08-29-2013, 09:01 AM
How inconvenient for my attempts to budget that the two definite must buy products for me (base Topps and Rookies and Stars) came out at the same time. Oh well, I'm happy.
As usual, no scanner, sorry - and I don't trade - this is just to give people an idea of what the boxes are like (and why maybe you should be buying those 10 packs for $11.99 things they have at Target).
First Topps Jumbo:
Let me start out by saying that the regular inserts are really weak looking - not a fan at all. Yes, they have a nice selection of players in them - but they aren't very good.
First hit was apparently one of those rookie things that you are supposed to gather up to get the autograph set - I can't imagine anyone actually trying it unless they have a whole lot of time and money on their hands because it is going to be really hard to complete. Anyway at least the cards are nice looking if you want to try and fail. This one was Denver Broncos receiver Tavares King.
Second hit was another Bronco also numbered to 99 - this one in the legendary category: Terrell Davis Magic Moments /99 - looks like these are 1:480 per jumbo pack and they are actually very awesome - the cards honor a big moment in NFL history with what looks like a film with multiple pictures that you can only see at certain angles - pretty cool for a manufactured "hit." This one honors Terrell Davis leading the Broncos to a Super Bowl win.
Third hit was the rookie patch and it was extremely weak being a plain white swatch. At least the player was good in college and assuming health can be good in the NFL - Marcus Lattimore. But come on Topps, a plain white "patch" is riduculously bad. I've never ever got a multicolored one of those from base Topps, btw.
Fourth hit was the first autograph and it was on card - Landry Jones, QB Pittsburgh Steelers retro design from the green bordered year from the 1980s numbered to 140. Great looking card and the second Landry Jones auto I have pulled this year (first being from Score being an Artist Proof Hot Rookies auto numbered to 10).
Fifth hit was the second autograph and it was a redemption so even if I had a scanner it would be in the "move along, nothing to see here category" - it was a veteran autograph, so at least its of a proven NFL quality player - namely Cecil Shorts WR Jacksonville. If Jacksonville had a QB they could actually have a pretty good passing attack between Shorts and Blackmon. This is actually the second Cecil Shorts autograph I pulled this year, the first came from you guessed it the same box of Score that the other Landry Jones auto did.
There was no black in the box this year - apparently the odds on those is 1:13 for the jumbos.
There was a pink breast cancer awareness card and a pretty good one - Richard Sherman.
There was a camo card of someone who I do not remember - think it was some rookie.
Doesn't seem to be any variations.
Overall pretty happpy with this.
Rookies and Stars:
Like this product much better than Topps actually - the card design might not be to everyone's taste, but at least the inserts look better. Pretty weak as far as having numbered inserts though, looks like there were only 4 of which three were the hits. The Crusade parallels look pretty awesome and for an Eagles fan, getting Matt Barkley and Zack Ertz was pretty good (the other was good as well, Colin Kapernick.
The lone numbered parallel - Jake Locker of 99.
It seems like the hits were pretty good though
In order pulled:
First hit: Champ Bailey auto patch (two color blue/orange) /25 - an actual "star" hit which you don't see very often. Okay, Champ Bailey is probably a fading star at this point, but this is nice.
Second Hit: Matt Barkley one color relic - unnumbered. I almost never hit cards from my favorite team the Eagles, so this was definitely most welcome.
Third Hit: autograph - Damontre Moore, DE New York Giants /99 - this is actually the third Damontre Moore auto I have pulled - got one numbered to 99 or 199 from Press Pass and from Press Pass Game Day Gallery got a red ink numbered to 50 which makes me wish that he had a better signature.
Fourth hit: autograph - Markus Wheaton, WR Pittsburgh Steelers /25. Nice, popular team, skill position, good reports are out about him in that offense, and low numbered - cannot complain at all.
Overall I highly recommend this year Rookies and Stars - seems to have much more low numbered hits than in the past.
Prestige:
I forgot that I never posted these results from a while back - interesting thing here, for the second year in a row both of my autographs were of the same guy. Last year I got two Dwayne Allen autographs. This year it was Quinton Patton WR San Francisco. One was on card and unnumbered, the sticker auto was numbered to 50 which is much better than the numbered Dwayne Allen from last year which was to 899.
