Tuesday, August 12, 2014

2014 Leaf Autographed Baseball Edition

Leaf Trading Cards is owned by Bryan Gray, who is mainly known for his old company Razor Entertainment. Gray acquired the Leaf name in 2010 and shut down Razor. I've seen a couple of Leaf products on the shelves since then. To be clear, Leaf is completely separate from the Donruss brand (which is now owned by Panini) and, except perhaps for the logo, has no connection to Leaf cards of the 1990's and early 2000's. Leaf, of course, does not have a contract with Major League Baseball. I don't think it has a contract with the player's union either.

I saw this in Target the other day.

There is supposed to be an autographed baseball in the box. There are also an unknown number of "Leaf Autographed Baseball Edition" cards with the possibility of getting an autographed card.  The box wasn't very heavy, in fact it really didn't feel heavy enough for it to contain a real baseball.

Would  you buy this based on what I just told you? There is no other information on the box, including a price.

How about if I told you the box cost $39.99?

There might be a small group of players I'd be willing to spend $39.99 for an autographed ball but I'm not willing to spend that much on a pig in a poke.

6 comments:

The Junior Junkie said...

I think you should buy it and trade me the sweet signed Griffey inside...

Commishbob said...

I'd pass. I'm not willing to spend $40 for something that I'm VERY likely to not care about. The odds of it being a Hall of Fame baseball I'd care to own are pretty remote.

Having said that I do participate in group box breaks from time to time and I never seem to feel like I got my $$ worth but I do it again anyway.

Hackenbush said...

For 40 bucks I'm sure you could find something nice on ebay, a Jim Bunning signed ball for instance.

Fuji said...

Considering I purchased my Frank Thomas autographed baseball for less than that, I'd pass. This is one of those products that I enjoy watching other people bust on YouTube. It's pretty cool to see a big name pulled.

--David said...

Not even sure it will be worth the 50% off in two years...

al jr said...

I actually bought ALL five that I found at my local Target a few months ago. As far as I know, they never got any more in.
These are the five autographed baseballs that I got:
Tony Kubek (with "Hall of Fame 2009 Ford Frick Award" inscription.)
Ralph Terry (with "62 W.S. MVP" inscription)
1982 St. Louis Cardinals (signed by 16 members of the World Series Championship Team)
Jose Canseco (with "Chemist" inscription)
Gary Sheffield (with "509 HR's" inscription)

I didn't think that $39.99+TAX was that bad for an autographed baseball considering that a regular unsigned one retails for around $20.00.