Wow...

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27,000 group members?!?!
I believe these groups hurt the hobby. They create a false demand and push the get rich quick mentality. Junk Era wax went insane during the pandemic, largely because a few groups created excitement and produced bidding wars.
 
Buying for me consists of mostly buying singles or lots of cards at these prices, even for retail off the shelf, is rediculous so my philosophy is this. Let others spend the rediculous prices for new boxes I will just buy the singles/hits and save myself a lot of money plus not have to deal with all the worthless base cards they can keep those lol.

Speaking of base cards has anyone stopped and thought about what each card from a box costs if you divide the cost by the amount of cards in the box? Some of these boxes you're paying upwards of 5 bucks a card or more and that includes base commons I say no thanks I will buy them for 18 cents a piece all day long on sportlots.
 
Buying for me consists of mostly buying singles or lots of cards at these prices, even for retail off the shelf, is rediculous so my philosophy is this. Let others spend the rediculous prices for new boxes I will just buy the singles/hits and save myself a lot of money plus not have to deal with all the worthless base cards they can keep those lol.

Speaking of base cards has anyone stopped and thought about what each card from a box costs if you divide the cost by the amount of cards in the box? Some of these boxes you're paying upwards of 5 bucks a card or more and that includes base commons I say no thanks I will buy them for 18 cents a piece all day long on sportlots.
I would tend to agree, that most of the stuff is overpriced. I thoroughly enjoy busting packs, and building sets. To me that is the hobby. Is it nice to get a "hit" yes. But it almost gets that point if you are plugging a twenty into a slot machine, hitting a jackpot and then thinking well I could double this again if I just keep playing...
Again I like busting packs, but it's getting to the unaffordable point again.
 
Well I guess I shouldn't have limited it to hits basically it applies to whatever you collect it's always going to be cheaper to buy it outright than trying to chase them down through packs.
 
Speaking of base cards has anyone stopped and thought about what each card from a box costs if you divide the cost by the amount of cards in the box? Some of these boxes you're paying upwards of 5 bucks a card or more and that includes base commons I say no thanks I will buy them for 18 cents a piece all day long on sportlots.
I do this all the time. Topps chrome at the retail level is a dollar a card! I just want cards to open.
 
They always have plenty of product at our local walmart but I think people are sick of paying the prices. It's hard for people to pay$30 plus for a blaster when a year ago they were $20 I could understand it going up a buck or 2 over the span of several years but $10 hike overnight isn't cutting it for most and that's retail stuff which I pretty much stopped buying a few years ago.
 
They always have plenty of product at our local walmart but I think people are sick of paying the prices. It's hard for people to pay$30 plus for a blaster when a year ago they were $20 I could understand it going up a buck or 2 over the span of several years but $10 hike overnight isn't cutting it for most and that's retail stuff which I pretty much stopped buying a few years ago.
Even more nauseating is when you go into a card shop and they have the same blaster on sale for $80.

I'm with you as far as buying the singles I need as I have no desire to open packs. Just makes me wonder....do hobby boxes no longer exist? smh
 
Love ripping packs, hate paying the prices!
I'm a set builder - like a hit every now and then just to try and recoup some of the crazy $$ for the boxes
 
In all fairness, that is a 2019 picture. Pre-pandemic. Pre-stimulus $$. Every Target looked like that 2 years ago.

This. No Target/Walmart looks like this now. Cards were such a slow moving item pre pandemic, it’s why we would see 2018 Update on CLEARANCE! And it would still be passed on by most. Now a 2018 Update blaster is $300-400. Flippers have ruined the casual collectors.

I believe these groups hurt the hobby. They create a false demand and push the get rich quick mentality. Junk Era wax went insane during the pandemic, largely because a few groups created excitement and produced bidding wars.

What is also sad, is a lot of the **** are selling to each other and artificially inflating the price to a point where they can then “sell at a loss” compared to the last sales, but still 300% above retail and what they actually paid for it.

Buying for me consists of mostly buying singles or lots of cards at these prices, even for retail off the shelf, is rediculous so my philosophy is this. Let others spend the rediculous prices for new boxes I will just buy the singles/hits and save myself a lot of money plus not have to deal with all the worthless base cards they can keep those lol.

Speaking of base cards has anyone stopped and thought about what each card from a box costs if you divide the cost by the amount of cards in the box? Some of these boxes you're paying upwards of 5 bucks a card or more and that includes base commons I say no thanks I will buy them for 18 cents a piece all day long on sportlots.

Some of it on retail is still not bad, especially if you can find it at the store. If you are buying a blaster of flagship for $20, 99 cards means 20 cents each and you then still have the chance at parallels, nice inserts and autos. The extra 2 cents a card is worth that risk IMO, plus it’s fun to open packs!

