Black November

[bustsomewax]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I have zero interest in tennis, but the case of 2021 Chrome Sapphire Tennis for $40 per box seems solid for anyone interested. I think I recall hearing it was a rough product, but thats seems pretty cheap.

Terrible product. It's sapphire, but almost no resell on singles.

[jfan2024]

Originally Posted by premium1981

I have zero interest in tennis, but the case of 2021 Chrome Sapphire Tennis for $40 per box seems solid for anyone interested. I think I recall hearing it was a rough product, but thats seems pretty cheap.

No avoid sapphire. It only has 5 autos on checklist (women below). Topps chrome tennis was awful in general but definitely avoid the sapphire. This isn't the same thing as the regular chrome with sapphire finish. Completely different product and quite frankly, the only chase was the autos and with just the five women below in sapphire and at 1 base auto per ~23 boxes (1:183 packs), hard pass.

Billie Jean King
Chris Evert
Coco Gauff
Emma Raducanu
Gigi Fernandez

[bub838]

Originally Posted by Jolten Joe

2023 Flagship Hobby boxes aren't terrible at $60. I get people complain about print run but you won't find any #'d color singles of the big names Rc's ( Harris, Adley, Gunnar, Carroll, Volpe) for $60 on ebay.

Series 2 is absolutely underrated with Carroll, Walker and Volpe. I’d only buy series 1 jumbo though, the odds in hobby boxes were skewed ridiculously and are barren.

[premium1981]

Originally Posted by bustsomewax

Terrible product. It's sapphire, but almost no resell on singles.

Originally Posted by jfan2024

No avoid sapphire. It only has 5 autos on checklist (women below). Topps chrome tennis was awful in general but definitely avoid the sapphire. This isn't the same thing as the regular chrome with sapphire finish. Completely different product and quite frankly, the only chase was the autos and with just the five women below in sapphire and at 1 base auto per ~23 boxes (1:183 packs), hard pass.

Billie Jean King
Chris Evert
Coco Gauff
Emma Raducanu
Gigi Fernandez

There you have it. From people who know better than me.

For anyone that needs a thermal printer, Amazon has 20% off Rollo today. I bought a backup because thats a good price. $160.

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

The Pokémon Classic set must have been a massive flop for them to cut it down to $280. It came out a week ago for $400 and sold out presale in an instant on Pokémon Center.

I wanted this haha.

[jfan2024]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

I wanted this haha.

I genuinely think this will be sub-$150 next year. Pokemon really missed the mark by not putting packs in here. The contents are entirely junk (eBay solds on everything minus the card decks is about $30 shipped). Then the decks are only good for the few promos. Once people get over the usual pokemon fomo and see how bad the condition is meaning no grading and flipping either, this product is going to come down hard. At least the other ultra premium collections had packs to set a floor. At the $400 MSRP, I think people have forgotten you can buy the actual 1996 base set versions of Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise (not a gimmicky 2023 reprint).


- 3 60-card decks starring Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise
- 3 Deck boxes
- 3 Sets of card sleeves
- 1 Two-player game board
- 1 Toolbox case with randomizer
- 2 Sets of damage counter cones
- 2 Sets of condition markers

[txrngr34]

Originally Posted by jfan2024

This isn't the same thing as the regular chrome with sapphire finish. Completely different product and quite frankly...

Curious what you mean by this?

I bought two boxes of Sapphire because as a fan in my youth it brought back a lot of names I remember following as a kid to young adult.

Anyway, I never bought the Chrome release but the Sapphire definitely looked like the typical Sapphire finish on chrome stock.

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by Mattsurewood

I agree on the 2022 Heritage High number, I think that's a good deal..Witt/JRod, why not?

If I had the funds I'd buy all 5 of the 2017/18 Optic Premium basketball sets at $999...Mitchell/Tatum/DeAaron Fox/Markkanen rookies--base set numbered to 249, one auto/25 inserted per set...only 10 autos, so a decent shot at a good one. I sold a Zhou Q1 1/1 auto from Vanguard for $999 once, he's got a following, should be able to get a couple hundred for him if you hit that auto...Tatum would be a big win if you hit him:


Serial numbered #/25. 1 per box.
151 Zhou Qi - Houston Rockets
159 Lauri Markkanen - Chicago Bulls
174 Kyle Kuzma - Los Angeles Lakers
188 Donovan Mitchell - Utah Jazz
192 Dennis Smith Jr. - Dallas Mavericks
193 Frank Ntilikina - New York Knicks
196 De'Aaron Fox - Sacramento Kings
198 Jayson Tatum - Boston Celtics
199 Lonzo Ball - Los Angeles Lakers
200 Markelle Fultz - Philadelphia 76ers

Optic Premium cards don’t really sell well.

