Topps Sterling - Which boxes to rip and which to sell sealed?

[thekramers5]

I just opened 2 cases of Sterling and am now trying to figure out which boxes to rip. I've posted many already, but am debating on the others...

All in all, here's what I got

1 Ted Williams
1 Clemente
2 Mantles
2 Bonds
2 Wangs
2 A.Rods
2 Ryan Howards
1 D. Wright
1 Morneau
1 Nolan Ryan
1 Gwynn
1 Schmidt
1 Jackson
1 Yaz
1 Santana

Those I'm thinking about keeping for busting - Mantles, Clemente, Williams, A-Rod & 1 of the Wangs. The others that are not posted...who knows?

Crash - did you do the same "homework" on this year's set that you did last year?

Merry Christmas to the Board!!

TK

[hockeynut]

Those are the ones I would choose.Let me know how you do and what are you going to do with the mystery packs?? Open them or sell them?? Good Luck,Can you san some of your cards?? Mery Christmas to you and your family!!!!

[brentandbecca]

what's funny is, add up the sealed boxes on ebay, almost any case sells higher than current $2000-$2100 range, you get $400 for mantle 4350 for willaims, the cheap ones like morneau and santana even go $130-$150

anyways, if you add up all 10 or 20, not only will it recoup your costs, BUT you still have ALL mystery packs, you can open all, or open just the BIG HITS, and sell the rest sealed...
no way to lose currently, not many sealed player boxes at all

just add up any 10 players,,,no way to lose (BUT you won't make a ton, and you won't have thrill of the rip or potential BIG BIG HIT like Beckett got (of course) (love how they take one of the best possible cards)

[jacobbigshow]

Originally Posted by brentandbecca

what's funny is, add up the sealed boxes on ebay, almost any case sells higher than current $2000-$2100 range, you get $400 for mantle 4350 for willaims, the cheap ones like morneau and santana even go $130-$150

anyways, if you add up all 10 or 20, not only will it recoup your costs, BUT you still have ALL mystery packs, you can open all, or open just the BIG HITS, and sell the rest sealed...
no way to lose currently, not many sealed player boxes at all

just add up any 10 players,,,no way to lose (BUT you won't make a ton, and you won't have thrill of the rip or potential BIG BIG HIT like Beckett got (of course) (love how they take one of the best possible cards)

Yes I posted the same thing on another topic about doing that. It shouldn't be very hard to sell all 10 boxes without the mystery packs for $2,000.

[Crash1207]

TK-

You can really go either way with these. The boxes you mentioned busting will bring in a premium on sealed boxes. It's a tough call. But I would defnitely sell the Morneau, Jackson, and Santana sealed. Those autos and relics aren't bringing in as much but the sealed boxes are doing average for guys looking for 1/1s. Good luck....hope you pull some great stuff from the boxes you break.

[hockeyjunkie99]

TK-

If you break any make sure you let us know what you got.

[hockeynut]

This forum is great.Lots of cool people who don't mind sharing info.Thanks to all!!!

[jacobbigshow]

Originally Posted by Crash1207

TK-

You can really go either way with these. The boxes you mentioned busting will bring in a premium on sealed boxes. It's a tough call. But I would defnitely sell the Morneau, Jackson, and Santana sealed. Those autos and relics aren't bringing in as much but the sealed boxes are doing average for guys looking for 1/1s. Good luck....hope you pull some great stuff from the boxes you break.

I have to agree there. If you don't pull an auto or a 1/1 for those bad boxes, you won't get more than $100 and you can get $130 for any sealed players box.

[Crash1207]

Yup, that's exactly why I sat on 6 sealed boxes out of my two cases that I'm selling. After I hit my 1/1s I got a little more picky.

Strange though...I decided to pass on a Manny Ramirez box and sell it sealed. I went and looked on ebay and there have been no completed listings for Ramirez boxes. I wonder if he was one that was short produced?

[jacobbigshow]

Originally Posted by Crash1207

Yup, that's exactly why I sat on 6 sealed boxes out of my two cases that I'm selling. After I hit my 1/1s I got a little more picky.

