Box Breaks: 2 Boxes of 2018 Elite Football..THE LUCK IS BACK!!

 

This hobby is an unpredictable roller coaster and nothing exemplifies that more than this year for me. Since I've been back collecting in 2016, I've never experienced such an extreme difference in good/bad luck throughout this year. I've had bad breaks before and I've had good breaks before, but usually I have average breaks in between. This year...NOPE..it's either been REALLY good...or REALLY BAD. Select FOTL Basketball and Contenders Basketball REALLY GOOD....Optic Basketball Case and Topps Tribute Baseball..REALLY BAD. Bowman Baseball Case, National Treasures FOTL Basketball Boxes, and Topps Tier Baseball Case...HISTORICALLY GREAT....Finest Baseball Case, Encased Basketball Break, Inception Baseball Break..HISTORICALLY NUT PUNCHING AWFUL. It's insane. I know the law of averages eventually catches up with you but this is crazy! So this weekend's breaks have been nothing short of a terrible bust and the last product I had to open was of a sport that I RARELY open. I've always found it weird that despite Football being neck and neck with Basketball as far as favorite sports go, I just never have had the same enthusiasm when it comes to Football cards. This goes back to my initial run in collecting as well. Basketball and Baseball have always dominated my eBay Purchases and Box Breaks. In fact last year, 2017 Elite was the ONLY hobby product I opened and that was just one box. Historically speaking, football just doesn't have a ton of collectible players due to the nature of the game. Really only QB's sell well. The rare exceptions are once in a lifetime generational talents at the WR and RB position but even THEY don't sell like you think they should. Combined with the sheer number of players and the odds of the majority of autos being guys that were 6th-7th rounders or undrafted, it's just hard to find Football appealing for the most part. I still every now and then like to dabble and watching box breaks of Elite, I really liked the cards and figured it was worth a shot to grab 2 boxes. The way this weekend was going I figured this was just going to be another disappointment. Well.. unpredictability strikes again! Here's what I got

Box 1
Rookies
Ito Smith (#461/699)
Marcell Ateman (#71/699)
Derrius Guice (#315/399)

Title Waves
Troy Aikman

Elite Deck
Antonio Brown

Hard Hats
Tre'Davious White

Rookie Elitist
Sony Michel

Captain Clutch
Todd Gurley

Dual Threats
Johnny Hekker (#135/299)

Spellbound
Carson Wentz "W' (#261/299)

Spellbound Red Parallel
Carson Wentz "W" (#91/99)


Red Parallel
Mitchell Trubisky (#20/299)
Isaiah Oliver RC (#56/199)

Purple Parallel
Gerald McCoy (#78/99)

Aspirations
Sam Darnold RC (#6/86)
Drew Brees (#70/91)

Aspirations Die Cut
Quenton Nelson RC (#16/24)

Craftsman Jersey
Devonta Freeman


Turn Of The Century Autograph Orange
Tre'Quan Smith (#23/25)

Pen Pals
Josh Rosen

Box 2

Rookies
Royce Freeman (#67/699)
Quenton Nelson (#492/699)
Duke Dawson (#31/699)

Title Waves
Eli Manning

Elite Deck
DeAndre Hopkins

Captain Clutch
Eli Manning

Hard Hats
Von Miller

Rookie Elitest
Kerryon Johnson

Primary Colors
Drew Brees (#54/299)

Spellbound
Carson Wentz "N" (#38/299)


Spellbound Purple Parallel
Jordan Howard "A" (#58/75)

Red Parallel
Josh Rosen RC (#152/199)
J.T. Barrett RC (#171/199)
Delanie Walker (#96/299)
Alvin Kamara (#228/299)
Derrick Henry (#16/299)

Orange Parallel
Baker Mayfield RC (#14/25)


Aspirations
Luke Falk RC (#72/96)

Craftsman Jersey
Tony Romo

Pen Pals
Hayden Hurst

Team Lineage Triple Auto Black Parallel
FRED TAYLOR/MJD/LEONARD FOURNETTE (1/1)

Overall Thoughts: Man....just when you think your luck has vanished into thin air never to be seen again you get a pleasant break like this! Totally unexpected coming from an unlikely source!! First of the cards..man are they SLICK. So shiny and they stand out. I absolutely LOVE the inserts. I wish inserts were valued more because Elite has some of the slickest inserts there are. I absolutely love the Elite Deck, Title Waves, and Hard Hats inserts. Just so cool looking as you'll see below. I had just hoped for a mediocre break that I wouldn't completely lose my ass on and it over delivered big time. Getting a Top QB on card rookie auto was definitely a great start. Josh Rosen is definitely one of the better players to get and was stoked to pull that in Box 1 along with a Sam Darnold Aspirations rookie parallel! If you're going to pull parallels might as well pull the top QB prospects and the cards are soooooo nice looking. Definitely that at worst, if Box 2 flopped I would still be able to call this a decent break on the strength of the Rosen and Darnold...but Box 2 was EVEN BETTER. Not only did I get a Rosen parallel to 199 AND A BAKER MAYFIELD numbered to 25..but I pulled yet ANOTHER 1/1. This time? A triple autograph that basically encompasses the history of the Jags Running Backs. It's seriously a super sweet card. Fred Taylor/Maurice Jones Drew/Leonard Fournette. Fournette is the lastest Jaguar RB in a line of pretty successful RB's. And to top it off it's the #1/1! (yet won't make my Top 5 pulls because that's how awesome my luck was before, it still can't beat the on card Jeter auto). Wow! What a HUGE comeback after such HUGE letdowns!! I must say watching online breaks of this stuff, it really seems like a solid buy to try at least a box if you're a football fan. You get A TON of numbered cards, really nice inserts, and two autos, which one of them is guaranteed to be an on card rookie (and that Pen Pals checklist is relatively small considering it's Football, only 40 players). At $125 a box I definitely recommend checking this out! Pics might not do them justice, but I'll show off what the inserts look like below followed by the bigger hits. So for now the luck has been swung back in my favor but how long will that last? Next up on the breaking schedule next week will be 2018 Stadium Club and 2018 Topps Museum Collection. Both highly volatile products. For now though, I'll enjoy the luck swinging back my way! Here's the pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5 Pulls of 2018

#1 2017-18 National Treasures FOTL RPA Exclusive Lonzo Ball (#13/15)

#2 2017-18 National Treasures FOTL RPA Exclusive De'Aaron Fox (#3/15)

#3 2018 Topps Tier One Triple Patch Autographs Ichiro (#1/1)

#4 2018 Bowman Chrome Prospects Red Refractor Autograph Jeren Kendall (#2/5)

#5 2018 Topps Tier One Tier One Signatures Derek Jeter (#7/15)