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 one scheduled release - 2022 Topps Clearly Authentic. This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Update - 2022 Topps Fire was surprisingly dropped on the Topps website on Wednesday, August 31st.
2022 Topps 3D
2022 Topps 3D is an online exclusive that was scheduled to go live on Friday, September 2nd but has now been released on Topps’ website for sale to the public on Tuesday, August 30th.
There is only one format - a regular “Hobby” box, although it functions more like a retail box. Topps is selling them for $19.99 per box and it comes with a single pack of eight cards - six base cards and two insert cards. There are no autographs or relic cards in the product. Unfortunately shipping is not free from Topps, so it does have to factor into your price point considerations. The more boxes you add, the less it will be on a price per box - for example, a single box shipped to me will cost $10 while two boxes will cost $12, effectively cutting the price per box shipping by 40%. It is a max of five boxes per Topps account.
The design for the base is the 2020 flagship design, so no need to go deep there. It is given the lenticular, or 3D, treatment, which is the main differentiator. The only insert set is a 20 card set of rookies called the Rookie Class Motion set. it is the player overlaying a diagonal swatch of squiggly lines and when the angle is changed on the card, you will see a different angle of the player. I don’t mind it, but I prefer the base cards when it comes to this product.
The checklist is 100 current MLB players, 28 of which are rookies. You are getting the big rookies most folks are looking for from Series 1/2 in Wander Franco, Oneil Cruz, Spencer Torkelson, Bobby Witt Jr., and Julio Rodriguez. Of those five big rookies, only Cruz is without an image variation. The image variation, depending on the odds, are going to likely hold the most value of any cards in this product.
I like the 3D product and the only thing holding it back is the lack of autographs. However, given the 3D finish on the cards, it makes sense since the best you could do is probably stickers, and who knows how well those would stay affixed to the cards. That lack does likely drive a $20 price point (excluding shipping) which I am more than happy about and will lead me to picking up a few boxes to rip for fun. Add in the fact that the big name rookies tend to get you at least your money back and it’s an easy buy.
2022 Topps Fire
2022 Topps Fire, typically a Target retail exclusive, was surprisingly released on the Topps website on Wednesday, August 31st.
There are currently two formats for sale on Topps website - a regular Hobby box and a Value, a.k.a Blaster, box. The Hobby box guarantees two autos and Topps is charging $84.99 for it. I believe it was going for $70 online last year on Target’s website. The Value box guarantees four gold minted parallels and Topps is charging $24.95 for it. This almost assuredly will still end up on the retail shelves. We’ll see if it remains a Target exclusive or not. And there probably will be some other retail formats like cello packs and loose retail packs. ***Update - Target is now selling Hobby boxes online for $79.99 with the ability to get free shipping, a nice discount off of what Topps is selling it for.
The design is still a bit unknown as all we have at the moment is box art, but it is likely following past years queues and the Tyson Beck approach of bold, vivid colors with a ton of geometric shapes and artistic splashes of color scattered throughout. Some of the inserts have potential to be pretty cool, but we’ll have to also wait and see here until these start to show up in the wild.
The checklist is 200 deep of current and former MLB players. For the rookies, you getting all the chase guys along the lines of Bobby Witt Jr., Wander Franco, Spencer Torkelson, Oneil Cruz, and Julio Rodriguez. You’ll also see the next tier of rookies like CJ Abrams, Bryson Stott, Spencer Strider, and MacKenzie Gore. Not a ton of complaints here other than the usual with the auto checklist being pretty long, likely leading to a bunch of the most desirable rookies and vets being harder to hit.
I tend to avoid Topps Fire as it rarely has close to a break even ROI. In addition, the base auto set is almost always stickers which contributes to that lack of ROI. Since the design never really speaks to me, I mainly grab a PC card or two at most, but a lot of times, not even that from this product. A cheaper product that if you want to have fun with, I totally can see picking up a box or two, but go into it with both eyes open.
One final thought - this is the first time in the past few years that I can remember where a product that we considered as a retail exclusive (either Target or Walmart) has ended up being sold on the Topps website. Does this signal the next sea change with the Fanatics-led Topps? I feel like it does.