[KhalDrogo]

Originally Posted by jfan2024

At the $400 MSRP, I think people have forgotten you can buy the actual 1996 base set versions of Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise (not a gimmicky 2023 reprint).

I think the majority would take the 2023 reprints over the base set at whatever condition the price point gets you.

[hanes1111]

went with a 2023 Ginter case.......crossing fingers for Wemby auto

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by jfan2024

I genuinely think this will be sub-$150 next year. Pokemon really missed the mark by not putting packs in here. The contents are entirely junk (eBay solds on everything minus the card decks is about $30 shipped). Then the decks are only good for the few promos. Once people get over the usual pokemon fomo and see how bad the condition is meaning no grading and flipping either, this product is going to come down hard. At least the other ultra premium collections had packs to set a floor. At the $400 MSRP, I think people have forgotten you can buy the actual 1996 base set versions of Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise (not a gimmicky 2023 reprint).


- 3 60-card decks starring Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise
- 3 Deck boxes
- 3 Sets of card sleeves
- 1 Two-player game board
- 1 Toolbox case with randomizer
- 2 Sets of damage counter cones
- 2 Sets of condition markers

Sorry, I wanted it to mostly flip locally. Buy 5, flip 4 and reduce (or cover) cost of remaining 1 for the PC.

[Archimedes]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Picked up 2 x 20 blaster box lots of 2018 Bowman BB. Might grab the last 3 available but need to see what else is available.

Missed out on the 2018 Bowman megas and 2013 Elite boxes. Had them in the cart but was too busy looking for more deals lol.

Am I crazy or did they already raise the price on those. Pretty sure they were $1700. Now they’re $2000.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bustsomewax]

Originally Posted by hanes1111

went with a 2023 Ginter case.......crossing fingers for Wemby auto

I actually thought this was a better deal than 2022. The Auto checklist is better.

[jfan2024]

Originally Posted by txrngr34

Curious what you mean by this?

I bought two boxes of Sapphire because as a fan in my youth it brought back a lot of names I remember following as a kid to young adult.

Anyway, I never bought the Chrome release but the Sapphire definitely looked like the typical Sapphire finish on chrome stock.

People shouldn't assume they're the same product, just one being chrome and the other being sapphire finish. The chase in the product was autographs. The main chrome series had a 90-card auto checklist, highlighted by Pete Sampras but a lot of other great hall of famers that I personally think people would be happy pulling. The sapphire just has the 6-card women's checklist if you include Raducanu via the extended auto checklist. There's no chase basically in sapphire so while the cards look nice, you're going to have a hard time pulling something even over $5. A base auto in sapphire is every 23 boxes aka 2.3 cases. There's a reason Topps had these for only $60 direct on their website upon release.

[esoxwaters]

Originally Posted by Archimedes

Am I crazy or did they already raise the price on those. Pretty sure they were $1700. Now they’re $2000.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They were and they did.

[wubh]

Originally Posted by jfan2024

No avoid sapphire. It only has 5 autos on checklist (women below). Topps chrome tennis was awful in general but definitely avoid the sapphire. This isn't the same thing as the regular chrome with sapphire finish. Completely different product and quite frankly, the only chase was the autos and with just the five women below in sapphire and at 1 base auto per ~23 boxes (1:183 packs), hard pass.

Billie Jean King
Chris Evert
Coco Gauff
Emma Raducanu
Gigi Fernandez

It’s actually worse. Only Emma’s autos made it into Sapphire and while they sell decently, they are indeed ridiculously hard to pull and this product is destined to get cheaper in the future.

Low #ed of certain players will cover a box or three but the problem is that Topps didn’t license many of the best modern players (no Federer, Nadal, Novak, Alcaraz, etc) and instead loaded the set with pre-WW2 ‘legends’ and wheelchair tennis players. No offense to them but the hype for the first Chrome Tennis product basically died as soon as the checklist came out.

And the best card in Sapphire, the Coco Gauff 1/1 is on eBay currently.

With that said, I was still half tempted when I saw the doorbuster promo email but spent my $2000 of COMC/BO credit elsewhere when the other deals turned out to be better than I expected.

