2025 Topps Chrome Marvel

[glorbgorb]

So is 2025 Sapphire just going to be another parallel set to Chrome, like 2024 was? (I assume that is probably rhetorical.)

[crdbored]

^Yes, sapphire uses the same images from Chrome on the blue sapphire pattern.
Typically, it'll have parallels in green, gold, orange, black, red, 1/1 padparadscha (pinkish hue).

[Xiarmadillo]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

As a Marvel collector, the current marvel card hobby has basically become unrecognizable. It’s mostly about flipping boxes and breaking/gambling, for sets that just aren’t interesting and super generic looking. Prices are nuts. The topps era so far has none of the charm previous eras had.

Even sketches…man…pretty silly when you see the prices some of these topps sketches are going for, and prices being asked. $50 sketches for like $300…$100 sketch for $500 or 600. Saw a maybe $250 quality sketch on a good day go for like $1500. The irony is avg sketch quality is down in the Topps era, yet their prices are higher. Shows people are just paying for the rarity of the hit vs art, or perhaps people from sports etc not in tune with sketches and their valuations paying for the character and set it’s in, vs the art.

All these are to be expected with the way Fanatics and its satellites run the product to extract maximum price, and why would they not, when people who may or may not know better eat it up. All kinds of underhanded tactics used across influencer/marketing circles to give hype.

One example is that for 2024 Topps Chrome Sapphire (marvel), it was consistently selling between 650-750 for the longest time, but just before 2025 is announced, a few sells in the 1100-1200 range.
and lo and behold one of the multi-box seller is 'the other big shop', who also happen to not only list on their website, but at a cheaper price than they are selling on ebay (which btw they also pay additional fee...) Considering they also ship OS one cannot help but wonder if the Bay sales are just to print some prices by whoever lifted the BOs to shore up 2025 release...
Someone also tried to corner the spider-man base of the set, at one stage these were pumped up to $50+, but has since fallen back down to the 20s (I mean masterpiece ones sell for less than half that)

One more on Sapphire...I completed my base set just shy of spending $200 which I feel like I actually overpaid (print run is approximately 2000), even considering that the fact you will get on average one complete set in 5.35 boxes (and boxes are selling 650-1000+...) so out of your 32 cards, on average your 28 bases will net you lets say $38-$50....if you assume a set is 200-250.
So people are essentially gambling 600+ on 4 serial numbered cards out of 99 or less, clearly there is no thought put into buying these other than 'what is the top hits I can get and how much can I sell it?"

Onto the sketchs....some of the 'handicapped' Frank Miller sketches sold for as much as I paid for some low Picasso sketches.....and I dare say my sketches look just as much "Marvel" as those


Good thing is given the plethora of great cards in the past, and the amount of dumping on those from time to time, if you collect Marvel there isnt a shortage of high quality, relatively cheap cards to pick up.

I would say many of the current Topps frothers just dont know what is out there and only see these as it pops up on their usual card social media, and there is alot circular anchoring going on to justify value of the cards (ie boxes are expensive so singles are cheap, so singles get more expensive and boxes then also go up etc)

[JWBlue]

Anyone know what the Legion Superfactor sold for?

Sellthepeak.com isn't working these days.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18734831796...Bk9SR9TDqYiPZg

[Xiarmadillo]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

Anyone know what the Legion Superfactor sold for?

Sellthepeak.com isn't working these days.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18734831796...Bk9SR9TDqYiPZg

$1500

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Xiarmadillo

Good thing is given the plethora of great cards in the past, and the amount of dumping on those from time to time, if you collect Marvel there isnt a shortage of high quality, relatively cheap cards to pick up.

I would say many of the current Topps frothers just dont know what is out there and only see these as it pops up on their usual card social media, and there is alot circular anchoring going on to justify value of the cards (ie boxes are expensive so singles are cheap, so singles get more expensive and boxes then also go up etc)

I agree largely with that last paragraph about the circular anchoring. Once the sports money gets tired of this game…who knows what’ll happen. I just look at what marvel cards have become…it really is kinda ridiculous. Maybe eventually we can merge these Chrome threads into the sports sections above like baseball, may as well.

The Frank Miller sketches I’m not surprised to see go for a lot..although it’s silly. But they’re distinct, in B&W, rare hits, and done by him…perfectly recipe for people paying whacky prices for a doodle I guess. Even the other sketches though- by some artists whose sketches would sell for $100 in the UD era, and no shortage of them, now on a Topps stock like X-Men Finest, Chrome, or Mint going for $500+…really is silly. Im starting to think 90% of the audience of these Topps marvel sets are just in it for flipping boxes and gambling on hits, which are strictly defined by how hard they are to hit in a pack, and little else.

Eh..I save money at least in not spending on the topps era. But it’s true there’s plenty to keep people busy from the old eras..as for me…92MM Plat and stuff like 90s rarities. Btw 92 Plat was done right imo in terms of print run…since it was vast, we see even hobby boxes only going for $160ish, despite how popular the set was. The more and more I see these $600 hobby boxes with the predicable flipping escalation game…the more I think a production level of something near 92MM is for the better. Sure hits are much longer in it..but I’m ok with that even just to be able to buy the boxes.

