Saturday, June 1, 2013

eBay Makes No Sense...

So I picked up another Biggio auto... this one from 2013 Topps Museum Collection. It's numbered out of just /25 copies. There is another auto in the set that's numbered out of just /10, there's no way I am getting that one, so I went for this one. I ended up paying even less than I did for the Tribute /50 and the /99. Did I get crazy lucky, or did bidders just REALLY like the Tribute autos more? I think I like this one a lot!


So, this leads me to another point of discussion. Chris Olds tweeted something about how awesome 2013 Topps Archives is, I responded with the counterpoint that it's pretty awesome for 29 teams, sucks for the Astros. Because there are exactly the following cards with Astros on them in Archives: (1) Base card, (1) Insert card and (1) Autograph which is conveniently numbered "out of /5 or less" per the checklist. A former Topps executive then responded, "get over it bro".  It floored me, and also gave me insight into the mind of Topps, even if the guy doesn't work there anymore. That's the response from the industry... you don't like something? Well, "get over it bro". So, I'm going to "get over it bro" by not buying a single card from Archives. If someone wants to send me an extra copy of the insert and base card, that'd be swell and all, but I'm not even going to the secondary market to buy those two. There's no way on this earth I'd end up with one of the /5 Nolan Ryan autos anyway. In the mean time, my Astros are not THE worst team in baseball and we're not too far from being better than the Brewers to not even be the 2nd worst team in baseball. Suck it Topps.


  1. I have never regretted my decision to stop collecting modern cards and focusing on vintage. Posts like this only reinforce it.

    Has Olds ever *not* raved about a set?

  2. Yeah, I wish Topps would balance things out a bit, too. I'm currently working on the 2013 Bowman set. The Prospects set which is 110 cards and should yield around 3 or 4 cards per team. There are 15 Yankees! Last I checked, the Yankees' farm system is not even ranked in the top 10.

    East Coast Bias... #stinks

  3. Archives sucks, Olds is an know-it-all idiot and I really enjoyed watching the Astros beat the Angels yesterday.

  4. Olds is a Yankees fan isn't he ? Would explain it.

  5. "Get over it bro" seems to be exactly what Topps is telling everyone. We have the license - get over it. We put out what we want - get over it. You have no options - get over it..... I miss the days of three sets.

    And I did not enjoy the Astros beating the Angels.

    1. Exactly. Topps has the monopoly on baseball products and they act like we buy their products out of choice. MLB is to blame as well by letting Topps have an exclusive license.

  6. I really don't see the issue, Sam. I mean - we all would rather have a an extra 10 Yankee cards in the set of bench players plus those sure to hit it big Yankee prospects that will be traded soon.

    So yeah - get over it.

  7. sometimes the higher serial numbers (/50, /99) go for more because set collectors try to put the sets together. The lower ones tend to only go to team/player collectors, which for high-end products tend to be fewer and farther between.

  8. it sucks that a past or currently employed person from a card company would be so flippant about someones team...if i pull any astros in the few packs i buy from archives, i will be sure to send them your way.

  9. A. Love that Topps had Biggio sign in multiple products this year. I've been wanting to add an autograph of his for several years now, but it was a lot easier said, than done. In April, I finally added his Tribute autograph to my collection.

    B. I've always liked Archives.

    C. Wow... can't believe that Topps only has three Astros cards in their Archives set. Even more unbelievable is their "get over it" quote. Hopefully, he's a former employee.

  10. This is exactly what happened over in the gaming community. A guy from Microsoft told people, literally, to "deal with it" in regards to some of their bad ideas for their new console. It went viral and got him fired.

    Even as someone who takes advantage of the "East Coast Bias", even I can't understand why some Sox cards even exist. Why is there a Dice-K card in Series 1, why is there a #$%^&* Buckner card in EVERYTHING, why are there prospect cards from guys who will never see the majors? I, as a collector, DO NOT want these cards. I would much rather have a player, like Biggio, in my personal collection, than a Bill Buckner or a John Kruk.

    If given one, I would literally set fire to a Bill Buckner card. And film it.

    I "get" that there are probably, statistically, more Yankees fans than Astros fans, but that doesn't excuse the ratio of cards, even if it's a "business decision". You've got anywhere between 100 and 660 cards per set, surly some easy math can get us at least a couple Astros.

    100 card set, easy: everyone gets at least 3 cards, and the 10 most popular teams get 4. There, was that so hard?

    250 card set: you could have each team have at least FIVE, and still have 100 more to create a checklist.

    This IS BIAS Topps, and it's an easy fix. This isn't rocket surgery! ;)