(05-08-2018, 06:09 PM)mswatson Wrote: Depends on what you're willing to spend. It's possible to get valuable cards in most any product, but there are high end products - like The Cup, Ultimate, Premier, and a new one this year, Splendor - where you get relatively few cards and pay big bucks for them. There's what I consider a middle tier that are highly prized by "serious collectors" that also deliver big hits at a bit lower price point (maybe) - like SP Authentic, SPx, SP Game Used, Black Diamond. Then there are the lower-end products, where you get more cards at a lower price point - a lot of variety here, some aimed at set builders, some at beginners, some at casual collectors. Products like O-pee-chee and Parkhurst are at the low end, Series 1 and 2 in the middle, and Artifacts and Ice toward the higher end. All of these lower-end products are capable of delivering big cards, I actually pulled a Wayne Gretzky autograph card out of an O-pee-chee box once, but that'll be a harder pull.

So, what to buy? I tend to stick with the lower-end products personally, since I enjoy building sets. Series 1 and 2 have what's called Young Guns cards - rookie cards - that are widely collected, and can be worth hundreds of dollars. And with these, you'll spend some time opening packs and sorting cards.

Artifacts or Ice would be a bit of a step up, you'll get fewer packs and cards, but you'll generally get one fairly good hit per box (tho no guarantee). Artifacts has a wide variety of hits and can yield interesting surprises. In Ice, you'd be looking for the /99 rookies - cards where only 99 were printed - these can be worth hundreds to over a grand.

Mid-tier, all depends on personal preference. Like rookie autographs? SP Authentic. Like real diamonds? Black diamond. But with the exception of SP Authentic, don't expect to be opening lots of packs here unless you have a really deep wallet.

Top tier, again personal preference but at this point, The Cup is the reigning champ - you'll pay $100 per card, and hopefully get cards valued in the thousands.

This "classification scheme" is my own way of thinking, other opinions and additional information is welcome.....

Hope this helps a bit. Mostly it all comes down to what you like. If you're not familiar with the various products, you might want to tune in to some of the online group breakers and watch them open some boxes - they typically open a variety of products and you can see what each product line offers. I personally usually watch breaks on Cloutsnchara.com, but there are lots of them out there - you can watch them break live (and buy into breaks if that's your thing) or watch their videos on youtube.

Good luck, happy hunting, and welcome to the hobby/site!

(05-09-2018, 06:58 AM)mswatson Wrote: There's good stuff in all years, but some years *are* better than others. 05-06 had Crosby and Ovechkin rookie cards, 15-16 had McDavid, and 16-17 had Auston Matthews. This year's boxes have some strong rookies also, Hischier and Boeser and others. You'd pay more for boxes from those earlier years, if you can find them. Depends on the rookies/teams you want which years were better than others.

(05-09-2018, 10:37 AM)Davinci Wrote: ys but isnt the market flooded with these cards now? And when do the 2018-2019 cards star releasing? And when do we know which is the cards that everyone wants for that year?

(05-10-2018, 03:23 PM)mswatson Wrote: Couple of big Young Guns cards, Boeser, Hischier and McAvoy in S1 and Patrick & Keller in S2. Canvas of Patrick, Keller or McAvoy in S1, Hischier, Boeser, Beliveau, Gretzky or Patrick Program of Excellence in S2 - any canvas numbered higher than C240 is a tough pull, though obviously some are worth more than others. Some of the inserts - Clear Cuts, Fluorescences, Day with the Cup, etc, can be scarce and worth big bucks, and the Exclusives and High Gloss are potential high $ cards depending on the player.

Understand, though, that at $70 per box (or whatever you're paying), you're not going to pull multi-hundred-dollar cards out of every box. Figure at 6 YGs per box, and 100 total in S1 and S2 combined, you'd need to open 17 boxes for a full set, assuming you got no dups (OK, doing this assures two dups since 17x6 = 102). Some people open two boxes and get two Boeser YGs, others have opened 20 or 30 boxes and no hits. It's all random, and S1 / S2 are lower-tier products.

Might be a good idea to subscribe to an online price guide here on Beckett to get a sense of what's in each product and relative values, if you haven't already.

So, in your two boxes, what did you pull???