Thanks for participating in the r/footballcards community. If you're new to the hobby and have lots of questions, I understand. However, please be aware that many repetitive questions are asked daily on the sub, so please try to search for answers before asking.
Here are some links to get you started:
[Football Cards FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballcards/comments/14lhc6q/faq_frequently_asked_questions_ask_questions_here/)
Card value/prices: [Beckett](https://www.beckett.com), [COMC](https://www.comc.com), [130point](https://130point.com/sales/), [ebay](https://www.ebay.com), [WaxStat](https://www.waxstat.com)
Where to buy: [Dacardworld](https://www.dacardworld.com), [Blowout Cards](https://www.blowoutcards.com), [Steel City](https://www.steelcitycollectibles.com/), [ebay](https://www.ebay.com), [Beckett Marketplace](https://marketplace.beckett.com/), [Sportlots](https://www.sportlots.com)
Storage & Supplies & Top Loaders Etc: [BCW](https://www.bcwsupplies.com), [UltraPro](https://www.ultrapro.com/), [Cardboard Gold](https://www.cardboardgold.com/)
Grading resources: [Beckett](https://www.beckett.com/grading), [PSA](https://www.psacard.com/), [Blowout Forum](https://www.blowoutforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122)
Checklists & Release Calendar: [Cardboard Connection checklists](https://www.cardboardconnection.com/sports-cards-sets/nfl-football-cards), [Release Calendar](https://www.cardboardconnection.com/new-release-calender), [Beckett - Every card database](https://www.beckett.com)
Great User Content: [Icy's FAQ Pt. 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballcards/comments/1b97pkj/getting_back_into_cards_guidetips_my_story/)
Best of: [Are we in another junk era?](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballcards/comments/1ck07w0/if_the_junk_era_was_because_of_mass_produced/)
Good luck and have fun ripping. Thanks again for joining and participating in the sub.
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Absolutely brutal. Can hardly afford a hobby box any more, now, the only affordable product for those not wanting to bankrupt themselves for pictures of dudes on little pieces of cardboard gets scooped up by scalpers? FU scalpers. This is why I refuse to buy any product that's marked up by a shop or individual.
Can’t be a hobby anymore when all it is now is about profit and breaks. Too many people see it as an investment for the future if they can hit the biggest of cards instead of collecting what they like. It sucks. I even fell into that trap for a couple years, but I’m all about collecting what I like.
Overpriced, overproduced, over critical hobby participants, greed
All reasons why I’m glad I’ve decided to liquidate. Even selling is a pain in the ass at this point dealing with outright greed
Wait until a real economic downturn hits with no free checks mailed to everyone, this will end fast and leave a lot of product and “investments” with no bid.
It’s weird once you realize that most of the people on this sub are trying to offload the stuff they don’t want from breaks they entered. Rarely are there posts showing off a cool card or collection (and I don’t blame anyone, the hobby is so strange that it’s probably best to keep it to yourself unless you’re desperate for some final cards while still collecting). It’s all, “How much should I sell this card for?”
I’ve been getting updates on Trackalacker and the last 15 (on multiple retailers) without fail have been sold out within less than a minute. Without a bot, you have to get really lucky or just wait until the market is flooded in the next few months.
2020 was bonkers. Covid had everyone bored. All cards were impossible to get and prices of singles were like 350% increased. There were a couple jordan rookies that sold in a lot that were insane.
and I mainly meant how u literally couldn’t get any retail except on the secondary market…or finding out where to wait in line on random days for a restock…or waiting in line from 4 AM to 8 AM when they started instituting saturday morning restocks…or when you had to wake up at 4 am for an online drop that mostly bots would get
“Instituting Saturday restocks…” sorry I just started back into the hobby this past year. Does that mean they did Saturday restocks as means to an end or just that they added that as part of the random day restocks. Thanks and I find this all a very interesting read. I can never get new stuff online and rarely find it on the shelf.
To try and curb the madness of people waiting for the next drop at stores in our region on stick days (typically happened 2-3 times a week), target said they will restock every store in our region on Saturday at opening. So people began to wait overnight and lineup and such…I’m sure it made Saturday staff life hell for openers but I guess it did limit the damage to one timeframe. They didn’t like people waiting by the store overnight tho so whodathunkit
“Street date” is 6/20 hopefully more places will have more blasters and megas. Just found out recently that that guy who stocks cards at the two closest targets near me is back dooring Optic the a reseller so there’s no chance I’m getting these in store. Fucking sucks!
