[QUOTE=DaRitz;16205090]Topps doesn't do a lot of things well. BUT... they don't let that exclusive deal come close to expiring before they extend it. They are VERY GOOD at that part of the business.[/QUOTE]

Indeed. Topps would all but go completely under if they lost that exclusive deal.

[QUOTE=vinbots;16204857]I disagree. We pay a premium to be in the MC. Raffle is completely separate. Can shops who order directly from Topps not purchase from their website like the general population can?[/QUOTE]

If I had an MC membership I would be thinking the same way as you but since I don't I think its unfair :D. I'm okay with MC members joining the raffle but there have been quite a few posts of people here posting about multiple MC memberships, multiple raffle wins, and multiple accounts to enter the raffles. No one has called them out including me because everyone is so excited about this awesome product. I've bought nine boxes on the secondary market and only have one Topps account that I didn't win the raffle with. I think its a shame that MC members that should have them are now getting cancelled because other people cheated the system and Topps ineptitude. Still think its the product of the year but just feel for the people that should have the boxes and are getting skunked.

When did they do a 2nd and 3rd raffle? Did you have to sign up again, or did they do drawings based on the initial sign-up to the raffle?

[QUOTE=notoriousrmb;16204973]I'll take a raffle with a 2% chance all day over fighting bots with a 0% chance. Not to mention it gives bot users more work to do setting up their 5,000 accounts!

Seems like the majority of the people on this board loved the raffle concept, only seeing you constantly putting it down![/QUOTE]

If you were getting 0% I understand why you would want the raffle. I was at 100%. So obviously going from 100% to close to 0% I don't like the change.

I've been wrong before. We will see if people are singing the same tune in 6 months. People liked the raffle because a good amount of people got picked this time. If I'm right and in the near future it's more like 5% than 50% we will see what people say then.

Caved and busted one box.

Luis Robert base
Turner - Black
Acuna - Gold


Happy with the results.

got me 3 boxes from ebay in, cracked the first two. first one was nothing spectacular but the 2nd one was a lot of fun. not the best names on the refractors but they look great

Box 1:
Gallo toploader
Alvarez RC
Bichette RC
Hoerner RC
Civale Refractor
Archer Gold /50

Box 2:
Realmuto toploader
Acuna Finest All-Stars
Trout Finest All-Stars
Ivan Rodriguez Finest Originals auto /20
Luis Robert RC
Lux RC
Blackmon Refractor
Samardzija Gold /50
Strasburg Black /25

will crack the 3rd later tonight

[QUOTE=sjk4g5;16205207]got me 3 boxes from ebay in, cracked the first two. first one was nothing spectacular but the 2nd one was a lot of fun. not the best names on the refractors but they look great

Box 1:
Gallo toploader
Alvarez RC
Bichette RC
Hoerner RC
Civale Refractor
Archer Gold /50

Box 2:
Realmuto toploader
Acuna Finest All-Stars
Trout Finest All-Stars
Ivan Rodriguez Finest Originals auto /20
Luis Robert RC
Lux RC
Blackmon Refractor
Samardzija Gold /50
Strasburg Black /25

will crack the 3rd later tonight[/QUOTE]

Interested in the Blackmon refractor if FS/FT

[QUOTE=mossoholic;16204979]The Panini dutch auction has virtually eliminated bots if product doesn't hit the floor.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. There are alot of stupid people in this world.[/QUOTE]

Raffle all day every day. Count me in with all of the stupids.


[QUOTE=1DogCollector;16205137]If I had an MC membership I would be thinking the same way as you but since I don't I think its unfair :D. I'm okay with MC members joining the raffle but there have been quite a few posts of people here posting about multiple MC memberships, multiple raffle wins, and multiple accounts to enter the raffles. No one has called them out including me because everyone is so excited about this awesome product. I've bought nine boxes on the secondary market and only have one Topps account that I didn't win the raffle with. I think its a shame that MC members that should have them are now getting cancelled because other people cheated the system and Topps ineptitude. Still think its the product of the year but just feel for the people that should have the boxes and are getting skunked.[/QUOTE]

I'm a MC member. I also checked for the link - not there.

On old releases, the public sale was open to everyone at the same time. MC members could play the refresh-and-wait game with everyone else. So I thought the raffle might be the same way. It wasn't... probably the right decision to get more boxes into the hands of more people.

