Obama: Spike-Sleeper

If you haven't figured it out already, The Spikes of 2002 will never happen again.

If you haven't figured it out already, The Spikes of 2006 thanks to the fantasy games of baseball and football probably will most likely not happen again.

And if you haven't already figured it out, we're in a one-card spike right now: the Allen and Ginter Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.

Spikes do not happen that often anymore in etoppsland thanks to pumping and dumping and less seldomly, heavy ownership/accumulation by one or more etoppers.

I'm trying to recall when was the last time we had a one-card spike that occurred at least 6+ months afterwards (excluding cards of players that have been offered as an autograph).

I think it was the 2001 Albert Pujols. His spike did not occur until 2003.

There should be a name for this etopps phenomenon: spike-sleeper.

Which card will be next? It's either sleeping or it hasn't been issued yet.

Got Barack?

We want to make money from etopps.

We want to buy the cards low and sell them high.

And now there's a card that can give you this.

Thanks to the election of our 44th President, Barack Obama.

If you have a Barack Obama in-hand card, now is the time to sell. At your (fixed) price and by offering free shipping you get the free subtitle below the listing title.

If you have the Barack Obama in-port, sell it as well but just be prepared if the buyer has no clue about etopps and just wants the card.

And kudos to all of you who took the risk of buying this card on the secondary market when it was under $40 in hopes of doubling your money. Because now you can.

Special Discounted Shipping Offer for Allen & Ginter Super Bowl Champions and Presidential Candidates Sets until 3/31

From the etopps website:

Special Discounted Shipping Offer with Matching Sequential Numbers!

The Allen & Ginter eTopps Super Bowl Champions Collection will be ready to ship the end of the month. We are offering special discounted shipping between March 17, 2008 and March 31, 2008. If ALL 6 cards from the collection are present in your portfolio and you request delivery of the six cards during this window you will receive the cards with a special shipping discount of $9.99 per set, and we guarantee each card will have matching sequential numbers (for example, the Troy Aikman card will be 5 of 999, the John Elway card will be 5 of 999, the Terry Bradshaw card will be 5 of 749, etc).

IMPORTANT: Offer is valid for delivery of ALL SIX Allen & Ginter Super Bowl Champions Cards ONLY. No other combination of cards will be eligible for the discounted shipping. While there is no limit on the number of groups of six you may request through this offer, each group is subject to its own discounted shipping price. eTopps rewards points cannot be used towards this special shipping offer. Should you request delivery of the six cards after March 31, 2008 you will be subject to regular shipping costs and we can no longer guarantee the sequential numbers on the 6 cards will match.

I tried ordering a set and noticed a few things:

• The announcement states that the set will be available at the end of this month for delivery rather than the scheduled 4/25/08 date even though this April date is still listed for these cards if you go to the Take Delivery page.
  
• When placing my order, I received this message after accepting the terms of condition sale: " Due to a communication error with our Credit Card Processor, we are unable to process your delivery request at this time.
  However, our technical staff has been notified of the error and will be working on resolving this issue as promptly as possible.
  Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this matter."
• When checking out, the cost is $8.99 rather than $9.99

Since registering on etopps almost 6 years ago, this is the first time I ever experienced a problem in processing my credit card order.

Update: After about half an hour from the time the offer became available, credit card orders can be processed and will be charged $9.99 for the set. Whether they will be shipped at the end of the month remains to be seen.

Update (Again): From the etopps home page and link from the home page:

Special Discounted Shipping Offer with Matching Sequential Numbers!

The Allen & Ginter eTopps Presidential Candidate Hopeful cards will be ready to ship the end of the month. We are offering special discounted shipping between March 17, 2008 and March 31, 2008. If ALL 4 cards from the set are present in your portfolio and you request delivery of the set during this window you will receive the set with a special shipping discount of $7.99 per set, and we guarantee each card in the set will have matching sequential numbers (for example, the Hillary Clinton card will be 5 of 999, the Barack Obama card will be 5 of 999, the Mitt Romney card will be 5 of 999, and the John McCain card will be 5 of 999). If you received a free pack of 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter at the time of allocation and still have the pack in your port, and wish to take delivery on it at this time, the discounted shipping rate of $7.99/set will include the free pack.

IMPORTANT: Offer is valid for delivery of ALL FOUR Allen & Ginter Presidential Candidate Hopeful eTopps cards (and the Free Pack of 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter if applicable) ONLY. No other combination of cards will be eligible for the discounted shipping. While there is no limit on the number of groups of four you may request through this offer, each group is subject to its own discounted shipping price. eTopps rewards points cannot be used towards this special shipping offer. Should you request delivery of the four cards after March 31, 2008 you will be subject to regular shipping costs and we can no longer guarantee the sequential numbers on the 4 cards will match.