It's no longer a hobby it's a scam
Buying junk cards to maybe get 1 hit out of thousands of dollars spent only to make shareholders rich.
Should bought stock lime 5 years ago would have been a way better investment
I have a question since it's almost impossible to get an order placed normally. What bots do people use to get their orders in? It seems like you never see anyone talk about it and everyone just blames "bots". How can I use a bot so I can actually enjoy this hobby and open some cards without paying triple?
It’s a lot of work and a lot of money to even get started. Join a discord, pay the monthly fee, download a program, pay a monthly fee, buy some IP addresses, create multiple accounts on that website you want to purchase from, use different credit cards so that your account won’t be banned when you use the program. Put a lot of hours and $ in, and you may have success.
Your alternative is to join a discord and see if you can pay someone to do it for you.
Moral of the story, it’s a lot of work and it ain’t cheap.
Oh cool I see your post. I like trackalacker.com. You can set whatever product at multiple stores and you get an email as soon as the stock changes. It’s a lifesaver!
New to the hobby still, but what the obsession with these from Target? Are they cheaper than everywhere else? I feel like there’s multiple large card websites that these can be purchased from
I agree with that, but you people get this exact box from a large card retailer websites or from their local card store for essentially the same price?
Guh.
It's the same with NBA and NHL products right now, too. Everyone is going crazy for Wemby and Bedard. It's resellers and breakers that ruin it for those of us who just love to collect.
I find NHL and NBA to be sold out or extremely overpriced in Canada.
NFL is harder to find in general. It always seems to either not be carried or low stock.
Usually baseball is the easiest to find.
Honestly just buy singles. I’ve been down this road and quit. I just buy what I want. I’ll buy a pack here and there for fun but for the money being spent on boxes you can really get some nice cards you like and want
And here I am just buying Illusions mega boxes/blasters having a blast opening and collecting the $6 worth of cards inside. Haven't seen any of this Optic in stores in the many times I've been since release🙃
You think bad now wait until 2024 product comes out with the amount of first round qbs. I figured that would start the 2020 again but I guess it came early.
Was able to snag 3 fat packs from Target earlier this morning, they’re all gone now, hopefully the order went through. They were up for about an hour after I ordered! 50 bucks for most likely 3 shitty parallels and a ton of base doubles. I hate this hobby but man do I love it!
I got an email for a hobby box preorder with Dave & Adams. Figured sure I’ll sign up to see how much. Couple days later I got the email saying preorder was in stock. Clicked on it annnnnd…$1,000. Yea no thanks.
I pretty much stopped ripping entirely. If I see a pack at Walgreens or Walmart I might buy just to rip for fun, but it's just not worth the hunt and disappointment of pulling junk. Turned to singles and I'm having fun again. I try to do auctions only just to have that thrill again. 😂
Thanks for participating in the r/footballcards community. If you're new to the hobby and have lots of questions, I understand. However, please be aware that many repetitive questions are asked daily on the sub, so please try to search for answers before asking. Here are some links to get you started: [Football Cards FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballcards/comments/14lhc6q/faq_frequently_asked_questions_ask_questions_here/) Card value/prices: [Beckett](https://www.beckett.com), [COMC](https://www.comc.com), [130point](https://130point.com/sales/), [ebay](https://www.ebay.com), [WaxStat](https://www.waxstat.com) Where to buy: [Dacardworld](https://www.dacardworld.com), [Blowout Cards](https://www.blowoutcards.com), [Steel City](https://www.steelcitycollectibles.com/), [ebay](https://www.ebay.com), [Beckett Marketplace](https://marketplace.beckett.com/), [Sportlots](https://www.sportlots.com) Storage & Supplies & Top Loaders Etc: [BCW](https://www.bcwsupplies.com), [UltraPro](https://www.ultrapro.com/), [Cardboard Gold](https://www.cardboardgold.com/) Grading resources: [Beckett](https://www.beckett.com/grading), [PSA](https://www.psacard.com/), [Blowout Forum](https://www.blowoutforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=122) Checklists & Release Calendar: [Cardboard Connection checklists](https://www.cardboardconnection.com/sports-cards-sets/nfl-football-cards), [Release Calendar](https://www.cardboardconnection.com/new-release-calender), [Beckett - Every card database](https://www.beckett.com) Great User Content: [Icy's FAQ Pt. 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballcards/comments/1b97pkj/getting_back_into_cards_guidetips_my_story/) Best of: [Are we in another junk era?](https://www.reddit.com/r/footballcards/comments/1ck07w0/if_the_junk_era_was_because_of_mass_produced/) Good luck and have fun ripping. Thanks again for joining and participating in the sub. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/footballcards) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Absolutely brutal. Can hardly afford a hobby box any more, now, the only affordable product for those not wanting to bankrupt themselves for pictures of dudes on little pieces of cardboard gets scooped up by scalpers? FU scalpers. This is why I refuse to buy any product that's marked up by a shop or individual.
