Topps Living Set

[monkeymcgee]

This would have been a great reference image: https://www.gettyimages.com/event/ci...re-id832939082

[monkeymcgee]

Okay--I think I see what happened now. I bet they picked one of these studio photos as a reference, which has very flat lighting. That plus removing the bat that was probably there contributed to the weirdness.

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/anthony-rizzo-studio?family=editorial&numberofpeople=one&phrase=anthony%20rizzo%20studio

[Lawmaker]

add me to the fantasy league

[bigsmooth]

Originally Posted by BH34

Didn't want to create a thread just for this, so I'll bump it a few times --

3 of 10 slots filled, anyone else interested?

Interested in joining as well.

[BH34]

#64 - Ryne Sandberg - Print Run: 7212
#65 - Dustin Fowler - Print Run: 4808
#66 - Yasiel Puig - Print Run: 4886

[NYY]

PR7212 for Sandberg. I believe that’s the lowest PR for a legend.

[Rhys Phillies]

These are my nominees for next week.

[JLEICHTER35]

Originally Posted by NYY

PR7212 for Sandberg. I believe that’s the lowest PR for a legend.

Rickey Henderson was 6851

[joejoemay]

Originally Posted by BH34

#64 - Ryne Sandberg - Print Run: 7212
#65 - Dustin Fowler - Print Run: 4808
#66 - Yasiel Puig - Print Run: 4886

The big buyers are pulling back as the cards are not moving as fast...just my opinion. Still healthy...Thoughts?

[joejoemay]

Originally Posted by JLEICHTER35

Rickey Henderson was 6851

Was an ugly card though...IMO

[bigsmooth]

Originally Posted by joejoemay

The big buyers are pulling back as the cards are not moving as fast...just my opinion. Still healthy...Thoughts?

Would you still say this is a good investment?

[TwinsJake]

Odd. I actually bought higher last week than I had the previous few weeks. My numbers don’t move the needle that much though. 120, 120, 200? Something like that.


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[1977 Cloth]

I love the set for my collection, but I think the investment was never there. We shall see, as I am sure the 1952 set was not an investment until many years later. The difference is these are being sold to collectors and not bicycle owners.

[poppincurbs]

Can't wait for the day they release Donnie Baseball. Here's my imagination at work (Disclaimer: not my art work, nor Mayumis! Just for fun!)

[NYY]

Originally Posted by JLEICHTER35

Rickey Henderson was 6851

Thanks! Good catch.

[scottagibson]

Originally Posted by 1977 Cloth

I love the set for my collection, but I think the investment was never there. We shall see, as I am sure the 1952 set was not an investment until many years later. The difference is these are being sold to collectors and not bicycle owners.

Invest never there??? I don't know... A few of us lucky ones were fortunate enough to see it as one. Long term obviously remains to be seen. But Weeks 1 and 2 will most certainly never be any where close to original buy-in.

[BH34]

Originally Posted by joejoemay

The big buyers are pulling back as the cards are not moving as fast...just my opinion. Still healthy...Thoughts?

Hmm..
I think the assessment is accurate, but I might revise the 'big buyers' part.
(a) big buyers pulling back
(b) cards are not moving/selling as fast (on the secondary)
(c) still healthy?

(a) I think the biggest buyers/investors are still around, though they are likely buying nowhere near peak levels. I think the decline comes from the smaller buyers, those who saw the 'easy money' to be made flipping these early on, and started buying many more, solely for the purposes of a quick flip. Recent resale values (and the ROI) are not worth it to these guys/gals, so they are probably buying significantly fewer copies each week (or none at all, anymore). The big guys can still buy in volume, grade in volume, and make their money. I think that is still happening, but likely just not at previous levels/volume.
(b) Agree, definitely not near how it was pre-Acuna. Still a decent amount of traffic, but I feel like the buzz has absolutely tapered off since the early weeks, peaking at Acuna. Now, if in terms of figuring out if overall interest in the set has also waned, that's harder to answer. Which leads into
(c) I think the set is still healthy, in the sense that many (but not all) of the early adopters and die-hards are still on board, and will be for the foreseeable future. I think there have also been a number of people who have dropped out, for various reasons. There are definitely many people who got in late, that are still trying to catch up. If we measure 'health' by the number of individual collectors who are interested in this set, I would say health has improved since inception (I believe there are more unique/individual collectors of TLS now, than week 1). If we measure it by ROI, or print runs, it's harder to say.
Personally, I think it's hard to maintain the same level of excitement throughout the year. If I had to take the unenthusiastic view, it is that the novelty of new, which was a big factor in the hype, by definition cannot exist ever again. So now, presumably, if topps sticks to the promised formula (no errors, no inserts, no autos, no variations, etc.), the only thing that drives excitement will be the player itself being released. I'm okay with that, but I can see how that gets boring, and how some may lose interest in continuing the weekly plunge.

I think it really depends on the lens by which you view this set -
If we think that it was healthiest when PRs for the scrubs approached 10k (I think the opposite, the climate was feverish, but in a bad way), then I guess it makes sense to think that 6k PRs for scrubs is a signal of poor health.

I see it like this:
Weeks 1-3 had some of the lowest PRs, and I think even those weeks, topps was pleasantly surprised by the reception.
And so based on the recent PRs, TLS can drop another 40-50% for the scrubs, and still be as healthy as it was back in the early weeks.

Full disclosure:
The most I've ever purchased was 20x of a player, Acuna, Rosario, Gleyber, Soto.
The most sets I've ever purchased was 10, Acuna week.
My average number of sets purchased each week is 3-5.
Last week, I purchased just 2 sets (my first time under 3).
This week, I might only buy 1 or 2 sets.

