From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there’s a box you’d want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.
The box: Fanatics Authentic Alabama Crimson Tide football block (50 cards)
Price: $14.95 (via JCPenney.com)
What’s inside one of these? Keep reading for a rundown and gallery.
What was inside? (all cards in the gallery below)
— 21 cards from the 2012 Upper Deck Alabama set (notables: Mark Ingram, Big Al, The Goal-line Stand, George Teague, Van Tiffin, Major Ogilvie)
— Eight insert cards from the 2012 Upper Deck Alabama set (Ray Perkins, Tony Nathan, Steve Sloan, Jeff Rutledge, Trent Richardson, John Mitchell, Don McNeal, Woodrow Lowe)
— Cards from varying years for Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, Bobby Humphrey, Shaun Alexander, Bobby Humphrey, DeMeco Ryans, Antonio Langham, Derrick Thomas, Dwight Stephenson, David Palmer, Ozzie Newsome, Greg McElroy, Eric Curry and many more.
What’s Buzz-worthy: Call this one a curiosity buy — a simple check-in on a beginner’s item or a way for a fan of a particular school to offer up their “brand” to others as a simple gift. This one included a number of the names from the history of a storied program. The description on this one promised “50 cards of players that played for the University of Alabama in their professional uniforms” but nearly 30 of the cards were from a slickly produced (and very good) 2012 Crimson Tide set and a number were from draft picks sets. Every block was to include a Joe Namath card and it did — a 1990 Pro Set Super Bowl MVP card in this case — but the variety wasn’t there as pictured in the sales mock, which you can see above. Really the only drawback here is that more than half of the cards are from the same set. Had this been a run of 50 cards from Alabama players in various NFL brands it’s a no-brainer to buy (still mostly for fun) even with some draft picks cards sprinkled in. I actually bought a second one also as a test and it, too, was, unfortunately, heavy on the Upper Deck cards and included some of the same cards not from that set. It did have a better run of names from the college set. (Had I known this to be the case, though, I could have bought one of the Upper Deck boxes for about the same price as these two blocks.) Some cards in the other ones have damage here and there that shouldn’t happen (since many of these would qualify as closer to common cards than superstars in today’s market) but it was still a decent sampling for a beginner or casual fan to appreciate. On its own site, Fanatics does offer blocks like this for nearly 200 NFL, college, MLB, NBA and other teams, giving you a simple gift option without the work of sorting or having to trek to a card shop.
Product Grade: B (almost as delivered — a 50-card block but not all NFL cards)
Box Grade: B- (too heavy on 2012 Upper Deck set)
Fun Grade: B (too heavy on 2012 Upper Deck set)
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