2012 Hobby Box Help

[drubacca117]

Hey all, I have a question about 2012 hobby boxes… namely, which ones gave you the best bang for your bucks. I'm not going to be able to buy many boxes in the near future, so when I do, I need to make it count! What products gave you the most hits? What products had the nicest looking cards (because hits are nothing if the cards look like junk!)?

I know I could look at the product listings on this site, but I wanna know what y'all think! As for me, I'm looking at picking up a box of 2012 Fleer Retro soon!

[sportscardrage]

It all depends on what you're looking to do with the cards. As in if you're looking for resell value I would steer clear of anything that has players in college unis, in my experience they don't nearly sell as well as the other brands. For me 2012 is a great year with a lot of great players to have. That however makes the boxes expensive, more so than other years. For me Topps Chrome or Playoff Contenders are the best. Chrome only has one auto, however the refractors and what not make up for that in my opinion also with the amount of great players from last year the chance of that one auto being a great resell is decent.

Contenders last year, were great, you get six autos (they say five but I haven't heard one person say they only got five). Expensive, but six autos and in my opinion they looked great.


For me those two, being how more expensive most brands were last year, are the best bang for the buck.

[90sTriplets]

Prestige is a fun break. Lots of cards, plenty of inserts, and autos and mem cards can be pretty valuable. Good luck with your search! Good idea staying in 2012.

[azdbacks1998]

Im with you on the 2012 idea!! I'm thinking about doing some Valor from 2012, they look really cool and elegant (to me anyways)....you get 2 on card rookie autos, 1 veteran or retired auto, 1 rookie patch relic and two base...that's the chance that you'll get 4 hits that will (hopefully) = about $25 or more each to get the value of a box (my LCS has them for $109...I think)....if I remember correctly. Totally Certified has hits in every pack for around $100/box, Crown Royale is 4 packs, 4 hits, about $110, so those are decent choices.....I like 2012 cause of all the obvious hot players that are possible to pull.
Good luck, and make sure to post your break results, its always nice to see what people pull.

[drubacca117]

Thanks for the ideas guys! Trying to maximize hits for the price can be tough. I collect for the fun of it, and I love opening packs, but if I am spending the cash it is nice to grab some hits at the same time!

[hayn]

First and foremost, I swear by 2012 hobby boxes. Remember, no one is incorrect in their choices! Sportscardrage suggests Chrome and Contenders! Both of these hobby boxes have escalated to 50% of their original cost. This is due to the fact that these two products are the most popular items with collectors year in and year out. If you hit on Chrome, ie: Luck, RGIII, Wilson auto, that card will sell above book value. But as Sportscardrage points out, there is only one hit, hence the high premium per hit. The parallels can be purchased on the secondary market for relatively little money. Note that I completed a 2012 Topps Chrome Master Set in mid 2013 for $221.92. This included 220 base, '57, '65, '84, Red Zone DC, and QB RC Reprint. BV $552.50 a difference of $300.58! Just ask RBRedskins, he's a complete set collector. His knowledge helped me with this purchase. You do the math, do you buy singles of hits YOU WANT, or hobby boxes? I chose the first. My Chrome collection is in a previous thread if you're interested in how I did it. As for Contenders, the key hits would be the "Championship Tickets" series with the foil and auto. I've seen Lucks go for anywhere between $500.00 to a $1000.00! Just understand that there are hundreds of other rookies that could be pulled. It's a chance you'll have to take but an extremely fun chance nonetheless.

90'sTriplets choice of Prestige is also a great choice like Sportscardrage choice of Chrome and Contenders. Prestige offers much more in autos, inserts, parallels, etc. It is a mid-level product, you seem to have needs like mines. I want to only collect hobby boxes that have outstanding, in your face, attractive base cards. In the end, that's the majority of the hobby box break, base cards. If you like them so much, building a complete base set is the only next sensible thing.

Azdbacks1998 choices are interesting. I noticed that the art work of Valor that azdbacks1998 recommends is shared with another Topps product called Inception. These boxes have 1 pack with anywhere from 4-8 cards. You have to decide if you can live with this. Azdbacks1998 loves Valor in that he says they are a cool product, hence he chooses Valor as one of his choices. Again, there are no wrong answers here. These choices are made by individual collectors needs and wants. The other products azdbacks1998 mentions are TC and CR. These two products happen to be the Toshi household favorites.

