It's all about rookies when it comes to 2008 Upper Deck Football.

20 cards/pack
16 packs/box ($65)

With rookie cards in every pack, this is a great set to get your hands on the soon-to-be NFL stars. there's also three jersey cards and one autograph card in every box, on average, and that exactly what we found:

Limas Sweed Signature Shots
Sidney Rice UD Game Jersey patch
Matt Forte UD Rookie Jersey patch
Jay Cutler Team Colors patch

We also nabbed some nice Upper Deck Masterpieces cards (Lombardi and Unitas), while admiring the great photography captured on the cards.

Here's the video showcasing what we found:

This one will be short and sweet, as the video does most of the talking. We busted open:

2008-09 Topps Basketball

• 10 cards/pack
• 36 pack/box ($50)

This is a pretty basic set, perfect for set builders, without a lot of flash. Kids can actually afford this one.

Our predicted one autograph and one relic card were:
- Ryan Anderson Rookie Photo Shot Auto
- Greg Oden patch card

We also nabbed four gold parallels, numbers to 2,008 of Hakeem Olajuwon, Kenyon Martin, Robin Lopezand Ben Gordon.

And here's the video:

We're at it again, this time cracking open a box of 2008 Upper Deck Icons Football. The product offers the following:

• 6 cards/pack
• 10 packs. box ($95)

UD touts that there is two jersey cards and one autographs in every box, plus tons of limited-edition cards. We found even more than that:

• 2 NFL Icons Immortal Lettermen patch cards – Jim Brown "N" (numbered to 97) and Fran Tarkenton "I" (numbered to 68).
• 1 Rookie Brilliance Auto – Early Doucett III (numbered to 199)
• 1 Rookie Brilliance patch – Chad Henne (numbered to 199)
• 1 Class of 2008 patch – Andre Caldwell (numbered to 199)

To see what else we pulled, check out the video:

We just finished up a massive box break party in the office, covering hockey, football and basketball, so we'll have plenty of break sprinkled onto Bustin' Wax in the days ahead.

We'll start with Bowman Sterling Football:

• 6 packs/box ($225)
• 5 cards/pack

This was the honey pot of the group, with patch cards, autographs and patch/autos in every pack, including the coveted rookies.  The video break below shows off the goods, but here are some of the highlights:

12 patch cards, ranging in edition from 199 to 569. Rookies included:

• Mario Manningham (399)
• Jamaal Charles (309)
• James Hardy (309)
• Kevin Smith (569)
• Jake Long (569)
• Brian Brohm( 199)

8 rookie autographs:

• Marcus Smith (199)
• Jacob Hester
• Matt Forte (1,050)
• Ryan Torian
• Early Doucet (250)
• Limas Sweed (with patch)
• James Hardy (with patch)
• Fred Davis redemption

And here's a look at the video:

2008 Topps Chrome Football

• 4 cards/pack
• 24 packs/box ($70)

There isn't a lot of pop in this product (at least compared to some of the higher end stuff opened recently, but the box promises a rookie auto! Here is what we found in this installment of Bustin' Wax:

• 1 rookie autograph: Marcus Griffin
• 1 copper refractor: Braylon Edwards (numbered to 425)
• 1 gold refractor: Frank Gore (in case, numbered to 199)
• 1 Ring of Honor: Eli Manning
• 3 Class of 2008: Darrell Green, Art Monk and Andre Tippett
• 4 military tributes: Roger Staubach, Norm Van Brocklin, Rocky Bleier and Lou Groza
• 4 NFL Dynasties: Emmitt Smith (2), Troy Aikman and Ty Law

And for the rest of the box break:

 

We've got a little something different in this installment of Bustin' Wax. Steve Bloedow, Tuff Stuff's pricing analyst, had his 2-year-old son help him open a box of 2007-08 SPx Basketball. But before you cry in disbelief, none of the cards were hurt, and it's kind of fun to watch.

2007-08 SPx Basketball

• 10 packs/box ($125)
• 3 cards/pack

This is a loaded product, but you know that going in. The key is whether you get an 1-of-1 cards or some really nice signatures. What did we get? Find out below and then check out the video of the kid - it's petty cute.

