[Hofcollector]

Oh, these stories are correct. Another little aggravating maneuver Topps is pulling is they have an extremely high end release coming out. I think it's "The Mint". In order for any vendors to purchase ANY boxes for their customers they have to purchase 15 boxes of '15 Triple Threads as well... and that's per box. So for every box of The Mint purchased the vendor has to agree to buy 15 boxes of '15 Triple Threads. I stopped in to a friend's shop to ask him something and we got side tracked talking about high end releases and he asked what I was going to be interested in. He went on to tell me about this little gem.

[woogie23]

Just means more cards being made that I will probably never see in person, let alone obtain. Plus with all the crap that Topps is caught up in right now, I'm not sure what to buy now. Unlicensed, airbrushed off logos on cards or buy from a company that is very untrustworthy.

[jonathani]

What we need is an oversight committee for the hobby.

We, the regular buyers, are the oversight committee. If we don't buy it, they won't make it. This hobby used to be about supply and demand, now when I brand new player has 300 cards come out in a year, the supply should be way too high for the demand. However, people buy them anyway. I've moved further into the secondary market each of the last few years - not for selling, just for buying. I get what I want for a price I can pay and don't end up with a load of useless cards on the side. I still bust wax maybe once a month, but it's only one hobby box or a rack pack, and I'm making a dozen secondary market purchases in that same time.

[Hofcollector]

We, the regular buyers, are the oversight committee. If we don't buy it, they won't make it. This hobby used to be about supply and demand, now when I brand new player has 300 cards come out in a year, the supply should be way too high for the demand. However, people buy them anyway. I've moved further into the secondary market each of the last few years - not for selling, just for buying. I get what I want for a price I can pay and don't end up with a load of useless cards on the side. I still bust wax maybe once a month, but it's only one hobby box or a rack pack, and I'm making a dozen secondary market purchases in that same time.

We (the buyers) account for supply and demand but are in no way an oversight committee. We are ten million collectors all having a different opinion and thought process from everything from production run to redemptions. Even if we as a collective wanted to, there would be no way for us to govern the industry. I understand what your saying about the "if we don't buy it they won't make it" but you won't get the necessary numbers you'd need to agree to make a difference, and we certainly don't have the legal leverage to govern. We need an actual oversight committee. And I know some are going to say, come on? For sports cards? Yes. Absolutely. When a company is large enough to be bought for $400,000,000 (and actually offered far more by Upper Deck) and up until several years ago be an actual publicly traded company, they are large enough to be governed by law

[oneofakindcards]

What we need is an oversight committee for the hobby. Someone to police the industry. Maybe MLB should step in and say once more and your done.

Yes, this! And the oversight should be paid for by the proceeds from the MLB license.

This oversight committee's charge would be simple: to make everything as transparent as possible, to make sure that everything is as it seems. Hopefully this would stem corruption. Unfortunately, there are plenty in the hobby who like things the way they are because it provides profit.

But is is really any surprise that the present mess is associated with a prospect card??

---

We, the regular buyers, are the oversight committee. If we don't buy it, they won't make it. This hobby used to be about supply and demand, now when I brand new player has 300 cards come out in a year, the supply should be way too high for the demand. However, people buy them anyway. I've moved further into the secondary market each of the last few years - not for selling, just for buying. I get what I want for a price I can pay and don't end up with a load of useless cards on the side. I still bust wax maybe once a month, but it's only one hobby box or a rack pack, and I'm making a dozen secondary market purchases in that same time.

It doesn't work this way. Plenty of people like the way things are (messy and shady) because it provides them with a way to profit, so they'll continue to support the present system.

[jhyde77]

Wow.... Just wow..... Makes me not want to buy Topps products anymore....

I think this one thing with the graded Kris Bryant rookies won't hurt Bowman. It will hurt the brand if it becomes a common practice. For example, there was a lot of hype over the 2010 Bowman Superfractor Strasburg. It created a lot of buzz and helped sell a ton of packs. Every Wal-Mart within 50 miles of me was sold out. Rediculous prices were paid because collectors trusted that those Superfractors were the rarest 2010 Bowman Strasburgs. If it was perceived that Topps could be holding back some rare refractor Strasburgs, I believe the hype would not have been at the level it was.

[petillo64]

Won't affect Topps in the least in my opinion... If you are the only crack dealer in town, you can water down your product all you want... The crackheads will keep coming back.

They have been holding back a % of cards for redemption replacements for quite a while (Every time a current release card that was not a redemption is offered as a replacement, where do you think these come from?). The stupid part on their end was: a.) holding back an entire parallel series of bryant's instead of 5-10% of each parallel, b.) grading them all at once, or at all, after committing the first stupid move

This all seems like a lot of bull-crap/time/energy to do for redemption replacements. You think they would be better served to put more time/effort/money on the front-end to get cards signed and essentially do away with the redemption process (or at least make them the exception rather than the rule).

[Nintari]

Meh, I really only care about the official rookie cards anyway. I don't like prospect cards.

[jhyde77]

Meh, I really only care about the official rookie cards anyway. I don't like prospect cards.

Nintari, what do you think about Bowman prospect cards that come out the same year as the player's rookie debut?