Thursday, December 8, 2016

2015 Topps High Tek Football Box Break #2

The only card worth noting from this break was the hit itself:

Breshad Perriman base autograph

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

2015 Topps High Tek Football Hobby Box Break #1

Picked up a box of 2015 Topps High Tek Football from Blowout Cards' Black Friday sale.

Gold Rainbow Autograph: Devon Smith 

 Jameis Winston Circuit Board Variation & Base Rainbow


And the most interesting card from the break is a David Cobb error rookie card (wave design).  David Cobb is a runningback, but on the back of the card the statistics line shows quarterback stats of "COMP ATT YDS TD INT RAT".  Notice that is six different statistical categories, but there are only five numbers listed under those statistical categories.  Those five numbers represent career attempts, career yardage, career average, touchdowns, and career long rush.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

2015 Topps Chrome Mini Retail Break

Walmart has been selling rack packs containing three hobby packs of 2015 Topps Chrome Mini for about $12.  It's actually a decent buy at a that price on a per-pack basis.

Here are the results.



I got lucky and hit an autograph of Mike Davis.  Also got a pulsar refractor of Sean Mannion.  It's too bad that Topps no longer has an NFL license.  These cards look nice.

Topps Replacement

For the longest time I had been waiting on an outstanding Vance McDonald redemption from 2013 Bowman Chrome.  The redemption was for the short print variation which showed the player in his pro NFL uniform.

Without any notice, I received replacements in the mail from Topps.  I guess they had finally decided to give up on attempting to get the cards signed from Vance McDonald.

Here are my replacements.



I'm actually thinking that this is a slight upgrade.  Vance McDonald hasn't been a huge impact for the 49ers.  Instead of his autograph, I now have the autograph of A.J. McCarron who is the backup QB for the Cincinnati Bengals and who played well pretty well in 2015.

The Nick Foles jersey is just a bonus from Topps.  I appreciate the bonus, but it's a pretty worthless bonus.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

2015 Upper Deck Inscriptions Redemption Replacement

I've had an Antwan Goodley redemption from 2015 Upper Deck Inscriptions pending for the longest time.  I checked the status of the card on Upper Deck's redemption website and it said that the card was never made, and thus I should contact them regarding a replacement.  So I did.

First I called on the phone and was told to send an email to QA@UpperDeck.com with the redemption code and a list of five teams and/or players whom I collect.  I ended up sending Upper Deck a list of nine football players who I collect.  The players ranged from future hall of famers, to retired veterans, starters in the NFL, and a few 2nd string players.  I wasn't expecting to get any of cards of the players I wanted since none of them were in the 2015 Upper Deck Inscriptions set.

About 2 weeks later I got my redemption replacements in the mail.


In all, I don't think I can complain.  I got a red #/75 Jay Ajayi autograph and a red #/75 Ameer Abdullah autograph.  Both are backup runningbacks but they played in their first years, so there is some hope that they might actually become starters and decent players some day.

Overall, my Upper Deck redemption replacement request went very smoothly and quickly.  I'm happy with the results even though I didn't get any of the players I requested in my email.


Sunday, July 31, 2016

2014 SP Authentic Football Box Break #13

LSU hot box!  Got my first Odell Beckham Jr. autograph!


Authentic Moments Autograph: Zach Mettenberger (1:

 Rookie Patch Autograph: Odell Beckham Jr. /350

Autograph: Damien Williams

2000 SP Authentic Future Watch: Dri Archer /999, Jerry Rice /999, Bishop Sankey /999.

Although I'm happy to have pulled my first Odell Beckham Jr. autograph, it appears as if this card is not yet live as I could not find any completed auctions on eBay.  Now that Panini has the exclusive rights to make NFL football cards, this redemption may never get fulfilled and I may have to get a replacement autograph.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

2016 Panini Score Jared Goff Autograph Cards

Where are all the Jared Goff Score Football base autograph rookie cards?
Something strange is going on with 2016 Panini Score Football.  There seems to be a lack of Jared Goff base autograph rookie cards.  In fact, I've checked eBay, COMC, YouTube, and the Blowout Cards forums, and I've only found one base autograph rookie card -- it was on eBay and is pictured below.

