Happy Open-a-Box Day 2014!

I`m a recent addition to the NSU forums and subscriber, and today, it is `Open-a-Box Day`, in which we open a box and detail on what we have found in them.
Now, being a collector of mainly japanese Saint Seiya cards (both `regular` Trading Cards and Collectible Card Game Cards), I don`t *do* Trading Cards in the normal way, but rather search the net for boxed sets on the cheap, and then crack them open and try to trade or sell the cards in order to fund my exotic collection.  Which with over 1300 cards to go still requires quite some additions.

But this concept intrigued me, and after reading the reports of the 2013 entries, I decided to make the plunge this year, and be `one of the guys` in opening and detailing my box.

The set I picked was the 2003 Topps card series of the Incredible Hulk.  The box had costed me around 15 USD, and contains 24 packs of 7 cards each. 

Possible inserts are a set of 10 Gamma Foil cards (1:6 ratio), a set of 5 Crystal Clear cards (ratio 1:12) and possibly one of the 4 Custom Cover Cards at an overall ratio of 1:346 (these of course are the big money cards, and if I could pull one of them, I could have a full crate of Saint Seiya boosters come over).  The Base Set itself is 72 cards, so a full one should normally be possible.

The cards themselves have some nice artwork:

After going through the opening of the 24 packs, I was perfectly on the ratio for inserts: 4 Gamma Foils, and 2 Crystal Clear cards

And a lot of basic cards

Which resulted in 2 full base sets and 20 left over loose doubles.

Not to bad a haul, but let`s do the math.  Taking the NSU price guide to hand, I started adding and calculating the values of the cards, and see if I `ripped my pants` (no pun intended) or have the possible chance of a small profit in Nominal Trade Value.

2 Full Base Sets - 2x 10 = 20 USD
20 loose doubles - 20x 0.07 = 1.4 USD
4 Gamma Foil Cards - 4x 4.5 = 18 USD
2 Crystal Clear Cards - 2x 5 = 10 USD

So in essence I pulled open 48.4 USD in worth.  Of course, they haven`t been traded or sold, but it is a good box in terms of value vs purchase cost, and now the part I love in my hobby starts... to try and exchange them in order to get my private collection closer to total completion!

Open a Box has been a fun little experience for me, and I`ll definitly be joining up again next year, maybe even if I can contain myself saving up a box of Saint Seiya by then to crack open on the exact day and report on that one ;-)

Though I doubt I could have them at the side closed for longer then an hour after arrival hehe.


See you all!