Obama Leads Clinton, McCain in eTopps Card-Sales Race

Senator Barack Obama is leading senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain in a unique measure: the sales of eTopps' cards picturing the candidates. As noted in my previous article, eTopps, the internet-based presence of sports card manufacturer Topps, offered unique collectible cards of the major presidential contenders on "Super Tuesday," February 5, 2008. Keeping with the sports card tradition of eTopps, senators Obama, Clinton, McCain, and former Governor Romney, are pictured throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game. The cards are exclusively offered at eTopps.com, and are in a retrospective design looking like Allen and Ginter cards from the 19th century.

When initially sold at eTopps.com on February 5, 999 of each of the candidates' cards were offered at $8.00 each for Obama, Clinton, and McCain and $6.00 for Romney. (Former Governor Romney dropped out of the campaign the day the cards were offered, but nonetheless all 999 cards picturing him sold out.) After the cards were initially sold by eTopps, owners can resell their electronic rights to the card by eBay or CardTarget.com (with the physical card kept in storage by eTopps until a shipping order is placed). While the Romney eTopps's cards have continued to resell at about $6.00 in the first few days, the remaining candidates' cards have jumped in value. After the first few days of resales (as of February 10), the average resale values were as follows:

- Barrack Obama, $30.32

- Hillary Clinton, $20.43

- John McCain, $18.27

- Mitt Romney, $6.59

It remains unclear whether these high resale values will continue, or whether the initial interest in these cards will moderate. My anticipation is that prices will initially stabilize, but potentially could thereafter rise and fall with the results of the candidates' polls, primaries, and election results. In fact, eTopps has built in some performance value by rewarding owners of the Democratic and Republican nominees' cards at the time of each party's convention with 2 eTopps' bonus points. These bonus points can be exchanged at eTopps for about $2.00 worth of other eTopps' cards.

I will update the comment section of this article in the coming weeks with recent values of the Obama, Clinton, and McCain cards as tracked at CardTarget.com. While this is far from a scientific poll and may or may not track the actual candidates' popularity, the values of these cards will be an interesting and enjoyable way to track the historic 2008 Presidential election while providing a unique collectible item.