Im not a huge baseball collector, so I didnt really know what was happening until it was too late. These boxes are literally the hottest thing to chase down not named Judge or Bellinger, and it really isnt those guys driving the price, which might actually be more crazy. There is a story behind it, and it mostly begins and ends with Shohei Otani, a star prospect Japanese player whose WBC card was part of special packs in the box. There are some reports of the boxes being recalled from retail shelves because of issues, and it has made these boxes insanely valuable. Like, so valuable, you start to wonder what might have been had you seen any for sale at the beginning of the ordeal.
Check out these prices:
2017 Bowman Mega Box – Sealed #2
2017 Bowman Mega Box – 3 Box Lot
These are some of the most watched cards on eBay:
2017 Bowman Chrome Shohei Otani Mojo Refractor RC
2017 Bowman Chrome Shohei Otani Mojo Refractor BGS 9.5
Otani is a huge prospect, but international spending caps have made it difficult to predict when he may be posted and sign with a team. Like the players who came before him, the market for their first American cards is white hot. Masahiro Tanaka is the pitcher of most recent memory to generate this type of hype, but lack of real success has had an impact over the years. Same has been said for Darvish and others. Although Darvish hasnt been bad by any means, his values have cooled despite having a good start to the 2017 season.
The issue is more circulation than anything, as limited product and high demand will fuel rage fires in value that no one can predict until it happens. With Otani’s base card topping 200 dollars in some cases, it was only a matter of time before the blaze reached peak intensity on any unopened boxes that remain. With the national convention approaching, things could get even more nuts as more collectors seek out the exclusive cards available only in these products.
Special refractor variations of top prospects have been fetching huge money, with Judge, Bellinger and Maitan all claiming astronomical auction prices as cards are graded and posted for sale. If boxes of this stuff are sitting somewhere in a Target distribution center or Excel Marketing distribution center, eventually to be released, the time to sell is now. If those boxes never see the light of day, this Shohei Otani card could be one of the gems of the 2017 season. Considering the insanity brought on by the young sluggers who have taken the hobby by storm, this situation just blows my mind.
How these things catch fire like this is fascinating to me
panini ran me totally out of current year football wax breaking. After years of buying at least 1 case of every Topps fb product, I went to no FB wax purchases from 2015 or 2016
I ran across 4 mega boxes at a local target and picked them up after reading about them on another site(which upon rereading the review does mention Otani) more than 6 weeks ago. This was way before Otani fire caught and I happened to hit 5 targets in the span of 3 days. I only saw the 4 boxes at the first location.
I had been buying a lot of Bowman blasters even though Ive never really collected baseball and liked the mix, inserts and all the different “stuff” that is in the packs and to be honest 5 packs of bowman and the 2 Mega packs for $15 seemed like no brainer.
I opened them right away and actually thought I got ripped as I was expecting the mega packs to be in clear cello like the bonus orange refractors in various Chrome products as opposed to dedicated wrappers the mega packs have.
I didnt get anything that stood out to me (no auto) so in the 3200 count box they went. Im a huge procrastinator….
A month after purchase a friend of mine was asking me if I had seen “what that Japanese guy was going for?” and if I had seen any of the boxes.
At that time, approx 2.5 weeks ago, Otani was ending at $100 for the single and packs for $40.
I pulled 2 out of 4 mega boxes and on they went. Mine went for a lot more than I thought they would as I figured the buyers were overseas and I dont want to deal with all that shipping drama…
I googled Otani but info is very limited, claim was he hit 102.5 on the radar gun…
Im assuming he is going to be auctioned to the highest bidder which puts the usual suspects into play.
Its always strange to me that rookies and prospects almost always sell for more when they are in the minors as opposed to when they are actually up with the big club and are performing well.
I guess a lot more people watched the WBC than I knew about but all that jingoistic country v country stuff doesnt interest me….
But has any Japanese player lived up to the hype in the last 30 years besides Ichiro?
Im happy to take the “profit” and I rarely have sellers remorse…
Im curious as to the reports of “issues” that would cause boxes to be pulled from shelves. Does it have to do with marketing or licensing rights related to Otani?
My son pulled a Otani Purp Mega Refractor last month…should we sell high after grading or should we hold long term for his US arrival??
Another reason that the “Mega box” craze is going is the fact that 50 of the 150 mojo refractor prospect cards that are limited to 2 Mojo refractor packs per box (a total of 10 cards) are missing! There are only 100 cards. This being said, there is also a rumor that Topps pulled these cards from the shelves of Target or/and stopped distribution due to this major blunder! It makes the madness level jump (in this collector/investor/dealer’s opinion). I personally have many questions regarding this matter. First question being this….Will the other cards become available? Early on I speculated and theorized that they would insert the other 50 cards in another product. 2017 Bowman Draft for instance. Secondly…Why has nobody announced the blunder/issue and explained what is to become of this? Another question …moving on…has there been a recall? If so why? Speculations run deep and minds run amuck. There are inserts of this product that already short printed that are shorter print. /250 purple /99 green /25 orange and 1/1 variations for this matter. My point is that while Otani’s are highly sought after… questions regarding this ordeal (by the sportscard enthusiast of the world) are even more sought. Seems to this individual that Otani’s are easier to find than answers to this mystery. I personally refer it as the “watergate of ball cards”. Please enlighten me if you can.