Topps Finest X-Men ’97– Q1 2025

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by RainCityShecks

Has anyone been notified of the Fanatics drop/drawing win yet?

Originally Posted by KevinCaptiva

Yes got the email about a hour and a half after it ended.

Originally Posted by rentz

So i guess yesterdays drop lottery is done and those shipped?
and since i got no followup mail guess i missed it.

Looks that way.

[RainCityShecks]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Looks that way.

At least I can stop checking my associated email address with gleeful anticipation now.................

[finfangfan]

Yeah… it would be nice to get a “you didn’t win but thanks for playing” email.

[rentz]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Yeah… it would be nice to get a “you didn’t win but thanks for playing” email.

I was positive ive gotten an email like that in past.
oh well, now to find a retailer who wont charge me 2x the price

[kyle1707]

Well as bad as this looks. It’s possible it might end up under 150 a box sooner then later

[Brobocop]

Originally Posted by kyle1707

Well as bad as this looks. It’s possible it might end up under 150 a box sooner then later

I would be shocked to see it dip below $200, unless breakers completely abandon the product. Would be lovely to see though!

[jduds]

Originally Posted by Brobocop

I would be shocked to see it dip below $200, unless breakers completely abandon the product. Would be lovely to see though!

The singles market is super soft and I don’t see any of the purported chases (autos, Atom, Omega, Danana whatever) gaining popularity to keep prices up. I decided just to do a refractor set of the Masters background cards and should be able to do that for less than the price of a box. OTOH, they make for a cheap break at $200 a box. Sometimes products like that can do alright with a favorable entry price even without much worth chasing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these back to the original $129 in a month really.


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[metallicalex777]

Opened 3 boxes and these were the highlights with the best two being a Masters Gambit x-fractor 71/97 and a Gui Agustini Sunspot autograph 27/50 and a few of my favorites from the base and inserts (Magneto Uncanny is a refractor).

[finfangfan]

I think the Uncanny look really nice and shouldn’t be too hard to nab. It’s a fun set overall if you got in at $120ish.

[gospeed3]

this set is as the youngsters would very mid. after watching the first case break i bought into im not even sure i want to open the box im getting I would have rather bought more flair or midnight sons off epack. lol

[Xiarmadillo]

Originally Posted by jduds

The singles market is super soft and I don’t see any of the purported chases (autos, Atom, Omega, Danana whatever) gaining popularity to keep prices up. I decided just to do a refractor set of the Masters background cards and should be able to do that for less than the price of a box. OTOH, they make for a cheap break at $200 a box. Sometimes products like that can do alright with a favorable entry price even without much worth chasing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these back to the original $129 in a month really.


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almost no chance they will be back to the original price anytime soon.

This product is at a sweet spot, both in price and also being new theme relatively speaking for breakers.
It is targeted at a much larger audience than the previous Epack busters (rando non hockey sports guy, new breaker/gamblers etc) In addtion it wont have as big of race to bottom as Epack/COMC which normally reflexively cause pressure on box price.
Breakers dont really see EV they just see possibility not probability. (this is why breaking is so popular as a form of gambling its like Pokie addiction)
when you make the outlay small compared to potential hits, more people are willing to take on even worse gambles.
As long as the high end draw is multiples of the entry they will keep gambling away.
On the no E-pack, it means there are people buying boxes to hoard. So outside of initial release month or so I dont see too much of this product being broken and so there will be less singles to put pressure on prices.
Just look at Topps Chrome and Topps Chrome Sapphire (1st one had as much produced, also a far inferior product, and is still being sold for $350-450. Latter is just as boring as plying wood....but is 600-700...)

[LittleJimmies]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

I think the Uncanny look really nice and shouldn’t be too hard to nab. It’s a fun set overall if you got in at $120ish.

I'm a big fan of the Uncanny and Remember It insert sets. I'm going to shoot for the laser sets of both of those.

[jduds]

Originally Posted by Xiarmadillo

almost no chance they will be back to the original price anytime soon.

