The Skuttlebutt Podcast: Recent Episodes
JIMMYJ4M and QUIGONJINNANDTONIC
"WhAt CaPe PeRsOn WoUlD yOu PuT iN tHiS sCeNaRiO?!" and other riveting questions have been asked of us every week for the past two months or so. Not that 90% of the people actually read them. They just comment "hi" or "." and get their 10k coins and move on. Most of the questions are lukewarm things you'd ask a grade schooler to act out using action figures. Where are the questions we want to hear? Questions like "If we released seriously limited cards, would you pay $3 a pack for a 1:30 chance of pulling one?" or "If you could use triple the number of cards in a fusion, but were guaranteed to get one that you didn't have yet, would you do it?" Things app-related, not MCU or Comic related. While this app and Marvel are heavily revolving around the MCU and Comics, the people in the app care more about the app, their collection, and what hope there is for the future of their investment. Instead, they want to know what two superheroes would you pair up and what would you call them. Nobody cares, not even Topps themselves, about the answer you give. It's just an attempt to appear as if they're adding a new feature.
Besides discussing the routine schedule of releases in the app with almost zero interruption with anything new or exciting, we try to figure out what cards from the last 18 months will hold long-term value. It's a very challenging segment. After listening to the episode, let us know: What cards from March 2020 - October 2021 do YOU think will hold lasting value?
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
This time last year, and the month or two leading up to it, we were eagerly anticipating 2020 Base Series 2. We watched all of the other apps get their Series 2, and we were wondering when Marvel would get theirs. We talked about it for a few episodes in a row, until it finally arrived. Fast forward to this summer, and we never even thought or cared about a 2021 Base Series 2. It just kind of, showed up. Not an ounce of anticipation. The community wasn't asking for it, but it did happen. Right in the middle of everyone working on their Rust, Steel, and Gold Fusions, Topps doubled the number of those cards, which will continue to rip Common cards to shreds. It really goes to show that without a system like Monuments, base doesn't really matter in this app except to true hoarders and character collectors.
Besides that, we got the timeline feature, which is a fun and creative idea for sharing your needs or accomplishments with a smaller group of followers. Except Topps then shot themselves in the foot by making posts only appear if you and the other trader both follow one another. Imagine if Twitter required this for you to see someone's content. So close. We'll see if they adjust this in the future.
While we did get some nice content for Shang-Chi, King in Black Volume 2, and a new Deadpool set, the same flow of content happens week by week, and we're hoping to see something really shake up the app sometime soon. The What If...? content is a nice change of pace, but it's such a small amount of content for each episode, it barely gets noticed.
All of this and much more in this week's/month's episode of the Skuttlebutt Podcast!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Well, it's been over a month, and a lot of things have come and gone in the app, but was any of it memorable? Another crafting set, a bunch of collections with epics that most of us have forgotten already, and the usual weekly sets. The Black Widow Premiere Collection was pretty great, but then they stumbled with the Standoff printing collection.
Let's talk printing sets. Up until this set, the same rules always applied: First were 250cc capped, Second were 750cc capped, at the very least. Now they lowered first prints to 100cc, made second unlimited, then limited the third prints to 500cc. Our guess is that the last printing set, the Swordsmanship one, was such a flop that Topps came out of that thinking that lowering the CC cap was the answer. But then they removed awards from all printing sets in this collection. So to a surprise to all, they aren't even close to the 100 cap.
We also are getting daily tickets all through August, to eventually get one, maybe two Super Rare cards. If the end result set is pretty cool AND HAS AN AWARD, trading to finish the set could be interesting.
Besides this, we go on insane tangents from Star Wars Card Trader, to NFTs, to Disney, to the MCU, to Pokemon cards, and bring it back to Marvel Collect here and there. Hope you enjoy our rambling!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
For those who hit the big 45 Common to Rust fusion early, you'll know what the title is talking about. For those who didn't, well then the title is talking about that sweet, sweet, orange-tinted 1st print set! You know, the ones that cost $18 at odds and look like garbage and 2 weeks in are still around 150CC? There was a Storm card, so naturally Jim had to spend more than he wished to try to get at least one copy. The downside to all of this is it will end up with a low CC award, which will probably be worth something down the line. Still, we're not certain it's worth chasing!
The rusty start continues with the same image used for a 3rd time on an Inked card, more Retro and 90s Collections, and of course, a complete disregard for America's Independence Day. More importantly, the unwritten tradition of screwing up a diamond bundle drop that we can all take advantage of! There were no deals for the 4th of July this year! Jim still did something for it on Facebook, but it's far from the same. But still, it's up to the community to keep tradition alive, no?
Bashing aside, there have been some nice releases. Topps Supreme looks great, and Jim is happy with another Wasp set that will end with a low CC award. And Vintage Panels are back after 5 months! Still endless according to Topps! And of course the Rain cards with their great effect.
Finally, we discuss Loki so far, as we missed a few weeks in there. Spoilers abound!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
In this episode we talk about the beginnings of the Marvel and Disney apps, as both of us were around for those, and how no matter what it is, if you drop like a hundred bucks within the first month of a new Topps app, you will most certainly make your money back down the line. It would take a near-dead IP that nobody is interested in for a Topps app's early content to fail to hold value. We also discuss our own ideas for future Topps apps, but ultimately we really just don't know if Topps will make any more apps or just stick to blockchain-hopping.
