Box Break: 2010 Topps Triple Threads

With my tax refund I decided to splurge a bit and bought two boxes of cards from Dave and Adams Card World. I had already decided on a box of 2013 Topps UFC Finest and since they were offering free shipping plus bonus items if I topped $150 I added on a box of 2010 Triple Threads Football, which was on sale for $90. I have always wanted to open a box of Triple Threads but with prices topping $150 (usually more) I wasn’t going to buy in but with this sale price I figured what could go wrong plus I would scratch off another goal of my personal collecting.

Each box contains 2 packs and each packs contains 3 base cards, 2 parallels and a Triple Relic card. So I pulled 6 base cards, 4 parallels and two Triple Relic cards.

I love the base cards, they are well designed and Topps used some nice player images. The backs contain the previous year’s stats and some tidbits about the players. The base cards are #/1350 and there are five parallels; Sepia (#/499), Emerald (#/299), Gold (#/99), Ruby (#/25) and Platinum (1/1). I pulled two Sepia parallels (Kevin Kolb & Ronnie Brown), one Emerald (Calvin Johnson) and one Ruby (Chad Henne).

I also pulled a Ben Tate rookie card, the rookie cards contained an autograph and three relics and they were #/99 or less. There were 7 parallels plus printing plates. Tate spent the past 4 years with the Houston Texans, though he was injured his first year in the league. He is an average backup, never topping 942 yards in his three playing seasons. He is currently an unrestricted free agent and he has made it clear he will not return to the Texans. His name has been rumored with both the Browns and the Falcons.

My second Triple Relic card is a gold (#/27) triple card of Arrelious Benn, Eric Decker and Mike Kafka. The term says “College Face Off”, I had to look in to it to figure out the three players have a Big Ten connection. This card was kind of a kick in the nut, even in 2010 this was a crappy card.

Arrelious Benn was originally drafted by the Buccaneers in 2010, he has a career total of 862 receiving yards, including a whopping 26 yards in 2012. He was traded to the Eagles prior to the 2013 season but was injured and spent the entire year on the IR. His contract will be up this year (March) and his future is uncertain.

Eric Decker was drafted by the Broncos in 2010, he was a little used receiver until Manning showed up in Denver in 2012. In the past two seasons he has 2,352 yards and 24 TDs (he had 718 yards and 9 TDs the previous two years) and now that he is a free agent he is looking to make a nice paycheck off of his two explosive seasons. Rumor is that he is looking for a contract that will pay $10 million a season.

Mike Kafka was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2010 and since then he has played for 4 teams, signing with his 4^th team (Buccaneers) just last week. Saying he played for 4 teams is a stretch, he has played in a total of 4 games (all for the Eagles in 2011), he has 11 completions for 107 yards, no TDs and 2 interceptions.

I can understand why people are so tough on Triple Threads, the quotes sometimes do not make sense without explanations and the price point is significantly higher than the value that most people will pull. I am not saying that every box needs to be a winner but if you look at what I pulled, it may be about $20-25 worth of card sales while the box costs $90. Could you imagine someone paying $175-200, we are talking a major disparity between cost and value. In the future I will stick with hunting for the singles that I like instead of buying a box, unless I can find a box for $50 or so.

I will cover my 2013 Topps UFC Finest box break next week, to spread the breaks out a bit. The UFC box was significantly better, including nice cards from my two favorite fighters.