Thursday, August 9, 2012

Barney Orange From One of the 25,118 Factory Sets

My latest addition to the Darwin Barney collection is this...




....orange-bordered card.  It comes from the Topps Factory Set.  In addition of the 661 regular cards, each set comes with five orange bordered cards.  They are numbered to 190, making them fairly scarce.

The math teacher in me got to work as soon as I saw the numbering, so I can figure out how many factory sets Topps is producing.

661 cards in the set times 190 orange cards of each = 125,590

Divide that by five, since each set gets five cards = 25,118.  Topps would be producing 25,118 factory sets. Does that number seem low?  It doesn't sound like a lot to me.  Last year the extra cards had red borders and they were numbered to 245 (32,340 sets).  In 2010 there were 299 of the special cards (39,468 sets).  It looks like Topps is really cutting back on the factory sets.  Any conclusions we can make about the state of the hobby?

Something else about the 25,000 factory sets.  That just seems like a really low number.  Target and Walmart both sell cards.  There are 3,600 Walmarts and 1760 Targets in the US.  That's 5,360 stores selling cards and I would assume factory sets.  25,000 sets to be sold in 5,360 stores....that's not a lot of sets per store.  And Topps also sells sets on their site, on MLB, and to dealers.  25,000 sure doesn't seem like enough to go around.

Back to Barney....
The orange card is my seventh base set variation.  Other than the 1/1s, I believe I've got them all.



14 comments:

  1. You've got them all until update series comes out and they add the gold bordered #'d to 2012. It shouldn't be much of an issue to track that one down though.

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  2. That looks pretty cool lined up like that.

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  3. Don't forget the new 2012 Minis and their variations.

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    1. I've got the base mini coming and I just missed out on a gold border version. Waiting for another to pop up.

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    2. Nice. Show them again when you finish. I'd like to see that "rainbow".

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  4. I've been getting all of the Scott Sizemores...I also have a Purple Toys-R-Us parallel, a Gold Rush Stamped Promo parallel (provided USPS finds it), and a Team Set version (#'ed OAK7 instead of 139).

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    1. I've never seen a Toys R Us Barney (well, I've seen lots of purple Barneys at Toys R Us, but they were the dinosaur type!). He was in series two...did TRU have series 2 parallels? I've got his team set version, but Topps used a different picture for that card.

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  5. Nice! I put in a best offer on an orange Tony Campana a few weeks ago because I didn't want to pay $4 plus shipping. Somebody else snapped it up for full price before I heard back. Oh well, 189 to go, right?

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    1. I almost never do a Buy It Now if somebody has the Best Offer option because it generally means they'll take less. Lesson learned! Gotta scoop those cards up for a player collection.

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  6. I love this card! Such a great action shot. Glad you're collecting all of its variations.

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  7. These days, even 25,000 seems high to me. Are there even half that many people that would buy a set? Around here, the factory sets tend to linger on the shelves until at least one price drop.

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  8. Quick question - do all the parallels mention Sandberg on the back?

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  9. Tai-All the backs are the same as the base and mention Sandberg.

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