Helping to keep everyone up-to-date on what is coming out and what might be worthy of your time in the Baseball Card Hobby for the current week. Check out our Discord for more discussion on this and any other hobby chatter - Prospects Live Discord.
This week we have four scheduled releases - 2022 Topps UK Edition, 2022 Bowman Draft 1st Edition, 2022 Topps Triple Threads, and 2022 Topps Chrome Black. 2022 Panini Donruss Optic Baseball (covered in TWiBC two weeks ago) does in fact get a Choice Hobby box configuration (three autos plus exclusive parallels) selling for $105 at the time of writing. 2022 Bowman Chrome Mega Boxes started to show up on eBay from resellers. 2022 Topps Chrome Update Mega Boxes are scheduled to hit retail shelves this week with some listings already showing up on eBay. I will cover this product when the all-new Hobby boxes of Chrome Update release, currently scheduled for next week. We also have Topps Project 100 third season going live on the Topps website this week. There is also a good chance we see 2022 Bowman Chrome Sapphire this week as the checklist has been released by Topps. This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week.
***Update - On Tuesday, December 13th, Topps announced the Topps X Juan Soto collaboration going on sale on their website on Friday, December 16th.
***Update - On Friday, December 16th, Topps started selling 2022 Bowman Chrome Mega Boxes for $45 with a limit of 10 per customer.
2022 Topps UK Edition
Back for it’s third year, 2022 Topps UK Edition went on sale on the Topps UK website on Sunday, December 11th (I know, technically this should be in last week’s post, but felt it better fits with this week being such a late in the week drop).
There is one configuration - a regular Hobby box. As has been the case previously, there are no guaranteed hits in the product - autos are available, but are typically pretty long odds. Topps is selling boxes on the UK website for 105 British Pounds which is roughly $129.
The design is the basic Topps Flagship design on paper stock, so nothing new there. There only difference is that you will have the Union Jack flag on the front of the card. On the website they did show an Aaron Judge Big Ben border parallel to give the design some UK flair as in years past, but no info is available on the full list of parallels. If they stick with years past, there won’t be any other product-specific parallels and it will be the more traditional solid colors like black, gold, blue, red, etc. They did go away from the 1987 throwback insert design for a more UK-focused throwback Merlin design from the late 90’s which looks basic and uninteresting.
The checklist took the same approach as the recently released 2022 Topps Japan Edition with a 220 base card set spread across players from all three Flagship releases. We get all the rookies to chase - J-Rod, Witt, Wander, Oneil Cruz, Peña, Tork, Hunter Greene, Spencer Strider, etc.
Similar to 2022 Topps Japan Edition, it feels like this product is too expensive to purchase sealed, especially with no guaranteed hit. The Big Ben parallel never has been something I’ve connected with either (like the Japan Edition Cherry Blossoms parallel), so I’ve not gone out of my way to buy singles the past two years. I don’t see myself going out of my way this year either, especially with no true PC rookies in any product this year.
2022 Bowman Draft 1st Edition
Currently slated for a Wednesday December 14th release date on the Blowout website, there has been absolutely no info out there. This section will be updated if/when it releases, most likely with direct sales from the Topps website. More in-depth analysis will be present in a future This Week in Baseball Cards as well as with a dedicated in-depth product preview on release day.
***Update - Topps posted Hobby boxes for sale on their website at $360 per box with a limit of 12 per customer. Similar format that we’ve seen in the past with no guaranteed hits.
2022 Topps Triple Threads
The popular mid-tier releases is scheduled for Friday, December 16th.
There is a single configuration only - a regular Hobby box. Each Hobby box comes in the form of two mini boxes with one pack in each mini box. Each pack guarantees with one auto and one relic along with three base and two base parallel cards. So essentially you are looking at two autos and two relics for a total of four hits per Hobby box. Currently boxes are around $400. Topps sold boxes last year for $329.99 from their website. There are no retail formats of this product. ***Update - on Friday, December 16th Topps posted single Hobby boxes for sale for $400 with a customer limit of 4 boxes. They also listed Hobby cases which contain 18 boxes for $6,840, a $360 discount on buying 18 boxes one by one, or $20 per box discount on each per box. No limit is stated on the site for cases.
The base design of Triple Threads is attempting to give that rich, higher end feel with blacks and gold dominating the palette. The bottom and top borders are a diamond embossed black while the side borders are mostly an off-white. Those black borders are likely subject to condition issues on already condition sensitive thicker cards. There is an inner gold border that ties out the higher end feel. The real design element is the “threads” part of the product name - it’s all about really desirable relics in the product. It’s typically not just the plain white jersey relics, although those will show up in the larger print run parallels. Relics are typically game used and include both jersey cuts and bat wood cuts. Often you get some sort of cut-out words that are filled with those relics that can be generic like “Award Winner” or specific to the player like “Steady Eddie” for Eddie Murray. Outside of the rookie autograph set, most of the autos are sticker autos, so definitely something to be aware of.
The checklist for Triple Threads tends to be more Vet and ex-MLB player heavy with a sprinkling of rookies. The base set actually only has 11 of the 100 players as rookies, but it’s got most of the chases - J-Rod, Witt, Tork, Oneil Cruz, Wander, and Seiya. No Peña, but he does have an autograph.