[QUOTE=1DogCollector;16205137]If I had an MC membership I would be thinking the same way as you but since I don't I think its unfair :D. I'm okay with MC members joining the raffle but there have been quite a few posts of people here posting about multiple MC memberships, multiple raffle wins, and multiple accounts to enter the raffles. No one has called them out including me because everyone is so excited about this awesome product. I've bought nine boxes on the secondary market and only have one Topps account that I didn't win the raffle with. I think its a shame that MC members that should have them are now getting cancelled because other people cheated the system and Topps ineptitude. Still think its the product of the year but just feel for the people that should have the boxes and are getting skunked.[/QUOTE]

We don’t know yet people who actually cheated the system. I have one account. Got my MC boxes and was lucky enough to win the raffle so I got those two as well.

With respect to the raffle, it was open to each account. Not to each person, user or household. We know multiple people have multiple accounts, so each account was allowed to enter the raffle per Topps’ own rules.

Did people create new accounts? Yep.
Did people have family and friends do the same? Yep.

Do we know of any new accounts that won the raffle? I don’t think so.

So unless someone was able to actually buy more than 2 boxes with the same account, I don’t think anyone broke Topps’ own rule.

I think we should all move on from fair and not fair if a MC member also won the raffle. Nowhere does it say they couldn’t.

At this point MC members who didn’t get their orders fulfilled should be livid, but they can’t go blaming anyone other than Topps who obviously botched something up on their first legitimate effort to try and eliminate the bots from purchasing all of the product upon public release.

Topps should and may, find a way to compensate the MC members whose orders were cancelled with access to additional boxes on their next release or something similar to that.

That’s my 2 cents. Anyone want to buy my Acuña Gold?

Got my next 3 boxes from eBay. Fast shipping from a purchase over the weekend - $700 for the 3.

Hit my 1st and only Robert out of my 5 total boxes but hit some extra color again. No autos from the 5 but still a great rip. All of these are available. May keep the Robert though.

[url=https://ibb.co/QbNTk91][img]https://i.ibb.co/7YWZQv6/img926-2.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=https://ibb.co/MRwPrGF][img]https://i.ibb.co/brwNT2c/img926-3.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=https://ibb.co/Vt2SzHS][img]https://i.ibb.co/8065fz5/img927-2.jpg[/img][/url]

Random thought after sifting through Ebay listings just now.

Whomever at Topps decided Zac Gallen deserves to be in this set over guys like Anthony Rizzo and my guy Matt Olson needs to get slapped.

Zac. Gallen.

Good stuff! I'd take a price on the Rosario gold. Maybe the Graterol refractor for fun as well

[QUOTE=avicke;16205263]Got my next 3 boxes from eBay. Fast shipping from a purchase over the weekend - $700 for the 3.

Hit my 1st and only Robert out of my 5 total boxes but hit some extra color again. No autos from the 5 but still a great rip. All of these are available. May keep the Robert though.[/QUOTE]

There's plenty of players that you can make a good argument they should be in the set. But Gallen is a nice sleeper rookie

[QUOTE=YouTheManNick;16205265]Random thought after sifting through Ebay listings just now.

Whomever at Topps decided Zac Gallen deserves to be in this set over guys like Anthony Rizzo and my guy Matt Olson needs to get slapped.

Zac. Gallen.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=YouTheManNick;16205265]Random thought after sifting through Ebay listings just now.

Whomever at Topps decided Zac Gallen deserves to be in this set over guys like Anthony Rizzo and my guy Matt Olson needs to get slapped.

Zac. Gallen.[/QUOTE]

Gallen sells well (not for tons but always someone buying); there's others here that shouldn't be though!

[QUOTE=smanzari;16205286]Gallen sells well (not for tons but always someone buying); there's others here that shouldn't be though![/QUOTE]

Yeah, Gallen wasn't the best example there :)

I collect Gallen, Brendan McKay, Dustin May, and Jesus Luzardo ... Gallen has consistently outsold McKay and May and has at times touched Luzardo levels on some of the rarer stuff.

[QUOTE=vinbots;16205244]We don’t know yet people who actually cheated the system. I have one account. Got my MC boxes and was lucky enough to win the raffle so I got those two as well.

With respect to the raffle, it was open to each account. Not to each person, user or household. We know multiple people have multiple accounts, so each account was allowed to enter the raffle per Topps’ own rules.

Did people create new accounts? Yep.
Did people have family and friends do the same? Yep.

