Just Curious, When Did Finding Retail Become a Challenge For You?

[RogerGodahell]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

April 2017.

Judge Mania made Retail "worth pursuing"

ive been going to the same Target store since 2006

before April 2017, i was able to buy as much of any retail release that i wanted, at any time

2018 prior were the good old days

[RogerGodahell]

Even early 19 was good until Luka mania took off

[suknives]

I'd love to see pictures of everyone's Target/Walmart card sections from before everything blew up this year...I don't even remember what a fully stocked shelf looks like anymore.

[mc1]

Starting with Optic Basketball. Prizm basketball would at least last a day or two before it was gone. Once the flippers started to see the prices of retail on the secondary market, they started buying all basketball. Football retail started taking off after the draft and Hopkins trade to Arizona. Before, Prizm FB was collecting dust.

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

April 2017.

Judge Mania made Retail "worth pursuing"

ive been going to the same Target store since 2006

before April 2017, i was able to buy as much of any retail release that i wanted, at any time

This isnt the baseball section chief.

[armyml]

I can tell you exactly when because it coincided with when I got back into the hobby. I got back in Summer 2019 right after Nationals. At that point you could still go to Wal-Mart and Target and they had stuff on the shelves. Chronicles and Status hangars out the ass. The BIG and first huge price hike hit December 2019. I know this because I went to an LCS to pick up a cello box of Prizm and a cello box of Optic. Prizm was 150 and Optic was 100. Dude had 10 boxes of each on the shelf. I went to buy more 2 days later for Payday and the price had doubled. 300 for prizm 200 for Optic. Ever since then they were higher and higher and retail shelf products dissapeared.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by armyml

I can tell you exactly when because it coincided with when I got back into the hobby. I got back in Summer 2019 right after Nationals. At that point you could still go to Wal-Mart and Target and they had stuff on the shelves. Chronicles and Status hangars out the ass. The BIG and first huge price hike hit December 2019. I know this because I went to an LCS to pick up a cello box of Prizm and a cello box of Optic. Prizm was 150 and Optic was 100. Dude had 10 boxes of each on the shelf. I went to buy more 2 days later for Payday and the price had doubled. 300 for prizm 200 for Optic. Ever since then they were higher and higher and retail shelf products dissapeared.

Summer of 2019 you could still find Prizm BKB in some stores.

[Sinoth23]

Last year around this time. Was able to get some (not nearly as much as 18) BK Prizm, but empty shelves after that. It didn’t help that Walmart stopped selling cards.

[ClipsandVols]

About the time the Chronicles 2018-19 thread really started booming on here. I don't think I purchased a single 19-20 basketball retail product in-store this year.

[abidtsteele]

The first Prizm restock. Like others I found 0 packs at retain in 2020 [found a ton of hoops/donruss/prizm at the end of 2019 though]

[jjcan]

For me it was right after Optic, (March/April) When Mosaic came out, I could not find any more basketball on the shelf, until 3 blasters of Chronicles in the Summer.

For Baseball, I was able to get the Bowman (1st series, Jasson) and that was the last big haul of any product, until Pokemon about 1 month ago.

You know it is a crazy year, when your happy to find 2020 Topps baseball sets to purchase, and now even that is hard to find.

[brothertona]

Right after Hoops/Donruss. I can remember buying a ton of 2019-20 Donruss/Hoops when it hit. 2018-19 wax was always available. I remember being home for Christmas in 2019 and buying 2018-19 Optic Mega boxes from WalMart.

[smanzari]

Been tough here for years but I live in an area with loads of collectors

[actionbryan]

19-20 Prizm wasn't that different than trying to find product now. I found 10 blasters by luck at Target one glorious Friday night. (No I did not pull $3000 worth of cards sadly )

Everything else was easy and what tilts me too no end is that people wanted 2019 Optic & Prizm football about as much as they want Hockey now.
I remember wanting to buy some because I thought they looked cool but figured msrp was a rip off, because at the time pretty much any single outside of a miracle auto cost way less than the $37.98 mega.

