[grimreefer204]

This is kind of a silly question but i've been reading these breaks lately and im just not sure of a few things.

1. Whats the difference between a blaster and a blister?

2. Whats the difference between a hobby box and a retail box. Do you just have better odds of picking good cards?

thanks for the help.

[irbefan4life]

Blasters are essentially the boxes you would find at places like Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, etc. They are the stubby small boxes which say something along the lines of 12+1 bonus packs, etc. Blisters are smaller and are typically single packs that would be hanging on a rack like a package of reinforcements would be. They are behind a piece of plastic, backed by a piece of cardboard. Both are typically retail packs.

Hobby boxes are the stuff that you would find in the hobby shops. They typically have the chance for greater hits, more parallels, but are more expensive than retail. Many products are only available as hobby boxes. Retail boxes are the things that you would find outside of hobby shops. These typically have more packs than the hobby but are lacking in the hits department. For example, 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1. The hobby version contains 24 packs, guaranteeing 6 Young Guns, 2 memorabilia cards, and a chance at hits like autographs and serial #d parallels. The retail version contains 24 packs as well, but it only guarantees one memorabilia card, the 6 Young Guns, but no chance at serial #d parallels. Price difference is ~$15-$20 between the two for that reason.

This is just a generalization as things vary greatly from product to product.

[swjrp10]

Blasters are essentially the boxes you would find at places like Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, etc. They are the stubby small boxes which say something along the lines of 12+1 bonus packs, etc. Blisters are smaller and are typically single packs that would be hanging on a rack like a package of reinforcements would be. They are behind a piece of plastic, backed by a piece of cardboard. Both are typically retail packs.

Hobby boxes are the stuff that you would find in the hobby shops. They typically have the chance for greater hits, more parallels, but are more expensive than retail. Many products are only available as hobby boxes. Retail boxes are the things that you would find outside of hobby shops. These typically have more packs than the hobby but are lacking in the hits department. For example, 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1. The hobby version contains 24 packs, guaranteeing 6 Young Guns, 2 memorabilia cards, and a chance at hits like autographs and serial #d parallels. The retail version contains 24 packs as well, but it only guarantees one memorabilia card, the 6 Young Guns, but no chance at serial #d parallels. Price difference is ~$15-$20 between the two for that reason.

This is just a generalization as things vary greatly from product to product.

along these lines, OCCASIONALLY (and I mean RARELY lol) some retail stores get in sealed hobby boxes for sale. Normally they're old ones that got returned/didnt sell/etc. I know my Meijer has a couple boxes of 08-09 UD Hobby right now for about 60 bucks.

[grimreefer204]

ok thanks guys. Thats pretty much what i thought.

[arock99]

there's also the fat packs...
which for Upper Deck typically included an insert in every pack not found anywhere else (Although for some reason Upper Deck series 1 this year had no special insert that i noticed in the one fat pack i purchased)
The fat packs are typically used to fill any holes you might have in the base set because you usually end up with 52 or so cards.

and then there is the boxes that include past products repackaged...not sure what you would call those and i would stay away from those unless its a clearence price...then they can be fun but very unlikely you will get a high end card there

[bonnev659]

agree with what is said above

hope that helps