I apologize for leaving you waiting on the edge of your collective seats. You’ve gone four (FOUR!) days now without hearing about the biggest hits of April. May started on a weekend, and then yesterday was consumed writing a newsletter that included the announcement that Green Bay Packers running back AJ Dillon will be streaming on Loupe this week. It’s been a busy couple days.
But, for once, we’re here to look at the past, not toward the future. Let’s remember April exactly as it was: Filled with fire and Loupe’s biggest month ever. These were the best pulls on Loupe in April.
LaMelo Ball Panini Origins silver ink autograph
Let’s start with the card that’s the least visually impressive… for now. Lab 20 pulled a redemption for a LaMelo Ball silver ink rookie auto out of Panini Origins. That’s gonna be a good mailday when Panini sends this to its new home.
Justin Herbert National Treasures RPA booklet
We’ve been finding Justin Herbert a lot on Loupe. It’s kind of uncanny actually. This sick-nasty rookie patch auto booklet out of National Treasures was pulled by Hit Seekers, and it might be the best-looking Herbert card of the month. However, it’s not the best Herbert card of the month. Foreshadowing!
Tua National Treasures RPA
Let’s stay on the theme of rookie quarterbacks. Casa Breaks went fishing and caught this whale…err, Dolphin. This is a stupidly clean Tua RPA. National Treasures was very kind to us this month. More foreshadowing!
Alexis Lafreniere Black Diamond RPA
BrewMedic is our hockey guy, and he pulls enough fire to melt the whole rink. Here’s one of the first autographs from last year’s first overall draft pick. Numbered 1 out of 25 for good measure.
Justin Herbert Contenders Optic green pulsar auto /27
When I say we pull a lot of Herbie, FreshPullZ is the main culprit. Just look at their Instagram account. It looks like a Justin Herbert fan page. I basically just picked one of several Herberts they hit in April. Not a bad problem to have.
Cristiano Ronaldo Obsidian patch auto /15
How about a super low-numbered patch auto of one of the best and most popular soccer players in the world? Sorry, fútbol. Fútbol.
Zach Wilson Panini Select XRC Tie-Dye
Okay, another visually unimpressive card because it’s a redemption. But that’s only because we needed to see how the draft order would shake out before we knew who it’d be. Turns out the second QB taken overall was Zach Wilson. This will be a pretty decent card if Wilson turns out to be an emergent superstar in one of the world’s biggest markets.
LeBron James Panini Prizm Ruby Wave
This might be the most iconic card of the year. The courtside LeBron James out of Panini Prizm is absolute fire. This ruby wave parallel pulled by Ry$ is even better.
Justin Herbert and Tua RPAs out of National Treasures
You all knew this was coming. These are the biggest and most-publicized hits in the history of Loupe. In April, Heat Check pulled this Justin Herbert RPA out of National Treasures for user JaxLeo. Then, a couple nights later, Ry$ pulled this 1/1 Tua RPA out of National Treasures for… JaxLeo again:
These were such monsters that they warranted their own blog post. Check that out here if you want all the details. In hindsight, they were perfectly symbolic for how huge April was across Loupe as a whole.