Thursday, October 25, 2018

Solving A Pre-Packaged Mystery

Buying a "mystery" is a big part of modern day collecting. Blind bag/box items are huge. In case you're late to the party, this is when you're trying to "Collect 'Em All," but instead of choosing which style you want at the store, you're purchasing a completely sealed box or bag with the contents inside sight unseen. Trading cards have always been this way, but how about a box of cards actually labeled as a "Wrestling Mystery Box?"

To be fair, a box full of resold wrestling trading card packs isn't exactly new, either. Various incarnations have popped up at retailers, most notably Wal Mart and Target, over the years with varying results. From my own experience, usually you're left feeling rather ripped off if you made the purchase yourself. This time, despite really scaling down my trading card purchasing aside from the WWE Heritage hobby boxes, I thought the plunge may be worth it.

Here we have the "Wrestling Mystery Box." It's sold by MJ Holdings (formerly Beckett) and retails for $20. I picked up my box at Wal Mart, although it would not be unheard of for these to show up at Target as well. The box advertises five factory sealed fat packs and four factory sealed regular packs per box. The former, also known as jumbo packs, usually retail for around $5 each. That right there brings you over the $20 price point. The other four packs seem to be remainder from blaster boxes and don't look to have a chance to include any "hits." The box DOES, however, advertise that 1:4 boxes will have hits seeded. Sounds good to me.

Upon opening the box, a "hit" is staring right at me. It's a Santino Marella WrestleMania mat relic from the 2012 Heritage set. While mat relics usually aren't too exciting to me, this one pleased me as the 2012 Heritage set has always been a personal favorite. In addition to this and the nine advertised packs, yet another silver pack, seemingly from a Then, Now, Forever blaster box, was also included. This promised one relic card and a Daniel Bryan tribute card. This relic ended up being a Sasha Banks shirt relic. Not my favorite individual in the business, but a hit is a hit.

Ultimately there were packs from Road to WrestleMania 2017 and 2018, Then, Now, Forever, Heritage 2017, and WWE 2017. A nice and rather current variety. Seeing as that I had approximately zero cards from at least one of these sets, many were brand new to me. Even with the Heritage cards, which are my yearly favorite sets, I rarely buy much beyond my traditional hobby box. Although I'd like to complete the sets, I simply don't have the time, patience, or will to do it anymore. Here I pulled some great subset cards that I previously did not have, as well as many with signing potential.

Am I glad that I took the risk? Absolutely. No one is trying to pull one over on anyone here. The jumbo packs make the price point worth it alone, and I pulled two relics when you're truly not even guaranteed one. Would I give it another try? I do believe that I might. It was fun and interesting to see exactly what I would pull as it's even more of a mystery than a hobby box. These also make great gifts. Hint, hint. Why not surprise your favorite blogger today?

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