Some Top of The Class Hits from eBay

Although I can't complain overall about my luck in the UFC box breaks over at Team Breaks, I have had a very cold run the last couple of weeks, with not a single card falling to me. When that happens I tend to take a hiatus from the box breaks and focus a little more on getting cards some other way. The latest and greatest from Topps in the UFC arena is 2016 Topps UFC Top of the Class, which is a hits-and-inserts-only offering. I found a seller on eBay who appeared to be selling everything they'd pulled from a case or two of the product, so I put in bids on some PC fighters and a bunch of other cards that looked like they might sell for a decent price. I wound up with a couple of PC cards and one other relic card for about what I'd spend joining the breaks for a week. I felt like I got a good deal on the cards, and that always feels pretty good.

Neil Magny is my main PC fighter, and so the big card from this lot for me was this Top of the Class Autograph Relic card. A lot of the cards in this set aren't numbered, and that is the case with this one. Topps has moved to doing pretty much stickers only for their UFC autographs now, but on this card design they don't look super-terrible. The frame on the card helps to keep the sticker from standing out too much.

I'd been wanting to start a Jim Miller collection for a while, but he seems to have a decent-sized fan base out there that drives prices up. I was surprised that I won three different cards featuring him, as usually I get outbid on anything of his. This base autograph was the first one I got. The base autographs are not serially-numbered, and again the frame on the card helps to keep the sticker from being a total eyesore.

The second card was this Top of the Class Relic Card. The relics from this set are pretty cool, as they feature the slanted octagonal window which is fairly common on UFC relics, but the relic piece also shows through four little cutouts around the main relic window. These cards are serially-numbered, with this one being copy # 022 / 199.

I also managed to get this Silver parallel relic card, which is numbered # 17 / 25 and features a relic swatch with printing on it. It appears to be taken from the same piece of clothing that produced the relic in the base relic card I got. I didn't think this one would fall to me, but no one bid me up on it and I came away with a pretty nice card. Miller has lost four of his last five fights, but has another fight coming up in July against Takanori Gomi, who has lost three of his last five. Maybe Miller will be able to turn things around a little bit.

The only non-PC card I wound up winning was this Carla Esparza Top of the Class Relic Card. She is one of the Strawweight contenders and held the inaugural UFC Strawweight Women's belt before Joanna Jędrzejczyk took it from her. Her last fight was a win by decision against Juliana Lima. I don't think she's got another fight scheduled yet. This card is numbered # 137 / 199.

This wasn't a bad lot of cards to pick up. I was surprised to get a few Jim Miller cards, as I'd had some difficulty in acquiring his recent releases in the past. Maybe sales are down on him because he's between fights and riding a losing streak. I was also glad to get a nice Neil Magny and a relic card of a top Women's division fighter.