2023 Ultimate Football Pack Buyer's Guide

Welcome to The Drip, starting your hump day off right. Here’s what’s in store for today:

• 2023’s Ultimate Football Pack Buyer’s Guide

The trading card hobby can be a bit daunting for newcomers. We sling around terms like 1of1, parallel, relic, wax, etc… We have multiple sites and apps where cards can be bought, sold, traded and discussed. But, one of the biggest learning curves is figuring out which product line to buy for each sport. What’s high or low end, good for investing, ripping, etc…

With football season upon us (FINALLY) now is a good time to break down which products to seek out and which to avoid depending on what your goals are:

• Score - Low End - Packs of these cards are cheap and contain a bunch of cards. Not generally great for reselling: these should be avoided for investments. BUT if you want to rip and look through a bunch of cards, this is a great product.

• Donruss - Low to Mid End - Affordable but well loved. A big part of the appeal - Rated Rookies. These cards are often some of the most valuable long-term for an athlete. Downtown is another insert in Donruss that collectors love. Overall, this makes Donruss a great buy for ripping or investing.

• Leaf - Mid End - An unlicensed football card product. This is a fun one to rip into and you might get some good autos that you can flip right away. Values tend to drop off a cliff as other products hit the market so not great for long-term holds.

• Zenith - Mid End - Similar to Leaf, Zenith’s values don’t tend to hold up over time. You may get some big hits in here but it’s an expensive product which makes it less than ideal for investing or breaking. If you are willing to take on the high price and risk, you could always flip any hits you get.

• Chronicles - Mid End - A fun one to open. You’re likely to score some solid rookie hits for top names. There is also a great mix of cards that should be fun to look through. All that being said - most of these cards are less desirable than some of the top products. So this is a great rip but generally bad investment product.

• Contenders - Mid End - A mixed bag. Contenders is priced a bit high for what you get in the box. It’s highly dependent on autographs (5 in a box) to get any value out of it. If you can score a rookie ticket with auto then the box could be worth the investment. Otherwise you’re probably looking at a loss.

• Rookies & Stars - Mid End - A bit of an underrated product. Reasonably priced when comparing to other mid tier products, it contains some decent hits. Something important to note - sealed Rookies & Stars boxes can be held long-term for a good return.

• Absolute - Mid End - This comes out in December and is perfect for ripping and flipping as the playoffs start. Absolute is also home to Kaboom! inserts which are extremely valued in the hobby right now. If you hit a Kaboom! for a valuable player, prices can hit 5 figures (even 6 for a gold Kaboom!) for a sale. If you are looking to buy Absolute for ripping when it’s not playoff time, you might want to consider looking at something a bit higher end like Prizm. There is however a good deal of value in holding sealed Absolute boxes long-term.

• Mosaic - Mid to High End - Some nice designs and cool cards can be found in Mosaic. The product is a bit newer to the market (2020) so it doesn’t have quite the same appeal as Prizm or Optic. Card will have some value but be generally a bit less desirable than the other brands. The price point is also comparable which makes this product a bit of a lost soul. If you are going to spend this type of money it might make sense to focus on Prizm or Optic.

• Select - High End - A solid product that can be ripped or kept sealed for investing. This product has high appeal and a good deal of resale value for hits found within. It’s fairly pricey, BUT it’s priced was essentially halved this year ($575 in 2023 vs $1,200 in 2022). Unopened boxes retain their value and typically gain a nice profit for strong rookie classes.

• Optic - High End - Comparable with Prizm in terms of desirability. Optic is another huge release that is priced higher, but has lots of great hits. It’s essentially Donruss but with a chrome finish. Rated Rookies and Downtowns are all present but yield a higher long-term value when compared to their Donruss duplicates.

• Prizm - High End - The cream of the crop and current king for investments. This has become the de facto product for ripping and long-term holds. It’s pricey so if you are looking to score a ton of cards it’s better to go for some of the lower end products. If chasing big hits or keeping the box sealed for investment purposes are your game, then Prizm is where you want to be.

Premium End Products - I won’t cover these in depth because they are generally extremely expensive and best left to the high end breakers. These boxes contain some insane card hits but are extremely risky due to their high price tag.

• Black - Over $300 for 5 trading cards.

• Immaculate - $1.3k per box.

• National Treasures - About $3k per box.

• Flawless - Over $10k per briefcase.

Release Calendar

Wallets like 😢:

• Today - 2023 Panini Immaculate Collegiate Football

• 18th -

  • Disney Lorcana

• 23rd -

  • 2023 Panini Immaculate Baseball

  • 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing

• 30th -

  • 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball

  • 2023 Panini Donruss Elite Football

  • 2023 Panini Encased Football

  • 2023 Panini Prizm WNBA Basketball

  • 2023 Topps Cosmic Chrome

  • 2023 Topps Chrome Star Wars Galaxy

Show Me That Card 📷️ 

Kabooms first hit football in 2019 Absolute packs. They became an immediate success and are still heavily chased. Patrick Mahomes was #2 in this card line and currently has a pop count of only 17 PSA 10s on the market. Selling for around $2.6k this card is definitely going to go up in value over time as Mahomes adds to his already stellar career.

Meme of the Day