Ripping retail - my style

NickM

Looking for new releases at Target and Wal-Mart over the past couple months has led to me buying and opening a bunch of discounted blasters.

Think of this as the quick version of Chris Olds videos, without the bad hair.

2011 A&G
8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $11.99
The SPs in this set aren't all that shortprinted - and the stated odds make SP minis more common than regular minis.
Melky Cabrera framed mini uniform relic
2 Ascent of Man
1 Minds That Made the Future
1 Floating Fortresses
1 Ginter Code parallel (this was the red herring, with funky corner designs)
1 Uninvited Guests mini
1 Step Right Up mini
1 Portraits of Penultimacy mini
2 black border minis - 1 a shortprint (Kouzmanoff)
2 A&G back minis

This was a great box. I'm now 2 for 2 on hitting relics from A&G blasters (got Beckett in another). The black border SP mini is a very tough pull too (1 in every 130 packs - I estimate 525 made).

2010 Upper Deck World of Sports
11 packs, 6 cards per pack, $11.99
autos are supposed to be 1 per 10 packs, memorabilia cards 1 per 20 packs, and insert cards called Clear Competitors 1 per 20 packs
I got only base cards.
After reading other people's reviews of these blasters online, it seems that other people had the same problem. Most of the other blaster reviews had no hits either. I believe Upper Deck did not put anywhere near stated odds on autos/GU cards in the blaster packs.
I did receive some SPs, but since the packaging doesn't indicate even that there are SPs, let alone odds, that's not much consolation.
Avoid these boxes altogether.

Nick

NickM

2012 SAGE HIT low series

20 packs, 5 cards per pack, plus 2 autographed cards, $11.99

I opened the box, and found that the autographed cards were not in a pack, but were in a penny sleeve together. I haven't opened the packs yet, as they will all be base cards, and the only question is whether collation will give me the set of 55.

1 auto was someone who shouldn't have even been in the set - Stephen Garcia. He was a QB kicked off his college team. No NFL team wants to take that sort of risk. The other auto was good - Jayron Hosley. He's a CB taken in the 3rd round by the Giants who started 6 games as a rookie.


2012 SAGE HIT high series

20 packs, 5 cards per pack, plus 2 autographed cards, $11.99 - bought 2 boxes

I opened the first box, and opened most of the packs before I came across the penny sleeve with the autos. The collation wasn't too bad, but no complete set of the base cards. The autos were Davin Meggett and Tim Fugger. Meggett is a RB (son of Dave Meggett) who was a UFA and is now on the Colts practice squad. Fugger is a LB who was drafted in the 7th round by the Colts and is now on the Cardinals roster, though he didn't play in a regular season game. Not great autos.

I opened the second box, and looked at the autos, though I haven't opened the packs. Meggett and Fugger - AGAIN. I'm not happy with that.

I might buy low series again. Not high series though.

Nick

Porkins

I pick up these discounted blasters from time to time so I'm always curious to hear reviews/results.
And yeah nice A and G.

onlyanumber

<< <i>2012 SAGE HIT low series

1 auto was someone who shouldn't have even been in the set - Stephen Garcia. He was a QB kicked off his college team. No NFL team wants to take that sort of risk. The other auto was good - Jayron Hosley. He's a CB taken in the 3rd round by the Giants who started 6 games as a rookie.


Nick >>



Garcia had so much potential...But he wizzed it away on a police car.

Seriously though. Couldn't Sage have come up with better autos???

NickM

2012 Topps Series 2 BB
72 card WalMart boxes, $5.98 - bought 3
Each box has 1 Gold Sparkle parallel, 2 Walmart blue parallels, a '87 mini, a Golden Moments insert, and a now-useless code card. A Cut Above, Mound Dominance, Gold Futures, Gold Standard, and Career Day inserts are 1 per 2 boxes, relics are 1 per 20 boxes, and everything else is at ridiculous odds.

2 boxes had a Mound Dominance, a Gold Futures, and a Gold Standard insert. The third had a Mound Dominance and a Gold Standard insert. No relics in any box.

Collation among the boxes overlapped a lot, but I'm happy. All 3 boxes had a Trout base card, and 2 also had Darvish and Cespedes rookies. One box had Posey as its Gold Sparkle.

2011 Panini Rookies & Stars FB
8 packs, 10 cards per pack, $11.99
Rookies are SPs at 1/pack.
Muhammad Wilkerson, T.J. Yates, and Corey Liuget were the 3 biggest names among my RCs.
No odds are stated on inserts/parallels. I got 5 total
1 Longevity parallel - Scotty McKnight RC #/249
1 gold parallel - Aaron Rodgers
1 Rookie Revolution insert
1 Studio Rookies insert (Julio Jones)
1 Studio Rookies Materials - A.J. Green Rookie Premiere jersey #/299.

Killer box.

2012 A&G
8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $11.99
The SPs and mini SPs in this set aren't all that shortprinted.
4 What's In a Name
1 Murder in Willow Cove
1 World's Tallest Buildings
1 Baseball Highlights Sketches
1 Historical Turning Points
1 A&G back mini
1 Musical Masters mini
1 World's Greatest Military Leaders mini

Inserts basically ran according to ratios (no black border minis, but a SP), but this box left me feeling unsatisfied. If you don't hit a relic or really special mini, you get a box whose hits are gimmicks.

Nick

Sethro

I liked picking up the $11.99 boxes at Target, unfortunately they seem to have run out. I'll have to live vicariously through your rips!

NickM

I saw one racing cards box at Target last night that started at $9.99, but had the discount sticker on it repricing it at $11.99.

Both Target and WalMart get new stock of this in periodically - as well as discounted loose packs. I picked up a bunch of 2012 Topps FB racks marked down 40%. Haven't ripped them yet.

Nick

mygotta

My best pull from a retail pack was a 2013 Bryce Harper Out of Bounds variant which was submitted and came back a 10 and promptly sold for $100. A great $5 investment.

