Sealed Hobby Boxes

 I bought a couple of hobby boxes yesterday and the result ended up being one of the best openings I've done. I went to one of my local card stores where they actually consistently have soccer product and decided on two products that I have personally seen hit a lot in breaks. First was Ligue 1 (French soccer league) H2 hobby box which guarantees one autograph and one memorabilia card plus three additional numbered parallels. When I've seen these opened, they have often been loaded and for $199 it seemed like a good gamble for me. Well, it paid off. In my first pack of twelve I hit an excellent autograph of a soccer legend, Marseille forward and former Ballon d'Or winner Jean-Pierre Papin. It was his gold autograph /5. In the very first pack!

In this same hobby box I somehow got a second autograph and it was a bonus because these boxes only guarantee one. Somehow, this autograph was ALSO a gold /5 autograph. This is of OGG Nice, and current Juventus forward, Jeremie Boga. Hitting two gold autographs numbered /5 is an insane box as is, especially considering that these H2 boxes only guarantee one autograph at all. To hit two, and for both to be extremely low numbered including one being a legend, is huge. 

Incredibly, my luck didn't stop there either. My memorabilia card ended up being easily the coolest relic card I have ever pulled. It was numbered 1/2 and it is of rookie Santiago Hidalgo. A green /2 rookie relic is an amazing pull in and of itself independent of the two autos already pulled. And look how beautiful this card is;

It's just an absolute stunner of a patch and has a big chunk of the Tolouse FC logo in it. I've already posted this card on eBay for a price that would more than pay for the $199 I spent on this box. If I don't get my ask, I'll be more that happy to keep this in my personal collection because I love the card.

Believe it or not, the second hobby box I bought was arguably more lucrative than the Ligue 1 box! I wanted to try my luck with the 2025-26 Serie A Select hobby box which guarantees 3 memorabilia OR Autograph cards per box, plus five numbered parallels. This box was running at a cost of $349. I ended up getting two big legend autographs again, and both were also low numbered. The first I pulled was Inter Milan (and former Man United) defender Nemanja Vidic. His autograph was of the tie dye /25 variety and I was really happy to get him because I did not have him in my collection yet.

The other autograph I pulled was of a player I already have in my PC but was happy to get again anyway. Carlos Tevez, playing for Juventus on this card. This card was the gold Prizm /10 autograph. 

This box also had two relics in it, so much like the Ligue 1 box, I ended up with an extra hit. One of the relics was just a base black napkin style relic so not worth posting. The other was someone whose autograph I had pulled in the past, Edin Dzeko. This relic was numbered /49 and what I like about it is you get a real sense for the Fiorentina colors. 

Funny enough, instead of five numbered parallels, I also ended up with an extra one of those as well and pulled six. The big one of these six was a Nico Paz white color match /20. Just really another insanely loaded box of a beautiful product. Below is a sampling of some of the numbered parallels pulled and then I'll follow up with the final tally and final thoughts;

My final haul ended up being pretty crazy when you look at the numbers. I know some people will look incredulously at the $550 before tax cost of the two boxes but in all honesty, soccer continues to be a giant value play for card collectors. Bowman baseball and football and basketball all cost much more than these two boxes combined and the hit rate is much smaller. The ceiling might be higher because some of those sets have six figure cards, but for a collector like me I could not do much better than what you see above for that price.

Final Tally;

4 autographs (/5, /5, /10, 25)

3 memorabilia (/2, /49, base)

9 numbered parallels

No case hits