With our newest Brief Box Break, I’m going to pick a product off the shelf, wipe the dust off of it and open it up for all of our entertainment.
We’ve had the 2022 Sage Hit High Series blasters on our shelves for months now and at $19.99 we can’t seem to get rid of them. Clearly, this is a very low end product, an entry level item or even something for young kids to grab early on in the season to find some of the first cards of NFL rookies still in their college uniforms.
The images on these cards are all pretty generic, which is typical since SAGE doesn’t have a college licensing deal. There is an appeal to these pre-draft products, though, and that is you’re guaranteed to land some autographs and the designs have definitely improved in recent years
“Boasting three autographs in every blaster box.”
You’d think those words alone should draw a random customer here and there to taking a chance in an exchange for an Andrew Jackson…and they do sell at the retail level when they first arrive as collectors look to grab the first 2022-branded football cards.
Immediately upon opening the box it’s apparent that the three autographs included are in a completely separate pack, which may mean something to some collectors and may not others. Regardless, it’s a point worth noting and the pack we will save till the end of the break.
Pack one of the remaining five yielded a bunch of young talent.
We picked up a silver parallel of former Georgia Bulldog and current Pittsburgh Steelers rookie wide receiver George Pickens, New York Jets star rookie running back Breece Hall as well as two Drake London cards, with one being his base card and the second being one of the Diamond Kings-esque Artistry insert.
Our second pack featured another George Pickens card, this time it was his straight base card. We hit another Drake London base card and a nice Garrett Wilson silver parallel. I don’t want to overstate the word parallel. When I’m talking about these silvers as it’s just a few strips of silver in place of the darker color in the card design.
In the third pack, we found our first two Matt Corral cards, including a silver parallel and his Next Level insert… as well as yet another Drake London.
Our fouth pack was a banger as we got our first card of Penn State wide receiver and Washington Commanders young star Jahan Dotson as well as another George Pickens and, you guessed it, a Drake London Artistry card.
We also caught our first sight of a player who is actually still in college: Alabama Heisman hopeful Bryce Young. The NIL deals have given a little extra boost to these early football products that prior to this year included only current NFL rookies. We are used to pulling cards of guys we see play on Sunday. We will now be pulling cards of guys we see play on Saturdays too.
The best card in our final regular pack was a Next Level Breece Hall.
Now for the grand finale. We ripped open our three card autograph pack and found…Commanders WR Kyric McGowan who has yet to record a stat, Colts practice squad member Segun Olubi and Colts left tackle Bernhard Raimann out of Austria, who is scheduled to get the start Sunday.
Yeah, I don’t know either.
As usual, the autos are all on stickers and McGowman’s wasn’t exactly placed well.
In all honesty, for 20 bucks you’re going to get what you pay for but if you get really lucky you might land an autograph of one of the best rookies. If nothing else, you will snag a bunch of cards of the star rookies, just without pro uniforms…or much value. One of our customers recently said he pulled a Justin Fields autograph out of one of the 2021 boxes bought here earlier this year, so, like anything else, it’s a gamble and at this price point (they’re online for as low as $15 shipped), it’s a pretty small one, which certainly has some appeal to anyone on a budget.
Anyone need a Drake London?
You can see other sports card boxes offered in Sports Zone’s eBay store here.
About Tony Reid
From the time he was a little kid, Tony has been a huge sports fan. If he could play sports, watch sports and talk about sports it was a great day. From as early as he was drawn to sports, Tony was drawn to collecting sports cards. Not much has changed over the years. He collects RCs of star players in baseball, basketball and football. He also has a soft spot for first autographs of MMA stars. If you want to talk to Tony about the greatness of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson or Ken Griffey, Jr. you can reach him at [email protected] and @OffCenterTR on social media.