What's Hot: Darkness Doesn't Dampen Denver Show; Top 5 Sellers

It’s been a busy summer and while the shop has been hopping, the biggest highlight wrapped up late last month. The second edition of the All Cards Weekend in Denver drew collectors, dealers and curious folks to one of the region’s biggest shows since–well, our last one.

Last year, my partner (www.denvercardshows.com) and I put on a 190 table show right before the MLB All Star Game. This year we were able to offer our collectors a show closer to 250 tables in a larger location and it was incredible. It is amazing to see all the levels of planning it takes and it reminded me of planning my wedding, but with no rings, DJ or catering issues.

We hosted Denver favorites like Jake Plummer, Rod Smith, Justin Simmons, Javonte Williams, Patrick Surtain and more without any issues.

Well, there was one issue I guess…

On Friday night, 15 minutes before the show closed, we suffered a total power outage and aside from the emergency lights, we were completely dark until seemingly every collector turned on their phone flashlights to complete deals.

Did they grab boxes and run for the door? Nope, we literally had to (nicely) encourage our guests to make it to an exit in spite of near total darkness except for what looked like 500 fireflies across the room.

My partner and I are already looking forward to next year when we can hopefully double up on shows for the Denver area, hopefully with full power until we close for the night.

In addition to the card show, we sold a few boxes at the shop last month. Here’s what seemed to be the best received 5 releases:

1) 2022 Panini Luminance NFL

This annual early NFL release has been flying out of the gate since it landed late in August. Boxes started off around $250 and have gone to about $280. Boxes offer a healthy three autographs and a relic card, which is nice to offer a product with one hit per pack.

Collectors are excited to see it back and to see box prices as affordable as these started since early on, the current year rookie class didn’t ride in with the hype we have seen in previous years. Having 12 rookies per box doesn’t hurt and we just need Kenny Pickett to be the second coming of Ben Roethlisberger.

2) 2022 Panini Chronicles UFC

A bit of a surprise to see a UFC release doing as well as this one has but with two autographs, loads of brands mixed together and a sub- $200 price, collectors have been fighting to get these boxes. Some of the sets you can find in Chronicles include Noir, Flux, Legacy, Gala, Phoenix, One, Recon, Contenders, Contenders Optic, Absolute, Crown Royale and National Treasures.

The affordability of this release has helped it fly better than most other recent UFC products.

3) 2022 Topps Chrome Star Wars The Mandalorian Beskar Edition

So while I have Disney Plus, I have yet to watch any of the Star Wars shows on there yet. It didn’t stop me from watching the run of movies while at the shop on Labor Day. While the most recent Star Wars Finest release has become more affordable, the new Chrome Mandalorian release has held its value rather well.

Boxes offer either an autograph or a sketch card and if you weren’t aware, collectors favor the sketch cards for the most part. It is cool to see that there are Superfractor autos as well as single, dual and triple signed cards for less than $150 per box.

4) 21/22 Upper Deck Black Diamond NHL

I go back with Black Diamond so far that I remember it having 24 packs per box and the coolest thing out there were four diamond die-cut cards. Black Diamond returns in its recent format with five Black Diamond singles and the ever popular single Exquisite card. They include one autograph or diamond relic, a base card and three UD Black Diamond cards.

Boxes are rolling for a bit over $300 per and I currently find myself without any after moving my last case over the weekend.

5) 2021 Skybox Marvel Metal Universe Spider-Man

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever an incredibly well received card set can. When I was solicited for this release some time ago, I had my hopes up that it would be well received and those hopes were not dashed. Collectors have only grown more fond of the elusive and hobby friendly Precious Metal Gems and Comic Cuts Clippings with cut out pieces from original Spider-Man comics. There are also possible autos from both writer Gerry Conway and penciller Mark Bagley.

We had boxes at $400 on day one and if we still had them, they would be over $600 a box based on the most recent math.

Looking back, that might be the most eclectic Hot List group I’ve ever seen. We did sell a great many MLB and NBA boxes, but they didn’t make the cut this month.

Looking ahead, I am already looking forward to Museum Collection MLB, 2021 Skybox Metal Universe Champions Multi-Sport, Gold Standard NFL, National Treasures Road To World Cup Soccer, Topps Chrome MLB and many other September offerings we’ll have available.

Mike Fruitman owns Mike’s Stadium Sportscards in Aurora, CO. His column normally focuses on what products are selling best in hobby shops. He’s got thousands of cards for sale on COMC.com under the ID cardmn5150. You can email him at [email protected].