Think you can make money selling current year baseball card cases and boxes? It’s sort of like going to the race track. You can grab some information and make an educated guess but you really never whether that horse will act like the second coming of Secretariat or wind up in a claiming race. Topps 2011 baseball products have included nearly 
two dozen different cases since the first was launched last winter. Most shop owners and online dealers feel they have to carry virtually everything to appeal to a wide ranging audience and not miss a potentially hot product. It’s a huge investment– and a huge risk.
In a simple, unscientific, but interesting look at how this year’s products have fared, Colin Tedards of Sports Card Radio tracked the original dealer cost of 23 different 2011 Topps cases compared to what the lowest priced cases are bringing right now on eBay and found a fairly even split between ongoing profit makers and profit takers. It doesn’t take into account important factors involved in doing business like seller’s fees and other overhead, which may cut into that margin.
Eleven cases are still resulting in some profit, but five of those would result in the dealer netting less than $100 per case if he’s still trying to sell them.
There were some real winners…and some surprises that could have meant a tidy profit. There were also some stinkers in the lot that left dealers holding the bag if they didn’t sell quickly.
If nothing else, it’s a pretty good snapshot of what the most popular 2011 Topps products were. Check it out here.
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