General Forum

I think the quick flip is gone (especially what they did with prizm fb this year removing almost all color from retail), however it will be probably another year or two and we will. This inflation is kicking a lot of flippers out of the market because gas, shipping, shipping supplies, and cards all cost more. I don't know how the restock companies do the money side but I would be surprised if the stocker makes some money once boxes sell, leading to the mark downs happening so they can make some extra money.

I have yet to see any retail Series 2 in my area of West Michigan yet. I haven't stopped at my LCS yet either. I did buy a retail box on ebay for $73 with free shipping a few weeks ago. 24 packs of 16 cards each for 384 cards. I did get about 310-315 unique cards of the 330 set and only about a dozen to 15 doubles which was fine. No major hits, but I'm a set builder and will trade for the rest. I would recommend. 

Things have sure changed in the 30+ years since I bought packs or full boxes. Packs used to be $1 or less. Cello packs, I think that's what they are called, used to be $2 or less. Full boxes were around $20.

So here's what I think: As a set builder, blasters are a great way to kick things off. But TCDB is valuable because you can trade the cards you don't want for more cards you need. So what I did was get a blaster and list all the inserts on here, which I traded away for base cards, and as such was able to pretty much complete series 2. (I had to sell a couple of other dupes from my 2020 set build to a local guy, and then use that $ to pick up the remaining 2022 singles off Sportlots), but there you go. July 11 and my Topps 2022 base set is complete, and I'm good now until January 2023.

I pick up a blaster or two now and then (usually depending on how much groceries are that week).  I'm only looking for certain cards, Texas Rangers, SPs and errors (like the Tatis card that says he's a pitcher!)  

I just bought a couple of Series 2 Hanger boxes (67 cards) from Walmart online for under $12 each with free shipping (processed by Atlas World Trading, LLC, so we'll see what happens).

https://www.walmart.com/ip/22-TOPPS-SERIES-2-BASEBALL-HANGER-PACK/107183905?athbdg=L1900

Or you can buy a SINGLE pack of 14 cards for $11 plus $4 shipping:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/MLB-Topps-2022-Series-2-Baseball-Trading-Card-HOBBY-Pack-1-Pack-14-Cards/1975462990

I guess you just have to shop around.

Good luck!

-Dan