NickM

1 box of 2011 SAGE HIT high series

20 packs, 5 cards per pack, plus 2 autographed cards, $11.99

The two autographed cards were Shaun Chapas (7th rd. pick FB from GA, who has spent time on the Cowboys and Lions active rosters, and has 1 career carry) and Austin Pettis (3rd Rd. pick WR from Boise State, who had 30 catches and 4 TDs last year for the Rams).

I haven't opened the packs yet, but they're all base cards.

1 good auto, and the other guy at least got drafted. I'm happy.

Breakdowns coming soon on some racing, FB, and BB that I opened.

Nick

NickM

2011 Panini Prestige FB
8 packs, 10 cards per pack, $11.99
Rookies are SPs at 1/pack.
No odds are stated on inserts/parallels. I got 4 total
1 Xtra Points Gold parallel - Stanley Havili RC #/250
1 Xtra Points Orange parallel
1 NFL Passport insert
1 Prestigious Pros Red insert

Oh yeah, and my rookies included Aldon Smith, Patrick Peterson, Colin Kaepernick, and Cam Newton.

Inserts were nothing to speak of, but the rookie hits made it worthwhile.

2012 A&G
8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $11.99
The SPs and mini SPs in this set aren't all that shortprinted.
4 What's In a Name
1 Murder in Willow Cove
1 World's Tallest Buildings
1 Baseball Highlights Sketches
1 Historical Turning Points
2 A&G back minis
1 black border mini
1 World's Greatest Military Leaders mini

I can't complain about insert ratios, but when the best card I got is arguably the Kate Upton mini, it's not a great box. I may pass on 2012 A&G in the future.

2012 Topps FB
13 loose rack packs, 36 cards per pack, $2.98
Each pack contains a '65 mini insert, a Paramount Pairs insert, and a Prolific Playmakers insert.
QB Immortals inserts and QB rookie reprint inserts are 1/2 packs. Gridiron Giveaway code cards (now useless) and gold parallels #/2012 are each 1/3 packs. BCA (pink) and military (camo) parallels #/399 are each 1/17 packs.

I haven't checked for rookie or veteran photo variations yet, but those are rare and I doubt I found any.

8 of the packs had QB rookie reprints while the other 5 had QB Immortals. I think I got 4 or 5 code cards.
1 BCA pink parallel - Brock Osweiler rookie
5 golds - including Eli Manning and Aaron Rodgers - but getting a gold of Eric LeGrand (the paralyzed Rutgers player who Tampa Bay signed to a contract as a publicity stunt) is disconcerting. He's numbered as part of the base set, so it's a card I need for putting together the parallel set, but I were someone who could only buy a few packs, and that was my big hit, I would not have been happy.

Discounted base Topps blasters are great value IMO - just assume you're not going to hit a relic or auto, and you're still paying only about 8 cents a card (plus whatever tax your state charges).
I got 2 key cards for the gold set, plus a rather important rookie pink parallel. I'm quite happy.

2009 Press Pass Premium (NASCAR)
8 packs per box, 5 cards per pack, $11.99
The final 10 base cards are shortprinted.

I got shorted with this box - 1 pack had only 4 cards. I think the missing card was supposed to be one of my hits.

1 Finish Line SP (Jeff Gordon) (1/6 packs)
2 Win Streak inserts (Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch) (1/4 packs)

My guess is that the missing card should have been another SP or a Top Contenders (1/12 packs) insert.

The inserts and SP I got remind me a lot of the 1999 & 2000 Upper Deck Holografx sets, although the prismatic foil design works far better for NASCAR than it ever did for other sports. The base cards look really nice too.

Missing a hit hurts, but I'd give these boxes another try if I saw them again. I collect autographs, and the cards have good backgrounds for signing (NASCAR is second only to golf in the ease of getting athlete sigs at the event, and is the best for free signings around events). I figure that other boxes won't be missing a card.

Nick


[edited for typos and to add emoticon]

NickM

Normally I wouldn't give the 100-card repacks a second glance, but I noticed one on the front of a rack that had a Sidney Crosby National Sports Collectors Convention VIP card on the front (the other front card was a Crosby Phenomenal Beginnings, from the 2005 UD boxed set). The Crosby NSCC VIP is from 2011 and is a decent card (I checked on ebay, and it sells for $1 to $3). I looked through all the repacks, and also found another with a NSCC VIP card on the front. That one was a Toews, from 2008. It also had a Crosby Phenomenal beginnings as the other front card.

All their 100-card hockey repacks advertised at least $10 catalog value. The other sports' repacks advertised different things, such as a certain number of rookies.

I bought and busted both. They're primarily early '90s junk, although some of it is unusual junk that you don't run across often - like Arena and 7th Inning Sketch cards from the early '90s. There is a good mix of star cards from that era, not that they were generally very valuable. The Toews pack had 1 great card in the middle - a 1997-98 Pacific Slap Shot Die Cuts Keith Tkachuk. 1/73 packs insert set, 36 cards in the set. A quick ebay check showed that commons from this set were going for a couple bucks each, and there wasn't a Tkachuk either in active or completed listings. The Crosby pack had 2 great cards in the middle - a 1991 Arena Draft Picks autograph #/667 of Jim Campbell, who turned into a decent NHL player, and a 1997-98 Pacific Team Checklists Martin Brodeur. 1/73 packs insert set, 36 cards in the set. A quick ebay check showed very few from this set active or completed (no Brodeur), and that someone hit a $3.95 BIN on a Hull (Brodeur is at least as valuable as Hull IMO).

I'm very happy. I may not buy any more repacks, but I'll certainly look for ones that have a very nice card visible.

Nick

NickM

I had a day off and a local Target had recently been restocked - plus I was searching for Score FB. I loaded up.

2011 Topps Lineage BB
7 packs, 8 cards per pack plus 1 relic, $11.99
The relic was separately wrapped in plastic - I got a '75 mini style Alexei Ramirez jersey
2 '75 mini inserts (1 per 4 packs)
2 Platinum Diamond parallels (1 per 4 packs)
1 Diamond parallel (1 per 4 packs)
1 Topps Rookies (1 per 6 packs)
1 cloth sticker (1 per 12 packs)
1 stand-up (1 per 12 packs)
0 Venezuelans (1 per 12 packs)

I got perhaps the weakest relic on the checklist, but inserts ran in line with ratios. It's a fun rip. I'd definitely do more.

