Options
How much vintage unopened does Fritsch cards still have?
craig44
Posts: 10,555 ✭✭✭✭✭
Got to wondering the other day about this question. I have to imagine at one time, Larry must have had the biggest stash of vintage wax. I wonder how much still remains? I know it is released slowly and not everything all at once. I have read the stories of him getting cards by the train car load back in the 70s and 80s.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
0
Comments
Not just wax, but cellos, racks and other packaging. There was a picture in a hobby magazine early 80s with a couple of semi's being unloaded.
OT but I visited his Cooperstown BB card museum as a kid in 1988 , in 1990 when I returned it was long since gone...
Still have the Key chain, Shot Glass, Beer Glass and "Dinner" glasses I got from the gift shop
Unless otherwise specified my posts represent only my opinion, not fact.
Their eBay store sells some really nice empty boxes.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
That actual answer to that question is a closely guarded secret by design.
The strategy has seemed to work quite well for them, too.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
They have 3 boxes of 1991 Topps baseball,4.3 billion boxes of 1973 Topps 4th series,
And 20.8 billion boxes of 1973 Topps High series. Just to name a few
Im only joking.
They also have 10 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles and at least 10 Pan Pac Owls!
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
Maybe looks something like this! lol
Probably at least 100 vending boxes for each year of all of the major sports from the 1960s through 1980s.
I bought two vending boxes of 1968 Topps Hockey that came from this source about 10 years ago. The cards were razor sharp and super crisp with typical centering from that year, but the Bobby Orr cards were suspiciously low-grade with non-factory creases and corner problems.
I have heard that back in the old days that they would use the vending boxes to hand collate sets. I wonder how much of their vending is not factory fresh anymore?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Everytime I have read the question throughout the years I see this.
Jeff
Miscut Museum
My Mess
so 4.8 million new each year. Thats 400 cases of vending if only talking about vending.
That > @Barfvader said:
That picture is my Heaven (without Fritsch though).
I scanned that pic years ago from I believe an early 1980's Sports Collectors Digest. It's here somewhere in a closet full of excess items.
Could get a ballpark idea of amount of cards up to that point if the 4.8 million each year number was from the start of his business. Obviously doesn't take into account sold items thru those years but it would still be an interesting guesstimate.
Jeff
Miscut Museum
My Mess
Great set.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
I wonder if they have cases of 1962 Topps Mars Attacks.....
Or Vending....My first exposure to this set was when I was 5/6 and my Dad gave me a Penny to get 5 Mars Attacks cards from the Vending Machine in from of my local 7-11 for a penny in 1962/63, then it went to 5 cards for a Nickel, and eventually disappeared in about 12-18 months!
There are Unopened Vending Stock Boxes in the World and when they surface,theyt will be through the Roof!
YeeHaw!
Neil
They have stuff authenticated from BBCE as advertised in their catalog and you will need to call them. I would venture a lot of private sales.
I've heard the same thing. Someone who used to post on these forums bought a '71 baseball Fritsch vending box and said the same thing. It looked like some cards had been swapped, probably to fill sets back in the day.
They still have tons of unopened vending cases left... mid 60s through 1993.
11
I'm not so sure they have much, if any, 60s unopened left aside from maybe '68 cello packs. They've been slowly bleeding out their high inventory 70s unopened such as '73 4th series boxes and '75 cello boxes. They have listed single raw packs of '71 and '67 baseball in their catalog. If they have mid 60s vending boxes that are still close to factory original state, it must not be that many since they haven't offered any for sale.
I'd say their website is probably less than 10% of their unopened sales. If it's on their website or in their catalog, then they definitely have truckloads of it. I'm also betting that sealed 86 Fleer basketball case wasn't the the best thing in their vault.
They definitely have product for some but not all years/sports. For baseball packs, it's 68 cello, 70 cello, 71 wax (likely limited), 73 wax, 73 cello, 75 cello, 76 cello, 76 wax, 79 rack and 80 super cello, among others.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
A 1987 Topps Baseball Rack Pack is $17.95 on the Fritsch site lol
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
Who is on top?
A lot of the unopened at collect auctions has a Fritsch attribution in the description. Assuming they are consigning these directly it’s an indication to me they have a tremendous amount left in inventory. In searching their auction archives there were 73 unopened items attributed to Fritsch in 2021 auctions.
I would imagine their stock of vintage unopened is keeping the shop open. when you look at their prices, is anyone really buying anything else?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
But if you look at the Collect auctions over a long period, there's not much variety. They run the same unopened boxes every auction meaning they have a ton of those but limited to nothing outside of those items. I'd bet the '86 Fleer BKB case was a rare exception and something they were waiting for the right time to unleash to the market.
I think tremendous is a stretch. Fritsch has been around for a long time, still sending out mail order catalogs to customers (that isn't a cheap marketing move). I take it his real customer base shops these catalogs and pays the prices. I've received his catalogs since the 80s and have noticed the huge drop off of unopened and vintage sets available. Now the 3rd generation is running the company, possibly with a fresher approach to the business. Eventually his hoards will sell off, especially when the market is red hot.