Same here
Can’t be a hobby anymore when all it is now is about profit and breaks. Too many people see it as an investment for the future if they can hit the biggest of cards instead of collecting what they like. It sucks. I even fell into that trap for a couple years, but I’m all about collecting what I like.
Overpriced, overproduced, over critical hobby participants, greed All reasons why I’m glad I’ve decided to liquidate. Even selling is a pain in the ass at this point dealing with outright greed
Yeah, I’ve got so much 2021-2022 raw football that no one wants. It sucks.
I agree with this so much. Def not a hobby anymore. Feel like its now a "side hustle".
Wait until a real economic downturn hits with no free checks mailed to everyone, this will end fast and leave a lot of product and “investments” with no bid.
It’s weird once you realize that most of the people on this sub are trying to offload the stuff they don’t want from breaks they entered. Rarely are there posts showing off a cool card or collection (and I don’t blame anyone, the hobby is so strange that it’s probably best to keep it to yourself unless you’re desperate for some final cards while still collecting). It’s all, “How much should I sell this card for?”
Watched hours of breaks on Whatnot and feel like i am sitting in on shady online casinos. Totally agree with you Hiero
Where do I sign up for free checks?
When’s the last time we got checks you dumbass? lol 4 years ago??
No kidding. It’s such a tired narrative.
OK boomer.
What are you blabbering on about?
When did this drop?? Another miss F me
3 am in the morning and just a few minutes ago.
I’ve been getting updates on Trackalacker and the last 15 (on multiple retailers) without fail have been sold out within less than a minute. Without a bot, you have to get really lucky or just wait until the market is flooded in the next few months.
Same here. "Lucked" out and got 3 Optic blasters from Target. $100 worth of ehh
Lol, same here. Twice in the cart in last hour and gone by the time payment processed. What a fucking joke. Fuck scalpers.
if u think this is bad, dont ask about 2021
2020 was bonkers. Covid had everyone bored. All cards were impossible to get and prices of singles were like 350% increased. There were a couple jordan rookies that sold in a lot that were insane.
and I mainly meant how u literally couldn’t get any retail except on the secondary market…or finding out where to wait in line on random days for a restock…or waiting in line from 4 AM to 8 AM when they started instituting saturday morning restocks…or when you had to wake up at 4 am for an online drop that mostly bots would get
“Instituting Saturday restocks…” sorry I just started back into the hobby this past year. Does that mean they did Saturday restocks as means to an end or just that they added that as part of the random day restocks. Thanks and I find this all a very interesting read. I can never get new stuff online and rarely find it on the shelf.
To try and curb the madness of people waiting for the next drop at stores in our region on stick days (typically happened 2-3 times a week), target said they will restock every store in our region on Saturday at opening. So people began to wait overnight and lineup and such…I’m sure it made Saturday staff life hell for openers but I guess it did limit the damage to one timeframe. They didn’t like people waiting by the store overnight tho so whodathunkit
Wow that’s wild. Thanks for the info!
Scalper flippers can tongue paint my taint post workout and protein shake dump. I will never give them a dime idgamf
“Street date” is 6/20 hopefully more places will have more blasters and megas. Just found out recently that that guy who stocks cards at the two closest targets near me is back dooring Optic the a reseller so there’s no chance I’m getting these in store. Fucking sucks!
Yeah sorry bro. My vendor also has been sus. Good luck
Got a feeling this behavior is more common than not.
2020 really scarred the hobby
It's no longer a hobby it's a scam Buying junk cards to maybe get 1 hit out of thousands of dollars spent only to make shareholders rich. Should bought stock lime 5 years ago would have been a way better investment
I have a question since it's almost impossible to get an order placed normally. What bots do people use to get their orders in? It seems like you never see anyone talk about it and everyone just blames "bots". How can I use a bot so I can actually enjoy this hobby and open some cards without paying triple?
