What’s Inside A SportsCards.com Mystery Box?

SportsCards.com sells a variety of monthly subscription boxes, has an eBay Store, and their database allows you to see completed eBay auction listings long after they’re not visible directly on eBay anymore.  I received this box as a gift.

What was in this Mystery Box?

• (1) pack of 2019 Leaf Draft Football
• Fred Lynn 1976 Topps #50
• Ty Cobb – A Word From – Sample Card
• Marquese Chriss 2016-17 Donruss Newly Crowned Relic
• Buck Leonard 1978 Grand Slam #36 BGS Authentic Auto

2019 Leaf Flash Football Hobby Box Break

My local card shop, Sports Zone Toys & Comics, recently announced they got a new batch of bobbleheads in from Kollectico.  One of them is of the Flyers’ mascot Gritty.  I’ve been wanting to add a bobblehead of him to my collection for awhile.

While browsing their inventory, I came upon a box of 2019 Leaf Flash Football.  I decided to pull the trigger on it.  There are (5) on-card autographs per box.  All 2019 rookies.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Damien Harris Flash Photography
• Will Grier
• Parris Campbell
• Greedy Williams
• Aeris Williams Pink #’ed/15

2018 Leaf In The Game Used Sports Christmas Box Break

I absolutely love this product.  2018 Leaf In The Game Used Sports debuted during the National Sports Collectors Convention last summer.  Collectors quickly realized how loaded these boxes are, and the supply dried up significantly.  Individual box prices went from a starting point of $160 to $270 as of right now.  Sometimes a sealed box will popup on eBay with an asking price of over $300.  Very few dealers have any of this product left.  In fact, the only dealer that I can find who has any boxes left is Steel City Collectibles.  Back in August, I busted two of these boxes at the National, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.

Santa Claus found me a box.  As expected, it totally delivered.  I have yet to find a bad box of this stuff.  Highly recommended, and worth the price.

Here is what I pulled:

Relics

• Rod Carew/Tony Gwynn Reflections Relic #’ed/20
• Michael Jordan Enshrined Silver Relic #’ed/2
• John Smoltz Jumbo Patch Magenta #’ed/4
• Andruw Jones Fantastic Fabrics Patches Gold #’ed 1/1
• John Elway/Peyton Manning/Steve McNair/Dan Marino/Kurt Warner/Tom Brady/Steve Young/Joe Montana MVP 8’s Patches #’ed/20

2018 Leaf Valiant Football Box Break

I bought myself an early Christmas present.  Its been awhile since I’ve opened a football product, so I decided to try a box of 2018 Leaf Valiant Football.  I’ve had a lot of luck this year between Topps and Leaf products.  This box came from Atlanta Sports Cards.  In addition to this box, I qualified for (3) 2018 Leaf Holiday Bonus Packs.  More to come on those later.

No major pulls here, but some nice looking stuff.  Every box comes with (4) autographs.  One is graded by BGS a 9.5 or higher.  Too bad Saquon Barkley signed an exclusive deal with Panini.  I would’ve really liked to see him have cards in here.  Even though Leaf’s football products are unlicensed, you can’t really tell that when you have a player from Penn State.  The Penn State uniforms have little to no logos on them to begin with.

Lots of other good guys can be pulled like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Nick Chubb.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Ronald Jones II #’ed/60
• Minkah Fitzpatrick Navy #’ed/25
• Cam Serigne Big Targets Orange #’ed/35
• Braxton Berrios Take It To The House Orange #’ed/35 BGS Gem Mint 9.5

2018 Topps Museum Collection Baseball Box Break

The two corporate booths that I spent the most time at during the 2018 National were Leaf and Topps.  Panini and Upper Deck weren’t doing anything for me this time around.  When the show opened, many people lined up at the Topps booth in order to secure their spot in order to get some exclusive wrapper redemption packs.  The type of product opened at the booth determined the amount of packs you could receive.  Some people waited hours to participate in this promotion.  I waited for the line to die down, and then checked to see if they were still doing the wrapper redemption program that day.  I didn’t have to wait at all.  My box of 2018 Topps Museum Collection Baseball I purchased at Marty’s Sports Card Exchange got me (2) promo packs.  I’ll be doing another post about what I pulled from those.  It was some cool stuff.  In the meantime, here is what came out of my box.

If you weren’t able to attend, be sure to checkout my Day #1, Day #2, and Day #3 coverage.

