Topps 65th Buybacks: Have we been Punked by Topps?

[mouschi]

Disclaimer: This is all in fun. I am not trying to bad-mouth Topps here at all. Just another excuse to amuse myself with photoshop. I enjoy the heck out of much of what they put out, and am a big fan of theirs. I *love* the buybacks!

At the end of 2015, we player collectors of retired greats were treated to a unique release of Topps Archives Buybacks: Signature Series. You have heard me gush enough about those already, along with many others, I'm sure.

Then, Topps released this video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz8aFyFf_f8

An advertisement that enthusiastically proclaimed that inserted into packs of 2016 Topps, you would find the biggest amount of buybacks eva! (As opposed to their 1991 40th anniversary offering where an estimated total of 3 buybacks were ever pulled ... <kidding>.)

In other words, within a few short months of an un-checklisted release, yet another version of this came out

- still un-checklisted
- no autographs (except for a few)
- with FIVE times as many options (black, red, blue, silver and gold stamps)
- and NO serial numbers

I think I can speak for most of the collecting community by saying that part of me groaned while part of me was excited.

We went into the whole buyback craze at the end of 2015 unsure of how many were going to be released of each player, but at least we had serial numbers. That helps TONS.

This time, the only thing we had to go on was the tiered scarcity system Topps gave us. Don't remember it? I'll give you a refresher :

Black: Standard
Red: Limited
Blue: Rare
Silver: Scarce
Gold: 1/1

I remember the first one I got, which was the very first one to hit the market: The 1987 Topps Silver Canseco. Unsure of ANYTHING in terms of scarcity (aside from Topps saying it was silver so therefore it was scarce) I blindly plunked down money for it. I was worried that Topps had stamped 3,000 of them, but even more worried Topps had stamped 3.

Over the past month or so, I've been happily picking off several that I needed. I currently sit at about 15 and am still hoping for many others in the future. One thing I noticed was this though ...

Where are the "standard" black stamps?

I have not seen any ... ANY ... black stamped Canseco cards. About 50 65th stamped Canseco have hit the market ... all being blue, red and silver.

What is going on???

I decided to tweet to Topps to ask, but got nothing but crickets.

I then decided to do some research, and here is what I found out...

Ebay SOLD statistics:

The Black "standard"


The Red "Limited" (note I omitted the Red Sox, Reds, etc.)


The Blue "Rare"


The Silver "Scarce"


Oh, and just for kicks, I decided to run a 1/1 search:


What. The heck. Is going on?

Based upon the existing sales, doesn't it look like Topps is messing with us? That perhaps they said the colors are the exact opposite of what they reported?

Listen, I am fully aware that there are still probably thousands of cases left to open, and I also know that collation can play a HUGE factor here. I have heard of case runs in the dozens that yielded multiples upon multiples of the same care with the same color stamp!

So, I am left with split emotions once again. Part of me is frustrated, but part of me thinks it is funny that Topps would do this. If this really is the case, was it a call from the higher-ups, was it a gag from the employees who were running the stamps or was it simply a mistake? Or again ... is it just that the last few thousand cases are heavily back loaded with black stamps?

Time will tell.

In the meantime, I WAS able to get a VERY special box of 2016 Topps. We'll call it a hot box, being that there were TONS of BLACK STAMPED buybacks!

Something did look a little different from the regular boxes though, I admit.



Hmmmm ... that looks more like Ashton Kutcher, more than it does Bryce Harper.

I finally was able to land my black stamp 87 Topps Canseco (yay!)



I think many of you player collectors out there will be very happy to see what I pulled. check it out! Mark Grace, Will Clark, Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Nolan Ryan, Andre Dawson, Steve Garvey & Omar Vizquel ...



















Amazingly enough, I've had exactly 3 offers for this card, all over $20,000!




In the spirit of being optimistic, thanks Topps for keeping collecting interesting.

*Note: Ashton Kutcher was not harmed in the making of this article.

[goldenegg1]

I love Andre Dawson, and I too feel violated by Topps.
Therefore I am stealing this image and adding it to my collection!
Thanks!

