Buying to Sell

Virtually anytime I purchase Baseball cards, whether I buy packs or individual cards at the show, I'm selecting these cards for my own personal collection. I mean, why else would I dedicate an entire blog to Baseball cards? 

My primary goal is usually to buy cards for my collection, not necessarily to sell them online. Sure, I sometimes list cards from box purchases on eBay in an effort to make back some money, but I don't collect cards to make a profit. 

That's the reason why I've been collecting Baseball cards for most of my life. I grow too attached to many of the cards that I pull from packs which stops me from turning this hobby into a business of sorts where I buy and sell cards predominantly for profit.

With that being said, there are some instances in which I will buy cards as an attempt to profit off a purchase and put the funds towards cards for my personal collection.

I can't think or a better example of this than the Target-exclusive Bowman mega boxes, a product that is absolutely loaded with valuable cards of Baseball's top prospects.

Unlike most other sets, I have no intentions of holding onto expensive cards from the Bowman mega boxes, and I have no qualms about selling them in order to make back the money that I spent on the box itself as well as a profit of some sort.

I actually purchased a 2019 Bowman mega box earlier this year and have since made back the money that I spent, but I never expected to see the product restocked at my local Target roughly 6 weeks later.

After pondering the decision for a while, I realized that purchasing another mega box or 2 was the perfect opportunity to make a reasonable profit and put the money towards upcoming Baseball card expenses, maybe even The National.

The likelihood of making money back from Bowman mega boxes is extraordinarily high, and I hoped that my luck didn't run out as I decided to test my luck with a few more of these incredibly sought after boxes.

In addition to the much-desired mojo packs, each mega box delivers 4 regular packs of 2019 Bowman, but there's no possibility of pulling any inserts or parallels. Otherwise, they would simply have too much value.

While the probability of pulling something valuable out of the Bowman base packs is slim, all the top prospects from the set are included, including Joey Bart and Wander Franco. They may not be worth a fortune, but the chrome Franco comes close to paying for 1 of the boxes, so I can't really complain.

Clearly, the main thing attracting collectors to the 2019 Bowman mega boxes are the 2 exclusive mojo packs. With 5 cards per pack, there's a significant chance of pulling a valuable mojo refractor as well as numbered refractors, autographs, and even image variations.

I've seen some unbelievable pulls from these boxes on Twitter and YouTube, and I've also discovered that it's uncommon for there to be a terrible box. 

Usually, collectors walk away with at least a couple of decent cards, though it's absolutely dependent on luck; the player whose card you pull plays a pivotal role in determining the value of a card.

There are serial numbered insert refractors as well, but I've only seen them listed on eBay, not pulled by any particular collector. The mojo inserts themselves aren't too valuable, but I assume that the numbered versions are rather expensive.

As I've mentioned earlier regarding 2019 Bowman, Wander Franco and Joey Bart are the top prospects across the entire checklist, both in standard Bowman and the mojo refractor checklist. 

In my first Bowman mega box, I pulled a Wander Franco mojo refractor, and I was thrilled and surprised to land another my subsequent box. Soon after listing the 2nd on eBay, a buyer made an offer for both of the Franco refractors, and I accepted.

Thus, I was able to make back the money I spent on 2 of the mega boxes with this one purchase even taking into account that I gave the buyer a very fair price.

Even though, as far as numbered cards are concerned, the mojo refractors are somewhat common, I took a reasonable amount of time before I landed one in one of my mojo packs. Nonetheless, I was quite pleased with the outcome, for I landed a 1st Bowman purple refractor, numbered /250, of Victor Mesa Jr.

As far as the mojo refractor checklist is concerned, I could've done a lot worse than Victor Mesa Jr. He's a respected 1st Bowman prospect with enough upside that this card could certainly sell for a moderate amount of money.

I don't typically obsess over value and profit when it comes to cards, but I'm treating these Bowman mega box purchases as an investment. Thus, it is imperative that, if nothing else, I make back all the money that was spent on these boxes.

In the exact same mojo pack as my 2nd Franco card, I pulled my first ever Bowman mega box autograph of Diamondbacks prospect Alek Thomas. The on-card auto, I must admit, looks gorgeous with the mojo refractor design.

After doing a little bit of research, I learned that Thomas is the #7 prospect in Arizona's organization. While that may not be fantastic, he's only 19 years of age, and he's had a fantastic year so far in single-A. 

Usually, an autograph, especially out of a retail product, is the crown jewel of all the cards that one pulls. However, as I mentioned earlier, the most valuable cards in 2019 Bowman feature the top prospects.

