OS 1 - 16 Binder Purchase Recap

[BumChex]

Finally getting my binders in today. I think they split my order so I may have some tomorrow as well. Hopefully I'll get a very rare color sketch?

[OrangeCrush]

I have been waiting for Topps to release some sort of quality binder for the original series but I refuse to have any part in these since they limited them to just 150 sets and if that wasn't bad enough they then allowed people to order more than 1 set. As much as I like the binders, I just refuse to support such business moves. A shame too as all 16 series housed in these would be a nice collection!

[BumChex]

I have been waiting for Topps to release some sort of quality binder for the original series but I refuse to have any part in these since they limited them to just 150 sets and if that wasn't bad enough they then allowed people to order more than 1 set. As much as I like the binders, I just refuse to support such business moves. A shame too as all 16 series housed in these would be a nice collection!

They are limited but they didn't sell out for a week. People were limited to 2 sets but after they didn't sell out they allowed people to buy more.

[Alexeirex]

I have been waiting for Topps to release some sort of quality binder for the original series but I refuse to have any part in these since they limited them to just 150 sets and if that wasn't bad enough they then allowed people to order more than 1 set. As much as I like the binders, I just refuse to support such business moves. A shame too as all 16 series housed in these would be a nice collection!

I was hesitant to buy more than one set because it would mean that the next person might have to get theirs from Ebay - but I went ahead and ordered another one more than a week later because they did not sell out! So everyone that wanted one initially had their chance to order a set - seemed fair to me. What started out as potentially as a flipper's dream didn't end up being one.

Now, the next set of binders may be different as more collectors know about these sets....

A

[BumChex]

I was hesitant to buy more than one set because it would mean that the next person might have to get theirs from Ebay - but I went ahead and ordered another one more than a week later because they did not sell out! So everyone that wanted one initially had their chance to order a set - seemed fair to me. What started out as potentially as a flipper's dream didn't end up being one.

Now, the next set of binders may be different as more collectors know about these sets....

A

I'm not sure if I'm even going to flip my extra of the first series yet. I may wait until later this fall as the new volumes arrive people will want to know where they can get the first 4. It's like just about everything, people miss out on the first run and notice them later on and want the whole set.

[drono]

Read in your best Eeyore voice

I got my one set yesterday.  I guess shipping is slow to Virginia.  I have to admit that I was very disappointed in the product.  I suppose had the binders been $15-20 each instead of $65, I might feel a little better about them.  I'm really not impressed by the sketch cards, but I'll keep them just because they're limited edition.  I would've rather had something a little more colorful and worthy of collecting and even wanting to look at again some day.  I really think that neither the sketches nor the binders would impress anyone who's not a Wacky Collector.  I'll probably leave my original 16 in the binders from NSU, and these will just stay in the box.

Topps, I'm afraid that your greed is going to be the death of you eventually.  We'll all get old and die off some day, and no one will be around to collect these because the kids are being completely shut out of the hobby by high prices and these limited edition special cards.

[DrDeal]

Topps, I'm afraid that your greed is going to be the death of you eventually.  We'll all get old and die off some day, and no one will be around to collect these because the kids are being completely shut out of the hobby by high prices and these limited edition special cards.
[/quote]

Arn't the retail releases for the kids and this collector/high priced limited edition stuff for us big kids?

[drono]

I don't think the kids are buying the retail stuff either -- non-sports or sports.  We paid $0.05 a pack, so you could buy 19 packs: 38 stickers, 19 checklists, and 19 stale pieces of gum for your $1 allowance.  ANS 10 packs sell for $2.50 for 9 stickers with one sticker from a parallel set that will cost $$$ to get.  In 40 years, that's a 1000% price increase.  The appeal just isn't there anymore.  If the kids don't buy them and establish card collecting as fond childhood memories like we did, then no one will be buying them when we all die off.

[Soremel]

I got home at 8:45 this evening and there was a big brown box from Topps on my deck!

I REALLY like these binders! I can't wait to start filling them up with vintage goodness! The puzzles and card backs are fun and informative and have the feel and look of the '70s sets.

From an artist's viewpoint, it's projects like this that make me wish I was still painting for Topps!

Great job, guys! Can't wait for the next installment!

[BumChex]

I got home at 8:45 this evening and there was a big brown box from Topps on my deck!

I REALLY like these binders! I can't wait to start filling them up with vintage goodness! The puzzles and card backs are fun and informative and have the feel and look of the '70s sets.

From an artist's viewpoint, it's projects like this that make me wish I was still painting for Topps!

Great job, guys! Can't wait for the next installment!

