Cyber Week Breaks: Day 5 - Uncle Creepy Makes an Appearance

I know that my UFC posts don't always get a lot of site visits, but I got a lot of UFC cards in my Cyber Week orders and there are going to be a fair number of posts with just fighting cards in them. These days the only sporting events I set time aside to watch are fights and baseball, so that's where my head is at when it comes to collecting. I'll try to mix in some other stuff from mail days when a break is slow. Today's breaks are 8 packs of 2017 Topps UFC Chrome and a box of 2016 Topps UFC High Impact.

The first 8 packs from the 2nd box of 2017 Topps UFC Chrome held quite a bit of good stuff. That Jose Aldo Museum Collection insert is the Refractor version, numbered # 94 / 99. The Green Refractor of Mickey Gall is numbered # 48 / 99. I almost flipped right past the Tyron Woodley card, but something about it looked a little different. You can see Refractors in this product from the side of a card stack, because they have white edges while the base cards have colored edges.

Those thick white lines are all Refractors. The Tyron Woodley card is a Black Refractor, numbered # 08 / 10. Black refractors fall only once per 7.5 boxes, so that's a pretty good pull. It will probably be the lowest-numbered Refractor I pull from this break. I also got another Demetrious Johnson autograph. This one is just a base autograph, though, unlike the insert autograph I pulled the other day.

The High Impact box had an autograph of Ian McCall and a Femme Fighters insert of Joanne Calderwood. You might notice that Ian McCall's signature doesn't say his name. His nickname is 'Uncle Creepy,' and it sure looks like that's the name he signed on his sticker. He hasn't fought since 2015, although he's been scheduled for several fights over the last couple of years. One fighter has always pulled out of all his scheduled bouts. He's now signed to the Rizin promotion out of Japan.

I needed the Femme Fighters insert of Calderwood for my set, too, so that's another one off the need list. I'm down to needing just two cards for that set. Hopefully the cards I need are somewhere in the stack of unopened High Impact boxes sitting on my desk.

Pack of the Day 158: A Box of 2017 Topps UFC Fire

The online-only releases from Topps are pretty much irresistible for me. I really try not to buy them because the MSRP plus shipping makes them a little more expensive than my impulse-buy threshold. Really, a hanger pack or discount blaster is about the limit of my impulse-buy threshold, and these online only things run $24.99 plus $7-8 in shipping (for the slowest shipping you can imagine. Seriously, it takes well over a week to get from them to me. This one took 10 days, shipping out on 22 MAR and arriving on 01 APR.). But I'm a sucker, so I'm usually good for at least one box of whatever UFC or WWE products they put out there.

In this case, it was 2017 Topps UFC Fire. Topps has partnered with an artist named Tyson Beck on the Fire concept, which has been used for sets and inserts across several sports. The UFC Fire product comes in the form of a 50-card base set with parallels, a 20-card Fired Up insert set, and autographs of 39 different UFC personalities. The autographs also have parallels.

Each pack/box has 20 cards in it, which I think are universally broken out as 16 base cards, 2 parallels, 1 insert, and 1 autograph. The more common parallel in the set isn't listed in the odds up there, but it is called Red Hot and numbered # / 142.

Here's a look at some of the base cards. It looks like there are three different base card designs. Some of the photo editing looks a little weird. I purchased a full base set on eBay, and Holly Holm in particular looked like she had a nasty skin infection. Many of the other fighters look weird, too. Octagon girl Arianny Celeste gets a card in the set, as well as a spot on the autograph checklist. Now that the UFC has a robust set of weight classes for women, it seems a little weird and outdated to have the Octagon Girls parading around. I guess it is tradition and a hallmark of fighting, but I think it's weird. Also, my wife or my sons seem to look over at the screen every time I'm watching fights and the cameras pan across the Octagon Girls. The UFC probably isn't going to hire Octagon Guys to hold the round cards when females are fighting, so they should probably just do away with the eye candy between rounds thing (in my opinion).

