http://www.topps.com/collectibles/trading-cards/topps-now/ichiro-suzuki-2016-topps-now-card-154-available-until-1-pm-est-on-6-17-16.html
When I was growing up and collecting baseball cards you could go to most stores and buy a pack or more and find your favorites. I remember when Topps would do their updated sets to reflect trades throughout the season but that was kind of the closest thing you could get to cards being created in real time. As the times have changed so has the methods of Topps as they present this series called Topps Now and here is how it works: Something great happens in baseball. Topps creates a card for it. People have 24 hours to purchase said card. Then Topps prints the cards and sends them to you.
The first instance in my buying one of these cards is for Ichiro setting the all-time hits record. If you want to debate whether or not the hits count in Japan (And say that they should count Pete Rose's hits in high school) then we can talk about your racist nature at a later time. (American Baseball is the only baseball that matters to me!) The card itself- as they all tend to be- was $9.99 but that included shipping and when I purchased it and it ended on a Friday I received it a week from the Monday after that. They also have the print run numbers on their website so there is never any doubt.
While Topps has other cards in this series for Trevor Story and the Mets, it'd be hard to buy all of the ones I want simply because it will add up over time. I read someone comment on Facebook that Topps was charging too much for a card that will be worth even less in the future. By purchasing the card you're taking a gamble on how many will sell. Maybe someone will get a rookie card printed in this series and it will have a run of only a couple hundred. If that person becomes a Hall of Famer one day, you can bet that card would be worth more than the ten dollars you put down on it.
But if you're in this to make money then you better get out now. The idea of investing ten dollars into these cards and having them be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars is not something you should bet on. I'm not saying that a particular card would sell for $9.99 from Topps themselves and then not be worth $50 one day (or even $20, which is double the original price), but I just feel like too many people take the fun out of this by bringing money into it. This card could sell on eBay ten years from now for $1 or $1000 and it'd be the same to me. I just bought it because I like Ichiro as a player and this is kind of a big deal (All those hits)
Deciding to follow this series and purchase only the cards of your favorite players or teams or even what you feel are huge moments in the game might take a hit on your wallet. Especially as we get into the post season, this could get pretty wild and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I don't have a set of ideas for this series yet. I've been trying to collect cards for the Mets (obviously), Trevor Story and Tom Murphy, among some of my other favorites... But right now, I'm guessing that when Brandon Nimmo gets one of these Topps Now cards that will likely be my next purchase.
This is one of the best ideas that Topps has ever had and it's a great way to make baseball feel special again when it comes to the baseball cards that go with it. You could wait and buy a complete season set or cherry pick your favorites on eBay and other second hand markets, but the fact is, watching a game and seeing something like Bartolo Colon hit a homerun and then having a card to celebrate it just makes it all that much better. As Quentin gets older and we watch more MLB games I can only imagine this will become one of his favorite concepts as well.
Deciding to follow this series and purchase only the cards of your favorite players or teams or even what you feel are huge moments in the game might take a hit on your wallet. Especially as we get into the post season, this could get pretty wild and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I don't have a set of ideas for this series yet. I've been trying to collect cards for the Mets (obviously), Trevor Story and Tom Murphy, among some of my other favorites... But right now, I'm guessing that when Brandon Nimmo gets one of these Topps Now cards that will likely be my next purchase.
This is one of the best ideas that Topps has ever had and it's a great way to make baseball feel special again when it comes to the baseball cards that go with it. You could wait and buy a complete season set or cherry pick your favorites on eBay and other second hand markets, but the fact is, watching a game and seeing something like Bartolo Colon hit a homerun and then having a card to celebrate it just makes it all that much better. As Quentin gets older and we watch more MLB games I can only imagine this will become one of his favorite concepts as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment