2016 Baseball Cards

[seawolf17]

Zvon wrote: So Opening Day has a second series? This makes no sense to me. I thought it was a little set to celebrate the opening of the season, a one off. I think that's a bit much having more than one series of OD. I'm afraid they are watering it all down in a way, all the different types of cards. But, if we buy 'em, they will sell them. That was the big hurdle for the tNOW card. I don't want to support that type of thing in the hobby (I bet this also crossed your mind Seawolf). But when it comes to the Mets I go a little nutty sometimes and caught up in the glow from that HR I had to have that Mets card. Now these cards pictured- I love em all! But I have to step back and say, wait a minute. Variations, parallels, cards w/a lil glow highlight that you can barely see (if you bother to look 4 it),...things are getting out of hand. At least at 2 to 3 bucks a pack. And after all that it's going to be soooo hard not to get an OD blister next time in Target. I can only hope they have none in stock.

No, OD has variations, not a second series. It's just as you described -- their lowest-end set.

I'm figuring there's going to be another Colon HR card somewhere in 2017 Topps. I'll grab it then.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Opening Day sets include cards from the first series of the base set and also cards from the yet-to-be-released second series of the base set, all without foil and the Opening Day logo. It's like a bridge between the two series.

At least that's what the company has done in the past. Not sure if that's still the case.

[Zvon]

Ohhh. Thank you guyz. I misunderstood.

But still. I'd rather Topps did less and allowed other card companies to do more. I know they have no reason not to monopolize the market and flood it, I just wish this wasn't the case.


In my fantasy world, my if I marketed my cards they would be priced at 41 cents a pack (10-12 cards @pack).
According to my calculations, the only way I can achieve that is to continue to make it an imaginary set.

[fimg=300]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f3icWRKaVF8/VzPpw5nzUNI/AAAAAAAAnN8/z4l_jBQEb_YoKOtyM4CAR5sT3q4NyjzgACCo/s640/mfcWAXBOXtest1-z16.png[/fimg]

[Zvon]

Opening Day was only $9.99. I can do that! I thought all these blisters were $19.99.


Just reinforcing my justifications for breaking down and buying it. Wish me luck.

[Zvon]

11 packs. Good deal. Box says: 10 PACKS PLUS ONE EXTRA PACK! Come-on, just say 11 packs.

My mfc spoof blister will say: 1 PACK PLUS 10 EXTRA PACKS!

[Zvon]

First pack:

Bautista bat flip *DING!

Odubel Herrera Future Star *MuffledDING!

...drumroll plz

Steven Matz Future Star *DING!DING!DING!DING!DING!(add a few more)

[Zvon]

I also got a Matz...rainbow? I dunno what it it. A special card. It's nice. Got the Conforto. No Reynolds yet, and he was numero uno on my wish list.

I got a Wacky Pack. What is a SNAP-BACK? That sticker backs usually have a puzzle piece but this one has a picture of a camel and says "SNAP-BACK/ Ludlow/ to remove SNAP-BACK online"..

Then nuthin.

Googling it. Did I win a baseball cap?

[Zvon]

...So its just a parallel? Ridiculous. If it's any more than that they are making it very difficult to find out.

Now if I had won a baseball cap, even a cheap shitty Bazooka Joe one they have on Ebay(called SNAP-BACKs), I would have been thrilled and gone around praising Topps. But this is just another version of the sticker with a camel on the back? Weak.

[Zvon]

And they are really screwing up the internet. Because I typed snap-back in a search engine now EVERYWHERE I GO ON THE WEB I have an ad trying to sell me a shitty Bazooka Joe baseball cap.

[Zvon]

I got the OD Mets Celebration. Very niiiiice card.

There is a Thor 2 HR NOW card just released. It's very nice but I can no longer support this type of thing. Or just the price, I guess. For four bucks--actually I'd probably still be bitching. I bitch about packs being 3 dollars! If one of my brother's wants to get this ball rolling I might jump in but I will not instigate the purchase. I must make my stand.

And the Colon HR was history. This was....gah.
There's a new Scherzer 20K card thats fucking fantastic, but


he's not a Met.

[Zvon]

[Zvon]

Got the OD deGrom and YES! *fistpump*, got the Reynolds rook. I'm done w/em. OOO, a Jimmy Rollins. I spit on it and toss it at a wall.

Now I'm gonna rip open a pack of these.

