While collecting Sports Cards is a fun and rewarding hobby it is increasingly becoming a more and more expensive one as well.  Gone are the days where packs (yes that is plural) could be purchased for pocket change.  With the advent of "premium" card brands such as Upper Deck Ultimate and Topps Triple Threads, packs have risen in price exponentially, some going upwards of $1,000.  It would certainly be nice to afford to throw a grand into a pack of cards but that simply isn't the reality of the situation - for us anyways.  If you are like me, you simply cannot afford to throw that kind of money into sports cards (or any other hobby for that matter).  We have to pay off the our bills, mortgages, college tuitions, gasoline,  and the millions of other things that life brings our way before we can even think of buying cards.  Whatever meager sum of money is left over after we have taken care of ourselves (and our family's) wants and needs is our sports card spending money.

Working on this limited budget we take great pains to get the best value for our money.  With the dozens of card products now available on the market it can be easy to be swept up in the latest fad and overspend on a product that we didn't even really like it the first place.  We certainly feel your pain and want to help you get the most out of whatever sports card spending money you have.  This goal was the catalyst for the creation of our newest biweekly column, "The Box Bargain Hunter".  Every two weeks we will write a new installment of this series that will highlight the latest and greatest deals we've found from across the internet.  Feedback on this new concept would be appreciated.  If you come across a great deal we encourage you to share it with the rest of The Cardboard Connection Community by posting it below in the "Comments" section.

The Box Bargain Hunter - 9/24/08

With the MLB season wrapping up and the playoffs just around the corner, many sports card retailers are trying to liquidate their left over boxes of 2007 and 2008 baseball cards to free up capital to purchase 2008 Football Card Products.  As a result many of these products have be picked up at incredibly low (even sub-wholesale) prices.  Here are some of the best deals going on 2007 Baseball Products:

	2007 Fleer Ultra Special Edition Baseball $33.95 / Hobby Box 5 packs per box / 5 cards per pack Look for (1) Game-Used Memorabilia Card or Autograph Card in every PACK on average Each box delivers (5) Short Printed Rookie Cards Average of 4 Game Used Cards and 1 Autographed Rookie Card in every box Look for Autographed versions of Lucky 13 and Ultra Rookie Cards Look for Randomly Inserted 1-of-1 Printing Plates
	2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces Baseball $54.95 / Hobby Box 18 Packs per box / 4 Cards per pack Pull an average of 3 memorabilia cards and 1 on-card signature from every box Look for an average of 7 framed painting parallel cards per box - including 2 numbered to 99 or less!o Collect 5 x 7 Framed Painting Cards (including autographed versions) - inserted 1:box on average Includes 1-of-1 redemption cards for the original paintings featured in the base set
	2007 Upper Deck SP Rookie Edition Baseball $25.99 / Hobby Box 14 Packs per box / 8 Cards per pack. Pull 4 Rookie Cards per pack on average Look for an average of 2 Rookie Signatures in each box Find 4 different rookie card variations including the historic 1993, 1995, and 1996 designs Great Rookie Lineup