What's strange is that a ton of Jared Goff's autograph parallel cards have popped up and sold on eBay.  I've been keeping track of how many of each parallel that I've seen pop up on eBay, COMC, YouTube, and the Blowout Cards Forums.  By my count, and at the time of this post, I've counted 28 autograph parallels.  And yet... only one base autograph has popped up!  One!  Quite strange to say the least.

For comparison, I checked to see if there was a shortage of Carson Wentz base autographs too.  Nope.  On eBay alone, there appears to be at least twelve base autograph rookie cards which have popped up for sale.

So what gives?  Is the Jared Goff's base rookie autograph super short print?  Maybe.  If you ask me, there are two possibilities.

Possibility #1: Super Short Print
Only one card has popped up on the internet that I have seen.  Granted, there might be other cards out there which have been pulled but just never made it on the internet.  Maybe they were pulled at a LCS and immediately went into somebody's PC.  Maybe they were pulled and were purchased or exchanged on the private market and out of the public eye of the internet.

Even if we account for this possibility, you would think that we would have seen more than just one base autograph rookie card by now.

To put things into perspective, Jared Goff has a total of 182 Score autograph parallel rookie cards:

35 - Showcase
25 - Gold Zone Jumbo
25 - Gold Zone (regular)
25 - Artist's Proof
20 - Red Zone
15 - Artist's Proof Jumbo
10 - Red Zone Jumbo
10 - First Down
6 - End Zone
5 - First Down Jumbo
4 - Printing Plates (black, cyan, magenta, yellow)
1 - Gem Master
1 - End Zone Jumbo

182 Total Autograph parallels.

As of the date of this post, a total of 28 autograph parallels cards have surfaced on the internet.  Those 28 cards represent approximately 15.4% of the total autograph parallel cards available in the entire print run.

Assuming that the autograph parallel cards are fairly evenly (yet still randomly) distributed throughout the entire pack-out process we can assume that since we've seen 15.4% of the autograph parallel cards surface, that approximately 15.4% of the product has been opened so far.

Assuming that 15.4% of the product has been opened so far, and only one base autograph rookie card has been seen, that would mean that there are only about 6 or 7 base autograph rookie cards!

1 = 0.154x
x = 6.5

Imagine that!  That is crazy!  This isn't a wholly ridiculous theory either because these results match the other numbers we've seen so far for the ultra short print parallels like the End Zone parallels and the First Down Jumbo parallels.

To date, I've only seen 1 End Zone autograph parallel card pop up on the internet out of the total print run of 6!

To date, I've also only seen 1 First Down Jumbo autograph parallel card pop up on the internet out of the total print run of 5!

So if Jared Goff's Score base autograph rookie card only has a print run of a mere 6 or 7 cards, and about 15.4% of the product has been opened so far, then that would explain why we've only seen one card pop up on the internet for sale!

Heck, even if we assume that 25% of the product has been opened so far (since not everything which is opened ends up on the internet) and there are 3 other Jared Goff base autograph rookie cards which were pulled but never put on the internet, then that means that the print run is still a very low 16 cards!

4 = .25x
x = 16

The one thing about this possibility which doesn't make sense to me is why Panini would super short print the base autograph rookie card to an amount less than the parallel autograph rookie cards?

Getting a Scorecard parallel autograph rookie card numbered to only 35 is supposed to be more "rare" and "valuable" than the base autograph rookie card.  But if there are only 6, 7, or 16 Jared Goff base rookie autograph cards, then those higher numbered parallel rookie cards aren't as valuable!  Odd to say the least.

You'd think that if the highest Jared Goff autograph parallel rookie card is numbered to 35, that the base autographs (although not numbered) should probably be limited to 100 cards.  That would make perfect sense.  But if there were 100 Jared Goff base autograph rookie cards, and we're assuming 25% of the product has been opened, then we likely would have seen around 25 of the cards pulled so far!  But we haven't and it's not even close.

So the numbers don't lie.  I know we've made some assumptions about how much of the product has been opened so far and how many other base rookie cards there may be out there which never made it onto the internet, but by all accounts the evidence so far suggests that Jared Goff's Score base autograph rookie card is super short printed to a print run as low as 6.

