The story 2011 Topps Heritage tells.....

......http://www.sportscardfile.com/?p=177

Heritage is going to be very hot. No coincidence retail has hit early.

Interesting reading. Do they offer rack packs of Heritage? Have yet to see anything aside from the regular Bowman and Topps stuff.

Maybe All in, Gilmore or Schmidtfan knows. Did Topps cut back some on Heritage production this year. Are dealers getting everything they ordered?

I think topps did a damn good job of trying to get people to buy heritage last year with the target exclusive Mantle bat cards and the walmart exclusive Maris jersey cards.

Good read. i think its awesome

So are telling us that because Target / Walmart have more money than most hobby shops, Topps cannot be elitist anymore and cater strictly to the 'hobby' anymore?

Topps has or must create some sort of incentive for retail products in order to attract card collecting geeks to the Target/Walmart card aisles.

If anything topps gave more to the retail stores last year than this year (so far). Keep in mind that retail stores (target and walmart) not only got the very popular Mantle and Maris HR sets, but also the Mantle and Maris GU. Topps knows
that they can pump out packs and as long as odds are longer than one a box, they are off the hook for any GU
or autograph cards, that is what costs them money.

It is still very early on and we have yet to see what hobby boxes are yielding and even who actually got into
the product. Until I see Koufax and Aaron ink coming out of packs, I will doubt that they are in there. Topps has
pulled this before.

As far as print runs, 09 was shorter than the usual. Last year seemed like it was back to where it should be, one
thing for sure, there will be NO shortage of retail packs!

Kevin

I for one am okay with it. I don't go to my local shop to bust wax anyways. IMO...I can get a box anywhere. What I am normally after when I go to a shop is supplies and singles(maybe even sets or starter sets). Believe it or not I get better deals on singles at my shop than I do on ebay. So for me, since I do a lot of buying retail...I think its good. Its gotten to the point where a lot of shops actually exist primarily because big time spenders come in and rip products by the case. And I've seen quite a few shops cater to this and its BS. The Old Ballpark out in Alvin is a prime example. Nice guy who runs it but if you aren't going for supplies...you're screwed. He has maybe 25 singles in his case(all pretty much worthless stuff) and his wax selection blows. He makes most of his money at the shop by pre-ordering wax. So what incentive do I have to go there besides supplies?

I think if the retail side got a little spicier...it would force shops to either step it up or close down. I think that's a good thing. You want me to come spend my money at your shop? Offer me something worthwhile. Stop living off of wax sales. Be a real shop.

The thing I don't understand about all of this is that retail packs/boxes are usually a much worse value than hobby.

Aside from the fact that pull ratios are usually MUCH higher in retail, many times the cost per card is higher as well.

So basically, what topps has done here is create a NEED among the heritage set builders that will cause people to overpay for retail packs.

I like the added calue in retail.
I do not have a real hobby store anywhere near me, so I buy a ton of retail just for the fun of busting stuff.
I plan on opening quite a bit of this so I am happy for the added value.

I have no problem if they improve retail odds or add retail incentives. There is no hobby shop within 2 hours of me so impulse buys have to come from Walmart. I would have no problem paying 15 to 20% higher than online prices for boxes from a local B&M but you can't support whats not available.

In 2001 retail odds and hobby odds were EXACTLY the same. Also the odds of pulling a Willie Mays was the same
as pulling Joe Mays. Much has changed for the worse in heritage and I would also say much has changed
for the worse in the hobby. Topps calls hits, super short prints, which people pay hundreds of dollars for, yet it
costs topps no more to print than any other base card. This cheapens the product. While the focus for topps back
in 2001 and 2002 was high end HOF'er autographs, today it is guys who don't sign alot or guys who played their
last (and maybe times only) year in the league. 75% of the autographs in the products are of guys who played less
than 1 week in the majors, what is worse is that you only pull 2-3 autos a case. Topps knows they can auto pilot
this product and still sell it, but collectors will only take so much. I hope they are going to turn that around this year.

Kevin

Autorook - Thanks. I have not seen any Heritage rack packs, but that does not mean there are not out there somewhere.

matchpenalty - I don't think they cut down production. Rather they shifted some of the hobby volume into retail. That is why certain distributors were allocated less cases than last year.

ThoseBackPages - Thank you.

Lars - I don't think Topps has ever catered strictly to the hobby. They have always been the most "retail-minded" of all of the major manufacturers, imo.

schmidtfan20 - Yeah, there won't be a shortage of retail packs available. I would not count on seeing anythng different as far as the autograph cards go this year.

predatorkj - Most shops have been living off of this model for years, selling wax to survive. When the majority of wax started getting real bad shops started dying off in bulk.

chashawk - The pack to pack value is comparable if you are only buying a few packs at a time. On the case level, sure retail does not have the value of hobby. Most buyers at retail are just buying a handful of packs or a blaster box.

goldenegg1 - I would guess are you part of a rising majority of collectors who don't have a hobby shop close to them and buy a few packs here and there at retail just for the fun of opening packs. As time goes on, you'll have more and more value adds like this added to various products to entice you to buy even more.

SamHell - Yeah, you can't buy what isn't there. I think we'll see more retail incentives as we get we further into 2011.

autorook said:

Interesting reading. Do they offer rack packs of Heritage? Have yet to see anything aside from the regular Bowman and Topps stuff.

Click to expand...

Edit I think they had the gravity feed box up at the target. Now after reading the blog I need to go see if I can get some of those.

Still nothing on the shelves here in Western Wisconsin. You guys are all driving me crazy!!! I wanna rip some Heritage!!!

chashawk said:

The thing I don't understand about all of this is that retail packs/boxes are usually a much worse value than hobby.

Aside from the fact that pull ratios are usually MUCH higher in retail, many times the cost per card is higher as well.

So basically, what topps has done here is create a NEED among the heritage set builders that will cause people to overpay for retail packs.

Click to expand...

I'd beg to differ on the cost per card. In many cases I pay less per card. I learned a long time ago that I can buy a hobby box and pay a lot of money and maybe get a hit of some guy I haven't heard of and never will again or I can buy a bunch of retail and get what I'm really after(and pretty much what I'm going to get either way whether I do hobby or retail): the base cards.

For instance I know a pack of Donruss Basketball at my hobby shop was running around $4 and it had like what...10 cards per pack? I can pay $5 and get 40 cards per rack pack at retail and some decent looking inserts as well as some nice parallels. Hell...I pulled a bunch of them numbered to /299, /100, and even /25. I also got two GU and an auto redemption. You know how much I spent at retail? $41 and some change. You know how much I purchased a hobby box for? $70 plus tax. The hobby box came with the same kinda scrub auto I got out of the retail. The only, and I mean only, difference was I got a nice Clyde Drexler patch. Of course as a huge Rockets fan I was happy but honestly...I'd rather buy that on ebay and the rest of the cards at a retail location.

I don't know about you guys but I always seem to get the same if not more out of retail than I do hobby. Now I have had some nice pulls but they aren't common for me with hobby. Plus, since I am a set builder, and I get way more cards for my money at retail...why should I want to go buy a box I'll get burned on? Because it guarantees hits? If the hits were actually nice...I'd do it every time and never look back. Unfortunately...the hits sucks so bad that 99% of the time...I'd rather buy the retail and know damn good and well I'm getting nothing special. Less of a let down that way.