DIGITAL DABBLINGS #38 – Slam in the time of Covid-19 and Q1 Top 25 Singles

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Slam in Quarantine

Most of the civilized world has been stuck in quarantine since my last article, so sorry about that. Pretty much every player has been affected in one way or another. I was laid off from my job of over 2 years on March 30, and while I’m financially OK until the Fall, I’d be remiss in saying that my pattern of spending on Slam hadn’t changed.

This is what it’s all about.

At first I stopped spending at all on Slam. That lasted a couple of days. I realized that sitting at home in quarantine was going to mean I wasn’t spending a ton of money on outside activities and once my unemployment kicked in and my severance package hit, I was going to be OK. So yeah, I started spending more. More than I should probably. Which wasn’t hard to be honest, Topps has been more than forthcoming with new content in the quarantine. One thing I’ve noticed too, as subtle as it’s been, virtually everything is available with coins currently. Only the lowest of the low CC cards have been paywalled entirely, meaning it’s been more than possible for free-players to obtain low CC cards. Not easy, but possible.

I was planning on revisiting all the recent sets since last September, and I’m more than halfway through that project, but focusing on staying positive, not getting too depressed, and schooling my daughter in 8th grade has taken a front seat. The real reason I do those set reviews/recaps is so that down the road we can all remember what was released and when. The game is now in its fifth year and it’s not stopping any time soon. Older cards just have a CC these days without any way to view their provenance anymore unless you want to slog through the entire News Feed, and sometimes they archive old articles anyway, so the info just isn’t there anymore.

Unless you’ve been meticulously cataloging stuff like I usually do. Remember I’m the moron who kept a spreadsheet on EVERY CARD RELEASED through the first year of the app.

Initially I called for Topps to slow down on the releases, but soon realized that was antithetical to the longevity of the app. MORE releases with better odds and lower pack prices is what we need now. Sure the more advanced players will want their lower CC options and they’re there still. More releases more recently also means they’re using more photos with different poses and that’s a godsend as well. I think most players don’t care about the PPV sets because the poses are all so vanilla and repeated often. Sets like Hype, Entrances and other in-ring oriented sets are much more popular than the standard render on a new background.

WrestleMania & Money in the Bank

Mania has come and gone and while the show was unique, the set that Topps released was pretty much the same. There were a ton of adjunct sets like “moments” and “debuts” as well. Low CC sigs and base sold extremely well and most fans seemed pleased. There were almost too many adjunct sets to be honest, after all did we really need a recap from last year when we already have Topps Nows from last year?

A smattering of the different Wrestlemania sets that were available in addition to the standard PPV set.

MITB is actually later today as of this writing, and as usual there’s an exchange portion of the set. This time it’s fairly robust as you get a Gold Briefcase (see above) in exchange for all 48 of the highest CC black base MITB cards. For 1 briefcase you get a special gold card of the male winner, 2 gets you the female winner, 3 gets you a signature version of the male winner and 4 gets you a signature version of the female winner. If you have 5 cases you will get all four cards.

This is one of the cards you’ll get if you get the briefcases. Of course the silhouette will be filled in.

It took me all of 3 days to get 5 cases and an extra base set for the award. Trading on the feed is robust, but be on the lookout for players who think the base cards are worth your best inserts. They’re not. Really. Look at the CC. That said I’m pretty sure I’m out of dupe bases. I also took this opportunity to blow out older PPV dupes that I gave 5 to 1 for a single MITB Black base dupe or not. We’ll have to see who the winners are to see if this investment will pay off (probably not). I’m going with the odds on favorites currently and picking AJ and Asuka.

Braun’s win still happened, even though he didn’t successfully cash in.

Gold Base cards from MiTB are still available even though the Sigs are almost all gone.

Die-Cut “dollar bills” for the Bundle Cards this time. Nifty.

Top 25 Single Sales

FIRST Quarter 2020 Commentary

This list was compiled before the quarantine hit for the most part. First and foremost, Alexa Bliss appears on the first 7 cards on the list and 10 overall. Proving she’s still the most valuable in the app despite not holding one of the two prestigious women’s titles. Those two champions (Bayley and Becky Lynch) and Sasha Banks each have 5 cards on the list.

Nia and Alexa = $300.

The most expensive couple of cards are super-low CC Alexa Bliss. Anything under 25cc and Alexa is basically a license to print money. If you manage to pull one you should highly consider selling out to get maximum cash. As far as individual sets goes, the 36cc Gold Signature variant of Wrestlemania 36 proved to be a cash cow and incredibly popular with top tier female performers going for $20 and more while males go for between $5 and $15.

There’s only 50 of these out there, do you have one? I don’t. Wouldn’t mind having it though.

Curious that there were no Royal Rumble cards on the list. The most expensive sold for just over $20 and that was a 25cc Gold Alexa Bliss Base. The Rumble just didn’t get much love this year.

Movers and Shakers:

• The 2016 Backlash 6 Pack Challenge SDL Womens’ Championship continues to be extremely popular selling for almost $200 this time around. It was last listed in Q3 of 2019.
• Alexa Bliss’ 2018 Gold Signature Series Award (40cc) has appeared on the list 4 out of the last 5 quarters, though it’s dropped a bit to $90 now. Still a solid investment.
• The Alexa vs. Ronda Rousey Red Signature Award from 2018 SummerSlam (17cc) has been listed twice in a row bumping up $20 to $150.
• Alexa’s 2019 Teal Main Event Signature Award (25cc) has also been listed twice in a row, but hasn’t moved in value.
• Becky Lynch vs. Natalya Purple Dual Signature (12cc) from 2019 SummerSlam has also been listed again and is now stabilized at around $100.

One of the few $100 cards that’s not Alexa Bliss.

Top 25 Single Card Sales 1st Quarter 2020
– Sales in the 90 days prior to April 7, 2020 (List #9)