One of our trusty employees, Matt tends to work for cards, whether it be singles, packs or boxes. He stepped up to the plate in a big way this week by securing a hobby box of 2022 National Treasures Baseball for his efforts at the shop.
As we all know, National Treasures is one of the premiere releases each and every year as a product that finds itself in elite status across all sports. Even the baseball product, while it’s not MLB licensed, is something most of our collectors are drawn to.
We have about five boxes left on the shelf at just over 500 bucks a piece. So, we’ll crack into Matt’s box and see what we find.
You know your opening a serious box of cards when it comes in its own carrying case.
The case holds one little inner box with the cards stacked up–no crinkly wrapper here.
The first card on the top of the box featured 26-year-old infielder Abraham Toro, who was in the news not long ago when he was traded from the Seattle Mariners to the Milwaukee Brewers along with Jesse Winker for Kolten Wong and cash considerations. It’s numbered to 25…but the patch looks like it’s from an Astros jersey. That’s where Toro started his pro career but he was traded to Seattle in July of 2021.
The second card in the box is a Retro Materials of 25-year-old Toronto Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah, numbered 2/99. The fiery competitor and trash talker is one of the better pitchers in all of baseball and I think this might be the first jersey card we’ve seen of him.
The third card in is high end beauty of a box is a pretty basic jersey card of Houston Astros star Alex Bregman. It’s numbered 31 of 99.
The fourth card up was a really cool Zac Gallen RPA. It shows a multiple colored swatch and a vertical autograph as well as being numbered 1 of 25 copies. The 26-year-old had a fantastic season for the D-Backs, posting a 12-4 record with a sub 3.00 ERA and nearly 200 strikeouts. 
The fifth card in the pricey box is a Gavin Sheets rookie on card autograph numbered to 99 copies. The youngster had 15 bombs and 53 ribbies for the Chi Sox last season.
Next up was a jersey auto of San Francisco Giants outfielder Luis Gonzales numbered to 49 copies. 
Next up is a really nice RPA of Texas Rangers pitcher Glenn Otto, numbered 44 of 99. It’s a nice three color swatch to go with the bold autograph of the young right hander. We will try to forget about the little dingy dings on the corners of this one. Otto was 7-10 with an ERA approaching 5.00 last season. We’ll try to forget that, too.
The next one is an absolute monster. It’s easily one of the biggest pulls/ hits we’ve seen in the shop, maybe, ever. Those who’d gathered around to watch in the shop went wild when the next card out of the box was an Apprentice Ink 1 of 1 on card rookie autograph of Seattle Mariners superstar rookie Julio Rodriguez.
The all important and iconic cursive “1 of 1” is found underneath his name and above his signature.
The young outfielder took the league by storm and could easily be one of the faces of the game in a few short years and a 1 of 1 auto out of a high-end product could be a massive hit… even more so a couple of years down the road. Rodriguez is seen finishing a powerful swing with his big, sweeping autograph at the bottom of the card.
That wasn’t the end of the box as next up was a Legendary Materials booklet of Brooklyn Dodgers star Jim Gilliam out of 49.
Gilliam spent his whole career, nearly two decades, as a Dodger, amassing over 2,000 hits but to be honest, I’m not sure this, or any other card, even registered after the J-Rod hit.
The final card in the box, as if we needed another one, was a Tanner Allen Diamond jersey auto numbered 77/99.
This box was worth every penny and then some. A truly all-time great hit for our shop… or any shop in the entire hobby. After some so-so Brief Box Breaks in recent days, I think we deserved something good to happen and needless to say, Matt picked the right time to go big.
Check out sports card boxes in Sports Zone’s online store here.
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