2017 Donruss Optic Football Forum

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but when I buy a $10 pack of cards, from a set with 92 insert & parallel sets listed here, plus short printed rookies in the base set, I expect something better than 12 ordinary base cards to come out of that pack.  What a disappointment.  The best player was probably Jared Goff.

For the record, these were marked $5.99, not $9.99, but I didn't feel like putting them back after they rang up.  I don't usually spend that much money on a pack.

I know I complain about the color parallels a lot, and definitely about SP rookie cards, and I won't resell any of these, but there needs to be a sense of value for me to keep buying a product.  I need to feel like that was $10 well spent, and it was not.

Ugh.

I actually looked at buying one pack of '18 Topps baseball, but I told the card shop owner that I just cannot get myself to pull such a trigger, so I didn't purchase the pack. It was $11.99.

At least you got 12 cards. The NBA set is $5 for 4 cards. 

The Optic cards seem to be grossly overpriced. They had a $20 box with only 36 cards.

I tell ya, buy the factory set, then chase vintage sets in lots off eBay. Very satisfying. 

v3

I guess I'm just used to getting some sort of parallel or insert or something in a pack of anything I buy these days.  As a non-completionist, I like a variety of sets started from any pack I buy.  Panini is usually good for that.

I bought four packs at the store today.  Here is what I received.  Not grading the players themselves, because that is subjective, but the sets I got a card from:

2017 Donruss Optic football - $10 - 12 base cards

2018 Topps baseball - $5 - 31 base, 1 Topps Salutes, 1 Kris Bryant Highlights, 1 Legends in the Making, 1 Legends in the Making Black, 1 rainbow foil parallel

2017-18 Donruss basketball - $5 - 28 base, 1 Court King, 1 The Champ Is Here

2017-18 Panini Status basketball - surprisingly only $5 - 16 base, 2 Aqua parallel (thank you Panini for numbering the other colors so I could be sure these were aqua and not blue or green), 1 Factions, 1 Rookie Credentials

So the Optic was the only real disappointment.  I will buy more of the Status cards.  They look really cool, though many would be turned off by artificial backgrounds.  They kind of remind me of the 1991-92 Skybox set.  Didn't hurt that I got a Tatum RC and a Fox RC either.  I feel like the price was a mistake at only $5 for 20 cards.  Topps baseball gets the prize though, for giving me cards from six different sets.

Unfortunately baseball is the only sport to get a factory set. You've got to build it yourself in every other sport.

Not having bought a single pack of baseball cards in about 30 years, I now feel a lot better about the prices I pay for vintage cards. In my head, a pack of new cards is still maybe a buck and I've remained blissfully, purposefully ignorant. Seeing that they're $5 and up, and not caring about inserts and parallels and a rainbow of the same card in different colors, I feel all the better just buying my factory set every year and selling the inserts. 

My...my...name is Vytas....and, well...I...I...guess I'm an accumulator....

v3

I can not bring myself to buy single packs anymore. I pick up a couple of blasters each year for my blog other than that I chase singles.

Is Panini Status retail?  Somehow I haven’t been to Target in a while.  Been debating getting a hobby box.  I like to support the local shop but sometimes it’s nice to just pay 20 for a blaster.