Friday & February Marketwatch - February 29

As of today, February 29 the following are stats covering the last 7 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 402
Sell-Through: 57.21%
Average starting price: $5.43
Average final price: $10.42

Highest Single Card Sale: 2007 Bill Clinton Allen and Ginter $44.99
Highest Mult-Card Sale: Mickey Mantle Collection (set of 18): $449.95
Highest Graded Sale: 2003 LeBron James RC (PSA 10) at $46.99
Highest Autograph Sale: 2007 Adrian Peterson $310.00

Other best sellers:
2006 Allen & Ginter Presidents Set
2007 Ryan Braun Autographed Card
2007 WWE Torrie Wilson Autographed Card
2007 Brandon Roy
1958 Mickey Mantle reprint

In-hand listing (not including graded or autographed) that received most bids that sold well:
Alex Rodriguez 6-card Lot: 20

The following are stats covering the last 30 days on ebay for etopps in-hands:

Quantity of etopps in-hands listings: 1,205
Sell-Through: 52.78%
Average starting price: $3.37
Average final price: $10.88

Highest Sale: (tie) 2007 Tim Lincecum, Allen & Ginter Ronald Reagan: $49.99
Highest Graded Sale: 2001 Albert Pujols RC (BGS 9.5) at $130.00
Highest Autograph Sale: 2007 Adrian Peterson $310.00

Other best sellers:
Mickey Mantle Set
2006 Allen & Ginter President Set
2007 Adrian Peterson
2003 Tom Brady

In-hand listing (not including graded or autographed) that received most bids that sold well:
Alex Rodriguez 6-card Lot: 20

This was the month of Allen & Ginter for etopps. Usually February is an off-month, being between football and baseball. We had the A&G Super Bowl Champions set, Super Tuesday, voting for the 2008 Baseball design, Adrian Peterson's autograph (the best offering in football since LaDainian Tomlinson), discounted in-hand shipping and reward points allocation. Kudos to etopps for making this anything but an off-month.

I will be surprised if etopps can out-do themselves in March. The 2007 Football Playoff teams are supposed to become available for shipping and we may see the first 2008 Baseball IPOs at the end of the month since the season officially starts prior to April.

One word of caution for etopps: slow down with Allen & Ginter. We now have four sets, three of the last four have been issued since last Fall. I think it should be left alone and let the secondary market absorb it. We're seeing very good sales for the first A&G set sold as singles and hopefully the same will happen for the SB Champs and the Presidential candidates (that is, the ones who are left in the race).

The Moments & Milestones Set is steadily selling around $100 this past month. It's not outperforming the Presidents set but may do better as the baseball season nears.

Thanks for voting on this blog for where to have the econ this summer. It was almost a tie between Las Vegas and another city. These two choices combined (59% of the vote) would have trumped Chicago (37%).

Have a good weekend and Happy Leap Year Day (my wife's birthday).

Super Tuesday, Adrian Peterson Auto coming on Thursday

As expected for today's Super Tuesday on etopps, the Allen and Ginter Presidential Candidate set is now being offered and only today. Each print run is 999 and they all cost $8 except from Mitt Romney who's card is $6. What they should have done was charge more for Romney but have a print run less than the others.

I ordered all but Romney and wouldn't expect much of a shipping deal for the set since etopps would have posted this by now on the home page or in the email that went out to etoppers recently.

Better news is the current autograph offering: Adrian Peterson. Etoppers have been waiting for this one. 195 will be offered at $99 each on Thursday at 1pm EST. You can buy up to two per etopps account which is not bad.

When this offering first showed up on the homepage late yesterday morning, I ordered two from cardtarget not seeing when it would be offered. On the homepage, it said it would be offered on 2/4/08 at 1pm est. I called customer service to verify this and they said this was a mistake. Not long ago this would not have been a mistake. At one time, etoppers had no idea what would show up on the homepage for each week's IPO or what would be in the rewards catalog. Actually, there's just a hint of what's available in each catalog offering still.

When looking at the stats for his autograph, none have sold on ebay in the last month with a quantity of 200. I tried other numbers like 150, 175, 100 and 199. These ended around the mid $100s: $140, $160 and $175. It looks like this autograph is a winner to re-sell on ebay on the flip. Only way this could sell better than mid-$100s is fewer offerings or (preferrably) serialize each card for the autograph though this may be confusing since the total print run is already serialized.

Buy two if you haven't already on cardtarget and be ready for a quick sell-out even at 195 available. I wouldn't be surprised if it sells out within five minutes.

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?

Etopps Announces Its Super Tuesday: Allen and Ginter Presidential Candidates

Following the Allen and Ginter Super Bowl Champions set, on Tuesday, February 5, eTopps will be offering Allen and Ginter Presiential Candidates at IPO.

Easy to guess from the picture to expect Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain being offered as well as all of the other candidates over a two or three consecutive week period.

Unless you're a political junkie, buying the set at IPO is a losing venture. By the time they are available for shipping, at least half of these candidates offered will have dropped out of the race which spells losing money. My guess is they will be either $9.99 or $12.50 each at 999 PR.

I would recommend choosing the candidate cards that you think will still be in the race by the time they are available for shipping. I'll probably be buying Obama and Hillary Clinton. Even if Hillary doesn't win, selling both President Clinton and Hillary together could work.

I would expect, with the baseball theme to this set, they will be available somewhere around April for delivery.

Bottom line:

• Buy who you think will outlast the others by shipment date (approximately April)
• Avoid the shipping special for all of the candidates if/when offered
• Basketball doesn't make much money for etopps which is why these Allen and Ginter sets are being offered