One of those prospects is Wander Franco, a guy who I pulled 2 mojos of. The other is Joey Bart.

I'm not always the biggest fan of image variations and those kinds of SPs, but none of that truly matters to me when it comes to this SP 1st Bowman card of San Francisco Giants prospect Joey Bart. 

Immediately upon pulling this card, I knew it was an SP, for I already pulled his base mojo and knew what it looked like. The largest shock, however, came when I looked up what this card was going for on eBay and discovered that sellers were charging anywhere from $90-$100 for this image variation.

Despite the fact that this card will go down as one of my greatest retail pulls ever, I 100% intend to sell it on eBay. I've already listed the card and obtained numerous views and a watcher, so I feel confident that this sale will come through.

If I'm able to sell the major cards that I pulled, especially the Bart image variation, I'll more than make back the money that I spent on these Bowman mega boxes, and I likely won't have any regrets about making these sales.

Sure, Joey Bart, Wander Franco, Alek Thomas, and Victor Mesa Jr could blossom into the next superstars of Baseball, but I don't have any qualms about listing and selling these prospect cards. 

My primary goal when purchasing these boxes was to make money to spend on cards for my own collection. While I truly appreciate the cards that I pulled, I'd much rather convert these cards into select cards for my PC.

A Plethora of Prizm + My New Crazy Goal

Following a successful hobby box break of the newly-released product, I decided to move forward with my plans to open a few more packs of 2019 Panini Prizm. 

The 25+ parallels, the inclusion of retired players in the base set, and the sleek set design allows for me to look past the missing logos, to a certain extent, and appreciate these fabulous cards. I can only imagine how much more popular this set would be among collectors if Panini had the MLB license.

I went the retail route for my 2nd Panini Prizm purchase when I bought a mega box at my local Target. In addition to 10 base packs with 4 cards each, each mega box delivers 2 packs of exclusive pink parallels as well as 1 autograph (on average). 

It's also worth noting that I passed up the opportunity to purchase Bowman mega boxes that same day as I saw around 15 of them, appearing to be freshly-stocked, at Target as well. However, having already pulled the 2 biggest mojo cards, I didn't foresee myself getting lucky with a valuable refractor or autograph.

Besides, out of the 50 cards in a Bowman mega box, only the 10 mojo cards have a respectable chance of being valuable. I didn't want to take my chance on a few of the 10 cards out of 50 being sellable, so I went with Prizm instead of the highly sought after Bowman mega boxes.

With 10 base packs of 4 cards each per mega box, this purchase allowed me to inch closer towards completing the 300-card set. While some base cards, thanks to the irritating tier format, are more common than others, I was still able to find a reasonable number of cards that I need from the checklist.

For those of you who are not familiar with 2019 Panini Prizm, the checklist is separated into 3 different tiers; cards 1-100 are the most common, 101-200 are a bit more uncommon, and cards 201-300 are the rarest. 

This makes the problem of the coalition within Baseball card sets even worse, for I am already pulling duplicates of low-numbered base cards while I'm not even close to acquiring all of the cards #201 and above. 

Given the fact that every card in this set has over 25 different parallels, the last thing that Panini should do is divide the checklist into tiers and make cards less common than others. As a whole, this process seems extraordinarily unnecessary.

Surprisingly, despite the seemingly endless number of parallels within this set, I still managed to pull not 1 but 2 duplicate refractors in my mega box break. Having already pulled A.J. Pollock and Nicholas Castellanos red parallels in my hobby box, I quickly listed these cards as a 2-card lot on eBay. 

Nonetheless, given that there are over 8,000 total parallels within this set (26 times 300 equates to roughly that number), I really shouldn't have ended up with 2 after breaking 1 hobby and 1 mega box.

Thankfully, the same can not be said regarding the blue parallels as I pulled 2 that I didn't pull in my initial Panini Prizm break. Both of these refractors are well-crafted, especially. as far as non-numbered parallels are concerned. 

Nonetheless, the more packs that I open, the more certain I am that the blue parallels are my favorites. There's something about the bold color of the blue refractors that pops more so than the red cards. 

Although I can get a sense of how common the cards are if I open enough packs, I do wish that Panini would include pack odds just as Topps does. That way, I could get a better idea of how common or rare some of these parallels really are.

The silver parallels, seemingly rarer than the blue and red refractors, are highly desired in Panini Prizm Basketball and Football, as far as I know. They must hold some sort of value or significance in the Baseball product as well, for each hobby box explicitly states that 3 silver parallels can be found per box on average.

