Just saw this advertised. Apparently it will only be available directly from the Topps website in box and case form but will NOT be available to dealers through the usual distribution method. It appears that this is the new Topps model for its cards, sadly. Good luck in doing this set.

Direct sales, bypassing distributors and dealers, is the ultimate goal of Fanatics. They are not there yet, but they are working it in gradually. If they are satisfied with sales, they will open it up faster and include more products.

The impact on dealers and hobby stores will come when they choose a popular title or card product and make them stand in line too. After that we, as the consumer, will see how it effects the way we find cards and how we may have to adjust, if we want to continue buying new cards carrying the Topps name.

They still have it on their main hobby dealer calendar, just later (currently June 30). Still odd and a different model but I suspect it's part experiment, part they wanted something online for May 4th.

At their conference earlier in the year they said there'd be a new Sapphire set. That didn't happen.

A quote from a post from another site. "Just got confirmation from Topps rep that this will be solicited to stores next week" Posted 5/5/23

quote:

Originally posted by Gerry609:
A quote from a post from another site. "Just got confirmation from Topps rep that this will be solicited to stores next week" Posted 5/5/23

But at what price? Wholesale? Or close to the direct retail price they have it for now? They seem to be trying different approaches with each release and leaning more on the custom order model.

Fanatics bought up Topps with ideas about how to change distribution and add titles that would make more money for them. Only they didn't know that much about the hobby, and they were catering to people who don't know the hobby either. The general opinion among the few dealers I still know is that Fanatics isn't satisfied with the results so far, and the dealers don't know yet how it may affect their accounts in the future, or if they will even have accounts.

Not for nothing, but if you listen hard enough you can hear the sobbing from Blowout over here. The flippers aren't happy with 2023 Star Wars Chrome, everything from what they are pulling out of the cases, to the quality of the cardstock itself.

I can't decide whether Fanatics doesn't care about its non-sport cards, or just doesn't know how to make them yet. I'm leaning towards the former.

So there is a new Topps Star Wars product called Chrome Sapphire for "Return of the Jedi" that apparently is opening to a public pre-sale tomorrow, May 25th.

Not being a Stars Wars card collector, I don't know if Chrome Sapphire are the same or different cards from this thread title. Anyway, if you are interested you can look them up and decide how you are supposed to order this one. Boxes seem to be close to $320, but that keeps changing. This stuff is getting to complicated to find and information is vague.