Wax Reviews

Instead of doing a regular "vanilla" type of review, Cardboard Junction has decided to add a different twist and flavor to wax reviews. Whenever a new product comes out, we're going to have two collectors offer their different views on the product based on certain categories in what we call the Point/Counterpoint Review.

The 2009 Upper Deck Exquisite Football review will be done by two collectors: Steve and Nick. Both have been collectors for years, and both also break multiple cases of this product every year....They will be reviewing the product based on the following categories: Card Design, Content Value, Product Collation and will be providing their overall review of their product.

Card Design:

Steve:The design of the cards is visually pleasing. There is a lot of contrast on the cards, especially with the Rookie Patch Auto’s, making the patch stand out. Adding the team colors into the insert cards was another thing I like about this, just something to make the card more unique. Patch quality out of the 3 cases that I broke were good to excellent, all were multicolored. I think Upper Deck did a good job of trying to get quality patches into these cards to increase collectability. The sizes of the patches are very large, unlike some products that have a tiny swatch, not giving it the chance to be more than one color. The Gold pack contains a very nice auto’d card with a gold signature on a black background. Only downside to this is that smearing of the auto is more prevalent.

Nick: Agree with Steve that the design is visually pleasing. I do like the border around the GU on the rookie auto patches. One thing I was not pleased with is the design of the Rookie Auto Patches. Depending how high or low a player signed the actual signature gets lost in the picture. While on the subject of the Rookie Auto Patch cards the three that were in the case I busted were all multicolored. There are still a good amount of one color patches in the product. I am really a fan of the Gold Pack in each box because some of the cards are signed with a gold sharpie. Only downfall is that there is some smudging on some of the gold pack autos.

Content Value:
Steve: Much like most high end products, this is extremely hit or miss. Box wise it would be a pretty big gamble to make your money back or even turn a profit. I could see someone easily losing $400 on a box or less likely profiting $1000+. One or two rookies will help pay for the entire case (Flacco, Ryan). Beckett has priced this early and I am shocked to see some of the RCPA’s going to so little. For example, the HI book value of a Steve Slaton RCPA is $200.00. I would expect something a little higher than that for some one who rushed for close to 1,300 yards and put up 9 rushing TD’s. Another thing that drives me nuts about this product is the quad jersey cards that are often all one color. You spend $500+ for 7 cards and you get one that will struggle to make $20 on Ebay. That just makes me sick.

Nick: This is a high end product and not for the weak of heart. Without a Flacco or Ryan rookie auto patch breaking even will be tough on a single box break or case. Sales of the rookie auto patch card were strong out of the gate but have dropped like in past years releases. Beckett pricing is on the lower side which may have impacted the drop in prices. UD claims that this product is hand packed for value. I strongly disagree especially with a $400 plus price tag. Granted card manufacturers do not take into consideration the flipper in mind but market the ‘value’ to collectors, whom they believe a majority of their customers are. The gold pack was a welcome addition to sell unsealed but with so many redemptions these are ‘searched’ pretty easily. This product is best for collectors who are after the BIG hit. It’s a gamble, it’s a rush, it’s usually a let down, but just the idea of possibly pulling a 1/1 dual shield auto is exciting. Should you expect to hit anything close to that, absolutely not, but it gets my blood flowing. There are some potentially good hits for one’s PC and some really good trade bait if you want to move the cards. The good thing is that most of the cards, including base, will bring you some sort of cash on Ebay, too

Product Collation:

Steve: I will never understand why Upper Deck made the base cards more limited than the RCPA’s. It just boggles my mind, even the Level 2 RCPA’s are numbered higher than the base. We also have the “missing” Tiger Wood’s RCPA that has yet to be pulled by anyone out of a box of Exquisite. Some people feel that this is a bait and switch, and if it is, shame on you Upper Deck, what a low class method of trying to increase sales. However, my gut feeling is that Upper Deck back loaded the product to spark box and case sales later in the release, which is still a pretty crappy thing to do. Expect the product to skyrocket in price the second that Woods is pulled. Other than that, I think that card distribution was pretty good throughout my three cases, there were no doubles pulled and there were no boxes that had two card of the same player. There was no set card position other than the base card being first in the box, which made it more of a crap shoot where the RCPA was, making for a more exciting group break, of which my three cases were for.

Nick: Each box was pretty consistent in the break with a base card, rookie auto patch, super swatch (horrible card design and player selection in my opinion…Brodie Croyle!!!), rookie auto and then a nice mix. UD each year puts a huge emphasis on hand packed for ‘value’. The case I busted each box was not nearly as bad as some that I have seen. Each box had at least one big hit: Jerry Rice GU/Auto, Joe Flacco GU/Auto, and a three color Chris Johnson Rookie Auto Patch. The base cards this year are numbered to 75 which def makes some of the most expensive base cards on the market. Thought the collation the case I busted was good but others have not been as lucky.

