The 1998 Topps Tek Thread

Yea, I wrote him and asked him to send me the Belle pattern and if he had any other pictures... he decided to tell me the Belle pattern and add the photos. I had a feeling he didn't have any diffractors in there. He doesn't live far from me actually here in Dallas

MansGame said:

Yea, I wrote him and asked him to send me the Belle pattern and if he had any other pictures... he decided to tell me the Belle pattern and add the photos. I had a feeling he didn't have any diffractors in there. He doesn't live far from me actually here in Dallas

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lol, I read your first post and went to the auction page, scroll thru the pics and there's a full screen Belle card back with pattern # showing. I was like, man some guys have all the luck!

Now that I know your trick I gotta pester him as well. I'm hoping & praying one of my 5 isn't in there & get forced to pay $60+ for the whole set EEK

bigunitcards said:

lol, I read your first post and went to the auction page, scroll thru the pics and there's a full screen Belle card back with pattern # showing. I was like, man some guys have all the luck!

Now that I know your trick I gotta pester him as well. I'm hoping & praying one of my 5 isn't in there & get forced to pay $60+ for the whole set EEK

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I just sent him a PM to ask about Ventura. I'm down to 19 this week.

I asked about Sandy Alomar, but it was one that I had. Fine by me. Now I don't have to try to outbid some of you guys for one card.

The Chipper Jones 89 of 90 set only went for $162, not even $2 a card. With how hard this is to complete, I find that 'holy crap' low. I guess all the CJ PC guys have it completed already?

bigunitcards said:

The Chipper Jones 89 of 90 set only went for $162, not even $2 a card. With how hard this is to complete, I find that 'holy crap' low. I guess all the CJ PC guys have it completed already?

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For sure. I tell you what, if 89 of the 90 Belle patterns come up, I'd be at odds. I would want them but I'd have 87 doubles and then wouldn't know what to do. Obviously starting a second set would be the best bet but then I'd be right back where I started, looking for three cards or whatever lol.

I have to tell you what. I have pretty crazy thoughts sometimes about this set, prices, collectors, etc. For example... there is not a lot of us who collect this set and once we have our cards, unless one of us start a second set or do something else crazy, then cards will collect dust to some degree. Like I don't know if there would even be a buyer out there for my 90 base pattern set of Albert Belle if I wanted to sell them... you think? I mean seriously... this is one of those sets where you need to strike while the iron is hot. Right now I'd pay up for the patterns I need but once I have them, then those patterns are next to nothing probably because no one else will be fighting for them.

For example, if Toga and I are both going after said Belle base pattern, there might be a fight for the first one that hits eBay but the second one will be 5% the price paid on the first one because I'm not bidding or even care about the second one once I have my pattern.

/rant

bigunitcards said:

The Chipper Jones 89 of 90 set only went for $162, not even $2 a card. With how hard this is to complete, I find that 'holy crap' low. I guess all the CJ PC guys have it completed already?

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Of course part of this is who the player is, but it seems to go beyond who is popular and is more specifically about who is collecting that player's Tek set RIGHT NOW. For example, there are a million Griffey collectors out there, but none of them appear to be clamoring against each other for his 98 Tek base, and haven't been since I've been tracking sales. In fact, up until sometime last year, Griffey Diffractors would go for in the $40-$55 dollar range. It's only recently that one could fetch $100 or more.

Also, part of the fun of Tek collecting is the journey, not the destination. There's so much less sense of accomplishment if you just buy the set. But if I did that, I would have fun buying condition upgrades to make it as pristine a set as I could.

But a great point about looking at the ending price and dividing it by 90 (or 89 in this case). It does make it seem like a bargain. Great discussion.

MansGame said:

For sure. I tell you what, if 89 of the 90 Belle patterns come up, I'd be at odds. I would want them but I'd have 87 doubles and then wouldn't know what to do. Obviously starting a second set would be the best bet but then I'd be right back where I started, looking for three cards or whatever lol.

I have to tell you what. I have pretty crazy thoughts sometimes about this set, prices, collectors, etc. For example... there is not a lot of us who collect this set and once we have our cards, unless one of us start a second set or do something else crazy, then cards will collect dust to some degree. Like I don't know if there would even be a buyer out there for my 90 base pattern set of Albert Belle if I wanted to sell them... you think? I mean seriously... this is one of those sets where you need to strike while the iron is hot. Right now I'd pay up for the patterns I need but once I have them, then those patterns are next to nothing probably because no one else will be fighting for them.

For example, if Toga and I are both going after said Belle base pattern, there might be a fight for the first one that hits eBay but the second one will be 5% the price paid on the first one because I'm not bidding or even care about the second one once I have my pattern.

/rant

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I hear you on this. It's something we, as collectors of semistars, have to consider regularly as we know that should we ever liquidate our collections we wouldn't get but a fraction of what we paid. We have to do it for the fun of the hobby and forget about the money we're losing. But I also get the rant - it makes us revisit this decision every time a card comes up that we need but others are bidding us up. It feels ridiculous to pay over $20 for just about any Rusty Greer card, but sometimes I do it and it just makes me wonder all over again if I should move on to other things. It's just hard to abandon what I've already put together.