2012 Heritage
8 packs, 9 cards per pack, $11.99
It didn't indicate it anywhere on the box, but this had been a Target blaster, with a red parallel inside (taking the place of a hit - 3rd card from the back). My parallel was Mauer.
2 high #s (1 per 3 packs), including Hamilton
2 stick-ons (1 per 8 packs)
1 Then & Now (1 per 15 packs)
1 New Age Performers (1 per 15 packs)
1 Baseball Flashbacks (1 per 12 packs)
0 News Flashbacks (1 per 12 packs)
no color or image swaps or SSPs

Didn't get a chrome or a relic, but an OK box nonetheless. For whatever reason, I like 2012 Heritage's look a lot.

3 boxes of 2013 Opening Day Baseball
11 packs, 7 cards per pack, $9.99
All the reasonable chance inserts/parallels are 1/5 packs - Mascots, Opening Day Edition (blue sparkle parallel #/2013), Superstar Celebrations, Opening Day Stars, Play Hard, Ballpark Fun - you get an insert or parallel in every pack, with 2 packs normally having 2.
The Opening Day Stars cards are thicker, heavier, and stiff - you can immediately tell if you pick up a pack when you have one of these. They're very attractive, in a '90s old school insert way. The other inserts are disappointing, except for the numbered parallels.
Box 1 had 3 Opening Day Edition, including Halladay and Miguel Cabrera, and 3 Opening Day Stars, including Harper, with 2 Mascots, 2 Superstar Celebrations, 2 Play Hard, and 1 Ballpark Fun.
Box 2 had 3 Mascots, and 2 of each other insert, including a Votto Opening Day Edition.
Box 3 had 3 Opening Day Edition, and 2 of each other insert.

These cards are a great value. I should go find more.

2012 Topps Series 1 baseball
10 packs, 8 cards per pack plus 1 commemorative patch, $11.99
2 packs are blue parallel cards - this was originally a WalMart blaster that ended up in the Target discount pile.
There are 50 possible manupatches - 25 Retired Numbers and 25 Historical Stitches. The checklists for the two types overlap a lot. My patch was Retired Numbers Stan Musial. It looks quite nice.
There are regular insert cards in the blue parallel packs. My blue parallels were nothing special.
3 gold sparkle (Topps calls this Golden Moments, but that's ridiculous, because they use the same name for an insert set) (1 per 4 packs)
3 Golden Moments (the inserts that say Golden Moments on them) (1 per 4 packs)
2 Golden Greats (1 per 4 packs)
2 '87 minis (1 per 4 packs)
1 Gold Standard ((1 per 6 packs)
1 Gold Futures (1 per 6 packs)
3 Timeless Talents (1 per 6 packs)
2 Classic Walkoffs (1 per 8 packs)
1 now-useless Golden Giveaway code (1 per 6 packs)

I haven't checked for photo variations, but they're very rare, so I don't expect I have any.

Many of the manupatches sell pretty well on ebay, so there's quite good value in a 2012 Topps blaster rip. And it's fun. The basic insert sets are large enough that it takes quite a lot of boxes to put them together, but when you pick up several of each per box, you feel like you're making progress.

2 boxes of 2011 Topps Chrome baseball
8 packs, 4 cards per pack, $11.99
Box 1 had 2 Refractors (1 per 3 packs), 3 Xfractors (1 per 3 packs) including a Dee Gordon rookie, 2 Vintage Chrome inserts (1 per 6 packs), an Aaron Crow Purple Refractor (1 per 8 packs) #/499 - it has a RC label but I don't know if it's a true rookie, and quite a lot of other cards with the RC logo (includng Belt, Barney, and Revere).
Box 2 had 3 Refractors - Fielder, Freddie Freeman rookie, and Scott Cousins rookie, 3 Xfractors including Pujols, 1 Vintage Chrome insert, a Purple Refractor #/499, a Mark Teixeira Heritage Chrome #/1962 (1 per 17 packs), and quite a lot of other cards with the RC logo (including Hellickson and Sands).

I think I did well - inserts ran according to rations with some good stars and rookies in the parallels, but at the end of opening these, I felt that there should be more to it. It's a rather large set to get only 3 base cards per pack.

Chrome has crept up toward being a high-end set with very limited production. The secondary market should afford this set a lot of value - by my calculations there are only about 12K of each base card made, and about 1330 each of Refractors and Xfractors.

I'd buy these again.

NickM

The Targets in my area seem to all have raised their discount blaster price to $12.99. And worse, it's mainly the same old stuff I passed on at $11.99. I did find one that still had the old price sticker visible on the opposite side of the box from the new sticker, which entitled me to the old price, as well as picking up another blaster of a type I hadn't seen at discount before, and something new I just really wanted.

2009 Press Pass Stealth racing - 8 packs, 5 cards per pack, $11.99
4 Press Pass Confidential inserts (1 per 2 packs) (I believe all 4 are the bronze variety)
2 Mach 09 inserts (1 per 6 packs)
No other inserts or autos/relics, but those are at long odds.

I'm happy with the box. I did well to get 2 of the insert that more often delivers 1 per blaster, and my box ended up with 4 Joey Logano rookie year cards - rookie, subset card, and 2 types of inserts.


2011-12 Panini Elite hockey - 5 packs, 5 cards per pack, $12.99. Each box is advertised to have an auto or GU card
I got an extra base card in the pack with the GU card.
2 Aspirations die-cut parallels
1 Rookie Stars insert (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins)
Marcus Foligno rookie #/999
Calvin DeHaan New Breed jersey

I'm not going to pass up boxes for that price with a guaranteed hit (assuming we're not talking about draft pick auto sets). Getting a nice insert and a numbered rookie (of a player who is a NHL regular at 21) makes it a great box.


