Say it ain't so… not all retail packs are made alike, Part III
Recently, you might have read items here on The Beckett Blog where we examined how some recent Topps retail packs and Blaster Boxes may not deliver the kinds of blasts collectors might expect.
Well, it’s didn’t really get any better for 2010 — and I’m not sure how many collectors even noticed as they made their purchases — but it’s a move that’s certainly going to curb my buying habits of the retail boxes.
What is it? The 2010 Topps Baseball Blaster Boxes don’t include any kind of autographs or game-used memorabilia cards.
None.
Now, again, it’s not like the odds for these types of cards in these boxes were typically all that low — at least not since 2006 — but this collector at least likes having a potential chance at a card like one of those (regardless of their quality). After all, the standard retail and jumbo packs have autographs and Relics inside them — why shouldn’t the boxes that cannot be handily searched?
(It’s the same point I made when examining the Topps 206 retail packs … but in this case there aren’t any to be found. Read my take on the first link above.)
This move is undoubtedly part of Topps’ vision to simplify its retail presence and make things less complicated for collectors — and unfortunately it may do that.
Just not in the way that I had hoped.
Let us know what you think.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
But you get a commemorative patch card
(Which is not game-used.)
great info Chris, thanks!
Kevin
Always looked at these and contemplated on getting a couple, but won’t anylonger – thanks
The key when buying at retail is to avoid boxes that have likely been picked over and always carefully read the odds if you have any expectation of finding autos or game-used. (Many collectors just buy them to buy them, too.)
This is a bummer. I refuse to buy retail and this move by Topps is bad for the hobby. I don’t care about commemorative patch cards, so there is no reason for me to support their retail operations
Yep, I noticed this last week and wrote about it, too.
http://cardboardicons.com/2010/02/05/40-days-and-40-nights-almost-2010-topps-baseball/
The one thing I also noticed yesterday is that there are two DIFFERENT types of Target blasters, ones with retro packs and ones without. Both types do, however, contain commemorative manufactured patches.
The odds of getting autos/relics in blasters is always so high, I don’t know why anyone would buy them for that to begin with.
The bigger factor to me is the fact that you simply get less cards for the money since they are only 8 card packs (mostly inserts) instead of the 12 or so in the single packs and the 36 from the rack packs (where I did pull a relic).