I think the universe of people who collect actual patterns of either an individual player or set or whatever is small... which is why I feel like really it's a race for the "inventory" to hit eBay and find the buyer(s) because once they're found, there isn't an infinite number of people who want Albert Belle #47 Pattern 36 or something. Eventually the multiple copies of that card will be worthless essentially where the first few copies to find the buyer(s) could be worth $10 or something.

Which makes be believe that this guy definitely lost $ on his Chipper lot but it seems to me that the guy needed the $ bad or he would of held out to get the final Chipper, right?

RustyGreerFan said:

I hear you on this. It's something we, as collectors of semistars, have to consider regularly as we know that should we ever liquidate our collections we wouldn't get but a fraction of what we paid. We have to do it for the fun of the hobby and forget about the money we're losing. But I also get the rant - it makes us revisit this decision every time a card comes up that we need but others are bidding us up. It feels ridiculous to pay over $20 for just about any Rusty Greer card, but sometimes I do it and it just makes me wonder all over again if I should move on to other things. It's just hard to abandon what I've already put together.

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Great post. Agree 100%.

Got my $13 pack, pretty meh results.

Konerko P87
Caminiti P71
Lankford P62
Schilling P70

If anyone needs these, PM and it's yours.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

^^GC might need that Lankford

There are some pretty hardcore PC who are not on this board (maybe they monitor it). Got plenty of offers to buy some of my duplicate diffractors that I have been trying to trade. Listed my extra Juan Gonzalez diffractors for trade on the JuanGone board, and in a year and one-half only received offers to buy. Finally accepted an offer from one of the honchos on the JuanGone board and got a money order from him for $600.00 for my four extra Juan Gonzalez diffractors. $150.00 per diffractor. Haven't seen that even for Jeter or Griffey diffractors. Might list my other extra diffractors for trade again, then start putting some of them on eBay.

bigunitcards said:

Got my $13 pack, pretty meh results.

Konerko P87
Caminiti P71
Lankford P62
Schilling P70

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At least it wasn't one of the three cards packs!

rinkrat38 said:

There are some pretty hardcore PC who are not on this board (maybe they monitor it). Got plenty of offers to buy some of my duplicate diffractors that I have been trying to trade. Listed my extra Juan Gonzalez diffractors for trade on the JuanGone board, and in a year and one-half only received offers to buy. Finally accepted an offer from one of the honchos on the JuanGone board and got a money order from him for $600.00 for my four extra Juan Gonzalez diffractors. $150.00 per diffractor. Haven't seen that even for Jeter or Griffey diffractors. Might list my other extra diffractors for trade again, then start putting some of them on eBay.

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O... M... G. Wow, that's insane lol.

This is my point though... if I had one of those Juan Gon diffractors and listed them, that guy has his... so no chance I get anywhere near that value for mine. Not to mention he will probably never be able to flip those back into the market for that. Now you can sit back forever and wait for it to relist by someone else or even him one day. Kind of my point on the four Belle patterns I need... I would probably pay stupid $ for the four of them and all it would be is giving the seller top dollar and then it's their wait to have for them to show up on eBay someday.

bigunitcards said:

Got my $13 pack, pretty meh results.

Konerko P87
Caminiti P71
Lankford P62
Schilling P70

If anyone needs these, PM and it's yours.

View attachment 38378

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

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Ouch at least you didn't get McCracken, Hinch, or Dunwoody

MansGame said:

I think the universe of people who collect actual patterns of either an individual player or set or whatever is small... which is why I feel like really it's a race for the "inventory" to hit eBay and find the buyer(s) because once they're found, there isn't an infinite number of people who want Albert Belle #47 Pattern 36 or something. Eventually the multiple copies of that card will be worthless essentially where the first few copies to find the buyer(s) could be worth $10 or something.

Which makes be believe that this guy definitely lost $ on his Chipper lot but it seems to me that the guy needed the $ bad or he would of held out to get the final Chipper, right?

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It's really surprising to me that there are more Juan Gone collectors than Chipper collectors. I don't remember seeing any Chipper collectors on here. Yep, he must have needed the money.

u2me57 said:

It's really surprising to me that there are more Juan Gone collectors than Chipper collectors. I don't remember seeing any Chipper collectors on here. Yep, he must have needed the money.

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Juan's only knock is steroids. Chipper banged a Hooters waitress behind his wife's back and had a kid w/her. Lesser of two evils I guess.

corockies said:

Chipper banged a Hooters waitress behind his wife's back and had a kid w/her.

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He did? Wife leave him?

MansGame said:

He did? Wife leave him?

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From Chipper's Wikipedia page:

"Jones met his first wife, Karin Fulford,[SUP][99][/SUP] while he was playing with the Braves class A affiliate in Macon, Georgia. The couple married in 1992 and later divorced after it was revealed that Jones had had an 18-month extramarital affair with a Hooters waitress which produced a son, Matthew, born in 1997.[SUP][100][/SUP][SUP][101][/SUP]"