[goldenegg1]

I guess it is not technically stealing if I tell you right?

[Ajax1723]

It could just be that since the black are standard, therefore the easiest, people aren't bothering to list them because they are either bad players, not worth it, or they are putting them in lots/shipping them to COMC/keeping them.

Always a possibility. I know I haven't sold any of the black stamped that I have.

[jewcer2k5]

For what it's worth I listed all my red/silver/gold and still haven't gotten to my blue or black because they weren't selling very strong. People may have just tossed those into lots of not even listed them bc they aren't worth the additional time.

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by Ajax1723

It could just be that since the black are standard, therefore the easiest, people aren't bothering to list them because they are either bad players, not worth it, or they are putting them in lots/shipping them to COMC/keeping them.

Always a possibility. I know I haven't sold any of the black stamped that I have.

Originally Posted by jewcer2k5

For what it's worth I listed all my red/silver/gold and still haven't gotten to my blue or black because they weren't selling very strong. People may have just tossed those into lots of not even listed them bc they aren't worth the additional time.

That may very well be the case, however - NO Cansecos have been posted...yet. Do y'all have any for me?

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by goldenegg1

I love Andre Dawson, and I too feel violated by Topps.
Therefore I am stealing this image and adding it to my collection!
Thanks!

Stealing the Dawson is fine. Stealing Vizquel is NOT! I am however renting him for $20 a day

[jewcer2k5]

Originally Posted by mouschi

That may very well be the case, however - NO Cansecos have been posted...yet. Do y'all have any for me?

You saw my scans and bought one that you wanted. I think the lower end players are more in the common and blue range.

[GoBeavs]

I think the categories are very misleading, or at best non-descriptive. However, your stats are based on sales. I think the black stamps were reserved for the commons. At least that's what my breaks showed. Stars got the nicer colors, and sold fairly well. The black-stamped commons are most likely sold in lots, or not sold at all.

My biggest question is why some cards got multiple colored stamps? I think that would be where we got "punk'd"

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by GoBeavs

I think the categories are very misleading, or at best non-descriptive. However, your stats are based on sales. I think the black stamps were reserved for the commons. At least that's what my breaks showed. Stars got the nicer colors, and sold fairly well. The black-stamped commons are most likely sold in lots, or not sold at all.

My biggest question is why some cards got multiple colored stamps? I think that would be where we got "punk'd"

Ahh good point. So you are saying perhaps some of the cards may not have ALL the colors? UGH. That makes it even more so frustrating that there is no checklist. It may be that no black Canseco have been listed because maybe they just didn't make them.

[DaBaddestHic]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't make any black ones for Canseco since he's a better player. I only opened two boxes and go one black, a blue, and two reds.

The blue I got was actually a Jeter that looking on ebay should have been silver. I saw 10-15 instances of it with a silver stamp and only one other blue. So Topps screwed something up there haha. I think mine should be worth more than the silver since it's actually in less supply but I won't have luck proving that to anyone :P.

What I want to know, is why is this year's buybacks listed as 65th anniversary whereas they said 75th in 2014? (I opened some 2014 update boxes recently as well so I noticed the difference.) Was it just a mistake in 2014?

[NickM]

You didn't exclude Jays from your Blue search. That will mess with the number.

[beavermoose]

Totally awesome photoshop of Kutcher on the Series 1 box!

[jusdukky]

Best box of baseball cards ever Congrats!!! Still wish we could get you in charge of one of the card companies.

[notoriousrmb]

I opened a bunch of Series 1 and I can say the majority of my buyback pulls were black/red (20 or so total of both colors). Think I ended up with 4 blue and 1 silver (Griffey Jr). No golds.

Feels like the better names were the rarer colors as well from what I've been seeing.

[mouschi]

Why on earth would they not at least tell us who gets what color stamp if they weren't going to do it the way it has always been done? Ahhhh ... the mysteries of Topps.

[notoriousrmb]

As a Ray Lankford collector, I am still envious of you Mouschi and your ability to pick up new Canseco cards.