[adam711]

After Optic, but I also stopped looking all the time due to Covid. I did get lucky with Chronicles once while I was out.

[brettmik59]

Basically since the start of this year for me. I found some Prizm at the end of last year and that was it. Like OP, didn't locate any Optic at all. Gave up after that.

[codered]

Fall 2019 I was still randomly picking up cello packs of prizm anytime I went to Walmart. There was always prizm blasters on the shelf and open prizm retail boxes. There was always a hodge podge of random retail products as far back as 2015-16 as well (threads, donruss and hoops). In a matter of what seemed like days everything disappeared. All I see now is empty display boxes and pricing stickers. I was at Walmart one day after 2019-20 prizm released and they had just stocked blasters. Should have grabbed them all but all grabbed two. That’s the last time I bought any cards. I found out from a friend that people gather on Thursdays at Walmart before it opens and rush in to the toy section and buy everything that gets put out. If you want retail you have to basically buy from the flippers on kijiji/Facebook or take a day off work and fight with the crowds for cards lol

[byronscott4ever]

I’d say early this year. It used to be like a buffet where I could sit and think about it and now it’s like a game show where you figure out how to get it all in your cart in 30 seconds.

[Chris P]

Appreciate everyone's comments so far..another avenue of retail that was basically taken away was getting retail online. Last year, I never found Bowman Megas in the wild but got plenty on Target's website. Also for products like Hoops and Donruss, I could go to Wildwood Enterprises website and get retail at MSRP with free shipping and not tax. I remember getting those Donruss 24 count retail boxes for like 43 shipped or something? Wildwood was my only avenue for retail basically since bots took over Wal Mart and Target, all the way up to Topps Chrome Baseball. The last decent product they've had a MSRP was Donruss Football Blasters, but when they sold out of those, they started selling at about Ebay prices with that and any other hot product they got in (Mosaic Football). I understand why they did it, but still a bummer.

[sandlotsportcards]

For me it was about this time last year. My son and I opened some Prizm hangers throughout December and after that we haven't found anything.

[jerrygarcia]

19-20 Prizm - Got 8 Cellos and 2 Megas at Target. Probably left 8 megas. Went back a few hours later to get a discount and they were all gone. Last time I saw really any cards in the wild. Don't bother checking anymore, just if I'm at Target I'll go look at the empty shelves.

[BigZigBoom]

I'm currently on vacation. I had not looked for cards in months. I stopped at a Target with a friend. There were two guys/customers/losers waiting in front of the cards drinking soda and eating snacks. Waiting for the rep. Good Lord.

The weirdest thing about this experience? One of them had on a custom suit. No joke.

[WalterAZ31]

NBA Prizm basketball was always tough to find, but right around that release in Nov of 2019, during these times you could still find 2018-19 Status hangers just sitting on shelves for weeks. i remember a full display of 2019 Prizm Football always being there for atleast a month. 2019 Topps Update would sit on shelves for atleast a month, that and 2019 Topps Series 2 even until Tatis really took off

IMO honestly it was right when Pandemic hit U.S so March of 2020, thats when you couldn't get any new NBA or NFL stuff unless you found the rep. Thats when all sudden 2020 Topps Series 1 all went bye bye. I never saw a single blaster of 2020 Topps Chrome Baseball. All the sudden the local Target that used to have stuff on shelves laid waste for months and months at a time, until i found out it was because everyone got it on stock day

but long story short, to me things changed right about start of Pandemic, but stuff like Prizm NBA or Optic NBA would always fly off same day if not by the day after

[aaron2]

This year was the first I couldn't find either Prizm Football or Basketball. I went to walgreens today and even that was completely cleared out of sports/pokemon cards of any sort.

[mc1]

Originally Posted by BigZigBoom

I'm currently on vacation. I had not looked for cards in months. I stopped at a Target with a friend. There were two guys/customers/losers waiting in front of the cards drinking soda and eating snacks.

Mountain Dew and Hot Cheetos!

I bet.

[Lonewolf]

The last time I saw Prizm in the wilds of retail was late 2018...