Friday Marketwatch and Super Tuesday

As of today, February 1 the following are stats covering the last 7 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 294
Sell-Through: 42.54%
Average starting price: $5.95
Average final price: $12.32

Highest Sale: 1952 Mickey Mantle etopps re-print at $99
Highest Graded Sale: Chris Paul rookie (BGS 9.5) at $45
Highest Autograph Sale: BJ Upton RC /50 at $70

Other best sellers:
Joba Chamberlain
Allen & Ginter President cards
2001 Jimmy Rollins (Auto)

Received most bids that sold well:
Allen & Ginter Ronald Reagan: 14

Yesterday, etoppers who choose to receive updates from etopps received the following email:

eTopps presents a special Allen & Ginter Presidential set featuring Presidential hopefuls including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and John McCain.
The collection will be beautifully designed and delivered via the classic Allen & Ginter brand (even staying true to the original Allen & Ginter size), but brought to life on stunning eTopps technology. The collection will capture the lasting bond between U.S. President and America’s favorite pastime. The cards will be offered individually, encased and be sequentially numbered*. *While the Allen & Ginter eTopps cards differ in size from regular eTopps cards, they will continue to be encased in our standard sized eTopps tamper-evident, plastic case with eTopps sticker. The cards will be placed into a fitted frame and then fixed inside of the case.
This special collection will be offered on Super Tuesday! ONE DAY ONLY! Presidential Performance Bonus Points: Those lucky eTopps users who own the Democratic nomination or the Republican nomination in their portfolio will receive 2 bonus reward points per winning card in-port! Note: For the Democratic Candidate, the winner’s card must be in-port at midnight (12AM, EST) on August 28th and for the Republican Candidate, the winner’s card must be in-port at midnight (12AM, EST) September 4th. Bonus! Buy ALL 4 Presidential Candidate Cards being offered, and you will receive a FREE pack of 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Edition in your portfolio! In order to receive the free pack, all 4 of the offered Presidential Candidates cards must be allocated into your portfolio. For every 4 Presidential Candidate cards you are allocated, you will get 1 free pack of 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Hobby Edition. Please note: The free pack will be directly placed into your online portfolio 1 – 2 days after the regular allocation process. The pack will be treated as merchandise. Be sure to visit eTopps on Super Tuesday, February 5th! Cards go on sale at 9AM EST and are available through MIDNIGHT (12AM EST). One day only! You do not want to miss out! As always, please feel free to contact our Customer Service team at 'support@etopps.com' if you ever have any questions, comments or suggestions. A customer service representative will be available to assist you between the hours of 9:00am - 4:30pm (ET), Monday through Friday. Thank you once again for your continued support of eTopps! Sincerely, The eTopps Team

Now that we're down to four candidates, the set is a little more appealing though the incentive to keep the right ones in-port for the whopping 2 reward points is not. A few years ago, reward points were decided to be the equivalent to $1.25 each. So by holding onto the right presidential candidate card, you'll get the equivalent of $2.50 per card.

This is almost insulting when you can trade junk for points on the trade post now and accumulate 2 reward points with a couple of trades. 5 reward points would have been more respectable. 10 reward points would have been appealing, considering you need more than 5 reward points to get an etopps card shipped for free.

While I like the one-day IPO offer (as opposed to a week for regular cards and a few days on average for Restricted Rookie Offerings), I still find buying the whole set unappealing. With this announcement, I am more skeptical they will offer a shipping discount since they are doing the opposite this time - throwing a bone to hold the cards until August or September.

Also on Super Tuesday, etoppers will be allowed to vote on the design for 2008 Baseball. I always like this and have been successful at voting the design that is chosen...until last 2007 Baseball when etoppers chose a "retro" look.

From the home page you can view three of the designs will be available and one of them is a design from a former year of Topps baseball. Retro meaning in the last 20 years. I hope there will be more than just these three choices. My idea of retro is the 1970s Topps designs such as 1979, 1975 and 1973.

Why can't etoppers submit design ideas? Etopps can choose the best ones from the community to vote on. They could provide a program we can download from the home page that gives us all the tools we would need to design the card. Make it a contest. If I designed a set, I would begin by making it a landscape design like the NASCAR set.

How would you design a new baseball set?