Auto/Relic

• Jacob deGrom Momentous Material Jumbo Patch Auto #’ed/15

Auto

• Craig Kimbrel Archival Autographs #’ed/299

Relics

• Aaron Nola Primary Pieces Quad Relics Copper #’ed/75
• Hunter Pence Meaningful Material Patch Copper #’ed/35

Parallels

• Clint Frazier RC Ruby #’ed/50
• Chipper Jones Sapphire #’ed/150
• Justin Upton Copper
• Adam Jones Copper

Insert

• Babe Ruth Canvas Collection Reproduction

2018 Leaf In The Game Used Sports (2) Box Break

The 2018 National Sports Collectors Convention is now closed.  The final autograph has been signed, and the last pack has been opened.  But I’ve got a few more blog posts coming that highlight what I pulled from the boxes I opened while I was there.  If you weren’t able to attend, be sure to checkout my Day #1, Day #2, and Day #3 coverage.

One of the hottest products to debut on the National’s opening day this year was 2018 Leaf In The Game Used Sports.  It was released on August 1.  Each (1) pack box contains (5) cards which are all hits.  I usually don’t do much with unlicensed products, but something about this one made me want to bust a few boxes.  Its a good thing I did because I pulled some amazing cards.  Not every dealer carried this product.  The only two dealers that I saw selling it were Blowout Cards and Chicagoland Sports Cards.  I purchased a box from each.  At the time Blowout Cards was selling them for $165/box, while Chicagoland Sports Cards had them for $160/box.

Both of these boxes were opened at the Leaf booth, which got me a bunch of Leaf Originals Metal promo packs.  I’ll make a separate blog post about all of the promo cards I got.

Brian Gray and the folks at Leaf did a fantastic job with this product.  Very fun to open.  Feast your eyes on these hits.  I’m still in shock with what I pulled.  The Babe Ruth/Shohei Ohtani card came from Chicagoland Sports Cards.  They opened a new case for me and I picked the upper left box on the top.  Pelé is from Blowout Cards.  Cleveland continues to be the location where I have the best luck.  I think it has something to do with the same Burger King I stop at on the drive out.  Its my lucky Burger King.  And you can’t know where it is 🙂

Auto/Relic

• Pelé Auto/Relic Red #’ed/3

Relics

• Babe Ruth/Shohei Ohtani Reflections Bat/Jersey Gold #’ed 1/1
• Vince Carter Jumbo Patch #’ed/3
• Frank Thomas Enshrined Prime Relic Magenta #’ed/3
• John Smoltz Enshrined Prime Relic #’ed/6
• Ozzie Smith/Paul Molitor/Tim Raines Draft Class History Relic #’ed/12
• Joe Namath/Mickey Mantle/Mark Messier/Walt Frazier/Lawrence Taylor/Mike Bossy City of Champions Relic Blue #’ed/6
• Karl Malone Legendary Kicks Shoe Relic Red #’ed/3
• Goose Gossage Nickname Hall of Fame Relic Blue #’ed/6
• Yogi Berra/Gordie Howe All-Time Enshrined Relic Blue #’ed/6

2018 Bowman Platinum Baseball Blaster Box Break

This is just a quick break.  For the last couple of years, the Bowman Platinum brand has been a Walmart exclusive.  My local Walmart store had three blasters on the shelf.  By now they could be all gone.

There are three different formats that you can find this product in – Fat Packs, Blasters, and Collector’s Boxes.  Each comes with it’s own exclusive parallel.  A Collector’s Box is the most expensive at $80, but that does include (2) autographs.  The base set consists of (100) cards and the following parallels: Ice (Blaster), Sky Blue (Fat Pack), Purple #’ed/250, Blue #’ed/150, Green #’ed/99, Orange #’ed/25 (Collector’s Box), Red #’ed/10, and Foilfractor #’ed/1.  Top Prospects have (100) cards too with the same parallels.

Photo variations are quite easy to spot.  The pictures are drastically different compared to a traditional base card.  CMP codes for base are #264, whereas photo variations are #303.

My favorite Walmart exclusive Topps product recently is 2017 Topps Gallery.  But these look cool too.  When talking about the base set, that pure blackness mixed with those psychedelic swirls is totally far out.