2013 Topps MLS soccer - 8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $19.99. Each box is advertised to have an auto (relics are rare in retail). MSRP from Topps is only $14.99, but I haven't seen it for that price anywhere other than tje Topps website.
Purple parallels of base cards and autos appear to be retail exclusives. Hobby has its own exclusive colors.
Darren Mattocks Maestros Purple auto #/50
2 parallels #/99 (1 per 6 packs)
1 Mini (Thierry Henry) (1 per 12 packs)
2 1978 English Footballer inserts (1 per 6 packs)
1 Pure Soccer insert (1 per 6 packs)
0 MLS Rivalries inserts (1 per 24 packs)

I'm annoyed at the price (normally Target charges MSRP), but an auto plus the other content makes for a nice box if you're a soccer fan. I'll be getting some of these from Topps directly. The 20% discount code comes in especially handy here.


Nick

DetroitSquirreL

whats the 20% off code? I heard a few people speak of it, but never saw what it was

NickM

If you sign up for the Topps.com newsletter, you get a discount code for 20% off your next purchase with them. It's the same code for everyone - LY7HJ9K (unless they change it).

Nick

LochNESS

I've been *slowly* going through my old cards trying to decide what to sell and how, and so I've been reading over threads like this one to try and get accustomed to the lingo. For the most part I get it, but overall it still feels foreign (like, "it's all Greek to me").

I wonder if this is how card collectors feel when they visit the coin forum

NickM

The Toys R Us "buy 2, get 1 free" sale has yielded me a few good deals on older blasters and racks that were already discounted. Most of their new product was priced around 50% higher than WalMart and Target in the first place.

2012 Gypsy Queen - 3 blasters
8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $12.99 (3rd one was free)
1 mini per pack

Box 1:
1 black border mini (1 per 12 packs)
1 Gypsy Queen mini (1 per 6 packs)
2 Straight Cut minis (1 per 6 packs)
2 Future Stars (1 per 4 packs)
2 Hallmark Heroes (1 per 4 packs)
1 Moonshots (1 per 6 packs) (Mantle)
2 Sliding Stars (1 per 6 packs) (Jeter)
1 Glove Stories (1 per 12 packs)

Box 2:
1 black border mini (Frank Thomas)
1 Gypsy Queen mini (Berra)
2 Straight Cut minis
2 Future Stars (same ones as Box 1)
2 Hallmark Heroes
2 Moonshots
1 Sliding Stars

Box 3:
1 black border mini (Cliff Lee)
1 sepia mini (1 per 186 packs) (Verlander 15/99)
1 Gypsy Queen mini (Ruth)
1 Straight Cut mini
2 Future Stars (Goldschmidt twice)
2 Hallmark Heroes
1 Moonshots
1 Sliding Stars
1 Glove Stories
and a Danny Espinosa on-card autograph (I assume he's in the most common group of autos, which are 1 per 133 packs).

At the price I paid, they're a great rip even if you don't get a hit - the mini parallels add nice value. On average, 4 blasters should yield 1 relic or auto, so odds aren't ridiculous.

Nick

NickM

Added a few more miscellaneous boxes and rack packs (the rack packs were already discounted and were part of the Toys R Us buy 2, get 1 free sale).

2009 Press Pass Stealth racing
same configuration and price as before

5 Press Pass Confidential inserts - 4 bronze and 1 silver (Paul Menard). I now know for sure that all the ones in the previous box were bronze.
1 Mach 09 insert

I'm not sure how tough the silvers are, but I'm certainly not complaining about this box.

2013 Opening Day baseball
same configuration and price as before

3 Opening Day Stars (including Trout)
2 of each other insert

1 hanger box of 2013 Topps Football, $9.99
64 cards

Each hanger box includes 1 card from each of the common insert sets (1 per 6 packs or less) - 4000 Yard Club, 1000 Yard Club, Legends in the Making, Future Legends, Gridiron Legends, 1959 minis, and green 1969 style rookies (the blasters with the manupatches have red border and blue border 1969 style rookie inserts at Target and WalMart, respectively), as well as 1 gold parallel #/2013 (mine was Reggie Wayne).
BCA (pink border) and military (camo border) parallels are each 1 per 7 hanger boxes, with the other inserts and SPs being much tougher.
I was lucky enough to get a 49ers team BCA #/399.
No SPs or other tough inserts.
Over a quarter of the base cards were rookies - primarily offensive players. My best were Lacy, Wheaton, Keenan Allen, and Glennon.

I wasn't happy that Topps shrank the hanger boxes from 72 cards (baseball) to 64 for football, but it's still a decent rip. A guaranteed gold parallel is nice, especially if you hit a superstar or hot rookie for it.

Nick

[edited for typos]

NickM

Added another hanger box of 2013 Topps FB
$9.98 this time, because it was WalMart instead of Target.

No pink or camo, and no SPs.
A nice gold - Ravens Super Bowl Champs, featuring Flacco.
Rookies were 2 undrafted QBs (Bray and Jordan Rodgers) and a big portion of the first round, including Eifert, Hopkins, Fisher, Jordan, and Ansah.

Happy with the box, but my ripping urge on this set seems satisfied.

2013 Topps Platinum FB
8 packs, 4 cards per pack, $19.98

I had heard good things about this product on other message boards, so I decided to give it a try.

Each pack has 1 rookie or insert.
Xfractors are 1 per 4 packs - I got 2 (Glennon and Bray), but both are very poorly centered T-B (arguably miscut).
I beat the odds (1 per 44 packs) and got an autograph - Jordan Reed of the Redskins.
Rookie selection includes too much junk IMO. Conner Vernon and Zach Line don't belong in the set, but those were 2 of my 5 regular RCs.

It was a great box if you can overlook the centering problem. I can't. Trying to get Topps Customer Service to fix that seems like a waste of time to me.

1 2010 Topps Chrome baseball rack
3 packs, 4 cards per pack, plus 3 orange refractors, $3.99 (and then part of the Toys R Us Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale)
Refractors and Xfractors are each 1 per 3 packs, with other inserts being tougher.