If you ask Mrs. Toshi, she loves Vegas! What's greater is she wins in Vegas! That's how Mrs. Toshi is with hobby boxes. She purchased 4 hobby boxes of Totally Certified. She got some great hits and some mediocre hits. Her biggest, a redemption of Russell Wilson Red Auto Jersey with the jersey in a die cut spelling the word Rookie. It's worth back in 2012 probably averaged $100.00. Since Wilson won the SB, it did rise in value, but not by much. In my humble opinion, 10%-20% at best. Her other notable hit was a Alfred Morris auto. She had no idea who he was, but wanted to keep the card due to his beautiful penmanship, her words, not mine! The rest of the TC breaks were decent. Crown Royale is in my top 5 2012 hobby boxes. I'm in love with the base die cuts. It's a product with 4 packs, 5 cards per pack, 20 cards per hobby box. Each pack will contain a hit. Auto, auto jersey (Rookie Silhouette), and inserts. I don't like the inserts, they are like a disease, they distract from the quality of CR. I'm still a big fan, recently I pulled a Rookie Silhouette of Ryan Tannehill 4 Color Auto Prime. Prior to that, Brett bought a pack for me (I helped him complete his Chrome set), it contained a 3/5 Brian Quick 4 Color Jersey Auto Prime. And that pack held two other autos.

Mrs. Toshi and I have purchased 3 Panini Blacks, 1 Momentum, 1 Supreme, 1 Certified, 1 Elite, and many more that I can't recount. As you've read my threads, these hobby boxes that Mrs. Toshi picked (There are many more hits, but I'll just stick with the main hits here), procured a Andrew Luck Auto 2 Color Jersey (Panini Black), RGIII Auto Jersey (Momentum), dual auto of David Wilson/Reuben Randall (Supreme), Doug Martin Auto Team Die Cut (Certified), and Trent Richardson Auto Jersey (Elite).

I must point out that we made our purchases because we had fun. It's as simple as that. If you're looking for a trade or sell situation, to recoup your investment, cases of these hobby boxes is the only way you can approach this. It gives you better odds. A very important fact is that you don't have much time left. If I'm correct, all redemptions from 2012 will expire in 2014! Panini has said that they will try to honor but cannot guarantee the redemption. At which they could send you a Mark Sanchez card for a Andrew Luck card. In summation, research each and or all 2012 hobby boxes, find out which will deliver hits and cater to your needs, and view the hits via online sources, to see what the cards will look like. Good luck on your purchases! Below are my top 5 hobby boxes.


2012 Panini Black (1 pack, 12 cards, 3-4 Autos)

2012 Panini Momentum (10 packs, 3 cards per pack, 30 cards total)
Each pack contains a hit.

2012 Panini Crown Royale (4 packs, 5 cards per pack, 20 cards)
Each pack contains a hit.

2012 Panini Elite

2012 Panini Limited

By default, Topps Chrome and Platinum.

Toshi

[bcw716]

I always like Crown Royale. it's 4 packs per box & one hit per pack. Also check out Certified. I bought a butt load last year & came out pretty good for the most part. I think you get 4 hits out of that w/ at least two autos.

[drubacca117]

Thanks guys, especially you Toshi, for such an in depth write up! I have a few ideas of what I might want to purchase next… Fleer Retro is still in the mix (love the number of hits!), but a few other boxes may have moved in front of it… I have found a few decent deals on 2011 Crown Royale, and Certfied is still relatively cheap, among a few others.

Thank you again for the suggestions… I just hope I buy before the redemptions expire!

[hayn]

No problem, it's my pleasure. Although injured, I have taken advantage of my situation in a positive way in regards to football card collecting. We are passionate about our hobby, and have fun. That's what the meaning of life is; "To live it to it's fullest"!

Toshi

[hayn]

Thanks guys, especially you Toshi, for such an in depth write up! I have a few ideas of what I might want to purchase next… Fleer Retro is still in the mix (love the number of hits!), but a few other boxes may have moved in front of it… I have found a few decent deals on 2011 Crown Royale, and Certfied is still relatively cheap, among a few others.

Thank you again for the suggestions… I just hope I buy before the redemptions expire!

If you do purchase the Fleer Retro, your biggest hit will be from the Jambalaya sub set. It is an extremely rare and a very difficult pull! Good luck on the Jambalaya!