Late last week I decided to search the Internets for some deals on sealed boxes. And after scouring all the regular places, BlowOut Cards, Dave & Adams and eBay, I settled on what I decided seemed to me like a good deal: Three Topps Gallery Boxes (2002, 2003, and 2003 Hall of Fame Edition.)

My real draw to this lot was the 2003 Hall of Fame Edition, one I’ve loved since it’s release. The packs were like $4 upon release and when I bought a few, I pulled a autograph of baseball legend and Red Sox God Bobby Doerr. The card still sits in my Sox display case. My local hobby shop has a few boxes of this product sitting around for $100, and needless to say, they’ve been sitting on the product for five years. But every time I go to the store, I imagine myself breaking the box. Thankfully I’ve held out.

So during my search for some deal — any decent deal — I came across this three box lot, which was priced at about $60, or $20 per box. I snatched it up thinking I got myself a deal. But now as I wait for the product to arrive, I’m uncertain about what to do with this lot. Clearly I’m going to open to the HOF edition, but should I resell the other boxes?

The 2002 series features autos, relics and a rookie card of Twins catcher Joe Mauer. The 2003 series also features autos and relics, and several rookies, including Marlins slugging shortstop Hanley Ramirez. And of course each box offers chances at 1/1 printing plate cards. This piques my interest because it reminds me of 1999 when I went to shop and snagged a Nomar Garciaparra plate from Topps Gallery. Nomar AND Printing Plates were HOT then.

I digress. Surely I can get at least $20 per box on the 2002 and 2003 Topps Gallery, right? If so, then I would have gotten my HOF box, factory sealed with a chance at some awesome relics — Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig etc. — and great-looking base cards, for about $20. That’s a freakin steal!

Of course there is part of me that loves deals and busting wax, and getting three factory sealed HOBBY boxes of modern decent looking products for about $20 per is a bargain in and of itself.

So I pose the question:

This entry was posted on February 10, 2009 at 11:28 am and is filed under Newspaperman with tags Babe Ruth, baseball cards, Cardboard Icons, Hall of fame, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, Topps, Topps Gallery, Ty Cobb. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.