2013 Elite Blasters-None of the big AUTOS??!

[kordell1]

I picked up a couple of these after reading all the box breaks and people hitting lots of autographs. I pulled 7 autographs and a game used out my 2 blasters, which were a really fun break. I did start to notice a lot of the same names popping up in the blaster breaks and since I had way too much time on my hands :p, I decided to research a little further. After going through all the Elite Blaster breaks I could find on here, I tallied up 170 Autographs pulled. Here are some of the stats:

-Of the 100 Franchise Future Autographs, 37 players were represented with the most being 7 of one player(and multiples of most of the other 36)

-Of the 100 Prospect Autographs, 29 players were represented with the most being 7 of one player(and multiples of most of the other 28)

-Of the 20 Back to the Future Autographs, 2 players were represented, only one of each of those 2 players

-Of the 20 Elite Series Autographs, 0 were pulled

-For some of the main guys-Bryant, Frazier, Meadows, Abreu, Appel, Torres, Katoh, Franco, Peterson and several other top picks there were zero Autographs pulled.

-There also seem to be a lot more redemptions than in the past. I pulled 3 redemptions in one blaster.

I know this is only a small sample, but my theory is that they either did not put the big name guys in retail(retail gets pumped up because of extra hits and hobby gets pumped up because of bigger names being pulled) or they made them very tough to pull out of retail. Of course it is just a theory and maybe the next wave of blasters will be loaded with Bryant, Meadows, Katoh and Frazier autographs. Either way, just thought this information might be useful to those looking at buying some of the blasters(which I feel are still a lot of fun to open). Thanks for the read and good luck to all on your box breaking. :)!

[sigmachi]

Thanks for that info. I'd imagine that is pretty standard. Most people know what they're getting when they buy a blaster and would be THRILLED to pull 3 autos regardless who they were of!

[Bob Loblaw]

Interesting. Very interesting. I'd like to see a more detailed analysis with names.

[TrueNE_09]

Interesting analysis for sure, thanks for doing that. Has it been the case (I don't know this, others obviously know more than I do) that retail product has lower quality type autos and/or checklists for autos (e.g., lower drafted players, autos with higher print runs, etc)?

[texgator]

Interesting analysis for sure, thanks for doing that. Has it been the case (I don't know this, others obviously know more than I do) that retail product has lower quality type autos and/or checklists for autos (e.g., lower drafted players, autos with higher print runs, etc)?

Bowman does it...they have retail exclusive sticker autos in their blasters.

[discostu]

Someone posted a box break of a blaster with a Bryant autograph #/50 or so.

Suffice to say, the upper tier guys are printed in roughly half the quantity and a fraction of the overall production run...so we're bound to see far more of the "dog" autographs. Like every year in EEE.

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/baseball-box-breaks/655361-2013-eee-box-break-3-boxes-6-low-numbered-autos.html

[HeritageKing]

I have pulled Chris Anderson first round pick of the Dodgers.

Panini has done this selective inserting in contenders football also, I see no reason why they wouldn't do it in EEE. Most likely they put the players they had to wait on for sigs into the later product and also they guys who didn't sign in time (hence the redemptions) I think it might make these blasters even MORE valuable in the long run when you know the field is so small...if one of those guys gets hot and they were exclusive to blasters....boom goes the dynamite.

KEvin

[death2redemptions]

I have pulled Chris Anderson first round pick of the Dodgers.

Panini has done this selective inserting in contenders football also, I see no reason why they wouldn't do it in EEE. Most likely they put the players they had to wait on for sigs into the later product and also they guys who didn't sign in time (hence the redemptions) I think it might make these blasters even MORE valuable in the long run when you know the field is so small...if one of those guys gets hot and they were exclusive to blasters....boom goes the dynamite.

KEvin

Yeah but Chris Anderson isn't a top selling autograph player. In fact I've pulled a few of his base autographs out of Draft and never got more than $3.50 for any of them. Now I've noticed that these players autographs in Elite Extra sell for roughly half of what they do in Draft so unless you pull one of his autos #d to 25 or less it won't bring in more than $2-$3.

But then again, this is more or a long term investment type product like Bowman so selling them now doesn't do much good.

[Bob Loblaw]

Here's a 2 box break to go along with this theory.

Interestingly, I pulled two of the SSP Photo Variations - Sean Manaea and Phillip Ervin.

Autos:
Matt Andriese /771
Drew Dosch /665
Trae Arbet /650
Cory Thompson /660

Andrew Church /100
Scott Brattvet /100

regular die cuts:

Rob Zastryzny /25
Luis Mateo /100
Ryder Jones /200
Chase Jensen /200

and 2 15 year old kids jerseys.

Meh.

[Shanehw]

I just opened up 5 EEE blasters from Target. I figured they would put in most if not all Round 10 and higher guys for autos. While I did not pull any "Big" names, I did very well in early round auto's. Here is the breakdown by round:

ANDREW CHURCH X2 - 2ND ROUND
RYAN EADES - 2ND ROUND
DREW WARD - 3RD ROUND
CARTER HOPE - 3RD ROUND
BRANDON DIXON - 3RD ROUND
JONAH HEIM - 4TH ROUND
DAN SLANIA X2 - 5TH ROUND
KONNER WADE - 7TH ROUND
KASEY COFFMAN X2 - 10TH ROUND
ERIK SCHOENROCK - 11TH ROUND
CAMERON PERKINS - 43RD ROUND
DOMINGO TAPIA - UNDRAFTED

I pulled 16 auto's and 5 jersey's out of 5 blasters. While I despise Retail boxes/packs, I broke it down like this:

5 EEE Retail Blasters = $150 - 16 Auto's and 5 Jersey's
3 EEE Boxes = $320 (=/-) - 18 Auto's and 3 Jersey's (Roughly)

I did get lucky with my 2 Hobby boxes and pulled 20 Auto's and 1 Jersey for about $60 more than I spent in retail. I did not pull any low #ed autos out of retail though.

