Is the Topps/thepit marriage dispicable or true blue?

KallMaloneSay

I still go check out thepit.com every once in a while, just to monitor cards and every once in a while ship them a few cards to sell. Today they began listing BGS 9 and BGS 9.5 Bowman Chrome basketball RC's, with the LeBron and Carmelo obviously standing out. Thepit doesn't give any information on how they got the cards, whether they actually opened boxes or if they just went straight to the assembly line and cherry-picked the best cards before they ever had a chance to go into packs. Since they are owned by Topps, do you think that it's a little unfair to those of us who scour hundreds if not thousands of cards to find the best cards for our submissions, while Topps can just go through their cards before anyone in the public has ever seen them and grade the cards themselves? I have a bit of an issue with this, I hope I'm not alone, Jason

helionaut

I wouldn't say it's despicable, but it's not purely driven by the market as a whole, either. The one and only time I tried to get on the pit's releases was with the Bowman Uncirculated this year. They listed a few cards I was interested in at something like $5. When bidding finally opened, was I able to buy any of the cards I wanted for $5? No, they started trading at about $25, even though I had placed my order in the appropriate time frame, at least as far as I could tell from their insufficient rules for such things. But I guess it's like real IPOs. You have to be in a certain select group to really cash in. Either that or they just decided that they could make more money by selling at $25 than $5. I have no problem with them charging the price they want, as they do own them, but their when prices move like that it seems to me like a plain old bait-n-switch.

I would be leery of buying graded cards direct from them, that is cards that weren't sent in for grading by collectors. The relationship of third-party graders, card-makers and the direct-market outlets for them deter me from buying through that avenue. I have no proof of any real problems, but there doesn't have to be any actual events for a conflict of interest to be evident. At that point, the graders cease to be a third-party between buyer and seller, but they in fact would have a vested interest in the transaction.

As far as the Bowman Chrome cards, I'd guess Topps printed up sheets specifically for grading, rather than thepit busting cases or cherry-picking the real production run.

Lothar52

the pit is weird..i got into it about 3 yrs ago when it was a private company before topps bought them out..the thing with the PIT is.....a grade is a grade is a grade...but variations with centering are ALL OVER THE BOARD...i got a psa 9 clemens fleer update that had BAD centering...horrible..and it was a psa 9....after that debacle i never bought from there again....never buy from pit to take OUT of the pit.

loth

pjray55

They probably got the idea from the Chicago Cubs or vice versa, why let others make the money when they can do it themselves and try to hide behind the a differently named company that they own.


Patrick

joestalin

This has been going on for years now! Etopps was perhaps the biggest farce.....cards made by topps
AND cards priced by topps...what could be more rotten?

I really don't see how they can continue to spend money on this thing. Their interent venture
was short lived and is now just costing them money.

JS