2011 Topps Marquee Baseball

This product has been hyped all Summer! I was super excited to bust it. I ran over to my LCS after work and he had it their waiting. As soon as he told me it was flying off like hotcakes on Ebay I knew something was wrong. He never tells me this. I could tell he was trying to pump up the product because he knew he was going to lose his shirt on it. And you know what. He did, I did, and likely you did to! I am sure 1 out of 10 boxes was decent. But from the majority of collectors I have spoken with, they felt like they were in a prison shower and the only soap available was Topps Marquee and it was lying on the bathroom floor!

So what does each pack contain:

1 Numbered Autograph Card OR 1 Numbered Jumbo or Multi - Relic Card

A box has 4 packs and you the 4 "premium" hits are
1 On Card Autograph
1 Autograph Multi Relic Card
1 Jumbo Relic Card
1 Quad Relic Card.

First here is my break.

My On Card Autograph was Jered Weaver /25..Sold for $30.00 on Ebay
My Autograph Multi Relic Card was MARLON BYRD! Sold for $6.00 on Ebay. HOW DOES MARLON BYRD GET INTO A PRODUCT CALLED MARQUEE????????????
My Jumbo Relic Card was a Brian Wilson Titanic sold for $20.00 on Ebay.
My Quad Relic Card was Juan Encarnacion. Really?? Juan Encarnacion??? Another MARQUEE Dud. Sold for $8.00 on Ebay.

So lets average the High End Cards at $14.75 or $15.00 to be nice.

You will also average one parallel card per pack (I got 3 and shorted 1). Mine were Adrian Gonzalez, Ty Cobb and Buster Posey. The Posey and Cobb sold for $4.00 a piece. The Gonzalez had no bidders at $2.00 and free shipping. So lets average the Mid Range Cards at $3.33

The base cards I am going to place a value of 25 cents.

The design of the card is nice. Nice thick stock, great photography. Thats about all Marquee has going for it.

Price point is high! I picked up my Marquee Hobby Box for $170. That is a staggering $8.50 per card. The resulting WROIR figure is a 0.45! This results in a final grade of an F!

CASE RATIO
A case is likely going to run you $1,964 for a 12 box case. You are going to get a Museum Auto. These are selling on average at $75.00. Still your price per card on a case is a staggering $8.18. This results in a WROIR of 0.55 which is a D- in my book

HOBBY BOX GRADE = F
CASE FINAL GRADE = D-

2011 Topps Platinum Football

Topps has turned the Platinum brand into a nice mid range affordable product. Good Names with lots of Rookies. Nice looking patches and the design of the cards is clean. You can expect to recieve the following in one Hobby Box of Topps Platinum:

3 Hits Per Box
2 ON CARD Autographed Refractor Rookie Cards
and
1 Autograph Refractor Patch Card

In addition you get 1 Refractor Rookie Card per pack

I really like the patches this year. Lots of Color and you can tell Topps put some thought into the design of the Auto Patch Cards. Plus they have the new color cards (not sure if these are refractors or not).

I placed an average value of $19.00 per high end card. You are likely to get one decent colored patch auto card that will sell for some good money (mine was a Von Miller Triple Patch - sold for $32.00). As for the other two, do not hold your breath. My Tandon Doss sold for a whopping a $5.00 and I think I will be lucky to get $20 for my Kendall Hunter Auto.

The mid range cards I put an average value of $3.75. The one refractor per pack are nice. But out of 20 packs not many notable rookies. You will get a couple random Xfractors per pack also.

Lastly I placed a value of 10 cents per base card. Again, good amount of rookies and notable names. But people are not exactly jumping through hoops to grab platinum base cards.

You can pick up a hobby box of Topps Platinum for about $90.00 which gives you a respactable .90 cents per card.

The resulting WROIR is 1.15 which results in a grade of a C.

