Pack of the Day 187: Two Boxes of 2017 Topps Legends of WWE

Topps had a sale on their website over the Memorial Day weekend, and one of the items on sale was Hobby boxes of 2017 Topps Legends of WWE. These things sell for $95-100 each on most card sites, and I got two boxes with shipping for about $73.50 apiece. Each box promises four hits, with three of those being guaranteed autographs. I opened a box of this stuff a few months ago that had four autographs in it.

Between the two boxes, I pulled a total of 74 base cards, with 51 singles and 23 doubles. That means two boxes got me about half of a base set. As shown in this scan, I tend to favor the wrestling legends from my youth, but the set features a lot of older names that I'm not that familiar with. I do kind of wish that Hulk Hogan would get invited back to the WWE and some of these sets. It is kind of distracting to see cards of all his contemporaries, but to never pull a card of one of the most famous wrestlers ever.

There were 19 Bronze parallels between the two boxes. This is the base-level parallel, which basically shows up in any pack that doesn't have a serially-numbered parallel inside. I thought I got some decent cards among my Bronze pulls.

These were my Silver parallel pulls. The Silver cards are # / 99, and fall 1:8 packs. So in two boxes (12 packs each), you'd expect to pull three of them. The Rock is probably the best card in this group, but I like all three of these.

I also got two Blue parallels, which are # / 50. I wasn't that familiar with Dory Funk Jr., but he is actually a pretty influential wrestler, with a long career and his own wrestling school that has trained plenty of big names.

Legendary Bouts is one of two inserts in the product, and these cards feature famous matches from wrestling history. There are some pretty big names here, like Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Randy Savage, and Cactus Jack.

The other insert in the product is called Retired Championships, which shows some retired belts and some of the wrestlers who held them. Who knew there were so many belts out there?

I pulled one basic relic card from each box. They are # / 299. That Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat relic card is pretty amazing for a basic relic card.

I pulled base autographs of two female wrestlers and Bronze autographs of two male wrestlers. The base autographs of Alundra Blayze and Wendi Richter are # / 199, while the Bronze cards of Diamond Dallas Page and Ken Shamrock are # / 99. All except the Diamond Dallas Page card carry on-card signatures.

The first big hit of the break is this autographed manu-relic Commemorative Championship Plate Card bearing the autograph of Big Show. I was pretty happy with this card, although it's probably not a huge money card. I like Big Show, and I was glad to get his signature. The card is # 68 / 99. 

The hit of the break has to be this Black parallel of "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase's autographed relic card. The card features a sweet relic swatch and a nice signature with a '$' inscription. It's also # 4 / 5.

While this break wasn't quite as amazing as my previous box was, this product is a lot of fun. I like pulling cards of all the old-school wrestlers, and each box usually produces at least a handful of really neat things. I'd like to pick up more of this product at some point. The price point is a little high, but there is some good stuff that can come out of it. It also feels a little less risky than a true high-end product like Undisputed.

Rockets from Sport Card Collectors

A while ago, Sport Card Collectors asked about a card I posted on my blog. I don't really like to trade, but I sent him some cards and he sent me some cards.

Most of the package centered around my favorite basketball team, the Houston Rockets. First up are some shiny parallels and inserts of Houston players, including three of my all-time favorite player, Hakeem Olajuwon. I don't collect basketball cards as much as I used to, so there are a lot of card designs here that are new to me.

There were a couple of UFC cards in the package, both from the 2017 Topps UFC Museum Collection product. On the left is a Copper parallel of Germaine de Randamie, and on the right is a Blue Sapphire parallel of Jose Aldo.

Last up are the hits. Shane Battier was one of my favorite Rockets while he was on the team. He was kind of the figurehead of Daryl Morey's analysis-heavy approach to team-building. Battier didn't put up huge conventional stats, but his positioning, shot selection, and cerebral approach to the game increased the team's win probability while he was on the floor. The Prestigious Pros relic from 2010-11 Panini Prestige is numbered # 121 / 499.

The Jason Terry die-cut autograph comes from 2014-15 Panini Donruss is numbered # 12 / 99. I don't know a lot about Terry, but he's been in the NBA for a long time and spent a couple years on the Rockets. He's also 3rd in all-time 3-pointers made, behind Ray Allen and Reggie Miller. I think maybe Steph Curry, Kyle Korver, and Klay Thompson have a chance at passing him if they play long enough, though.

The highlight of the package was this Apprentice Signatures autograph of Patrick Beverley from 2013-14 Panini Crusade. It is numbered # 05 / 10. I liked Beverley as a Rocket, although I thought at times he showboated a little too much. It wouldn't be a problem, but it felt like every so often he would have an unnecessary turnover or miss a shot because he was showing off. He's a good defender, though, and was overall a solid player for the team.

This was a pretty cool package from Sport Card Collectors. It was especially nice to add so many cards to my oft-neglected basketball collection. Thank you!

May 2018 Loot Locker

I don't have my usual picture of the outside of a Loot Locker to put up at the top of this post, but I got my May Loot Locker in the mail a day or two ago. As usual, I went with the Triple Play option that includes a little more than the slightly cheaper All-Star box. There are also football and basketball lockers.

Here is what I got in my Loot Locker for the month. A couple pieces of candy, some Ultra Pro top loaders and sleeves, 1 pack of 2018 Panini Diamond Kings, 2 packs of 2018 Donruss, and 2 packs of 2018 Bowman. These are all Hobby packs. I always like to break down the value of the Locker based on the going price for Hobby boxes to see if I'm getting a decent price on the packs. I just take the box prices from a major online card retailer, divide those by the number of packs in a box, and multiply by the number of packs in my Locker.

2018 Diamond Kings: $75.95 / 12 = $6.33 x 1 = $6.33

2018 Donruss: $104.95 / 24 = $4.37 x 2 = $8.75

2018 Bowman: $179.95 / 24 = $7.50 x 2 = $15.00

Total: $6.33 + $8.75 + $15.00 = $30.08

Well, with the cost of the packs, hobby supplies, candy, shipping, and labor, I hope the Loot Locker folks got a good deal on their product, because this Loot Locker yielded more in packs than the $30 base price. Let's see if I pulled anything good.

I didn't find much exciting in the Diamond Kings pack. That Gabby Hartnett card has a cool picture. Other than that, I am struggling to find a lot to say about this one. Robinson Cano's injury and suspension kind of put a damper on my fantasy baseball team.

One of the Donruss packs was a Noah Syndergaard hot pack, with a Stat Line parallel and a Nickname variation appearing back to back. There were a couple of other interesting cards in the mix, including a Diamond Collection relic card of Deven Marrero, who has gone from playing not-that-great for the Red Sox Boston to playing not-that-great for the Diamondbacks Arizona.

I got a couple of neat inserts in the Bowman packs. The Ronald Acuna is a #Trending insert and the Bowman Sterling of Carlos Correa is a one-per-box insert. I like the way the Correa card looks.

Overall, this Loot Locker didn't rock my socks off. Of course, with card prices being what they are right now, it's all a big gamble. I am still not sure if I'll be grabbing another Loot Locker in June. They put a decent amount of product in there for the price, but maybe the price of cards is too high right now.