quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:
I have one or two titles from Topps I would be nearly interested in trying a box of, but within seconds of the release time the product is always sold out.

Topps is Fanatics and they have their own direct to consumer business model going on. I really don't think sniper software would help much.

Direct to the public sounds like a fair system, but it seems the reality is more like free groceries when the shelves are empty. Cheap or expensive, no product means no access.

Some fine comments-- although kinda depressing, too!

Yeah, the prices and the breakdowns are getting to be ridiculous. But since I prefer to be optimistic, I can also see a bright side: the more outrageous the corporations get, the better (and more competitive) they make the smaller independents like me, NostalgiaCards, RRParks, and the many artists who produce their own cards via Kickstarter, seem in comparison.

The same thing happened in the movie Industry in the 1970s. The studios started treating customers like crap, and the independent movie makers took advantage of that, filled the void, and became a force to be reckoned with.

I don't know where to put this because it's about Topps and sports cards. It does have some bearing on the mind set of Fanatics and box prices, so I'll drop it here. Don't be surprised if a similar gimmick comes to non-sport cards soon.

So in case you haven't heard, Topps Chrome Baseball 2026 has in it a 1/1 autographed card of Shohei Ohtani that has made the evening news. It is billed as a dual logoman, a term which I have never heard of before. It has two Ohtani autographs; one is his Japanese signature and the other is I think the English alphabet version. It also has two patches that I presume are authentic to some uniform. The card expert that the evening news brought on solemnly declared that it would be worth five million dollars on the secondary market.

Now there is a worldwide search for this "golden ticket" card that could be busted in any country, if anyone would care to rush right out and start breaking boxes.

Unbelievable to think that some people will probably do just that. I mean it's not even a rookie card. And who would be trusted by Topps to stick it in a pack, or box, or case? Who would not know where it was headed? And who would pay millions for an artificially created 1/1 that cost no more than contracting two Ohtani signatures and some cardboard printing to make?

There is just so many things wrong with this, I won't even post my complete opinion. This is the collectible card market carried to its extreme. Next stop up, Star Wars.

Ohtani has been driving the baseball card market for awhile now. His essentially unprecedented success has led to massive price increase on virtually all of his cards, and any packs that might contain them from the lowest end (Topps "flagship", with even that now over $100 for a hobby box) to the myriad of high end to ultra high end releases.

Those patches come from a couple of his uniforms and lately, MLB has been having its MVP Award Winners wear gold-bordered logo patches as opposed to the standard white-border logo patches worn by all of the other players, so that makes them more unique, too.

Those logo patch embedded cards first gained popularity when placed on basketball cards and as the NBA logo is a player dribbling a basketball, they are called "Logoman" patches. There have been plenty of those (featuring LeBron, Kobe, Jordan, and the like) that have long held values north of 1 million, so it's not a new phenomenon for these types of cards to be extremely valuable, and there are LOTS of them.

Major League baseball rookies now wear a special patch on their jerseys when they make their MLB debuts, and those patches from the start go into 1/1 autograph cards which can also sell for astounding prices from the jump, especially consider that by the very nature of them, the players on those cards are almost completely unproven commodities.

I have long been away from the sports card market, although I am familiar with the things that used to be important in collectible sports cards. There used to be at least some resemblance of logic and the rule of supply and demand. Cards matured into being collectibles and only the rarest cards of iconic players got to appreciate into big money. This all seems to have been replaced now by hundreds of 1/1 manufactured rarities created by whoever holds the pro license.

So accepting what you say to be true CPF, that these cards "have long held values north of 1 million . . . and there are LOTS of them", shouldn't there be some regulation on this? I mean Topps can't print paper currency money or sell bonds, so how is it OK for them to print a million-dollar card anytime they want, for any product they want?

Even with a free market and acknowledging that anything is only worth what someone will pay, that kind of money is beyond ripe for corruption. It makes no sense, but put it on the crypto market then, if we are just buying make believe investments. It doesn't belong in a box of baseball cards that may, or may not, ever be discovered by someone who, may or may not, ever be made public, and sold to someone else who may, or may not, ever be identified.

And what is the taxman doing with all those may or may nots? I don't know, but eBay is grabbing my sales tax on my $15 card purchase.

And just to stay close to topic, what is the price of a Topps Chrome Baseball 2026 box if you can pull a $5M card?