2015 Leaf Best of Football brings back multi-image lenticular cards
By Ryan Cracknell | Hobby Editor
2015 Leaf Best of Football is still, at its heart, a product that focuses on high-end repurchased cards. However, boxes come with something else that will send some collectors back to the 1980s — multi-image lenticular cards.
Each box has two cards: one buyback and one lenticular rookie.
Get a sortable 2015 Leaf Best of Football checklist and price guide access.
Buybacks are a mix of graded rookies, autographs, memorabilia cards and more. Collectors can also find signed rookie cards that come certified. And while there is a lot of variety, these repurchased cards are intended to be premium cards.
The exclusive lenticular cards are all 2015 rookies. At first glance, there’s one image. When you tilt the card, the second picture appears. This style of card is synonymous with the SportFlics brand.
2015 Leaf Best of Football Lenticular Rookies come with four different versions. Red are considered base and have a stated print run of 146 copies each. Parallels are Green (36 copies each), Blue (16 copies) and Gold (six copies). A total of 20 different players have Lenticular Rookies.
2015 Leaf Best of Football at a glance:
Packs per box: 1
Cards per pack: 2
Boxes per case: 4
Release date: December 30, 2015
What to expect in a hobby box:
- Repurchased Cards – 1
- Lenticular Rookies – 1
2015 Leaf Best of Football Lenticular Rookies Checklist
Each card comes with the following levels (print runs stated by Leaf):
- Red – 146
- Green – 36
- Blue – 16
- Gold 6
1 Amari Cooper
2 Ameer Abdullah
3 Bryce Petty
4 David Johnson
5 DeVante Parker
6 Dorial Green-Beckham
7 Duke Johnson
8 Jameis Winston
9 Kevin White
10 Marcus Mariota
11 Matt Jones
12 Melvin Gordon
13 Nelson Agholor
14 Phillip Dorsett
15 Stefon Diggs
16 T.J. Yeldon
17 Tevin Coleman
18 Todd Gurley
19 Ty Montgomery
20 Tyler Lockett
One question: if the company didn’t originally produce the cards, are they really buybacks? Isn’t that the same as me purchasing cards on the secondary market, repackaging them, and selling them as a “buyback?” Topps and Upper deck had true buybacks because they purchased their own products from the secondary market. Is the new “Leaf” company only buying their products? Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but they are just reselling high end repurchased cards: I can do the same on any auction site. So why would I pay them a premium when I can probably get the same cards cheaper from an auction site, another collector, or a card shop?
I thought the same thing about “buybacks.” Technically, what are they buying back? They never owned the card in the first place. Maybe they consider any collector owned card that they purchase a “buyback”, not just cards they produced. I agree that collector’s could probably find the same buybacks cheaper, but Leaf is also making a limited product that accompanies the buyback. I’m a team collector, and since the players are not in my team colors/uniform (because Leaf doesn’t hold an NFL license,) I personally won’t purchase the packs.
I can’t complain, though. Leaf bought a 2015 Topps Chrome Marcus Mariota auto card from me on an auction site, and the price was great. I used that money to buy a bunch of cards of my team to add to my collection.