This product is at a sweet spot, both in price and also being new theme relatively speaking for breakers.
It is targeted at a much larger audience than the previous Epack busters (rando non hockey sports guy, new breaker/gamblers etc) In addtion it wont have as big of race to bottom as Epack/COMC which normally reflexively cause pressure on box price.
Breakers dont really see EV they just see possibility not probability. (this is why breaking is so popular as a form of gambling its like Pokie addiction)
when you make the outlay small compared to potential hits, more people are willing to take on even worse gambles.
As long as the high end draw is multiples of the entry they will keep gambling away.
On the no E-pack, it means there are people buying boxes to horde. So outside of initial release month or so I dont see too much of this product being broken and so there will be less singles to put pressure on prices.
Just look at Topps Chrome and Topps Chrome Sapphire (1st one had as much produced, also a far inferior product, and is still being sold for $350-450. Latter is just as boring as plying wood....but is 600-700...)

You still have to give breakers something to chase even if the EV is awful. I'm just not sure there are any prizes in this to sustain much energy past the initial nostalgia kick. There's got to be a prize to get gamblers and the hits here are being treated by the market closer to consolation prizes. Can't have a lottery without a decent jackpot. Maybe excitement will pick up and folks will clamor for some of the rarer cards, but I'd bet most have already hit their high point. There are nice cards in this, but nothing I see breakers chasing for longer than a weekend. That said, the price is cheap enough and there is enough curiosity about the product with the saddened folks who didn't "win" the lottery from Fanatics that it will likely take time for prices to drop too much. I wouldn't be surprised to see this as a popular Black Friday special at close to the original price at all, though. It will have some legs in the breaking world as a fun add-in to multi-product breaks now that I think about it and that might keep it in the breaking universe a good bit longer.

[Xiarmadillo]

well I hope you are right! But I am resigned to that I wont be able to get many cards at reasonable prices any time soon.... Instead will be working on the huge backlog of UD era wants.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by Xiarmadillo

well I hope you are right! But I am resigned to that I wont be able to get many cards at reasonable prices any time soon.... Instead will be working on the huge backlog of UD era wants.

Generally, hobby interest jumps to the shiny and new as new Marvel sets are released and/or made available for preorder. In that regard, we are in a weird spot as I don’t believe Topps has announced the next Marvel set or when it will be dropping. And like you said, UD is still burning off its Marvel overstock. So who knows how long interest in this set will last. Typically, I would assume you’d get better deals for the more common stuff in a week or two.

[The Cajun Fan]

I think people are forgetting early Upper Deck was pretty much ALL reused images and most of the newer releases. Fleer Retro, Marvel Beginnings, Vibranium, all the inserts from the Fleer Ultras, Metal, Allegiances, Annuals, etc.

I don’t love what’s Topps done so far but besides Masterpiece, Fleer Ultra base and half of Platinum it’s all comic clip art from UD.

Upper Deck was the beginning of the end of actual inspired affordable comic cards. Rittenhouse had clip art but had sketches at less than $100 a box. UD made less quality sketches into case hits and gave us sticker autos on even comic creator autos.

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by The Cajun Fan

I think people are forgetting early Upper Deck was pretty much ALL reused images and most of the newer releases. Fleer Retro, Marvel Beginnings, Vibranium, all the inserts from the Fleer Ultras, Metal, Allegiances, Annuals, etc.

I don’t love what’s Topps done so far but besides Masterpiece, Fleer Ultra base and half of Platinum it’s all comic clip art from UD.

Upper Deck was the beginning of the end of actual inspired affordable comic cards. Rittenhouse had clip art but had sketches at less than $100 a box. UD made less quality sketches into case hits and gave us sticker autos on even comic creator autos.

Good point! I remember the draw of the 2007-2008 MM sets were the sketches and the base and inserts from those sets was pretty lousy. I think 2012 Marvel Premier, released five years into UD’s Marvel license, was their first original art base set. I bet we get a premium original Topps Marvel set quicker than that.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by The Cajun Fan

I think people are forgetting early Upper Deck was pretty much ALL reused images and most of the newer releases. Fleer Retro, Marvel Beginnings, Vibranium, all the inserts from the Fleer Ultras, Metal, Allegiances, Annuals, etc.

I don’t love what’s Topps done so far but besides Masterpiece, Fleer Ultra base and half of Platinum it’s all comic clip art from UD.