Because the Prizm mega boxes are roughly 1/3 the cost of a hobby box, it stands to reason that one would find 1 silver in this retail-exclusive box. Those odds appear to be correct, for I pulled 1 silver in my break; an Ozzie Smith card, a member of the 3rd and rarest tier. 

As I mentioned earlier, each mega box delivers 2 4-card packs of exclusive pink parallels, 1 of the many refractors within this insane product. Upon seeing these parallels, both in-person and on the computer, I'm beginning to wish that the pink refractors were featured across all Prizm formats, not just mega boxes.

While colors like red and blue have become increasingly common parallel colors in Baseball card products, pink is something I haven't seen in any set beside the rack packs of Topps Chrome. 

Panini products, including Prizm, desperately need bright, bold, and colorful cards to distract collectors from the fact that they cannot use team logos, uniforms, or even team names. 

The pink-bordered cards, in my opinion, do a superior job at covering up the logoless uniforms than both the red and the blue parallels.

Similar to the pink parallels, the Carolina blue refractors are exclusive to the mega box format of the 2019 Panini Prizm set. However, unlike the pink-bordered cards, the Carolina blues don't come in a designated pack or 2. Instead, they are incorporated throughout the mega box base packs.

While I appreciate Panini's effort to include a wide variety of different parallels, I feel like they could've chosen a color besides Carolina blue given the fact that there are 2 other blue parallels within the product (blue and hyper blue prism). Instead, an orange parallel or gold mojo would've been a better choice.

Going into this box break, I didn't know what to expect as far as serial numbered parallels are concerned. I've since seen mega box breaks in which collectors have pulled 0 or 1 numbered refractor, so I'm grateful to have landed 2 in my box break.

The blue mojo Eddie Rosario is a beautiful card of an underrated player, but the high print run of these cards is beginning to make them a bit less special. My personal favorite would have to be the neon orange donut circles parallel of Travis Shaw, serial numbered out of just 150 copies.

Come to think of it, I'd have to say that the lime green and neon orange donut circles cards are my favorite parallels of the entire Panini Prizm set. The cards themselves are busy and beautiful, and the respective print runs, 199 and 150, are perfect as it allows me to cherish and appreciate these gorgeous refractors much more.

While each mega box technically "averages" 1 autograph, I've never seen or opened Panini product in which you receive less than the average number of hits. My 2019 Panini Prizm mega box was no exception, for I landed a Carolina blue autograph parallel of Ty Buttrey, a reliever for the Angels.

Although the autographs are undoubtedly beautiful, I have no intentions to collect or even keep these cards unless I land a big name (Vladdy Jr or Tatis Jr, most likely). Therefore, I quickly listed all 4 autos that I've pulled from Prizm thus far on eBay in an effort to make some money back on this set.

I did fairly well with this mega box break even though I didn't pull anything insanely special. I had a ton of fun opening the packs and familiarizing myself with the wide selection of different parallels. 

I enjoyed this box break for all the reasons that I enjoyed the hobby box; the cards are beautiful, the parallels are crazy, and it's an incredibly enjoyable set.

Thus, it is for all of those reasons that I've decided to attempt the unthinkable and nearly-impossible. I haven't enjoyed a product quite as much as 2019 Panini Prizm before in all the years that I've been collecting, so I've decided to build a "master set" of sorts for this sensational product.

While this won't include inserts or autographs, I intend to build the rainbow for every single card in the 300-card set, excluding parallels numbered to 10, 5, and 1. 

More information on this unimaginable mission can be found on the new 2019 Panini Prizm project page, located near the header of my blog.

Mega Mojo Luck

Believe me when I say this; I wasn't looking for Baseball cards when I went shopping at Target yesterday, especially not the recently-released and widely popular Bowman Mega Boxes.

I'd already seen numerous Twitter posts in which collectors purchased anywhere from 1 to 20 of these Bowman Mega Boxes upon seeing them at their local Target. That's why I was so shocked to see 6 of them available for sale at Target, for I assumed someone would swoop them all up and cash in on a nice profit.

The retail-exclusive boxes are notorious for their high odds at colored parallels and autographed mojo refractors of the top prospects in all of Baseball. In addition to 4 retail packs of regular 2019 Bowman, each Mega Box features 2 highly sought after mojo refractor packs with 5 cards in each.

Although I was unable to find any Mega Boxes last year, I managed to track one down in 2017, back when they delivered 5 packs of regular Bowman and cost $15 instead of $20. 