[fimg=300:fzi2xm5a]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R1B6E1nrhHI/VzT8952LP5I/AAAAAAAAnPc/8sye87Swqz8adjyEqEKogCwc7bf1vci4wCCo/s640/mfc2016WAXPACKdesign2-z16.png[/fimg:fzi2xm5a]

[Zvon]

A beautiful card. Still $9.99. Suchmahballs Topps.

I haven't check with all my card collector/maker friends but those who I have also think the price is too high for one card.

[Zvon]

Anyone see this play from yesterday? It was bang bang at the plate, the perfect storm that created a collision reminiscent of Rose/Fosse.

Beautiful card. $9.99.
*spits on it (not 4 the price...it's a Phil)

[Zvon]

This is an actual card. Or I should say a picture of the ONE card.
I'm glad I'm not a serious collector.

[fimg=400]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ci01PuaWEAA0T85.jpg[/fimg]


OE: Man, that is a beaut tho

[Zvon]

Damn you fuckin Topps! I have to have this card. I don't want to support this $9.99 bullshit but I have to have this card.
Bastages!

[batmagadanleadoff]

That moment deserves a card? That's just Topps exploiting the Mets collectors.

[seawolf17]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: That moment deserves a card? That's just Topps exploiting the Mets collectors.

Yup.

/buys one anyway

[batmagadanleadoff]

seawolf17 wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: That moment deserves a card? That's just Topps exploiting the Mets collectors. Yup. /buys one anyway

If I didn't know that it was all about the money, I'd say that that card makes the franchise look pathetic. What's next? A Wright goes 0 for four with an error but the Mets win anyway card?

[Zvon]

It's David Wright and for all we know....ugh, I ain't gonna say it. But I do have a Wright collection.

The way to go is switch it around. Take advantage of them. Get 20 for $70 and sell them on Ebay. I can't be bothered nor should I be tying up my $$ that way. I see the Colons going for $25 on average. Even if you only get 5 Wright cards that's a pretty nice mark up.

[Zvon]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: That moment deserves a card? That's just Topps exploiting the Mets collectors.

Well, in my fantasy Mets world it would. And I will make one. Just haven't gotten to work on that. Probably should be a .GIFcard.

I know fully well they are taking advantage of me, hence my lil cursing rant up there.

[Benjamin Grimm]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: That moment deserves a card? That's just Topps exploiting the Mets collectors.

I think they're making many many of these cards. Not just "historic" moments, but anything that any fan anywhere might consider special. So they're exploiting fans of all 30 teams.

No piece of cardboard is worth $10 to me. Not unless it will get me $10 off my next grocery purchase.

[Zvon]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: No piece of cardboard is worth $10 to me. Not unless it will get me $10 off my next grocery purchase.

I wonder if that's doable...


This is why I FAIL @business.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I think they're making many many of these cards. Not just "historic" moments, but anything that any fan anywhere might consider special. So they're exploiting fans of all 30 teams.

A few years ago, Upper Deck came out with "Documentary" sets for a few select big market teams, including the Mets. Each team set consisted of 162 cards, one for each game of the season -- the goal being to "document" each game played by the carded team. The back of the cards had a summary of the game depicted by the particular card.

[fimg=266]http://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/2008/Upper-Deck-Documentary/772/Jose-Reyes.jpg?id=fcce5647-6fcd-4ca5-9096-c99e6dd20230&size=zoom&side=back[/fimg]

It was an ambitious set that, I thought, lacked execution. The photos on the card fronts were random and didn't correspond to the game in question. Also, the images repeated: I'd say that only about a dozen images were used to fill the entire 162 Met set.

[fimg=255]http://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/2008/Upper-Deck-Documentary/775/Pedro-Martinez.jpg?id=54f9db78-3bb5-42ec-a517-e1527ce26233&size=zoom[/fimg] [fimg=255]http://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/2008/Upper-Deck-Documentary/175/Pedro-Martinez.jpg?id=34107d79-25b7-4228-96f5-2529bed0676c&size=zoom[/fimg]

Overall, I'd say that the set was a disappointment, because of the photographs.

[seawolf17]

That set was a horrible disappointment.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

seawolf17 wrote: That set was a horrible disappointment.

Sounds like a good idea though. I swear if they put me in charge of these companies I would make the best cards ever. You wouldn't have to worry. Stock would go WAY up.

[Zvon]

This ToppsNOW stuff presents an interesting question.

These cards will be considered rare because of the limited printing run. So, the cards are printed to order, and when the time limit expires they halt the presses and the cards done, finis. Usually it is a 24 hour period from when they announce that the card is available to when they stop the printing.

