2014 UFC Champions Box Break

What We Pulled:

Cards Per Pack: 10
Packs Per Box: 24
Cards Expected: 200
Cards Received: 190

Base Set Completion: 76% (152 out of 200)
Duplicates: 8

Inserts:
Fight Night Highlights: (7) Lesnar vs. Carwin, Garcia vs. Jung, Liddell vs. Silva, Mir vs. Lesnar, Guillard vs. Miller, Silva vs. Franklin, Whittaker vs. Thompson
Octagon Greats: (6) Chuck Liddell, Demetrious Johnson, Jose Aldo, Johny Hendricks, Renan Barao, Rich Franklin
Topps Parallel Black #/188: (6) Jake Ellenberger, Jason High, Liz Carmouche, Issac Vallie-Flagg, Rodrigo Damm, Ross Pearson
Topps Parallel Blue #/88: (4) Francis Carmont, Bobby Green, Alex White, Raquel Pennington

Topps Gold Champions Predictor #/25: (1) Brandon Thatch
Topps Parallel Platinum #1/1: (1) Ricardo Lamas
Topps Autograph Red Ink #/15: (1) Stipe Miocic
Topps Autograph Relics: (1) Zach Maxovsky
Topps Relics: (2) Cain Velazquez, Rafael Dos Anjos
Topps Mat Relics: (1) Chris Weidman

Opening Thought:

I like the design of the front of the cards. The name of the fighter is close to the edge of the card, the Champions logo is in the corner and the pictures are of the fighters in the octagon. Some during the fight, some before or after a fight. The fighters that have been newly signed to the UFC are also annotated on the front of the cards. The back of the cards have basic personal stats for the fighter, their twitter handle, and a blurb about the fighter.

The value from this box is there. Getting over 70% of the base set is a pleasant surprise. There are at least 10 parallels in each box. I don't like runaway parallels, but they weren't a distraction in this set. The mat cards are good, and I hope there are some out there that show actual use. The material cards aren't worth much, and Topps might want to put some multi-colored swatches in for more variety. If I were in charge of the product, there would be more autographs. If you have 200 fighters, you can get more fighters than 49 to sign cards. The rest of the inserts are more of the garden variety type.






Even though I know that I will not get all my money back from selling these cards, I feel like it was a good product. I didn't pull the big hits and that is part of card collecting.

Overall Judgment:

If Topps and the UFC continue to produce products like this, it will help with the popularity of UFC. The monetary value isn't there, but the 5 pulls that you receive in each box, combined with the parallels will make you want to see what else is in the box. You want to build a set of base cards, then two boxes is probably what you will need. The small amount of duplicates helps me with feeling good with this product. The inserts are OK. you might need to do more hunting than hoping you can pull the ones you need in a box to complete those insert sets. I would make the parallels stand out a little more than they do but that is a minor thing. I would say get yourself a box and see if you can get that big hit and also enjoy these cards.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Best of WWE 2013 Box Break

Well, since Kelly has stubbornly refused to blog about what he is opening, I am quitting my pledge not to post anything on here until he does. We have opened a Hobby Box of Best of WWE 2013. The Stats are below.

Packs: 24
Cards Per Pack: 7
Total Cards Advertised In Box: 168
Actual Total Cards: 168

Base Set Completion:  70% (77 out of 110 Cards)

Base Set Parallels:
Bronze (1:2 Packs) - 12
Silver (1:24 Packs) - 1
Gold (1:684 Packs) - 0
Printing Plate (1:1235 Packs) - 0
Duplicates - 6 (#8's - 2, #9's - 2, #10's - 2)

Inserts:
Top Ten Inserts
#1's (1:24 Packs) - 1
#2's (1:12 Packs) -2
#3's (1:6 Packs) - 4
#4's (1:4 Packs) - 6
#5's (1:4 Packs) - 6
#6's (1:3 Packs) - 8
#7's (1:3 Packs) - 8
#8's (1:2 Packs) - 12
#9's (1:2 Packs) - 12
#10's (1:2 Packs) - 12

Top Ten Inserts Printing Plates
All Numbers (1:14000 Packs) - 0

Autographs (1:49 Packs) -0

Dual Autographs (1:3064 Packs) - 0

Jerry Lawler Portrait Card - 0

Swatch Relics
Shirt (1:25 Packs) - 1 Daniel Bryan
AJ Lee Teddy Bear (1:1300 Packs) - 0
John Cena Hat (1:2775 Packs) - 0
John Cena Wristband (1:7830 Packs) - 0
John Cena Headband (1:4400 Packs) - 0
Mat Relic (1:48 Packs) - 1 Big E Langston

Thoughts:

Design of the Base Cards: They highlight what people think are the best things that happened in WWE for the last part of 2012 and the early part of 2013. Ugh. Even the writings of Mick Foley on the cards cannot save this mess.  The pictures on the cards are all stills. Some are shot at an angle that you cannot tell exactly what is being done in the shot. And while I like the stories of Mick Foley, the commentary that he provides on the back of the cards grows tiresome.

Design of the Inserts: The numbers are simplistic. And I do like the way that they do the Gold, Silver, and Bronze for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finisher of each Top 10 category.  #4 through 10 are in blue. The categories for the Numbers are Rivalries, Undertaker Matches, Catchphrases, Tag Team Champs, World Heavyweight Champs, Greatest WWE Moments, Trash Talkers, WWE Champions, Intercontinental Champs, and Finishers. The Wrestlemania Mat Card and Shirt cards are uninspired. They are just your average ordinary piece cards.

Other Thoughts:  This is a box and set to stay away from. This looks like a product that was put out there just to satisfy some sort of contract between Topps and WWE. I paid less that $30.00 for the box and I still feel like I needed more to justify spending the money. The WWE may be the biggest Sports Entertainment wrestling company out there, but this shows that they are a clear #2 in the business of wrestling cards.