1 Refractor (Longoria)
1 Heritage Chrome insert (1 per 86 packs) (Magglio Ordonez/1961)
Orange refractors were no one special.
Best base cards were Colvin RC and Griffey.

4 2011 Bowman Chrome baseball racks
3 packs, 3 cards per pack, plus 3 green xfractors, $3.99 (and then part of the Toys R Us sale)
Base card refractors are 1 per 6 packs, prospect purple refractors and 2021 Bowman Chrome Future inserts are 1 per 9 packs, Bowman's Best Prospect inserts and 2001 Bowman Chrome Throwback inserts are 1 per 8 packs, and everything else is considerably tougher.

Vizcaino Bowman's Best Prospects
Vizcaino BC Throwback
Matt Dominguez BC Future
Keyvius Sampson autographed Prospect/500 (1 per 77 packs)
4 refractors - Cashner (RC), Jeter, Britton (RC), and Espinosa (RC)
Nova RC, Gregorius Prospect, Skaggs Prospect, S. Marte Prospect
Gregorius green xfractor, Pastornicky green xfractor

2009 Upper Deck Series 1 baseball rack
36 cards including 2 Starquest cards, $3.99 (and then part of the Toys R Us sale)

Both Starquests were from the Common version. Everything else was base.

I only bought the UD pack to fill out the right number for the sale - there wasn't anything good left for the 6th pack.
I'm ecstatic over everything else. An auto rookie (of a decent prospect) was a great hit, and the refractors and Heritage insert were quite good.

Nick

NickM

I picked up another hanger box of 2013 Topps football ($9.98, from Walmart).

I hit the standard 1 per pack inserts - a nice selection, since my green border rookie was Glennon and my mini was Rodgers. Fpr the second time, my gold was Reggie Wayne.

My rookies were mainly 2nd and 3rd rounders, including some fairly hot ones (Bell and Alonso).

This set isn't selling well. I think I'll wait until they get discounted to buy more.

7 rack packs of 2013 Panini Rookies & Stars Football
40 cards per pack, $4.98 or $4.99 (I bought some at Walmart and some at Target)

Rookies are SPs at 4 per pack.

My first pack had awful rookie selection - 6th rounder Nick Kasa was the highest drafted player.

What saved that pack was a very nice insert - an Adrian Peterson Longevity parallel.

I bought 6 more packs - each pack had an insert in the lower half - 3 Longevity parallels, 2 Touchdown Club inserts, 1 NFL Nation insert, and 1 Statistical Standouts insert. Two of the packs also had a Crusade insert in the other half.

While I ended up with two Rex Burkhead rookies, my rookie selection after the first pack was much better - including two Geno Smiths.

I like this set a lot at the rack price. For five dollars, you're getting a third (35 or 36 of 100) of the base (non-SP) set, plus the rookies and insert(s).

Nick

cjaccardi

great chronicle of your rips , sounds like you are having a ton of fun.

Tibbs4

Picked up a box of 2011 Prestige football from Walmart for my son and was not impressed. All of the packs had only 7 or 8 cards when there is supposed to be 10. No rookies or inserts. It seemed like the packs were loose and not tight.

NickM

Cjaccardi - it's pretty fun, although the boxes with 30 or so cards in them are a lot less fun. You come to the end of the rip, and want more. It's just not enough to satisfy the ripping urge.

Tibbs - you got a box that had been tampered with. It has become an epidemic in some cities - scammers buy a box, take it home, carefully open it and the packs, take out what they want, put the rest back in (resealing it well enough to pass casual glances), and take it back for a refund.

1 box of 2013 Panini Prizm baseball
7 packs plus 3 red prizms (Target exclusive), 4 cards per pack, $19.99

These appear to be flying off the shelves.

My red Prizms included a very nice one - Michael Wacha (though I hope Kershaw beats him in game 6). They're in a separate cello package inside the blaster, with the front and back cards immediately visible.

1 green Prizm (retail exclusive) - Brandon Maurer
1 Top Prospects - Javier Baez
1 USA Baseball - Trout
1 red Fearless (I don't know if this color variation is available only in Target blasters, in all retail, or in all types of packs) - Verlander
1 auto - Pete Kozma (redemption card)

An auto in retail makes for a great blaster box.

However, these cards aren't MLB-licensed, so there are no logos. On some cards, it doesn't matter (like a catcher in full gear), but some others look ridiculous with plain color jerseys. Shane Victorino looks like some guy in your local softball league.

I'm not sure if I'd buy it again (it's the aesthetic issue), but I doubt it will be around much longer in stores. Value-wise, it's Chrome, but with more hit potential.

2013 A&G is still crowding the shelves. Eventually they're going to have to discount it. The same goes for 2013 Topps Series 2.

Nick

NickM

I picked up a 75-card basketball repack, for $3.99.
I bought it for 1 card that was showing - a 2009 National VIP card of Jordan. That's a several dollar card by itself (only 1 currently on ebay, with a BIN over $5). There were two other decent cards showing - a 2006 National VIP card (granted, it was the Press Pass of Patrick O'Bryant, so it's not a very expensive card, but it's also not easy to find), and a Collector's Choice Players Club parallel of Ewing. Inside was mainly 1990-1993 era junk wax commons, though I did get some HOFers of that era and a couple cards of someone who's now a sports talk radio guy and signs TTM readily.
I bought it for the Jordan. I'm happy.

Nick

NickM

Target was restocked with loads of stuff. I picked up a few new products.

2013 Panini Absolute FB
1 rack pack, 40 cards per pack, $4.99

Most Panini racks have 1 or 2 inserts or SPs and everything else is base. This was no different.
1 parallel card - Spectrum Red of Carson Palmer.
Retail and hobby cards are readily distinguishable on this set. Hobby is on foilboard.
It's a nice lot of base cards for the price, but a boring rip unless you're just looking for base cards (as with any other 100-card base set, you're getting lots of superstars).

