I just dont understand the E-Topps popularity

Houston

I saw the photos from some of you lucky skallywags (spelling?) that got to go, and Ive heard from others that yet again, the E-Topps boothe was one of the, if not the, most popular boothe. How?? I know it started off with a bang, but I thought the friggin program was dead? I scan the 'bay, and it does look like there is a lot of activity, but I guess Im missing something??

CDsNuts

I can't imagine Topps is making any money off the E-Topps program. The whole thing is ludicrous and confusing. Are we supposed to trade these cards like stocks? You mean I can't buy a pack of them to open? So wait, I own this card, but I don't actually have it? When can I get it?

Houston

Im sure topps is making money, the cheapest card when they 'ipo' is like 6 or 8 bucks. for like 500 cards and it appears after doing a couple hours of research tonite, so thats 5-6K in money for what maybe costs them maybe 1K to print?

Nice model, and it looks like 4/5 immediatly tank. I actually have a couple of in-hand ones i bought of the 'bay cause the cads are great for slick new stuff.

Whatever.... sorry to go on about it.

rube26105

i never quite understood the concept either, i own a card that i dont have because its electronic lol ok-strange concept,it would be the last place i would be at the national
randy

rise2it

I agree with CDNuts.


Pros:

It's a good way to teach people about the 'stock market' and getting screwed on hype.

:-)

Cons:

Just think about the concept...

mknez

It was an interesting idea during the internet boom. Huge money maker for those who got in early (2000-2003) then hard crash, real hard! The smart early guys sold enough to make alot of cash, or at least enough to cover their costs. Those that got involved in 2003 took a bath, for the most part. Main problem was overproduction (high print runs due to speculation). All that being said, they have many hard core collectors. etopps has been doing their own convention since 2003 (Vegas), after that it was tied to the National. The members volunteer to work the booth (some freebies given by Topps), and solicit cards from other members to sell, some as donations, some on consignment.

If you have an etopps card in your portfolio, it is yours, you just haven't paid for the delivery charge yet. It is an easy platform for buying/selling/trading, since it is all electronic thru their own website (trading) ebay (buying & selling) or cardtarget.com (buying and selling at reduced fees for cardtarget members). No postage, waiting, etc to worry about.

I haven't been involved in the in-hand side of etopps, so I won't comment on it.

bigdcards

I thought I'd try it and bought a few cards for under $5 total. At that point I looked through the whole catalog and found 14 cards that I wanted. So I picked them up over a month and had them shipped. I was very pleasantly surprised. I think the cards just look great in person and a few instantly became my favorite card of that player.

Having said that, I don't get leaving them in a profolio and maintaining a lot of money in cards you can't look at. To me that seems a lot like guys leaving their cards in storage and bank deposit boxes. I like to look at my cards.

If you don't know about it, the etoppers have taken the whole thing a step further. They buy a real card as a group and maintain shares.

Link

mdkuom

I was an original collector of etopps. The first couple of weeks I just bought the players that I liked but then I quickly realized that the print runs were frequently coming out to around 300 each. After that I bought at least one of each player and multiples of the RC's and stars. I had something like 7 Pujols, 5 Dunns, and 3 Ichiros. I was also a big Jose Vidro fan at the time and bought around 5 of those for $3.50 each I think. When the second edition came out the prices went crazy and I sold almost everything. Those Vidro's went for like $10 each. What a joke. In the end I profited around $2000 and had lots of fun ripping boxes of "real" cards. Even was able to buy my wife a nice necklace. I did send for, and still have, a Gwynn, Dunn, and Guerrero and they are nice cards.

mtcards

I bought about a 4 dozen or so back in the second year...they are valued at about 20 cents each now. I traded them all for an "In hand" Peyton Manning with a pop. of around 5 or 6 hundred if I recall. I got the better end of that deal