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Voice of the 'Fan

The frustration of having no product to buy

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6 Comments
by
hobbyfan
, 07-16-2020 at 12:40 PM (2837 Views)
I often shop at a local Walmart to buy my baseball and/or football cards. I had been building Topps baseball series 1 for this year as far back as the winter, and recently traded for a good size lot to trim my want list to finish series 1.

Series 2 has since gone live, as have 2020 football cards, and I was lucky just to get 2 fat packs of Score 2020 football. Why is that, you ask?

Well, friends, being that we're in the middle of a pandemic that has seen "panic buyers" hoard hand sanitizer and other necessary items in the first weeks, it stands to reason some of those same "panic buyers" are now hoarding sports cards. I talked to a clerk at a Target 2 weeks ago, and she said she'd heard that people are buying up whatever's in stock and reselling on eBay, denying local shoppers a fair opportunity, in order to turn a profit.

These "panic buyers" are in it for themselves, ignorant of other collectors in their areas, and this has to stop. I found out that Walmart, and presumably also Target, buys their stock from a 3rd party vendor, who delivers when possible. A year ago at this time, even ten years ago, cards were readily available. Not so now, and it's going to be a while before we return to what was the status quo.

If you guys know anyone who's "panic buying" in your area, let me read about it in the comments box. I'd like to read some ideas on how to put a stop to this nonsense.
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  1. David K.'s Avatar
    People think there worth more so their hoarding them....I'm in Fresno, CA...about a few miles from the largest Walmart in CA......Asked for help from police officer inside of the store.....he showed it to me and it looked like a hurricane hit the collectors items....all the current stuff was gone....only a few packs of the 2020 Topps I were lefted over! Best regards, David
  2. hobbyfan's Avatar
    I found out on another board that the "hoarders" are box breakers & flippers, the latter being the greedy types who are reselling on eBay. These people are not using common courtesy or sense, and thinking only with their bottom lines in mind.

    I'd like to have the box breakers here at SCF chime in, and explain to me the sudden surge in interest, aside from the pandemic causing a different strain of cabin fever, if you will.
  3. PennsylvaniaTiger's Avatar
    I bought a Topps series 1 box at Target for kid’s Easter basket, pre-pandemic, everything looked normal. Just looked yesterday, tried 3 Targets and a Walmart and all I could find were stickers. One Target had a “rationing” sign up, same as they do in the hand sanitizer aisle, limit of 3 items per household. Frustrating
  4. hobbyfan's Avatar
    The funny part is that these people are ignoring the Pokemon and other collectible card games, otherwise kids would have nothing.

    The Troy Walmart hadn't put up rationing signs for cards as of last week, but if they get enough complaints, maybe.

    Once again, I'm asking the box breakers here at SCF to offer some constructive commentary to explain the explosion of interest in 2020 product.
  5. mrveggieman's Avatar
    Yeah it's all over the country. I'm just going to wait it out because the market will come to a crash. I'm the meanwhile I'm focusing on picking up older cards to TTM.
  6. hobbyfan's Avatar
    Looks like unless I get some fresh product soon, I'm going to be looking at a factory set for 2020 Topps. You'd think that at this point, these greedy people would just cool down and let someone else have their share, but no.
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