Why are prices of 2018 Topps Update Baseball so high?

If you have been checking out baseball cards as of late for Ronald Acuna Jr., you would have noticed that prices for 2018 Topps Baseball Update Series are silly right now.

How silly?

If you check eBay, hobby boxes are selling for around $250, jumbos are well over $300. Blasters, you're looking at the $40-$50 range.

Why are prices of 2018 Topps Baseball Update so crazy right now.

Rookies.

2018 Topps Baseball Update has rookies cards of Ronald Acuna Jr., Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto just to name a few. Collectors are cleaning out retail locations of any of Update that pops up, making this product scarce.

Generally, Update will have a smaller print run than Series 1 or 2. So, any rookies in Update will have fewers cards than if they were in any of the previous flagship releaes, especially Series 1.

We saw this effect with Mike Trout when his RCs were in 2011 Topps Update. Now, we see it again with 2018 -- with the potential of it happening in 2019.

Acuna's base rookie card (US-250) is going for about $30 on the secondary market. Parallels, photo variations and exponentially more.

The Acuna photo variation (with him batting with his bat down) is going for $200-plus.

Torres base RC can be had for $5-$10.

Soto cards are looking at $10 or more. And parallels are getting Big Bucks! A rainbow foil variation recently sold for $300!

It's crazy to see these types of prices, but not surprising. Acuna is having a stellar career. He's coming off a Rookie of the Year award, and his stats are even better this year. He has a good following and there are many collectors who have added him to his PC.

It's possible to see someting similar happen with this year's Update, especially once the checklist comes out and we see the rookie cards included. (And, no, I don't have any inside information.)