2013 Topps Update Series BB and Mega Box

1 hanger box of 2013 Update, 72 cards, $9.99
1 rack pack of 2013 Update, 36 cards, $4.99
1 Mega Box (5 8-card packs of 2013 Update and 2 4-card packs of 2013 Topps Chrome Update), $14.99

The lower front card on a rack pack is readily visible through the wrapper. When I recognized a Puig RC staring at me on the front rack, I bought it.
The pack also had rookies of Zunino, Wheeler, Dominguez, and the Puig checklist.
Chasing History and 1971 minis are 1 per pack.
Emeralds and Golds are each 1 per 2 packs. I got a Shelby Miller Rookie Debut Emerald.
Making Their Mark are 1 per 2 packs, while Postseason Heroes and Franchise Forerunners are each 1 per 3 packs. I got a Postseason Heroes.
Everything else is at long odds.

In hangar boxes, Emeralds and Golds are each 1 per pack. My Gold (#/2013) was Felix Hernandez All-Star, and my Emerald was Juan Lagares.
Chasing History, Making Their Mark, and 1971 minis are each 1 per box.
Postseason Heroes and Franchise Forerunners are each 1 per 2 boxes. I got a Franchise Forerunners.
There are also 5 Target-exclusive red border cards per hanger box (WalMart has blue). Mine included a Wacha rookie.
My big hit was a 1 per 17-box Desert Camo parallel, Alfonso Soriano #/99.
Arenado was the only rookie of note.

The 8-card packs have parallels and common inserts, but no relics or autos.
You'll get some insert or parallel in every pack.
I got a Gold, an Emerald, a 1971 mini, a Postseason Heroes, a Franchise Forerunners, and 2 Chasing History, incluging Puig.
The big rookies were Myers Rookie Debut, Fernandez Rookie Debut, and Alex Wood.
The Chrome Update packs are apparently exclusive to Mega Boxes, and odds are given for parallels and relics.
I didn't get any, but I did get Zunino and Franklin rookies, a Jose Fernandez All-Star, and a Postseason Heroes insert.

With all the big rookie hits possible, there is plenty of reason to buy more Update. I'm sure I'll buy more. I'm very happy, because of the Desert Camo.

Nick

WhiteTornado

Thanks as always for the report. I'll have some football packs/boxes on my Christmas list for the wife & kids to buy.

Any retail boxes/packs of 2013 football you can recommend? I don't think my wife would bother hitting a card shop, so she'd likely just pick up something at Target or Toys R Us.

Edit to add: I'm mostly interested in inserts, autos, etc, not so much regarding base cards.

Stone193

Hiya Nick

Thanx for taking the time to write up your experiences.

These kinds of reports are so important to our forum/hobby.

WhiteTornado

I just picked up a blaster box of 2013 Topps Chrome football at Target for $19.99. They had some loose packs of other 2013 football, but I do love the Chrome product so that is what called my name . I fished through a discount bin of older packs, found one pack of 2011 Topps Rising Rookies football for $1.59, contains 10 cards in the pack. They also had some 2011 Topps regular football and 2011 Upper Deck regular football in the $1.59 bin, but neither interested me much. They had a 99-cent bin too, but it all looked like non-sports stuff such as movie cards, game cards, etc.

Opened the Rising Rookies and aside from lesser-name players, I got these rookies:

#130 Cam Newton
#125 Christian Ponder -- gold variation
#DS-MW Mario Williams -- Draft Selections

Gold are inserted 1 per pack. Not bad on results for about 16 cents per card. I plan on cracking the Chrome blaster box tonight, so I will post on the separate 2013 Topps Chrome football thread with results.

NickM

White - have her go to Target or WalMart. Toys R Us is normally 25-50% more for the same product.
I'd go with Topps football hanger boxes or Topps rack packs (maybe Score FB blasters too) if you want inserts. If you want autos, I'd go with Press Pass boxes (especially if they have some discounted older ones). Those are about the only ones with auto guarantees.

Nick

WhiteTornado

NickM, good info, thanks

NickM

Haven't ripped much retail in a while, because I bought a lot of hobby boxes on Black Friday specials.
I did get some blasters at deep discounts.

3 blasters of 2011-12 Score HK
11 packs, 7 cards per pack, $4.95 online
You get 1 glossy parallel per pack. These are really easy to distinguish, because they have a very different feel, they're the last card in the pack, and they have the word glossy above and below the card number. I found a lot of these to have damaged lower left corners because tje packs were stuffed too tightly in the boxes.
Inserts averaged almost 1 per pack (some packs had 2).
Across the 3 boxes, I got
15 Hot Rookies (actually SPs from the main set)
3 Making an Entrance
3 Supreme Team
3 Net Cam
2 Sudden Death
1 First Goal
1 Score B (Taylor Hall)
1 Playoff Heroes
1 Snow Globes die-cut
1 NHL Shield die-cut

If you collect hockey, it's a good rip. Score has good photography, and some of the inserts are quite attractive..

3 boxes of 2012 Bowman Chrome BB
7 packs plus 1 extra pack, 3 cards per pack, $9.95 online

The extra pack is 3 xfractors, which aren't in the regular packs.
You buy these hoping for one of the big rookies. Darvish and Harper were on the packaging.
Refractors are 1 per 4 packs, and there are 2 insert sets that are each 1 per 12 packs. Everything else is a tough pull.
Box 1:
2 refractors
1 All-Star Futures Game
3 xfractors
Dunston Jr. was my best rookie card

Box 2:
2 refractors (Chipper and Carlos Gonzalez)
1 All-Star Futures Game
1 Franchise All-Stars
3 xfractors (Pujols, Jordany Valdespin, and Junior Lake)
Alen Hanson and Juan Lagares were my best rookie cards

Box 3:
2 refractors
1 Franchise All-Stars (Cabrera/Castellanos)
3 xfractors (incl. Valdespin and Wei-Yin Chen)
No really big rookies

At the price I paid, it's worth the gamble.
The Chen was a big hit when the set came out.

