I want to buy my gramp a box of 2007 Topps or Upper Deck. I’ve been out of things for so long and have never bought any online. Do any of you have experience buying online and are any stores typically better deals than others?
(Not a set but a box of packs)
I’ve seen them at Target as well, but don’t see them on their web site. I checked the Topps store, but they only have complete sets.
I collect quite a bit. I would suggest not buying from stores such as Target and Wal-Mart. The packs there are retail packs and have a much smaller chance of yielding the really good cards, rookies included. Any reputable online store like Amazon is good. There are also places like Beckett that are really good. If you want to buy them in person the best place to go is an established hobby shop. The most important part is to look for Hobby boxes, they are a bit more expensive but usually are a better product yielding more serial-numbered, memorabilia, and autographed cards. Unless, that is, you are not especially looking for the better cards, just the fun of opening packs. Anyways, here are some pages with the 2007 Topps and Upper Deck products. Just so you know, the 2008 Topps and Upper Deck products are also out, there are links to them on the Beckett front page. I usually get my stuff from a local hobby shop, so I don’t have that much experience online. I have bought from Beckett and Amazon as well as on eBay with good results. That being said, if you have any questions involving specific product, odds, or even the best deals I can probably help you out.
Why would that be?
It’s just the way the card companies do it. There are hobby and retail packs and the hobby packs have a better chance of containing the good cards. It is probably so they can sell the cards to the casual collector at a cheaper price in mega-stores, bringing new fans to the hobby. There is a decent, short article about it here. It uses the example of 2005 Fleer Ultra Football, a very common product where rookie cards came 1 in 4 hobby packs and 1 in 5 retail boxes. The differences aren’t always so drastic, but they often are, especially with products such as Topps and Upper Deck where hobby boxes might contain 1 to 3 hits(autos/memorabilia) per box while retail might yield hits at a rate of 1 in every 1000-2000 packs.
That being said, there are often some cool deals at the retail stores. Things like $19.99 boxes that have a few packs and one guaranteed hit and other deals such as that. I’ve noticed that Target has a lot of those. Watch out though, make sure you are getting boxes from the actual card company. Some people will sell boxes containing a few packs with a guaranteed hit but it will be a card that they hand-picked and is often a very poor card. Also, watch out for packs that have been opened, taped shut, and returned. Sadly, many retail employees don’t notice this and put them right back on the shelf.
Any chance you can let us know what you decided to get and whether or not you pulled anything nice?