Topps Living set price manipulation
 

I apologize to all who are offended by post for modern cards but I think part of reason we are all here is to look after each other and our hobby. In mid March Topps announced a new internet only set called Topps Living 3 cards each week with a mix of players and only one of each player unless they changed teams. The idea was no year the set would go on for many years. They were sold $15 for 3 cards each week. You could also buy bulk cards with the price reduced the more you bought. A small group of dealers bought hundreds of each card. Which is fine the same thing happened with Topps Now. But Topps now had much smaller print runs than living.
But about two weeks ago the prices started rising very quickly for some of the cards. I do not think many of the sales were legit. Example I bought some Altuve's on Saturday for $8. on Monday there is a sale for $199 for one card. From a dealer who sold 199 of them and has plenty more. Clearly not a real sale but it bumped the price up fast. Anyway up to you how you take this. But be careful.
Jonathan Sterling

As an aside, I remember an exclusive, very limited Topps set, sold as complete sets but with inserts in them. Topps stated the number of sets made, the number of inserts inserted into each set and the number of each insert. However, mathematically, the numbers didn't work out. The number of sets, divided by the insert insertion rate and the number of each insert didn't equate mathematically. You actually got a fraction of a card for a particular insert.

I thought ebay had a policy of no "pre-sells ? Is this no longer a policy on ebay ?

I buy pre sales for Topps now and Topps Living cards often so short answer is that Ebay allows them.

The bundle of 3 cards each week is still available for $14.99. Individual cards can be purchased at $7.99 each or as low as $3.75 each for 20 cards.

The Ronald Acuna card this past week has a print run of 46,800! The next closest print run this year was Ohtani at 20,966.

I'm not sure how this plays in what you are referring to in the OP, or if it is just information that's not relevant. The crazy 47k print run of Acuna blew me away!

I bought cards 1-3 and when prices went up, auctioned mine. Got over $100 total for the same three cards. That sale was legit.

There are a number of legit sales. I sold my first 21 cards for $899 and buyer paid right away. What I am concerned with is a small group of dealers each of whom bought over 100 of each card have created false demand with manipulated sales. The example I use is the Altuve #16 if you look at sales of the card last week it was selling for between $5 and $9, Then on April 29th there is a sale of one card for $199 the next sales after that are $12.99 $14.99 $17.99 then 24.99 then 14.95(not part of manipulation) then 19.99 36.79 $79.47 15.99 $10 $7.50 $15.99 then all sales in the $30 to $35 range. clearly why would buyers pay $79.99 and $199.99 for a card that is offered for $7 to $10? They would not sellers are manipulating the ebay sales record.
If you look at the sales record of "Topps Living" sort by Highest price and you will see a sale of 21 cards for $5899.97 with the highest auction price for those same 21 cards being $899.00 and Buy it now sales as high as $1,100.00 but it is the $5899.00 fake sale that begins the price swing upwards. Clearly not a real sale but every body sees the Big bucks and then the price starts a quick move to the upside. In any manipulation there are real sales and real sellers that benefit by upswing but the real benefit goes to the dealer group that purchased a couple thousand of each of these cards. And to post fake sales to drive prices upwards is wrong and in the end when prices crash some buyers are not going to have happy memories of card collecting.

dupe

Fake sales is shilling, no two ways about it

I think you're just being fooled by the Ebay way of listing completed auctions. The guy who sold the Altuve card that you're talking about does the same thing every time. He will base his orders on the amount of pre-sales and then with the extra cards he has to buy to get the bulk order discount, he puts a high price on them with a make offer option.

If you look at the Alex Gordon card it will help you see what I am talking about. Ebay sold auctions say that an Alex Gordon card sold for $199, but if you go to his page under "73 sold" you will see that he never got anywhere close to that price.

That $199 dollars for the Altuve is the current price he has listed, but all of the sold ones were for $5.

If people are using sold auction prices to get an idea of sales then their problem is the way Ebay lists them, not a shill sale (which didn't happen)

As for the current rise in prices for the set, I think it's just because the set is becoming more popular and people missed out at the beginning.

To me if you're overpaying for these cards then that's on you. I could care less about manipulation when Topps makes them easily available for an entire week to anyone who wants one and still people refuse to buy them at cost and insist on paying more.

Why waste time on those people?

I believe there is a high possibility of manipulation, but the example you posted isn't one of them. That listed sale for $199 is because the user has a high quantity and sells them at best offer. If you look at his past sales they sold for $5/card. Ebay just shows the original price if you look at the front search, but that was not the accepted price on each card.