We also discuss the surprising amount of Thor content that's been released recently. Even with a Thor-adjacent show coming out on Disney+, it seems like an odd choice to do 2 Thor collections in a row, with the Loki show itself having its own mid-week collection.
We also do an award CC recap of recent awards that we both earned that finally got counts assigned to them. We want you to listen to the episode, but just for a sneak peak, check out the Inked Series 3 Super Rare award CC, then the Rare award CC.
Finally, we discuss the first episode of Loki and what this all ultimately means for Phase 4 of the MCU.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Week in, week out, the same schedule every week. Same weekly sets on Monday and Tuesday, same concepts used over and over. Concepts that were great the first time they were used, but by series 7 or 8 have lost their appeal. But we keep opening the packs, to keep our collection complete. On this week's episode, we wonder what it would be like if Topps brought back some much older concepts. Ones that haven't been used in quite some time, primarily the Collector's Box. Earlier on in the app, the Collector's Box sold for $5 or $25 and the $25 box came with a unique card. Most of those unique cards are still very valuable today. But times have changed, and things cost significantly more in the app. Weekly epics at odds cost around $25 themselves. So what kind of price would we expect a new Collector's Box to be? If it were a much higher price than in the past, would you still buy it? What would the count look like? We ponder this and more on this week's The Skuttlebutt Podcast.
Jim's an idiot note: in this episode I accidentally mix up the contest ticket crafted base variant in Bunt with the 70th anniversary limited release base variant which is a significantly lower CC. So please don't yell at me!
Loki is coming soon, so look forward to us talking about it next week!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Back when 2021 base came out, a ton of base variants appeared under the 2021 Base set in the Sets & Collections list as Coming Soon. Something about Magma and Ice and a bunch of others. We haven't really thought about it much since, until this week when the Rust crafting base variant came out. We decided to take a look, and all of those variants have disappeared from the checklist. Who knows if we'll ever see them again.
Anyway, we talk about the Rust variant and its 5 minute timer and its eventual use to make iron and gold base variant cards at some point. Will that make this year's gold lower CC? Doubtful, but we'll see.
Besides that and an epic set with a Storm award that Jim will be figuring out how to get, there really wasn't much to talk about this past week! But we do what we can to find things to talk about!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Big update this week: online status on you and other traders. Now you can tell if another trader is currently active in the app, or has been in the last hour. That is, unless they choose to hide themselves, which I assume most will. But besides that fact, now you can sit there and watch your pending trades and see someone who is active in the app and choosing not to accept your trade! Maybe it'll be a good hint that you need to add a few more kickers to that trade.
Besides that, Topps Marvel Collect wanted 10,000 followers on Instagram for some reason. I don't know if they post anything unique to Instagram, as I followed them and then never opened the app again. But apparently 5,000+ people got the memo and signed up, or a few people made a bunch of bots, who knows, but either way, we got a ton of free packs for the effort. Omnibus mostly. Neat. But hey, some lucky people hit a Super Rare in the mystery packs in the later tiers, so that was cool I guess. But now they have their 10,000 followers and maybe 4 or 5 of them will like their new posts instead of 1 or 2. I don't even think there's 7,500 active traders in the app, let alone 10,000. But what do I know.
There's a new event for an old common set where you can't get the award. Most people got tricked into spending 20,000 coins to end up with just a few more commons. Newer players probably appreciated it more than the older ones, but overall a forgettable event.
Speaking of, a few other forgettable sets came out along with that sweet Mech Strike collection, which kickstarted Jim's sick addiction to gambling for digital cards. So much for not spending money anymore. Hell of a drug.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
The anniversary season has come to an end. The speed hoard contest is over, the stream is done, the giveaways have all been given away. Topps gave us at least something for the anniversary this year. Nothing earth-shattering, or even Wintercon level, but at least they acknowledged the anniversary in the app. We're still glad we were able to do something for the community. Thank you again to all of the traders who donated some incredible cards for the giveaways!
So now what? Business as usual for the app, but as for Jim, a few revelations have occurred. One is: focusing on the decent mid-week sets leaves you with some decently lower-CC Super Rares, as opposed to always dumping coins and diamonds into weekend collections. Weekend collection Super Rares are double, sometimes triple the CC as the mid-week ones, and if you don't finish the sets, it's better to have the mid-week Super Rares for trading later on.
But a large focus on this episode is just how bad does your luck have to be before you give up trying hit the odds? Jim and Dan talk about Jim's recent horrible luck streak from the past 3 months, not just in Marvel but in Star Wars as well, and how he's now done spending money in the app and getting nothing. It took a lot of failure to finally realize that he's just better off trading for or buying from the secondary market to get the cards that he wants. But, it also takes the fun out of opening packs and hoping to hit that sweet epic when tapping through the cards.
We hope that all of your don't have as bad of luck, and that you continue to enjoy the app and the community, but sometimes, the odds are just stacked against you.
