Yay! It's open that box day! Sorry for the late entry-I opened my box this afternoon, but didn't have time to post until now!

This year I opened up a box of Battlestar Galactica season 2 cards. Here's the lowdown:

2 complete sets, with several extra cards (not quite enough for a third set. awww )

Ragtag Fleet: R3(Colonial One), R5(Astral Queen), and R8(Geminon Traveller)

Alliances: A6(Galen Tyrol/Gaius Baltar) and A9(Galen Tyrol/Karl Agathon) (hey, two Galens!) LOL

Women of BSG: W3(Tricia Helfer as Number Six)

Crew card: T3(Katee Sackhoff as Captain Kara Thrace)

Autograph card: Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh)

Costume card: CC30 Kara Thrace (I was secretly hoping for William Adama, but hey, Kara Thrace ain't too shabby!! I'm not complaining)

Another successful OTB day! I can't wait to participate again next year!!

The box I chose to open for OTB day was one I purchased from a flea market a couple of weeks ago. It was the Elvis Collection (Series two), 1992. Although I didn't plan on even coming close to making a set, I did enjoy the two Dufex cards i got.

I got: Don't #20 of 40 and Suspicious Minds #24 of 40.

Each worth about $15 dollars a piece. Thats more than double what I paid for the whole box. So overall it was definitely a good buy!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GoldenMonkey,

Wow, I thought it would be easy to participate in this "Open That Box Day" celebration. So I cleverly split some plastic shrink-wrap and opened a box, and felt quite content that I had contributed to the cause.

Then I read some of the other posts, and it seems that almost everybody was opening the packs they found inside their boxes. And then, to add to the work, they were sorting cards into certain orders and even looking at the cards. So I figured I ought to do the same.

I also chose to go for a blast from the past, since I didn't order my box of Monsterfaces until today. It's eerie, because I almost decided to open a Saturday Night Live box, even without seeing what Harris was up to. But I decided instead to go with one of my first loves, fantasy art, and picked out a nice box of FPG Paul Chadwick cards.

Unfortunately, no autograph card, or I could add a COA and claim that it was indeed a pack pull and not an FPG forgery. (That lets me match Harris with another Webjon reference.) Otherwise, except for the nice artwork, the box provided about what was expected:

2 base sets, 21 cards short of a third set. Perfect collation would provide 3.17 sets per box, on average.

Also found three of the five Metallic cards, which are mostly characters with extensive foil effects on the backgrounds.

It's not like I didn't already have the set, but it was great to renew my appreciation of the art, and to scan through some of the voluminous and interesting text on the card backs. So it was satisfying, even if I didn't see any super surprises!

I decided to open a few boxes from card series I had never opened before. I had purchased one box of Supernatural Season One many months ago and had recently purchased one box of The Complete Battlestar Galactica. Saturday had been busy for me so I ended up opening my boxes later in the evening while sitting on the living room couch and watching television. The autographs and Pieceworks I pulled and have listed below did not seem to be anything too spectacular, but the experience opening the cards was more enjoyable than the televised entertainment on this particular night.

A8 Jovanna Huguet as Bloody Mary autograph
PW10 Sweater worn by Brooke Nevin as Kat

A3 Jack Stauffer as Lt. Bojay
A13 Felix Silla as Lucifer

Today the whole family took part. Myself, the wife and our two daughters, 2.5 & 9

Garbage Pail Kids ANS 3 Hobby box
2 sets, 4 stinks, no pop ups, no box loader poster

Hot Wheels
2 sets, C1 & C6 chase cards

Fantazy Cards
3 sets, 3 sets of check lists, 3 bonus win free set cards

Gruesome Greetings
2 sets

Country Classics
1 set

Moebius
4 sets, 1, 2, 3 of the chrome's a Frazentta II Promo card

We 'ad 'op'd to open more box's today, but sorta ran outta time with openin' 'em an doin' other thing's.
In all it was pretty groovy.


Tank you, please drive thru...

I found my carefully hidden box of Family Guy Season 2 cards.

It was exactly where I left it after the Philly show. Under the front seat of my car. If I kept it in the house It never would have made it to OTB day.

I was hoping the box would be special since it was the last one the dealer had. I had seen 2 guys buy a whole bunch of boxes, than a woman bought a couple more. That left one lonely box. Since it was the last box I asked the dealer for a break on the price. (If I knew who the dealer was, his name would be here) He said sure, take $3.00 off. I bought it for $45.

Being a typical Saturday morning, I went to get bagels for the family, thats when I remembered where the box was.
I got to the bagel place, parked, than quickly tore into the box. Only to open a couple of packs. That what I said to myself. Then I laughed.