I know Ray is far from a top tier name, but he was still an All-Star and a core of the 1990's Cardinals teams, not to mention the all time HR leader at old Busch Stadium! I struggle to see why there are never any buyback type cards of his and yet when I see some of these D-lister names Topps put into buybacks I just shake my head.

Good news is with no new releases I can continue to pick away at owning every single Lankford card in existence! 60% and climbing...

[Keyser Soze]

Can you redo the article in such a way as to harm Ashton Kutcher? That guy couldn't be more annoying.

[HadWayTooMuch]

I think the big names are silver only as there are fewer of them out there. Based on my 3 jumbo cases and 1/2 case of hobby that is.

[mouschi]

In their advertisement video they do say "black for standard" while showing a Mattingly rookie with a black stamp on it ...

[brentandbecca]

Originally Posted by mouschi

That may very well be the case, however - NO Cansecos have been posted...yet. Do y'all have any for me?

I thought we discussed this on twitter, but perhaps not, but not every card/player has every color

for example, maybe they only 50 Canseco 1988 Topps so no Black were issued at all, but then they had 150 of another common guy in the 80s so 100 were stamped black

this happened with football
PLUS if you look at the gold 1/1, often it is the ONLY one of those that has hit the market, I had several 1/1 from 50s/60s/70s that I never saw another of

hope this makes sense

and while scarce (silver) may mean 20-25 stamped of those, tons came out early as so many cases ripped and sellers saw the stronger sales of silver so listed those first and quickest

I too have 100s of buybacks not yet listed, AND like others will be listing buybacks in big lots

many have sold lots of 10-20-50-100 cards that contained blacks but not necessarily silver as those had more demand and were better players for the most part

point is, ebay search may not be best way (unless looking at lots too and assuming many just haven't bothered with common 5 cent cards) and not all cards have every color

[brentandbecca]

Originally Posted by mouschi

Why on earth would they not at least tell us who gets what color stamp if they weren't going to do it the way it has always been done? Ahhhh ... the mysteries of Topps.

way too much time and effort since so many different years/cards, they had 1000s of buybacks and just stamped

[brentandbecca]

Originally Posted by mouschi

In their advertisement video they do say "black for standard" while showing a Mattingly rookie with a black stamp on it ...

that video was made a long time ago, and just for examples, they did the same thing with football
sure, that may be misleading, I get that, can't argue that
but often on mock-ups they have cards that never end up existing

plus there will be series 2 and update coming, don't forget, so waaaaaay more buybacks coming
could be many of the blacks will be in those releases

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by brentandbecca

I thought we discussed this on twitter, but perhaps not, but not every card/player has every color

for example, maybe they only 50 Canseco 1988 Topps so no Black were issued at all, but then they had 150 of another common guy in the 80s so 100 were stamped black

this happened with football
PLUS if you look at the gold 1/1, often it is the ONLY one of those that has hit the market, I had several 1/1 from 50s/60s/70s that I never saw another of

hope this makes sense

and while scarce (silver) may mean 20-25 stamped of those, tons came out early as so many cases ripped and sellers saw the stronger sales of silver so listed those first and quickest

I too have 100s of buybacks not yet listed, AND like others will be listing buybacks in big lots

many have sold lots of 10-20-50-100 cards that contained blacks but not necessarily silver as those had more demand and were better players for the most part

point is, ebay search may not be best way (unless looking at lots too and assuming many just haven't bothered with common 5 cent cards) and not all cards have every color

You may be right - we might have discussed before. Someone on another forum did mention a black Canseco was up at some point, so it might not even be on a per-player basis ... it sounds like it might be on a per-card basis. Plus, there is the fact that Mattingly (hardly a common player) has a black stamp as per the advertisement ... unless that was just a promo for the commercial, which could be the case.

I guess this whole thing may remain a mystery for quite some time. Thanks for your input - I've learned a lot from your monster breaks!

[gpenko826]

Another thing to remember - they're continuing this program into Series 2 and (presumably) Update. They could be holding back some stamps for those releases - maybe we start seeing a number of black-stamp stars in those releases?