Possibility #2: Insertion Error
The other possibility is that there was a major insertion error in the pack-out process and perhaps the Jared Goff base autograph rookie cards were not evenly (yet still randomly) distributed throughout the entire pack out process.

In other words, perhaps there are 100 base autograph rookie cards in the print run, but 94 of them got packed out in the last 20% of the cases, and only 6 got packed out int the initial 80% of the cases.  This could explain why there has been a lack of rookie cards so far.

As more and more cases are opened, we could, quite suddenly see a bunch more of the autographs pop up on the internet.

This insertion error theory isn't as far fetched as it may sound.  Panini had a huge collation problem in 2014 National Treasures Football, which resulted in major rookie cards for Odell Beckham Jr. and Teddy Bridgewater RPA not being evenly collated into cases during the packout process.  This resulted in an estimated 2000 boxes of 2014 National Treasures Football being opened without a single Odell Beckham Jr. or Teddy Bridgewater RPA being pulled.  You can read about my analysis on that debacle here.

Could this present situation with the Jared Goff Score Football base autographs be similar to the 2014 National Treasures collation debacle?  Possibly.

If this is truly what is happening, then as more and more of the Score cases are opened, then we should start to see more and more of the base autograph cards pop up.  This will likely be a very slow process though since Score isn't a super popular product line within the Panini brand.  Plus, as Panini starts to release its other product lines throughout the year, the collectors will focus on those lines and open those cases instead of Score.

Conclusion
Only time will tell which possibility we are looking at right now.  I will continue to keep an eye out for any other Jared Goff Score base autograph rookie cards.  If they just never pop up at all despite more and more cases being opened, then we could be looking at Possibility #1 -- they're super duper short print.  If all of a sudden as more and more cases get broken that we see a bunch of them pop up all at the same time, then we could be looking at Possibility #2 -- they were unevenly collated during the packout process and only began to appear once those cases with the cards were finally opened.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

2015 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks Boxes 3, 4 & 5

I bought three boxes of 2015 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks during Blowout's 2016 NFL Draft promotion.  Here are the results!  Just the autographs...

Box #3: Ifo Ekpre-Olomu /99, Ty Montgomery.

Box #4: Dominique Brown, Vic Beasley All-American, Brandon Scherff.

Box #5: Shane Carden Tie-Dye /49, Brett Hundley.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

2015 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks Boxes 1 & 2

I ordered two boxes of 2015 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks from Blowout last week.  They were only $25 per box which seemed like a good price for two guaranteed autos per box.  Little did I know that just a few days later these same boxes would go on sale for only $15 per box as a part of Blowout's 2016 NFL Draft promotion.  So in the end I ended up overpaying by $10 per hobby box.  


I did get these two really nice camo parallels of Carson Palmer and Aaron Rodgers.  I like the college uniforms.  Two old timers battling it out in the ol' Pac-10.

 

Rookie autographs were a little underwhelming.  I got Blake Bell (TE, 4th Round, 117th Pick, 49ers), Hau'Oli Kikaha (OLB, 2nd Round, 44th Pick, Saints), Stefon Diggs (WR, 5th Round, 146th Pick, Vikings), and Nick Marshall (QB, Auburn, undrafted).


Notable rookie parallels were Malcom Agnew (RB, Southern Illinois, undrafted) and Kenny Bell (WR, 5th Round, 162nd pick, Buccaneers)

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

2016 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks Football Rack Pack Break #1

I rarely ever buy retail but since the 2016 NFL Draft is only a couple days away I figured I buy one rack pack of the new 2016 Panini Prizm Collegiate Draft Picks.




Nothing crazy interesting or good.  I really like the look of the cards.  You get two rookies per pack.  I think I was lucky to get a red Ezekiel Elliot.  That's probably the best card of the bunch.

Monday, April 4, 2016

2014 Upper Deck SP Authentic Football Box Break #12

Another good box for Future Watch inserts.  Autographs were just okay... Still waiting for a Teddy Bridgewater or Odell Beckham Jr. autograph.

Rookie Patch Autograph: Carlos Hyde /550

Canvas Collection Rookies: Cody Latimer, Jimmy Baroppolo, Bruce Ellington. 

