Sorry R2

I really hope this doesn’t become a regular type of post, but this is one of those instant regret purchases. 

I got caught up in a sentimental Star Wars moment and ended up bidding on this 2017 Topps Star Wars 40th Anniversary Buyback card, winning with a bid of $3.25. Not a break the bank type of purchase but as soon as I bid I had that little voice in the back of my mind question it but I have never retracted a bid, and if I did it would only be if I typed in a wrong amount. I also didn’t cancel the sale because I made the bid so I made the payment, my second guessing shouldn't affect a seller. At least the card does fit in my collection so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

2018 Topps Star Wars Archives Signature Series, Does It Interest You?

Topps announced a couple of Star Wars releases this year; including Finest, Galaxy and a buyback product. I am looking forward to the Star Wars Finest release in October, I just love the original Finest set from 1996.

The first product of coming out will be the buyback set, 2018 Topps Star Wars Archives Signature Series. It is a 1 card per box product and is pre-selling for around $60 from dealers. The set is built with buybacks that Topps had the actors sign and they are serial numbered and while no autograph list has been announced, Topps has said the actors signing will include all three trilogies, animated shows and spin-off films.

The price isn’t too bad when you consider some of the similar products Topps has released as online exclusives but the checklist is going to make or break the product.

Are Buy Backs Worth it?

When a company buys original cards to be included in a new product as a Buy Back should that increase the value of the card (not including autographed versions)? Does the addition of a stamp or gold foil used by many companies to indicate buy backs make a card more collectible than its original version?

With Topps recently releasing the Topps 75^th Anniversary set which includes Buy Backs from many Topps products over the last 75 years we are seeing a large increase of buy back cards from the 1960s-1980s on the market.

I got caught up in the bidding for a 1966 Batman card and ended up picking up this card for roughly the price of what the original version sells for minus the “Topps 75^th” gold foil stamp. I unfortunately did not notice that the card was seriously miss-cut (95/5).

Early Preview: ITG The History Of Hockey

In The Game is known for their hockey sets, unfortunately they do not have an NHL license, but that has never stopped them from putting out some quality releases. The newest product on the horizon is the History of Hockey release. So far no release date or price information has been announced. The product will be limited to 4,000 total packs.

Each pack/box will contain 4 cards: 1 Greatest Moments in Hockey, 1 Rookie card, 1 Autograph card and 1 Buy-Back card. The Greatest Moment cards are all hand painted original-art cards created for the set while the other 3 subsets are buy-back cards and encased as part of this set. The cards will include labels that are color coded to distinguish each category, the Greatest Moments have a silver label, the Rookie cards have a gold label, the Autographs have a white PSA/DNA label and the Buy-Backs have a green label.

Greatest Moments in Hockey:

This 145-card set will include some of the greatest moments in hockey like Wayne Gretzky’s 802^nd goal, the 1980 US Miracle on Ice and Martin Brodeur’s All-Time Wins Record. Each card in the set is hand-painted and limited, the first 60 cards in the checklist will be limited to #/10 (1 Gold version and 9 Silvers) and the remaining 85 will be limited to #/40 (10 Gold versions and 30 Silver versions).

Jared Kelly and Mike James both have artwork included in the set. The preview image that ITG released of Bobby Orr’s flying goal is one of the two cards that Jared has included in the Greatest Moments checklist. Jared included a "Before" image of the Orr card on his website showing what the card looked like before the relic was added.

Rookie cards:

ITG went out and found rookie cards of some of the greatest players ever, which they encased to protect, and included one in each pack. There are some amazing pulls here including:

1911 C55 Georges Vezina
1951-52 Parkhurst Rocket Richard
51-52 Parkie Gordie Howe
66-67 Topps Bobby Orr
2005-06 Upper Deck Young Guns Sidney Crosby

Autograph cards:

ITG bought a number of cards from various players (not sure if they purchased them already signed or had the players sign them) and then had the autographs authenticated and encased by PSA/DNA.

Buy-Backs:

ITG went out and bought 4,000 cards dating back to when they opened their doors in 1998, half of the 4,000 cards are autographs and the other half are memorabilia cards. The cards were encased and marked as part of the History of Hockey set.

Personally I would probably end up busting some of these cards out of their cases, I know that they protect the cards but if I have pull the 1911 C55 Vezina card I would have to consider selling it, which would probably sell better being graded. Most of the rookie cards would fall in to this category for me.

Leaf Best of Basketball Another Lightning Rod For Leaf?

Last summer Leaf released 2011 Leaf Best of Baseball which caught a lot of attention, including Topps’ lawyers who filed an injunction to stop the sale of the product due to Topps products being included as buyback cards. Apparently this did not scare off Brian Gray because Leaf is set to release 2012 Lead Best of Basketball, which again will include Topps, Fleer and Upper Deck cards as part of a buyback program.

The set is scheduled to be released March 28, 2012 and each box will include 2 cards and will sell around $200 each. There will be one slabbed or graded buyback card and one Leaf Best of Basketball signed card. The Best of Basketball autograph checklist includes Ricky Rubio, Magic, Scottie Pippen, Bill Russell and Dennis Rodman. Another cool thing is that there will be unopened vintage packs and even boxes that will be included in random boxes.