The pandemic caused a huge boom to the sports card industry and many saw the "lottery tickets" that could result in hitting key cards sold in packs as a side hustle and way to get rich quick. It has left many retail places with empty shelves for trading cards, action figures, and other collectible markets for well over a year.
It is entirely possible that as things begin to open up and mandates become looser that normalcy returns and eventually trading cards prices stabilize, but I think the bubble is still very real for a few more years.
Target is known to offer exclusive products over the years and we have seen demand for those products only rise over time.
Beginning in 2011 Topps Update, Topps began offering exclusive red parallel cards in Target packs. These red border parallel cards can fetch huge money now of the rookies. Even some of the stars from that release from a decade ago can fetch larger dollars up to the original price of the blaster boxes they came in.
The McCutchen 2011 Topps Update red border is a card I've coveted for nearly a decade.
I recently picked up one of those exclusives and couldn't hit the buy-it-now fast enough.
The red border Target exclusive from 2011 Topps Update has eluded me and I even missed out on an auction for one last year. It's an iconic set. It's a popular parallel exclusive to chase after.
And I bought it for $4 B-I-N
Time to cross that one off the list.
One card I unfortunately can't cross off and fear the prices will skyrocket now due to (even) less product being available for sale is the 2021 Topps Heritage red border exclusive of Andrew McCutchen.
I regrettably missed putting in a sniper bid and lost an eBay auction and the only one that was listed on COMC.com sold VERY QUICKLY upon being listed.
I know it's a long stretch, but if anyone gets a red border Target exclusive from 2021 Topps Heritage of Cutch please let me know. I am very interested in adding this to my collection.
Do you think 2021 Target exclusive cards will hold more value in the future with many products being pulled from shelves this year?
If they do, I think that the sky high prices will eventually fall back to earth. At least they better.
ReplyDeleteI hope the prices come back down soon. It's funny that everyone knows it's a bubble and that they're being ripped off but yet many are still buying!
ReplyDeleteBut, hey, that card for $4 is pretty sweet and I love the 2011 design. Bravo!
The 2011 Update parallels are so tough because of Trout. Awesome pick up, especially for the price.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting to see how Target's decision to pull boxes and packs from their shelves will ultimately impact our hobby. Considering I could never find anything I wanted (except for when I visited Portland & Vegas), it won't impact me too much.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Target Cutch! I was able to purchase a Heritage fat pack at my Target yesterday, so I think the 14th notice means they will stop stocking the product...whatever's left on the shelves will continue to be sold until product runs out. It's really sad and embarrassing what has happened though.
ReplyDeleteI think that Target is going to sell all of that product...they just will sell it online. Assuming that they haven't already sold it all. So I don't see any real long-term difference.
ReplyDeleteThat does leave me wondering whether Topps will continue to produce Target exclusives in upcoming releases such as Series 2 and Update. Again, though, there's no reason Target can't sell all of that online. I bought three hanger boxes of Series 1 from Target online--didn't pull any Target exclusives.
Target has just made a reactionary decision based on the fight. They will be selling cards again soon. This is just a cool down decision. I'd be surprised if they start selling cards again in a couple of weeks quietly of course. But the fight accomplished one thing for them, it gave a lot of publicity about the rise in card prices to people that didn't already know about it. If anything, it will probably cause prices to rise by bringing in more people hoping to strike it rich.
ReplyDeleteThey're still selling cards, just in another format, so I don't think it will affect the value of things, but who knows? Flippers and certain collectors have established that they're weird and difficult to gauge.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Target/Walmart border parallels of 2011-14, especially the Target red ones. It's weird to me that anything from 2011 (even the Trout) is so sought after considering that 2011 cards in 2011 were not rare at all. I have a bunch to prove it.