Contenders worth it?

[jlai624]

The key is:

Breaking is fun, whether you make cash or not. Getting a nice hit you pull from a box is always a better feeling then just buying a card off ebay.

This will always be true no matter how the hobby goes... the fun of breaking will never be trumped in my opinion.

[jsokol1626]

Wouldn't it be the opposite??? If you only produce 150 cases, almost every break will yield that card #/999. However, if you mass produce a product, the cards #/999 will become harder to pull therefore make them more valuable. Why do you think the high numbered inserts from the 90's sell so well?

That would be true if UD didn't increse the number of players included in the numbered sets, but unfortunately they did. For example, 02/03 SPA had 66 rookies, 10/11 had 100. So, the desireable rookies become more scarce, but the number of junk rookies increases. In the end, once the product has been exhausted there are still 999 RNH rookies, but now there are nearly 34,000 additional rookies (comparing the 2 years I cited) that have low value. While this practice may increase the price of the bigger names it dilutes the contents of many boxes, thereby lowering their return.

[cammy118]

That would be true if UD didn't increse the number of players included in the numbered sets, but unfortunately they did. For example, 02/03 SPA had 66 rookies, 10/11 had 100. So, the desireable rookies become more scarce, but the number of junk rookies increases. In the end, once the product has been exhausted there are still 999 RNH rookies, but now there are nearly 34,000 additional rookies (comparing the 2 years I cited) that have low value. While this practice may increase the price of the bigger names it dilutes the contents of many boxes, thereby lowering their return.

People also tend to value the players, more then the actual card itself and its serial number.

A RNH out of 999 is valuable, even though they are very common.