Overall Review:
Steve: If I were to grade this, I would probably give it a B- to C+, and most of that grade goes to the rookie class. My initial feelings were to give this a B+, but after seeing book values and the resale values of these cards, I personally do not think this is a worthwhile investment. I know the chance for the big hit is there, but I could not justify it to myself after buying a box after seeing those values. I’m more inclined to just sit back and pick up singles all day on the cheap. I would advise though to maybe buy these RCPA’s now and sitting on them for a while, because of the solid rookie class.

Nick: I would have to grade this year’s Exquisite Football product a B. Upper Deck make a decent attempt to add value by adding the gold pack to each box. Thinking there are too many lower end players rookies and veterans that were inserted into the product. Also did not like the fact that there are more Rookie Auto Patch variations than in previous years (#’d to 75 was added). The rush you get when opening this product is like none other when it comes to football products on the market…..especially since not one Tiger Woods auto have surfaced yet. But with singles selling abnormal lows on Ebay you may be better off picking up singles of the players to speculate on or that you collect.

The 2009 Topps Heritage Baseball review will be done by two collectors: Tim and Brent. Both have been collectors for years, and both also break multiple cases of this product every year....They will be reviewing the product on a scale of 1-10 based on the following categories: Card Design, Target Audience, Collation, Checklist Value, Content Value and will be providing their overall review of their product.

2009 Topps Heritage Baseball

Card Design

Tim (9)
Topps has done a tremendous job recreating the look of the 1960 design. The appropriately thick card stock and the gorgeous fronts of the cards are a welcome change to the seemingly endless displays of modern-looking sets that appear each month.

Brent (8)

I agree with Tim that Topps has done a great job at reproducing the 1960 set design. It is one of Topps best designs historically and is favored by many longtime collectors. And yes, the card stock is nice and of appropriate thickness. My only knock on the card design would be that of the insert subsets. Of course the original 1960 set did not have inserts, so these designs are made with an older feel, but to me they are not as well done as in years past. The inserts are very bland to the eye. The Then & Now insert set is my least favorite by design simply because the pictures are not very big, and the bright blue and red coloring just throw it off for me. I'd like to see Topps do some of its “famous photo magic” like UD Masterpieces did in football this past season and create cards with the two players appearing together in the same photo, instead of making the names and colors so prevalent.

Target Audience

Tim
This product is unique in that it does not have one singular target audience for whom it is "best." Set builders, collectors and even case flippers (if done early) will benefit from ordering Topps Heritage.

Set builders can open a box or two and have fun putting together a set. They can also open an entire case and have fun putting together a master set.

Collectors can choose to just buy a base or master set and put it away for their children or themselves, or they can enjoy looking through the cards and being reminded of their youth when they not only collected cards but they collected cards that looked and felt just like these do.

Brent

This product does target all baseball card collectors, both old and new. It has the excitement of big hit potential plus the thrill of chasing cards to complete sets. If there is a target audience it would be die hard baseball fans, especially those who appreciate the history of the game and the history of baseball cards. It is geared to set collectors, especially those who have been collecting since they were much younger, but the set also offers the big hits and innovations (such as autographs and chromes) for the younger generation. Plus, this is one of the rare sets where older collectors can get the first autographs or relics of their longtime heroes and legends of the past and present in one set. Heritage offers many first-time autographs of players from the ‘50s and ‘60s, and that is something that can target both younger and older collectors.

Collation

Tim (2)
I opened three cases and still do not have a master set. That is very disappointing. I have dinged and damaged cards, and I had three "dead" boxes containing zero relics or autos. I still do not know what a black chrome card looks like in this year's release. All of this is absolutely inexcusable, and it continues a disturbing trend during the past two years from virtually all Topps products: bad quality control.

Brent (8)

I feel for Tim but disagree about the collation and quality control issues. I open more Topps baseball products then anyone I know and have not experienced the unfortunate things that Tim has. In 15 cases, I was able to yield 14 complete master sets with inserts. Plus, I was just 13 SP cards away from making four more, which I did complete through trading. There are 75 SP cards, and each case should yield 96. Again, with one or maybe a few cases your collation might be off. But with larger amounts, it will not be most of the time. I have opened at least 15 cases of this product every year for the past six years and have studied it to great lengths, and I have found 12 to 18 cases are best. In regard to the quality control issues Tim has experienced, I have not seen the same. I did not have one noticeably damaged card this year from Heritage.

