Retail blaster
with 10 packs, 6 cards each.
40/100 base cards, no dupes
1 Patch - Boba Fett
1 Aliens & Creatures
2 Arsenal
3 Art
4 Characters
8 blue parallels
2 purple parallels

Overall C/C+
Pros: Art, Character, and wrapper design.
Cons: Aliens should have been a chase set dedicated to the Tusken Raiders.

I saw a hobby box at a local sports card store. It was priced at $69.95. I've seen the two Mandolorian products start at over $100. It has an autograph or sketch like those. Why so comparatively cheap?

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Why so comparatively cheap?

I don't do anything Star Wars, so this is just my general impression looking at the product checklist.

First of all, I don't hear nearly as much about Boba Fett as I did when the Mandolorian started, so is the show as popular? I think for this product, if you are not actually watching the show, the demand for cards will be less.

I have looked at the autograph checklist and, not watching the show, I know only 3 of the actors by name. Part of having autograph appeal is that you get cross references from other projects and if signers have limited exposure, fewer people will be looking for them.

Finally, and this one is also very important to me anyway, an autograph per box is not guaranteed. The one premium hit is split between an autograph or a sketch. That always discourages me because I want an autograph over a sketch in general, so I usually stay away from skip boxes. I don't think I'm the only one.

Those could be some of the reasons for a discounted product or it could be something related to the particular store. Maybe they need to move it on fast with a reduced price. You should ask them, if you aren't worried about losing a good deal yourself.

Anybody open a hobby tin, yet? Please post.

Someone said that Topps heavily allocated dealers on the boxes for this product, but that the retail versions are much easier to find.

I opened two hobby tins. There was an autograph in each one. The first was Barry Lowin as Garfalaquox. The second was a green parallel numbered 34/75 of Skyler Bible as Fixer. I had 65 of 100 base cards. Not much duplication on the chase card subsets which was nice.

I then saw retail blaster boxes which I hadn't seen in Canada in years. I bought one. I only pulled 4 of the base cards that needed. The patch card was MP-14, Fennec Shand. Most of the chase cards were ones I didn't pull from the hobby tins.

I decided to try a second retail blaster box this week. I pulled 6 more base cards that I didn't have. The patch card is MP-12, Fennec Shand. Once again, most of the other chase cards that I pulled were ones I didn't have.

I received two more blaster boxes for my birthday last week. I pulled ten of the twenty-five base cards that I was missing. The patch cards were MP-7 and MP-11.

Send me your Boba want list? I have a few extra base and inserts.

Thanks Stevetrek! The envelope arrived yesterday.