We also do a short recap of the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but we realize we're way late and it's kind of in the past now, so we keep it quick!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Our 2nd TMC Anniversary Celebration ended this weekend with a mixture of giveaways and us discussing what's currently going on in the app, along with discussing the history of the cards that were being given away. It was a fantastic event and we're happy for those who were able to join us for interviews, create original artwork for us, and chat with us on the stream. Also to all of the community members who graciously donated cards for us to give away during the season and on the Twitch stream. For those who want to watch the full recording of the stream, you can do so here: https://youtu.be/mYEsJOFhB3w
We didn't have time to discuss the last episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier this week, but we will do so next week!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Our TMC 2nd Anniversary Celebration continued this past weekend on Twitch with an interview with Kevin-John, Disney Master Artist and now a very frequent Topps Digital Artist! We were first introduced to Kevin-John's work in Topps Marvel Collect at the end of February during the Topps WinterCon when his incredibly Sketch set came out, including then-rare limited versions of the 3 sketches that were capped at 500cc. He's also done plenty of work for Topps, starting with Star Wars at DigiCon last year, and all of the apps during WinterCon. We discuss working with Topps, working with Disney, and working with Marvel, as well getting a peek at some sketches that didn't make the cut from an approval standpoint for that WinterCon release! That you will have to check the recording on YouTube to see (https://youtu.be/mYEsJOFhB3w)! We also discuss what's next for Kevin-John on the Topps front!
Thanks again to Kevin-John for joining us!
You can find out more about Kevin-John on his site here: https://www.kevin-john.com/
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Our TMC 2nd Anniversary Celebration kicked off this past weekend on Twitch with an interview with Andy, formerly Product Manager of Topps Marvel Collect. During this interview we discuss a large variety of topics, including how Comic Book Day / Topps Now came to be, the reasons why we don't see certain characters, the craziness of Printing drops and the new Dawn of X Printing release. We also discuss the early days of the app and Andy describes to us how the team reacted to all of the ups and downs of the beginning of the app.
Thanks again to Andy for joining and enlightening us!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
So today is Topps' big day. After a year of playing around with Garbage Pail Kids and Godzilla, Major League Baseball finally agreed to release their physical set as NFTs. We doubt Topps' GPK track record convinced them. We think it was more of them seeing the NBA rolling in money with Top Shot that did the trick. Regardless of how they got there, today the first MLB NFTs come out on the Wax Blockchain. And based on how the Promo Pack releases have been going, it's going to be a disaster. So we'll see how that goes!
But the big fear on everyone's mind is that Topps will completely shift focus away from the established apps to primarily sell NFTs once they get the rights to do so. And we're here to say: don't worry. The apps allow for almost daily releases and gamification that has made Topps a lot of money over the last half a decade, and a significant amount last year during the pandemic, and we doubt they are slowing down. And this is crazy to say, but it is true: the app servers handle heavy traffic better than Topps' NFT servers. Some blame Topps, some blame the blockchain. But none of their releases on the blockchain have gone smoothly, and it will take years for them to perfect them at this point.
Anyway, we also go over some of the releases from the past few days including the Wandavision collection which would have fared much better as individual releases. And we also talk about the second to last Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode from last week at the end.
The big anniversary stream is coming up this Saturday, and if you have any questions for Andy (former Topps Product Manager for Marvel Collect) or Kevin-John (Disney Master Artist) please email us or contact us in some way!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Since our last episode, we had a few very interesting releases: some good, some bad. Let's start with the Topps Now release, which we all still call Comic Book Day, and how at first it looked like they changed the mechanics to make Gold covers pay only. Guess what? It was planned! What, you didn't know? Topps said they held the coin pack with gold odds back a day because there was an issue with one of the gold covers. This was not told to anyone, and the diamond packs remained, but we should have known! Duh! Most veteran traders waited until the next day, but it still led to the one broken cover having a significantly lower CC than the others.
The good was the return of First Prints! And Second, and Third, and Final! All in the same collection! While this is a very different strategy than old printing releases, it actually makes it nicer for people who are collecting the First and Second prints to finish the Third and Final without having to open packs in the future. But it also lessens the chance of having a lower CC award for the lower printings as more people will have them.
We also announce our plans for the day of the anniversary, which should be on Twitch on April 24th at 2pm EST!
Besides that, we have winners for our Meme contest! Winners will pick their prize in order that they've won:
1st - Aja Olander with the "Are these different pictures?" meme with the Baron Zemo set
2nd - Regan Murphy with the "When you spend 250k coins and get no super rare" meme with Iceman holding his chest
3rd - Brody Keeton with the "me" holding hands with "I'm only going to collect sets I'm interested in from now on!" and then peeking at "Random new set I have no interest in!"
Check Facebook or Twitter to see the actual meme images! We will be contacting the winners one by one to pick your prizes!
Finally, we discuss the latest, intense episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier (well, now second to latest!) at the end.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Do you like collections? You bet you do! Every 3 days, a collection. Epics? Pssh, you don't always need epics. What do you mean the packs cost the same as the ones with epics in them? Look at this Impact Collection! It has everything you want, right? We even threw another wave of Splash! into it for some reason! Check out these cool Retro cards! Please ignore the text bubbles over the characters though. 90s man, you love the 90s right? The zebra and sprinkle borders, what's not to love? Who cares that these covers aren't from the 90s, they have cool 90s borders!
Yeah, collection craze has happened in the last week in the app and they're... okay. We're more interested in the change in gold CBDs though. No more free lunch there! You want gold, you pay. And people certainly are! The CC on this week's gold CBD are already nearing 350 and there's 2 days left. This only tells Topps to keep going in this direction. We discuss our thoughts on this decision, along with the new Guardians of the Galaxy event, and more on this week's episode!
Oh, and we talk about the latest Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode at the end.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
We're officially a week through our Anniversary Season event! We've had great giveaways, great challenges, and donations across the community to use for giveaways. So far, the community-driven celebration has been a success and there's much more to come! App-wise, we're getting some fun easy Falcon and the Winter Soldier sets which is a nice difference from Wandavision's releases but the last pay-only FATWS character art, which should be John Walker, is nowhere to be found. We also got a new OA Artist, Billy Martin, with a very unique art style in their Rogue artwork. And then Editor's Choice came to an end which, while free, is the longest set we've seen in a long time at 21 weeks. We see a lot of people trying to play catch-up simply because they didn't start playing until halfway through the set. Just like the good ol' days. Speaking of the good ol' days, the fan-favorite (sarcasm) Essentials set is back with a bunch of essential characters! I miss Wield the Shield already.
Besides app talk, we discuss this week's Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode, which is chock full of references to events that occurred in movies from 5+ years ago. And Jim needs a lot of explanation as he either forgot or didn't see a ton of those movies! So there's a lot of retrospective discussion to try to figure out where the story will go in the show. But we can all agree that John Walker is still hated by fans far and wide!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
This week on Wednesday marks the beginning of what we at the Skuttlebutt Podcast are calling "The Anniversary Season" in Topps Marvel Collect. Last year Topps disappointed us by having absolutely no anniversary-driven content within the app, and nothing more than a tweet to say "we're 1 year old today". Well we're not going to let that happen again this year and we're starting our own celebration across the community! There will be contests and giveaways all month long. If you aren't a member of the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2201948839891287 or Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToppsMarvelCollect/ we'd suggest you join one as we will be posting daily giveaways all month long. Of course, we will be tweeting them as well @SkuttlebuttPC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkuttlebuttPC
Besides the anniversary stuff, we reminisce (again) on speed awards and the idea of altering the Global Count of cards to reflect the actual number of copies that are still available. And then we discuss the first Falcon and the Winter soldier episode along with the cards we've seen so far for the show.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Happy New Year! 2021 base is here! What's that you say? It's March? Oh, well, close enough, right? While many will complain about reused art, the design really isn't too bad and there is some nice artwork regardless! For some reason the new Motion flag is on every new base card but no matter how long you stare at it, nothing actually moves. Besides that and the very soft launch of the base cards itself through the Mystery Boxes, the Wheel, and Events before actual packs, it's finally here. And they have a list of all of the variants coming soon. Here's hoping a few of them have a low limit!
Besides that we talk about the new flags on the motion, tilt, and video cards and the real estate involved in those. We also discuss some ideas for the 2nd anniversary of the app coming up, and what Topps could do to make the anniversary special. All that and more on this week's episode!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
The title of this episode represents the assortment of topics we discuss and having no real connection between all of them (besides the app of course!). Vintage came out with no limit to kill another classic set, Timeless Series 2 came out exactly as Series 1 did, and Comic Book Day releases were indeed ruined on purpose (and 2 more covers were added this week, lol!). We also talk about the stagnant sales on the secondary market for older, once popular cards, and wonder what the diamond VIP traders spend $1000 on in the app every month.
The second half is all about the end of Wandavision, so naturally there are spoilers.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
While Marvel's presence on the Digicast was less than ideal, their content in the app during Wintercon was pretty good. Not only did we get original art from Kevin-John, a Disney Master Artist, with a 500CC limited variant, but we also got a Laufman Original Art Venomized set with fairly involved mechanics. All of that was in addition to the Cardio collection which seems to have mostly unused artwork on the cards and the free coins and Omnibus diamond packs every day led to a pretty fun and packed weekend.
The week after started okay, then the VIP card was Falcon, which is alright and makes sense for the show coming up, but was still a little disappointing for those who spend as much as they do in the apps. Then new Inked, which was immediately reused art from one of the Modern Vintage sets. Then Topps Now came on Wednesday and they managed to destroy the one recurring set that everyone loved by making both variants the exact same covers, AND 12 covers in a single week. It really does amaze us how they take a set that all traders are completely happy with and manage to ruin it. Traders are hoping that it's some sort of mistake, which is just the denial phase of grief. When the same thing happens again next week, the pain and guilt will begin. It's a shame that the hopes found during Wintercon almost immediately got destroyed less than a week later.
We also spend a few minutes talking about the ending of the latest episode of Wandavision in prep for the finale this week!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Nothing is going on in the app. We even had nearly 48 hours where nothing new was released at all. Still, Dan and Jim find things to talk about and speculate over as Wintercon is a week away. We want new base to make its premiere at Wintercon, but at the same time do we really want a base set to be Marvel's contribution to Wintercon? And why do we even care about new base anyway? For the eventual base variants? I guess at least it'll be something to do for a week or so.
After the discussion of Topps maintaining the status quo, we also talk about WandaVision Episode 6. And then go onto tangents about Pokemon cards and McDonald's.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
There's not a lot to say about the releases this week, but Dan and Jim do find a fair amount to talk about! This includes how other events happening in other apps may affect the Topps Marvel Collect App. We also discuss the lack of variety in the drop mechanics within the app and how mixing it up really would add a lot.
They also discuss episode 5 of WandaVision at the end if anyone is interested! Otherwise, stop listening when we say so!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
It's hard to believe that something actually new and groundbreaking has happened recently in the app, but it has. Not only the first signature cards in the app, but animated motion signatures! The King in Black Collection arrived last week and has been a massive hit, even without awards for the Epic tier cards. Topps truly brought their A-game with this set.
Unfortunately, there were plenty of other issues these past 2 weeks that are not making the app look good. Besides the Falcon and the Winter Soldier set being abruptly hidden, we still have no idea when 2021 base will come up, and the first VIP rewards of 2021 are nowhere to be seen. That, and the fact that no awards for the past 6 weeks have had their CCs revealed, is leading to a lot of lost faith in the app. We are enjoying some of the content, but we are receiving almost no communication from Topps, and it's getting more and more obvious.
Dan and Jim also go over Wandavision Episode 3 and 4 at the end of the episode, so if you want to avoid spoilers, stop there!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Is it weird that we're actually surprised to see Topps release properly timed content for the release of WandaVision on Disney Plus? We're so used to missed opportunities that it was a welcome change to see a ton of content drop leading up to the Friday release of the first two episodes! I mean, besides updating the Super Rare set from 6 cards to 26 cards, and having to turn the SWORD logo cards into "TBA" cards to hide spoilers, everything was pretty great! And hopefully will be for the rest of the season! We are looking forward to what other WandaVision sets are released over the next few weeks.
Dan and Jim also discuss the end of the OA Weeklies and the beginning of CMYK Weekly Series 1. Of 9. 4 cards per series, 2 cards a week. What? And be sure to tune in to hear their idea for... The Forbidden Set!
Besides the cards in the app, Dan and Jim review the actual WandaVision episodes and the public's reaction to the show at the end of this episode, but there are spoilers and you will be warned when to stop if you haven't watched it yet!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Skuttlebutt Podcast! How was your holiday season? What's that? Of course I mean outside of the Topps Marvel Collect app! There was not a single Christmas or holiday-inspired card found in the app. I guess we did get a Boxing Day card though... and a New Year's Set! Speaking of New Year's, Topps is really hitting the ground running this year, eh? We got... a last-minute 2020 base variant. Not bad! But let's focus on the future.
In this episode Dan and Jim discuss Andy's last words before disappearing into the ether: there will be Wandavision cards! They also discuss the possibility of the 2021 base set dropping soon, or not so soon! And we also go over the more important drops that have come out in the past few weeks. All of this and more on this week's Skuttlebutt Podcast!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Well, Topps is listening. They gave us a limited set, and paid only! And they have a 750CC cap! And they share a pull pool with unlimited Super Rare cards! Wait, this isn't what we were expecting, was it? Don't get us wrong, we are excited to see ANY limited cards in any capacity, as it is a sign that maybe Topps is willing to test the waters and possibly keep lowering the caps in the future. But there's a very real chance that the cards in this limited set may not even hit the limit because of the mechanic in order to pull them and the content on the cards. Let's hope that doesn't sway them from going down the limited path, but we'll have to see!
We also review the current sets and go over the award system loophole that people are taking advantage of again, but this time on the Timeless epics, to make multiple Epic awards with one set of cards. We wouldn't trade for or buy the Timeless Epic awards anytime soon.
And let's not forget the memorable 12 Days of Topps Emoji avatars and Omnibus dupes! Happy holidays everyone!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
This is an emergency alert: your eyes are fine. The cards are actually blurry. This was intentional. You'd better collect them so they don't look so blurry anymore! It's been a weird week for Topps Marvel Collect! While the updated Wish List and Trade List is a welcome improvement, there's not much positive to say about the last week. The "accessibility train" has finally hit Star Wars Card Trader as that app is looking at the death of limited content as well, all but sealing Marvel's fate to be fully accessible from here on out. The problem with that strategy is they need to give people a reason to stay, and most apps including Marvel just aren't doing it. Sets from the past year barely move because whoever wanted them, got them, and the cards are lacking lasting value. While this method makes Topps more money, in the long run all of the people who spend in hopes of their cards gaining value in the future are leaving.
Speaking of leaving, on the Digicast this week Kurcide announced that he is being moved to Topps Innovation and off of Star Wars, and we speculate in this episode what we think actually went on there. He is going to be focusing on the Wax Blockchain, which may be where the big spending, low count collectors flock. Listen in and form your own opinion on the current state of affairs!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
We hope you don't like your common cards because you're going to need to fuse the hell out of them to... get some gold base... and some Black Widow commons... yeah we guess you can just keep your common cards. After releasing gold base fusions which only allowed you to use 2020 common cards and people sacrificed many newer commons to inch closer to finishing the gold base set, Topps all of a sudden allows you to use 2019 cards in the fusion. Needless to say, the CC on each gold base doubled in 24 hours. We discuss whether this was intentional, or just a Topps flop, and how it will impact this set. We also discuss the Black Widow common card fusion and how that simply isn't enough to make the app seem more interesting and engaging.
