Topps cards

I don’t understand topps cards lol. Like how are some worth like 20k. I also don’t understand the printing runs and rarity.

Is it a niche thing like top sun?

Sorry if this has been asked before

Bulbapedia has all of the information that you’re searching for and more.

1 Like

They definitely have sports cards vibes (they are Topps after all). Some of the variants “deserve” the price they achieve in the sense that they are extremely hard to pull and the booster box prices are high.

From my perspective though, theres probably 1000 cards I’d rather buy before a Topps charizord if I wanted to blow $20k

7 Likes

Ah I see. So it’s like a sports card thing. So maybe a lot of sports card investors are buying into them?

Also yeah… like 20k for a topps zard? Way too much

different strokes for different folks. i got one topps chrome card on a whim and loved the look and am now trying to get all the rare variants. sparkle/tekno seem tough to find especially for series 2 which wasn’t printed as much - the card i’m looking for is pop 5 across all grades. maybe there’s some evil investors sitting on palettes of it though who knows.

Topps chrome has different rarities within the set. Different holo foils represent each rarity. There are topps chrome spectra cards that have a pullrate of 1 spectra for each two packs. Then theres sparkle cards that have a pullrate of 1 card out of 10 packs. The rarest topps chrome cards are topps tekno cards that have a pullrate of 1 card out of 15 packs. These packs are quite rare and expensive, topps chrome series 1 is around 300,- per pack, topps chrome series 2 is rarer and even more expensive. These packs are about 500,- each. Im personally chasing the kabutops chrome card and its variants.

4 Likes

When it comes to Topps Chrome not only are they hard to find but they’re hard to grade because of the sharp corners. I imagine print run was much smaller than TCG. Chrome packs are expensive now and even if you rip them there’s a very low chance you’ll get that tekno / sparkle / spectra.

Personally? I love the big art with the nostalgic Ken Sugimori drawings on them, as well as the full Holo. They just look good.

6 Likes

And dont forget the Topps 75th anniversary stamped buyback pokemon cards. Thats a whole other level of rare!

1 Like

Wait what?

Do you have any proof that these exist? I have searched and searched but have come up empty. The only reference I’ve seen is on Bulbapedia, and that is historically unreliable.

1 Like

I just sent 7 off to PSA last week :slight_smile:

Other than the ones I own I have seen perhaps 13 other Topps 75th anniversary stamped Pokemon cards.

4 Likes

:hushed: Thank you!

1 Like

Yeah buyback stamped cards they are essentially topps buying already opened cards off the market, stamping them with gold 75th topps logo and putting them back in packs. there is only 1 buy back card per booster box, but it could be ANY topps card not just pokemon, so the chance of pulling a pokemon stamped buyback card is extremely rare. I believe the pop report is this https://www.psacard.com/pop/non-sport-cards/2013/topps-75th-anniversary-stamped-buyback-cards/150349

1 Like

And one thing about topps chrome is that the sparkle and tekno variants can be of any card, so not only it’s 1/10 or 1/15 chance to pull one it can be of any card in the set, so if you are chasing a specific card you have that ~1/75 chance to add depending on series 1 or 2, with series 2 being a lot more rare like already mentioned, and with a lot of heavy hitters in it.

I’m also lucky to have one 75th anniversary topps card in my collection, feels crazy i bought it for around 15$ back then when you know how rare those are

3 Likes

What about the Spectra variant?

1 Like

These holograms are the rarest from the Johto set. Few crazy priced on eBay but pretty low pop of them out there.

4 Likes

Same applies to them but 1/2 chance for a pack to have spectra in it so a lot more common variant than sparkle or tekno

1 Like

These were for so long time my chase cards! Super difficult to find but i’m glad i got all 9 since they have indeed very big price tag on them nowdays, at least what people ask for them

1 Like

I opened up one of the topps chrome series 1 packs in 2019 for 20,- and pulled a spectra crobat :slight_smile: Very cool to have had the chance to open up one of these packs because im definatly not opening any at this pricepoint. I tried pulling the topps johto league champions houndoom foil but i didnt get it sadly, i opened up about 7 or 8 of those packs because of the guaranteed pullrates per pack. Was a ton of fun but i ended up buying the psa 9 houndoom foil for only slightly more then the cost of one pack lol

I uploaded a few openings on youtube because i couldnt find any recorded openings of these sets.

1 Like

How did you find a chrome pack for that price in 2019? :flushed: and yeah, probably wiser to buy them as singles since a lot of topps foils in sealed packs have sticked to card next to them during these years being completely ruined, luckily chrome doesn’t seem to have this issue

1 Like