Top 15 2014 Topps Series 1 Card Sales – 5 Case Breakdown

When we last left the blog, we were asking everyone to stay tuned for more details of our case breaking resurgence.  We opened 5 jumbo cases of 2014 Topps, and our intention was to showcase stuff on here to help facilitate more sales.  Life kinda got in the way of all that.  We still tried to sell things as quickly as possible, but the venues had to be limited.  Overall, our foray back into case breaking ended up losing money, and trying to balance a quickly escalating workload with the task of unloading tens of thousands of cards proved to be a lot less fun than it was when the real job didn’t get in the way.  I won’t say I’d never do it again, but it’s certainly not a business plan.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff.  From our 5 cases of Topps, here were the 15 biggest money makers, with the lowest total price with shipping at the #15 slot, working our way up to the most expensive purchased and paid for by some kind soul.

I got my eye on you, McDevitt

15) 75th Anniversary Buyback lot of 56 cards (1959-1979) – $53.88

If time allowed, I would have liked to split this into team lots.  I think we would have been able to get over $1 per card that way, especially when talking about Dodgers and Yankees.  As it stood, we held on to these a bit too long, lotted them out and took a bit of a “loss.”

Big names not shown on purpose

14) Gold Border “Starter Set” lot of 107 cards – $53.99

At about 50 cents a pop, this wasn’t too bad.  Starter set is a loose term when talking about 330, but considering 5 cases wasn’t going to get us a full set by any means, and there were no dupes, pretty happy with this.

Bo knows stickers

13) Bo Jackson Trajectory Auto – $54.00

I remember this price plateaued quickly.  It was at $54 with a few days left and I expected another little flurry of bids at the end, but it never happened.

asd

12) Power Player Near Hobby Set 29 of 55 cards Unused codes – $56.00

11) Power Player Near Hobby Set 51 of 55 cards Unused codes – $64.49

Never underestimate the power of these contest cards.  Sad that we didn’t get an actual full set after all those boxes.

“Gem” mint

10) Nolan Ryan Rookie Class Rings Gold Gems Relic SP #07/25 – $79.00

Happy with the final price, but it’s another I thought might go higher considering the rarity and the player.  I really like the manurelic stuff Topps has produced these past few years.

“Trophy” mint

9) Cal Ripken Jr. Rookie Cup All-Stars Trophy Vintage SP #23/25 – $80.77

Here’s another of the same type of thing.  These gold parallels have a different inserted rookie cup trophy than the regular ones, which was a nice touch.

Star power to drive interest

8) Red Hot Foil Starter/Near Set lot of 174 cards – $90.55

I have to say that this surprised me.  Since there is no numbering, I figured demand would be low on this year’s sparkly, glitzy variant.

Will he sign?  Did he sign?  I haven’t checked.

7) Bryce Harper Trajectory Auto Redemption – $92.34

Yeah, that’s right.  A Bryce Harper auto that may never be made garnered more money than a Bo Jackson auto.  There are still a lot of people banking on a future Harper collecting contingent.  I’m pretty sure redemptions were minimal here, though.

check the cleat

6) 3 sparkle variation SPs (Jay Bruce, Nick Castellanos, Pablo Sandoval) – $107.50 (sold separate to same guy)

This may be kind of cheating on the list, but it was one total sale, so I’m counting it.  Topps has some serious master collectors, and I’m happy to be of slight service.

sweet patch

5) Felix Doubront World Series Auto Patch SP #47/50 – $116.61

Imagine how much higher this would have gone if we found a different player.  I’m not trying to badmouth Felix, but he’s not the first name that comes to mind from that World Series team.  Team collectors can be equally crazy sometimes.  In a good way.

Not a “U”

4) Robinson Cano In the Name Letter Patch “O” 1/1 – $118.05

I think this is the first time we’ve pulled one of these things, although I could easily be wrong.  They’re pretty cool regardless.

This better be in the top three!

3) Ken Griffey Jr. All-Rookie Cup Team Auto #50/50 – $119.50

Wow.  What a thrill it was to find this Griffey Jr. auto in the pack.  I think the price may have been slightly hurt by the cut off auto at the top of the sticker, but probably not by much, and it’s hard to complain about a $120 sale.

Masterful

2) Master Set of 510 cards with all 6 insert sets – $120.00

This is what really hurt us.  First, we didn’t set up a master set pre-sale because it’s not a guarantee, even with 5 cases.  The odds worked out for us, but I think we still only managed 1 master set.  A second one would have been a big boost.

The king of this round

1) Mike Trout Upper Class Auto Relic SP #17/25 – $122.50

Another amazing card of a bonafide superstar with great rarity.  Still, despite that, it was slightly more than $120.  We had a lot of great hits, but none of them reached that upper echelon of sale prices.  In the past, we’ve hit one or two that went above $200.

Still, like I said, it was a lot of fun to rip and share, and to watch those bids come in.  I would love to take on cases on a smaller scale one day, but even with some of these bigger hits, it is a losing proposition.  Ebay has made things harder now too.  That’s a topic for another time.

I hope you enjoyed seeing what 5 cases could get you.  If you’re wondering, we do still have leftovers.  I’d be happy to look and sell you any set needs you might have from 2014 Series 1, or parallels, or inserts.  Let me know what you’re looking for, and I can get back to you with the scraps we have available.

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