Target Online Sales Thread

[mossoholic]

Target knows the exact second a product goes live. If they cared they would cancel every order, every RedCard, and account that placed an order before the product went live.

[Cardboard Dawg]

Originally Posted by J1L

That’s exactly what’s happening. API exploitation. Don’t kill the messenger, I’m just telling you what happened.

The only people that would have direct access to any of Target's API are employees, presumably developers and external contractors. See their developer landing page.

I was incorrect in my post as it took a bit more digging than a "target API" search. There are plenty of third-parties out there that do in-stock notifications but if the bots are even beating that, then you may be correct that there are developers/external contractors/whoever has access to a direct Target API and using that. I apologize. It seems like blasphemy to me that any sort of paid employee of Target would abuse, or potentially sell, access to their internal API over sports cards. That's an easy and swift way to get canned from a 6-figure job. But that's also the only explanation if they're able to get access to purchases before the page for the product is live and before even the third-party APIs are able to pick up a product being dropped.

[ccovert74]

Prizm draft football blasters

https://www.target.com/p/2021-panini...34#lnk=sametab

[Doc Awesome]

Originally Posted by daktmacfan

Topps Chrome not officially released until Fri.

Which means online retail won’t be available until ~mid September at this rate

[jprk31]

Why would people pay $15 to get a spot for a Select Blaster break when they could get a box for $20 is the reason things will never change.

[tomingo0711]

Originally Posted by jprk31

Why would people pay $15 to get a spot for a Select Blaster break when they could get a box for $20 is the reason things will never change.

Because they can’t get a box for $20. Did you see how fast they went today?

[roush16racing]

Random tweet about Select NBA

35 blasters and 40 megas, not bad but need more redcards!

[theshowandme]

Alright let’s talk Topps Chrome release. Think we will have a rough first week with bots? Bowman Megas were live for 25-40 minutes some weeks so I’m hopeful


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nera20]

i did my first show last week in 4 years and tons and tons of retail at the show and most that had retail were complaining because they couldn't sell it. The only thing that was moving was topps chrome and merlin soccer and a very small amount of prizm football other than that everyone wasn't even looking at their tables

[Greek]

[QUOTE=Hoopscardz83;17585063]It's over, Targets last shot was the red card and it doesn't work anymore.

https://twitter.com/MotherStubber/st...063070722?s=19[/QUOTE


People dont care about this as long as they can buy manually every week. Once they can't buy manually that's when people start complaining in here about bot bois. Every week just shows how harder its going to be to manually buy the high demand stuff as bot bois have adapted to the red card exclusive.

[J1L]

Originally Posted by Cardboard Dawg

The only people that would have direct access to any of Target's API are employees, presumably developers and external contractors. See their developer landing page.

I was incorrect in my post as it took a bit more digging than a "target API" search. There are plenty of third-parties out there that do in-stock notifications but if the bots are even beating that, then you may be correct that there are developers/external contractors/whoever has access to a direct Target API and using that. I apologize. It seems like blasphemy to me that any sort of paid employee of Target would abuse, or potentially sell, access to their internal API over sports cards. That's an easy and swift way to get canned from a 6-figure job. But that's also the only explanation if they're able to get access to purchases before the page for the product is live and before even the third-party APIs are able to pick up a product being dropped.

I don’t know the ins and outs, I just know its happening. Checkouts are rolling in a substantial time before product goes “live” for average joe. That’s why it’s race to get remaining 25% or whatever of stock. This shouldn’t shock you, it happens on literally every site. The most expensive bot is one that checks out off Nike’s backend. That bot will run you 20k or so.

[BRob1]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Alright let’s talk Topps Chrome release. Think we will have a rough first week with bots? Bowman Megas were live for 25-40 minutes some weeks so I’m hopeful


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

chrome will tough the 1st 1-2 weeks, but resell will probably settle at like $35-40 max after a big stock or two then bots will leave it alone. Just be patient.