Strange though...I decided to pass on a Manny Ramirez box and sell it sealed. I went and looked on ebay and there have been no completed listings for Ramirez boxes. I wonder if he was one that was short produced?

Not to make you sound unethical, but that is exactly why you have to buy a case. I mean I was thinking of doing the same thing, finding the Mantle box and then selling the rest off regular boxes on ebay. That is why you have to buy boxes off a good dealer like here (somebody got a Mantle box here) or buy a sealed case. That is why a case is $2200 while you can get a box for $190-200 shipped.

[jacobbigshow]

Well I am getting my case tomorow, its gonna be a fun weekend of cracking. Too bad they came one day late, I could of saved $47 in listing fees. Or maybee I can set up templetes today and just put in the photos tomorow and edit them?

[CaptainBOHICA]

if you're just going to sell the boxes, maybe someone here who still has some sealed boxes can hook you up with a scan of them.

[thekramers5]

Just an FYI - I'll let you know later on which I open and what I pull. I have quite a few up and already ended on e-bay.

I had so much fun with the excitement of seeing which players are included - I bought a few more cases!

Again, I'll let you know about the player selection in those as well.

TK

[thekramers5]

Originally Posted by CaptainBOHICA

if you're just going to sell the boxes, maybe someone here who still has some sealed boxes can hook you up with a scan of them.

I have scans of some player boxes - but don't know when I'll get home to e-mail.

TK

[jacobbigshow]

Originally Posted by CaptainBOHICA

if you're just going to sell the boxes, maybe someone here who still has some sealed boxes can hook you up with a scan of them.

Well the problem is that you don't know what boxes are in the case till you crack it. I listed 10 blank auctions and I will just updated them tomorow when in a huge chaos I bust the boxes like in 5 minutes.

[thekramers5]

Originally Posted by jacobbigshow

Well the problem is that you don't know what boxes are in the case till you crack it. I listed 10 blank auctions and I will just updated them tomorow when in a huge chaos I bust the boxes like in 5 minutes.

Pretty ingenious...but guess I didn't read enough to know you haven't received uet. That's what I get for "scanning"... Of course, why would need pictures if you already had the case (unless, of course, your scanner was "down")?

Good luck! Let us know your collation.

From what I saw in my 2 - it's the 2 guaranteed (Mantle/Bonds), 1 of the "long print" (Wright or Morneau - 1 in 22 boxes), 1 of the short print (DiMaggio, Williams, Maris, Matsui, forgetting the other 2... 1 in 54 boxes) and 6 of the "regulars" (1 in 32 or 33 boxes).

[jacobbigshow]

Originally Posted by thekramers5

Pretty ingenious...but guess I didn't read enough to know you haven't received uet. That's what I get for "scanning"... Of course, why would need pictures if you already had the case (unless, of course, your scanner was "down")?

Good luck! Let us know your collation.

From what I saw in my 2 - it's the 2 guaranteed (Mantle/Bonds), 1 of the "long print" (Wright or Morneau - 1 in 22 boxes), 1 of the short print (DiMaggio, Williams, Maris, Matsui, forgetting the other 2... 1 in 54 boxes) and 6 of the "regulars" (1 in 32 or 33 boxes).

Ok yea I was checking the checklist and I really couldn't find that info you just told me about. I hope I get a Wright, Williams, Dice-K, Wang and Ichiro. Those are the big ones. And by the way, a Mantle just went for $450 which is the highest ive seen so far.

[thekramers5]

Originally Posted by jacobbigshow

Ok yea I was checking the checklist and I really couldn't find that info you just told me about. I hope I get a Wright, Williams, Dice-K, Wang and Ichiro. Those are the big ones. And by the way, a Mantle just went for $450 which is the highest ive seen so far.

On the back of the "outer box" are the odds of each of the 29 (?) players. For example, Bonds & Mantle are 1:10, Wright & Morneau 1:22, etc. until you get to the 6 short prints that are 1:54 (Dice-K is one of the 2 I missed along with DiMaggio/Maris/Williams/Matsui).