They always have plenty of product at our local walmart but I think people are sick of paying the prices. It's hard for people to pay$30 plus for a blaster when a year ago they were $20 I could understand it going up a buck or 2 over the span of several years but $10 hike overnight isn't cutting it for most and that's retail stuff which I pretty much stopped buying a few years ago.

Your lucky to see it, I still have a couple a specific guys in my area who REFUSE to get a real job and wait outside of Walmart for them to open, they pay the Excell employee to text them when and where they are going and they buy everything in sight. Those guys are legitimately 40+ years old, still living with relatives/friends and argue with people and push them out of the way. They have a schedule where they hit every retail store within about 50 miles multiple times a week.

Even more nauseating is when you go into a card shop and they have the same blaster on sale for $80.

I'm with you as far as buying the singles I need as I have no desire to open packs. Just makes me wonder....do hobby boxes no longer exist? smh

I will not buy retail from anyone selling it above MSRP with some exceptions. My LCS does buy retail from the flipper ****, but normally he will only buy it from them at retail or slightly more in store credit. He likes to have them because hobby prices skyrocketed and a lot of his customers could not afford the new prices on hobby, and could not get any retail because of the guys discussed above. So when he does that, then charges $40 for the blaster instead of the $20 they are in the store, I am fine with it. He is making it so the flippers barely make a profit, and he makes a small profit, but has affordable stuff for his customers. He also uses them as add ins when people buy a good amount. So many times I have bough 2-4 hobby boxes from him and a blaster and he just doesn’t factor the blaster into the price.
 
This. No Target/Walmart looks like this now. Cards were such a slow moving item pre pandemic, it’s why we would see 2018 Update on CLEARANCE! And it would still be passed on by most. Now a 2018 Update blaster is $300-400. Flippers have ruined the casual collectors.



What is also sad, is a lot of the **** are selling to each other and artificially inflating the price to a point where they can then “sell at a loss” compared to the last sales, but still 300% above retail and what they actually paid for it.



Some of it on retail is still not bad, especially if you can find it at the store. If you are buying a blaster of flagship for $20, 99 cards means 20 cents each and you then still have the chance at parallels, nice inserts and autos. The extra 2 cents a card is worth that risk IMO, plus it’s fun to open packs!



Your lucky to see it, I still have a couple a specific guys in my area who REFUSE to get a real job and wait outside of Walmart for them to open, they pay the Excell employee to text them when and where they are going and they buy everything in sight. Those guys are legitimately 40+ years old, still living with relatives/friends and argue with people and push them out of the way. They have a schedule where they hit every retail store within about 50 miles multiple times a week.



I will not buy retail from anyone selling it above MSRP with some exceptions. My LCS does buy retail from the flipper ****, but normally he will only buy it from them at retail or slightly more in store credit. He likes to have them because hobby prices skyrocketed and a lot of his customers could not afford the new prices on hobby, and could not get any retail because of the guys discussed above. So when he does that, then charges $40 for the blaster instead of the $20 they are in the store, I am fine with it. He is making it so the flippers barely make a profit, and he makes a small profit, but has affordable stuff for his customers. He also uses them as add ins when people buy a good amount. So many times I have bough 2-4 hobby boxes from him and a blaster and he just doesn’t factor the blaster into the price.
Yeah they're plentiful around here. I bet I could go to Walmart now and get a bunch of boxes but again I'm not paying those prices for retail no matter how bad I want to open packs. I just decided to approach collecting from a different angle and even though it's not as fun as opening up packs it's cheaper to just buy singles or lots of the non-base stuff you're looking for 99 percent of the time and by the amount of product sitting on the shelves at the local Walmart I'm not the only one that knows this.
 
Yeah they're plentiful around here. I bet I could go to Walmart now and get a bunch of boxes but again I'm not paying those prices for retail no matter how bad I want to open packs. I just decided to approach collecting from a different angle and even though it's not as fun as opening up packs it's cheaper to just buy singles or lots of the non-base stuff you're looking for 99 percent of the time and by the amount of product sitting on the shelves at the local Walmart I'm not the only one that knows this.
I haven’t bought retail in over a year, what are the prices now that it’s not worth it?

I swear I saw that Update blasters were $20, hangers $12 and fat packs $7. Is that not true?
 
Last price check I had was on Topps Chrome it was 30 for blaster and 27 for a hangar box...no thanks on either lol
 
Last price check I had was on Topps Chrome it was 30 for blaster and 27 for a hangar box...no thanks on either lol

Megas were $65 I believe
Blasters at $30 I MIGHT be willing to buy at. Especially when a hobby box was $300. I hanger at $27 is flat out laughable though! No way! That’s a $12 product under any other circumstances. Megas at $65 might be okay, depending on what all they had in them. But wow, that is some crazy prices.
 
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