I thought the idea behind eTopps was great and sometimes I wish the program was still going today. Topps Now essentially replaced eTopps years later, but when you compare the actual eTopps cards in hand vs. Topps Now...well there is no competition. The eTopps cards are beautiful, but the high shipping rates I'm guessing is what helped kill the program.
Recently I decided to cash in on the 30% off shipping discount and clear out my portfolio. I requested delivery for the majority of my cards some time ago, however for some reason I left some cards behind. Now that I have them in hand, let's take a look at the last cards from my portfolio.
2001 Tim Hudson #38
2005 Tim Hudson #6 (179/499)
2011 Freddie Freeman RC #2 (1478/1499)
All 3 of these cards look beautiful in hand, especially the Freeman rookie. I'm surprised I never had that card shipped before.
2004 Stephen Davis #38 (/1,250)
2011 Cam Newton RC #11 (1677/1999)
2011 Tim Tebow RC #32 (073/599)
I had all but forgotten that I even had some football cards left in the portfolio, but I'm glad to see the Cam Newton and even the Tim Tebow.
2005-2006 Emeka Okafor #3 (/672)
2005-2006 Sean May #59 (/1000)
I rarely buy basketball cards period, so I too had forgotten I had these two cards sitting in my portfolio. At the time I decided to take possession of these two cards, their online "value" was like $.10 each! They'll look nice in my Charlotte basketball collection none the less.
Like I said earlier, it's been awhile since I've had cards delivered from my eTopps portfolio, but I don't remember the cards coming shipped in one touch holders. It seems as if my past order the cards were almost slabbed. I recall the card holders used were in were very tough to open. All I've got to do to remove these cards from their holders is remove the little hologram sticker and the holder should open up rather easy. I do plan on freeing these cards from their slabbed prison so I may add each of them to their respective boxes.
Do you have any cards left in your eTopps portfoilio? Do you have plans on taking delivery if you do? What were your thoughts overall of the eTopps program? I'd love to hear from you so leave your answers in the comments below.
I have HUNDREDS of cards in my eTopps portfolio. As much as it ticks me off that I don't have, in hand, what I already paid for, it would bankrupt me to have them ship them to me...even at their "special" discounted rates. Let them bankrupt Topps instead as, legally, they'll have to maintain their eTopps warehouse into infinity until they finally decide to ship them all out for free or at least at a reasonable price (their discounted rates are still unreasonable). When hiring a lawyer to sue Topps would be cheaper than having your property shipped to you, you know the shipping rates are off the rails. What killed the program was when Topps changed it. For awhile, you could use eTopps points for shipping. So, if you bought a lot of eTopps cards, shipping could end up being free, They ended that and raised shipping rates at the same time, leaving lots of people like me with a crapload of eTopps points that you couldn't use for anything and shipping rates that were prohibitive. The cards WERE beautiful, though. And, yes, the near slabs they came in were very difficult to get open. Sounds like they're trying to build a better (i.e. cheaper to mail) mousetrap.
ReplyDeleteI forgot all about the opportunity you had to use the points for shipping. I may have done that myself with cards in the past. I admit that even with a 30% discount it still was close to $20 to have these 8 cards mailed to me.
DeleteI never partook in the whole eTopps thing, nor have I ever bought any of the Topps Now cards, but if I were to have tried either, I definitely would have went the eTopps route. As you said, there is no comparison as far as looks go. I see them for sale online on a fairly regular basis, but I can never figure out why they're so cheap (the in-hand copies), as most of them are rather attractive, as well as somewhat limited in terms of production.
ReplyDeleteI'm not one that plays the stock market, but I liked the idea behind IPOs and watching the "value" of the cards go up (and down) in my Portfolio. Had the shipping prices not been so crazy perhaps it would have continued longer.
DeleteWhen eTopps shut down I took advantage of Topps' offer to be able to use your performance points for shipping and had everything that was available for shipping sent, that was over a hundred cards and years ago. But I still had a bunch of cards that were not available for shipping sitting in my port. I did take advantage of one of these shipping offers a while back and had a bunch more of my cards shipped to me, but the few I have left in my portfolio will remain there as they aren't worth the cost of shipping. I have a feeling that Topps ran out of their old holders. They had an offer a while back that you could have your cards shipped without the holder for cheaper. So I'm guessing that cards are cased until they were ready to be shipped. But you're right the cards look awesome in hand.
ReplyDeleteI hated those old holders they used. I cracked open every one that I had so I could free those babies and easily organize them in with my other collections. At least I have a few one touch holders now.
DeleteNever bought any eTopps directly from Topps, but I have picked up a few off of COMC. Love the look of them. They remind me of Topps Gold Label.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the eTopps concept back in the day. Like Stubby, I literally collected a bunch of them pretty much in every sport that was put out. I took delivery of a couple of hundred back when the points could be use as the additional rate was not bad. But, I agree that now the shipping rates are ridiculously high and out of my league compared to what a lot of my cards are worth. I will wait with others for the shipping rates to drop dramatically or next to free before I have my portfolio sent to me as I think I still have over 500 cards in my portfoli.
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