Nick


[edited to add text]

NickM

1 box of 2012 Panini Prizm baseball
24 packs, 4 cards per pack, $29.95 online

I picked up a few on Black Friday specials, and opened one.
1 Brilliance
1 Team MVP (Cespedes)
1 Top Prospects (Machado)
1 Rookie Relevance
2 Dominance
1 Elite Extra Edition
2 Team USA (incl. McCutchen)
3 green Prizms (retail exclusive) (incl. Griffey)

Rookie selection is quite good, as it should be, since the set was released well into 2013. I got Moore, Iwakuma, Rosario, Simmons, Romo, Darvish, Miley, Matt Adams, Smyly, Harper, and Harvey, among others.
At the price I paid, it's great. Unless you can find it at a deep discount, stick to hobby if you want this set. As with many other Panini products, hobby gives much more bang for your buck.

Nick

NickM

I haven't bought retail in a while, but I did rip an older box I picked up last year on ebay.

1 box of 1993 Classic Four Sport
36 packs, 12 cards per pack

2 Limited Prints (back when 63,400 was considered limited) - Marvin Jones and Terry Kirby
1 Acetate - Anfernee Hardaway
1 Tri-Card - Bledsoe/Mirer/Hearst
No autos, but if you look at the box statement (over 30K autos), you figure they were on the order of 1 per case.

I believe I came pretty close to the 325-card set, if not completing it. The cards are miserable to sort, because the number is in a funny font vertically on the bottom left corner.

I think I paid less than $7 shipped for the box. It was a fun rip - most packs had at least one recognizable name, and I hit a couple of inserts which were big at the time (I remember the Hardaway going for at least $10).

Nick

NickM

I decided to open the 16 blasters of 2011 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects baseball that I picked up online during a Black Friday sale.
8 packs per box, 7 cards per pack (I paid $9.95 a box)

Each pack has 4 Bowman Draft cards, 1 Bowman Draft gold parallel, and 2 Bowman Chrome Draft cards. Regular refractors and purple refractors are each 1 per 4 packs. Other inserts are tougher.

Box 1 had 3 purple (including Taylor Guerrieri) and 2 regular refractors.
Box 2 had 2 purple (including Jage Hager) and 2 regular refractors, plus an Austin Meadows USA Baseball Chrome and golds of Kyle Seager, Blake Swihart, and Zack Cozart. It also had an All-Star Futures Game Blue jersey relic of James Darnell /199 (1 per 89 packs) and a Bowman Prospect gold auto of Tyler Thornburg /50 (1 per 365 packs).
Box 3 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors, plus a Jose Fernandez Chrome and a Paul Goldschmidt gold.
Box 4 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors, plus golds of Guerrieri, C.J. Cron, Lance Lynn, and Eric Sogard.
Box 5 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors, plus Swihart and Salvador Perez Chromes.
Box 6 had 1 purple and 2 regular refractors, plus Swihart, Mike Moustakas, and Craig Kimbrel Chromes and golds of Seager and Cozart.
Box 7 had 3 purple (including George Springer) and 3 regular (including Fernandez) refractors, plus a Henderson Alvarez Chrome and golds of Goldschmidt and Dylan Bundy.
Box 8 had 2 purple (including Cozart) and 2 regular refractors, plus a Meadows Chrome and a gold of Lynn.

Boxes 9-16 haven't been opened yet.

Collation was awful - there's no excuse for 6 duplicates among the 32 Bowman Draft cards in one blaster from a 220 card set.

Many of the golds were badly centered.

Still a fun rip so far.

Nick

NickM

Box 9 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors, plus Meadows and Hager Chrome and a gold of Springer.
Box 10 had 2 purple (including Sonny Gray) and 1 regular (Mike Moustakas) refractor, plus Chromes of Swihart and Alvarez and a gold of Javier Baez. It also had an All-Star Futures Game jersey relic of Devin Mesoraco (1 per 36 packs) and a Bowman Prospects auto of Rich Poythress (1 per 59 packs).
Box 11 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors plus Todd Frazier Chrome.
Box 12 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors plus Jose Altuve Chrome. It also had an All-Star Futures Game green jersey relic of Kyle Gibson #25/25 (1 per 705 packs).
Box 13 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors plus Chromes of Moustakas and Baez and a Gold of Fernandez. It also had a Bowman Chrome Prospects auto (1 per 265 packs) of Dylan Bundy.
Box 14 had 2 purple and 2 regular (including Seager) refractors plus Chromes of Fernandez and Jason Kipnis and a gold of Mike Trout (not worthy of grading).
Box 15 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors plus Chromes of Lynn and Bubba Starling and golds of Moustakas, Frazier, and Francisco Lindor.
Box 16 had 2 purple and 2 regular refractors plus a Chrome of Nick Ciuffo and golds of Goldschmidt and Swihart. It also had an All-Star Futures Game jersey relic of Jacob Turner.

Overall, 16 blasters got me 3 autos and 4 relics. Definitely no complete sets, but a lot of nice cards nonetheless. As things stand, it was a good rip. If Bundy becomes a star, it will be a great rip.

Nick

WhiteTornado

There was another thread recently that mentioned finding older stuff at Kmart. I looked up the closest one in my area and it would be kind of a haul from where I work so I decided to pass. Instead, I went to WalMart since I don't normally shop there and didn't know what they stock in terms of cards.

Unfortunately, their selection was very poor. The section was tiny, maybe a third of what the local Target offers. Like Target, WalMart's is in the front of the store. Unlike Target, instead of it being on its own aisle, it was actually part of the display that is on the express check-out lane. So, people kept thinking I was standing in line to check out, when all I was doing was looking at the cards.

I was only interested in football and they hardly had anything. They had 2013 Topps regular football at full price, I believe it was $5 for the rack pack and $13 or $14 for the rack box. They had a Panini Rookies & Stars blaster for full price, $20. At least I know where not to go for retail cards.

