u/Tshabalala21

Figured I’d share an update as we’ve officially become best friends/I go hard trying to complete a rainbow in record time. Anybody who saw my previous post knows I pulled the Emilee Skinner Verified Superfractor, and I’ve made good progress on the rainbow in a relatively short amount of time. It’s helped that there aren’t an insane number of parallels, and that it’s an insert of a player who missed nearly their entire Freshman year, so the prices aren’t too crazy. I’ve tracked down Purple /250, Fuschia /199, Mini Diamond /150, Green /99, Gold /50, Gold Geometric /50, Orange /25, and Orange Geometric /25. That leaves:

Geometric (unnumbered)
Aqua /125
Black Geometric /10
Red /5
Red Geometric /5

Only the Mini Diamond /150 and Gold /50 have arrived so far, the rest are on their way. I haven’t seen the unnumbered Geometric yet which is probably the most surprising. If anybody has or knows somebody that has something from the list above let me know! I’ll continue to post my progress as I go.

Never in a million years thought I’d pull a super. I will admit I’d never heard of Emilee Skinner but I now feel compelled to chase the rainbow. I’ve never attempted that before, thankfully Verified has relatively few parallels, I want to say 15. I’ve always wondered though if there are two of the same color but different pattern, do you try for one or both? For example if there’s a red and red geometric, both /5.

Are Bowman paper cards worth getting graded? Not a color match but /75 for Harper. If you check my post from yesterday you’ll see I’m a magnet for Dylan Harper in this set, pulled his Crystalized from a Hobby, his red rookie, now this.

Side note, I’m from the NY/NJ area and am becoming convinced they tilt distribution towards players originally from or playing in a region if you’re buying in store. Pulled Dart and Skattebo left and right this year, now I keep pulling Harper (played at Rutgers obviously but also from NJ). No Kons or Coopers in sight.

I’ve always wanted to buy a hobby box but could never reconcile the cost in my head. I work near the NBA Flagship store in Midtown Manhattan (absolutely loaded with Bowman Basketball Value, Mega, and Hobby boxes) and really enjoyed opening a few Megas yesterday and finally felt compelled to try a Hobby Box. First pack, Deniya Prawl base sticker auto. Second pack, Max Shulga Mini Diamond. Third pack, Scoot Henderson base sticker auto. The guaranteed pulls right out of the gate and worst case scenario. Get halfway through before I pull my first numbered card, Chet Holmgren /499. A pack or two later Adebayo /299. Three packs left and it is grim, worst case autos, worst case numbered cards, not even a paper Flagg or Knueppel. Looking like a life lesson. Then there it is, Dylan Harper Crystallized! Followed that with the Walter Clayton Jr Orange Rockstar Rookie /25. An absolute dud of a box, until it wasn’t.

Basically what the title says, pulled a Travis Hunter Gold Geometric /50 from a Value box. I know his market’s tanked, but if you pulled this would you get it graded? I don’t mean from a condition standpoint, the card’s in good shape I haven’t spotted any print issues, corners are sharp, etc. It’s hard to get a read on what this could be worth if it merited a 10 given how recent the release is. The only sale of the card raw or graded so far on eBay is a PSA 9 that sold for $49. Looking at numbered Panini Prizm cards for a comp, there’s been one sale of a PSA 10 Purple Power /49 in early March for $204. Either way I’m going to hang on to the card for the foreseeable future, it’s my first numbered pull that wasn’t a lineman nobody cares about.

What do we think? Sell now while there’s still some hype around the release? Or wait until the season’s closer?