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+--- Thread: Bowman parallels are all green now (/thread-1616673.html)
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Bowman parallels are all green now - kerryandbeth - 02-25-2020
Holy cow! Has anybody seen the pre-sell prices of 2020 Bowman hobby? I am not a buyer this year but was just curious and cannot believe what the prices are on a single hobby box. I cannot imagine what the price will be after release date.
I always thought Topps Series 1 & 2 and Bowman were made for the casual collector who wanted a chance at a hit now and then. There were plenty of other products available for those who were willing to shell out more for a higher percentage of high-end hits.
But, at the current prices Bowman is no longer an option for the budget collector. What in the world happened besides greed? When you look at how many cards you get that are valued less than $1 it just seems outrageous.
Sucks.
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - djohn - 02-25-2020
This is due to a combination of things, but the main one is that distributors and resellers are making huge profits as more people are just accepting it and willing to pay more for a box. I know that Topps has not changed their MSRP or direct cost, but the presale costs are typically driven up by demand. It used to be that the online giants were happy making 10-25%, now they are making over 30% and in some cases up to 400%+ (that's mostly basketball though).
Part of this blame can be put on the huge increase in the number of case breakers, as that has vastly increased the demand for unopened boxes. This leaves less available cases for the indirect guys to get their boxes/cases. This causes these resellers to have to increase their profit margin, as instead of being able to buy a single case of a product they are only allocated a couple boxes, which means they are going to make less total money on each new product unless they raise their box prices. Well the online giant resellers know this and thus keep their prices high, as they know it will be inline with what hobby shops are charging. Then the case breakers that are buying direct are charging people based on the current listed price on DAC and Blowout. So they are making a killing on some of these cases, and just driving this insanity to continue.
2020 Bowman is a great case to look at right now. The MSRP on a hobby box is supposed to be somewhere between $75 and $100 a box, so the direct price is probably between $50 and $75 a box. However right now the online guys have them on pre-sale anywhere from $150-$200 a box. The guys asking $200 will start increasing toward $200 soon, unless sales don't support that price, as they want to maximize their sellout rate on pre-sales. Most case breakers won't give prices until right before release date, so that they can maximize profit, and will claim box prices of $200 a box. If they get $200/box, but paid only $50/box then they are making 4x profit by "breaking even". I know of breakers that are getting 20-50 cases allocated to them (some getting closer to 100 cases), and with 12 boxes per case that means they are making between $36k (20 cases) and $90k (50 cases) PROFIT on just those cases. Now, not all breakers are getting that high of an allocation, and the profit margin is not always that high either. Also, in order to get higher allocations you have to end up buying large amounts of lesser products too. However if they are making that much profit on 1 product, then they can take small losses on lesser products and still end up WAY ahead by the end of the year.
All that leaves us collectors who simply want to buy a box or two, or even an occasional case to open having to pay more for the product.
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - magneto2 - 02-25-2020
Totally agree and my LCS says that boxes are going to be about 400 for Jumbo boxes with 3 auto's. Bowman Chrome Draft was about 230 a box when I got it at release. Also with Jasson Dominguez and Bobby Witt Jr. also probably Luis Robert these prices are going to stay high and could go higher! I am seriously considering just not buying anything until either next year or I sell a bunch of cards to buy anything..
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - DrMitchJ - 02-26-2020
Boycott Bowman!
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - rjcj2017 - 02-26-2020
I may start boycotting cards in general.
Between the Bubba Sharks in retail and all the ridiculous case breaking shooting up the costs, it isn't worth the stress.
Last year I bought exactly one blaster of Bowman and pulled a Casey Mize auto ... a massive hit for my Tigers PC.
I say this not to boast but to illustrate you don't have to buy cases upon cases looking for big hits to turn a profit in order to enjoy the hobby.
I was thrilled with that card and my $20 investment.
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - kerryandbeth - 02-26-2020
I am open to solutions to this:
I am a set collector so I try to purchase enough of a product that will get me a majority of a base set and enough other goodies to trade away for the missing items. Blasters are a rarity in my area and not sure why, so I order online and, since I don't like to pay the shipping cost, I end up ordering more than a hobby box.
COMC no longer has base cards at a decent price, and trading for low-end base cards is not worth the time and effort in most situations.
