Sports Cards Mania

Green (Tongued) Monster

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Jun 2, 2016
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Hanover, PA
Is there a reliable source that has what the retail price for boxes of cards should be? I know older sealed wax can go dor more and the market dictates that price but I can’t find anywhere what the price is for different box types of 2021 Topps or what the retail price originally was on older boxes.
Use EBay. That is an accurate representation of the market. Search for what you have interest in, filter to sold items, and sort by most recent date. This will tell you exactly why the same retail products are on the Target/Walgreens/Walmart shelves Month to month, and stock of others cannot be found. These are scooped up and sold on the secondary market.

A good example is the 2020 topps update release. When boxes first came out, hobby boxes were $130 and jumbos were $240. Since it wasn’t a strong release, after a month you could find hobbies under $90 and jumbo’s under $140. Unfortunately you won’t find blasters or hangers less than the MSRP.
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Currently the high bidder on a couple cards I always wanted as a kid...

- 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson Rookie
- 1985 Topps Mark McGwire Rookie
- 1992 Topps Trader Nomar Garciapara (PSA 10)

I wish I got into collecting earlier like I did when I was a kid.

My brother and I saved up in 2000/2001 for a box of 1994 SP to get the coveted A-Rod rookie. I can't remember what we spent on the box, it was a lot - and we did end up getting it. Put it in a holder and shipped to PSA...got an 8 and it was devastating. Our dreams of early retirement dashed.

Funny how the Jeter card ended up being the better buy, and was cheaper at the time.
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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0/2 today with the McGwire doubling in price (I had doubled my max bid in the last minute) in the last 3 seconds. Fucking snipers.
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Went to a local card shop and grabbed this guy today. Was a dream to own this Griffey as a kid. And this one is mint.63450941097__B1DB11C6-DF30-4680-B794-CD4500A0B649.jpeg
 

brandonchristensen

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Feb 4, 2012
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Congrats, bc. I want to do the same thing soon. For the same reason.
The McGwire I lost yesterday, the Roger Clemens 84 Fleer Update as well are high on the list. I ordered a 1990 Topps Frank Thomas (3 bucks shipped from eBay, for a card that's not his best rookie but I have the most sentimental value to it).

I'd love to grab a Mo Vaughn but they're kinda shit cards. I had the O-Pee-Cee one which is his best looking, but they're all kind of worthless. So I'll probably skip it for now.
 
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NJ_Sox_Fan

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Jan 2, 2006
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The McGwire I lost yesterday, the Roger Clemens 84 Fleer Update as well are high on the list. I ordered a 1990 Topps Frank Thomas (3 bucks shipped from eBay, for a card that's not his best rookie but I have the most sentimental value to it).

I'd love to grab a Mo Vaughn but they're kinda shit cards. I had the O-Pee-Cee one which is his best looking, but they're all kind of worthless. So I'll probably skip it for now.
I have several dozen 1990 Fleer Frank Thomas cards if you want one. I opened a number of 90 Fleer Traded looking for a PSA 10 worthy card.

BTW, that Griffey and Pedro look great. There is something very appealing to me about well centered, raw cards (IE, not graded)
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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I have several dozen 1990 Fleer Frank Thomas cards if you want one. I opened a number of 90 Fleer Traded looking for a PSA 10 worthy card.

BTW, that Griffey and Pedro look great. There is something very appealing to me about well centered, raw cards (IE, not graded)
The Topps and the Leaf ones are the ones I’m after. The Topps I ordered for nothing. The Leaf I’m not in a rush for.

Got outbid on the PSA 10 Nomar and realized I don’t care about a grade on it so I ordered one for $9.99 shipped. Looks super nice.
 

rymflaherty

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Jun 27, 2010
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Norfolk
Well looks like I’m officially out. Saw today that bass Topps was out and it’s going for $260 a Jumbo.
I saw some attempts at the math in the Blowout Forums, and for double the price it looks like Topps has nearly doubled the production this year.

