2002 Leaf Break

Time for a box break.  This time around international playboy and Upper Deck enthusiast Kevin of Card Papoy fame chose 2002 Leaf. 

Our box breaks have been a little more sparse here lately.  Big rookie years from Judge and Bellinger have made shopping for boxes a tad difficult. Normally I would default to standbys like Diamond Kings but even that is about $10-15 more expensive than normal.  Anyone seen any good deals lately?  I'm up to bat for a box, but have not been swayed by daily deals on the well known sites. 

Let's get to the cards.

From what Kevin told Brian and I the box didn't yield much in the way of high end, but still offered a nice glimpse of the period (freaking 16 years ago...yikes).  

While this was the time period companies started to shift focus towards autos/relics , you could still find a decent insert here and there. I like the Heading For the Hall inserts. Overall a nice looking card of the Wizard.

Some variation of "Gold Leaf" has been around a long time.

This was my only Pirate card from the break which pretty much sums up what it was like to collect the Pirates in the late 90's/early 2000's. It was pretty much Kendall and Giles with a sprinkling of Aramis Ramirez. 

Crime Dog!

I could imagine Gary Sheffield the agent would be kind of intimidating just like Gary Sheffield the player.

Some big names here.  Often the complaint with Leaf was poor photos. They all seem too bright and kind of blurry. The inserts have a much better look. Just compare the Lineage cards to the base. 

Some blog favorite players.

Overall the box was sort of a bust in terms of cards that can stay in my collection, but it was fun to see a set that I haven't paid attention to in years. Thanks for the break Kevin! I'll show off the trade portion tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!