Relics were nothing special - both rookies, both to 399 - one is likely to be a good player - Eddie Lacy from Green Bay, other is Denard Robinson and who knows exactly what he will do or what positions he will play. Was a great college player.
Also got a numbered parallel - Dion Jordan to 10.
Onto some random retail:
Last year's Press Pass has been showing up in discount recently - mainly base autos the quality of which is that it is between Jarius Wright and A.J. Jenkins (who San Francisco has already gotten rid of after drafting him in the first round last year) as to which is the best. Did get something really cool though - a green parallel numbered to 15 signed in Red Ink - player was Gerrell Robinson who was a practice squad guy this year and is trying to make the Broncos this year.
Press Pass Fanfare has yielded a Luke Kechley base, Devon Still to 199, and Orson Charles base.
Those random packs have yielded some interesting things recently:
in one a lone pack of 2012 Topps yielded a 1965 Mini Rookie Autograph of A.J. Jenkins - very cool card.
Two 2008 SP Authenic packs have recently yielded autos - one was John Lynch the other Bernard Barrian. Can't complain.
A retail pack of 2012 Bowman yielded a Devon Still chrome helmet auto thing.
A Pack of Upper Deck from some year had a Jason Campbel auto.
The same multipack box that brought the Bernard Berrian autograph also had a jumbo retail Rookies and Star which had a Tom Brady Longevity parallel to 249. There was another numbered card in thre - Deon Butler to 1000.
The same box that yielded the John Lynch auto also had a Matt Leinard numbered parallel to 100.
Also got a Matt Forte parallel to 499 from Press Pass Legends from his rookie year.
Another box looked like a total bust to be saved by a Mike Williams (Syracuse/Tampa) auto from a single retail pack of Press Pass.
Overall, I'm in the camp that believes those 10 pack boxes are worth picking up. Its rare that you don't get at least a numbered parallel - of course, you could get absolutely nothing other than base.
Curiousity over those 100 card things saying $10 Catalog Value (does anyone ever actually pay Catalog Value for any card?) yielded a SAGE Hit Dwayne Allen autograph - since I have a little collection of his cards (and Clemson players in general, my wife is from Greenville, South Carolina so all of her family are Clemson fans) and did not have that one, I was very happy with that for $5 - especially since I also got some Eagles base cards from the 1990s that I didn't have.
As usual, no scanner, sorry - and I don't trade - this is just to give people an idea of what the boxes are like (and why maybe you should be buying those 10 packs for $11.99 things they have at Target).
First Topps Jumbo:
Let me start out by saying that the regular inserts are really weak looking - not a fan at all. Yes, they have a nice selection of players in them - but they aren't very good.
First hit was apparently one of those rookie things that you are supposed to gather up to get the autograph set - I can't imagine anyone actually trying it unless they have a whole lot of time and money on their hands because it is going to be really hard to complete. Anyway at least the cards are nice looking if you want to try and fail. This one was Denver Broncos receiver Tavares King.
Second hit was another Bronco also numbered to 99 - this one in the legendary category: Terrell Davis Magic Moments /99 - looks like these are 1:480 per jumbo pack and they are actually very awesome - the cards honor a big moment in NFL history with what looks like a film with multiple pictures that you can only see at certain angles - pretty cool for a manufactured "hit." This one honors Terrell Davis leading the Broncos to a Super Bowl win.
Third hit was the rookie patch and it was extremely weak being a plain white swatch. At least the player was good in college and assuming health can be good in the NFL - Marcus Lattimore. But come on Topps, a plain white "patch" is riduculously bad. I've never ever got a multicolored one of those from base Topps, btw.
Fourth hit was the first autograph and it was on card - Landry Jones, QB Pittsburgh Steelers retro design from the green bordered year from the 1980s numbered to 140. Great looking card and the second Landry Jones auto I have pulled this year (first being from Score being an Artist Proof Hot Rookies auto numbered to 10).
Fifth hit was the second autograph and it was a redemption so even if I had a scanner it would be in the "move along, nothing to see here category" - it was a veteran autograph, so at least its of a proven NFL quality player - namely Cecil Shorts WR Jacksonville. If Jacksonville had a QB they could actually have a pretty good passing attack between Shorts and Blackmon. This is actually the second Cecil Shorts autograph I pulled this year, the first came from you guessed it the same box of Score that the other Landry Jones auto did.
