2020 Topps Rip Baseball Box Break

These online-exclusive products from Topps are really fun to open. As a member of the Topps 582 Montgomery Club I never pass them up.

2020 Topps Rip Baseball arrives with (1) pack per box. Each pack contains (4) Rip Cards. Inside each Rip Card is an exclusive mini base card, exclusive mini image variation base card, or exclusive mini autograph card.

Deciding to tear open that Rip Card is a big decision. Unless it is someone like Mike Trout, if the card is #’ed/99 I’d rip it.

Here is what I pulled:

Rip Cards:

• Mike Trout Purple Parallel #’ed/25
• Juan Gonzalez Black Parallel #’ed/50
• Larry Doby Base #’ed/99
• A.J. Puk RC Base #’ed/99

I decided to rip the A.J. Puk and Larry Doby cards. Inside I discovered the following:

• Robin Yount Mini Image Variation #18
• Barry Larkin Mini Image Variation #5

I consider myself fairly lucky for pulling the Juan Gonzalez Black Parallel #’ed/50, and extremely lucky for finding the Mike Trout Purple Parallel #’ed/25. I won’t be ripping those any time soon. I’m not going to push my luck.

2020 Topps Allen & Ginter X Baseball Box Break

Allen & Ginter X. Sounds like a secret government organization that specializes in tracking the hot dog eating habits of panda bears. But its not. Instead, Allen & Ginter X is the online-exclusive, black background, parallel version of the regular Allen & Ginter product.

Honestly, I bought this box as a Topps 582 Montgomery Club member just to flip. I had it up for sale for a couple of weeks and never received a single reasonable offer. So I took it as a sign from the card gods to rip it.

I’m very satisfied with what I got. Quite solid.

Here is what I pulled:

Auto:

• Courtney Hansen Silver Frame Gold Ink Mini #’ed/5

Parallel:

• Keston Hiura Red Mini #’ed/5

Short Prints:

• Gary Sheffield #331
• Bob Feller #330
• Trevor Hoffman #321
• Juan Gonzalez #315
• Sparky Anderson #346
• Ryan Howard #329
• Phil Rizzuto #308
• Andruw Jones #318
• Jack Morris #343
• Dwight Gooden Mini #314

Notable Rookie:

• Luis Robert #256

(3) 2020 Topps Archives Snapshots Baseball Box Break

One of the best benefits of being a member of the Topps 582 Montgomery Club is having the ability to pre-order certain online-exclusive products. This past week 2020 Topps Chrome Sapphire Baseball popped-up for pre-order and I missed out on it. Topps usually sends out an e-mail 24 hours ahead of the sale, but this time it only went out 4 hours prior. By the time I saw the e-mail the pre-order window had closed. Flipping these exclusive products on the secondary market is really fun. At $300/box 2020 Topps Chrome Sapphire Baseball to me was a bit expensive. As of right now, boxes are currently selling for $425 on the secondary market. That’s a flip, but nothing big after the fees. Its possible prices could go up. But I’m not that upset that I missed out.

As I mentioned before, flipping these products is what I usually do. But I decided to go the other route when it came to 2020 Topps Archives Snapshots Baseball. With the ability to buy three boxes at $25/box I chose to rip them open. Selling them sealed wouldn’t have been a major flip anyway.

Take a look at what I pulled. This was a cheap fun rip with a lot of on-card autograph goodness.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos:

• Ed Kranepool
• Matt Beaty
• Yordan Alvarez RC

Parallels:

• Kyle Lewis RC Black & White
• Hunter Harvey RC Black & White
• Shohei Ohtani Black & White
• Willie Mays Walkoff Wires Color Image #’ed/25

Inserts:

• Jose Canseco Walkoff Wires
• Bo Bichette RC Walkoff Wires

Notable Base:

• (2) Dustin May RC
• Luis Robert RC
• Bryce Harper
• (2) Fernando Tatis Jr.
• Bo Bichette RC
• Mike Trout
• Mike Schmidt
• Gavin Lux RC

2020 Topps Museum Collection Baseball Box Break

Topps National Baseball Card Day took place on Saturday, August 8.  I’ve been wanting to visit my local card shop Sports Zone Toys & Comics for awhile, and saw this as a good opportunity.  Just for walking in the door I received a Pete Alonso promo card.

I dove right into the high-end stuff and decided to bust a box of 2020 Topps Museum Collection Baseball.  A master box comes with (4) packs, each containing a hit.  Products configured like this have always appealed to me.  I don’t need a lot of base cards.

It was a solid box in my opinion.  A purchase of $10 or more got me a promo pack of 2020 Topps National Baseball Card Day cards.

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Sean Murphy Archival Autographs #’ed/299
• Kyle Hendricks Archival Autographs #’ed/299

Auto/Relics

• Marcell Ozuna Single Player Signature Swatches Triple Relic Auto #’ed/299
• Aaron Nola Momentous Material Jumbo Patch Auto #’ed/15

Parallels

• Javier Baez Ruby #’ed/50
• Cal Ripken Jr. Amethyst #’ed/99
• Manny Machado Copper
• Nolan Arenado Copper

Base

• Bo Bichette
• Ted Williams
• Gleyber Torres
• Miguel Cabrera
• Trea Turner
• Mark McGwire
• Anthony Rendon
• Paul Goldschmidt
• Ozzie Smith
• Trevor Story
• Clayton Kershaw
• Shohei Ohtani

2020 Topps National Baseball Card Day Pack

• Bryce Harper
• Yusei Kikuchi
• Buster Posey
• Manny Machado
• Josh Bell
• Pete Alonso

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