• 2 Super Scripts: D.J. Strawberry and Leandro Barbosa
• 1 Freshman Trip trio swatch: Daequan Cook, Javaris Crittenton and Morris Almond
• 6 Winning Materials jersey number swatches: Chris Wilcox, Luol Deng, Michael Redd, Kobe Bryant, Josh Howard and Antawn Jamison
• 4 Freshman Orientation swatch cards: Glen Davis, Gabe Pruitt, Daequan Cook and Jared Dudley
• 2 Freshman Tandem dual swatch cards: Al Thornton/Jararis Crittenton and Kevin Durant/Jeff Green
• 2 Winning Material teammates dual swatch cards: Richard Hamilton/Chauncey Billups and Gilbert Arenas/Antawn Jamison
• 1 gold Winning Material teammates dual swatch card: Baron Davis/Al Harrington (numbered to 50; great patches!)
• 2 "SPX" auto rookie swatches: Stephane Lasme and Wilson Chandler (both numbered to 825)

And now to see what a 2-year-old does when opening cards:

In another football release, we've got a bunch of goodies from Donruss Playoff – and tons memorabilia and autographed cards. the product for your viewing pleasure today is :


2008 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Football

• 4 packs/box ($125)
• 4 cards/pack

We opened a pair of these boxes, and received the "average" hits of four memorabilia or autograph cards per box. And some of these hits were pretty darn sweet. Let's break it down.

• 4 Gold Rookie parallels: Arman Shields, Simeaon Castille (2), and Anthony Alridge (each numbered to 799)
• 3 Silver Spectrum parallels: Laurence Maroney, Alex Smith and Tony Scheffler (numbered to 100)
• 1 College Materials Spectrum auto: Aqib Talib (numbered to 5, with a great colorful patch)
• 1 NFL Icons "NFL" swatch: Billy Sims (numbered to 50)
• 2 Rookie Premiere Materials: Donnie Avery "NFL" swatch with jersey and football from the event (numbered to 199), Mario Manningham huge jersey swatch and football (numbered to 100)
• 1 Star Gazing dual jersey swatch: Brian Brohm (numbered to 25)
• 1 War Room auto/jersey patch: Felix Jones (numbered to 25)
• 1 Team Trios triple swatch: Tony Romo, Terrell Owens and Jason Witten (numbered to 100)
• 1 Tools of the Trade double jersey patch/auto: Tim Brown (numbered to 25)

We had sort of dual box openings going on with this one, and we got some great stuff in both. It was a fun product to open.

And now to the video!

 

It's been too long since busting some packs on this blog. So let's dive right in with the Upper Deck Goudey Baseball. For a checklist of shortprints, check out the Tuff Stuff Forum.

2008 Upper Deck Goudey Baseball

• 8 cards/pack
• 18 packs/box ($80)

The box promised one autograph and one memorabilia card per box (on average). That's what we opened, with the autograph being John Maine of the Mets, and the memorabilia card being from a Miguel Tejada jersey. the card has Tejada in an Orioles uniform, but it does make note of his move to the Astros.

Among the Sport Royalties found in the box were a Larry Bird (numbered to 88, mini), Terry Bradshaw, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Cale Sanderson and Bruce Jenner.

The Hit Parade of Champions insert included Ken Griffey Jr. and Bill Russell.

For the rest of what we found, check out the video:

  

It's here - the latest Allen & Ginter offering from Topps. Joinging the box break of this fine product is SCD editor T.S. O'Connell, a big fan of the vintage-style cards. Let's get down and dirty:

Today's Feature: Topps Allen & Ginter

• 8 cards/pack
• 24 packs/box ($75)

There's a lot going on with this set, from autograph and relic cards to N43 box toppers and more insert cards that you can imagine - Minis, World Leaders, Dick Perez Originals, etc.

We busted open a box with plenty of good material, at least in the variety of content. There's too much to break down by insert/specialty, so we'll just showcase the relic cards, black borders and let the video do the rest of the explaining,

Relic cards

• Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini (boxing glove)
• Troy Tuluwitzki (jersey)
• Michael Young (jersey)
• Prince Fielder (bat)

Black Border Minis

• Jeff Francis
• Hanley Ramirez
• Michael Young

And now to the video: