Some observations on ToppsNOW print runs, in case anyone is interested:
1) while the whole NY bias deal gets brought up, I don't think that's where Topps is making money on these: latest cards of mets/Yankees: 327, 1017, 1393, 802, 519, 1737 (Senga, related point next), 1144 (Vientos), 1208 (Alvarez), 1102, 1032, 1605, 3406 (Volpe), 1073, 556, 7558 (Volpe), 656. There are multiple Judges and Alonsos spread throughout those lower PRs, which brings me to point two:
2) Rookies are a larger part of their bread and butter than NY bias: RC PRs recently (so not even first RCs of the year for some of these guys): 1375, 987, 945, 1055, 1075, 1355, 1221, 909, 1962, 1737, 1144, 1208, 924, 1290, 988, 1839, 785, 2299, 927, 665, 3406, 1009, 678, 1890, 715, 826. Very rarely does that dip very far into triple digits, they're almost all way up there near 1000 at the minimum.
But their REAL breadwinner is point 3): one Shohei Ohtani. Shohei PRs this season: 5206, 8916, 9034, 2660, 2976, 8336, 4030, 3484, 4152, 42273, 17071, 8129 (last three are WBC cards). None of Judges come even close to those numbers this season--none of anybodys do lol. Even Shohei's lowest (2660) is higher than nearly all of the NY and/or RC cards. When he does good things, the NOW employees rejoice bc they're almost guaranteed 8k purchases.
It effects us too: our average PR, all told, this season is 3956. Take out anything Shohei and the average PR of cards we order drops to 3054. Even Judge robbing Shohei was a higher PR than a normal Judge card: 1017, 1393, 1032, 1605, 1073, 823, 3902 (robbing Shohei), 4695 (HR on opening day). Even Judge's MVP card last season was 8396, which is basically an average Ohtani card.
And finally: we have upcoming our lowest PR card ever: #271 Josh Lowe only had a PR of 265! Hopefully a multiple parallel order there for us.
Thanks everyone!