Speaking of Strasburg …
Where are the Allen & Ginter minis? When Stephen Strasburg made his debut Topps announced the Washington Nationals rookie would be included in Allen and Ginter with a mini and an auto redemption only.
That was enough for collectors who wanted his card or were looking to flip anything with his name on it.
Two auctions for the mini were on eBay Tuesday night with the same stock photo that has been around the Internet for the last 24 hours. Wednesday morning, both auctions were taken down.
Chris Olds had an interesting piece this morning on Beckett’s blog. Strasburg minis have yet to be found said the folks he has spoken with.
Let’s take a look a stroll around the Internet to see what others are saying:
On Twitter, Brent Williams (@brentandbecca) wrote: “@toppscards Where are the Strasburg mini cards & auto redemptions. I opened 25 cases! between 2 other guys 28 cases & boards full of others”
Let’s take a look at the case breaks at Blowout’s forums … hang on as I rummage through posts and scans. Ah, no Strasburg here.
Let’s check Freedom Cardboard … wait, oh no, nevermind. There aren’t any there either.
This is a huge PR problem for Topps. Allen and Ginter is always a popular product for them and didn’t really need the hype of Strasburg to make it any better, but considered he was a late addition to the set he could be in later cases and not the early ones.
If that’s the case, this will hurt brick and mortar shops and those who always buy early because they would have gotten the cases shipped to them first. Does this help retail since they tend to get their product later than hobby shops.
When the first REAL Strasburg mini shows up, I want to see a scan of the back of the card.
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Chris Olds just tweeted: A collector in Katy, Texas, HAS pulled a Strasburg mini out of a pack… card shop called to mention it.
They do exist!
Yep, a reputable collector pulled one.
http://www.freedomcardboard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=95777
It's now for sale. Buy it now at $12,000.
$12,000? is this a regular mini? Or a RIP card pull?
Regular short-printed mini.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. The odds of finding one is only going to be less than 1:500.
It's been lowered to $9,999. I wonder what they could get for it if it didn't say Ross Clark on his chest?
Could Topps be a genius?
I wonder if they made special cases (ones without a Strasburg mini) to send to those dealers/distributors they know habitually release product before the official release date. With Strasugasms, that would be like a penalty to not be able to pull them from packs early and sell them for a premium before release date.
For those dealers/distributors they know sell product at the official release date, their cases would have the Strasburg minis.