Don’t ever forget 2017 || Build a Time Capsule of your favorite products || by Ziggy

Happy New Year!  January is wonder time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future.  The gyms are full of new people making life changes and more of us dare I say…are planning our budgets.  As I look around my card room full of the random piles of baseball, basketball and football cards… I realize what an amazing year 2017 was for the hobby.  I thought back to how much fun my sons and I had in group breaks, buying hobby boxes and chasing retail exclusives.   The rookie classes this year in the three major sports might be the best classes in years.  Thinking about it gave me an idea. A little something  for my boy and I to appreciate 2017 and teach a little much needed self-control.

Time Capsule

We decided to build a “Time Capsule” of our favorite 2017 Products from the retail shelves.     The idea is simple, buy a few boxes and stash them away from the boys and myself for 1 year or more and enjoy opening the Time Capsule in the future when the boys are little older.  As my 6-year-old said, “a year is forever dad.”  We started with a budget (with every intention of exceeding it!) and  I spent the last few weeks collecting various boxes from several Targets and Walmart.  Next, we set up a night to pack our Time Capsule.  Then we gathered around the laptop and recorded a Facebook Live video packing our “time capsule” and discussing each box we stashed away.

The Ingredients

Football

For Football, we put away a retail “hobby” box of Target Pink Prizm Football for $49.99 and Contenders Football box with 1 autograph for $39.99.  Prizm and Contenders were two of our favorite football products for 2017.  Prizm is always a favorite for the kids and great product with excellent cards to grade.  Contenders is a very tough pull, but every football collector loves the Rookie Ticket Autos.  I really think 2017 was a great rookie year for football, sadly impacted by too many key injuries.  The RB class might be the best in years!  Kareem Hunt, Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook and Leonard Fournette are all serious contenders for future Hall of Fame (okay, I might be getting ahead of myself).  Odds are against all of them developing into Hall of Famers, but all are better than most years.  The QB class has lots of potential in with Mitch Trubisky & Patrick Mahomes… and DeShaun Watson looks to be the next big-time QB!  I’m surprised football has been very flat in the secondary market, but I think we will pay a premium in the future for 2017 football.

Basketball

For basketball, we were lucky enough to find a full sealed 2017-18 Prizm retail box with 1 autograph from Target for $75, 1 hanger pack for $10 and 1 blaster for $20 for Walmart.  In my jaded opinion, Prizm Basketball is like buying savings bonds without any of the tax benefits or guaranteed upside.  I explained to the boys that when we open this Time Capsule the Prizm basketball would be worth gold.  They laughed and told me there are no Gold cards in Prizm retail.  They made a good point… but the reality is most Prizm basketball sealed wax continues to appreciate in value. Prizm has become the premium basketball card to collect.  It’s popularly this year might have exceed expectations.  You don’t have to collect basketball to know if you see Prizm basketball in retail, buy it all.  The rookie class is very deep and there are lots of potential huge sleepers.  Lauri Markkanen, Dennis Smith Jr and Donovan Mitchell were on few radars at the beginning of the season, now they are future stars.

I explained to the boys that when we open this Time Capsule the Prizm basketball would be worth gold.  They laughed and told me there are no Gold cards in Prizm retail

Baseball

For baseball, we stashed a retail Walmart Hobby Topps Gallery box with 2 autos for $69.99.  My son and I really enjoyed Gallery especially after we watched some amazing redemptions for Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge pulled from these retail boxes. The vet checklist is awesome too with a potential for cut autos in retail.  We added a box of Topps Holiday Baseball with the snowflakes for $19.99 and a box of Topps Chrome Update at $19.99.  Topps Retail was full of Bellinger and Judge redemptions, which led my sons to remind me of their expiration dates. Was 2017 Baseball the best baseball rookie class in years?  I know I just said the same about Football….and basketball.  Did we just witness the best year in rookies for the major three sports?  The last box in our “Time Capsule” is a Bowman Mega Box from Target that I had to buy online for $50.  Why?  Otani of course, who will be a hot rookie to chase in 2018.

Amazing!!!

Wow, what an amazing 2017. Am I crazy?  Can you think of any year in sports like the one we just enjoyed?  Can 2018 compete?  Baseball is only a few months away and the boys and I are excited to chase Otani, Greene and other baseball prospects.  Football could have 4 or 5 1^st round QBs with potential to end up at some key franchises like the Giants and Redskins.  Cleveland is on the clock now.  Basketball March Madness in a few months away and will give us a peak at next year’s hot rookies.

And best of all when the craziness of 2018 is over and we are reflecting, the boys and I look forward to opening our Time Capsule and enjoying 2017 all over again.

Thanks for reading!