If you were going to buy a box or two...

any year, any brand (as long as it's football) and why would you choose that one?

I'm not looking for a real high dollar box (no 5 star, NT, or Exquisite)

Let's say $300 limit.

Well before Upper Deck blew the deal they had, I would have said SP Authentic. However, with the new licensing agreement in place, I would have to say Playoff Contenders, Absolute, and Topps Chrome.

Playoff Contenders always offers a nice run of rookie autos and this year, they changed it up a bit with Super Bowl Ticket autos,and Legendary Contenders autos, with many being short printed. Its gonna be fun watching the SP lists emerge over the next few days.

Absolute has done an excellent job in the last two years of giving collectors more bang for their buck. More patches, nicer hits, and a better selection of higher end hits abound in this product. The price point isn't too bad as *most of the time, you'll hit atleast one decent card in each box with a shot at a super rare find.

Topps Chrome has been a real staple for a lower end product. The rookie autographs always seem to hold their own in the secondary marketplace and the parallels are always sought after by set and player collectors alike. Your return on investment should be a somewhat safe bet. There's always a "what if" factor with this product as you have to hope big but even the mid tier rookies can still do well if you hold onto their cards.

Contenders. Not even close

cgilmo said:

Contenders. Not even close

Click to expand...

Are you saying Contenders is a good product or a bad one? Please elaborate.

Contenders is the best bang for buck in all wax right now.

Then I will agree with that statement. It is a very nice product.

I would go buy a bunch of 2008 or 2009 SPA, its definitely the best looking product there ever was.

Personally, if you have 300 bucks, why not just buy some cards you will actually want?

The OP said any year not just 2010, however football has always been about the current rookie class. After a few years
95% of the rookies are nobodies. This is the first thing I think of when I think back to all the great rookie patch
autos I have pulled from SPA.

Contenders is THE hot product right now, not only are the rookie tickets very nice looking, but the autographs
of the higher end stars are ON CARD and can actually be pulled from packs. Mix in some old guys and HOF'ers
and you have paydirt. Not only will it be interesting to see where the SP announcments take the product, but
what will be coming out of these retail boxes. There could be a whole new level of hot if these prove to be loaded.

I also enjoyed Finest this year.

Kevin

I think 2008 SPA has the best looking rookie patch/autos ever, and it kills me that John David Booty was the Viking representative in that patch/auto set! Also, the Rookie Retros were really great from there, too, along with the Leatherheads, which I liked, although many didn't.

Honorable mention would go to Masterpieces which I have fallen in love with all over again, two years after it came out.

I have also broken a fair amount of 2006 products in the past few months, hoping to find some nicer Greenways. It's fun doing those, because I studied that draft class so closely, and remember so many names from it. Some people might be upset when they pull a Michael Huff /24 from Elite - I was excited. I was as excited to pull a Matt Leinart auto a few months ago as I would have been a few years ago.

Yeah, I agree that any non-current product has the PROSPECT of pulling nobodies, but that happens with every product, even the recent ones. I would say the best classes of the last few years were 2008 and 2009, which produced some great rookies with great autos in SPA. In 2008, the retros, the letters, and the leatherheads added a great element to the product, which made them great boxes to buy.

Plus, you have Flacco, Ryan, Forte, Johnson, Jones, and a number of other guys that have performed well in the NFL. Are they worth the price of a box? In some cases, yes. BUT, that isnt the reason you should be buying wax. You should buy to scratch that "gambling itch" which gives the thrill of opening, and money back shouldnt really factor in. If you really cared about getting your money's worth, you would just buy the singles.

Gellman said:

Yeah, I agree that any non-current product has the PROSPECT of pulling nobodies, but that happens with every product, even the recent ones. I would say the best classes of the last few years were 2008 and 2009, which produced some great rookies with great autos in SPA. In 2008, the retros, the letters, and the leatherheads added a great element to the product, which made them great boxes to buy.

Plus, you have Flacco, Ryan, Forte, Johnson, Jones, and a number of other guys that have performed well in the NFL. Are they worth the price of a box? In some cases, yes. BUT, that isnt the reason you should be buying wax. You should buy to scratch that "gambling itch" which gives the thrill of opening, and money back shouldnt really factor in. If you really cared about getting your money's worth, you would just buy the singles.

Click to expand...

you bolded statement is 100% correct. I'm not looking for something with high resdale or anything. I just want to have a little fun and open something.

seahawks4ever said:

Gellman said:

Yeah, I agree that any non-current product has the PROSPECT of pulling nobodies, but that happens with every product, even the recent ones. I would say the best classes of the last few years were 2008 and 2009, which produced some great rookies with great autos in SPA. In 2008, the retros, the letters, and the leatherheads added a great element to the product, which made them great boxes to buy.

Plus, you have Flacco, Ryan, Forte, Johnson, Jones, and a number of other guys that have performed well in the NFL. Are they worth the price of a box? In some cases, yes. BUT, that isnt the reason you should be buying wax. You should buy to scratch that "gambling itch" which gives the thrill of opening, and money back shouldnt really factor in. If you really cared about getting your money's worth, you would just buy the singles.

Click to expand...

you bolded statement is 100% correct. I'm not looking for something with high resdale or anything. I just want to have a little fun and open something.

Click to expand...

I would do a box of Contenders, my hands were literally shaking when I opened my first box, because I knew the reward could possibly outweigh the risk. And it did as I pulled a Montana auto. Now on the flip side to that, the previous week I bought $70 in singles and pulled both variations of the Ryan Mathews auto, which doubled my money after ebay sales. So def a box of Contenders, bc it seems like you always get at least nice hit from all the box breaks I've seen.

A second box would be something like Magic since your set building it, and it's fairley cheap with quality product. If you cant get a box of Certified for around $70-80 I would break that, I got a Suh 4 color patch from a single pack that sold for $50.