(01-10-2020, 10:19 AM)btrav13 Wrote: Since we can't ever know for sure, I wonder if they short out the high end draft guys to keep people buying. Using a small number for example: let's say they created 100,000 cards of guys like KD, LeBron, etc. Then for rookies they make 100,000 of everyone picked after pick 10 in the draft. Then they create 45,000 copies of Zion. They know they're just going to have to trash a bunch of vet base, but you've got enough to keep it on the shelf and keep people hunting.I've wondered that, too.
So back during the 2011 baseball season, when Bryce Harper's stuff was first coming out in the Bowman products, I was pulling retail autos and parallels of every other Nationals prospect in the set except Bryce.
(We're talking the "greats" like Sammy Solis, AJ Cole, etc.)
Then, one cold November morning after I dropped my son off at school, my 2-year-old daughter and I stopped at Target to get syrup for her mini pancakes.
There was one lone blaster of Bowman Chrome left (yes, there was a retail version in those days) ... of course I grabbed it, took it home, made said pancakes for my daughter first, then opened the blaster.
About halfway through the packs I see a Nationals logo, so I slide the top card up so I can see the name on the Nats card behind it ... Bryce Harper!
Then I'm like cool, I finally pulled the Chrome prospect card.
But as I keep sliding the top card up, I realize it's not just the prospect card.
It's signed.
Not only that, it's a refractor numbered to 500!
I seriously got dizzy for a minute, I couldn't believe it ... at one point this was a $1500 card.
The coolest thing was, it was my grandma's first birthday since she had passed that previous January, so I was missing her pretty bad that day.
Something else pretty trippy ... the card number was 111, and she had passed on January 11.
What are the odds?
Anyway , point being, I doubt lightning strikes twice with a Zion retail auto, but pulling all the Hayes and Alexander-Walker cards that I have lately is starting to remind me of that.