Exactly George! I think its great. I don't know about price gouging but these things aren't cheap to put together either. I'm just glad Topps is doing something special for us collectors. Maybe people are expecting too much. Like I said the covers of the binders are like painted canvas.

[DrDeal]

Exactly George! I think its great. I don't know about price gouging but these things aren't cheap to put together either. I'm just glad Topps is doing something special for us collectors. Maybe people are expecting too much. Like I said the covers of the binders are like painted canvas.

In 20 years these binders will be a big part of a OS collection. When someone goes to sell their OS cards one of the first questions will be "are they in the binders"?

Andrew

[jeffcaff]

I believe you are correct about the binders. It is has been almost a week since their release and I have only seen 3-4 binder sets on Ebay.  I assume that 95% of the people have received their binders so I don't really expect too many of these to show up on Ebay or the forum.  Most people only purchased 1-2 sets.   We will see what happens.  Having said all of that, I think that the binders, sketch card and puzzle sets are very nice. 

[Go_Bum]

In 20 years these binders will be a big part of a OS collection. When someone goes to sell their OS cards one of the first questions will be "are they in the binders"?

Andrew

Seriously?

[Alexeirex]

I believe you are correct about the binders. It is has been almost a week since their release and I have only seen 3-4 binder sets on Ebay.  I assume that 95% of the people have received their binders so I don't really expect too many of these to show up on Ebay or the forum.  Most people only purchased 1-2 sets.   We will see what happens.  Having said all of that, I think that the binders, sketch card and puzzle sets are very nice. 

I'm still waiting for my sets here on the west coast. I put in orders a week apart but they're being delivered on the same day.
A

[MadMike]

Seriously?

I was thinking the same thing before I read your comment. 

SERIOUSLY?

[Porkie]

I was thinking the same thing before I read your comment. 

SERIOUSLY?

Me too!

[BumChex]

I was thinking the same thing before I read your comment. 

SERIOUSLY?

Andrew gets no love from you guys. I don't think anyone knows what will happen in 20 years but it could happen. I wonder what will happen to the original series after all of us crazy 40 and 50 yr olds drop dead or quit collecting? LOL

[deadpresidentsvisa]

Andrew gets no love from you guys. I don't think anyone knows what will happen in 20 years but it could happen. I wonder what will happen to the original series after all of us crazy 40 and 50 yr olds drop dead or quit collecting? LOL

OR BOTH

[DrDeal]

Seriously?

Dead Serious.

[Paul_Maul]

Dead Serious.

An interesting prediction. Can you expand on why you feel this way?

[DrDeal]

An interesting prediction. Can you expand on why you feel this way?

Certainly.  These binders have original art done by current WP artists. They pay homage to the original stickers and add a puzzle set that is both contemporary and "old school". While they missed a few opportunities with the spines and the inside of the binders; they still produced a very cool binder which is a great way to house your OS cards cards. I put my series 1 - 4 OS and ANS cards in the binders 1 -4 and feel good about my decision. The fact that I purchased the OS cards when I was young and the binders when I was 50 add a bit of sentimentality to the equation. Kind of "Wacky's come full circle".  The fact that these are Topps produced also adds to the equation. I owned the NSU binders for years but the self promotional ads on the back and the lack of D rings bothered me over time. I think these binders with their retro cloth covers will grow on us over time. Thier price is not that high considering the puzzle set in the mix.
I have now committed to buying the full set and don't feel there will be any regret on my part.

Regards,  Andrew

[quas]

Thoughts on what effect all this might have on the buying patterns for Binders and Puzzle Sets 5 through 8?

[OrangeCrush]

I was hesitant to buy more than one set because it would mean that the next person might have to get theirs from Ebay - but I went ahead and ordered another one more than a week later because they did not sell out! So everyone that wanted one initially had their chance to order a set - seemed fair to me. What started out as potentially as a flipper's dream didn't end up being one.

Now, the next set of binders may be different as more collectors know about these sets....

A

Not everyone can watch the internet on a regular basis and order items immediately after coming out. I was in the middle of Utah on a 10 day photo shoot when this first came out. I had no way to even access the internet, let alone log on and read about Wacky packages items. Bottom line, when something is this limited, people should only be able to order 1, at least for the first 2-3 weeks. If they don't sell out at that time, then you can open up orders again for people that have already ordered a set. All these kinds of moves do is screw a lot of people that wind up wanting to buy them. You see it time and time again with almost every collectible market in existence. eBay is overflowing with such purchases.

In all honesty, the more I thought about it the happier I was that I didn't buy a set. Almost no advanced notice, a high price tag, limiting them to just 150 sets, letting people buy more than 1 set. Its just piss poor business all the way around in my book.