Here is what I pulled:

Parallels

• Estevan Florial Top Prospects Purple #’ed/250
• Javier Baez Ice
• Dansby Swanson Ice
• Hudson Potts Top Prospects Ice
• Dennis Santana Top Prospects Ice

Inserts

• Andres Gimenez Prismatic Prodigies
• Alex Verdugo Rookie Revelations
• Alex Verdugo Platinum Presence

Rookies

• Dominic Smith
• Harrison Bader
• Chance Sisco
• Victor Robles

Top Prospects

• Hunter Greene
• Jake Burger
• Dennis Santana
• Nick Pratto
• Shane Bieber
• Greg Deichmann
• Riley Pint

2017 Topps Luminaries Baseball Box Break

For Christmas I received a box of 2017 Topps Luminaries Baseball.  This is one of my favorite high-end products that Topps released in 2017.  Each box contains (1) encased autograph or autographed relic serial numbered to (15) copies or less.  The checklist is filled with current stars, retired players, and Hall Of Famers.  Its not priced for the casual collector or anyone on a tight budget, but its nowhere near the cost of something like Dynasty.

In November I opened a box of this stuff and pulled a Frank Thomas Autographed Letter Book Card #’ed 1/1.  This morning I was notified by Topps that it has been shipped.  Rest assured, when it gets here I’ll definitely show it off.

No booklet inside this box, but a decent player.  The “189H” commemorates his season high 189 hits.

Here is what I pulled:

Auto

• Manny Machado Hit Kings #HK-MMA #’ed/15

2017 Leaf Metal Draft Football Box Break

If my memory serves me right, this is the first football product I’ve opened since Panini’s NFL exclusive went into play in April 2016.  I’ve wanted to bust a box of football cards for awhile, but refuse to purchase anything from Panini.  At one time I was a big Panini supporter.  I can’t do that anymore.  Not with the shenanigans they pull.  Panini makes too many similar products, is lazy, and has a history of questionable slip-ups.  No company is perfect, but there is just no excuse for some of the garbage they pull.  Topps, Upper Deck, and Leaf should have an NFL license.  All of that competition would create great looking cards.

I settled on a box of 2017 Leaf Metal Draft Football.  When Topps had an NFL license, a player’s Topps Chrome rookie cards were incredibly popular.  Metal Draft Football reminds me a lot of Topps Chrome.  The on-card chrome autographs make up for the fact they can’t use team names and/or logos.  In many ways, Leaf’s unlicensed stuff is better looking than Panini’s licensed products.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Juju Smith-Schuster Black Parallel #’ed/15
• Damore’ea Stringfellow State Pride Pink Parallel #’ed/15
• Curtis Samuel Touchdown Kings Prismatic Wave Parallel
• KD Cannon
• Derek Barnett

(2) 2012 Sportkings Series E Box Break – The Search For HK

On Black Friday I pulled the trigger on a few boxes of 2012 Sportkings Series E from Blowout Cards.  Former Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas had a cut signature inserted into this product, and I’ve never seen it surface.  Sportkings also supposedly made a sketch card of him too that could only be obtained via redemption, but that too has gone undetected.  In order to get a 1/1 sketch, you needed to spell out the word “SPORTKINGS” a few times, and then mail those cards into Sportkings.  Every box had one base card containing a letter on the back, so it could get expensive.  Whether or not that Harry Kalas sketch was redeemed is a total mystery.  I don’t believe they let you choose which sketch you got.  If you met the criteria, they probably shipped you what was available at the time.  It was either redeemed, and is currently sitting in someone’s collection.  Or it was still in their inventory when Sportkings was sold to Leaf.  If that’s the case, who knows what happened to it.  The only sketch card from this product I remember seeing popup was of Phil Rizzuto.

Sportkings ran what I think was a decent promotional program during the 2012 National Sports Collectors Convention.  For each box of Sportkings Series E opened at their booth, you received a raffle ticket with a number on it.  That number would then be matched to a specially made relic card just for the show.  It would either be limited to (19) copies or (1).  I got lucky and received a Roberto Alomar/Eddie Murray Gold Version Dual Jersey #’ed 1/1.  A collector offered me $200 for it, and I took the deal.  Even though it was numbered 1/1, dual jersey cards usually never sell for that much unless they’re autographed or have crazy patches in them.  I wish Leaf would continue this program in the future.  At the time this promotion was offered, Dr. Price was still in control of the Sportkings name.

Here is what I pulled from my two boxes.  No Harry Kalas cut signature.  Its still floating around out there with a handful of other 1/1’s I need.

Relics

• Roberto Alomar/Paul Molitor Double Memorabilia Jersey Silver Version
• Paul Molitor/Ken Griffey, Jr./Scottie Pippen/Patrick Roy Decades 1990 Quad Jersey Silver Version

Premium Backs

• Doyle Brunson #246 – letter “G”
• Mark Wells #237 – letter “T”

Base

• Dick Vitale #222
• Martina Navratilova #251
• Dick Weber #224
• Annika Sorenstam #235
• Man O’ War #241
• Evander Holyfield #225