1 2024 Bowman 24Pk Retail Display Box-Smashed the odds, still a net loss

Tallguy1991 · 10-19-2024, 12:13 AM

Amazing that in one retail box I can pull 2 Lunar Green 1st Bowman Chromes, a 1st Auto, Rose Gold /10, Yellow Paper 1st /75 and a Purple Raywave/250 of Nimmala (a pretty desirable player considering the overall lack of star power in this years group of 1sts) and if I sold all of these for market price not only would I fail to break even, I’d struggle to get half the just over $150 the box cost after tax. I knew what I was in for in terms of bang for the buck and I didn’t buy the box intending to sell singles immediately to recoup its cost-was honestly a dicks sporting goods impulse buy. But I really am amazed that Topps has been able to jack prices up so quickly without experiencing a corresponding drop in sales. Michael Rubin has a long and decorated history of aggressive price increases that often occur simultaneously with steep decreases in product quality so I suppose watching him wring every cent he can from the hobby shouldn’t come as a surprise. I realize people have been saying this for a long time and thus far have been wrong, but logic dictates that eventually we’re gonna hit a point where prices on wax become impossible for even the most degenerate (non breaker) gamblers to stomach. I’m tempted to put together a chart using flagship or chrome juxtaposing the directional trends of prices vs odds over the last 15 or so years, even though none of us needs to see a chart to know what it would show. Sorry for the novel, the sheer volume of whatnot YouTube ads I get combined with >$150 retail boxes necessitated some venting. Am I crazy or do others agree with what I’m saying?

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wilsonsingles · 10-19-2024, 04:27 PM

you should be able to get these for around $110 a box now.

msink28 · 10-21-2024, 08:44 AM

The price increases feel unsustainable. Honestly reminds me a lot of the early to mid-1990s right now, just so much retail product everywhere costing so much. Completely unsustainable.

I agree on the content/price piece as well. I obviously know that I'm going to lose $ busting retail, but I recently bought a 2023 Select Mega Box from Wal-Mart, pulled an auto of Kordell Stewart, base RC of CJ Stroud, insert of CJ Stroud, #ed CeeDee Lamb, and Club Level Prizm of Josh Allen. Pretty good box! Crushed it, honestly. Like you, recovered <50% of the purchase price.

Tallguy1991 · 11-05-2024, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msink28

The price increases feel unsustainable. Honestly reminds me a lot of the early to mid-1990s right now, just so much retail product everywhere costing so much. Completely unsustainable.

I agree on the content/price piece as well. I obviously know that I'm going to lose $ busting retail, but I recently bought a 2023 Select Mega Box from Wal-Mart, pulled an auto of Kordell Stewart, base RC of CJ Stroud, insert of CJ Stroud, #ed CeeDee Lamb, and Club Level Prizm of Josh Allen. Pretty good box! Crushed it, honestly. Like you, recovered <50% of the purchase price.

That honestly is a great box. I had the same thing happen a while ago with a mega of 23-24 Mosaic basketball, first pack had a zion genesis (case hit) and an Oshae Brissett silver mosaic auto back to back which alone would be enough to make the box an extreme statistical outliar. I would struggle to sell all the cards from the box for $40 combined and I was lucky enough to get a case hit of a widely collected player and a short printed auto!!! I’ve always kind of known that buying retail was throwing money away but the devaluation of the secondary singles market for retail pulled cards combined with the ever increasing price of retail wax and shrinking odds have pushed things to a point where it makes zero sense to buy 99 percent of retail products. Its honestly so ballsy for Panini and increasingly topps as well to keep significantly increasing MSRPs while also intentionally watering down the products at the same time, Topps has joined panini in refusing to print odds on packs which is such a blatant sign that they don’t care about individual consumers.

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10-19-2024, 12:13 AM	#1
Tallguy1991 Member Join Date: Jul 2020 Location: Boston Posts: 633	1 2024 Bowman 24Pk Retail Display Box-Smashed the odds, still a net loss Amazing that in one retail box I can pull 2 Lunar Green 1st Bowman Chromes, a 1st Auto, Rose Gold /10, Yellow Paper 1st /75 and a Purple Raywave/250 of Nimmala (a pretty desirable player considering the overall lack of star power in this years group of 1sts) and if I sold all of these for market price not only would I fail to break even, I’d struggle to get half the just over $150 the box cost after tax. I knew what I was in for in terms of bang for the buck and I didn’t buy the box intending to sell singles immediately to recoup its cost-was honestly a dicks sporting goods impulse buy. But I really am amazed that Topps has been able to jack prices up so quickly without experiencing a corresponding drop in sales. Michael Rubin has a long and decorated history of aggressive price increases that often occur simultaneously with steep decreases in product quality so I suppose watching him wring every cent he can from the hobby shouldn’t come as a surprise. I realize people have been saying this for a long time and thus far have been wrong, but logic dictates that eventually we’re gonna hit a point where prices on wax become impossible for even the most degenerate (non breaker) gamblers to stomach. I’m tempted to put together a chart using flagship or chrome juxtaposing the directional trends of prices vs odds over the last 15 or so years, even though none of us needs to see a chart to know what it would show. Sorry for the novel, the sheer volume of whatnot YouTube ads I get combined with >$150 retail boxes necessitated some venting. Am I crazy or do others agree with what I’m saying? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Last edited by Tallguy1991; 10-19-2024 at 12:16 AM.

10-19-2024, 04:27 PM	#2
wilsonsingles Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Wilmington, NC Posts: 8,480 wilsonsetsandsingles	you should be able to get these for around $110 a box now.

10-21-2024, 08:44 AM	#3
msink28 Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 1,321	The price increases feel unsustainable. Honestly reminds me a lot of the early to mid-1990s right now, just so much retail product everywhere costing so much. Completely unsustainable. I agree on the content/price piece as well. I obviously know that I'm going to lose $ busting retail, but I recently bought a 2023 Select Mega Box from Wal-Mart, pulled an auto of Kordell Stewart, base RC of CJ Stroud, insert of CJ Stroud, #ed CeeDee Lamb, and Club Level Prizm of Josh Allen. Pretty good box! Crushed it, honestly. Like you, recovered <50% of the purchase price.