[Paul_Maul]

Certainly.  These binders have original art done by current WP artists. They pay homage to the original stickers and add a puzzle set that is both contemporary and "old school". While they missed a few opportunities with the spines and the inside of the binders; they still produced a very cool binder which is a great way to house your OS cards cards. I put my series 1 - 4 OS and ANS cards in the binders 1 -4 and feel good about my decision. The fact that I purchased the OS cards when I was young and the binders when I was 50 add a bit of sentimentality to the equation. Kind of "Wacky's come full circle".  The fact that these are Topps produced also adds to the equation. I owned the NSU binders for years but the self promotional ads on the back and the lack of D rings bothered me over time. I think these binders with their retro cloth covers will grow on us over time. Thier price is not that high considering the puzzle set in the mix.
I have now committed to buying the full set and don't feel there will be any regret on my part.

Regards,  Andrew

I'm glad you enjoy the binders. But nothing you've said convinces me anyone will care about them years from now. Even as a vintage collector, I wouldn't even know these exist except for the forum. I don't find them very compelling but I'm glad others do.

[BumChex]

There was around a 20 day notice before they went on sale.

[DrDeal]

I'm glad you enjoy the binders. But nothing you've said convinces me anyone will care about them years from now. Even as a vintage collector, I wouldn't even know these exist except for the forum. I don't find them very compelling but I'm glad others do.

Its great that Topps is still back in the Wacky game. While their output varies in its appeall; IMO that's still better than the "no output" years we all dealt with.

Andrew

[Fanatical_and_Sickly]

I believe you are correct about the binders. It is has been almost a week since their release and I have only seen 3-4 binder sets on Ebay.  I assume that 95% of the people have received their binders so I don't really expect too many of these to show up on Ebay or the forum.  Most people only purchased 1-2 sets.   We will see what happens.  Having said all of that, I think that the binders, sketch card and puzzle sets are very nice. 

doubt 95% have them, as I finally just got mine today.
shipping to the west of the mississippi takes a crazy amount of time

[OrangeCrush]

There was around a 20 day notice before they went on sale.

Wow, a whole 20 days, lol. Like I was saying.....

Your welcome to disagree with me all you want as were all entitled to our opinions and we all make purchases based off of our opinions. IMO, this entire product was just one bad business decision after another and after the initial excitement of the set wore off, I was actually glad that I didn't spend any of my money on them. Besides, I already have my multiple sets of original 16 series in high quality archival D-Ring slipcases from Light Impressions. They may not have the nice Wacky Packages drawings that are on the limited edition sets but they are superior to the limited edition sets produced by Topps in every other regard. So I am all good with what I have.

[jleonard1967]

Wow, a whole 20 days, lol. Like I was saying.....

Your welcome to disagree with me all you want as were all entitled to our opinions and we all make purchases based off of our opinions. IMO, this entire product was just one bad business decision after another and after the initial excitement of the set wore off, I was actually glad that I didn't spend any of my money on them. Besides, I already have my multiple sets of original 16 series in high quality archival D-Ring slipcases from Light Impressions. They may not have the nice Wacky Packages drawings that are on the limited edition sets but they are superior to the limited edition sets produced by Topps in every other regard. So I am all good with what I have.

As Aesop would say "Those grapes were probably sour anyway"

[OrangeCrush]

As Aesop would say "Those grapes were probably sour anyway"

Nope, just call em like I see em. The Topp's binders aren't even listed as archival. That in itself is a deal breaker for me.

For any other members in here that are looking for high quality archival binders, just hit Light Impressions and get either the D-Ring Archive Binder or the Trueguard Album and Slipcase set. Again, they may not have the Wacky Packages drawings on the cover but they are both superior in every other way. They are also $60-100 cheaper (per every 4 purchased).

[Porkie]

Fascinating to me that there seems to be a pretty clear division between people liking or disliking these binders. I'm not sure if there has been a Wacky's product that has done this to such an extent before? Anyone?

[Alexeirex]

Not everyone can watch the internet on a regular basis and order items immediately after coming out. I was in the middle of Utah on a 10 day photo shoot when this first came out. I had no way to even access the internet, let alone log on and read about Wacky packages items. Bottom line, when something is this limited, people should only be able to order 1, at least for the first 2-3 weeks. If they don't sell out at that time, then you can open up orders again for people that have already ordered a set. All these kinds of moves do is screw a lot of people that wind up wanting to buy them. You see it time and time again with almost every collectible market in existence. eBay is overflowing with such purchases.

