I’m a collector. My PC doesn’t consist of a bunch of cards that I’m going to trade off for the next big card. It has a bunch of cards that I am going to keep. I don’t buy boxes to make money. I buy them to open for the sake of good ol’ fashioned fun. I look at it like I do buying anything else. Once you spend the money, it’s gone. You aren’t getting it back.
I’m a trader, especially as it applies to hockey. I’m working more to trade (on sportscardform.com, twitter and facebook) than buy and sell on eBay. It’s better “bang for the buck.” It’s even better when I find a collector like myself to trade with. One that doesn’t only want MacKinnon, Crosby, etc., but also collects lower end product. I love finding team or player collectors that I can make deals with.
How does that apply to this two box break? While I’m not thrilled with my two autos (only one per box), especially knowing there were some better names, I did get a nice amount of cards that I should be able to trade at some point. The OPC Platinum product is full of parallel sets. With collecting rainbows becoming a big thing, this is a great product for it.
I got my two boxes from my old local card shop (LCS) from when I lived in Indianapolis, Baseball Card Exchange. If most card shops were like this one, the hobby would be better for it, and brick-and-mortar shops would have a much better survival rate in a hobby that’s become very e-commerce driven. Unless I need an immediate hankering or it’s an impulse buy, I’ll continue buying my boxes (and I’m sure singles) from BBCE.
Each box contains 20 packs, with 4 cards per pack. Quick math says that equals 80 cards. In both boxes, I received 43 base cards, leaving 46% of the box as parallels or inserts. Good if you want to find product to trade. Bad though, if you are a set collector. Even with perfect collation, you’d need four boxes just to complete the non-rookie base set.
Here are the odds for product, per the box bottom:
Box one break results:
*80 cards
*43 base
*1 Legends Die Cut (1:60)
*6 Retro (1:4)
*1 Retro Rainbow (1:20)
*1 Rainbow Black (#d/100)
*1 Autograph
*14 base rookies
*1 variation vet
*6 Rainbow
*1 Traxx (1:20)
*3 White Ice
*1 Red Prism
*1 Retro Red Rainbow (1:160)
Box two break results:
*80 cards
*43 base
*1 Legends Die Cut (1:60)
*6 Retro (1:4)
*1 Retro Rainbow (1:20)
*1 Rainbow Black (#d/100)
*1 Autograph
*15 base rookies
*6 Rainbow
*1 Traxx (1:20)
*2 White Ice
*2 Red Prism
*1 Blue Cubes (#d/65)
All in all, I’d say I’m happy with how it turned out. I think that I’ll be able to make some trades with these and pick up some PC items, or some other pieces to flip.
At this moment in time, I am disappointed in the two autographs that I pulled, as I truly feel I pulled a couple toward the lower end of the spectrum. However, performance can make them more desirable. So can the fact that one player is a Ranger and another a Bruin – the two northeast (United States) powerhouse markets. I don’t believe that I’ve traded with anyone looking for Rangers before, unfortunately.
If you read this and are interested in anything, most are up for trade.
Happy collecting and may all your hits be good ones!
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