2020 Topps Baseball Forum

Hey all - I'd love your thoughts on this one.

I got back into collecting in 2018, and I've put together the 2018 Topps Series 1 & 2 and 2019 Topps Series 1, 2, & Update sets.  It's been very enjoyable.  However, I'm now at a crossroads:  how can build the set most efficiently and economically?  Here are some thoughts:

1.  Buy one Hobby Jumbo, get one auto, two relics, two silver packs, 460 total cards (assuming about one complete set and inserts).  Cost:  $120;
2.  Buy two Hobby boxes, get two total autos and/or relics, two silver packs, 672 total cards (assuming about a set and a half and inserts).  Cost: $125;
3.  Buy six hanger boxes, get maybe zero autos and/or relics, zero silver packs, 402 total cards (assuming about a set and inserts).  Walmart comes with the Rhys Hoskins insert cards, which will probably sell for a total of $1 per card, 20 or 30 cards in the set as years' past.  Cost: $70

Any thoughts?  The relics, autographs, and silver packs are nice, but I don't know if buying one Hobby Jumbo could possibly be that much better than buying two hobby boxes considering one would get 212 more cards and one less auto/rookie.

Thanks for your help!
~Biz

P.S. If anyone wants to partner in putting together a set, please let me know.

For pure economics, you can buy a factory set for $50 or $60 at Walmart or Target.

I'm personally a fan of opeining packs.  Problem with that is a) Topps has horrible collation b) Topps has a billion inserts and c) Topps has a million variations.  Takes the fun out of it.  But I think the trading function here actually makes it possible to do it the old-fashioned way.

I actually stopped buying Base.  I only collect Heritage and Big League.

I perfer the Jumbo Hobby boxes, you'll get a better chance to pull more relics/autos.   Usually each box will contain a complete set.  

Lol, I don't even know all the different names of their products, but for the last few years I have purchased a couple of the Topps 99 count boxes, a couple of the 67 count boxes and a handful of the basic packs. That gives me a decent start on the series, and enough doubles to work a few trades. Finishing the set reminds of back in the day when you had to barter with others to finish it off. As of this post I need 10 cards to finish the 2019 Update series. Kind of still feels like a bit of a hobby and a project as I try to complete it, as opposed to buying a factory set box. (Though nothing wrong with it if you choose to do it that way).

I've been wrestling with that same question. I prefer building sets but it's not the most economical way to go- unless you can pull a great auto (which the odds seem to be against you) or some really good inserts and sell them. I have so many other needs, I think I'll just open a few packs and then buy a factory set. 

If your goal is only the base set and the cost of building one, I'd go with the hanger boxes. Since every company has gotten so bad with collation these days (back to the early-90's level) and including the massive amounts of parallels and insert cards now, I'm not sure I'd trust any amount of boxes/packs to get me a complete set. Trading is certainly the way to go to complete a set, but you need trader cards for that to happen. So the hangers would get you a good start and some dupes to trade for others that you need at the cheapest level up-front. You can't forget that trading will cost you shipping money. So all 3 options would kinda weigh out to the same cost unless you pull and sell something really good from the hobby boxes and use the money to acquire more base cards.

As for buying the factory set: that certainly is the cheapest way to go. But where is the fun in that? I'll never intentionally buy a factory set b/c to me that is not collecting cards. That is just acquiring cards and not my style. I gave up on trying to collect baseball sets in the mid-90's as I switched to variety in my MLB collection. I stopped trying to collect NASCAR sets about 2011 when it became impossible to complete a set from a single hobby box and trading to fill in the missing cards. Since that time, I really only collect my teams and athletes from MLB, NFL and NASCAR. Topps and Panini have made it extremely difficult for set collectors for the past decade and I'm glad I wasn't really trying to attempt sets when that switch flipped.

Each year, I buy a Jumbo box of series 1 and 2 and then a Hobby of Update.

So far, I have gotten a full set from each box every year. (All of S1 in the jumbo, S2 in a jumbo and Update in a hobby...) I can always trade for inserts. 

My local card shop sells jumbos for $100 and Hobby for $65. So, for $265 I can build all three while still enjoying the pack busting. (Aka, why I don't get factory sets. Like opening cards too much.)

I take this same approach as it is the most economical. Buy a few packs for the thrill of it but ultimately wait for the factory set.  Also, as of late, Topps has been putting out factory sets with rookie exclusives.  So if you really want a complete set, you'd have to shell out even more on the secondary market if you had put together a set via hobby boxes.  Pulling parallels and autos out of the hobby/jumbo boxes can be fun (and rewarding if you get a good hit to sell).  However, if there are cards you specifically want, eBay is the way to go and they can be had for way less than a box. 

I would avoid buying hanger boxes expecting to put together a complete set.  Retail collation can be terrible (I'm looking at you Panini) so most likely you'll end up with a lot of duplicates and still come short of finishing the set.  

Also, how the HECK is Series 1 almost here? Time has flown by!

I’ve had poor luck with hanger boxes. I seem to get more duplicates that way then buying a hobby box. I haven’t bought a jumbo box yet. One option not mentioned is getting most of the cards through packs and trading for the rest in here. That’s my favorite way