The 2020-21 Topps Hockey Sticker Collection is not for the timid. At $1.00 per five-sticker pack — or $1.39 for those in Canada — it is going to easily cost over $100 to put the 666-sticker set together. It will take you 134 packs to build a set, and that’s assuming that you don’t get any doubles. However, getting doubles seems to be the name of the game when putting together this year’s Topps Hockey Sticker set.
I recently bought four boxes at around $40 each. Yesterday, I posted my first box break of 2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers and got only 12 doubles. Would my luck continue with my second box?
What I Got in My 2nd Box
200 regular stickers; 40 were doubles.
50 foil stickers; 0 were doubles.
And the answer is NO! This box had more than three times the doubles than my first box had; 40 duplicates instead of 12. And that’s not counting the stickers that were repeats of what I got in my first box — more on those in a bit.
Breakdown by 100s
How many stickers did I get within each grouping…asked no one. Regardless, here is that information.
1-99
26 regular stickers (5 doubles)
6 foil stickers
= 32 stickers total / 12.8% of the box
100-199
28 regular stickers (5 doubles)
7 foil stickers
= 35 stickers total / 14% of the box
200-299
38 regular stickers (9 doubles)
6 foil stickers
= 44 stickers total / 17.6% of the box
300-399
31 regular stickers (6 doubles)
7 foil stickers
= 38 stickers total / 15.2% of the box
400-499
22 regular stickers (3 doubles)
10 foil stickers
= 32 stickers total / 12.8% of the box
500-599
34 regular stickers (8 doubles)
11 foil stickers
= 45 stickers total / 18% of the box
600-666
21 regular stickers (4 doubles)
3 foil stickers
= 24 stickers total / 9.6% of the box
Again, nothing unusual here. I got a pretty even mix of stickers from each grouping of 100.
So, What Stickers Did I Actually Need?
Out of 250 stickers, 40 right off the top were doubles within the box. Out of the 210 stickers left, I only needed 10 regular stickers and 14 foil stickers. That means that Box 1 and Box 2 had 186 of the exact same stickers. That sucks! I bought these boxes from the same seller, and assuming that the two boxes were from the same case, having two boxes that were nearly 75% identical is unacceptable, considering that the set is so large.
I am soooo disappointed right now. 16% of my second box were stickers that I did not need because they were doubles of stickers in the same box and 74% were repeats of the first box. I basically spent $40 to get 24 stickers that I needed — and 226 stickers that I didn’t.
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I had the same poor results with last year’s set as well. I was five boxes and many trades with a friend into last year and then gave up. You seem to be on the same path as I was. Your estimate of $100 to build this set is way off. I have only bought one box so far this year but do not see why the result will be any different. I like doing the set but have never completed one in 10 years. The retro cards are a nice touch this year.
Yes, $100 is not a realistic number. I did say “over $100,” and that’s assuming you found 3 boxes for $30-ish each, which was the sale prices during Black Friday Weekend.
If you have a want list of stickers from prior years, I think I can help you with some. Feel free to email me (check the contact page for my Contact info.)