CASE RATIO
I was not able to find much of a discount on case prices. The price I used for a case was $1075. A case will yield you 12 hobby boxes and a case hit. I valued the case hit at $75.00 in my equation. The price per card has stayed at .90 cents but the WROIR has increased to 1.22 due to the Case Hit. This results in a grade of a C+

HOBBY BOX FINAL GRADE = C
CASE FINAL GRADE = C+

2011 Topps Finest Football

I love the Topps Finest Collection. Always sharp looking cards, good names, good number of parallels and great looking autographs and patches. This year Topps kept the Finest tradition live and well! What can you expect out of a one Master Box (2 mini boxes).

1 Numbered Rookie Autograph Patch Card
1 Numbered Autograph Jumbo Relic Card
2 Atomic Die Cut Refractor Rookie Cards

Plenty of parallel cards throughout, you typically will average 1 per pack. Xfractors, Various Numbered Parallel Cards (Gold,Blue,Red, Atomic) and Regular Refractors.

You have great chances of getting a high end rookie auto and the second auto is likely to be a dud of a rookie, so two cards that you can expect to average at $40.00. You can also expect roughly 12 mid range value cards in each master box. These being Parallels and Hot Rookies. That is one per pack less the pack that contains the auto plus a couple of nice name rookies (Locker, Jones, Gabbert, Newton). If you sell while hot, you can expect these to average at about $5.75 a card. Then you are left with 46 base cards. Fortunatly Topps Finest has a good amount of Rookies and very notable names. Therefore I am placing a figure of .25 cents on each base card which I feel is fair for a high end product.

You can pickup Finest at a price anywere between $96 and $108. So the price point I used in my equation is $100.00. With this pricepoint the price per card is a respectable $1.67.

The resulting Weighted ROI Ratio is 1.61. I discounted the 1.61 by .05 due to the fact that it appears Topps chose to use a chainsaw to cut these cards. Some terrible fraying on many of the base cards. Luckily this did not appear to effect the Autographs or Refractors. The final Weighted ROI Ratio is 1.56 which results in a respectable B.

CASE RATIO
If you can score a case (which I did) for $760. It brings your price per card to $1.58. You can expect one case hit which I valued at $100. This results a Weighted ROI Ratio of 1.82. After the .05 discount for the rough edges on many of the cards. The resulting Weighted ROI Ratio is 1.77 and a final grade of A-.

HOBBY BOX FINAL GRADE = B
CASE FINAL GRADE = A-

The Grading Grid and WROIR

This is the Grid I will use to rate hobby boxes and cases. The numbers on the Grid represent a total average Weighted Ratio of ROI. I may adjust the Grid in the future as I fine tune the calculation. Feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions.

2.01 and Above..........A+
1.88-2.00...............A
1.74-1.87...............A
1.60-1.73...............B+
1.46-1.59...............B
1.33-1.45...............B-
1.19-1.32...............C+
1.05-1.18...............C
0.92-1.04...............C-
0.78-0.91...............D+
0.64-0.77...............D
0.51-0.63...............D-
0.50 and Below..........F

Weighted ROI (Return on Investment) Ratio is the WROIR

Who We Are

I have created RatingTheWax to help the collector understand what they can expect on their average Return on Investment (ROI) when purchasing your favorite wax box. I have created a complex calculation that deciphers down the average return on investment from the expected hits per box, expected mid hits per box and common cards. I take all the expected hits, mid value cards, base cards and calculate an avereage Return on Investment Ratio then average out a weighted total ratio. Following me?

Who am I? I am banker by trade that loves collecting. I basically crunch numbers for a living and thought it would be helpful to provide information on wax boxes and their expected value compared to the retail price of the box.

I also want to state that my calculations take into account a number of factors. Price, Pack Count, Card Count, Price Per Card, Several ROI Ratios, disqualifiers, qualifiers and a weighted ROI ratio. I then take this Ratio and compare it to a grid. I will post how the Grid looks. As this project develops I may adjust the grid as I tweak and fine tune my calculation.

By no means am I trying to bash or promote a certain product. And please understand that my calculations are using an AVERAGE Wax Box. So I may a grade a wax box a "F". But you pulled a Super High Value card, so in your world you have an "A" wax box. But remember, my calculation is just assuming you have an average box with what is being advertised.

Feel free to email me with any questions.