Upper Deck was the beginning of the end of actual inspired affordable comic cards. Rittenhouse had clip art but had sketches at less than $100 a box. UD made less quality sketches into case hits and gave us sticker autos on even comic creator autos.

Truth to this. Something else UD did was make most newer sets into parallels galore, for better or worse. We didn’t see this much in the earlier 2007-2015 era, and certainly not in the 90s. UD is largely responsible for that. UD is not some beacon of perfection, I am critical on many things they did, including rehashed art.

So we’ll see what Topps does. UD’s saving grace was the recent line of MM sets that was truly 1-artist, original paintings throughout.

Even though the 2007-2008 UD sets were reused art, that group of sets just had a different feeling than the recent Topps offering. Those 07-08MM were largely nonsports-catered sets, probably driven by the 1 sketch a box. The recent Topps offerings- this and Marvel Chrome sets- just seem like such a blatant “sports-flip-gamble” type sets, and I expect a lot more of this to come in the new era. I don’t get as much of the classic nonsports vibe like those old MM sets…again maybe it’s the sketch thing. My fav era for marvel cards has always been the 90s over anything for originality, but is not an era of sketches.

[cmixer]

Just curious ... has Topps already announced a Marvel set after this one?

Is this the set they are hanging their hat on for 2025?

[MTBRM]

On the topic of the artwork, it's pretty funny that they couldn't be bothered to even change up the image for Wolverine on the Masters and insert pictured above

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by cmixer

Just curious ... has Topps already announced a Marvel set after this one?

Is this the set they are hanging their hat on for 2025?

They have not announced the next Marvel set. The slow ramp up is likely tied to the long lead time involved with most sets and they really only got the global license late in 2024.

We saw UD rushing out their sets planned for 2025 (e.g. Unbound S4 and others) to meet the deadline before losing the license. I fully expect we will eventually get a flood of Topps Marvel product… we are just in the calm before the storm period.

[Bunny Hop]

Originally Posted by MTBRM

On the topic of the artwork, it's pretty funny that they couldn't be bothered to even change up the image for Wolverine on the Masters and insert pictured above

That's his iconic Nature Boy strut.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by MTBRM

On the topic of the artwork, it's pretty funny that they couldn't be bothered to even change up the image for Wolverine on the Masters and insert pictured above

In defense of the poster’s point above, UD was doing this their fair share also.



Lazy for sure though

[The Cajun Fan]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Truth to this. Something else UD did was make most newer sets into parallels galore, for better or worse. We didn’t see this much in the earlier 2007-2015 era, and certainly not in the 90s. UD is largely responsible for that. UD is not some beacon of perfection, I am critical on many things they did, including rehashed art.

So we’ll see what Topps does. UD’s saving grace was the recent line of MM sets that was truly 1-artist, original paintings throughout.

Even though the 2007-2008 UD sets were reused art, that group of sets just had a different feeling than the recent Topps offering. Those 07-08MM were largely nonsports-catered sets, probably driven by the 1 sketch a box. The recent Topps offerings- this and Marvel Chrome sets- just seem like such a blatant “sports-flip-gamble” type sets, and I expect a lot more of this to come in the new era. I don’t get as much of the classic nonsports vibe like those old MM sets…again maybe it’s the sketch thing. My fav era for marvel cards has always been the 90s over anything for originality, but is not an era of sketches.

I give them a lot of credit for the later Marvel Masterpieces and Fleer Ultras but the price points were wild. No guaranteed sketches or even autos. Just parallel and SSP inserts for $300+ at release was wild. That Dos Santos MM at $800 was insane.

Fleer Ultras had more misses than hits. Base sets are awesome but sucks that Medallions and Jambalayas are comic clip art. Same with PMGs from Metal. Why is a parallel card to /10 of a piece of comic art more expensive that the original comic art?

I’m a Rittenhouse fan boy and miss their old Marvel products. Comic and movie stuff. On card autos, color sketches and puzzles in a box. It’s what got me back in to the hobby in later 2000s.

[bub838]

Originally Posted by cmixer

Just curious ... has Topps already announced a Marvel set after this one?

Is this the set they are hanging their hat on for 2025?

haha, you must not be familiar with how Fanatics works my friend.

Don't be surprised if we get Marvel Logofractor, Sapphire, Black, Best, 206, Ginter, Midnight, etc etc