The theme at the shop this week was big hits. While it doesn’t happen every day, that’s one piece I’d love to write about every week, considering the cost of products these days.
For a shop, there’s nothing better than our hard working, paying customers hitting it big in boxes and packs. We love to see it in person but sometimes they take the boxes with them and I hear about it later. Many times I’ll give customers my number and they will text me or reach out via Facebook Messenger with pictures of their best pulls.
One long time customer who had a rough go with various products recently, did well with a box of 2022 Optic Baseball, landing five autographs in a box that guaranteed two autographs per box. Todd hit three Rated Rookie autos, including a Spencer Strider color and a nice Alek Manoah retro auto. He said it was about time he won one… and I completely agree.
Later in the week, another customer named Russell who is a big modern football box and pack buyer, went back a few years and snagged a dusty box of 2013 Certified Football from our shelf. With a solid rookie class including Kansas City Chiefs superstar tight end Travis Kelce, DeAndre Hopkins, and with quarterback Geno Smith being fairly hot again, it was a great buy for just around a 100 bucks. He took it home with him and we joked that he would pull a Geno… and that’s exactly what he did. A Freshman Fabrics jersey and sticker auto numbered to 399 copies.
It’s interesting when a card is hot the year of release, gets ice cold and then gains some value back nearly a decade later.
The most fun of all the big pull stories from the week is one that features two of our coolest and best young customers. The Faust boys, Carson and Andy, really know their football and even though they have barely hit double digits in years on this planet, we can go back-and-forth and talk sports all day long. They are always quick to bring their binders and toploaded cards in for us to take a look at and we have some awesome conversations. Well, this week they were in and decided on a 2022 Select Draft Picks Football box.
We had talked and joked about how hot San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback Brock Purdy is right now and with the limited amount of cards of him on the market, many are going for hundreds of dollars. Well, wouldn’t you know it by the third pack in the box, one of the obys pulled a silver autographed rookie card.
As of the day we looked it up, it was selling for right around $300, so the kids were beyond excited as they were looking forward to taking it to our local card show at the beginning of the month.
The week ended with a big pull from one of our employees. Matt who is always wheeling and dealing, bought a box of 2022 Topps Triple Threads Baseball for a friend of his. When that collector opened it, there was a 1/1 Fernando Tatis booklet inside. The massive triple patch card has the classic San Diego Padres “Swinging Friar” mascot front and center. 
With us only getting a small number boxes of that product, it was definitely the talk of the shop this week– and a great way to end the week for Matt.
There were some big releases this week that included 2022 Mosaic Football, which is selling for nearly $400 a box in store and online.
We also got a full case of 2022 Panini Capstone Baseball in this week. The first year product from Panini started out of the gate hot, as we had a few customers coming in to pick them up as soon as we cracked the case and put them on the shelf.
As you can imagine, the volume of in-store shopping was down a bit last week with the holidays coming to a close, but with local schools off for the week and some parents enjoying some time off as well, we had our moments. When kids and parents are both in the shop and mom and/or dad are encouraging their kids or enjoying the hobby along with them, it’s an awesome thing to see.
Here’s wishing you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year.
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