Besides the common card murder, we also discuss traders who try to play off of the sympathy and empathy of kind, honest traders to get free cards or uneven trades in their favor, just because they complained. Spoiler alert: don't do it. Some people will give these people cards, but most will quickly realize that they're just pulling a con. And then like magic they disappear.
We also go over some of the releases of the past week including a very different Marvel Knights set than we are used to seeing, since we are used to seeing the Marvel Knights 1st prints design. All this and more on this week's Skuttlebutt Podcast.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Get ready for an action-packed, extra long special episode full of all sorts of discussion about the latest drops, such as the Marvel Halftone set that was quickly overshadowed by the Alex Ross Timeless collection! Dan and Jim also discuss how avatars are not utilized to their full potential in this app versus others, the lukewarm Watch Parties that we get, the terrific Mutant Might set, the FOOM bundles, and more!
Finally, Topps has asked the community what we think were the most memorable sets of 2020. How much they'll listen to us, we'll never truly know, but we also talk about what our personal favorite sets are of the year. What were your favorite sets?
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Now they've done it! Topps has added an Epic tier to the app and upgraded over 230 cards into this new tier. Were they all good choices? What else should be upgraded? Should we expect upgrades between lower tiers for older, more valuable sets, such as Uncommon to Rare or Rare to Super Rare? Will Epic already be ruined by the Heroine Gold Motion cards which are slowly getting above the average CC of the upgraded Epics? So many questions, so much to discuss, this week on the Skuttlebutt Podcast!
This week we also go over the cross-over event of a lifetime, Fantastic Locations! Star Wars, Disney, and Marvel all released their own versions of this set on the same day! How did Marvel hold up compared to the other apps? We discuss that as well as our personal journeys over the past week within the app!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
If we told you that an award count can be higher than the lowest insert count in a set, you'd call us crazy right? Yet this week we found ourselves staring at an award count of 43 when the highest count on one of the set's inserts was 37! On this week's episode of the Skuttlebutt Podcast, we discuss the now very apparent flaw in the current award system, and what it means for all awards that have been handed out in the past half a year, or more! We also discuss how useful comment threads really are, and the new Events system in Star Wars Card Trader that Marvel Collect desperately needs to keep the ship afloat. All that and more on this week's episode!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
A lot has happened in the last two weeks, good and bad. Let's start with the bad: the return of Inked in Series 2 and Wield the Shield in Series 2 (of a million). And Jim and Dan are here to talk about them. They also discuss the new "Topps Digicast Challenge" that just doesn't seem to line up with Marvel's actual participation in the Digicast itself. They also reflect on the second Inception series and the burnout that traders had going into that collection's Lightning set and how it affected the end card count. And let's not forget the "incredible" Halloween releases and events that went on in the app! This and much more on this week's episode of the Skuttlebutt Podcast!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
For those who don't know, monument numbers in Star Wars Card Trader were announced this past week, and it reminded Dan and Jim that base in this app really is worthless, and it could be so much more valuable had the idea of Monuments come to Marvel Collect. For those who don't know, monuments are cards in Star Wars Card Trader that are created by fusing a large number of base copies of the same base card, such as 10,000 tier 1, 1,250 tier 2, 500 tier 3, 200 tier 4, and 100 tier 5 of the same character's base card. It is a low-count reward for those who can dedicate weeks and months to swapping their base cards with other hoarders to obtain such a large number of the same card. And we'd love to see that here in Marvel. We also discuss just how exciting Star Wars Card Trader gets whenever they release cards with low CC caps, no matter how much they cost. Maybe someday!
Besides that we discuss the sweet new In the Shadows set and its unique use of color across the variants, making the Super Rare variant just a bit more special. And hey, Holiday cards are back, right after Jim mentioned that it looked like Topps gave up on them! Interesting! That and the usual look at the weekly releases, all on this week's Skuttlebutt podcast!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
We must have all made too many comments about the odd choice of characters when Inception Fire came out (looking at you Rhonda), because Topps decided to play it safe with Inception Series 2 (Lightning Edition) giving us 3 Storm cards and 4 Thor cards in a 10 card (9 + Award) set. Still, they are some great looking cards, but maybe we are just biased because Jim collects Storm.
This week, Dan and Jim discuss this new set, if Watch Parties are really worth it, and take a trip down Reserve Box memory lane. We even ask each other, and you, if you could change any old card in the app to make it better, which card would it be and how would you change it? And let's face it, it's probably the Iceman Reserve. But let us know!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Hey everyone, this week we have a special guest from the digital collectible world named Gregg Keefer, who goes by Tedsallis in Star Wars and Manthing in Marvel Collect. Gregg hosts the Hoardcast podcast which can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/hoardcast and on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/greggkeefer where you can also see the video recording of this episode! Gregg, Dan, and Jim talk about a variety of digital collectibles, while also discussing Marvel and how the future of the app may play out based on the history of other apps and digital collectible platforms. Thanks again Gregg for joining us and we hope to talk to you again really soon!