Mid way through I found the sketch card.
It turned out to be a full color sketch of Chris by Gomez. I was very pleased with the box.

Thanks to Harris in reminding me about OTB at the Philly Show. It was great waiting.
Until Next year.

Here's a scan of the sketch.

They must have made OTB day April 14th so we would have to CHOOSE between opening cards or doing our taxes... And of course, the cards win out.

I opened one of my favorite boxes of all time, DINOSAUR ATTACKS. Of course, there are no chase cards or prize cards or stuff like that. Just rock hard gum. But unlike most the cards of today, every single pack was stuffed with great artwork. It was like ALL the cards were Top Shelf images, before some sly MBA decided they could sell more cards if they made filled up most the packs with "filler BASE sets" and only seeded a few packs with the better material.

Dinosaur Attacks is one of the best series in modern times for two reasons: The fronts, and the backs. The artwork on the front is beautiful and yes, gory. It is certainly in league with the original Mars Attacks. The backs are also as clever as Mars Attacks, even more so, because the story is not only original, but many of the layouts are as well. Most are excellent narratives telling a compelling Sci-fi tale, but some are comic strips, others are photographs, and others are blood splattered wedding invitations and other unusual narrative devices.

Another great thing about Dinosaur Attacks is it's price. I bought the box for $15 or so, and there are 48 packs. Whadda deal! The cheap price, combined with the excellent art and storyline make this a perfect "gateway" card set for newcomers. Get them started on this set, and you could hook them for life. I know it was very effective in dragging me back into the hobby in the late 1980s when it came out. I was blown away then and I'm still impressed now.

I try to give away samples of these cards to anyone who is new in the hobby that I think would enjoy it. As I started to open my box earlier today, I mailed one random card-- #28 (London in Flames) to someone as a sample and urged him to consider this series for collecting. It's a rather bloody but dramatic image of people getting impaled on the spikes of dinosaur's back!

Opening the rest of the packs tonight, I couldn't help but shake my head at how much work and creativity went into this set. Tim Burton was going to make a movie out of it, but stopped when he heard Speilburg was working on Jurrassic Park. (Burton did Mars Attacks instead.) Still, I think this would have made a delightful flick. Maybe one day....

Did you know Topps actually ran a TV ad for this series in NYC? I'm gonna see if I can get a copy of it. If I ever do, rest assured it will be posted on YouTube!

The box breakdown was pretty good. But what do you expect with only 55 cards and 11 stickers to make a set out of 48 packs? I would have had one complete set and enough dupes to make nearly another. Unfortunately, I was missing just one card... you guessed it, #28 London In Flames. If there's a card God, he's laughing his butt off at me right now!

If you don't have this set, you need to check it out. Don't be a snob and let the low price turn you away. Just coz it cost next to nothing doesn't mean is cheap. If we had more sets like this, the hobby would be bigger and better. But hey, if there's one theme that comes though in Dinosaurs Attacks, it's that the future is unpredictable!

(For more Dinosaurs Attacks history and trivia, you can read an article on the subject at http://members.tripod.com/TheWrapper/dinotax.html)

I opened my boxes earlier in the day, but I had to rush off to work before I could post my result. This year for OTB I decided to try a box for a set that I had never started and probably wouldn't try if there wasn't this opportunity. I bought a box of Complete Battlestar Galactica because I love the reimagined series and I have always been meaning to give the old series a try after liking the movie pilot. A few weeks later I came across a great deal for a box of CSI series three and decided to go for it and save two boxes for today. I liked the fact that I went into today with no expectations for the sets and I could enjoy the base and chase cards equally. Overall, the BSG box was pretty cool, getting the normal amount of Battlestar 1980 cards, Artifex cards, and Colonial Warrior cards. My autograph cards weren't spectacular, with a Dr Salik and Maga autographs. However, the true gem was a Cris Bolson sketchafex card of the Cylons, which I was totally stoked about. The detail on it is pretty awesome and I love pencil sketches, so that little card really made my day, card-wise.

As for my CSI box, things were looking up as well. I love the Las Vegas version of CSI, and was a little bummed that I missed out on the boxes before they started getting expensive. I was really hoping for a George Eads autograph card as he is my favorite character, and don't have either his series 1 or series 3 autographs. While I didn't get his card, I did get a Grissom and David Hodges auto, which made me very excited anyways. the base cards were pretty awesome with the pictures, but I wish that there was more imformation about the episode that it depicted because I have a hard time tellign the episodes apart after not watching the episoes for awhile. However, I plan on watching the fifth season on DVD while coalating the cards so I can remember the stories behin the pretty images.