2000 SP Authentic Future Watch: Odell Beckham Jr. /999, 
Zach Mettenberger /99, Sammy Watkins /999.

Autograph: Charlie Ward 

Autograph: Brett Smith 

Short Print Base Rookies: Bishop Sankey, Jarvis Landry, Logan Thomas.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

2014 Upper Deck SP Authentic Football Box Break #11

This was a good box for Future Watch Inserts, but the autographs were all blah.

2000 SP Authentic Future Watch: Marqise Lee /999, Odell Beckham Jr. /999, Sammy Watkins /999.  

 Short Print Base Rookies: Paul Richardson, Teddy Bridgewater, Brandin Cooks.

Autograph: Cody Latimer (SP: 1:619 packs)

 Autograph: George Atkinson III

Rookie Patch Autograph: Bishop Sankey /550

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

2015 Topps Football 60th Anniversary Retired Autograph Pack

I purchased one of the Topps online exclusive 2015 60th Anniversary Retired Autograph packs. These packs sell for $75 on Topps' website.  You get one autograph card per pack.  

While there are a lot of Hall of Fame autographs in the pack, not all packs contain Hall of Famers.  I've seen some people mistakenly call these packs "HOF" packs, and that is inaccurate.  If you look on Topps' website, they describe these packs as:
A continuation of 2015 Topps Football, this product contains (1) 60th Anniversary Retired Autograph Rookie Card! The checklist will feature an NFL Hall of Fame rich mix of subject that will be pictured in their respective original Topps Football Rookie Card designs!
Nowhere in the above description does it say that a Hall of Fame autograph is guaranteed -- it's merely a "NFL Hall of Fame rich mix of subjects."  So don't buy these packs always expecting to get a Hall of Famer.  

I got really lucky and did get a Hall of Fame autograph, though!


This is my first Emmitt Smith autograph so I'm pretty excited about my luck.  The card looks really nice in person.  It is printed on Topps' thinnest and flimsiest card stock, however.  For such an expensive card, it would have been nice if it was on a slightly thicker and more sturdy card stock.  You don't notice this though unless you are handling the card without a sleeve or toploader to protect it.


The back of the cards are underwhelming though.  I would have liked to see a genuine card back with some biography information and statistics for the player featured on the front.  Most people will be looking at the front of the card so I know most people won't care about the back.  I'm one of the few who does.

Overall, I would say that these are decent buys for $75.  I would buy a few more packs if I had the cash to spend.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, the card comes inside of a toploader within the pack itself.  There is no box or base cards.  Just one autograph card.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

2015 Topps Heritage Football Box Break #4

Alvin Dupree Autograph

Marshawn Lynch Refractor

Base rookie cards not pictured: Kevin White, Rashad Greene, Landon Collins, and Leonard Williams.

Friday, March 4, 2016

2015 Topps Heritage Football Box Break #3

Jamison Crowder Autograph

Rob Gronkowski Refractor

Base rookie cards not pictured: Dres Anderson, Brett Hundley, T.J. Yeldon, Shaq Thompson, and David Cobb.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

2015 Topps Heritage Football Break #2

Jerry Rice Refractor

Deontay Greenberry Autograph

And the base rookie cards not pictured: Levi Norwood, Marcus Murphy, Cameron Artis-Payne, Clive Walford, Javorius Allen, and Jameis Winston.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

2015 Topps Heritage Football Box Break #1

Sammie Coates Autograph

Sammie Coates Refractor

And the base rookie cards which aren't pictured: Titus Davis, Tyler Kroft, Terrence Magee, Tyler Lockett, Duke Johnson, Leonard Williams, and Bryce Petty.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

2014 Upper Deck SP Authentic Football Box Break #10

Great box!  Got a good Future Watch insert, two great runningback inserts, and my first Derek Carr autograph!

2000 SP Authentic Future Watch: Marquise Lee /999, Peyton Manning /99, Hines Ward /999.  

Short Print Base Rookies:  Cody Latimer, Jeremy Hill, Sammy Watkins.

Canvas Collection: Ka'Deem Carey, Jace Amaro, Allen Robinson, Josh Huff (SP 1:45 packs). 

Autograph: Carlos Hyde

Autograph: Devante Freeman 

Rookie Patch Autograph: Derek Carr /350