Since I knew I was heading to my local faceless giant corporate retailer, I decided I'd see what they had--fully expecting that I would probably end up with more Topps Heritage Baseball.

To my surprise, though, they actually had a fair amount of football available--albeit not a lot that I had collected.  They had a couple of the cheap Leaf Rookies & Stars $10 boxes, some Ultra, and a few others--but once again, I couldn't get past the sucker buys.

At least this time it was a sucker buy of packs--and the main reason that I went for it was that it was all 2007 packs that were included, including some Topps Draft Picks & Prospects, which for some reason is a favorite set of mine. So I grabbed 2 boxes, with 4 packs each, plus a "graded" rookie card (I forgot that they do the stupid BCCG rookies in these, and almost always a Score card), plus a bonus.

First box, the bonus was a pack of 2007 Upper DeckFirst Edition, which was new to me.  Not much exciting, although Selvin Young and LaRon Landry rookies aren't too bad, and I have to admit, the photos on these cards are quite good--probably the best I remember seeing in 2007 sets (usually Ultra is the only set that I remember using high quality action shots).

The graded card was a BCCG 10 2007 Score Brady Quinn--knowing what they include, probably one of the better I could have hoped for.

Checking out the packs, I noticed that two of them had come open in the box--not sure how that could have happened, and got me thinking about whether they might somehow search these packs before using them--but I can't believe that that would even be possible, without them getting into big time trouble.  The first pack was Donruss Classics, which yielded nothing of interest--the second was Playoff Prestige, which featured a Prestigous Pros Black Peyton Manning, #197/500, which in a pack like this isn't too bad.

The last two packs were Press Pass SE (uneventful, other than a Marquee Matchups Brady Quinn/JaMarcus Russell), and the Topps Draft Picks & Prospects, which had two base rookies (local boy Marcus McCauley and Kenny Irons), and a Bronze Chrome Garrett Wolfe rookie.

The second box features a BCCG 10 2007 Score JaMarcus Russell, along with a 2007 Topps bonus pack (which shockingly may have been the first pack of regulat Topps I've opened in 2007).  It did have Ahmad Bradshaw and Robert Meachem rookies, but all of the cards were a bit beat up from being loose in the box (the rest of the packs are glued quite heavily to cardboard for shipping).

The one pack that was different from the first box was 2007 Press Pass regular, which replaced the Donruss Classics--and ended up being the pack of either box.  Started off with a Teammate Marshawn Lynch/Daymeion Hughes (which books at lower than I expected--less than $1), followed by Brady Quinn ($3), and a Calvin Johnson Blue Reflector ($10).

Close behind that was the Playoff Prestige pack, which had a local boy Sidney Rice rookie ($5) and a Peyton Manning Super Bowl Heroes ($8).

The other packs yielded a Insider Insight Anthony Gonzalez and what appears to be a Gold Drew Stanton (Press Pass SE), and another Selvin Young rookie and local boy Aundrae Allison Bronze Chrome (Topps DP&P).

Overall, actually not too bad.  Relatively cheap, quick, and somewhat fun--not a bad way to kill a little time on a snowy Minnesota spring night.

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Busting More Retail

The first pack was a blister pack for $9.99, which promised at least $50 in catalog value (and "Look for RARE '1 of 1' inserts!"). This pack is distributed by FairField, at PO Box 1297, in Des Moines, IA (remember that PO Box).

In looking up the values of the cards from this pack, it was better than I expected when I first opened it--originally I thought that the Tomlinson rookie was the only good card, but it turns out the McNair and Harrison were rookies too, so the total value did end up at actually over $60 for the pack.

1995 Crown Royale Joey Galloway  $4.00
1995 Crown Royale Steve McNair  $8.00
1996 Crown Royale Marvin Harrison  $12.00
2001 Pacific Dynagon LaDanion Tomlinson $25.00
2001 Pacific Dynagon Dan Alexander  $2.50
2000 Collector's Edge Supreme Doug Johnson  $4.00
1997 Playoff Zone Prime Target Eddie Kennison  $5.00
1995 Playoff Super Bowl Card Show Irving Spikes  $1.25
1995 Playoff Super Bowl Card Show David Palmer  $1.25

Of course, even with those cards, getting my $10 back might be kind of tough on eBay.  But it was still better than the last one of these I opened, where I think that the total value was less than $50 (and I have a hard time believing that the value went down after the pack was put together, but I could never prove it).

The second pack was another $9.99 pack, which guaranteed One Memorabilia Card & One Star Card, along with two unopened packs.    This pack is distributed by Excell Marketing, L.C., PO Box 1297, Des Moines, IA.  Is it a bad thing that two companies that sell essentially the same thing at the same address?  Seems like they're hiding something.

I could see the packs were 2005 Press Pass SE and 2002 Score, so I wasn't expecting much there, but I was able to peak enough at the memorabilia card to see that it was a New Orleans Saint jersey card, and since the rest of the packs all had only skinny cards, I went with that pack.

Well, the jersey card ended up being a 2006 SPx Swatch Supremacy of Deuce McAllister, which lists at $8.00, but of course has a couple dinged corners, so good luck with that.  The "star" card was a real bummer, as it was a 1995 Playoff Prime Boomer Esiason, who I'm not sure I would consider a star, and based on the $0.15 that the card books for, Beckett agrees.

From the packs, the most impressive card was a 2005 Press Pass SE Gold Aaron Rodgers, which books for $6, but again, might have some minor corner issues.

The last thing that I picked up was another $20 tin of cards, which guaranteed $50 in book value, and 3 unopened packs.  I was surprised to find a Sports Collecters Digest Authentic slabbed card in the tin (2002 Score QBC Materials Jim Everett), which books for $10.  Other than that, the only cards that are probably "of value" were in the stack of 1998 Collector's Edge T3, which I haven't even priced out yet.  But there were a bunch of fun cards, like the 1989 Topps Don Majkowski, and a 1990 Pro Set Terry Kinard which has him wearing a sweet pair of short shorts.

In the end, once again I feel afterwards like I just need to stop buying these boxes/packs--but of course, I doubt I will, especially at times like these when there aren't many new products coming out. 

**UPDATE** I started pricing out what I called the "1998 Collector's Edge T3" cards above--turns out it's actually 1998 Collector's Edge First Place Triple Threat, and what was in the tin was a complete set--so the tin I got yesterday actually had a book value of well over $200, although again there are some condition issues.  So now I wonder how long I can hold off on buying another one of these tins...

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More Retail Sucker Buys