In all honesty, the more I thought about it the happier I was that I didn't buy a set. Almost no advanced notice, a high price tag, limiting them to just 150 sets, letting people buy more than 1 set. Its just piss poor business all the way around in my book.

Not even attempting to change your position on these binders, but limiting the binders to just one per person would not have changed anything business-wise- if you really wanted to buy more than one all one has to do is get your husband, wife or children to sign up and purchase. I see that all the time with other collectibles. And if you think this was limited, one of the other items I collect comes out in edition sizes of 6-18 and sells out in minutes with NO notice beforehand - most of us find out about the item after its been already sold out.
And we check the websites every day!!! They are so popular that they don't even bother to advertise their specials most to the time. Makes me grateful that I get some notice with Topps and this forum.
A

[Alexeirex]

Nope, just call em like I see em. The Topp's binders aren't even listed as archival. That in itself is a deal breaker for me.

For any other members in here that are looking for high quality archival binders, just hit Light Impressions and get either the D-Ring Archive Binder or the Trueguard Album and Slipcase set. Again, they may not have the Wacky Packages drawings on the cover but they are both superior in every other way. They are also $60-100 cheaper (per every 4 purchased).

Out of curiousity, does having an archival binder make any difference with Wackys? Isn't it the archival page that is the most important? You could still have archival pages in the Wacky binders. I think most collectors now use archival quality baseball card pages.
I have used hingeless stamp albums with archival acid free pages and preset mounts for years, but don't recall the binders and slipcases being archival.
A

[Kook]

Fascinating to me that there seems to be a pretty clear division between people liking or disliking these binders. I'm not sure if there has been a Wacky's product that has done this to such an extent before? Anyone?

My guess is the price has altered expectations for the product, and it's not that the artwork was bad, or that the binders weren't nice. The puzzles were great and the binders were adequate. What I think is that primarily, the value vs the product was mismatched a bit. If this 4 binder set sold for $100, they'd have gone like hotcakes & people would cheerfully be making suggestions to make the next batch better. Having laid out $260 I think people were expecting jaw dropping sketches (IMO the sketches were average, or a little better compared to recent releases) and something really unique with the binders IN ADDITION to the material used.

I think topps hit just off the sweet spot with their value proposition on this one. They certainly don't want to see a $40 postcard set pieced out & selling for $200 on ebay, not because they don't want the collector to recoup some cash, but because that's a lot of value they left on the table. When the secondary market is choking on the product, people figure they'll wait to get a deal on ebay rather than buying from topps.

I have never seen the secondary market so apathetic about a limited release wacky item & have such a long sell out time considering the quantity available & purchase limits. I'm really on the fence about buying the remaining 12. The completist in me says do it. The common sense in me says no. I certainly won't be buying a second set this time around just to pick the better sketch. That was truly a 50/50 proposition with no great ones, but also with no dogs as in the last olds release 4. I feel lucky this time around to have broken even, and if I buy the rest of the binder sets, it sure won't be with any concerns for them holding their value. I think the best option may be to wait until they hit ebay & just buy the puzzles, because I don't see myself filling up 16 different binders with 16 series when I can do it now nicely with 4 NSU binders.

[Kook]

I'm glad you enjoy the binders. But nothing you've said convinces me anyone will care about them years from now. Even as a vintage collector, I wouldn't even know these exist except for the forum. I don't find them very compelling but I'm glad others do.

I would agree with you here Dave. Vintage stuff is vintage stuff, and new is new. These are not Norm Saunders murals put on these binders, and even if they were, it would still be a product from 2013. These binders are a stand alone product. That's not to say they won't or can't enhance a vintage collection. They can, just like an os 1 to 16 run is certainly more appealing in an NSU binder set than in binders from Staples. The difference is that when you pull the sets from the binders, there's not a chance that people won't want the wackys because they are not in the binders. The binders add value to the extent that they are valued. The binders & os stickers really have nothing to do with each other and I think it's nothing more than "the sum of the parts".

I also think that in 20 years, you're going to have a hard time selling off the os stickers AND the binders, together or separate, because in 20 years (or hopefully 30 or more), we kids of the 70s are going to start dying off along with the memories & emotional attachments to these things. It's my opinon that in another 10 to 15 years or so, the value of wackys (original & ANS) will start to decline, never to go back up. I don't think people collecting the ANS will be nearly as emotional about them as we are about the ones from the 70s. There doesn't seem to be nearly an equivalent desire for the reissues, 80's album stickers, '85 set or the '91 set for the people who grew up collecting those. I think the ANS will be more nostalgic for us because of its link to the 70s rather than the kids of today.