Checklist Value

Tim (3)
Topps did another bait and switch and released a checklist different from the sell sheet (no Ryan Howard/Sparky Anderson dual auto, for example). The auto checklist is weak, and the relic checklist, considering all the old timers Topps now has signed, is also weak, Mickey Mantle notwithstanding. But to be fair, this is not a product about big hits. And Topps did include some super rare SP cards.

Brent (5)
I agree that the checklist is weak this year, the weakest it has ever been, but I do not agree with the “bait and switch” comment. Tim mentioned one card, and that is the only card in the checklist that has not been pulled. But back to the checklist; it is beyond weak. Last year there were 72 jersey and bat relics in the single player set, which included some nice, although rare, retired players that commanded premium prices. This year there are 24, and none are very tough to pull; in addition, the players that are included are not the greatest, except for the Red Sox players and Manny Ramirez. Regardless, the checklist is very weak. The single player autograph checklist is also smaller than years past. Not one big retired name was included. The checklist is much stronger in the dual autographs, dual relics and flashback stadium seat sets. They do include retired legends, and with the lowered production of the base set, they are not impossible to pull. I would give the master set checklist high marks, but as far as the hits, Tim is correct that it is very weak. But even a weak Heritage checklist can lead to some nice coin for some minor or no name players. And where are all those deceased HOF legends that Topps recently acquired the rights to? Not even a subset for some of them, or variations in the base set like with Topps Series 1? I realize that it is not part of Heritage's history to include the older players in the base set, but they could have made very interesting subsets or rare SPs.

Content Value

Tim
Content Value -- box (3)
Content Value -- case (6)
Content Value -- multiple cases (8)

Heritage is priced relatively low, but opening an individual box or two is not the way to go for content value. Autos run about one per case, and most of the other one-per-box "hits" are $1-$2 relics. The value in Heritage is in the base sets, SPs, chromes and parallels.

Brent

Content Value -- box (2)
Content Value -- case (5)
Content Value -- multiple cases (9)

Tim is dead on about the box value of this product. Sure they are neat cards and the price point is inexpensive compared to the average product, but anyone who opens a lone box will end up mostly disappointed unless they pull a monster hit. There is not even a hit/SP/insert in every pack. You are not able to come close to a base set. The autographs are also tough, and the ad panel box toppers don't add a whole bunch of value as some past toppers have. As far as Heritage by the case, it is a relatively inexpensive case, but again, you may only receive one big hit, so it better be a good one. (Luckily, most Heritage hits are better than in an average product.) Again, with one case, you may put together a master set with inserts but only with perfect collation. With multiple cases is where Heritage’s value is unsurpassed (with the exception of perhaps Allen & Ginter). A breaker will not only get several master sets and rare pulls to add value but also will be able to put together tougher sets of relics, box toppers, chromes and possibly even refractors. Some of these items are rarely seen in complete sets and add tremendous value. Plus the rarer pulls are worth more than would be expected because of the Heritage brand. One word of caution about large breaks: While the value does increase with multiple cases, there is a breaking point. Eventually too many cases are just that: too many cases. I learned this three years ago when busting 33 cases. Eventually, the hits and sets decline in the secondary market after release, yet I still paid the same for each case. So while the first 15 cases may have produced nice sales of sets and pulls, those same sets and pulls did not result in the same nice sales after a certain time period. It is best to wait for the case price to drop (if it does) and go back and pick it up cheaper to continue breaking, because sets and SPs sell well for months, especially as baseball season begins and the number of low and midrange releases drops.

Overall Review

Tim (7)
It's hard to give this product too low of a rating because of the consistent popularity and truly nostalgic feel it brings to the table each year. A "good" year would get a rating of 10; an average year would get a rating of 8 or 9, and a "bad" year would get a 6 or 7 from me. This year's quality control issues have left me cold, but the overall beauty of the cards themselves counts for a lot, too.

Brent (8)

It is hard to knock the overall product as Tim stated. It is one of the top moneymakers for large case breakers each year. And even with a weaker checklist this year, it will still do quite well. The weaker checklist is the only reason the scores are lower this year. With Topps cutting back on production because of fewer orders, it has messed with the checklist a little; however, it also has some positives. Besides less supply of the product, the odds also improved from recent years, resulting in chromes, refractors and big hits coming more often. With Heritage there is just so much offered: base, SPs, inserts, chromes, refractors, box toppers, autographs, relics, great classic design, bright colors, excitement of building a complete master set, HOF and retired players, rare SP variations and, of course, gum.

Want to check out Tim and Brent's Heritage auctions? Click on the following links!:

Tim's ebay auctions

Brents ebay auctions

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