Fanatics taking over Topps / 2024 Topps baseball thoughts

[ronfir]

I wondered what would happen when Fanatics took over Topps and how that would play out in 2024? Let me start by saying I am a set builder since 1972. So this is only a one jumbo box situation but forever when the new baseball season opened I would buy a Topps Jumbo box and then a jumbo box of series two and update and I would have my set. Sure I could buy a factory set but I like to open packs and I would get three autographs to add to my collection since you get one auto in each jumbo box plus some additional jersey cards.

Over the many years I have done this type of break with the exception of one box which was missing one card for set, I would always and I mean always geo a complete set from my jumbo break.

Yesterday 2/18/24 I stopped by the local card store to buy 2024 Topps series one and sure enough I bought a jumbo box. I wondered if Fanatics would change anything up and again this is only one jumbo box break but when I sorted all the cards from the break I was missing 31 cards for the set.

I have never heard much positive about Fanatics so I wonder if they decided, enough of getting a set in a jumbo box, we will make the collector buy more than one box to complete the set? Missing 31 cards for a 350 card set sure looks that way to me.

Was not impressed to say the least and not sure how much Fanatics Topps products I will be buying going forward. Again, this is just my opinion. But being 31 cards short of the set, stinks!

[bigbenjobu]

I will be honest, I have been putting together sets for almost 8 years now and series 1 always takes me 2 boxes minimum. I am not sure if you had huge luck with previous years or not, but the last few years it takes me a hobby box and a hobby jumbo box. And even then I might need to trade for a handful.

Just with the hobby jumbo box you realistically would have to get 0 doubles to complete the full 350 card base set. A jumbo hobby box has 10 packs and 40 cards per pack. There are 4-5 non base cards per pack, which makes 350-360 base cards per box (not counting doubles). So I would say anytime you complete a set with one box only, count your blessings, because it seems near impossible.

Also, this is not the first season of baseball with Fanatics owning Topps. The 2023 release would have been.

[ronfir]

I will be honest, I have been putting together sets for almost 8 years now and series 1 always takes me 2 boxes minimum. I am not sure if you had huge luck with previous years or not, but the last few years it takes me a hobby box and a hobby jumbo box. And even then I might need to trade for a handful.

Just with the hobby jumbo box you realistically would have to get 0 doubles to complete the full 350 card base set. A jumbo hobby box has 10 packs and 40 cards per pack. There are 4-5 non base cards per pack, which makes 350-360 base cards per box (not counting doubles). So I would say anytime you complete a set with one box only, count your blessings, because it seems near impossible.

Also, this is not the first season of baseball with Fanatics owning Topps. The 2023 release would have been.

Certainly interesting as last year I got a complete set from each of the jumbo boxes I purchased. I have a local friend and he too buys jumbos of Topps and his luck has been the same, complete sets from each jumbo box. He has yet to purchase 2024 so maybe the box I picked out was a total fluke but it was far from being a complete set from one box.

[bigbenjobu]

Very interesting. I have never been that lucky with the full sets.

Also, the larger set this year doesn’t help. I would say there would have to be perfect collation to complete the set now

[pwaldo]

Fanatics is going to do whatever it takes to make money on the ridiculous exclusive contract they paid for baseball cards. Wouldn't surprise me to see them make the set larger so you need to buy double the amount of boxes to make a set for a popular release like Topps series 1. Where else are they going to make their money back?

[jordanrulz]

i'm getting tired of all the parallels.in series 1 alone there are 24 parallels counting one of ones.that means the base set is way over produced in my opinion.starting to remind me of the junk wax era.same goes for chrome products way to many parallels there also.look at 2022 topps update and chrome update they are not worth much now.dont like having one company either for all sports.need to bring back upper deck and even give panini a license.too much of a monoply now and upper deck made great cards when they were in all sports.just my 2 cents

[Boinks]

This has been the worst year for set collation I've ever seen.

I bought 4 blasters, 2 hangers, 2 packs and a mega box this year to put the set together. I have around 600 cards and 300 of them are doubles, triples, quadruples, keep going....I have some cards with 8 copies. If I got 8 copies of the good rookies I wouldn't complain, but that didn't happen at all.

[C Guidry]

Last year, 2023, it took me about 3 hobby boxes and a jumbo box to get to within 13 cards for the full set. I still haven't filled it out.

This past weekend, I bought a hobby box of 2024 Series 1. My best non-base pull was a single rainbow foil parallel. Sure, I got the blue pack of "special cards" but not on auto nor relic. I'm still pretty pissed off. It used to be that you could buy hobby packs in a card shop and have a chance to pull even an auto of a "patch". Now it seems you have to invest $150+ to get that chance. Fanatics.....well, if I stated my uncensored opinion, I'd likely get banned.

[Boinks]

Last year, 2023, it took me about 3 hobby boxes and a jumbo box to get to within 13 cards for the full set. I still haven't filled it out.

This past weekend, I bought a hobby box of 2024 Series 1. My best non-base pull was a single rainbow foil parallel. Sure, I got the blue pack of "special cards" but not on auto nor relic. I'm still pretty pissed off. It used to be that you could buy hobby packs in a card shop and have a chance to pull even an auto of a "patch". Now it seems you have to invest $150+ to get that chance. Fanatics.....well, if I stated my uncensored opinion, I'd likely get banned.

I'd fill out Topps missing hit form for that, they'll send you an auto or relic.

[pwaldo]

It is just going to get worse folks.

Right now Fanatics is just running Topps in baseball. In the next couple of years they will take over football and basketball. If they can't handle just one sport and are making all of these big errors how are they going to handle 2 more big sports and non sports later?