NickM

1 box of 2014 Topps MLS soccer
8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $19.99
auto guaranteed in every box

2 Mexican National Team cards (officially they're inserts, but I think they should be considered base cards with a different numbering system)
2 purple parallels /99 - I lucked out and got the player I'm trying to put together a color rainbow on as one of them (1 per 4 packs)
1 blue parallel /50 (1 per 47 packs)
No gold /25, black /10, or Brazilian /5 parallels, which are all much tougher.
1 World's Stage (1 per 6 packs)
2 '76-'77 Topps Footballers (1 per 6 packs)
1 Mini (Robbie Keane) (1 per 12 packs)
No Generation Adidas or Supporters Group (each is 1 per 24 packs)
And rather than the promised 1 auto I got 2 autos in a row in the same pack!
Jason Kreis Maestros auto (1 per 19 packs)
Claudio Reyna Maestros Purple auto /50 (1 per 50 packs)

Even with 1 auto, the box is a great rip if you like soccer.

I'm very happy.

Nick

NickM

I hit a Target yesterday for the first time in a long time. They had quite a bit of 2013 FB draft and older racing cards in their discount box. A couple of boxes tempted me, but I went with 1 discount and 1 new box.

1 hanger box 2014 Topps BB Series 2
72 cards, $9.99 - the cards come in a cellophane wrapped inner package, not packs
3 red parallels
2 orange parallels
1 Red Hot Foil parallel
1 gold /2014 (Brian Roberts)
1 The Future Is Now insert
1 Breakout Moments insert (Harper)
1 1989 mini (1 per 2 packs)
1 MLB The Show $4.99 in-game currency PS code card (1 per 12 packs)
I didn't get any of the other common (1 per 2 or 1 per 3 packs) inserts or any tough inserts.
I did get a Tanaka rookie, which is one of the 2 best base cards in the series

Opening base Topps is always somewhat fun. If I were a gamer, the MLB code card would be great. I'm not, so I'll likely be giving it as a present to a friend. Nothing to complain about from my box.

1 blaster 2013 Leaf Draft FB, $12.99
20 packs, 5 cards per pack, plus 2 autographed cards
The autos come separately in toploaders (and they also put a team bag around the toploaded autos).
I haven't opened the packs yet, because I know they're just base cards.
I'm thrilled with my 2 autos - Luke Joeckel and Blidi-Wreh Wilson. A 3rd round CB who played in 13 games last year and is expected to contend for a starting job this year, and an OT taken #2 in the draft make for a solid pairing in the box. You could easily end up with undrafted guys or late round picks who were already cut when you buy a draft product.

Nick

DanBessette

I love the 2014 Topps rips. I bought one of those $10 boxes recently and got some cool inserts, incl the 89 mini of Griffey.

NickM

Hadn't done any retail purchases in a while, but I hit up a Target yesterday and interrupted a pack searcher. He was bending packs when I first saw him. He left with a few packs and was not pleased with my presence.

I bought a couple discounted boxes that are a lot more difficult for searchers to deal with, and opened one already.

1 box of 2013 Panini Elite Extra Edition baseball
15 cards in a cello-wrapped package in the box, $12.99
The box advertises a #d parallel and an auto in every box.

Hunter Renfroe Scouting 101 insert
Brad Goldberg Aspirations die-cut /200
Daniel Cabrera Game Jersey
Keynan Middleton Franchise Future Signatures (redemption)

Panini has a reputation for putting late-round nonprospect autos in the EEE blasters. Middleton was the Angels 3rd round pick last year, but he's as bad of a nonprospect as you can find in the set. Spending the full season in rookie ball the year after you were drafted out of college and having an awful WHIP and ERA to boot suggests that the franchise in your future may be a Subway.

The box was still good. Getting a jersey beats the odds, and it's not a lot of money to risk in hopes of getting a monster auto.

Nick

NickM

I opened the other recent pickup.

1 box of 2013 Gypsy Queen baseball
8 packs, 6 cards per pack, $12.99

2 SPs (Newhouser and Ethier), 1 per 4 packs
1 mini SP (Berra), 1 per 24 packs
No base card variations or base card parallels
1 mini per pack
1 black mini /199 (1 per 25 packs, but among the different varieties of mini parallels, you will average 1 #d mini parallel per blaster)
2 No-Hitters (1 per 4 packs)
2 Dealing Aces (1 per 4 packs)
2 Glove Stories (1 per 6 packs)
1 Sliding Stars (1per 6 packs)
1 Collisions at the Plate (1 per 8 packs)
1 auto (Jeurys Familia) (1 per 97 packs).

I've never been a big GQ fan, but this was a very good blaster. An auto and a popular SP mini were nice hits. I might buy more, as the #d mini parallel can yield something very nice (I got Starling Marte, so not very big here).

Nick

DanBessette

Wow, looks like a great rip!

NickM

Bought a few discount blasters at a WalMart I seldom go to.



First, the bad:



1 box of 2014 SAGE HIT Low Series FB

18 packs (4 cards per pack), plus 3 autographed cards, $11.98



I didn't open the base card packs yet, but there's nothing too interesting in those.

My 3 autos were about as bad as you can get: Joe Don Duncan, Jerome Smith, and Asa Watson

None of the 3 were drafted. Smith made the Falcons long enough to appear in 1 game last year before being cut in this year's cutdown to 53. Duncan was cut in training camp both years. Watson was cut by 2 teams last year and has now found work outside of football as a pit crewman in NASCAR.



Nick

miwlvrn

Originally posted by: NickM

Bought a few discount blasters at a WalMart I seldom go to.



First, the bad:



1 box of 2014 SAGE HIT Low Series FB

18 packs (4 cards per pack), plus 3 autographed cards, $11.98



I didn't open the base card packs yet, but there's nothing too interesting in those.

My 3 autos were about as bad as you can get: Joe Don Duncan, Jerome Smith, and Asa Watson

None of the 3 were drafted. Smith made the Falcons long enough to appear in 1 game last year before being cut in this year's cutdown to 53. Duncan was cut in training camp both years. Watson was cut by 2 teams last year and has now found work outside of football as a pit crewman in NASCAR.



Nick

I guess all you can do is market them in your sale towards collectors of their respective collegiate programs rather than people who might be collecting those specific players.