We started our Topps Tier One break knowing the big selling points were the on card autographs and the bat knob cards. Collectors love the former and the secondary market for the bat knob cards continues to be pretty strong. The clear acetate cards with Hall of Famer autographs on them have also been well received.
At a price point that’s within reach of most (but not all) collectors of current cards, it’s been a fairly attractive product—but as always with higher end material, it’s a roll of the dice if you’re looking for big hits. The closest card shop to me had sold out at about $111 per box (pack). Of course, with tax that is nearly $30 per card. Online, you can find them for $80-100 as of this writing.
Tier One arrived at hobby shops this month promising three cards per box—but some boxes do have four cards.
New Guard autographs are packed one per box, numbered to 399 and the checklist includes a lot of average players. There are plenty of Hall of Famers among some of the other autograph subsets, however.
Although none of Al’s customers at Triple Cards here in Texas pulled a bat knob, many collectors told the owner they have pulled some nice cards from these packs.
We did get one of the ‘lucky’ boxes with the additional card but no low number hits. Here’s what we did get:
Dual Relic: (#td to 50): Tim Lincecum
Legends Dual Relic (#d to 25); Gary Sheffield
New Guard Autograph (#d to 399): Toy Cingrani
Acclaimed Autograph Bronze Ink (#d to 25): Al Kaline
My local shop owner mentioned he thought his clientele believed the player selection not to be as strong as they would have desired. Of course, not every pack can have a Trout or a Tanaka or even a Jeter or a Pujols not to mention a legendary Hall of Famer, especially with the number of different players Topps used here to keep the cost fairly reasonable.
Would we get our money back at full retail? Not likely, with the Kaline at around $30-40, but the timing couldn’t have been better for our Lincecum pull after he became the first pitcher in more than 100 years to twice no-hit the same team.
Click here to see Tier One boxes, cases, singles and sets on eBay.
