Heavy Bottomed Chrome Cards Make The Rockin World Go Round

I did not buy a box or open any packs of Topps Chrome this year. This is actually the second year in a row that I have decided to skip this product.  Nothing to do with chrome rehashes or anything like that, but more to do with the fact that the product could be described as "bottom loaded".  To some degree all products are "top heavy" in their concentration of high-end autographs being the hardest to pull and low end autographs being easy to pull, however Topps Chrome takes it to a different level.  Again, not "top heavy" like most products, but "bottom loaded"

Here's the skinny on the Chrome autographs.  The originally sale price on Chrome boxes was around $75.  Collectors received two autographs per box.    Think about this way:

If you go on Ebay and search sold items under 2014 Topps Chrome Autographs the first page (I'm using 50 items per page sorting high price to low price) has a few listings which go for over $500 (there are seven as I am typing this) and then several pages of cards that cost somewhere between $200 to $100.  After that it goes off a cliff quickly.  Let's explain it this way.  Flip the search around and look finding the lowest sale priced cards first....It takes 41 pages, with 50 items on each page, to clear the price of $5.  Now, resale price on your hit cards is not everything in the world, but over a quarter of the 2014 Topps Chrome autographs on Ebay sold for less than $5 and over half sold for less than $10? 

Here's another comparison.  Half a box of Triple Threads (or one mini box) cost the same as a box of Topps Chrome.  At the quarter mark of completed Chrome sales on Ebay, collectors reach the $5 mark.  On Triple Threads, the completed sales for the bottom quarter sales on Ebay top out at $10.  At the $5 mark on Chrome collectors can find names like Ethan Martin, Enny Romero, and Tommy Medica.  Sure there is a Taijuan Walker and Yordano Ventura autograph slipped in there, but most of the low end autographs in that product are low end for a reason.  The quarter mark on the Triple Threads sales include names like: Christian Yelich, Matt Adams, Mike Napoli, Sonny Grey, and Adrian Gonzalez.  

So really, for the price of Chrome, collectors should call up a friend and go halveses on a box of Triple Threads.  Better names, better value for the price hence the term "bottom loaded"  So about those Chrome autographs...I still like the looks of the products, but why should I spend $75 opening a product for two $5 autographs when I can let someone else do the work for me?  I bought two lots of Topps Chrome autographs in the past two weeks each lot of cards cost me roughly $10.  Here is the first:

Get on your bikes and ride....