Why I'll end up paying the Allen & Ginter Strasburg Tax

I'll do it but I will mind, and I'll mind a lot. I've already talked to the owner at the local shop about Ginter prices. Basically he told me that I can forget about paying under $100 for a box but he promised me that the price would be fair. This guy is not a wax ripoff artist at all, but I'm still not expecting to pay less than $120. At $130 I'm going to be vocal about my displeasure and at $140 I'll probably walk out of the store.  But eventually I'll suck it up, and I'll overpay for one of these boxes.

Why? Because it's my favorite set to build. I've successfully built three out of the five sets, and I'm pretty close to the final two.

Because I've ripped a box of this stuff every year this blog has been in existence.

Because I want to compete in Gint-A-Cuffs.

And because of this

this

and this:

I totally have to get this card. Woof.

As for the price, I'm just going to have to bend over and take it. Prices of a hobby box of this year's A&G getting jacked up 30 to 40 bucks a pop is a consequence of Topps' baseball license monopoly. I shouldn't even be blaming it on Strasburg, nobody with a lick of sense out there is willing to pay that much money just for a lottery ticket to maybe pull a Strasburg non-rookie in a set builder's set. Topps is the only game in town now and we have to play by their rules. The rules are that Topps gets theirs, dealers get to jack up prices and collectors have to take it because there's no Goudey or Elite or SP Authentic to compete with this release for collecting dollars.

You know what, I've wasted more than the $40 markup on these boxes in junkwax this year. I can put that same amount toward a box I really want. I'm not gonna like it though.

UPDATE:

Holy frelling frackity frig, there's a deadline for signing up for Gint-A-Cuffs!!!

WHY DOES NO ONE TELL ME THESE THINGS?!

Sign up by Wednesday at 11:50pm!!!

PANIC!!!!!!!!1