Limited Card Count Releases Are Dead. With the arrival of an uncapped Vintage Series 3 release, the age of the rush of adrenaline as you rapidly try to buy a new set that has a Card Count cap is officially over. The era of very hard odds has arrived. Along with this fusion fad, to try to make it more difficult to pull the upper tier cards. Well, the new upper tier. Everything from the old era goes up in value every time another uncapped set comes out. No matter how crazy they make the odds, the farmers will still farm them, because they can, and the final CC on most of these sets brings the average CC of cards in every tier of rarity just a little higher. That's not to say there aren't sets that end with a decently low CC. It's just that they end low because they aren't popular. Vintage Series 3 will not end with a low CC.
Dan and Jim mostly focus on the death of the rush, and accepting this new reality. For now. A few releases from the last week are discussed, along with Comic Knowledge Corner with "Other Dan". Finally, we announce a crossover podcast episode in the works for next week!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
And another Sunday passes without anything new or special. What used to be a day to look forward to for a new Alex Ross Art card, Fan's Choice, Editor's Choice, Gallery, or even the latest Corner Box set, has now been skipped twice. Dan and Jim talk about why they think this is happening in this week's episode. Also listen in to hear them discuss how people who have been using the app for over a year sometimes still have a hard time reading the pack information. That, this past week's releases, and more on this week's Skuttlebutt Podcast!
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
FOUR HUNDRED CARD SET! Well, 100 in 4 variants. For over a year. 13 Awards. It just keeps sounding better and better! Joking aside, Omnibus has arrived with 100 new pieces of character art that we haven't seen used in the app yet. And most of them are pretty good! Join Dan and Jim as they discuss the pros and cons of this new, long-lasting, gigantic set. They also review the Marvel "reveals" from the last Digicast and the weekly releases.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Logos! Get your logos hot off the press, again! And again! Dan and Jim spend this episode covering the last week and a half including 2 incredible OA Weekly releases, a great new Cosmic Collection, and an... okay Trinity release. We also discuss some new character we hadn't seen cards for in the app yet, such as Jackpot!
We also discuss the new Empyre release and how Topps decided to change the rarity of the roster cards from Rare and Uncommon to Uncommon and Common, while leaving them identical otherwise, and how that will lead to some confusing trades.
Finally, the Maximum Venom set came out LIVE as we recorded! So we took a glance at those cards and compared them to the original Maximum Venom cards.
As always, if you have anything you want to share with us or be read on the podcast, email us at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com or Tweet us @SkuttlePC!
Digicon has come and gone, along with Marvel's whopping 30 minutes out of the entire 4 days of the event. And what did we learn during it? Not much. But hey, we got a watch party and another animated X-Men set! That Jim completely forgot he collected only 2 days after it came out! Joking aside, Digicon was a great success for Topps Digital, even though Marvel didn't really bring much news or content to the event.
Besides that and the weekly releases, we also discuss the lack of Gambit in the new X-Men animated set, and how great it would be to see some of the original Marvel movies get their own content in the app. We also discuss the passing of Chadwick Boseman and his impact on the MCU. RIP Chadwick.
What a week! DigiCon passes! Inception FIRE! After months of the same old collection mechanics, same old farmers pulling sets on multiple accounts and selling them for less than half the diamond cost in the app, Topps pulled a "Hold my beer" and dunked on the trading community with a set that will not be forgotten for years to come. 1:3 diamond pack odds (1:50 in coin packs) to hit the pool, then 1:25 to actually pull a ticket, then needing 3 tickets per Fire card, then needing 8 cards to finish the set is leading to one of the most difficult and valuable sets we've seen since the end of CC limits and the beginning of Disneyfication! Dan and I discuss this "marvel" of a set this week, along with the other releases and our own personal collecting/trading stories of the week right here on the Skuttlebutt Podcast!
Well, it's been 16 days since the last episode and boy has a lot happened. From the Animated Spider-Man Watch Party, to the 2020 Series 2 Base drop, it has been a wild couple of weeks. Join us this week as we discuss the many different things that have been dropped recently in the app, as well as a brief introduction to the Topps Digicon and Digicast!
He's done it. Dan has reached 50 complete Venomized sets in his insert hoard. A huge congrats to him on this long-time, expensive goal! We discuss his journey in this episode. We also discuss the Animated Spider-Man series releases including the watch party, as well as the return of some limited sets in other Topps apps and what would happen if they returned to Marvel. Plus the award and set drops from the last week.
We also bring up the comments we've been receiving about errors in our comic knowledge, and welcome all listeners to shoot us an email with questions, comments, or corrections at skuttlebuttpodcast@gmail.com! We hope to hear from you and your message may even be read in a future episode!
This week Dan and Jim discuss the releases from the last week, specifically the San Diego Comic Con releases that were available to everyone because no Con happened (Thanks COVID!). We also discuss the Comic Panel 4 day base chase and the potential of a new base set halfway through the year. They also discuss the poor use of base in 2020 so far in the app.
