Topps “Dutch” Auction

[BayAreaChris]

https://www.cllct.com/sports-collect...-card-releases

A few board members’ dream is coming true. Unfortunately not the Luber / ghostwrite Dutch Auction but at least everyone will have an equal opportunity to overpay.

[eastbayak]

Yikes

[hermanotarjeta]

Breakers have more money to play with than individual collectors - how is that fair?

[BayAreaChris]

What is going to matter is how much inventory is loaded and for what products.

I think it worked ok for Panini FOTL which was pretty limited product.

The main issue is that the floor is probably going to be what the original price would be so everyone is paying more than if you got lucky.

The benefit is if you want it direct, you can buy it. Fanatics wants its piece of the pie.

[SaveMeTheGum]

A dutch oven would probably be more enjoyable.

[hermanotarjeta]

RIP middlemen.

[ThoseBackPages]

Defensive Buying?

[hermanotarjeta]

K-shaped hobby.

[dodgerfanjohn]

Next month? So Ginter X the first Guinea Pig?

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by dodgerfanjohn

Next month? So Ginter X the first Guinea Pig?

Select (and likely high-demand) products.

If they start applying dutch auctions to Ginter X, we're all in trouble LOL.

[Asian62150]

Are they going to run this the way Luber proposed (everyone jumps in at whatever price initially but then they only get charged the sell-out price).

Or are they going to run this like Panini where you pay the price you jumped in at?

[ThoseBackPages]

Originally Posted by Asian62150

Are they going to run this the way Luber proposed (everyone jumps in at whatever price initially but then they only get charged the sell-out price).

Or are they going to run this like Panini where you pay the price you jumped in at?

jump in price

and the connected Breakers will make sure that floor is HIGH

[dirtywax]

If we could just get the degens to stop buying into breaks...

[Archimedes]

Mossoholic is so happy right now!

Really interested to know if this is a Dutch auction like Panini ran or a modified Dutch auction through which all buyers pay the same clearing price.

[eastbayak]

Originally Posted by Asian62150

Are they going to run this the way Luber proposed (everyone jumps in at whatever price initially but then they only get charged the sell-out price).

Or are they going to run this like Panini where you pay the price you jumped in at?

Hahaha, I can already envision a scenario where everyone jumps in @ the first price on a moderately-demanded product and it sells out right there.

I can also see a scenario where enough people jump in @ the first price of a moderately/low-demanded product and Topps decides it "sells out" right there at that price.

With no transparency, anything is possible!

[mossoholic]

Originally Posted by Archimedes

Mossoholic is so happy right now!

Really interested to know if this is a Dutch auction like Panini ran or a modified Dutch auction through which all buyers pay the same clearing price.

We shall see! It's going to depend on what "select card releases" means. Is it going to be just a few times a year or a several times a month thing. If it's several times a month then yes Im happy.

I will take any auction format over EQL and the very limited quantity and impossible to buy in demand cases on Topps.com releases they have been running for awhile now. Obviously I hope for fair auctions of all in demand products. That's the dream but even a Panini FOTL manipulated type auction is better than the current options from Topps.

Im shocked by this because their current backdoor bs system of holding back tons of product to create an artificially manipulated market to sell later at higher prices seemed to be working overall. At least in the short term. Maybe they have realized that makes zero sense in terms of growing the hobby long term. It has and will continue to alienate most current and future potential buyers. The overall card market thrived the most when fair auctions were being run. Hopefully we get to see what happens this time.

[Cracktoast]

They have been doing dutch auctions for select releases since 2023 so nothing new on that front. I'm guessing it will be for the limited higher end sets like Sapphire and TCU. But I think it's going to be mostly NFL and NBA than MLB simply because it worked for Panini for so long why not ?

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by BayAreaChris

What is going to matter is how much inventory is loaded and for what products.

I think it worked ok for Panini FOTL which was pretty limited product.

The main issue is that the floor is probably going to be what the original price would be so everyone is paying more than if you got lucky.

The benefit is if you want it direct, you can buy it. Fanatics wants its piece of the pie.

Yeah, the dutch auction format doesn't mean you're paying fair market prices for a full print run of a product -- it's just a way to squeeze more out of limited drops.

Topps won't load high amounts of product, and they will make sure the floor is set relatively high -- no below-manipulated-market pricing. If you want direct access to in-demand product, you need to pay high prices.

[Bcr]

I honestly don't care if they do it with the premium sets ($1k or more), but I have a bad feeling about this.

[yoyosh]

I was told Fanatics being a monopoly was going to be great?

[BayAreaChris]

Originally Posted by Cracktoast

They have been doing dutch auctions for select releases since 2023 so nothing new on that front. I'm guessing it will be for the limited higher end sets like Sapphire and TCU. But I think it's going to be mostly NFL and NBA than MLB simply because it worked for Panini for so long why not ?

Didn’t they do it for one release only? Some sapphire release?

[BayAreaChris]

Originally Posted by eastbayak

Hahaha, I can already envision a scenario where everyone jumps in @ the first price on a moderately-demanded product and it sells out right there.

I can also see a scenario where enough people jump in @ the first price of a moderately/low-demanded product and Topps decides it "sells out" right there at that price.

With no transparency, anything is possible!

I doubt this as it means the price is too low to start.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Breakers have more money to play with than individual collectors - how is that fair?

To me it seems like the fairest way of all.

[mossoholic]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

To me it seems like the fairest way of all.

A fair auction is the fairest way to go. Everyone has the same chance. You can buy as much as you want. There is no ridiculous low cap. You will never have to worry about bots again unless the starting price is too low. You will never have to hope you get picked as a winner.

The majority of people that don't want auctions don't want them because now they have to take a risk. They won't to be able to buy or win a raffle for a product at a price that it is guaranteed they are a big winner.

At least with auctions you will be able to buy every product directly from Topps. A big issue going forward buying at resale was going to be how Topps seals their cases. Or the lack of a real seal. You will know buying from Topps what you are getting. Hopefully either way Topps makes their own case seal at some point soon.

Whether the auctions will be run fairly is a whole other thing. If the usual suspects are still getting boatloads of those products at rock bottom prices or any price pre auction than its just another way of creating a fake manipulated market.

The way Panini used to run auctions was virtually every box was for sale during the auctions. Hopefully, no matter which way of auctioning Topps chooses, Topps will auction at least 90%-95% of the print run for every auction. Panini did it that way from 2019 to late 2021. There are FOTL products now Panini may not even be auctioning 50% of.

[johnlocke36]

dutch auction are amazing and I love them, but their success generally is generally predicated on (1) no floor and (2) very large allocation of total supply. Then the free market can dictate the price and everyone wins.