The sports card blog

       2016-17 Upper Deck series 1 was recently released. In a hobby box there will be 6 young gun rookie cards, 3 shining stars, 1 royal blue shining star, 4 UD portraits, 4 UD canvas cards, 2 super colossal inserts, and 3 goalie nightmare cards. Each box has 24 packs and 8 cards per pack. Also keep your eyes peeled for the Auston Matthews young guns card. For detailed product information go to: http://www.beckett.com/news/2016-17-upper-deck-series-one-hockey/

       I have recently received my 2016 Allen and Ginter hobby box . Inside the box I got 4 hits even though it says on the box that you should expect 3 hits or rip cards.  Although, I didn't receive any rip cards I got a Noah Syndergaard regular relic, a Jon Lester mini relic, a Heidi Watney mini autograph and a Denise Austin relic. There is also one mini card per pack and one giant box topper as well as 24 packs of 8 cards. All in all I think it was worth it and I received many good cards.  

           One of the higher end boxes that is being made this year is 2017 Upper deck(r) artifacts. The hobby box in my opinion looks great with Dylan Larkin on the front. There are 8 packs of 4 cards for a total of 32 cards. In the box there are 3 autograph cards, relic cards, or aurum cards, there are also 4 serial numbered parallels, and just to boot there is also one redemption card per box. To preorder one go to : https://www.steelcitycollectibles.com/2016-17-upper-deck-artifacts-hockey-hobby-box

         Recently I have opened one series 1 and one series 2 hobby box. Personally I liked the hobby boxes and found it to be a fun box break. Each box has one of a variety of autograph or relic cards ( I've pulled a Texas Rangers commemorative pin and an Eric Hosmer relic card). I've also pulled some very good parallels including a black parallel #26/65 and a Jeff Samardzija pink parallel #43/50, as well as a variety of gold parallels #/2016. So all in all very good box breaks.  

           A nice looking, reasonably priced box is the 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth collection celebrating one of the best ball players of all time. The collection includes an 80 card base set, 10 quote cards, 10 career achievement cards, bat relics for both New York and Boston, Yankee Stadium seat relics, and finally the 1/1 cut signature.   For more product details go to: http://leaftradingcards.com/2016-leaf-babe-ruth-collection/     

        The new match attax collection is set to be released in September sometime. For those unfamiliar with match attax it is a soccer (football) trading card game where each player has different ratings for offense and defense. The collection has gold, silver, and bronze limited edition cards, rare 100 club cards where either offense or defense of that player is 100 ( there is also the 101 card where both offense and defense is 101), there are also captain cards, away kit cards, and common man of the match cards. There are also rising stars and rare legend cards that are new to the collection this year. Link: https://buysoccercardsonline.com/soccer-trading-cards/2016-17-topps-english-premier-league-cards-release/ When they are released you can buy them online at: https://www.toppsdirect.com/collections/match-attax-trading-card-game-collection-1.html

      September is generally the month when all the new sets come out. According to Cardboardconnection.com's release calendar ( i'll post the link below) September 17 is the date when most of the new sets will come out. Some of the sets include 2016-17 Donruss soccer, 2016 panini(r) immaculate basketball, 2016 topps(r) the mint collection, and upper deck (r) portfolio hockey just to name a few. Link: http://www.cardboardconnection.com/new-release-calender

           It's the end of August which means there are a variety of new sets ( hockey, soccer). The first sets that have already been released are:  2016-17 upper deck(r) mvp which goes for about $40-$60        2016-17 o-pee-chee nhl collection which goes for about $90 according to ebay             Each of these sets have a variety of autographs, relics, and parallels( which include retro variations in the o pee chee collection and rookie redemptions and super scripts in the upper deck(r) mvp set).  From what i've seen they look like great sets.  sources:   http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2016-17-upper-deck-mvp-hockey-cards  http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2016-17-o-pee-chee-hockey-cards