Also, don't forget to check out Episode 11 for our interview with Michael Borkowski and the chance to win an entire Spider-verse collection, just for listening and answering a quiz about the interview!
Hey all, welcome to another episode of the Skuttlebutt podcast. Our guest this week is the man behind the newest and hottest set in the app, Michael Borkowski! We were fortunate enough to be able to sit down with him right on the heels of the release of his Spider-Verse Original Art Super Rare set! It was a lot of fun and we hope you find it as enjoyable as we did.
The rest of the episode consists of the usual review of sets that have released this week including the Free Comic Book Day Super Rare, the Fantastic Four being feature in the Empyre release, surprisingly low award CCs, and more!
And to commemorate this interview with Michael Borkowski, we're giving away the entire Spider-Verse Set! That's all of Michael's Super Rare cards, the 6 Japan Super Rare cards, and all of the Rare, Uncommon, and Common sets as well! To enter, fill out the quiz at the link below, and all contestants with all correct answers on their entries will be entered to win! A winner will be announced on July 31st! Good luck!
https://forms.gle/MS3PPsXnTDXMTC5P8
In this week's episode, Jim and Dan talk about the hints here and there of the Fantastic Four appearing in the app. They also discuss the end of the Inked set, as the overall award finally dropped. That combined with the Black Cat Tilt award dropping led to a week of valuable cards which aren't seen often anymore in the app. This is all in addition to the usual weekly release review.
It's a time to celebrate the Independence of the United States of America! And what better way to do that than 3000 diamonds for $2! This week, "Diamond" Dan and Jim go over the new tradition of Topps unintentionally giving away diamonds at prices never before seen in the app on the 4th of July! We also go over some new sets, some sets that are wrapping up, and everything in between on this week's Skuttlebutt Podcast!
This week Jim and Dan discuss how Coronavirus may have affected Topps themselves, for bad or maybe, for good? Also discussed is the fact that now that the long-term weekly sets are coming to a close, almost everything that veteran traders want will most likely be bought from the secondary market. They also discuss on the end of Inked going out with... another Spider-Man card. This combined with the usual review of the last week's releases makes for a pretty heavy episode.
On this 7th episode of our podcast we have a special guest with us: Daniel Murray. Hopefully most of you will recognize that name, as Dan has created many Original Art cards in the Topps Marvel Collect app, including last week's Rocket in the Weekly Original Art set. We talk about how Dan got involved in Topps Marvel Collect, and where he started when it came to making art for comic-related products. It was an incredible interview and we are so thankful for Dan for coming onto the show.
After the interview, we discuss the weekly releases as usual. Mixed into that discussion is some chat on the topic of how few coins we receive in Marvel Collect as opposed to other Topps apps, and our Dan (not Murray) trading his digital Garbage Pail Kids cards for a huge Marvel haul.
To celebrate our interview with Daniel Murray, we are also running a giveaway for a 12" x 18" print of his Punisher piece, which can be seen here: https://www.deviantart.com/print/view/227341170
To win, fill out the answers to these questions which can be found during our interview in the episode itself. One of the contestants who answers every question correctly will win the print! Here's a link to the quiz:
https://forms.gle/zowJoGZ3k7e5n3jm9
To see more of Daniel Murray's work, search for "murray" in the Collection -> All Cards list in the app, or check out his website or DeviantArt pages:
http://alpc.com/site/
https://www.deviantart.com/danielmurrayart
In this episode, Dan and Jim discuss the Morbius Showcase compared to some of the other Showcase sets we've had throughout the last year. We also discuss how having these long sales times for each set lead to so many sets being available in the store at once that really stop selling after the first few days. But because of that long sales time, people aren't as excited about them. This is all in addition to reviewing the releases of the last week.
In this week's episode, Dan and Jim discuss the VIP system and why it works the way it does. We also discuss the releases for the last 2 weeks, including the first Collection since the "new way" that has a diamond-only variant.
This week we discuss the lack of sets with a Card Count (CC) limits and how that is severely affecting the value of cards released before March of this year, as well as how cards will be valued going forward, assuming this trend doesn't stop. Even though we really, really want it to stop. This is in addition to discussing everything released in the last week. Also this week we introduce a little intro music! Enjoy!
In this episode, Dan and Jim discuss the new award system that was implemented in Marvel Collect as well as the other Topps apps. They also go over the latest sets, including the controversial Foes set that gobbles up Avenger Pets, and the Hellbound Mini-box which is far from mini.
In this episode, Dan and Jim discuss the most recent maintenance and how it actually was finished in time to not interrupt the most important drop of the week. They also discuss the new awards systems in the other apps and how that system will affect Marvel going forward. They also go over the weekly set releases as well as the new releases, and how Topps buried some new sets almost immediately by releasing a very popular box right after them.
Welcome to the inaugural Skuttlebutt Podcast! Hosts Jim and Dan discuss the last week of sets to come out in Topps Marvel Collect such as Pym Particles, and all of the weeklies including Inked and the new Homage set!
Also discussed is the latest double surprise maintenance that had some people concerned about their accounts, the current state of coin accrual in the app, and the One Year Anniversary of Marvel Collect.