Topps and the Worsening Collation

Viewer Mike G wrote me an email recently about Topps and their collation problems.

Mike is a set builder but says that with the last few Topps flagship releases it’s been impossible to build a complete set from a jumbo box.

“That used to be a big perk of getting a jumbo,” Mike said. “Knowing you'd build your full set.”

That’s not possible anymore, though.

“In series 2 I was over 30 cards short and bought a regular hobby and finished it. But with Update I went ahead and bought both a hobby and jumbo and after that I'm still 28 cards short of a complete set. And it's not like I got a slew of numbered cards because of this. This is a quality issue that needs to be addressed as they keep raising prices but cutting the number of cards in packs.

“I feel like if it's talked about it might put pressure on them.”

I wish Mike were right with that last sentence, but recent history shows us that Topps isn’t concerned about collectors or set builders or really anything except money. People keep buying Topps products, so Topps will keep increasing prices while reducing the number of cards per pack or box, while also worsening your odds of pulling more valuable cards.

Meanwhile, there were a lot of issues reported with 2024 Topps Holiday boxes:

If you have any doubts, here’s a video of one of the packs being opened:

How does this even happen? I haven’t seen a comment from Topps about it, and it’s been more than a month.

New Year’s Resolution? Upgrade Your Supplies!

I Liked This

Random Thought

What is it about old-timey baseball photos that makes them look so great?

Take, for instance, this one:

🗣️ YouTube Comment Of The Week

From my Sunday Clearing the Bases episode, I love this idea:

🎬 Upcoming Videos

• Eventually I’ll do another Attic Find Friday — I have a bunch of these again

• #54-50 of my ACE 100 list

• AMA answers from a week or two ago

• A recent large purchase that doesn’t really fit in my collection, but kind of does

• A subscriber’s killer music card collection — I keep putting this one off because it’s big and intimidating

📩 Upcoming Newsletters

I hope you don’t mind a few newsletters a week until I catch up.

• An absolutely bonkers vintage and pre-war collection my friend Oliver saw parts of a couple of weeks ago and is trying to help the person sell

• Swapped jersey patches

• A Paul Skenes card that surprised me

• Missing Caitlin Clark card in Panini checklist?

🎬 Channel Highlights From the Past Week

Slow week, with only 3 videos. The highlight was this LCS Visit to Don’s Sports Card Center in Portland, Maine.

🎁 My Pickup Of The Week

Nothing this week! And the Brady from last week still hasn’t shipped. They tell me it will “soon.”

👻 Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

Last week I watched and mentioned to Oliver that I was going to watch the sequel, 28 Weeks Later. He told me, “You can tell when Danny Boyle (the director) left the production, because it gets much worse right after.”

28 Days Later is an iconic, must-watch zombie flick. I loved it, giving it 4 stars. One of the issues I had with it was the frenetic recording style. It was difficult to follow the footage.

The second movie started out with the same jumpy style. The opening scene was undeniably awesome, but the style bothered me. And then it just… changed. No more jumps.

I loved 28 Weeks Later. Great storytelling. Even if the bad dad/husband reminded me of a former coworker.

4.5 stars out of 5

I also watched Squid Game season 2 with my obsessed 15-year-old. We both loved it.

🔗 Links:

$2 Million Vintage Sports Card Collection Sold

Mystery Redemption Unveiled: Ohtani’s Red Ink Autograph /75 Sparks Hobby Frenzy

Is Your Child into Pokémon Cards? So Is the Japanese Mob — and Here's Why

Restorers vs. graders: How will $10 million verdict impact hobby?