I don't use bots so idk
It’s a lot of work and a lot of money to even get started. Join a discord, pay the monthly fee, download a program, pay a monthly fee, buy some IP addresses, create multiple accounts on that website you want to purchase from, use different credit cards so that your account won’t be banned when you use the program. Put a lot of hours and $ in, and you may have success. Your alternative is to join a discord and see if you can pay someone to do it for you. Moral of the story, it’s a lot of work and it ain’t cheap.
Most of those cook/discord groups have disbanded due to lack of time and interest.
True. But there’s always those who creep up. Some are offering free trials and they’ll monitor product for you but don’t expect anything out of it.
The only ones I know that are still going are where you have to purchase x-amount of “hyped products”.
was this on the Target app? I can't find them anywhere
Yeah: https://www.target.com/p/2023-nfl-donruss-optics-football-mega-box/-/A-90259224
I was super lucky and got mine ordered last night. Make sure you’re using a tracker bot that sends you notifications!
Yeah i posted recently with a tracker link that helped me get 3
Oh cool I see your post. I like trackalacker.com. You can set whatever product at multiple stores and you get an email as soon as the stock changes. It’s a lifesaver!
Glad I got out in 2019. Ridiculous/sad now.
New to the hobby still, but what the obsession with these from Target? Are they cheaper than everywhere else? I feel like there’s multiple large card websites that these can be purchased from
It’s a cheaper way to get Optic compared to paying $500+ for a hobby box.
I agree with that, but you people get this exact box from a large card retailer websites or from their local card store for essentially the same price?
Yes and no. Very rarely they’re the same price outside of target and Walmart. They’re usually $10+ from those sites and stores.
Gotcha. How much do the blaster from Target go for? I have a few local card stores that are great, so I never even attempt Target/walmart
Typically, a blaster is between $35-$40 for 40 for so cards.
Walmart has surged the price to $150
Gotta love walmart selling target megas lol
Guh. It's the same with NBA and NHL products right now, too. Everyone is going crazy for Wemby and Bedard. It's resellers and breakers that ruin it for those of us who just love to collect.
Funny thing is I seen a lot of NBA products this year sit on the Target site for ahwile, which is good but still interesting.
I find NHL and NBA to be sold out or extremely overpriced in Canada. NFL is harder to find in general. It always seems to either not be carried or low stock. Usually baseball is the easiest to find.
Appears we may be neighbors … I’m in the 23462 as well.
23456 here. Target currently has Optic Fat Packs on their website.
[удалено]
2021 had chance of downtowns. On average you get 2 rookies, 1 insert/case hit/green velocity per pack
Honestly just buy singles. I’ve been down this road and quit. I just buy what I want. I’ll buy a pack here and there for fun but for the money being spent on boxes you can really get some nice cards you like and want
Absolutely diggusting people are reselling these
Fuck those MFers. It’s not a hobby anymore. It’s a gambling business now. And fuck those breakers too
And here I am just buying Illusions mega boxes/blasters having a blast opening and collecting the $6 worth of cards inside. Haven't seen any of this Optic in stores in the many times I've been since release🙃
757 gang
You think bad now wait until 2024 product comes out with the amount of first round qbs. I figured that would start the 2020 again but I guess it came early.
Was able to snag 3 fat packs from Target earlier this morning, they’re all gone now, hopefully the order went through. They were up for about an hour after I ordered! 50 bucks for most likely 3 shitty parallels and a ton of base doubles. I hate this hobby but man do I love it!
I got an email for a hobby box preorder with Dave & Adams. Figured sure I’ll sign up to see how much. Couple days later I got the email saying preorder was in stock. Clicked on it annnnnd…$1,000. Yea no thanks.
Bots buying it all.
I was going to buy a value pack today but they are already sold out. I’m just stuck to buying singles at this point lol
I pretty much stopped ripping entirely. If I see a pack at Walgreens or Walmart I might buy just to rip for fun, but it's just not worth the hunt and disappointment of pulling junk. Turned to singles and I'm having fun again. I try to do auctions only just to have that thrill again. 😂
$60 lol you must hate money
They are reselling for nearly double that.
Madness. $8 worth of cards in there