Some cards are more popular than others, and this is reflected by the amount ordered. The Bartolo Colon HR card was the best selling ToppsNOW card ever. There were 8,826 Colon HR cards were sold before the printing cutoff. Only two other cards in the (so far) 126 card set topped the 2000 mark. Matt Scherzer's 20K game ( 3746) and Noah Syndergaard's 2 HR game (3670).

The average printing run for a ToppsNOW card looks to be somewhere between 500 and 600 a card. The week before Colon hit the HR he was pictured on another ToppsNOW card, this one commemorating his passing Pedro on the all-time wins list. 298 of these Colon cards were sold before the printing cutoff.

And this poses the question.

Which card will be worth more one hundred years from now? The one that was the in the highest demand now, and over 8000 circulated: the Colon HR? Or the Colon/Pedro WINS card, of which only 298 exist?

The issue of demand & supply is a factor in overall worth, but rarity is also a factor. This is a new situation for a card collector because the most unwanted cards in this set will have the least amount of copies. How does this affect thier worth?

Maybe using Colon is a bad example. What if the card that only had 300 printed was a Mike Trout or Bryce Harper?

I guess what it will come down to is what is in demand in the future. But simple logic dictates the the cards that only had 100 printed should be worth more than a card that got 8000 copies into circulation.

What if in 100 years someone is trying to complete this set from scratch? Could common cards end up being worth more than..., well none of these are common cards I suppose, but could a Joe Shmoe card be worth more than a Mike Trout, because Trouts card sold 3000 and Joe Shmoe only sold 62?

On a side note:
There is a Trevor Story ToppsNOW card that includes the Topps ROOKIE symbol (actually more than one). It's a highlight card and not a player card, but could this possibly end up being considered Story's rookie card? I really do not like that they are putting the rookie symbol on any ToppsNOW cards, because to me these are highlight cards.


I have zero interest in collecting all ToppsNOW Mets. Well, not zero, but I won't be doing it at $9.99 a card (I have the Colon HR and Wright walkoff single). I don't think I'm that far back into the hobby where something like trading cards is feasible, but it's a possibility. I have bought a decent amount of cards the last three years.

So this checklist is here for any Mets card collector who might be looking for this info.

Mets ToppsNOW checklist for April and May, 2016.

Grandy's granny-294 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0031-1.jpg[/fimg]

Walker ties Mets HR record-289 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0037-1.jpg[/fimg]

Cespedes granny & Mets 12 run inning- 325 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0041-_2_-1.jpg[/fimg]

Colon passes Pedro in WIns- 298 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0046-1.jpg[/fimg]

Colon HR- 8,826 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0057-1_1.jpg[/fimg]

Syndergaard smacks two HRs!- 3,670 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0069-1.jpg[/fimg]

David Wright walkoff single-1014 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0088-1_1.jpg[/fimg]

Grandy walkoff HR vs Dodgers- 626 circulated

[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0103-1.jpg[/fimg]

Sidenote:
Harvey pictured on Memorial Day card (699c).
[fimg=300]http://cdn.topps.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/artbb-16c2s-16tn-0111-1.jpg[/fimg]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Zvon wrote: Which card will be worth more one hundred years from now? The one that was the in the highest demand now, and over 8000 circulated: the Colon HR? Or the Colon/Pedro WINS card, of which only 298 exist?

I would guess it would be a card that features a player that's still (relatively) well-known in 2116. And that probably won't be Bartolo Colon.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Which card will be worth more one hundred years from now? The one that was the in the highest demand now, and over 8000 circulated: the Colon HR? Or the Colon/Pedro WINS card, of which only 298 exist? I would guess it would be a card that features a player that's still (relatively) well-known in 2116. And that probably won't be Bartolo Colon.

I don't know if any card produced today will have much value years from now. There's just so many, and so many that are (allegedly) rare.

Tom Seaver has just one real rookie card. There are probably more than 200 Mike Trout rookie cards, especially when you include the inserts, parallel versions and so on. I can look at the Seaver card and instantly recognize it for what is is -- the 1967 Topps Tom Seaver rookie. Will people be able to look at one of those Trout cards and say, "Hey, that's the Trout rookie Bowman refractor blue border parallel that I've been looking for? Because I already have in my collection the green and red border refractor versions and need the blue to complete my set."

[Edgy MD]

Just yesterday I discovered and fell madly in love with this card.



I have no memory of this player, but God bless him, he looks like a guy from semi-amateur theater playing a baseball player. Even his name seems contrived.