Yeah, I'm hoping for some Dice-K and Ichiro luck as well - luckily I hit a Wang in each of my first 2 cases.

Like I said, I had a ton of fun just finding out the players in my cases!!

[jacobbigshow]

Damn, the shipper messed up and now I won't be getting it today. With the weekend coming and New Years it really screwed up my plan.

[swerve]

Here are the odds:

Matsuzaka 1:54
Matsui 1:54
DiMaggio 1:54
Clemente 1:54
Maris 1:54
Williams 1:54
Yaz 1:33
Manny 1:33
Schmidt 1:33
Reggie 1:33
Sandberg 1:33
Musial 1:33
Gwynn 1:33
Clemens 1:33
Berra 1:33
Pujols 1:32
A Rod 1:32
Bob Gibson 1:32
Wang 1:32
Ortiz 1:32
Ichiro 1:32
Santana 1:32
Nolan Ryan 1:32
Ryan Howard 1:32
Tom Seaver 1:32
David Wright 1:22
Morneau 1:22
Bonds 1:10
Mantle 1:10


So, I was trying to figure out how a 10 box case would shake out. Do you think it is still almost a guarantee to make a slight profit if you boxed it out? Williams, Musial and DiMaggio would really be the only boxes that interest me personally.

[jacobbigshow]

Well I won't be able to tell you until next year. My case is supposed to arrive on Thursday, so I won't even get a chance to revise my auctions.

[swerve]

Personally I don't see how the worst case could not at least get your money back if:

$500 for the 10 mystery packs

$450 for Mantle box (last four have gone $450, $499, $450, $475)

$200 for Bonds (may be a little high but $150 for sure)

That means you need to average about $125 per for the rest to break even. Most of the worst seem to get at least $130.

Hit one of Wang, Arod, Ichiro ~ $325... Then you need just $97/bx.

[jacobbigshow]

Originally Posted by swerve

Personally I don't see how the worst case could not at least get your money back if:

$500 for the 10 mystery packs

$450 for Mantle box (last four have gone $450, $499, $450, $475)

$200 for Bonds (may be a little high but $150 for sure)

That means you need to average about $125 per for the rest to break even. Most of the worst seem to get at least $130.

Hit one of Wang, Arod, Ichiro ~ $325... Then you need just $97/bx.

Yes but don't forget about the fees. The fees the fees. 10% factor in and $2,200 a case would be $2450. So $115 a box for the other 7 (assuming you pull a Wang or Ichiro or somebody big). But the Wang is easier to find 1:32 so it should be very easy to make your money back. I just wish I could get them sooner. Can't wait until the holidays are over, shipping stinks now cause of that.

[Crash1207]

Originally Posted by swerve

Here are the odds:

Matsuzaka 1:54
Matsui 1:54
DiMaggio 1:54
Clemente 1:54
Maris 1:54
Williams 1:54
Yaz 1:33
Manny 1:33
Schmidt 1:33
Reggie 1:33
Sandberg 1:33
Musial 1:33
Gwynn 1:33
Clemens 1:33
Berra 1:33
Pujols 1:32
A Rod 1:32
Bob Gibson 1:32
Wang 1:32
Ortiz 1:32
Ichiro 1:32
Santana 1:32
Nolan Ryan 1:32
Ryan Howard 1:32
Tom Seaver 1:32
David Wright 1:22
Morneau 1:22
Bonds 1:10
Mantle 1:10


So, I was trying to figure out how a 10 box case would shake out. Do you think it is still almost a guarantee to make a slight profit if you boxed it out? Williams, Musial and DiMaggio would really be the only boxes that interest me personally.

What is funny about that is that you will find a lot of these guys bunched together. For instance, if you pull a Ryan box from your case, you'll most likely also have a Wang and Pujols. They seem to group some players together for some reason.

[iluvfish2]

Great Breakdown of the product! Maybe my Stats' teacher should of used card annologies..then I wouldn't of had to take it multiple times.