[Cardboard Dawg]

Originally Posted by nera20

i did my first show last week in 4 years and tons and tons of retail at the show and most that had retail were complaining because they couldn't sell it. The only thing that was moving was topps chrome and merlin soccer and a very small amount of prizm football other than that everyone wasn't even looking at their tables

This is what I don't get. It's a limited market. More limited than most of the scalpers think.

[cj828282]

If the megas went live first before the blasters, would that have made any difference? Common sense that megas were coming after blasters were live.

[JMTerp]

Originally Posted by DrZman

My local card shop did a 15 box blaster break last night, 30 spots, came out to $110 a blaster. Sold out in last than an hour. People are sheep.

The last time I went into my LCS the owner was buying retail "off the street" and marking it up 4-6x MSRP. Seems entirely wrong for them to have access to hobby wax at distribution cost and still push into retail flipping well above msrp. Hence the "last time" part...

[banosd]

It's got to be redcard and in-store pickup next, need more barriers to entry

[daktmacfan]

Originally Posted by Doc Awesome

Which means online retail won’t be available until ~mid September at this rate

They have already been stocked at some Walmarts locations. This being said Topps Chrome is a garbage retail product and you are much better off paying the hobby premium unless you are happy with base.

[jprk31]

Originally Posted by tomingo0711

Because they can’t get a box for $20. Did you see how fast they went today?

If Breakers cannot sell their products for $15 a spot then boxes would be readily available and people can buy it for $20.

[panamamyers]

Originally Posted by IlliniBear

Everyone is doing this. Normally it works but not for the megas and for some not for the blasters as well.

i appreciate that everyone is doing it the same way.
just providing my experience that i have done it the same way the last few weeks and today it was easier snd had no issues. previously all sorts of issues getting things to stick in the cart and delays and not loading. Was smooth today.

[Cardboard Dawg]

Originally Posted by J1L

I don’t know the ins and outs, I just know its happening. Checkouts are rolling in a substantial time before product goes “live” for average joe. That’s why it’s race to get remaining 25% or whatever of stock. This shouldn’t shock you, it happens on literally every site. The most expensive bot is one that checks out off Nike’s backend. That bot will run you 20k or so.

It does in a way because direct API access can also be seen as a major security vulnerability to some companies. Just from my arm-chair coding perspective and knowing some people who work in the security industry. I'm surprised that companies, like Nike, aren't actively trying to block IPs that are accessing those APIs. They could be, I'm not sure. Or again, it could be that they don't see it as a security hole. But the fact that someone is exploiting their API and making how ever many thousands of dollars off of selling a bot that has that sort of access... one would think that companies would be more proactive in trying to stop such foul play.

[daktmacfan]

Originally Posted by banosd

It's got to be redcard and in-store pickup next, need more barriers to entry

Totally agree, folks saying logistically this can't happen due to the vendor situation, but surely they can figure it out.

[ZionCards]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

The bots are dominant because people love chasing base prizms of your username namesake

ateast we know we will have 5 more months of trying to get Select basketball

[nera20]

Originally Posted by daktmacfan

They have already been stocked at some Walmarts locations. This being said Topps Chrome is a garbage retail product and you are much better off paying the hobby premium unless you are happy with base.

have you ever opened topps chrome hobby? Retail is way way way way way better buy hobby if you like to flush money down the toilet

[Cardboard Dawg]

Originally Posted by JMTerp

The last time I went into my LCS the owner was buying retail "off the street" and marking it up 4-6x MSRP. Seems entirely wrong for them to have access to hobby wax at distribution cost and still push into retail flipping well above msrp. Hence the "last time" part...

You need to find a new LCS. Mine sells blasters at retail prices since he knows distributors so well. Has zero interest in buying retail product off of people. Someone came in who had camped outside of Walmart the night before and tried to dump all the retail he scalped and LCS owner wanted zero part of it.

[Hoopscardz83]

Breakers are in bots groups, and many of those guys selling wax at shows are.