So, what else can I do rather than shell out at inflated prices?
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - rjcj2017 - 02-26-2020
(02-26-2020, 11:39 AM)kerryandbeth Wrote: I am open to solutions to this:
I am a set collector so I try to purchase enough of a product that will get me a majority of a base set and enough other goodies to trade away for the missing items. Blasters are a rarity in my area and not sure why, so I order online and, since I don't like to pay the shipping cost, I end up ordering more than a hobby box.
COMC no longer has base cards at a decent price, and trading for low-end base cards is not worth the time and effort in most situations.
So, what else can I do rather than shell out at inflated prices?
I get it. Ordering online/hobby is not an option for me, so we are slaves to the opposite ends of the spectrum!
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - rpeterson369 - 02-26-2020
Yeah I agree! I'm out on Bowman too at these prices. Just gonna use that money and buy some vintage rookie cards of hall of famers lol
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - rjcj2017 - 02-26-2020
(02-26-2020, 01:18 PM)rpeterson369 Wrote: Yeah I agree! I'm out on Bowman too at these prices. Just gonna use that money and buy some vintage rookie cards of hall of famers lol
It's like ... you could buy tons of boxes and pull guys that you hope are as good as the Hall of Famers someday, LOL
RE: Bowman parallels are all green now - evolb909 - 02-26-2020
Sounds like we are all being alienated out of busting packs/boxes. It will have a massive ripple down effect eventually though. The card companies will realize that they've lost their core buying community when all of the opportunists and bandwagon jumpers get bored of losing/wasting money. Some of us have been supporting the hobby in good and bad times for 30+ years. Topps, distributors, etc. will adjust accordingly when the time comes and will be begging us to come back while their bottom lines start to plummet.
This isn't just a card issue. Disney just fired their CEO since their greed-fueled mega purchase of Star Wars has been such a huge disappointment compared to what they heavily bet on. They thought they could just buy up all of the huge franchises and reap the benefits by pumping out one useless & soulless movie after another. They are nowhere close to where they thought they would be profit-wise so back to the ol' drawing board with a new scapegoat CEO at the helm. EVERY greedy company in the world is cash-grabbing us all right now in every way possible. For example:
1. Verizon - 5 G!!!!!!... Sigh... Have you heard about how much you NEED it yet? Have you financed the new Iphone or Samsung S-190000 version 85.349x yet or traded up and refinanced to the newest model you don't need yet? I mean it takes pictures better than the last one you spent $1200 on... see the thingy on the back? So hurry up now, it's time to try to impress strangers with your new gear.
2. Chevy - have you seen how many "real people" crawl out of the woodwork when they see the cameras rolling to buy a new car every year or 2? Nah, these "real people" weren't hand-picked from 758,000 hours of cameras filming out in the wide open for everyone walking by to "genuinely" react to.
3. Disney - Ruined Star Wars. Turned Marvel into a live action cartoon with people and cartoons "acting" alongside each other. Bought ESPN. Now ESPN is a never-ending ad campaign for all of Disneys film and music sub-companies. Wonder why the hell Lil Wayne is on ESPN all day long last month? OH Yeah, he has a new album "dropping" this week - YEP - sure enough, it's on one of Disney's record labels.
4. Pharmaceutical Companies - To have commercials and ads for them is beyond absurd. These ads cost millions/billions and have to be paid for somehow. This rises the cost of the prescriptions most of us need - but unnecessarily. We can't buy any of this crap over the counter so why are ANY ad campaigns legal? Moderate to severe this, moderate to severe that... Sure I can "ask my doctor" about Humira all I want but his reply would be "But you don't have Crohn's disease..." ***FYI according to online sources Humira tv ads cost over 460 MILLION DOLLARS in 2019. That is TV ads ALONE! Xeljanz cost around $180 million. Shameful. I mean we are supposed to at least believe they genuinely care, right?
BOYCOTTING is exactly what we all need to do to get our point across to combat all of this B.S. these Mega Companies are constantly feeding us. We are being raw dogged from every angle and these companies care about your money - NOT YOU. Cards used to be an outlet for all of this other crap going on in the world for me. But I am not that desperate and I'm not going to be made a fool of. Neither should any of you until this hobby corrects itself. I'll swear off ripping packs for as long as I need to.