[eldavojohn]

Originally Posted by crdbored

2025 Marvel Comics Chrome - Sapphire
Wed. 8/6 - 1 PM EST
4 cards per pack, 8 packs per box
Hobby Box: $449.99

https://x.com/Topps/status/195239913...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

To the moon

Just a heads up for folks trying to get in on sapphire today, the page Topps has up reads "Available August 6 at 12:00 pm ET" so the above post of 1PM EST is likely incorrect.

Checklist is also up.

[meandsharon11]

Originally Posted by eldavojohn

Just a heads up for folks trying to get in on sapphire today, the page Topps has up reads "Available August 6 at 12:00 pm ET" so the above post of 1PM EST is likely incorrect.

Checklist is also up.

Basically a bunch of the really cool cards were made into a separate set.

[kakarot12]

Originally Posted by eldavojohn

Just a heads up for folks trying to get in on sapphire today, the page Topps has up reads "Available August 6 at 12:00 pm ET" so the above post of 1PM EST is likely incorrect.

Now it is actually showing 1PM so they must’ve recently changed it.

[RainCityShecks]

Dang it’s EQL…..not sure I want to waste an EQL on this product (have lost 5 in a row so prob have decent chance)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eldavojohn]

Wow the page is changing rapidly. I still have the tab open from when I checked on it:

[Bob Ross]

Oh fun. Using the criminal operation EQL again. Cool.

I'm sure people will say they're happy about this but I'd like to point out those people are clueless.

Your friend,
Bob

[PoPCulture]

[The Accountant]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Oh fun. Using the criminal operation EQL again. Cool.

I'm sure people will say they're happy about this but I'd like to point out those people are clueless.

Your friend,
Bob

yea its getting old..

[ATLOTP]

EQL or not I'm not paying $450 a box for sapphire. I guess people will buy into breaks at some insane rate but fundamentally sapphire is a bad product now

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by The Accountant

yea its getting old..

Right. EQL's own discord channel showed exactly zero Chrome WWE x Travis case winners. Zero. I believe the math shows 2900 cases made.

Fanatics uses EQL on products they need/would like to backdoor most of without buyers complaining that something sold out in under a minute. This way, buyers are like, oh well i didnt get picked.

[Bob Ross]

Odds: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/07...f?v=1754486014

So going by this, an auto is at best 1 in 84.25 boxes at 1:674 odds. The artist autos are 1:330 at best.

Good grief what a terrible price this is.

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by RainCityShecks

Dang it’s EQL…..not sure I want to waste an EQL on this product (have lost 5 in a row so prob have decent chance)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think I'm like 1 for 15-20 and only won on a product most didn't want.

[glorbgorb]

I'm not going to buy any of these, so I'm in the dark--what is EQL? (short answers are absolutely fine!)

[RainCityShecks]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Right. EQL's own discord channel showed exactly zero Chrome WWE x Travis case winners. Zero. I believe the math shows 2900 cases made.

Fanatics uses EQL on products they need/would like to backdoor most of without buyers complaining that something sold out in under a minute. This way, buyers are like, oh well i didnt get picked.

Interesting and disgusting if this is true/or discord is accurate. Has anyone called Topps out on this sort of thing?

I remember I reported a breaker who was selling/breaking a sapphire product on eBay that hadn't been released to anyone yet publicly (not public for at least another week or two), I had submitted snapshots of the eBay listings etc. They told me they'd get back to me. I got an email telling me that I was mistaken and the pictures of sapphire cards were indeed just regular chrome cards..........

[eldavojohn]

Originally Posted by glorbgorb

I'm not going to buy any of these, so I'm in the dark--what is EQL? (short answers are absolutely fine!)

You sign up to win the lottery for whatever number of boxes/cases (within the limit). An hour later you get an email you didn't win. If you did win, it's going to suck anyway. If you continually don't win, there's some nebulous "EQUALIZER" points system that "ensures" you next time you are going to get a little better chance to win nothing good. Do I sound jaded? Yes. Because I never win

[RainCityShecks]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

I think I'm like 1 for 15-20 and only won on a product most didn't want.

Yep this!!! I tried to build my EQL 'luck' after losing out on Cosmic Chrome Baseball by bidding on everything thinking I'd get rejected a bunch and 'won' the F'ing NBA sapphire

[premium1981]

Straight up purchases overseas, but EQL here? Does that normally happen? I don't even fool with the EQL nonsense.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by premium1981

Straight up purchases overseas, but EQL here? Does that normally happen? I don't even fool with the EQL nonsense.

Always this way.

[crdbored]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Odds: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/07...f?v=1754486014

So going by this, an auto is at best 1 in 84.25 boxes at 1:674 odds. The artist autos are 1:330 at best.

Good grief what a terrible price this is.

12,625 total boxes compared to last year's ~9,900 boxes.

Print run up, box price up. Guess getting superheroes to sign isn't cheap..
Good ol Fanatics. 10x!