I used to be really into Triple Threads when I got back into the hobby. The relic cards feel really unique, and when I did get back into it, the product was probably half the cost or better. You’d be surprised, but Triple Threads suffers many of the challenges that other mid-tier products do - the singles mostly don’t sell as well as you’d think. Sticker autos, some collectors simply not interested in relics, less prevalence of rookies, sealed product prices starting higher, and other various factors tend to put a cap on the ceiling of the aftermarket value. I’ve basically spent my money elsewhere the past few years, and that’s in no small part to Triple Threads regularly arriving during a time when there are simply other new products that I’m into more.
2022 Topps Chrome Black
Back for it’s third year, 2022 Topps Chrome Black is scheduled to release on Friday, December 16th.
It comes in a single configuration - a regular Hobby box. It contains a single pack with three base cards, one of which is a parallel of some sort, and an encased on-card auto. Currently boxes are selling for around $155, which lines up pretty closely with the $149.99 price that Topps sold direct from their website in 2021. There are no retail formats of this product. ***Update - on Friday, December 16th Topps started selling Hobby boxes for $150 per box with a customer limit of 6. They also are selling cases of Hobby boxes for $1,710 each with a customer limit of 2 cases. There are 12 boxes per case, which is a discount of $90 if you were to buy 12 boxes individually.
The design is relatively similar to the past two years with a dominant black theme. Last year there was some angular lines and triangles that would go from black to a different color for the parallels. This year it’s more a wavy, curvy line motif and it looks like the color parallels will stand out more/better than last year. Surprisingly, the condition issues that you normally would find on black paper cards don’t tend to occur much with this product. Maybe that’s the matte finish protecting it, or maybe they’ve just got it figured it out with this particular product.
The checklist is not yet posted, but we can safely assume getting plenty of the big rookies and vets here. The sell sheet included CJ Abrams (base), J-Rod (auto), and Bobby Witt, Jr. (auto). I will update this section when the checklist releases if there are any big surprises. ***Update - about the only main rookie chase at the moment missing is Jeremy Peña and Spencer Strider.
I like this product, but not at the price point of sealed boxes. I prefer to pick up PC cards in the singles market because they tend to be a good discount on what I would pay chasing them. On the other hand, if you’re chasing a big name rookie, their prices will make it hurt to pick up the auto encased cards as collectors do tend to charge a premium in the secondary market. I’m staying away in general, but perhaps the checklist will include some surprise PC players.
Topps Project 100 Season 3
Topps announced last week that Topps Project 100 Season 3 will be going live on Thursday, December 15th after what has seemed like 84 years since Season 2. I won’t rehash any of the details as Season 1 and Season 2 were mostly underwhelming and this looks to be a niche product now. But I may update this section if something interesting does come out of this Season, either artist-wise or player-wise.
The five artists taking part were revealed after this article went live on Monday, December 12th. It’s headliner is a returning artist from Project 70 in DJ Skee who uses a lot of hip hop influences in his work. The other four artists I am unfamiliar with, so it will be interesting to see their take on baseball cards. Those artists are Father Steve (Multi-Media Artists out of Los Angeles), Elbo (Glass Artist out of Colorado), Ben Ross (Painter out of Australia), and Arno Kiss (Graphic Designer out of Belgium.
The five players chosen by the artists in week 1 were four obvious ones and one not so obvious one. For the obvious choices, it was Shohei Ohtani, Wander Franco, Julio Rodriguez, and Jeremy Peña. The not so obvious choice was Mike Schmidt, and that card, done by Elbo, was the most divisive design I saw after the drop.
TOPPS X JUAN SOTO
On Tuesday, December 13th, Topps announced that on Friday, December 16th, they will be selling Topps X Juan Soto, the next in a line of player headlining collaborations they have been doing over the years. We’ve seen Bryce Harper, Pete Alonso, Fernando Tatis, Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and this year, with Aaron Judge and Derek Jeter. No information is available at the moment, but this will be updated when more is known.
***Update - Topps has started selling single box and three box options. A single Hobby box contains 23 base cards and 2 base card parallels with one in five boxes containing an autograph. Single boxes are being sold for $39.99 with free shipping. A three box purchase gets you essentially a $5 discount at $114.99. No stated limits on the purchases.
The design has a lot of Caribbean influence with the palm leaves motif. My favorite of all of the various designs that we see in the sell sheet is the homeland inspirations design. Autos look to be sticker autos.
The checklist is strong across the board and is a mix of rookies, vets, and ex-players. There are only four rookies in the checklist - J-Rod, Witt, Wander, and Oneil Cruz with J-Rod being the only rookie, but that is somewhat expected in a curated set with only 68 players in the base set. Interestingly, there is one base card list as TBA (to be announced), which is card 32. Not sure what that’s about, but my guess is that it isn’t anything overly exciting. But it would be cool if it was. Maybe put a new prospect in it like Druw Jones or Jackson Holliday or something so we can have more rookie card arguments.
With the free shipping element, I don’t mind the product and the price point. While I wish autos were slightly more frequent, like one in three boxes, it’s a good balance of price and hits per box given the checklist strength. I’ll probably pick up a box to rip for fun.