The World Of On-Demand Card Sets

This year became the year of cards printed on demand. Topps, Panini and Leaf all have their versions available only through the company’s web site or eBay store. There are really no major differences in the actual cards, all being roughly the same thickness and simple design.

 

Topps was the first to bring their on-demand card printing service to the market and seems to currently be leading the other two companies. Not counting Topps Crossover and TPT the Topps Now cards are available for 24-hours and are $10 with free shipping and are available in a number of sports; baseball, UFC, WWE and soccer plus the Preacher show.

 

I personally like Topps process, once the cards 24-hour period is up Topps updates the checklist so you know how many cards were printed for that specific card. As for the card, they have a nice design and are your standard 20-pt thickness with a glossy coating. Even though they are roughly the same thickness of the other on-demand printing sets they do seem a bit more solid.

 

Topps Now cards are readily available on the secondary market with prices ranging greatly based on the player/event and final print numbers. You can also find numerous sellers pre-selling cards for $3-4 less than what Topps is asking. I have bought one or two Topps Now cards from Topps but most have been on the secondary market and only once have I paid more than the $10 original price (#67 Chris Iannetta).

 

Panini Instant came around shortly afterwards and now they also have Panini Eternal, a higher end version of on-demand printing. Panini does offer a slightly different process, the cards are still only available for a 24-hour period but there also parallels available with the base cards also beginning at $10 but the parallels (#/50, #/25, #/10, #/5 and #1/1) range up to $150 they also use free shipping.

 

Because of Panini’s multiple licenses they offer more sports with NFL, NBA, USA Basketball, NASCAR, and various soccer sets. What I do not like about Panini Instant is that a running checklist is not available once that sport is no longer available. So like Copa America can no longer be pulled up, though you can find the checklist on Cardboard Connection. Additionally, the print runs are not available on Panini’s site.

 

Panini Instant does not seem as popular as Topps with some print runs as low as 35 and this is odd considering they hold the only licenses for NFL, NBA and certain soccer leagues. The Panini Instant NFL cards do seem to be doing a bit better than the other products. The cards themselves are standard 20-pt cards with a nice and simple design and glossy coating. I do like that each card has the print totals on the back of the card so they will say “1 of 76” or whatever the final print run was for that card.

 

The secondary market for Panini Instant cards is definitely different than Topps Now cards, there does not seem to be as many pre-sells and many of the cards that do sell are below the original $10 price point.

 

The final on-demanding is Leaf Live, which is different than the other two companies. Leaf is using their eBay store to sell their cards, they are available for one week and they sell them at $5 with free shipping as well as lots of 10 and 25 for the same card. The cards are also intermixed, out of the six cards that have been released there have been one memorial card, one baseball card, three football and the Presidential Debate.

 

So far the five cards that have been sold out they range from #/151 up to #/250, so they seem like they are selling more than Panini Instant cards but it needs to be taken in to account that the cards are available for one week compared to 24 hours for Topps and Panini. As for secondary market there doesn’t seem to be a lot of sales yet but Leaf only started selling their Leaf Live cards since August 30^th.

 

The cards are the standard thickness but unlike the other two companies the Leaf Live cards do not have a glossy coating but they feel very similar to Panini’s cards.

 

I do have cards from all three companies, which I have used for this post, so I am not limiting myself to just one or the other but I prefer Topps Now over Panini Instant and Leaf Live. Leaf’s cards are limited to athletes they have agreements with and events so I do not see myself buying too many Leaf cards but now that the NFL season I am hoping to see Seahawks on the Panini checklist.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of Topps Now

I have been watching the various Topps Now cards and I am confounded as to which cards are seeing high activity on the secondary market. Oddly it seems like the market is based on print runs more than on the athlete or the event. It is Bizarro world where the less desirable a card is at print time the more expensive it will sell on the secondary market.

Case in point, Bartolo Colon’s card #57. This card has a print run of 8,826, topping the next highest print run by over 4,000 cards, and is regularly selling for $9-12 each. Flip to the other side with Chris Iannetta’s card #67 with a print run of 215 cards, the current lowest print run. On the day of release, before print run totals were announced, the card was selling in the $8-10 range but once the run numbers were announced the card has been actively selling in the $25-40 range.

The math just doesn’t work out for me. Colon is a potential Hall of Famer with 222 wins and 2279 Ks while Iannetta is a career backup catcher batting .231 lifetime. Yes there are only 215 Iannetta cards available but it just isn’t comparable to other limited cards. The cheapest 2016 Topps Now Chris Iannetta card currently available is $19.99 plus $2.49 or you could pick up an even more limited 2015 Topps Tribute Ken Griffey Jr relic card #/199 that just sold for $15.99.

Yes, I am slightly bitter because the Iannetta card is the only Mariners card that I don’t own yet and I really am not planning on paying $20 or more for this card. I currently have Dae-Ho Lee, card #16, Masahiro Tanaka/Hisashi Iwakuma, card #25, and Felix Hernandez, card #63, in my collection and I ordered the Leonys Martin, card #97, that was just released.

If anyone has the Chris Iannetta, card #67, on hand and is willing to work out a trade I would be interested.

Oh The Possibilities

I know that this card would never be made but it is fun to look at it as if it were.

It could be sold for Blue Jays fans by pointing out that Bautista took the punch (though his knees did buckle and his eyes went blank) and stayed on his feet but then change some text and make the exact same card but list for Odor for the Texas fans. Think of it, double up sales with minimal changes on the card KACHING$$$

Colon Hits A Dinger, Then Topps Hits A Dinger

Topps Now has had some success this season, considering that most teams have played 30-32 games Topps just topped 60 cards on the checklist with cards #59, 60 and 61 are currently available. Most cards have a run of just a couple of hundred with Melvin Upton Jr’s #24 (Walk off HR)having the lowest run of only 226 cards printed and Jake Arrieta’s #30 (No hitter) having the highest print run of 1,808 cards printed.

That was until yesterday’s release of card #57 memorializing Bartolo Colon’s first homerun at the age of 42 years old. The print run on this card is 8,826 proving that this old dog still brings in the love.

You would think that the card that will depict A-Rod’s 700^th Homerun or Ichiro’s 3,000 Hit would garner that type of attention but Colon’s first Homerun? I will admit there is something very unique about his accomplishment. He isn’t the oldest to hit a homerun, that record belongs to Julio Franco who I believe was somewhere around 83 years old when he hit it, but he has to be the oldest to hit his first homerun.

Now! Well, Maybe Not Right Now

Sometimes you have to go with what is given to you, I think Topps missed an opportunity here. The Chase Utley rule may be controversial to baseball purists but I am betting that had Topps made this card it would sell well in the Tampa area.