Just shelled out my $30.00 - and I feel like a schmuck, like I've been taken, like Topps just bent me over the barrel again (which they have.) I don't know which would be worse: Shelling out another $30 or starring in a pivotal scene from the film "Deliverance." I suppose it's all one and the same.
One shouldn't feel like this, though. I should be feeling joy and delight from my purchase - not the other way around.
As I read the other posts, I also realize that I am not alone, and, indeed, enough is enough. If Topps had offered up the entire set of - what is it now, 18 cards? - how many of us would have paid $180.00 for it?
I admit, there were some cards that made me smile and laugh. The humor was relevant, biting, and caustic. These cards, however, could just have easily rendered as GPK cards. In fact, sometimes I had to double check the online label to make certain I was purchasing an actual Wacky. There's the rub, though. Are they Wackys? True Wackys? Or, having been stamped as "Wacky Packages" on the back, are they just another series of cards posing as Wackys?
Sometimes I wonder why I am even purchasing particular cards. Because they say "Wacky Packages" on them? Because I need them to maintain and/or complete my collection? Because I believe they might be worth something in the future - like the famous 16th set? (Twenty years from now, I'll be 74 and highly wonder if I'll even care.)
Some years ago, my ex started to get into the "Ninja Turtles," that is the old, original comic series. I admit, there was a certain appeal. They were dark, not at all what I had expected. Later, I purchased her a few of the figures. Then a few more. And so on. You know how it goes. Eventually, however, the entire franchise just became positively ridiculous: "Star Trek" Ninja Turtles, Ninja Turtles in birthday suits, you name it. And that was that. The end.
This is the direction I fear Topps is taking, has been taking. They are going to milk Wackys to their very demise through "clever" marketing strategies and tangents. If they haven't already, people are going to become more and more disgusted. No, wrong word: Disheartened. It's happening now. Just read some of the posts above.
I am grateful for the "Bulk Discount Club" and will try that for awhile and see how it goes. But right now, I am wondering. What will the next round of cards be like? Will they even be Wackys? Or simply an unrelated "celebrity" set with the Wacky name forced upon it? I guess time will tell.
What's really a shame, though, - despite the fact that many products were tripled parodied, despite the fact that multiple series flooded the market certain years, despite the fact that parallel cards reached new and outlandish unprecedented numbers - is that Wackys still held such promise and potential. They had "heart." And, if it's not too late, still can.
Postscript: Is Topps part of Donald Trump's holdings? It really, really wouldn't surprise me at all.