Do we know of any new accounts that won the raffle? I don’t think so.

So unless someone was able to actually buy more than 2 boxes with the same account, I don’t think anyone broke Topps’ own rule.

I think we should all move on from fair and not fair if a MC member also won the raffle. Nowhere does it say they couldn’t.

At this point MC members who didn’t get their orders fulfilled should be livid, but they can’t go blaming anyone other than Topps who obviously botched something up on their first legitimate effort to try and eliminate the bots from purchasing all of the product upon public release.

Topps should and may, find a way to compensate the MC members whose orders were cancelled with access to additional boxes on their next release or something similar to that.

That’s my 2 cents. Anyone want to buy my Acuña Gold?[/QUOTE]

I was a MC member who also won a raffle. I did not purchase more than the stated amounts (3 MC and 2 raffle boxes). Both purchases were from the same account so I didn't have multiple accounts buying and shipping to the same address. My 2 raffle boxes showed up yesterday and my 3 MC boxes were canceled today. I just don't understand how Topps didn't fulfill all the MC orders first since they make it a point to give us early access. If cancelations were because MC members also won a raffle then cancel my raffle boxes. What irks me even more is they then had a 2nd chance raffle. So they really screwed up by what appears to be overselling and the people who are paying the yearly club fee are the ones who got punished.

[QUOTE=calculusdork;16205317]Yeah, Gallen wasn't the best example there :)

[/QUOTE]


Maybe. But his card is the one I saw on Ebay that inspired it.

Dom Nunez was included for the Rockies, but no Arenado base

[QUOTE=YouTheManNick;16205335]Maybe. But his card is the one I saw on Ebay that inspired it.[/QUOTE]

Oh, the heart of the complaint is still very real :)!

Purchased a couple of boxes on the Bay and had the orders cancelled by the seller who provided verification that Topps cancelled their orders as well. Here is the interesting part:

"the reason people got there orders cancelled was because they didn’t actually win the raffle there was a way to bypass the system and you were able to check these out without winning"

Anyone hear anything like this before?

[QUOTE=CoEnt85;16205347]Dom Nunez was included for the Rockies, but no Arenado base[/QUOTE]

The only player (that I noticed anyways) that has an All Star card AND a base is Javy Baez - and who knows why...

So you could also say that Mike Trout doesn't have a base...even though the All-Stars is a subset in the main set - not an insert.

[QUOTE=Glowbug27;16205370]Purchased a couple of boxes on the Bay and had the orders cancelled by the seller who provided verification that Topps cancelled their orders as well. Here is the interesting part:

"the reason people got there orders cancelled was because they didn’t actually win the raffle there was a way to bypass the system and you were able to check these out without winning"

Anyone hear anything like this before?[/QUOTE]

Not sure if its true or not but a few of us here have gotten our MC orders cancelled. Not raffle orders.

If orders are being cancelled, then that means there would be less boxes, which makes supply lower and demand should go even higher?

[QUOTE=Callmethevreez;16205417]If orders are being cancelled, then that means there would be less boxes, which makes supply lower and demand should go even higher?[/QUOTE]

I think the actual number of boxes is pretty much set in stone regardless (just a hair under 10,000).

[QUOTE=BonVoyage;16205401]Not sure if its true or not but a few of us here have gotten our MC orders cancelled. Not raffle orders.[/QUOTE]

How could this be possible? The link was just like the link for the Montgomery club membership boxes. You couldn't access the link if you didn't win the raffle let alone add to cart and get an order in.

[QUOTE=YouTheManNick;16205265]Random thought after sifting through Ebay listings just now.

Whomever at Topps decided Zac Gallen deserves to be in this set over guys like Anthony Rizzo and my guy Matt Olson needs to get slapped.

Zac. Gallen.[/QUOTE]

I could do without about 75% of the rookies.

By quick look, there are 38 rookies. 10 sounds about right. Part of the draw of this is that nearly every card is a star. Maybe in 5 years we're all digging through boxes for Isan Diaz or Justin Dunn. But in 10 years, I think we'll look at most of the RC's and say, "Who?"

(un)related:

Someone knows how to party. Why deal with the impostor when the OG is available for only ~2x as much?

[URL="https://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-TOPPS-FINEST-SEALED-HOBBY-BASEBALL-BOX-/402331882156"]https://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-TOPPS-FINEST-SEALED-HOBBY-BASEBALL-BOX-/402331882156[/URL]