General Forum

I've set myself up with a daily dose of rips that also motivate me to get some important things done. I bought a bunch of blaster packs of Topps Archives and Heritage from 2023 and 2022 at Walmart the other day and decided that I can open one pack a day, but if I either get half an hour of good cardio or write 1000 words on my writing project, I can open a second. It motivates me to get those things done and means that I won't buy any more new cards until those blaster packs are all opened (which probably won't be until at least March).

It's not that bad on postage as long as you're not doing small trades. I try to acquire these in larger trade proposals...usually when someone needs way more cards than I need.  I don't add them to my wants list which controls the ability for those to send me the smaller trade proposals and in turn would add up considerably in postage fees.  Prior to this I would purchase basters boxes. When you figure in the cost or ripping packs, the collation issues of receiving the same card repeatedly and because I don't collect the inserts, I found it cheaper to just trade for the set.   I would also advise not to attempt this right after a product is released...way too many people are after the same thing...I get larger lots once everything cools down.  I've never kept a record of cost associated with this, but I'm pretty sure I am saving money trading versus buying the product.   

jimetal7212 wrote:

Would be curious to see how much postage comes out to be doing it that way.

dettigersmlb wrote:

...or you can do what I do and avoid buying product or sets all together and just trade for the entire set here on TCDB. I'm still knocking out 2023 update but have completed all of the 2022 and 2023 Topps Flagship sets this way.  

sportzking wrote:

Even better. If you’re not picky about it, I’m pretty sure you can pick up hand collated sets for 40 bucks or so?

As far as not ripping, I can’t help with that. I like to go for the retail parallels so probably going to be ripping quite a bit. 

I do like to rip and either get some of the parallels I like and get a head start on the set. Also, if it’s a newer set I usually don’t add to my want list, the list has a lot of cards already.