There was no black in the box this year - apparently the odds on those is 1:13 for the jumbos.
There was a pink breast cancer awareness card and a pretty good one - Richard Sherman.
There was a camo card of someone who I do not remember - think it was some rookie.
Doesn't seem to be any variations.
Overall pretty happpy with this.
Rookies and Stars:
Like this product much better than Topps actually - the card design might not be to everyone's taste, but at least the inserts look better. Pretty weak as far as having numbered inserts though, looks like there were only 4 of which three were the hits. The Crusade parallels look pretty awesome and for an Eagles fan, getting Matt Barkley and Zack Ertz was pretty good (the other was good as well, Colin Kapernick.
The lone numbered parallel - Jake Locker of 99.
It seems like the hits were pretty good though
In order pulled:
First hit: Champ Bailey auto patch (two color blue/orange) /25 - an actual "star" hit which you don't see very often. Okay, Champ Bailey is probably a fading star at this point, but this is nice.
Second Hit: Matt Barkley one color relic - unnumbered. I almost never hit cards from my favorite team the Eagles, so this was definitely most welcome.
Third Hit: autograph - Damontre Moore, DE New York Giants /99 - this is actually the third Damontre Moore auto I have pulled - got one numbered to 99 or 199 from Press Pass and from Press Pass Game Day Gallery got a red ink numbered to 50 which makes me wish that he had a better signature.
Fourth hit: autograph - Markus Wheaton, WR Pittsburgh Steelers /25. Nice, popular team, skill position, good reports are out about him in that offense, and low numbered - cannot complain at all.
Overall I highly recommend this year Rookies and Stars - seems to have much more low numbered hits than in the past.
Prestige:
I forgot that I never posted these results from a while back - interesting thing here, for the second year in a row both of my autographs were of the same guy. Last year I got two Dwayne Allen autographs. This year it was Quinton Patton WR San Francisco. One was on card and unnumbered, the sticker auto was numbered to 50 which is much better than the numbered Dwayne Allen from last year which was to 899.
Relics were nothing special - both rookies, both to 399 - one is likely to be a good player - Eddie Lacy from Green Bay, other is Denard Robinson and who knows exactly what he will do or what positions he will play. Was a great college player.
Also got a numbered parallel - Dion Jordan to 10.
Onto some random retail:
Last year's Press Pass has been showing up in discount recently - mainly base autos the quality of which is that it is between Jarius Wright and A.J. Jenkins (who San Francisco has already gotten rid of after drafting him in the first round last year) as to which is the best. Did get something really cool though - a green parallel numbered to 15 signed in Red Ink - player was Gerrell Robinson who was a practice squad guy this year and is trying to make the Broncos this year.
Press Pass Fanfare has yielded a Luke Kechley base, Devon Still to 199, and Orson Charles base.
Those random packs have yielded some interesting things recently:
in one a lone pack of 2012 Topps yielded a 1965 Mini Rookie Autograph of A.J. Jenkins - very cool card.
Two 2008 SP Authenic packs have recently yielded autos - one was John Lynch the other Bernard Barrian. Can't complain.
A retail pack of 2012 Bowman yielded a Devon Still chrome helmet auto thing.
A Pack of Upper Deck from some year had a Jason Campbel auto.
The same multipack box that brought the Bernard Berrian autograph also had a jumbo retail Rookies and Star which had a Tom Brady Longevity parallel to 249. There was another numbered card in thre - Deon Butler to 1000.
The same box that yielded the John Lynch auto also had a Matt Leinard numbered parallel to 100.
Also got a Matt Forte parallel to 499 from Press Pass Legends from his rookie year.
Another box looked like a total bust to be saved by a Mike Williams (Syracuse/Tampa) auto from a single retail pack of Press Pass.
Overall, I'm in the camp that believes those 10 pack boxes are worth picking up. Its rare that you don't get at least a numbered parallel - of course, you could get absolutely nothing other than base.
Curiousity over those 100 card things saying $10 Catalog Value (does anyone ever actually pay Catalog Value for any card?) yielded a SAGE Hit Dwayne Allen autograph - since I have a little collection of his cards (and Clemson players in general, my wife is from Greenville, South Carolina so all of her family are Clemson fans) and did not have that one, I was very happy with that for $5 - especially since I also got some Eagles base cards from the 1990s that I didn't have.