Back in late March of 2020 Topps debuted its first Project 2020 cards. I’m guessing most of you reading are familiar with these cards. I didn’t buy any Project 2020 cards directly from Topps. In 2020 I only bought one Project 2020 card. It was Keith Shore Ken Griffey Jr. card that had a record breaking print run of 99,177.
I bought it off eBay for $6.83 shipped on August 16, 2020. I bought it for two reasons. One is to remember the entire Project 2020 by buying the card with the highest print run that highlights everything that is wrong with Project 2020. I take that back, nothing is wrong with Project 2020. The problem is everyone that only bought the cards trying to make a profit. The second reason I bought it is because it was Griffey and I collect Griffey. If I was going to buy just one Project 2020 card, it would be of a player I collect.
On Friday night I was scrolling through Twitter before bed and came across a post promoting a sale of 350 Project 2020 cards the next day. It got me thinking about the set and how cheap some of the cards are currently. So I hoped on comc and sorted Project 2020 cards by the lowest price. $2.13 was the lowest price with plenty more in the $3-$5 range.
Then it hit me. Why not collect one card of each player along with one card from each artist. So 20 total cards. I already had the Griffey card done by Keith Shore, so I needed 19 more cards. I set out to see how cheaply I could accomplish my goal. So I just went through the cards on comc lowest to highest price and made a list so I could track both the player and the artist.
The highest price on this list was $5.73, but this proved to be more challenging than I thought because as I got near the end I was stuck needing very specific cards to meet my criteria and they weren’t as cheap as I wanted them to be, so I had to redo the list somewhat. This allowed me to pick a couple of specific cards I wanted.
For example, I wanted the Mike Trout Ben Baller card. I just remember all the hubbub about that card when it came out. Ben Baller was promoting the heck out of it and even made a necklace to give away to someone that purchased the card. I also wanted the Mark McGwire Blake Jamieson card because I remember it being on the cover of Beckett as they talked about Topps Project 2020. These cards weren’t crazy, but they weren’t necessarily the cheapest options available.
With that said. I purchase 19 cards and paid for shipping ($4.99) and it was just under $100. The lowest price I paid was $2.13 and the most I paid was $9.05 (the Tyson Peck Frank Thomas card that I didn’t notate the price). 13 of the cards were $5 or less. The 19 cards averaged $4.93 per card, a far cry from the original $19.99 price tag. Now I realize there were disconnected prices based on bulk purchases, but still.
I chose the longest, and cheapest, shipping option from comc, so I won’t see any of the cards until March, but I have to think comc is going to lose money shipping 19 cards in one touch holders. Sorry, not sorry.
Once they arrive I’ll have to figure out how to display them.
What are your thoughts on Project 2020? Did you purchase any? What cards from this set stand out to you?
Cool idea. Will look great all together. I completed the full Jeter 2020 run. I have a few other random ones as well.
ReplyDeleteI’m guessing most baseball card collectors took that route and went after a player run and fans of the artist may have gone after the artist run.
DeleteI have enjoyed seeing the different Project 2020 cards on the social media sites for Topps, but I have not pulled the trigger on any yet. I do want to try to track down the two Lindor cards eventually. I had a good lead on one of them, but decided against of the asking price of the seller.
ReplyDeleteLindor has cards in the Project 70 set. I have not bought any Project 70 cards yet. Maybe at some point, but I’ll have to figure out how to pick what cards to use to represent it in my collection.
DeleteThat's a very unique idea, but I doubt I would do that. I'm not too big on the on-demand cards because I usually never have money to get them, and the price to begin with. If I did want to build a set though, I would probably opt for the Topps Living Set, but wish they would release more cards each week. Having said all that, I should look to see if some of the on-demand sets have any cheap Royals cards and pick some up. I would probably also go after the Griffey card since I PC him and its probably the face of that set.
ReplyDeleteI agree with on the price directly from Topps. Glad to see many of the aftermarket prices in a more reasonable range.
DeleteI have 3 of them, one Jackie and 2 Koufax. I bought only two of them. I didn't see the point of getting more than 1 or 2. Even with 3 I feel like I have one extra.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a set that I feel like you need to either have all or none. All 20 of the player cards or all from an artist. Or something like I did with one of each player and artist.
DeleteYour idea is pretty cool. Might borrow that idea. I've picked up about 10 Project 2020 cards for the collection... and have been given a few more. I'm a big fan of two of the artists (Ermsy and Sophia Chang), so I targeted their work for Gwynn and Henderson. And just followed your lead and grabbed Chang's Clemente for a little under $5.
ReplyDeleteI’m excited about route I took. A relatively inexpensive way to get a complete representation (all players and all artists) of the set.
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