Earlier this year Topps released a retail exclusive series 1 “pack” of baseball cards inside collectible tins. They became extremely popular upon release and people were scooping them up trying to flip for a quick buck.
Topps Tins Baseball Cards
2020 Topps Series One featured six different Major League Baseball players on the front of the comemmorative tins: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Pete Alonso, Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, and Mike Trout. Topps Tins did not appeal to me for one main reason: NO CUBS! While I am a sucker for the flip life, buying hot retail items accepting to double your money is mostly not a wise endeavor.
Does it work for Bowman Mega Boxes or Prizm basketball (or really any retail basketball right now)? Yes. But, over the past couple years we have seen hot retail items such as Bowman Platinum, Topps Fire, and now Topps Tins. I have been burned on the Platinum and Fire, and now I buy to rip…not to flip.
That is the second reason i chose to stay away from Topps Tins in 2020. While the tins remain collectible because of the players featured on the front as well as some exclusive cards found only in the tins, my thought process is that it’s Topps Series One. Series One is historically a terrible sealed resale product and almost always goes at discount prices by the end of the year. I also thought back to 2017 when Topps released a boxed set commemorating the Chicago Cubs World Series win the year prior. Boxes were sold at retail for around $15, and a year later I was finding them at card shows for $3 per box. The boxes were massively overproduced.
2020 Topps Tins sold at retail for $15 and have retained $25 shipped prices on the secondary market (eBay sold prices). That is better than I expected, but if you did pay full price plus tax for a tin and resold it for $25 shipped on eBay you are roughly breaking even.
It was nice to receive the Pete Alonso tin in a mailday. While not a Cubs player, it made for great protection of the Cubs baseball cards sent by Coach Ripley.
The tin protected such Cubs cards as this 2020 Topps Heritage Chrome Kris Bryant numbered 595/999.
Another new addition to the Cubs collection from 2020 Topps Heritage is this jersey relic of Willson Contreras.
I absolutely love the design of this jersey relic. While I dislike plain jersey swatches, they do look awesome if the design is right. And the design is excellent in 2020 Topps Heritage.
More newbies for my collection and this one is from Donruss. 2020 Donruss blue foil Kyle Schwarber.
Sticking to the color blue and Kyle Schwarber here’s a 2020 Gypsy Queen numbered 86/250.
Another parallel from 2020 Gypsy Queen. Jon Lester no name plate on front.
Topps Gold rookies are lovely. This from 2015 Topps and it’s Jorge Soler numbered 605/2015.
When I look at pictures I’m always focusing on backgrounds. When I look at this 2018 Topps Glove Work Addison Russell insert I can’t help but focus on several different people in the stands. Let’s look…
- Mizzou Dad – just standing there without a care in the world. Hands to his side enjoying a ball game.
- Baby Blue Cubby Head – The headless fan with the bright light blue vintage Cubs logo shirt. It’s essentially the focal point of this photo. My eyes are directed to that shirt evertime I look at this card.
- Just Do It Guy – Shades, Nike “Just Do It” shirt, gold chains. This fan exudes cool.
- Nacho, Nacho Man – Oh, that look on his face. This is not going to end well for Nacho Man. This may be the last frame before that dude is wearing nacho cheese on his chest.
- Laughing Millennial – What’s this kid in the front row doing? Is he watching Youtube videos? Does he even know he’s at a baseball game?
Man, I love great crowd shots. Oh yeah, pretty cool play being made by Russell…where ever the baseball might be.