending the extra dough. I also got a little screwed as the box should yield about 2 of each card and I only got one each of the big guns, but that's nothing worth crying about. Maybe wax is the way to go with these. I'm most likely going to lose a few hundred unless PSA is very kind. Back to the drawing board.

Lee

Dallas88

I think baseball has been a bit more kind to you!

....just an idea, but you may want to load-up on the Bears cards from that year...I think quite a few collectors like those.

Good Luck!

Dal

CDsNuts

Yeah, that occurred to me, but I don't think there was one Bear that would grade a solid 9. They should have made a Superbowl Shuffle card with everybody on it.

Lee

donnnster

yeh after buying that 1986 football vending box from steve, i lost hope of ever pulling a psa 9 rice or young out of sets/boxes. That 1986 football is a pretty tough set to get in very good condition and lots of the cards I got in my vending were very off centered. It sure was exciting though opening it up and hoping for a high grade rice or young!

CDsNuts

The centering on the cellos was great by Topps standards, but just about every card had a touched corner- touched ever so slightly, but touched enough to take it out of 10 range. The problem with these as opposed to late 70s stuff is that PSA 9s don't bring anything unless it's a big RC. Even Marino and Elway only fetch $10-15 each. I'm inclined to agree that this particular set isn't worth buying unopened, but maybe wax yields better results. Some Topps years are like that. Who knows.

Lee

ldferg

were these ever distributed in rack form vs wax, vending and cello?

gregm13

<< <i>were these ever distributed in rack form vs wax, vending and cello? >>



Yes - they were issued in rack form - I belive they were 48 count rack packs (I've bought a few).

Regards,

Greg M.

TheCARDKid

'86 Topps racks are a fortune. You pay close to $1 per card!

The wax, rack, cello and vending is all too expensive for my tastes. There's only 2 big cards and it's ultra condition sensitive.

I'd rather open an '87 box for $40

tennesseebanker

I have been waiting to hear your pull of the 86 cellos, Sorry to hear you didnt do better. I have a box of 83 cellos coming from steve, I hope are ok. I am trying to complete my 83 football in the set registry. I have bought so much unopened stuff over the past year it is mind boggling. I have come to find that if you want the highest quality card, That rack packs are usually the way to go. In my opinion racks are first for quality, cellos run a close second to wax, sometimes just depends on how they were stored or how tightly wrapped. and vending is usually last. I am still holding my 86 vending box cards hoping to build a raw set before Christmas, But I have been so busy working on my 77 football and 83 football I really have abandoned the other years right now. Keep in touch guys about any unopened stuff coming your way, always good to hear about pulls bad or good.