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by Archimedes

Am I crazy or did they already raise the price on those. Pretty sure they were $1700. Now they’re $2000.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not crazy at all. They sold out of all that they had allocated at the $1700 price-point (same with case of 2013 Elite Edition, they bumped it up from $700 to $800).

It’s still a good deal at $2000 but $1700 was an absolute steal. Did you grab some at $1700?

[premium1981]

For those that like USA cards, the 2021 blaster case for $199.99 is solid. $10 per blaster with 2 hits. Jackson Holliday, Dylan Crews, Druw Jones. Fun cheap break.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Not crazy at all. They sold out of all that they had allocated at the $1700 price-point (same with case of 2013 Elite Edition, they bumped it up from $700 to $800).

It’s still a good deal at $2000 but $1700 was an absolute steal. Did you grab some at $1700?

One of the many gems. And at 2000, it's STILL one of the best deals available.

[jfan2024]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Sorry, I wanted it to mostly flip locally. Buy 5, flip 4 and reduce (or cover) cost of remaining 1 for the PC.

Before it went out of stock, I think they limited to just 1 anyway. Fair enough if purely to flip, modern pokemon is largely collection mindset for me. There are very few items post sword and shield I'd actually recommend as investment. People hoarding ETB cases etc. of modern I think have long missed the boat. For investment, non-Japanese foreign language pokemon has been great to me. Like any wax, have to be outside the box to do well beyond the occasional grey hat madness.

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

I think the majority would take the 2023 reprints over the base set at whatever condition the price point gets you.

I guess I'm too old school. $400 should get you lightly played versions of all 3 cards from 1996 base set. Why somebody would take a reprint confuses me. If going for non-1996 originals, may as well just buy the 3 in celebrations version for less than $50

[Archimedes]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Not crazy at all. They sold out of all that they had allocated at the $1700 price-point (same with case of 2013 Elite Edition, they bumped it up from $700 to $800).

It’s still a good deal at $2000 but $1700 was an absolute steal. Did you grab some at $1700?

Nope. I spent too long thinking about it and missed out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[premium1981]

If you are buying on ebay in the toys and hobbies category, Topcashback currently has 20% cash back. That is insanely high. I don't do pokemon, but that seems to be whats popular in there and that is a lot of cash back.

[njsportscardguy]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Not crazy at all. They sold out of all that they had allocated at the $1700 price-point (same with case of 2013 Elite Edition, they bumped it up from $700 to $800).

It’s still a good deal at $2000 but $1700 was an absolute steal. Did you grab some at $1700?

Anyone notice a peculiarity with their pricing on this....??? I mean,...generally speaking, isn't the concept, "buy more, pay LESS"....?!? (said, rhetorically)

20 box lot @ $1999.97 works out to $99.99/box. BUT,...buy them individually, and you "save",....$.22/box...!?!!

Ya' don't get "rich" by throwin' your pennies away.

[txrngr34]

Originally Posted by jfan2024

People shouldn't assume they're the same product, just one being chrome and the other being sapphire finish. The chase in the product was autographs. The main chrome series had a 90-card auto checklist, highlighted by Pete Sampras but a lot of other great hall of famers that I personally think people would be happy pulling. The sapphire just has the 6-card women's checklist if you include Raducanu via the extended auto checklist. There's no chase basically in sapphire so while the cards look nice, you're going to have a hard time pulling something even over $5. A base auto in sapphire is every 23 boxes aka 2.3 cases. There's a reason Topps had these for only $60 direct on their website upon release.

My bad, I thought you meant the cards itself. You meant the checklist.

Although, I feel like baseball Sapphire checklists - especially autos - always vary notably from the Chrome checklists. Maybe not as starkly contrasted between the 90 and 5 you mentioned, but it always feels like they're considerably different.

I know, for baseball, they started expanding the base Sapphire checklist last year too - maybe two years ago?

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by Tim

One of the many gems. And at 2000, it's STILL one of the best deals available.

100%.

Tim, because of what you previously shared with me, I easily identified it as a “steal deal” without doing any extra research. While I no longer wanted to sit on that one jumbo box I previously bought (sitting on a single high-end box is a little too risky for me), I jumped at the 20-box lot deal.

I’ll definitely move some boxes to recoup cost as I always do, but once I cover my cost, I’ll sit on the remaining boxes long-term. I’m REALLY excited about this BF deal (even more than the 2021 TC NPB BB cases at $1200).