I just have to figure out what to do with my SportsLots store now. I have probably lay like 25k cards logged in there and I don’t want to waste that, but it’s almost impossible to keep up with prices/inventory at the moment...and even more so with an infant (second kid) and the pandemic.

Guess it’s retail only at this point. Which I guess is fine, because I could pull nothing and it already will feel like a win to find something new to open at msrp.
 

LogansDad

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Nov 15, 2006
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Alamogordo
Sick! I've got two more coming in the next couple days, and another I haven't taken a photo of yet (not an auto, but a beautiful #/25 Ultimate Introductions that I will try to post a little later).
 

Green (Tongued) Monster

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Jun 2, 2016
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Hanover, PA
Opened my 2021 Topps jumbo box today and below is the summary:

Auto - Frank Thomas 1986 On-card version
Relic - Joey Bart spring training patch
Relic - Mookie Betts world series champion memorabilia /99
Willie Mays SP
Casey Mize/Deivi Garcia/Andres Gimenez 1986 refractors
Javy Baez boxloader
Clemens & Ted Williams 70 years of topps cards
54 base rookies
2 1986 rookies
Brendan McKay gold /2021
Max Stassi /199 red refractor
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Opened my 2021 Topps jumbo box today and below is the summary:

Auto - Frank Thomas 1986 On-card version
Relic - Joey Bart spring training patch
Relic - Mookie Betts world series champion memorabilia /99
Willie Mays SP
Casey Mize/Deivi Garcia/Andres Gimenez 1986 refractors
Javy Baez boxloader
Clemens & Ted Williams 70 years of topps cards
54 base rookies
2 1986 rookies
Brendan McKay gold /2021
Max Stassi /199 red refractor
What's the Thomas look like?

I keep getting outbid on eBay. Crushing me. And people get it fro a dollar more than my max which is a very conservative max. I need to go harder :( Lost out on another Rickey Henderson AND the 91 Michael Jordan baseball card.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Yeah, I have been watching that auction. 1980 Topps are notoriously hard to get in PSA 10, and there are hardly any Henderson 10's, so in this ridiculous market it makes sense.
Yea for sure. I always just liked the card. I haven’t been bidding for an investment of a good grade.

I just like card. Had no idea it was worth a lot that high. Nice to see though.
 

LogansDad

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Nov 15, 2006
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Alamogordo
I found a Bo Jackson football rookie card in my collection that somehow looks (to my untrained eye) like it is in supremely good condition, that I am considering getting graded.
 

LogansDad

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Nov 15, 2006
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Alamogordo
Isn’t there a massive turnaround time on grading now?
I took a look at the Beckett site, and if you want to pay $125+ you can get it back in 10-15 days. If you'd rather pay $25-50, it'll be closer to 8 months.

I asked Oil Can Dan in the card thread over in TBLTS how he got his done, because it happened faster than I would have expected, but haven't heard back yet.
 

Oil Can Dan

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Hey, sorry about that I didn't notice. I just replied in that other thread but I chose their fastest (and most expensive) turnaround time option. I think it was like $125, which is crazy, but it was super fast. I am just flat out terrible at accurately predicting the grade on cards. I have 568 out of 572 1959 Topps in PSA 8 or better and I compared some of those to this Trout card I sent in and I think this Trout card is in better shape than a lot of those '59's.
 

brandonchristensen

Loves Aaron Judge
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Feb 4, 2012
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Went to a card store to get some one touch for the stuff I ordered. Packed.

I guess they got a shipment in. I have no idea what people buy or what those boxes are above. But good luck.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Jan 2, 2006
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NJ
Went to a card store to get some one touch for the stuff I ordered. Packed.

I guess they got a shipment in. I have no idea what people buy or what those boxes are above. But good luck.
They are 2021 Topps Series 1

Still have 12 to go. Best card so far is a Casey Mize Short Print variation rookie or maybe the Andres Gimenez rookie #’d to 50.

Really liking the 86 Topps inserts and the 52 Topps inserts.
Hit pretty much two-three of every key rookie so far except Pasche (1)

No good parallels of Bohm yet sadly.