Why don't Topps do complete sticker sets like Panini ?

[Pillman]

Hey,so recently I bought a complete set of Calciatori 24/25 directly from Panini and asked myself,why don't Topps do it as well ? I think it'd be a really neat to buy complete sets instead of buying boxes and then having to buy missing stickers and whatnot.

 

[StickazMan]

Apart from eBay, Manuelkant in Italy also look like a good vendor to buy full sets from, this site also sells full albums for national league and international competititions and special stickers such as rookie stickers. Never bought from Manuelkant direct, so not sure this company even export to other countries (bough a set through Amazon). Had a full Calciatori set for 2023, it was however, missing a few update stickers which I then had to find through Last Stickers. How did you buy a full set through Panini direct, sort of goes against the whole business plan no? I always thought full sets came from the likes of Manuelkant or individual vendors on Ebay/Amazon?

 

[StickazMan]

Manuelkant also sent packets of stickers, at huge cost for old ones I might add

 

[tugasportscards]

Unfortunately Topps doesn't care about stickers as Panini does. Their focus is the chase of parallel, numbered and rare cards. They don't even bother having a quality individual service for stickers, so imagine they having a service for selling complete collections. The most reliable source for buying Topps complete collections are other sites and pages on social networks.

 

[LFC1892]

Hey,so recently I bought a complete set of Calciatori 24/25 directly from Panini and asked myself,why don't Topps do it as well ? I think it'd be a really neat to buy complete sets instead of buying boxes and then having to buy missing stickers and whatnot.

did it come with all the update stickers + film d'campionato & other exclusive stickers?

 

[chriswiggy]

Unfortunately Topps doesn't care about stickers as Panini does. Their focus is the chase of parallel, numbered and rare cards. They don't even bother having a quality individual service for stickers, so imagine they having a service for selling complete collections. The most reliable source for buying Topps complete collections are other sites and pages on social networks.

This is the way the hobby is going unfortunately. I expect Topps will remove the joy from collecting the next Premier League sticker collection.

Did anyone else read about the Upper Deck basketball card which sold for $12.9 million (yes, million)? Ok, it was a one of one double autograph card of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan but even so. Not a Topps card but that's the sort of publicity Topps would love.

 

[Pillman]

Apart from eBay, Manuelkant in Italy also look like a good vendor to buy full sets from, this site also sells full albums for national league and international competititions and special stickers such as rookie stickers. Never bought from Manuelkant direct, so not sure this company even export to other countries (bough a set through Amazon). Had a full Calciatori set for 2023, it was however, missing a few update stickers which I then had to find through Last Stickers. How did you buy a full set through Panini direct, sort of goes against the whole business plan no? I always thought full sets came from the likes of Manuelkant or individual vendors on Ebay/Amazon?

Yeah,I bought from Manuelkant once,a complete set of SPs for that ugly Euro 2024 collection.I could also have bought the Calciatori 24/25 set from there but it's more expensive: 125€ for the set + 26€ shipping on Manuelkant vs Panini 135€ complete set+hardcover album and free shipping

Unfortunately Topps doesn't care about stickers as Panini does. Their focus is the chase of parallel, numbered and rare cards. They don't even bother having a quality individual service for stickers, so imagine they having a service for selling complete collections. The most reliable source for buying Topps complete collections are other sites and pages on social networks.

That's so true,Topps would probably drop sticker collections altogheter and just focus on cards but do both cuz they have to

did it come with all the update stickers + film d'campionato & other exclusive stickers?

Not sure as the set hasn't arrived yet but most likely it will as I bought 22/23 set last year and all update stickers were included.

 

[Peakster]

Basketball and Baseball cards can fetch huge prices in the US.

Topps are doing everything possible to end individual services for cards and stickers.

The "offer" for the Women's EURO stickers is ample evidence for this.

 

[Burkina2008]

For these guys (and now I would already start to include panini), the sticker market is just an entry point for the real money which is in cards...
Living in teh US I can see that...I mean a pristina Mexico 70 Panini Album full (and I am talking about pristine condition of the album and cards/stickers) will go for maximum 5,000 USD. And these are rare that they come up maybe one every couple of months for auction.