I got lucky that time and pulled some nice prospect cards, so I decided to take the risk not only of buying the box but opening the packs. I could've easily sold it for $35 online and made a quick and easy profit.

My primary goal, upon purchasing the box, was to sell any major pulls and make a profit. There's a significant risk associated with prospect card collecting, so it's never really been my cup of tea. 

I kept telling myself that if I landed any valuable cards, it would be worthwhile to sell them and spend the money right back on Baseball cards that I want for my collection. 

Of course, before I get into the highlight of the purchase, the 2 mojo refractor packs, I should talk for a little bit about the Bowman base cards. Unfortunately, I believe that the Mega Box Bowman base packs do not include inserts or numbered cards, so all you get is 8 paper cards and 2 chromes per pack.

In some cases, getting all base cards is beneficial, for it increases your chances of pulling a highly-desired prospect card, like Wander Franco. However, I wasn't as fortunate to land any major names as far as the Bowman base packs are concerned.

Still, I can't complain about landing 4 1st Bowman cards, especially given the previously mentioned unpredictability of collecting prospect cards. You never know; one of these guys could end up a superstar. 

Just like the regular Bowman retail packs, you can expect 2 chrome cards per Mega Box pack of the regular Bowman. As far as 1st Bowman Chrome cards are concerned, I've come up short with the packs that I've opened.

However, I still managed to pull a couple of well-respected chrome prospect cards. Both Brendan Rogers and Brendan McKay are expected to make their big league debuts rather soon. McKay, in particular, is a prospect whom I am very excited to see called up to the majors.

Moving on to the biggest attraction of these Target-exclusive boxes; the mojo refractors. Back in 2017, I landed a Vlad Jr base and a Luis Urias purple refractor, but I didn't get much as far as 1st Bowman cards are concerned.

This time, although Nova and Richardson aren't super well-known, I ended up with a few 1st Bowman mojo refractors which I believe I'll hold onto. Plus, these parallels look incredibly sharp and shiny, so much so that I wonder why Topps doesn't produce more mojo refractors like Panini does.

If I'm being totally honest, I would've preferred to pull another 2 prospect cards instead of the 2 inserts above, solely to have another couple of chances of landing mojo refractor cards/parallels of big-name prospects. 

With that being said, it's hard to complain given how stunning these mojo cards are, rather it's a parallel of a base prospect card or an insert like the Touki Toussaint and Brendan Rogers cards above.

Eloy Jimenez and Bo Bichette are both top 15 prospects in the game according to MLB.com with Jimenez ranked at #3. Thus, even though these 2 players are no longer 1st Bowman prospects, I'm very pleased with these 2 pulls.

Bichette has been a top prospect for years now and is expected to (finally) make his MLB debut some point this season. On the other hand, Eloy Jimenez already signed an extension with the White Sox before the season started and has received some playing time so far in 2019.

As beautiful as the mojo refractors are, I was really hoping to make a profit off this box with some type of autograph, parallel, variation, or another kind of valuable card.

While I didn't luck out with an autograph or numbered card pull, I'm incredibly grateful for these 2 stellar mojo refractor cards that came out of the box. 

Prospects Wander Franco and Joey Bart are arguably the 2 most sought-after 1st Bowman prospects in 2019 Bowman, and if I sell their cards for what they're currently going for on eBay, I could end up making a profit greater than the cost of the box itself.

I've already listed both of these cards for sale on my brand new eBay page, but I think I'm going to hold on to the other 48 cards that I pulled. That way, I can keep some of these sick mojo refractor cards while, at the same time, making a generous profit.

3 New Releases But No Clear Standout

Today was a significant day as far as Baseball card products are concerned, for there were 3 new releases that were released, all of them being vastly different.

2019 Panini Prizm, 2019 Topps Big League, and the 2019 Bowman Mega Box cards hit the market, but I'm not sure whether I'm interested in purchasing any packs from these products. That's the main reason why I'm writing this post today; to further my knowledge about these various sets.

Panini Prizm is a product that I'm not overly familiar with, especially as Baseball cards are concerned. Although my major problem with Panini products, the lack of an MLB license, still stands, the product itself seems extremely fun.

There are around 24 different parallels within this set, ranging from orange donut holes to snakeskin. Clearly, Prizm is an extraordinarily creative release that Panini puts a ton of effort into. In a way, without the MLB license, they have to make up for the logoless cards. 

Big League, on the other hand, is a product that I know something about after opening a couple blasters of the 2018 set. There's a lot to like about last year's product, from the photography to the set design. 