Overall, I was very happy to have these two boxes for OTB. I really enjoyed having no expectations for these boxes and I think that made opening the packs in the boxes a lot better because I took the time to enjoy each of the cards, rather than just searching for the cards I want. I love the new cards that are now part of my collection and am planning on enjoying the cards a little more once I get a chance to put them into the binders, but until then I am going to enjoy my uncovered treasures of the day...

Not only has OTBD grown, my circle of card friends has grown, there were 6 of us opening boxes in pubs in Manchester England.
It is amazing the looks you get, but some people ask what you are doing and we actually sold a set of cards to someone.
Everyone brought a box the only stipulations are you must not say what you are bringing and that the box must be over 4 years old.
The boxes were

The Very Best Of The Saint
Only 1 base set
5 puzzle cards but we got numbers 6 twice
3 merchandise cards
1 Autograph SA8 Isla Blair

Cardcaptors
1 base set
0 Gold parallel
24 Silver Parallel
6 Clow cards - The nicest looking cards I've seen in a while

LOTR The Two Towers
2 base sets - one of which we sold in the pub for £15
6 foil cards
1 Auto Billy Boyd

Powerpuff Girls Series 3
1 base set
6 foils
4 film preview cards

Scooby Doo
2 base sets
36 stickers
3 lenticular
3 sparkly

LOTR Two Towers Action Flipz
You can't make a set from 1 box
3 rare flipz
24 stickers didn't make a set of them got number 3 twice

So no great shakes in the boxes but the idea of the day is to have fun, we also took along 1 card each to show off
There were
Willow auto from Buffy Season 1
Spike auto from Buffy Season 3
Darla & Dru dual auto from Angel Season 2
Paige auto from Charmed Power Of Three
Spock auto from Star Trek Quotable (Live long)
Sheridens dual auto from Babylon 5 Complete.
That is $1655 according to NSU price guide.

Can't wait for next year.

As promised 2 packs from each box were opened in Spidergoblins name as he had no boxes to open, see discussion thread.

He got the Boyd auto and a Clow card

thought i would get my post in.

I opened a box of Wizard of Oz and got a very nice cowardly lion sketch by Kraiger.

Currently opening a box of Tank Girl and my dad still has a box of Space 1999 to open but has been at work this weekend so that will have to wait

Hope everyone had a nice day

...Hi all...I posted already that I had pulled 4 sketch cards out of a single Masterpieces box yesterday but then had to work on my Star Wars sketch cards the rest of the day...but...I took pics as this scenario unfurled before my unbelieving eyes and will attempt to kind of recreate the whole experience here...

...yesterday (4/14) was NSU's OPEN THAT BOX DAY...I had won two LOTR Masterpieces Hobby box Ebay auctions the week before and...well, I just couldn't hold out...I had to open them a little earlier than Open That Box day!...and pulled a really nice Shum, a Wilkinson Orc which I already had pulled before in a previous case, a Flores Nazgul looking right with a little interior grey which I haven't seen before, and a Goodmanson Gollum...

On the heels of those two wins, I dug deep into my savings for the week and won two more boxes...one an open auction and one a Buy It Now...and had them shipped as fast as possible...

Thankfully, these two Masterpieces boxes came late in the week, one as late as Friday...so the temptation wasn't as bad...still...it wasn't a full minute past midnight (officially the 14th) when my teeth began ripping into each and every pack of those two survivng Masterpieces boxes...

(My scanner is on the fritz...so a digital camera was the only was to go here...)...

The first box...WOW! I was sooooooooo pleased...first came a John Watkins-Chow Gandalf...and then a cool Ray Dillon open mouthed Cave Troll...



...so right then and there...with 2 color cards out of the first box...I'm a very happy collector regardless of what's in the second box...

...so I'm opening the first pile of packs from my second box...and, what I usually do is face the backs towards me, and then kinda fan the cards out slowly...and see right away which inserts are included in the pack...evryone knows by now that a peek of yellow means you've pulled a Silver or Bronze Fellowship foil...if it's a blue or redish tone, it's one of the Kayanan 6 card puzzle foils...actually sometimes the light blue one fools you for a second and you think it's another sketch card...

...so I'm fanning out this pack...and this is what I see...



...now you've got to know that this NEVER happens to me...I've pulled NO SKETCH CARDS at all in 4 Masterpieces boxes...sometimes 2 identical sketch cards by the same artist in the same box...sometimes an entire case without a rare sketch card artist and not a hint of color or even a line of additional white in the batch...