On the other side, there are boxes of panini and topps product (cards) like National Treasures, that cost 3k-10k that sell out in minutes...

 

[Peakster]

I think stickers are still the life blood for Panini in Europe at least. Their stickers are very high quality, they still run a good individual service and there are a lot of collectors.

As others have said Topps don't care about stickers - the quality of stickers and albums is pretty poor now and there are very limited individual services available. I like the CL collection - but the last two versions have felt very attritional to collect and their EURO 24 collection reached a new low in just about everything.

I don't really understand why people buy those massively expensive hobby boxes. I guess they just get sold on to other people that want them but they are mostly not worth the prices that people pay for them. Do they actually "sell out" ? - I thought there was a limited time window that they were available and then any orders they get are printed afterwards. For me there are 3 certainties in life, Death, Taxes and the fact that I will never purchase one of these boxes.

I lived in the US (and Canada) for a few years - I am a proud fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers - one thing I used to like is the way that the companies that produce Baseball cards would produce a huge box with a full set of cards in each season at very reasonable prices. I had quite a few of these, but I had to get rid of them when I came back to the UK again.

 

[Burkina2008]

I think stickers are still the life blood for Panini in Europe at least. Their stickers are very high quality, they still run a good individual service and there are a lot of collectors.

As others have said Topps don't care about stickers - the quality of stickers and albums is pretty poor now and there are very limited individual services available. I like the CL collection - but the last two versions have felt very attritional to collect and their EURO 24 collection reached a new low in just about everything.

I don't really understand why people buy those massively expensive hobby boxes. I guess they just get sold on to other people that want them but they are mostly not worth the prices that people pay for them. Do they actually "sell out" ? - I thought there was a limited time window that they were available and then any orders they get are printed afterwards. For me there are 3 certainties in life, Death, Taxes and the fact that I will never purchase one of these boxes.

I lived in the US (and Canada) for a few years - I am a proud fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers - one thing I used to like is the way that the companies that produce Baseball cards would produce a huge box with a full set of cards in each season at very reasonable prices. I had quite a few of these, but I had to get rid of them when I came back to the UK again.

Yes well, basically the tactic is get kids hooked on stickers like they did to most of us and expect that when kids grow up to have available income they wouuld dabble then into cards

Baseball base sets of cards since the late 80s (junk wax era) are even cheaper than stickers and most people actually throw away these cards. The "thrill" is in the chase of ssp rookies, numbered cards, etc

And yes, these boxes that cost 5k and up sell out in hours (the production is also not huge). Mostly its sold to breakers and you can see that most are open, as there are websites that track for example a CR7 variant up to /99, how many of those 99 cards already came up for auction or came up in breaks. The result is that normally a few months after the product comes out, more than 50% of the cards already came up publicly. Of course there are boxes that are kept unopened, mostly as a wasteful investment and people that buy the product, rip it and keep the cards in their collection...those are untrackable..

 

[Peakster]

Modern day Football cards have limited value and I'm guessing that many of those people who keep unopened boxes in the expectation that they will gain in value are likely to be disappointed. Most rare things that Topps produce go (as you say) to breakers - it is a world I have absolutely no interest in so I don't pay it much attention.

I'm changing the way I collect cards and stickers now - mostly because of sharply increasing costs. It aint a cheap hobby any more and prices will continue to rise. About a year ago I started buying very little new stuff, nowadays I wait a while and then get bundles of cards from ebay and then fill in the ones I want from other sites. I'm not bothering with Limited Editions now (because they are all but worthless) and I'm steering clear of expensive inserts. I have a more-or-less complete collection of the first 450 cards from the recent Topps Premier League set and it cost me less than £100. I also have most of the standard Limited Editions, quite a few parallels and some Chrome King cards that were in the bundles. I will not be bothering with the new CL Match Attax sets this year though, I've had enough after last year.