Before buying any 2019 Big League, however, I'll have to see if I like this year's product as much as the previous release.

Finally, 2019 Bowman Mega Box combines 4 packs from the highly sought after 2019 Bowman set with 2 exclusive mojo refractor packs. I did pretty well when I bought a box of Bowman Mega Box in 2017 where I pulled 2 Acuna 1st Bowman cards and a Vladimir Guerrero Jr mojo refractor.

I've already talked very briefly about the 3 recently-released products. Now, I'll go a bit more in-depth as I try to decide which one, if any, I'll be interested in purchasing.

I familiarized myself with the 2019 Bowman product by opening a couple loose packs and rack packs from the set when it was released around a month ago. Now, I could have an opportunity to open some more packs from this product that's delivered some unbelievable valuable prospect cards.

Although landing a major prospect card can make buying 2019 Bowman worth it, there's no guarantee that my Target will still have any mega boxes by the time I end up going. 

This particular product is notorious for selling out quickly, so I can't trust that I'll be able to track down any Bowman Mega Boxes if I decide to buy a box or 2 from this set.

As I mentioned earlier, I did well when I purchased a Mega Box of Bowman back in 2017. Not only did I pull the 2 Acuna's and the Guerrero Jr card, but I also landed a purple mojo refractor that I've since sold. 

It doesn't matter what the Bowman design looks like, for the mojo refractors look absolutely incredible, both online and in-person. I just wish Topps would include 3 packs of these awesome refractors instead of only 2 5-card packs.

In the past, these boxes have delivered 5 regular Bowman packs in addition to the 2 mojo packs, all for $15. Now, Topps has risen the prices and included 1 fewer packs per box. 

Don't get me wrong, having 4 Bowman packs instead of 5 isn't the end of the world. Rather, the $5 increase in price is my problem with this new format.

Next up is Panini Prizm, a Baseball card release that we haven't seen since 2015 apart from being included in the 2018 Panini Chronicles set. While I prefer last year's Prizm cards to the new design from 2019, this revived release has a lot of appeal for collectors, like myself, who love unusual modern parallels. 

2019 Panini Prizm features a 300-card base set that includes both active and retired players. While no logos remain a problem, the plethora of bright and bold parallels will certainly help to distract me from the missing team logos and names.

Last year, Panini Chronicles gave collectors a small sampling of what Panini Prizm has to offer. If nothing else, it'll be interesting to see what Panini does with 300 cards instead of only 25 or 30. 

Clearly, parallels, both numbered and non-numbered, will be a fixture, but I'll also be interested to see what the inserts and hits look like in the 2019 Panini Prizm set. Although the 2019 rookie class isn't too strong, I'm sure that Panini will compensate with a wide range of different cards within this set.

Considering the low cost, 2018 Topps Big League was one of the most enjoyable products to break. Finally, Topps provided collectors with an inexpensive set with a respectable set design that wasn't Topps Opening Day. 

Big League is marketed primarily towards kids, but the set appeals to all sorts of collectors. In addition to veterans and rookies, there are retired players and even ballpark attractions included within the 500-card checklist.

For $10 a blaster box or roughly $40 per hobby box, Topps Big League delivered a ton of beautiful base cards along with some parallels and the occasional insert/variation. In a way, the product combines modern and vintage cards into 1 set that impressed me through its inaugural release.

However, I made up my mind about whether or not I'd be purchasing any 2019 Topps Big League as soon as I took a look at the base set mockup on Cardboard Connection.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to pass on 2019 Topps Big League all together based solely on the mediocre set design. It's hard to find a place to start with my critiques, but the uneven photograph is my primary issue.

In a way, 2019 Topps Big League is reminiscent of 2016 Topps; it's overly complicated and unnecessarily modern for my taste.  

While I commend Topps for bringing back Big League for a 2nd straight season, this set simply can't compare to the 2018 design, so I'm going to have to pass on this product this year.

If I'd have to purchase 1 of these sets, I'd likely lean towards 2019 Panini Prizm in order to get a sampling of this revived release. The parallels intrigue me, and I don't mind the design of this year's set. If the actual Prizm product is anything like we saw in Chronicles, I'll be quite pleased.

However, this doesn't mean I'll end up buying any of these sets. Bowman Mega Box is very hit or miss, Big League took a huge step back this year, and the logoless Prizm cards still bother me.

I might end up passing on all of these products, or I could end up purchasing some Panini Prizm. Still, I'm grateful that this post gave me a better idea of what I'd like to buy, even if I don't go through with purchasing any of these recently-released sets.