Nonsense Newsletter No. 101: Little piggies go to the market first, the grading dilemma, 1981 golf cards, Stadium Club delays and much more!
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In this week’s edition of the Nonsense Newsletter, John Dudley talks about first-to-market issues and a very interesting experiment he conducted. I, on the other hand, talk about grading cards. Oh, and the Quick Hits section is dope (that’s what all the kids say nowadays they tell me) once again this week. So let’s take this all in this week and enjoy this edition of the Nonsense Newsletter.
Contributor: John Dudley
A while back, I started enforcing a buying embargo of two weeks after release for singles from new products. The reasoning is that the first couple of weeks of sales are inflated by the dreaded (by buyers) first-to-market premium. Anecdotally, it has worked very well and saved my bank account I’m guessing between 10% and 30% on average per card. I am always skeptical of big ranges like that and anecdotal data in general though, so I want to tackle the question of just how big the first-to-market premium is in the first place.
A Test
I’ve been meaning to track the pricing cycle for a new release for a while, but 2023 Topps Update seems like as good a candidate as any to test it. It’s a wide release so there should be no problem getting data and it also has a wide variety of cards so I can track cheap cards to fairly expensive ones. It also has the advantage of being the product next to come out when I decided I finally wanted to track the pricing over a few months. I’ll keep track of the pricing and update you all in two to three months.
Contributor: John McTaggart
Back in the day, when I first tinkered with this hobby, there was no such thing as a graded card.
There was no PSA 10s or SGC Gold labels or BGS Black labels for that matter either.Â
It was just a card, and a variety of opinions on what condition a particular card was in at that moment.Â
I can remember arguments across dealer tables, people studying the corners and edges for minute upon minute assessing the condition.Â
I can remember lengthy discussions about what it means to be in mint condition, and what it means to be in near-mint condition.Â
Then, the occasional slab came along… and was usually chuckled at by most back then.Â
No one really understood the concept.
No one really could wrap their minds around someone else telling them what the condition is of a particular card.Â
And, of course, the encasing of the card really blew people’s minds.Â
Quick Hits
Hobby News- Stadium Club is one of the most anticipated releases of the year, but sadly won’t show up on shelves until next year. The fan-favorite set was pushed back to January which also raises questions about other Topps’ releases on the calendar. The set will still be chock full of goodness, but it is a bit disheartening not to get it during the baseball season.Â
Vintage- Something near and dear to my heart here — golf. And something even more near-and-dear to me — golf cards. This 1981 Donruss golf set started it all, too, and for that, I am grateful. Read more about this groundbreaking set of cards by clicking here.
Hobby News- In other troubling news from Topps, there is a kerfuffle brewing over the reduction in cards-per-pack and boxes per-pack of 2023 Topps Update Hobby boxes. All told, the boxes will have 96 fewer cards than advertised. The number of inserts is said to be unaffected, but skeptics then have to wonder about the stated odds. It’s a bad look for Topps and they’ve offered those who preordered boxes from the Topps website the option to get a refund. No word yet on if they have any plans to do anything for those who bought boxes elsewhere.
Grading News- CGC saw massive increases in their grading numbers on GemRate’s grading volume tracker. It is worth wondering if this is perhaps a function of their card database being updated rather than indicative of their actual grading volume for September. The increase bucks the trend of declining numbers and is difficult to make sense of in the absence of any steep discounts. I’ll be curious to track their progress over the next few months.
The Sports Card Nonsense newsletters reflect the opinions of only the authors and contributors. They are for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation for purchases or of an investment strategy or to buy or sell any assets.