The Yak Shack Forum

Can CJD or anyone else explain to me what e-topps is all about?

Are they phyical cards you own or something different? Why are they e-cards?

The principle behind eTopps is quite straight-forward. This is all Sports cards at the moment, but I'll use a non-sports analogy to try to explain.

Topps say that for a new LOTR Trilogy issue, they will be offering Orlando Bloom / Legolas auto cards for $50 each with a maximum issue of 2000 cards. No need to buy packs, you get exactly the card you want & as many as you want.

Topps receive orders for 2000 cards, they are allocated to an online portfolio to all the people that ordered them & charge the credit cards accordingly. The cards are now yours to do what you want. If you physically want to take the card out of your portfolio & have them shipped to you, you can, but once out they cannot go back.

Those that leave them in can view them in their portfolio or trade them electronically with someone else in the programme who may have something you want, or you can sell them on eBay.

Lets say you notice that the trading price for this Legolas card on Ebay is valuing it at $250, you decide its time to sell. With a couple of clicks, the auction is automatically created. Once the sale is over, another clicks after you've been paid & the card is transferred electronically to their portfolio.

Think stock market, price movements etc etc. If you are only a collector, its a great way to get just the cards you want. If you want to try & make some cash, you need to keep an eye on the cards you think may rise in value. Buy low, sell high.

Simple   8)

Personally, I've not been involved that much over the last 6 months or so, priorities elsewhere. I've only got about $500 worth of cards left, but I made about $2000 over the 18 months I was wheeling & dealing.

Any other questions, just ask.

CJD

That really is very snazzy CJD!

More of a wheeler dealer thing than a collector thing but wow!

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain, now I hope they will do LOTR ones   ;D

Yeah, I especially like CJD's proposal of Orlando Bloom autographs at $50 a pop  ;)

Maybe not as outlandish as you might think.

When Topps decide on the issue quantities to offer, they have to take into account whether its a star player, rookie (new) player, some old foggie about to pop his clogs. What everyone is looking for is a fine balance between Topps getting the income they need from the original issues, to the collector/investor who wants to be able to afford to buy the cards he wants on the secondary (eBay) market.

The highest valued card at the moment is a 2001 issue of a football player named Tony Banks, at around $425. He is an absolutely crap player & there is no way his card should be valued at that, but you know why it sometimes reaches $1000+ ?

Because there were only 186 Tony Banks cards issued in 2001, thats why. Anyone who wants a complete set of 2001 has to get one & with only 186 in existance, they have to pay a price.

Its an interesting programme but unfortunately I couldn't devote as much time to it as I needed.

CJD

In this case, whether they flood the market or produce limited quantities, OB autograph prices would hit the roof!

Tony Banks?  I follow NFL I can't believe that I wouldn't let someone pay me to take a Tony Banks card!

Very interesting, it is amazing how some people are about completing a set.

You hit the nail on the head Beckham!  Another good example we are all familiar with is the Merry FOTR Auto card.  No way his card should be that valuable - only reason was the quantity of cards signed by him period!

sounds really interesting although i do like actually having my cards in my posession

The only etopps cards that are available to the UK are the ones they produced for Euro 2004 of the England team. I am not a football fan but I thought I would give it a go and managed to get a complete set of 15 and some doubles on players like Beckham. They are all sitting in my Topps account and although they have gone down in price since they were issued I hope to make a bit of a profit on them in the future.

I was just browsing ebay and I came upon an entire section for sports ecards.  Can someone explain the attraction of these?  From what I understand, you bid and buy a card, and Topps saves it for you in thier climate controled vault.  So it's kind of like trading stocks.  You have cards, but not in hand and you trade the ownership of them.   ???  And why would people want to do this?

thats strange, ive never heard of that before...

I've merged this with an old thread that might help ;)

Thanks, Roz.  ;)  Interesting idea, but it kind of takes all the fun out of it if you ask me.

I wonder if they report the transactions to the IRS?
What this will do is kill the actual card collecting.
It could lead to abuse by the companies who produce cards.
I don't know about most collectors, but I like to have the card in hand.

Why buy a card at all? Just do a screen capture and save it for free. Let's say it's a prop card.
Question: What's the difference in looking at a card on line and having it in hand? (Like a PROP card)

Answer: What's the difference in looking at a picture of apple pie and eating it?

I guess it all comes down to investing, speculating or collecting.

Yes - I agree, for me so much of the fun of the cards is receiving them through the post, or for opening up the binder and looking through them all.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy the occasional drool at cards online - after all it's nice to share the best of your collection with other friends and in turn make "ooh" noises about their cards. And since very few of us have local friends who collect cards we must do this online :)