The Wander Franco Platinum 1/1 was Pulled From a Retail Pack — And That is Good for the Hobby
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The biggest card from 2022 Topps Baseball Series 1 has been found.
It was revealed on Monday the 2022 Topps Baseball Series 1 Platinum Parallel (1/1) of Wander Franco was pulled from a Walgreens pack. Yes, a five- or six-figure card was pulled from a $10 hanger box.
That’s the kind of pull most collectors dream about. You’d think collectors would be happy knowing that retail products have a chance at pulling monster cards. But there are some who feel a hit like that should never be put inside a retail product.
Some of the reasonings I’ve seen include:
Collectors spend more money for hobby boxes so they should have the better hits
With retail there is a chance the card never sees the light of day
There’s potential for damage to retail products
I’m sure there are more reasons but those were the biggest, but there are several reasons why I disagree.
First, it’s flagship. Most parallels and inserts are available throughout all configurations. There are some that are exclusive to retail or hobby like the clear parallels, but the Platinum 1/1 have been available in both for a long time.
The odds are clearly stated on all of the boxes, so even if they are astronomical you know there is a chance at pulling a card like this.
Second, hobby shouldn’t get all the love. The benefits of buying a hobby product is that there are guaranteed hits like a relic or autograph NOT that you have a chance at getting the ONLY good cards in a product.
It seems a little unfair that people who may not be able to afford a hobby product or who do not have hobby shops near them or who want to spend a few bucks on a product don’t get afforded the chance at a big hit.
Third, there are so many products that release througout the year that are exclusive to hobby, and retail never EVER sees them. Museum Collection, Flawless, The Cup, Tribute, etc., do not have retail components to them.
So those products that do have retail releases should have a chance at having big hits.
And that’s all that is needed — a chance.
That what happened here.
Parallels and inserts are machine collated, meaning they get put into a machine and are inserted into packs based on the odds that are given to a computer. If a platinum parallel has a 1:5,757 chance at getting hit in a hanger box then the sleeve holding those cards will only release a card at that interval.
There’s no way a company will know where a card would wind up across all the SKUs when machines are collating. If the card did get hand packed, that opens an even bigger can of worms for the card companies and accusations of favoritism and collusion would get thrown around — more than they already do.
This keeps it fair enough for all collectors with a chance to get a big hit … as long as you know the odds.
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I also pulled the Platinum 1/1 Jeremy Pena from Retail MJ Holding Mystery Tin from Meijer. Note it is the Topps UK Edition Platinum 1/1 Jeremy Pena. Retail is alive.