There's still some fun to be had from this hobby - I recently collected the Panini WSL cards collection and the Topps Womens Euros set (both of which were easy and quite economical sets to get) and I'm in the process of collecting the 2022 Qatar World Cup sticker collection because I missed it first time round. There are some collections coming out later this season that I am really looking forward to collecting.

 

[Burkina2008]

Modern day Football cards have limited value and I'm guessing that many of those people who keep unopened boxes in the expectation that they will gain in value are likely to be disappointed. Most rare things that Topps produce go (as you say) to breakers - it is a world I have absolutely no interest in so I don't pay it much attention.

I'm changing the way I collect cards and stickers now - mostly because of sharply increasing costs. It aint a cheap hobby any more and prices will continue to rise. About a year ago I started buying very little new stuff, nowadays I wait a while and then get bundles of cards from ebay and then fill in the ones I want from other sites. I'm not bothering with Limited Editions now (because they are all but worthless) and I'm steering clear of expensive inserts. I have a more-or-less complete collection of the first 450 cards from the recent Topps Premier League set and it cost me less than £100. I also have most of the standard Limited Editions, quite a few parallels and some Chrome King cards that were in the bundles. I will not be bothering with the new CL Match Attax sets this year though, I've had enough after last year.

There's still some fun to be had from this hobby - I recently collected the Panini WSL cards collection and the Topps Womens Euros set (both of which were easy and quite economical sets to get) and I'm in the process of collecting the 2022 Qatar World Cup sticker collection because I missed it first time round. There are some collections coming out later this season that I am really looking forward to collecting.

Absolutely, to each his own.
Me being european collect stickers and mostly older stickers nowadays (trying to finalize my Mexico 70 set and get a better WC 74 pristine set as well as some 70's 80's national league albums of Spain and the UK). Anything after 2000, I only collect WC/Euro and Portuguese national league. Also I only collect panini, not Topps.
The only thing where I find cards more appealing is the autographs, especially if they are on-card (non-sticker) from past players. And I collect these. I mean I have Pele, Maradona, etc signed cards, which i finder much nicer than their stickers (in case o Pele the Mexico 70 card)

Regarding the sealed product, well its a gamble (also not really for me) but its mostly fueled by products with rookies, like the Topps Chrome from Rookie Lebron or the Jordan Rookie from the 1986 Fleer, where a box would have costed maybe $20 and now is sold for $100,000. Even recent stuff like Ohtani rookie boxes that would have costed a few years ago, retail, $200-$300, now are sold regularly at $3000-$4000 only for a gamble on a variation/numbered Ohtani card that can fetch 5x-30x more than that on the open market.
People love to gamble and the market for "valuable" product has shiffted to that unfortunatelly.

 

[Pillman]

Well,I didn't expect the thread to get such a great discussion going.Glad I've made it haha

 

[Peakster]

Sounds like you have got some great stuff Burkina - I have some autographs of (mostly Chelsea) players from the 70s to 90s as well as a few after that but I don't think any of them are particularly valuable.

I started out collecting Cigarette and Trade Cards and some of the sets I have are worth tidy sums of money.

I'm trying not to collect Topps products now - certainly I'm not going to pay their prices for new stuff anymore.

I know someone who has a full set of the 1970 World Cup Panini Stickers - I have seen them and they are in very nice condition. I get the impression that if his house burned down - he would save them first.

I played in the same school team as someone who played for Chelsea in the 1980s - tragically his promising career was cut short by a serious injury but he got me loads of stuff while he was in the team.

 

[BenDLH44]

Hey,so recently I bought a complete set of Calciatori 24/25 directly from Panini and asked myself,why don't Topps do it as well ? I think it'd be a really neat to buy complete sets instead of buying boxes and then having to buy missing stickers and whatnot.

I also collect the F1 stickers by Topps every year and since 2023 you get the album and all the stickers inside of 1 product which I like as you don’t have to spend lots of money and don’t have to worry about getting any swaps