The base checklist has pretty much all the people you'd expect to see in a checklist like this. With Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey both being away from the sport for a while, it's hard to see who the UFC has on the roster with mass appeal that will get eyes on their product. People who are already fans will have a deeper roster of fighters or matchups that they want to see, but that won't grow the popularity of the sport much. A lot of the current belt-holders aren't exactly dynamite on the microphone, or dominant enough to catch the interest of Joe Public.

My two parallels were both of the most basic Red Hot variety. That Dominick Cruz card wouldn't stay in place on the scanner bed. He was probably protesting against being right next to the guy who took his belt at UFC 207. I'm not really a fan of either guy. Garbrandt is numbered # 032 / 142 and Cruz is # 038 / 142. Neil Magny is a guy I collect, and his autograph would probably be pretty exciting if I hadn't already purchased a copy of it on eBay. Now I have two of them. This one is numbered # 104 / 199. My Fired Up insert features Tyron Woodley, the guy who has just barely retained his belt in two straight fights against Stephen Thompson.

This is a pretty cool product. I don't know if it's worth the asking price (to me). There are some pretty big names on the autograph checklist, but in all likelihood my box is pretty typical of what you're going to get. I may or may not grab another box at some point. Every so often, Topps will hold a holiday sale and blow out their online products at 40-50% off. If you can beat the re-sellers to the punch, that's probably the way to go. Getting two boxes of this or a box of this and a box of NXT for the asking price feels like a more reasonable deal for what you're likely to pull.

Topps UFC Now - UFC 209

I'll be honest; I don't really remember much about UFC 209. The card didn't feature a whole lot of fighters that are on my list of favorites, and I can't remember much about the fights. I know I watched most of the event, but the details are a little vague for me.

Collectors of Topps Now UFC cards must have had similar feelings about it, as the two cards produced after UFC 209 had the lowest print runs in the line by a wide margin. The previous low print runs all came from UFC 203, with cards for Fabricio Werdum (62 copies), Mickey Gall (71 copies), and Stipe Miocic (72 copies).

The Now releases for UFC 209 almost halved the previous lows, with this David Teymur card only getting 33 copies ordered and printed. I think I missed watching this fight for some reason, so I don't even know anything about what happened. If this Topps Now thing ever really takes off for UFC collectors, though, this is the shortest-printed one in the set.

The main fight on the card was the rematch between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson for the Welterweight belt. They fought to a Majority Draw in UFC 205, in a weird finish that allowed Woodley to keep the belt. The commentators seemed to like this fight, but it really felt like both guys were playing not to lose rather than going for the win. Woodley barely eked out a Majority Decision win to keep his belt. This Topps Now card barely outsold the Teymur one, selling all of 35 copies.

The relatively weak card might have something to do with the low sales, but Topps might need to promote the UFC Now cards a little harder if the line is going to continue. Maybe they are hoping it will die off. I don't know. Luckily, the lineups for UFC 210-212 are a little more star-studded, so there could be an uptick in sales if Topps does decide to keep releasing UFC Now cards.

2016 Topps UFC NOW - UFC 201

I missed out on this Topps NOW card for the main event of UFC 201 when it was first offered, as Topps didn't offer these for several days prior to the event like they did for UFC 200, and they even pulled the UFC NOW tab from their site for a while in between the events. So I missed the 24-hour window of availability for the card showcasing the Main Event fight between Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley, which Woodley won in a pretty quick beatdown. 

The eBay card flippers didn't miss the window of opportunity, though, and there were a few of the 123-card print run available on the auction site. I had to decide if I wanted to pay their prices and continue my attempt at a complete Topps UFC NOW set. I am glad they only printed a card for one fight on the UFC 201 card, as I don't think I could handle aftermarket prices for 4 or 5 cards. I almost didn't pay the aftermarket price on this one, but one seller kept bouncing his price around and I eventually caught him at the lowest price I've seen so far.

As far as the fight goes, it was a pretty quick one. Woodley came in hard and landed one good punch that knocked Lawler down, then he finished him off in short order. Pretty wild stuff.