Looping back to picking up another 2022 Blake Snell autograph that I missed last year, I found a copy of his Tier One autograph last week. It has been a rough first month of the season for Blake Snell, which is disappointing, but it has also brought some his card prices down. I picked up this card for less than $10, which was too hard to pass up for a nice brand like Tier One.
Front of the card.
Tier One is a really nice product, but it also costs almost $200 a box. Imagine getting a $10 Blake Snell autograph out of a $200 box? Most be a horrible feeling, but I wouldn't know. I am just really happy they end up on Ebay and COMC for cheap.
As for the actual card, the two best attributes are the on-card autograph and the nice card stock. This is really similar to the last Snell autograph I posted, which was his 2022 Five Star. The card stock on this Tier One card is slightly thinner, but also seems like the edges might hold up better in the long run. I feel like really thick cards get chipping around the edges over time.
Back of the card.
This stinks.
I was spoiled by that last Five Star autograph, which actually had information on the back. I don't want to go back to these "You have received an autograph" or "Congratulations" types of notes on the backs of autographed cards. You built up my expectations and let me down. Thanks, Topps.
Sure hope whoever opened this box also pulled a Trout or Ichiro autograph. Then again... people who open these kinds of products understand the whole risk/reward thing. I'm like you... I pick up the cheaper autos... since they're clean and on-card.
ReplyDeleteYou hope there is some balance with the hits inside of boxes, but I have a feeling a lot of "everyday" collectors get screwed over opening these products and the many of the quality hits out of these products are steered towards breakers. Not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I have become more and more convinced with time.
DeleteHasn't it kind of been proven that the folks who get the most views, conveniently tend to get the majority of the best cards from each product?
DeleteJon- Yes, I believe that have been connections made between audience size, break size, etc, and the return on product. Larger audiences, breakers who spend money up front to buy out pre-sales tend to beat the products versus smaller breakers. I think Backyard might be the best example.
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