...and here, before my very eyes, was what I read about when collectors and fans say they've pulled 3 or 4 sketch cards in a single box...here it was...2 sketches...back to back...in a single pack...AND MINE ALL MINE...I yell to my wife Denise to hurry...please get the digital camera...I don't want to even move my hand before I snap a picture of this super-memorable moment...

...I move the base cards out of the way and slowly turn over the two sketch cards...I am trembling jittery hyper flipped out freaked when I see the blazing glow of Ray Dillon's beautiful "Gollum with the One Ring"...I know this card inside out having visited Marleyeds's www.lotrsketchcards.com about 9,801 times since the LOTR Masterpieces sketch card set release in late October...in person...this card is really "magic"...and then I notice the equally great Amy Pronovost's "Ent" with a cool outside white wash...it'll go perfect with the Amy Pro "Treebeard with Squirrel" I just picked up from one of ztaylork's auctions...



...so, I think I'm done...both sketches happened to have been in one pack and I've received my stated "2 Sketch Cards" per box...well, at least that's what I'm telling myself so as not to get disappointed in case there really isn't an additional extra sketch card in the second pile of 18 packs...but...I'm really hoping the other pile will yield sketch card #3 from the box...that would be great!...also, you never know...there may be a Gold Foil insert, and I'm not quite sure if all of the 1/1 prismatic foils have been pulled either...so, I go along my merry pack-opening way...

...about the same level down in this pile...I can't believe my eyes when I see this...



...YES...another 2 sketch cards back to back in the very same box...that's 4 sketch cards in a box that cost me $68.55 on Ebay...I slowly move away the base cards again...and see the total grey covered tones of a soft and beautifully melancholy Frodo by Cat Staggs...white trimmed Elvish Leaf pin and Sting tip gathering both my attention and all the light in the scene...and next to that...a great Katie Cook sketch of Pippin...or is it Legolas...or ???...oh, who cares, it's another cool Cook for my collection...



...SO, that was my Open That Box Day...a truly memorable experience that resulted in:

1. 6 sketch cards from 2 Masterpieces boxes
2. overwhelming card collecting happiness and joy
3. the loss of an addition $78 since I immediately went on that auction place and bought another Masterpieces box with shipping insurance...

Moral of the story...YOU NEVER KNOW!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ocdlotr,

My son Jacob and I opened a box of Transformers stickers from Cards Inc. He had NO idea that I had been saving these, so when he saw the box, he was THRILLED.



We started opening the packs, and I discovered there were four sub-sets - Autobots (84), Decepticons (84), Foil (18), and Alphabet? (12).

As we opened each pack, Jacob would take the cards and show them to Grandma (who watches Transformers with him all the time). Then, he would bring them back to me, and I would sort them and put them into 9-pocket pages.

Well, opening the cards took a LONG time doing this, so while you will notice the sun in the first pic, the "after" pic was taken when it was dark.



We ended up with a full set of the stickers, and I kept a few packs back (sealed) in the box. It was fun, and he really knows his Transformers!

When I put him down for bed, he asked to "look at cards" of course, and we went through each of the new stickers (which I have added to his Transformers binder).

Another fun box! I wonder what we will open next year... maybe Tranformers Movie? Maybe Spiderman 3? TMNT? Who knows

Hi All:

I wanted to thank everyone who helped make this year's "Open That Box" day a success. By my calculation, we had close to 60 people participated, which is similar to last year's count.

We hope all of you who participated enjoyed doing so. I really enjoyed reading the submissions and appreciated hearing others say the same.

I am going to close this forum now. I'd like to thank again all the card manufacturers and retailers who helped us promote this by placing banner ads on their websites. The card companies included: Breygent Marketing, Inkworks, Monsterwax Trading Cards, NostalgiCards, and Topps. And the following card retailers participated: The Collector Zone, Comic-Lair, Craig’s Comics, Digital Heroes Non-Sport Trading Cards, ScifiCards.com, Warp 9 Non-Sport Cards & Collectibles Inc., Wandring Rebel Productions, and The Wright Stuff Collectibles.

If anyone has further comments about Open That Box day, feel free to leave them in the discussion thread, which will remain open for a little while longer.

Thanks again.

Harris

PS As a special thank you, we will be sending a special promotional card to everyone who participated in this year’s "Open That Box!" day. The card is courtesy of Breygent Marketing and is for their upcoming series, The Vintage Poster Collection, The Movie Stars Posters Collector Cards (shown below). I’ll need address from the following members: wolverine1, ztaylork, cardster, Thush, KADRAN00157, Chrisahend, Darth Smittyous, and Jack London . Please send me your mailing address if you would like to receive the card. I have addresses for everyone else who participated (unless anyone has moved or has an incorrect address in their profile).