Best Sports Cards Packs to Buy in 2024 and Older

In my opinion, here are 5 sports card packs that will provide a bang for your buck. Please leave your top trading pack in the comments section.

Best 2023-24 Trading Card Packs

Please email any questions to [email protected] or visit the Cardboard Nerds Facebook page. These rankings are based on the overall value of the cards you may receive vs the amount spent per pack.

2020 Prizm Football

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Release Date: 12/2/2020
Hobby Configuration: 12 cards per pack, 12 packs per box, 12 boxes per case

This set is loaded with big names such as Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Tua, and Jalen Hurts, to name a few. The significant change compared to last year is one less autograph and one more Silver Prizm per Hobby box. The expected Hobby output is now two autographs and two Silver Prizms. Another plus is these cards hold up very well to PSA grading. Fresh pulls should have an excellent chance at a PSA 9 or 10 grade.

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Hobby Parallels

• Silver
• Snakeskin
• Orange – #/249
• Blue Wave – #/199
• Hyper – #/175
• Red Wave – #/149
• Blue Ice – #/99
• Green Scope – #/75
• Purple Power – #/49
• Camo – #/25
• Gold – #/10
• Gold Vinyl – #/5
• Black Finite – 1/1

Top Cards

1. Justin Herbert RC #325
2. Joe Burrow RC #307
3. Jalen Hurts RC #343
4. Tua Tagovailoa RC #339

2016 Bowman Chrome

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Release Date: 9/7/2016
Product Configuration: 5 cards per pack, 12 packs per master box, 12 master boxes per case
Product Configuration: 80 cards per box, 12 boxes per case

Bowman Chrome once again!

These packs contain rookie prospect cards from Juan Soto, Tatis Jr., Vlad Jr., Bo Bichette, and Pete Alonso. A LOADED year for big names. Like Prizm cards, the Bowman Chrome grades well with PSA. Out of the 10 I sent in a few months ago, 6 returned with PSA 10 grades.

Chrome Prospect Autograph Parallels

2023 Panini NBA Hoops

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Release Date: 11/22/2023
Hobby Configuration: 8 cards per pack, 24 packs per box, 20 boxes per case

They are relatively cheap, and you can grab a Victor Wembanyama NBA Hoops base rookie card or one of the Victor Wembanyama special inserts. The only downside to the NBA Hoops card is they don’t grade particularly well. I sent a dozen 2023 Wemby Hoops rookie cards to PSA; only 3 returned with a 10 grade.

2023-24 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball Base Parallels

2023 Bowman Draft Chrome

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Release Date: 12/12/2023
Hobby Jumbo Configuration: 32 cards per pack, 12 packs per box, 8 boxes per case
Super Jumbo Config: 120 cards per pack, 5 packs per box, 6 boxes per case
HTA Choice Config: 3 cards per pack, 1 pack per box, 6 boxes per case

Wow! I would love to have the above card. The 2023 Bowman Draft Chrome Tom Brady 1st Bowman RC #95B-TB SSP is the highlight of this set. I might buy an entire hobby box hoping to pull the Brady card.

The Tom Brady  Expose baseball card is among the more popular cards to hit the industry in 2023/24.

2017 Bowman Chrome

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Release Date: 09/29/2017
Product Configuration: Hobby – 5 cards per pack, 6 packs per mini box, 2 mini boxes per master box, 12 master boxes per case
Product Configuration: HTA – 3 cards per pack, 1 pack per box, 12 boxes per case

Aaron Judge and Ronald Acuna prospect rookie cards. Both of these bashers should have a solid ROI in the long term plus, as we mentioned previously, Bowman Chrome grades well with PSA. The only downside to the 2017 set is the cost and scarcity. Finding a single pack for sale will be difficult at best.