[89transam]

Here's a 2 box break to go along with this theory.

Interestingly, I pulled two of the SSP Photo Variations - Sean Manaea and Phillip Ervin.

Autos:
Matt Andriese /771
Drew Dosch /665
Trae Arbet /650
Cory Thompson /660

Andrew Church /100
Scott Brattvet /100

regular die cuts:

Rob Zastryzny /25
Luis Mateo /100
Ryder Jones /200
Chase Jensen /200

and 2 15 year old kids jerseys.

Meh.

that's....creepy?

[Bob Loblaw]

that's....creepy?

Exactly. I hate pulling jersey cards of 15 or 16 year olds. It creeps me out.

[bulljh]

Someone posted a box break of a blaster with a Bryant autograph #/50 or so.

Suffice to say, the upper tier guys are printed in roughly half the quantity and a fraction of the overall production run...so we're bound to see far more of the "dog" autographs. Like every year in EEE.

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/baseball-box-breaks/655361-2013-eee-box-break-3-boxes-6-low-numbered-autos.html

This break doesn't say if its a blaster break or not. Looks like hobby to me.

[The_Reverend]

I just broke 3 Target blasters and will list my pulls, but each had 3 autos. Only hit 1 redemption but also hit 2 die-cut autos. Both were of Rainy Lara 40/50 blue and 04/10 orange. Will list others later.

[death2redemptions]

Someone posted a box break of a blaster with a Bryant autograph #/50 or so.

Suffice to say, the upper tier guys are printed in roughly half the quantity and a fraction of the overall production run...so we're bound to see far more of the "dog" autographs. Like every year in EEE.

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/baseball-box-breaks/655361-2013-eee-box-break-3-boxes-6-low-numbered-autos.html

I don't believe those came from the blasters. I believe those were pulled from hobby.

I have yet to see any good names in retail.

[NeedChapmans]

To confirm Kodell's initial post, I cracked 2% of the print run (20 cases) of 2012 EEE hobby. Absent from my breaks were 11 of the 200 autographed subjects, and absent of base autos were 7 others (only hit /100 or better on guys like Ty Hensley for example).

The names I was missing were of lower end players, all of which were packed into the retail blasters. In 2012, you could not hit a big name from the retail blaster; it was the same core group of 40 players, all of which this board likely has never heard of. For whatever reason, Panini made the decision to keep hobby the lone source of big name hits for Elite, both last year and this.

[JeHHH]

Yeah but Chris Anderson isn't a top selling autograph player. In fact I've pulled a few of his base autographs out of Draft and never got more than $3.50 for any of them. Now I've noticed that these players autographs in Elite Extra sell for roughly half of what they do in Draft so unless you pull one of his autos #d to 25 or less it won't bring in more than $2-$3.

But then again, this is more or a long term investment type product like Bowman so selling them now doesn't do much good.

Should have messaged me on these man, would have paid a lot more than $3.50.

[death2redemptions]

Should have messaged me on these man, would have paid a lot more than $3.50.

I pulled them during my time out on Blowout so I couldn't contact anyone on here.

I did sell a Green Refractor auto of Chris Anderson that sold for $45 but all his base autos I couldn't get more than $4 for.

[Bob Loblaw]

To confirm Kodell's initial post, I cracked 2% of the print run (20 cases) of 2012 EEE hobby. Absent from my breaks were 11 of the 200 autographed subjects, and absent of base autos were 7 others (only hit /100 or better on guys like Ty Hensley for example).

The names I was missing were of lower end players, all of which were packed into the retail blasters. In 2012, you could not hit a big name from the retail blaster; it was the same core group of 40 players, all of which this board likely has never heard of. For whatever reason, Panini made the decision to keep hobby the lone source of big name hits for Elite, both last year and this.

Very interesting. Making the hobby boxes even more "valuable", per se.

Everyone wants to bag on Topps, present company included -- and obviously, I've never been one to shy away for calling Leaf out...

...but this practice as described above -- putting the "good stuff" in hobby and leaving the lousy players for retail... it's akin to pack searching.

Hear me out.

When one buys a pack of cards, one thinks that they have a fair shot of pulling any autograph. Obviously, some are printed in higher #s than others, but I would think that if I'm getting 2-3 autos per $30 retail blaster of Elite, then I'm got a good shot of getting anyone on the checklist. To hear that Elite "bottom-loads" the retail product so that there are a ton of autographs, but of less desirable players -- it seems as though Panini is searching the packs at the factory and taking out the good ones. As a Phillies fan looking for Maikel Franco, little Jimmy in Delaware County is never going to pull Franco from a retail pack of Elite.

And that sucks.

This is really lousy. I'm glad I didn't spend more than the two blasters to find this out, and I thank you both for posting this information.