SPx vs. Leaf Limited - why such a huge pricing difference?

[eastslastheart]

Leaf Limited FB early release pricing came out today...I bought it, because I'm a sucker :)

Here's my question...the odds of pulling a RC/Patch/Auto from Leaf Limited are much harder htan the odds of pulling a RC/JSY/Auto from SPx...SPx fall 1 per box, while Leaf Limited, who knows.

The Leaf Limited Auto/Patch RC's are #'d to 100...the SPx short prints are #'d to 250 (Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams will be our examples).

Why are the Leaf Limited priced so much lower? I know they base their pricing on actual sales/market values/etc....so why are people willing to pay more for SPx than Leaf Limited? That is my question. IMO, the Leaf Limited cards are better looking than the SPx, they are lower numbered, and most have multi-colored patches while all the SPx are just single colored! Look at these differences:

Ronnie Brown SPx RC/JSY/AUTO/250: $250
Ronnie Brown Leaf LTD RC/PATCH/AUTO/100: $100

Carnell Williams SPx RC/JSY/AUTO/250: $350
Carnell Williams Leaf LTD RC/PATCH/AUTO/100: $150

Ronnie Brown SPx Spectrum JSY/AUTO/25: $400
Ronnie Brown Leaf LTD Spotlight Bronze PATCH/AUTO/25: $175

Carnell Williams SPx Spectrum JSY/AUTO/25: $800
Carnell Williams Leaf LTD Spotlight Bronze PATCH/AUTO/25: $200

That is CRAZY! I can't figure out why people are willing to pay SOOO much more for the SPx cards! Any thoughts? This is all very curious to me.

[asujbl]

personally, as RC collector, I'd always buy SPX. UD seems to be more known and even more "simple" with SPX and SPA dominating. Even as a seasoned collector...I can't stand all the Leaf stuff...Limited, LCM etc...too many variations, parallels, mirrors etc...maybe this sin't the case with Limited, I am not sure...but my dislike for other Leaf products keeps me away. With SPX...there is one Jersey/Auto for that player and that's it, that is the "one" card I need...not 6 varations.

[envoy98]

Personally, I like the Leaf Limited a lot better. Spx is priced higher simply because of market recognition and dominance. UD stuff just sells better. I've never been a big SPx fan, but I've always liked SP Authentic. What's odd is that in this case anyway, there is little correlation between the price of a product and the value of the cards that come out of it.

[eastslastheart]

I can understand that...I hate numerous paralels as well...but even if you just compare the base rc's...it just seems like the Leaf Limited would be more appealing. I also see your point, however, about how historically Upper Deck is more known, and SPx is one of those big RC products, along w/ SPA and Contenders...it just baffles me, is all...Just on the surface, I would think people would want to pay more for a PATCH/AUTO #'d to 100 than they would for a JSY/AUTO #'d to 250...

[eastslastheart]

envoy - good point on the price...I would think value-wise LTD would have an advantage since it costs about $70 for a 4 card pack! Even just odds-wise, the odds of pulling one of the RC's aren't near as good as pulling one in SPx...and I'm not even getting into the inserts, etc...

[kr580]

SPx has been popular ever since it came out in 1995 or 6. Limited came out in 2003. Comparatively people don't know much about Limited while they know SPx pretty well.

[pwaldo]

Just on the surface, I would think people would want to pay more for a PATCH/AUTO #'d to 100 than they would for a JSY/AUTO #'d to 250...

Yes on the surface you would expect that under the same circumstances the one that is numbered lower would go for more. But your leaving out who makes the cards and that's a big difference. And its Donruss/Playoff's own fault for this. They make so many different parallels and its so easy to pull a card #D under 25 out of their brands that people perceive their stuff to be worth less than the same numbered card from another set. I'm pretty sure an Upper Deck parallel #D to 250 would book for more than a Donruss #D to 100. I mean Donruss made getting a 1/1 fairly easy.

So all that overproduction hurts them in this case because people don't want the cards as much as something else because of their reputation. Basically all numbered cards by Donruss are "worth" far less IMO compared to Upper Deck and especially Topps.

And another important factor is that SPX has been around longer so you have a larger userbase of collectors. Its just like how Topps is very popular in baseball because the set has been around for 50+ years. There are many people that I know that aren't hardcore card collectors yet they will make a regular Topps set every year because of this.

Well known and popular stuff will always outsell less popular stuff that is rarer and cost more per pack because of supply and demand. If there are 200 people who collect the Leaf Limited cards every year but 1000 that collect the SPX then there is not enough SPX around to meet the demand compared with the demand for Leaf Limited. I mean even if a card is rare that doesn't mean nothing if nobody is willing to buy it.

[artofaggression]

I have wondered the exact same thing, and I have come to the conclusion that SPA & SPX are more rookie-based sets. Whereas Leaf Limited does contain the rookie sets, its comprised much more on parallels and erstwhile superstars with vintage JSY/autos.

Personally, I will (and have) buy Leaf Limited 100 times out of 100, because at least I know i am getting something (GU/Auto). Last year I popped 3 UD SPA FB boxes at $175/box and got SQUAT! With Leaf Limited your bound to get good breaks and decent cards most of the time.

[eastslastheart]

overproduction has hurt in the past, maybe...but c'mon...if there's only 100 of a card, then there's only 100 of that card. Yeah, they have more numbered stuff and they give out more 1/1's or whatever, but every upper deck set has 4 printing plates of each player randomly inserted also.

there should'nt be a $600 difference in price between 2 cards of the same player both numbered to 25, both with a jersey swatch (the lower one a 2 or more color patch!) and both autographed.

[pwaldo]

there should'nt be a $600 difference in price between 2 cards of the same player both numbered to 25, both with a jersey swatch (the lower one a 2 or more color patch!) and both autographed.

Why shouldn't there be?

People don't want the Leaf Limited. Go check out the trade board and you'll see that there are people who specifically collect the SPX set and the SPX rookies. It far out numbers any people that collect the Leaf Limited set. Those people are on eBay and they are paying top dollar to get cards for their set. If the cards are selling for more on eBay then Beckett will price accordingly.

The supply is obviously greater than the demand in the case of SPX.

If there is 10 times the amount of people collecting SPX as there is collecting Leaf Limited then having 2.5 times the amount of cards produced compared to the Leaf Limited means that the SPX will sell for far more than Leaf Limited.

There are many factors to determing what a card will sell for and its not as simple as just looking at the numbering. You can't force people to shell out money for something that they don't want.