Some High End Group Break Results for Me! (TWO 1/1s pulled!)

A few years ago, I joined a Facebook group called The Iron Lion (website) which is a hobby shop out in Colorado.  The shop runs plenty of group breaks that are fun to watch (everything is posted on Facebook so it's easy) despite the fact that I generally don't get involved since most of their breaks are A) high end and B) random team.

However, a couple of weeks ago I was feeling way more flush with cash than usual thanks to selling my Mike Trout rookie card on eBay and so I took a gamble and joined in on a 2020 Diamond Icons and 2020 Topps Definitive break as well as a break of just 2020 Diamond Icons.  Both breaks were "random team" so I had to hope that the group break gods were good to me!

In the first break (a single box of 2020 Diamond Icons), I knew I lucked out when I saw that I drew the Yankees as my team.  I don't collect the Yankees (or even like the Yankees) but I figured in a high-end single box break getting the Yankees was a good draw.  Luckily for me, I was correct:

That's a gorgeous on card autograph of Don Mattingly in red ink numbered out of only 25.  I don't have the time, patience, or budget to even remotely consider collecting high end stuff but I have to admit that the card is really, really nice.  

For the next break (another box of Diamond Icons and a box of Topps Definitive), I was given the Indians by the randomizer.  In a live box break, the folks at the Iron Lion give about five minutes after the team randomization is complete for folks to work out trades for other teams.  I tried with no avail to trade the Tribe away (obviously I mostly wanted the Reds but I was willing to take almost any other team).  In the end though, I was stuck with Cleveland since no one else wanted them either...

...and then the very first card out of the group break was this little guy:

That's my first every 1/1 Nameplate patch!  

Needless to say, all of the sudden I was happy I wasn't able to trade away the Tribe!  Heck, imagine how sad I would have been if I had made a swap and then missed out on this little beauty?!  

That wasn't all though...the Indians were really good to me in this break since I ended up with both the 1/1 Nameplate and then this fell out of the box a little bit later on:

That's a gorgeous autograph of Jim Thome - a guy that I always liked to watch play.  The fact that it's numbered out of only 35 is nice but I'm more impressed by the clean, classy card design.

In the end, I have to say that high end group breaks aren't for me.  I think I did about as well as I could possibly have hoped for in the two breaks that I joined, but the risk/reward simply isn't worth it to me given my limited card budget.  I basically joined in the first break simply as a way of supporting the Iron Lion card shop (the owner of the shop recently solicited names of children to send out free care packages to during the lockdown, packs of cards, toy figurines, etc.).  I thought that was an amazing gesture and wanted to do my (very small) part in helping out the shop fill up a group break.  

The second break that I joined in was basically because I thought I did well enough in the first break to cover my costs and so why not gamble again.

Speaking of gambling, I actually joined in a third break over at the Iron Lion but it was something you'd never expect out of me:  a basketball break.

Now, I don't collect basketball, I don't watch basketball, and I don't care about basketball.  That said, I do know that there is one player out there commanding insane prices on the secondary market (Zion) and the Iron Lion had a special "raffle" of sorts for the opportunity to buy into a group break of 2019/20 Panini National Treasures.  That set has a Zion card with a bounty on it for thousands of dollars.  I managed to win a chance at purchasing a spot and since by that point I had already had two successful breaks I figured I'd roll the dice a third time.  

I didn't get Zion's team (the Pelicans, if I'm not mistaken) in the team randomizer but I did end up with the Dallas Mavericks which had a fair number of cards in the set.  Long story short, the box of National Treasures didn't yield a Zion anyhow but I did walk away with my second 1/1 from the Iron Lion in the same week:

That's a printing plate from (oddly enough) the previous year's edition of National Treasures.  It's of the Dallas Maverick's J.J. Barea - a guy I've never heard of.  

That's probably the last of the random team, high-end group breaks for me in 2020.  It was a fun ride, but I get too nervous with that much money on the line (it's awfully easy to get shut-out in high end breaks given the small number of cards in a box).  I may try to get into a "pick your team" if they do something a little more in the mid-tier level some day but otherwise I think my group break days are over.

...then again, I did end up listing all four of the cards shown in this post on eBay and if they actually sell for enough where I turn a profit maybe I'll give the high end stuff another shake!  Either way, it felt good to support a hobby shop that is definitely supportive of their patrons and it was fun (and a bit nerve-wracking) to participate in some high end breaks of products I'd never be able to buy on my own!