Ok...is topps football insane this year or what?

[predatorkj]

I just recently started trying to build the base set and all the insert sets(it's the only base topps set I actually build...I'm usually too lazy to build baseball) and tonight I decided to hop on Cardboard Connection and see where I stand on the inserts. My god there is a million of them! I've kind of gotten used to having several insert sets but there are several that have 30 or more cards and a couple that have 60 or more. That is insane. Especially with the extreme duplication. And last year I really went hard after the sp's and am only missing about 15 of them. This year...over a 100 sp's? That's nuts. I busted a ton of it last year and pulled like 3 sp's of my own. This year the odds are way more steep if I am understanding correctly. Way more steep. So I definitely can't even begin to bust enough wax to do this, nor would I. But I figure if I put the sp set together through ebay, I'd be spending at least a grand if not way more. No thanks! They make for a great challenge but I think we are finally starting to get to the point where even building a base set with insert sets is going to cost way too much. Now I plan on snagging as much as I can from my shop, but the inserts are going to kill me paying for them online. And every year they get a little worse. I don't normally gripe about topps and their base stuff because it's what I collect. But even as a collector that knows my collection and what I spend on it will never match it's realizable value, this is a hard pill to swallow. I can't imagine people looking for a gamble or a quick bust and flip thinking this is a good idea.

I think I'm going to stick more to Panini stuff until finally there is nothing but panini for football. A lot of their inserts are a lot cooler looking. At least I can stomach them and actually want to buy them. The only bad thing is their base sets are for shame. All the griping about topps people do but at least their base sets aren't as bland as panini. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.