Box Value 1.5 out of 5.

2012 Topps Magic Football Box Break

Packs Per Box: 24
Cards Per Pack: 8
Total Cards Expected: 192

Total Cards Received: 187
Total Veteran Base Cards: 98
Total Veteran Mini Cards: 16
Total Rookie Cards: 44
Total Rookie Mini Cards: 6

Total Insert Cards: 23

Supernatural Stars (1:4 Packs): (6) A. Johnson, A. Smith, B. Roethlisberger, A. Dalton, A. Foster, A. Bradshaw
Rookie Enchantment (1:6 Packs): (4) D. Martin, R. Griffin III, L. Kuechly, M. Claiborne
Magical Moments (1:6 Packs): (4) R. Gronkowski, P. Peterson, M. Jones-Drew, M. Stafford
Magic Autograph (1:9 Packs): (3) R. Lindley, L. Kuechly, M. Kalil
Charismatic Combos (1:12 Packs): (2) M.Vick/D. Jackson, M. Ryan/R. White
'48 Magic (1:12 Packs): (2) T. Richardson, T. Aikman
Black Border Mini Card (1:24 Packs): (1) Victor Cruz
Pigskin Mini Card (1:65 Packs): (1) Janoris Jenkins #/50

Our Thoughts:

Design of Base Cards: Simple but classic. See the picture and tell for yourself. It seems like something out of the 60's or 70's. The back doesn't contain season or career stats. It contains facts and a question about the player. I don't really like that.

Design of Inserts: Simplistic as well. There is no foil or raised cards except for the Rookie Enchantment cards. The backs of the cards are plain white with writing only. It isn't the wow factor that is going to sell these cards.

The box is OK. It isn't a blow me away product and nor should it be when you can obtain a box for less than $100. But there is a lack of innovation or fun in these cards. Everything is straight forward and would have been in place back when I was a kid. The autos are stickered. And it just seems like everything is just there. Nothing to say I really like the design or not even a "wow" at anything that was pulled.

The value is there for a box that costs about $70.  But that would be about the top end that I would pay for the box. You do get rookies in the product, and I pulled the Big 3 from the year, Luck, RG III, and Wilson. However, it just isn't a product that I feel like I would want to collect.

Box Value: 2.5 out of 5.

2011 Topps Gridiron Legends Box Break

2011 Topps Gridiron Legends

Box Contents:

18 Packs Per Box

8 Packs Per Pack

What We Pulled:

112 out of 165 cards -  67.9% Complete

2 Duplicates

15 Parallel Cards

Inserts:

15 Total Insert Cards

Aspiring Legacies (1:5 Packs) (4) - Bilal Powell, Stevan Ridley, Jerrel Jernigan, Shane Vereen

Gridiron Legacies (1:4 Packs) (5) - Tony Gonzalez, LaDainian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, Michael Vick, Matt Ryan

Legendary Combos (1:10 Packs) (2) - Calvin Johnson/Titus Young, Adrian Peterson/Christian Ponder

Aspiring Legacies Relic (1:10 Packs) (2) - Delone Carter, Colin Kaepernick

Aspiring Legacies Relic Parallels (1:250 Packs) (1) - Andy Dalton

Autographed Rookies Base Redemption Card (1) - Anthony Castonzo

Our Thoughts:

I started hanging my head with the first pack that I opened when seeing the Delone Carter Aspiring Legacies Relic.  And when I finished the box, that disappointing feeling that I had was still there and it grew throughout opening the packs of this box.  I hadn't done my due diligence before buying this and I assumed that something that has the name Gridiron Legends would focus on the legends of the NFL.  But this product doesn't do that.  It throws some legends in the base set cards and doesn't worry about them anymore.  I am starting to hear more and more rumblings from collectors about Topps products not being very good.  This is a fine example of that.  If you are going to use the word legends for this product, then label it as Topps Future Gridiron Legends or something similar.  But the title for this release gives images to the collector of something different.

As for the base set cards, I do like the design.  It is a simple yet effective design and Topps also put on old time logos for the legends.  The Rams and Chargers both had the football helmet with their logo on it for the Legends for their teams and the newer logos for the players of today.  I also like the fact that the Rookies in the set are an actual part of the set.  In the Carolina Panthers team run, Cam Newton is included around the veterans.  They don't make them the high number cards and insert them 1 out of every 4 packs or something like that.  As for the insert cards, they look like base set cards that Upper Deck put out at least a decade ago.  On one edge of the card, the card is colored in the team colors and the player is on the rest of the card.  Reminded me of Upper Deck Game Gear cards from 2001 I believe.  The relic cards are nothing special.  The Dalton is a gold card numbered out of 50.  And as always, I do not like redemption cards in a product.  The card companies need to understand that it is like laughing at the collector.  You don't have enough respect for us to actually get players to sign beforehand and have the signatures ready to insert even though planning of this product probably started at least a year earlier?  I also like that if you are trying to complete the set, that almost 70% of the base set is in one box.  If I do decide to buy another box, the completeness of the set is almost guaranteed.  If it doesn't happen, I will be one or two cards away from the set and that is an easy fix.

Overall, It isn't the worst box that I have ever opened, but it really isn't one of the best either.  If you can find a box for around $50, then you might want to buy it.  But when this product came out at more than $100 a box, then I am sure that people felt cheated.  The Hits included aren't impressive and the insert designs remind you of base set cards from yesteryear.  And in future releases of this product, I would hope that Topps pays attention to the word Legends in the product name.  If this was from a fledling company, I would say that it was an adequate product.  From Topps, I expect something better.

Box Value:  1.5 out of 5 Stars.