[Rhys Phillies]

Originally Posted by BH34

Hmm..
I think the assessment is accurate, but I might revise the 'big buyers' part.
(a) big buyers pulling back
(b) cards are not moving/selling as fast (on the secondary)
(c) still healthy?

(a) I think the biggest buyers/investors are still around, though they are likely buying nowhere near peak levels. I think the decline comes from the smaller buyers, those who saw the 'easy money' to be made flipping these early on, and started buying many more, solely for the purposes of a quick flip. Recent resale values (and the ROI) are not worth it to these guys/gals, so they are probably buying significantly fewer copies each week (or none at all, anymore). The big guys can still buy in volume, grade in volume, and make their money. I think that is still happening, but likely just not at previous levels/volume.
(b) Agree, definitely not near how it was pre-Acuna. Still a decent amount of traffic, but I feel like the buzz has absolutely tapered off since the early weeks, peaking at Acuna. Now, if in terms of figuring out if overall interest in the set has also waned, that's harder to answer. Which leads into
(c) I think the set is still healthy, in the sense that many (but not all) of the early adopters and die-hards are still on board, and will be for the foreseeable future. I think there have also been a number of people who have dropped out, for various reasons. There are definitely many people who got in late, that are still trying to catch up. If we measure 'health' by the number of individual collectors who are interested in this set, I would say health has improved since inception (I believe there are more unique/individual collectors of TLS now, than week 1). If we measure it by ROI, or print runs, it's harder to say.
Personally, I think it's hard to maintain the same level of excitement throughout the year. If I had to take the unenthusiastic view, it is that the novelty of new, which was a big factor in the hype, by definition cannot exist ever again. So now, presumably, if topps sticks to the promised formula (no errors, no inserts, no autos, no variations, etc.), the only thing that drives excitement will be the player itself being released. I'm okay with that, but I can see how that gets boring, and how some may lose interest in continuing the weekly plunge.

I think it really depends on the lens by which you view this set -
If we think that it was healthiest when PRs for the scrubs approached 10k (I think the opposite, the climate was feverish, but in a bad way), then I guess it makes sense to think that 6k PRs for scrubs is a signal of poor health.

I see it like this:
Weeks 1-3 had some of the lowest PRs, and I think even those weeks, topps was pleasantly surprised by the reception.
And so based on the recent PRs, TLS can drop another 40-50% for the scrubs, and still be as healthy as it was back in the early weeks.

Full disclosure:
The most I've ever purchased was 20x of a player, Acuna, Rosario, Gleyber, Soto.
The most sets I've ever purchased was 10, Acuna week.
My average number of sets purchased each week is 3-5.
Last week, I purchased just 2 sets (my first time under 3).
This week, I might only buy 1 or 2 sets.

Great points! I agree with you opinions.
Thanks for sharing.

[monkeymcgee]

I was never a big buyer--most I picked up was 10 of Acuna and Soto. I've been at just 1 set the last 4 weeks--I don't see that changing.

I decided to put my early week sets I was keeping raw set into a PSA bulk sub and will probably move those once I get them back. Maybe hang onto the big four for a little while longer if they come back as 10s like I hope. I still have my #1-21 PSA 10s, so I will still have 1 complete set.

I'm not giving up, but I will do an evaluation once we get to 100 to see if I want to continue.

[gmarutiak]

Originally Posted by TwinsJake

Odd. I actually bought higher last week than I had the previous few weeks. My numbers don’t move the needle that much though. 120, 120, 200? Something like that.


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If anyone from Topps reads this thread, PLEASE send replacement cards of Jordy Mercer, Manny Machado and Jackie Robinson to Twins Jake!

I've been waiting for these cards for MONTHS now, and I can't imagine I'm the only one.

Since misery enjoys company, will someone please make me feel a lot better and tell me I'm not the only one?

[RaysUp]

Originally Posted by gmarutiak

If anyone from Topps reads this thread, PLEASE send replacement cards of Jordy Mercer, Manny Machado and Jackie Robinson to Twins Jake!

I've been waiting for these cards for MONTHS now, and I can't imagine I'm the only one.

Since misery enjoys company, will someone please make me feel a lot better and tell me I'm not the only one?

I didn't order Mercer but I'm waiting on the other two. Whenever he gets them we'll get them.

[TwinsJake]

I was told today I should expect things first week of September. I'm waiting on just about everything. Ugh.

[kpete42]

My lot of 20 Sandbergs arrived today. All the cards are in great shape as those past issues seem to have been resolved. However, centering still seems to be an issue on these. Out of my 20, I’d say 10-11 are off center. A few close to 70/30. Ugh.

[RaceDog]

Originally Posted by kpete42

My lot of 20 Sandbergs arrived today. All the cards are in great shape as those past issues seem to have been resolved. However, centering still seems to be an issue on these. Out of my 20, I’d say 10-11 are off center. A few close to 70/30. Ugh.

My Sandberg's and Puig's were good, but most of the Fowler's were off center some.

[Stryk3]

Originally Posted by Americards

Question about Living
Why would someone want to buy these Living sets 1-63 from unopened boxes on ebay?
The ones in the beginning were atrocious...
Its not the same as buying a sealed box of Topps Chrome

You will not be able to get them replaced by Topps if they are damaged..
and as I recall, the money cards were the ones that came in very bad.

Depends on why you are collecting the set. If you plan to get them graded I agree with you. If you are collecting for the raw experience of putting a set together I don’t see why buying secondary of opened sets matter.


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