General Forum

I am seeing LOTS of blasters, but very few fat packs (zero baseball) and other more reasonably priced retail.  The blasters have come down to about $25, but to me that is still more than I want to spend for unknown cards.  I'd rather use the $25 at COMC or Sportlots or somewhere else and get only what I want.  I still love opening packs, and I probably always will, but finances takes precedence over pleasure right now.

Yes, and I believe it's due to the price point.  Not only that, Topps products have gone up in price and their quality has gone down.  I'm not looking for PSA gradeable cards, but the quality of what I am opening has been lacking. I'm so frustrated with it that I don't plan on buying any 2023 Topps Series packs/blasters this year. I'll build the set from others doubles and then fill the holes in here on TCDB.

I just cheat on the flagship set and wait for the FS to be released.

Haven’t seen any packs besides an occasional hockey until recently. I do like Topps Chrome baseball but it is a bit pricey, not sure if I would try anymore. 

i still have problems always being able to find football unless i want draft picks or unlicesed stuff, but usually can find basketball and baseball is always there, racing is just as hard to find as was before the pandemic

 In our area I've had nothing to stock lately except for some initial releases last week that sold and haven't been replenished and the "Clearance" items (basically price adjusted to what retail was before COVID) LIKE Wild Card, Topps Soccer, Panini Soccer and of course the Wrestling and UFC at all price points bc it doesn't really sell here.

Here in mid-Michigan (I live near Ann Arbor and about halfway between Detroit and Lansing), the shelves of Target, Walmart, Mejier and my LCS remain full. Topps 2022 and Update tends to sell well, but few people are buying the other stuff. It's just too expensive for so few cards; why would I pay $35 for a blaster of like 20 cards? Then you factor in the price of gas, groceries, people's rent and utilities going up, and nobody is willing to pay exorbitant card prices anymore. The companies - like in the junk wax era - got greedy and put out far too much product at too high a price point. In 1990 we had 15 companies making one set each; now we have 2 companies making 15 sets each. Just, no.

"It's just too expensive for so few cards; why would I pay $35 for a blaster of like 20 cards?"

Exactly. I have wondered if people do the math on these things and, during times of excitement when trying to get hits, they just ignore that fact. That math, as well as the availability of TCDB trades, has definitely kept me in check with the new stuff.

I've been checking every time I go to Walmart recently. They've consistently had boxes of just about everything, but no packs of stuff. That is, until today, when I happily put one of the many $4 packs of 2023 Series 1 into my cart. It was fun to rip - I even pulled a 1988 auto of Bligh Madris (never heard of him before, but it's on card and I don't think I've ever pulled an auto before, so I was pumped).

I keep wondering why someone hasn’t pulled all of the 20-21 basketball off the shelves and toss it.  Same with Select football.  No one is buying it.

It’s almost as bad as stuff from the junk wax era!

I know some guys are getting it at distribution levels for less than $8/box, selling it at $12.

no need to touch any Panini products at retail, wait it out!