Although we are headed into the fourth quarter of our calendar year and revving up for the craziness of the holiday season that is to come, I wanted to put the brakes on for a brief moment and reflect back to some of the sports card products that have sold best for us so far this year.
We have a saying in our store that football is king, so that’s as good a place as any to start the aforementioned list.
1. 2021 Certified Football
With two autographs and two memorabilia cards per box, on average, the five card per pack 10 pack boxes have really flown off the shelves for us since release. Certified (about $450 per box online right now) has always been a strong seller for us over the past few years as we have a number of customers who will literally come in and buy multiple boxes and sit and break them right in our store. To be completely honest, last year’s product had very impressive results. We saw cases of this product opened in store and I did not see a single dud of a box.
It’s safe to say that the buzz created in store carried over to the new season and I’m sure there’s truth to that but we’ve also sold the heck out of this product online again this year. We sold our initial offering of nearly 50 single boxes that we posted online in just over 72 hours. We had a quick restock that allotment sold out just as fast only a few days later. Some of that can be attributed to the great rookie class, too.
2. 2020 Select Football
Although this is technically a 2020 product, it was actually released in April of 2021. Select really caught fire for us in every shape, form and fashion. A retail exclusive, we got our hands on megas, blasters and everything in between. We could barely keep this product in stock. We saw a good bit of it opened in store, too, and it did not disappoint.
There is a plethora of colors, die cuts, parallels, inserts and numbered cards to try to keep everyone happy and that’s exactly what Select Football did with their 2020 offering. Panini seems to have printed a lot of it and online prices have dropped.
3. 2020 Chronicles Football
Another 2020 product that hit shelves well into 2021, the Chronicles line came onto the scene a few years ago as a smorgasbord of Panini products jammed into one. Whether it be basketball or baseball or football, it sells quite well. The 2020 football version was no different as we sold out of this product multiple times over. In actuality, we had one of our regulars open a box as I was writing this piece and he hit rookie after rookie and was beyond happy with his autographs especially at the reasonable price point that Chronicles can be found.
With the red hot 2020 quarterback rookie class of Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa and Joe Burrow, this was a hit with collectors. Drawing from so many different brands means you do sometimes find multiple rookie cards of star players in the very same pack. This doesn’t lead to much secondary value but it is definitely a fun product to crack.
1. 2021 Prizm Baseball
Even with a lack of an official Major League Baseball license, Prizm Baseball was a bottom of the ninth, grand slam home run for us. We have a few customers who come in almost every single day to buy more Prizm baseball. The lack of the logos does not hurt this product as the Prizm name carries weight and with the high quantity of parallels and colors and nice hits it has sold really well for us. We really saw some quality cards being pulled from packs in the shop and sold good quantities of Hobby, Megas blasters and even the Fast Pitch version in store and online.
In the current market, Prizm Baseball remains a relatively affordable product, too, and that’s definitely helped sales.
2. 2021 Immaculate Baseball
Again, another baseball product that lacks the official logos and insignias, was a home run for us. Boasting for autographs and two memorabilia cards per box, this one was a hit with current pricing at $350-$375 per box. We sold eight boxes in a single day and after a quick restock we sold out same day once again. We sold Immaculate in quantity to people on eBay and elsewhere online. It’s a product that if we could keep getting in we would keep doing it over and over and over again.
Immaculate tries hard as a higher end product to offer high-end hits even though they lack logos. Generally, that’s not a winning combination but in this case it was.
1. 2020-21 Select Basketball
2020-21 Select Basketball might have sold out as quick as anything we’ve had all year. There are certain products where we barely put it on the shelf and we’re turning around to sell it either in the store or on eBay. Select definitely fell into that category this season. There were multiple times where I would walk to the shelf to ship a box or two only to have to turn right back around and grab two more to ship.
With LaMelo Ball fever in full effect this product hit at the right time and offers a wide range of nice hits, colorful inserts and other goodies to keep collectors happy. The hobby only Zebra Prizms were white hot.
Coming in at a price tag of north of $800 per hobby box, sales of this product are notable at the shop and there are other configurations as well.
2. 2021-21 Prizm Basketball Retail
As per usual, Prizm basketball started hot out of the gate. Sales did slow as the season played out but for whatever reason we sold retail very, very well. A combination of the product breakdown and the price point (currently around $300) clearly played a role into that fact. The retail version offers one autograph per box coupled with 12 Prizms and 12 more inserts, so it’s a great bang for the buck when compared to Prizm hobby boxes. The retail exclusive Pink Pulsars are a nice addition in retail as well.
Well, that’s a pretty straightforward overview of what’s been selling for us at the shop so far this year and especially over the last few months. That could change by the day as 2021 Donruss Football looks like it will be a huge seller. With a release date last week, we have already run through quite a bit of it.
