I’ve been very vocal about my excitement around 2017-18 Contenders Basketball. I have not enjoyed opening a product this much in a LONG time. Just about every aspect of the product is solid despite the annoying amount of redemptions. We opened 2 cases and as usual wanted to give you a realistic breakdown of our hits. Hobby boxes are north of $220 and cases are nears $2,600…. see real-time pricing HERE…. so you definitely want to see our quick breakdown.
THE GOOD
Let me jump right to the exciting content and tell you why I think this product is worth your time.
#1: Prizm (Premium) Auto’s
These will be sought after for years to come…and will likely become the keystone of Contenders from here on out. They are beautiful. Auto’s have been top-notch…and condition has been perfect. They are falling about 4 per case (1 every 3 boxes)…and have incredibly resale value on the secondary market.
Check out the TOP eBaY PREMIUM AUTO’s RIGHT HERE.
Here are a few of the Premium Auto’s we pulled:
#2: Cracked Ice are great as ever
Before the release of Premium Auto’s you bought Contenders for the Cracked Ice chase. This year they aren’t getting the publicity out of the gate but will undoubtedly be the card that holds the most resale value. They are flat out impressive this year.
Check out the TOP eBaY CRACKED ICE AUTO’s RIGHT HERE.
Here are a few of the Cracked Ice Auto’s we nailed.
#3: Hobby Cases are loaded.
They DID NOT overproduce this product. Every single case I’ve seen has had enough content to make the $2k investment seem extremely fair. Cracked Ice are falling at 7-8 per case, Premium at 5 per case, and RC auto’s are running about 18-19 of 24 total autos. The checklist is just so rich that you are all but guaranteed to AT LEAST have a shot at 2-3 high-end cards in each case.
Watch any # of breaks and you’ll see that this product is overflowing with goodness.
Check out the TOP eBaY BREAK PRICES (for CONTENDERS) RIGHT HERE.
Here are the Top 10 Contenders Breaks ENDING NOW!
#4: This isn’t complicated.
This is a very straight-forward product. After the last few releases (Chronicles & Status) this is a sight for sour eyes. Not a huge set, no complicated syntax, 5-6 “parallels”, and no discouraging break results. This is just a simple and very fun product to open and understand.
What’s NOT to like:
Really, the only complaint that I can convincingly stand behind is the REDEMPTIONS. I averaged 4.5 Redemptions PER CASE. That means almost 20% of my Auto’s were redemptions. But there is silver lining. I think we’d all take redemptions over Panini points. We’d also take redemptions if they are of exceptional players. In my particular case we pulled 3 Kevin Durant auto redemptions. I’m okay with this. 😉
There won’t be a ton of this product sitting on shelves, so redemptions won’t go unused…. but something to keep in mind if you are storing wax is the abundance of redemptions.
The Breakdown:
Here are the details of our TWO hobby cases. I’ve broken down all of the inserts, parallels, variations, etc…. this should give you a good feel for what you are walking into. I’ve also added our team checklists below (from our Product Page) for quick reference.
Quick takeaways:
- Premium Auto’s are running 5 Per Case
- Cracked Ice AUTO’s are running 2 Per case
- We nailed 5 GOLD AUTO’s in 2 cases
- No shortages in Auto’s – No Panini Points
OUR ROI FROM 2 CASES
We spent a little over $2,900 for our 2 cases (pre-order).
I’m guessing our ROI will be between +5 to +10%
I’ll post $$ results starting tomorrow.
Our auctions are below:
