Topps Finest X-Men ’97– Q1 2025

[kyle1707]

Absolutely incredible fanatics will soon run

Marvel
Star Wars
Baseball
Basketball
Football


This is awful news for collectors

[eastbayak]

Holy crap, boxes already shipped out from today's drop

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by Chrominator

I was just being facetious. Glad you landed a few

Haha, appreciate it

For what it's worth too, I don't always "win". I take a lot of Ls too. I missed out on the original preorders but somehow got lucky today.

[fabiani12333]

Fanatics is paying Marvel/Disney more for their trading card licensing, but maybe they will look to make up for it by cutting production costs. For example, Upper Deck paid artists to make artwork for their trading cards sets, but Topps may just exclusively use republished artwork from comic books and promotional material. Upper Deck also had to make distinct designs for each Marvel release, but maybe Topps just re-uses designs from their sports products.

Marvel is getting more money in their deal with Fanatics, but the products may suffer as a result.

[orion9578]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

I don’t think it’s a downgrade. Topps obviously outbid UD so it’s more money in Disney’s pocket. More money = licensing upgrade as far as Disney is concerned. I assume Topps will keep renewing the Marvel license and it will be a decade + until UD gets another shot.

What would make you think he was talking about Disney when he said it was a downgrade?

I'd say after 3~ products released it's pretty obvious this is a massive downgrade to collectors. UD made some bad products, though I'd argue most of them were probably forced MCU/TV show sets. Topps came out the gate with:



The last raw copy on auction sold for $8.50(12/16/24).

PS. That's not as low as a /50 Psylocke from Chrome has sold for...That'd be $5.00 for a PSA 9 Sapphire Gold /50...

The LOWEST /50 card from UD when typing "Psylocke Upper Deck 50" and filtering to lowest first in the last 3 years is:



Which I'd argue is still an ugly card, though not quite as ugly as the Topps Chrome card. That sold for $69.69(11/21/24).

As of writing this the last Topps Chrome box sold for ... $550 ... And the last Fleer Ultra Wolverine box sold for ... $230 ...

A fool and his money

I'm only 1 person but I'll be spending...$0 on new Marvel

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by orion9578

What would make you think he was talking about Disney when he said it was a downgrade?

In the post I was replying to, he said “Marvel has effectively downgraded their trading card licensing by switching to Fanatics.”

Since Marvel is owned by Disney I took that to mean Disney licensing. Ultimately, Fanatics outbid UD and will likely have the Marvel license wrapped up for a long time. I don’t think Disney is regretting anything about the switch.

[orion9578]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

In the post I was replying to, he said “Marvel has effectively downgraded their trading card licensing by switching to Fanatics.”

Since Marvel is owned by Disney I took that to mean Disney licensing. Ultimately, Fanatics outbid UD and will likely have the Marvel license wrapped up for a long time. I don’t think Disney is regretting anything about the switch.

We'll see

Pretty hard to lose someone like myself, yet they've managed to do so in less than a few months.

With no end user(collector), this is all just a game of hot potato. Add in flat, often horrid ending prices on singles(ALREADY!), and I don't think this game will last long. I could be wrong... Guess we'll see in a decade. Win/win for me though...I save money on wax/new singles and my UD singles, assuming cards stay relevant, go to the moon

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by orion9578

We'll see

Pretty hard to lose someone like myself, yet they've managed to do so in less than a few months.

With no end user(collector), this is all just a game of hot potato. Add in flat, often horrid ending prices on singles(ALREADY!), and I don't think this game will last long. I could be wrong... Guess we'll see in a decade. Win/win for me though...I save money on wax/new singles and my UD singles, assuming cards stay relevant, go to the moon

Right… at the end of the day, Disney is a pretty smart company. If they think UD is the better licensing option in the future, they will certainly switch to them if the offer is right. I don’t see that switch happening anytime soon though… likely a decade. But the beauty about this forum is someone can bump this post in a couple years if/when UD has outbid Topps for the Marvel license and I can eat crow.

[orion9578]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Right… at the end of the day, Disney is a pretty smart company. If they think UD is the better licensing option in the future, they will certainly switch to them if the offer is right. I don’t see that switch happening anytime soon though… likely a decade. But the beauty about this forum is someone can bump this post in a couple years if/when UD has outbid Topps for the Marvel license and I can eat crow.

Don't think anyone is trying to get anyone else to eat any crow my friend. And I don't think UD will ever be able to outbid Fanatics to get the license back. The gist of what is being said, by more than a few people, is the license being with Topps is not good for the hobby

[finfangfan]

Gotcha… I get it. And as I said up thread I’m not a fan of the streamer/influencer model, but also understand that it’s pretty profitable.

I also think Topps has a bigger footprint in big box stores (Walmart, Target)… so I do think we see many more Marvel blaster products … on shelves, not just online.., with Topps than we did with UD. And those types of products have the potential to rope in the casual buyer that could grow the hobby. We will see.

[MTBRM]

Ripped my two presale boxes. Should have stopped while I was ahead but couldn't help but rip the second box as well.

I did manage to get the complete "SP" Uncanny set between two boxes as well, so that was kinda nice.


Box 1

Refractors
- Masters Magneto
- Ultimates Jubilee
- Rise Flash Thompson

Rares
- Destroyers Dark Phoenix Laser /199
- Ultimates Gambit
- Destroyers Mister Sinister

Character Auto
- Rogue/Lenore Zann







Box 2

Refractors
- Masters Master Mold
- Rise Peter Parker
- Uncanny SP Rogue (not pictured because I just flagged it now lol)
- Masters Mojo X-Fractor /97
- Greatest Hits Insert "Meeting of the Minds" Laser /199

Rares
- Masters Jean Grey
- Ultimates Cyclops

[orion9578]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Gotcha… I get it. And as I said up thread I’m not a fan of the streamer/influencer model, but also understand that it’s pretty profitable.

I also think Topps has a bigger footprint in big box stores (Walmart, Target)… so I do think we see many more Marvel blaster products … on shelves, not just online.., with Topps than we did with UD. And those types of products have the potential to rope in the casual buyer that could grow the hobby. We will see.

Yup, Disney will 100% make money off the switch. I'm not sure how people continue to spend on the garbage they've put out thus far, but alas, they do.

I'm also not sure what selling retail that has no "real hits" in it will do beyond make kids wonder why they just wasted $30. I guess it could get them to buy into group breaks, where they can waste $200 instead of $30?

There will be big cards from Topps, no doubt. Supers of Spidey/Wolverine. Unforeseen cards from high end sets, I'm sure. But I have to say as someone who's followed a character like Psylocke, who can rival the prices of basically anyone if it's the right card/set, sell so incredibly low because of the low quality image used. Baffling really. There are 1,000's of AI images out there they could choose from I'd guess and that's what they went with in their debut, highly anticipated release. Now we get "lotteries" to try and get product? Hoops to jump through just to join? Group breaks or priced gouged on the secondary market? No thank you to any of it.

I'll attempt to leave it at that but to say I'm sour on the subject is to put it mildly. I should pick up fishing again.....go outside

[finfangfan]

It’s a small sample size so far. And I’m sure we get high end … and *gulp*… high cost Topps Marvel sets in the future. Be patient. We are 1.5 sets in!

[orion9578]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

It’s a small sample size so far. And I’m sure we get high end … and *gulp*… high cost Topps Marvel sets in the future. Be patient. We are 1.5 sets in!

3.5 if you're going by images available...

Topps Chrome
Sapphire, which I assume is your .5
Finest
Genesis, which hasn't came out yet but already showed their Spider-Man image...which was a copy of a $0.25 UD card from NWH.

So many images out there to choose from...Utter laziness 3.5(I'd call it 4~) products in...

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by orion9578

3.5 if you're going by images available...

Topps Chrome
Sapphire, which I assume is your .5
Finest
Genesis, which hasn't came out yet but already showed their Spider-Man image...which was a copy of a $0.25 UD card from NWH.

So many images out there to choose from...Utter laziness 3.5(I'd call it 4~) products in...

I’m basically sitting out the Topps marvel era completely. I know it’s early but I wonder when we’ll ever see some original art sets from Topps. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think we’ve seen one OA set from Topps with marvel? Including the 70s stickers sets, 2001 Marvel Legends, the more recent digital sets, and definitely everything so far in the current phase. Guess we’ll have to see if they ever decide to do more art based sets like UD. These cards really do look generic though.

But hey, if you want to spend literally 5 million dollars, there’s a Spidey Superfractor from Topps Marvel Chrome on the bay listed for that much. Smh, this is current era of Marvel I guess.

[Brobocop]

I'll be curious to see what their MCU products look like. I could see a Doomsday high-end set being really cool. Other than that, I'm also going to sit this out for now.

[LittleJimmies]

Inspired by that Cable sketch, I ended up opening my 2 boxes, and I'm glad I did! Didn't hit it or anything else huge, but got lucky hitting a few cards I actually want and had a fun time opening something physical for the first time in a very long time. I was happy about getting a Magneto refractor, didn't realize it was a pretty SP insert.



This also makes me miss ePack and being able to turn all the other cards i don't care about into something I do.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[Dasklein83]

I’ve done really well on eBay today. I picked up a Magneto auto for $175 and a Magneto Children of the Atom for $125. By math, there are only 100 of each Children of the Atom card. Not bad at the price of less than two boxes at wholesaler prices.

[RainCityShecks]

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

[KevinCaptiva]

Originally Posted by RainCityShecks

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

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

[crdbored]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

I’m basically sitting out the Topps marvel era completely. I know it’s early but I wonder when we’ll ever see some original art sets from Topps. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think we’ve seen one OA set from Topps with marvel? Including the 70s stickers sets, 2001 Marvel Legends, the more recent digital sets, and definitely everything so far in the current phase. Guess we’ll have to see if they ever decide to do more art based sets like UD. These cards really do look generic though.

But hey, if you want to spend literally 5 million dollars, there’s a Spidey Superfractor from Topps Marvel Chrome on the bay listed for that much. Smh, this is current era of Marvel I guess.

They'll likely do a Star Wars Galaxy type set with original art but that's like the only one for SW. Unless I'm missing one.

Topps loves reusing the same ol image over and over. Really wish they did more original art for SW.
Worst part is that people keep buying this recycled art so why would Topps do anything different.

If they follow the SW products, we're going to see a lot of recycled images for Marvel products.

[finfangfan]

My box just arrived and it was a fun break! The pack art for me went 4-4-4 for each of Jean Grey, Cyclops and Magneto. My hits … a /97 Rogue and a Magneto auto we’re both in the same Jean Grey pack.

Previously in X-Men subset all fell in the Cyclops packs and Greatest Hits all fell in Magneto packs. Also got a SP Prof X and Wolverine (blue Uncanny background) that look nice. And the uncommon tractor version of Jubilee base and Forge Masters card. Worth the $130 I paid shipped.

[Bunny Hop]

Thanks for posting pics, MTBRM and LittleJimmies

[finfangfan]

For those following breaks… is there pack art for more characters than just Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Magneto? Also, are you seeing any patterns as to what pack art has certain hits and/or inserts? Or is everything spread evenly around over large enough sample size?

[rentz]

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