Conference school::sports_memorabilia

    I opened two boxes last night, got Karros and Maddux black gold cards.
    Topps has really improved the card stock on their regular issue cards.
    While the design is kind of plain,  they've done a nice job this year.
    Definitely worth 69 cents a pack.
    
    Completing a gold set will be tough. My local card dealer told me that
    the vending cases will include something like 1,000 gold cards and 300
    or something black gold cards. Might be worth splitting a vending case
    with that many insert cards.
    
    John

    Boy oh Boy! Today was a lucky day. I picked up 2 boxes(17.00 each) at
    the Price Club on my way home tonight. I got a Bip Roberts Black Gold.
    
    ...and..
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    A Winner B Black Gold (redeemable for 11 Black Gold cards)...
    
    ...and....
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    A Winner A/B (redeemable for all 22 series 1 Black Gold cards). I'll
    never get to sleep tonight after all that excitement!!
    
    
    	-Wayne-
    

    Here is the checklist for the Series 1 Black Gold cards (22)
    
    1.Barry Bonds		12.Greg Maddux
    2.Will Clark		13.Fred McGriff
    3.Darren Daulton		14.Joe Oliver
    4.Andre Dawson		15.Terry Pendleton
    5.Delino DeShields		16.Bip Roberts
    6.Tom Glavine		17.Ryne Sandberg
    7.Marquis Grissom		18.Gary Sheffield
    8.Tony Gwynn		19.Lee Smith
    9.Eric Karros		20.Ozzie Smith
    10.Ray Lankford		21.Andy Van Slyke
    11.Barry Larkin		22.Larry Walker
    

    Wayne, nice pull on those cards, especially getting 3 out of 2 boxes.
    The A/B cards themselves are pretty nice.
    
    John

    I read on the back of the card that Topps will send out the "You have
    won" card with the cards you won. They will somehow (Stamp??) indicate
    that the card was already processed. 
    	That will be neat to have as part of the set!
    			-Wayne-
    

    
    I bought three boxes of these this weekend and also got an A/B Winner,
    as well as individual DeShields and Will Clark cards.  Based on our
    small sample here, it would appear that the advertised 1:72 and 1:720 
    odds for Black Gold and A/B Winner cards may be exaggerated...
    
    glenn
    

    
    I would agree, I haven't opened any myself but the odds also seem to me
    to be a bit high.  So are the prices most dealers are "guessing" at
    for these cards.  I would "guess" they are thinking...
    	
    	"say for the A/B, 22 black gold cards, gotta be worth at least $3 
    	a piece plus your stars, yeh yeh I'll ask $75, no make it $100!"
    
    If anybody can kill off the 2+ year insert craze by over producing
    a set of inserts it will be Topps.  Initially the cards are a hit
    (or just plain old new), so "collectors" (addicts like us ;-) go
    around hunting them for awhile, opening wax, etc., casusing initial
    prices to start high.  Then it's discovered that everyone is hitting
    them A B and A/B combos, the odds are b.s., Topps printed a gizillion
    and besides the second series is where it's at, the action will all
    be with the 22 AL stars, griffey jr., thomas, geez dump these series
    1 things!   Having seen the 22 start at $75-$100, I would say in 2 or 3
    weeks every dealer at your local cheezy show has one, and would love
    you to buy it for $20 or $30.  
    
    Am I off base here?  I just don't think these cards are or will be
    worth a whole lot, you can be sure if it's Topps that there will be a
    whole lot of them.  
    
    jeff
    
    

    Jeff your not off base,I agree totaly with you........
    
                                         John M.
    

    > Am I off base here?  I just don't think these cards are or will be
    > worth a whole lot, you can be sure if it's Topps that there will be a
    > whole lot of them.  
    
    From what little I know of the hobby, I agree, but then again it 
    doesn't bother me.  I haven't been involved in card collecting
    at all in the past 10 years after years of devotion to it, but from
    what I saw of the overall quality of the cards, the price was right.  
    I've pretty much felt that these $1-$2/pack "premium" cards from so 
    many vendors in recent years was a scourge on humanity, but for 
    $17/box I couldn't go wrong with these...  ;-)
    
    glenn
    

    Does Topps make the killing or the dealers?
    

    Re: .10
    
    Walt, it depends on where you buy them. If you can get them for 17$
    at BJ's or whatever,  it beats paying  5-6$  more to a dealer. Like
    Glenn says, the price is right and you compare the quality of these
    cards to say Leaf  and  there's  no comparison. Now if they'll only
    bring back team cards, world series cards, league leaders etc.  Now
    that they have two series they have plenty of time to prepare these
    types of subsets.
    
    By the way,  they were asking 60$  for  the single A and B cards at
    the show I went to Sunday.
    
    John

    I look at this insert stuff like any incentive program.  You need lots
    of winners to make most folks happy.  UD seems to have found the trick
    by putting tons of inserts in the packs.  I think if it is easy to get
    a some then you can always trade for those you need later.  just out of
    curiosity, how much action is on all of the prior years inserts?  IMO
    not much, get them now whiletheir hot, you may have to pay less for
    them later ;)
    
    Jon

    Went to a small show last night. The price of A and B cards ranged
    from 45$ to 100$ for the A/B card  and 25$ to 60$ for the single A
    or B card.  One dealer told me that in addition to the A / B cards
    being stamped as redeemed or whatever, the regular cards will also
    be stamped winner so the  Black  Gold  cards  you get out of packs
    will be the ones  to  really go after. Of course his prices ranged
    from 10-20$ for each card he had. Has anyone else heard this ?
    
    John

    I opened a box of Topps Series II last night. Got a C / D card and
    also a Cecil Fielder Black Gold card.
    
    John 

    I got my Topps A/B Black Gold cards in the mail today. I had mailed
    in an A/B winner card. Topps sent a cover card for each series
    A and B (a checklist card). On the front it says Winner. They also
    sent an A/B checklist with Winner on the front in Gold foil. The
    cards themselves do not have the word winner on them and are
    the same as the cards you find in packs.
    
    I like the set and the checklists. I'm surprised that the winner cards
    can be bought for as low as $50 for the A/B winner card.
    
    Steve 

    Steve,
    
    Did they also send back the original A/B card ??
    
    Thanks,
    dan

      
    
     Did you know that Topps put an ABCD winner in its series 2 
    
    
    				Mike
    

    Dan,
    
    Gee never checked to see if the A/B card was the same. I don't think
    so. On the back of the A and B individual winners it had the checklist
    and at the bottom in small print "not redeemable". I didn't look at
    the A/B one. I'll check tonight.
                            
    Steve

    
    Here's something that was on the usenet a little while ago, kinda
    of supports my contention about the lasting values of these inserts.
    
Newsgroups: rec.collecting.cards
Subject: BASEBALL: Topps Black Gold crashing...

A piece of advice for those of you collecting/speculating/investing in Topps
Black Gold cards...

Topps is placing Black Gold cards in its vending boxes.  A local dealer
pulled a bunch from his vending boxes, and is pricing the "common" Black
Gold (yer Lankfords, yer Glavines) at $1.  "A" winners were priced at $15.

I only saw series I in his Black Gold stack- I would assume the same for
series II Black Gold....

Guess it won't be too expensive to complete a Black Gold set after all...


    

    Jeff, I had heard this earlier (see 523.1) also.
    
    John