Leaf Draft Matrix Football Is Live

Leaf has just released an update of sorts for their 2013 Leaf Metal Draft Football, more of an extended insert series really. A 25-card Leaf Matrix was created using the top (mainly skilled position) rookies like Eddie Lacy, EJ Manual, Geno Smith and Tavon Austin.

 

Leaf decided to follow a path that they have used before; they posted the cards up for auction through their eBay store. The cards were posted Thursday afternoon and will run through Tuesday (8/27). Some cards are being sold individually while others are being sold as a complete set.

 

The 25-card base Matrix set sells for $39.99 each, there are 300 total sets made. The 25-card Green Matrix set (#/50) sells for $74.99 each. The Gold Matrix (#/5) and Orange Matrix (1/1) cards are being auctioned individually with the Gold cards beginning at $9.99 and the Orange cards beginning at $19.99 though a number of the cards are already rising quickly in price.

Green Matrix #/50

Gold matrix #/5

Orange Matrix 1/1

Leaf's Johnny Manziel Redemption Cards

On February 24^th Brian Gray made an announcement on Leaf’s Facebook page stating that the Mystery Redemption card in 2013 Metal Draft Football and 2013 Valiant Football is going to be big, a week later they began the teasing again when they posted about the upcoming announcement. Sure enough on March 6^th the announcement came, the Mystery Redemption can be exchanged for a Johnny Manziel original art/cut signature card. The cards began shipping the next day and are now beginning to show up on eBay.

 

The cards are all original artwork from a sketch artist and the autographs are all cut signatures purchased from outside sellers who are not connected to Manziel. This is an interesting route because Manziel, his family or anyone from Texas A&M were not contacted or involved with the creation of the cards. I know there will be some people who find this questionable, which it is a loop hole but perfectly legal based on the NCAA’s rules, but it obviously has not affected the collectibility considering the auctions are running $800 and up. What is interesting is that there are a couple of Mystery Redemption cards up for auction and they are running $100 or more lower than the actual cards, I wonder if the difference is due to the fact that with the redemption card you do not know which sketch you will get where to purchase the card you see for sale then you know what you will get.

 

The final cards are authenticated by PSA/DNA and slabbed by Beckett. Here is a card currently up for auction on eBay to show what the cards look like when they are shipped.

 

What Is In Store For 2013 Leaf Metal Draft Football?

In a couple of weeks Leaf will be releasing 2013 Metal Draft Football followed by 2013 Leaf Valiant Football about a week later. Leaf leads the market with pre-draft football sets, which tend to do well on the secondary market, at least until licensed sets come out after the Rookie Premier.

 

This post will cover Metal Draft which is set to be released on March 14^th. Each $80 pack will include 5 on-card autographs, an increase from last year’s 3 cards per pack. This year Leaf has also chosen to build the checklist around skill players, mainly quarterback, running back and wide receivers. The entire set is autographs and every autograph is on-card.

 

The base autographs will be the most common cards pulled, each base card will also have a couple of parallels. In the sales materials Leaf shows 4 parallels (Red, Green, Purple and what appears to be a Gold version). If the numbering is similar to last year; Red #/5, Green #/10, Purple #/25 and I am guessing the Gold may be 1/1.

 

 

The inserts:

State Pride: A flag themed card depicting the state flag where the player went to college

 

Future Stars: A die-cut card in the shape of a crystal ball

 

All-Americans: The top college players of the year

 

Leaf Metal US Army: Like previous years, this insert will focus on the high school players in the annual US Army game.

 

“Surprise” Redemption: Leaf is including a surprise card that they are not announcing yet, the sales materials say “A card too big for the industry” and “A card too big too picture”. I am not sure what to expect here, Brian Gray has come up with some very cool cards in the past.