There seems to have been a (potential) miscalculation from Topps on their 50/50 Shohei Ohtani collection. Retailing at just under $240 for 10 packs of 5 cards (or 1 pack with 5 cards for $25), the set sold out pretty quickly on Topps.com - “Hey, Mr. Fickle, that doesn’t sound like a miscalculation to me!” - however, it has been met with aversion from a certain corner of the Internet. And perhaps for good reason.
Firstly, within each 10-pack box you are only guaranteed one parallel or short print. The odds aren’t all that great if you’re looking to chase something big, meaning: base cards galore!
Which gets me to my second point. For nearly $250 per box, with 50 cards in a box and a 100-card checklist you’re basically saying for $500 and the universe “owing you one (big time!)” you can complete the set. But you won’t, because the universe doesn’t treat us that way. It will take a massive investment to complete what could have been a pretty cool set. Just ask Geoff Wilson.
But what if Topps made the set of 100 base cards available to buy for $25 - no autos, no parallels, just 100 cards of (arguably) the world’s most famous human and potentially the greatest player to ever live? And at the same time they could sell a $1,200 set with a pack that includes 5 parallels (one of which could be a potential auto)?
I know why they don’t do that, but if Topps is looking to grow this hobby in a way that creates fans for life, they should actually consider a set like this in the future.
More hot takes like this in Mail Day this week- give it a read! https://www.onmantel.com/news/50%2F50-on-the-ohtani-collection-but-all-in-on-banchero-35f66d58-6a07-4155-b768-0ffbef11faf7
