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Thursday, July 13, 2017

Overpaying for New Product

The Cubs traded their version of Roy Hobbs, a starter who hits 100 MPH with ease, and two other fringe pieces for Jose Quintana this morning. Some are saying it's an overpay in young talent for a #2 or #3 starter. Dylan Cease, the flamethrower pitcher, was my guy. I'm bummed, but I get the move and I think it makes the Cubs better for this year and through 2020, assuming Quintana pitchers to his career numbers.

Maybe the Cubs 4-for-1 wasn't a complete overpay in talent.  Want to know what was?

Stadium Club.

I was hoping to find a retail blaster, because I knew I could get 40 cards for a twenty spot. So out the door I went. After hitting two Targets AND two Wal-Marts this morning and coming up empty I decided to bite the bullet and go to my LCS.

Why do I say that? The good people at the red and blue box stores price things at the MSRP, and they don't mark prices up because Aaron Judge is a beast. People who know cards also know supply and demand. Unfortunately, they know who Aaron Judge is.

My LCS owner bought one 16-box case and it arrived yesterday. Twelve of the boxes sold yesterday and they already opened a second box to sell individual packs. The shelves only had two unopened boxes left in less than twenty-four hours time. Wow. 

I didn't have to purchase anything, but I needed to rip something and I've been eyeing Stadium Club since the sell sheet was released some time ago. There's fifteen Cubs base cards in the base set, including Ryne Sandberg, and THE VOGELMONSTER is also in this product!  Plus, it's Stadium Club, the cards always beautiful.
So, here's what I found.  Yep, $6.99. Actually it was $7.58 after taxes for eight cards. Ouch. 
Jake Thompson seems to point to the price of the pack. Odd.
I'm a math teacher, so let's do a little math.
 Three blasters would cost $60 (with out tax) and net me 120 cards out of the 300-card set.
Anyone else thing Strasburg looks completely different without facial hair?
Buying fifteen hobby packs at my LCS would also achieve 120 cards, but fifteen times $6.99 is $104.85.  That's quite a difference.
If you're a Boston fan and pull a Cub, then let me know! We need to trade!
 You may be saying, "Hold on now! There's a big difference between retail and hobby!"  Yes, I suppose you're right.

Gold Parallel of a guy with a 0.100 batting average. Ouch.
But, know your blogger/collector. I'm not an autograph hound. Sure, they move the needle a little bit for me, but so does a cool looking base card.

And you know what Stadium Club is known for?  That's right: Cool Looking Base Cards.
Fine example of the photography Stadium Club is known for!
I was seriously thinking about building the 2017 Stadium Club set from packs. (You should see the watch list in my Ebay account.)  I don't know if I'll pull the trigger now.

For now I'll have to settle on the fact that I overpaid for one pack of Stadium Club.  But man, that Nolan Arenado card is pretty sweet!
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13 comments:

  1. MattJuly 13, 2017 at 2:17 PM

    Base cards look nice as always. Really like the photos on these

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Lost CollectorJuly 13, 2017 at 2:25 PM

    That's one of my biggest pet peeves with LCS - how expensive packs are. I'm glad you did the math - shows why blasters can be a better bang for your buck for the same number of cards.

    ReplyDelete
  3. GCAJuly 13, 2017 at 2:58 PM

    I can't ever justify buying packs of this, or Finest, or Chrome, because the per-card cost is so much higher. I'll wait for the shows (like this weekend) and get base cards for ten cents apiece.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. P-town TomJuly 13, 2017 at 3:21 PM

      Yeah, I'm thinking about heading to Wisconsin for a show this weekend. What I find (or don't find) will sway my decision on to collect the set or not.

      Delete
  4. Tony BurbsJuly 13, 2017 at 4:50 PM

    You may have overpayed here, but I truly don't think the Cubs did to get Quintana. They paid market value and got a top of the rotation type pitcher, on a team friendly deal, with several years of control - basically,exactly what they wanted. Eloy and Dylan look like great prospects, but they probably weren't going to be up in time to help in the current window of contention. Here's hoping they make us look too foolish on down the road though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. P-town TomJuly 13, 2017 at 9:16 PM

      Yeah, after a little bit more time to think on it I'm tending to agree with you. One must give up quality to gain quality.

      Delete
  5. BaseSetCallingJuly 13, 2017 at 6:15 PM

    29¢ a card if purchased as a complete set on eBay; 52¢ a card if purchased in blasters - except you will also get some inserts; 94¢ if purchased at current-as-I-type price for a Hobby Box

    packs and boxes of baseball cards are really just lottery tickets these days.

    these sets are a joy to put in a binder and keep though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. P-town TomJuly 13, 2017 at 9:18 PM

      Yep, lottery tickets. But, I still like to rip packs. A big winner for me is finding a Cubs card and 5% of the 300-card checklist makes me a winner.
      Maybe I can find a box buster on Ebay who is looking to rid themselves of their base cards? I can hope, right?

      Delete
  6. Scribbled InkJuly 13, 2017 at 9:45 PM

    $7 a pack. We're starting to get treated like smokers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. NickJuly 13, 2017 at 10:55 PM

    I know I'll probably be able to find Stadium Club singles for loose change at the National in a couple weeks, but I doubt that'll stop me from picking up a few packs of the stuff. As is the (sometimes) impatience of a card collector.

    ReplyDelete
  8. FujiJuly 14, 2017 at 8:13 AM

    I have a feeling that this will be the first time since the return of Stadium Club that I won't be adding a set of this product to my collection. Oh well... saves me some room. One less binder on my bookshelf.

    ReplyDelete
  9. acrackedbatJuly 16, 2017 at 2:36 PM

    i love this product but because of Judge hype, it and most others are overpriced this year. SC is not a high end release and at $7 a pack, that's just too much! I always get a couple boxes to bust but did not open my wallet this year. I came up with 20 cards from the check list that are must haves for me - one was the Altuve SP which I just picked up for 99 cents on Ebay!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Adam KaningherJuly 19, 2017 at 10:36 PM

    That Arenado is one of the best Coors Field cards ever!

    ReplyDelete