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 three scheduled releases - 2022 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome, 2022 Bowman Heritage, and 2022 Bowman Inception. This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week.
Panini updated their release calendar this week and again there are no baseball releases on the list. I’m still holding out hope for Stars & Stripes USA Baseball, but we shall see.
Notes added from some of the more interesting topics to come out of the Topps Industry Conference happening this week.
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2022 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome
The chrome version of the eclectic paper release, 2022 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome is scheduled to release on Wednesday, March 1st.
There is a single format - a regular Hobby box. They’re currently selling for around $110 a box. Last year Topps sold these boxes for $124.99. There are no guaranteed hits - a single box should provide a certain amount of minis, refractors, and inserts, but there are autos. Unfortunately the autos will fall at just 1 per case (12 boxes per case). Unlike the regular Allen & Ginter release, there is not expected to be any retail configurations.
The design is exactly what we’ve already seen in 2022 Allen & Ginter with the switch from paper to chrome stock being the main difference. In addition, the insert sets will likely be significantly reduced if it follows the same pattern as previous years.
The checklist is yet to be released but you can essentially assume that the base checklist will mirror the 2022 Allen & Ginter checklist. Pretty much all the rookies are there with the likes of J-Rod, Witt, Tork, Peña, Wander, Oneil Cruz, etc. I think the main missing guy is Spencer Strider. The auto checklist is likely going to be restricted to baseball players - none of the non-baseball players are typically included in the auto checklist. And as said above, the myriad of exotic subjects covered in the inserts are going to likely be slimmed down to just a few insert sets.
With no guaranteed hits and none of the non-baseball subjects from the regular release likely in the auto checklist, I don’t find any interest in this product. On the other hand, the rookies are very strong, there is no retail version of it, and there is a strong niche collecting group of Allen & Ginter. So there is value potentially there if you are smart about it. For me, it’s an easy pass.
2022 Bowman Heritage
After an aborted 2021 product, 2022 Bowman Heritage is back and scheduled for an online-only release on Wednesday, March 1st. ***Update - As of March 3rd, this product has not been posted for sale.
There is only one configuration - a regular hobby box. The configuration has yet to be announced, but it is expected that it should follow suit with the previous years guaranteeing one auto per box. Similarly, no prices have been announced. In previous years where the product was sold (2019/2020), it was priced at $100 per box from Topps. Since 2021 was never posted for sale, that price point has never been made public.
The design is assumed to be 1994 Bowman which is a very minimalist design. A thin line running down the left side of the card about 10% in from the border and meeting another thin line running along the bottom of the card about 10% up from the border. It essentially looks like a capital “L” and where the two lines meet, the Bowman logo is displayed. to the right of the logo is the player’s name. There’s also a quarter circle rounded dotted line coming around the bottom left corner. Let’s see what we get when the product goes live.
The checklist is the one thing we do know at this time. It’s comprised of 100 veterans and rookies and 150 prospects. The majority of the 2022 rookie chases are present - J-Rod, Witt, Tork, Wander, Oneil Cruz, Kwan, Abrams, Seiya, Greene, etc. Again the main omission appears to be Spencer Strider. For the prospects, you’ve got the majority of chases up through 2022 Bowman Chrome. None of the prospects that debuted with 2022 Bowman Draft are in the product. The prospect chases included are Jordan Walker, Jackson Chourio, Elly De La Cruz, Jasson Dominguez, Anthony Volpe, Tyler Soderstrom, James Wood, Zac Veen, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Blaze Jordan, Colson Montgomery, Roderick Arias, Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez, Harry Ford, Marcelo Mayer, Jordan Lawlar, and a host of others. The prospect autos are a smaller group of 29 players, some of which are included in that chase list above (Elly, Chourio, Wood, Lawlar, Colson, Arias, Mayer). The rookie autos, likely much, much harder to hit, are restricted to just five names - J-Rod, Abrams, Witt, Tork, and Wander.
This checklist has a ton of potential. Bowman Heritage in general is a well-liked product among collectors as it pulls in that nostalgia element on top of its other positives. If the price point is kept in line with the past $100 benchmark, this is an easy buy. Sealed boxes will almost assuredly double or more in price. At that price, I can’t see it lasting on the Topps website for more than a few hours, and potentially be measured in minutes rather than hours. If the price is double that, it becomes a much tougher pill to swallow if the auto guarantee remains at one.
2022 Bowman Inception
Back for its second year, 2022 Bowman Inception is scheduled to release on Friday, March 3rd.
There is one configuration - a regular Hobby box. Each box is comprised of a single pack of cards containing 7 cards - 4 base, 1 parallel, and 2 autos is the expected breakdown. Boxes are currently around $150 pre-sale. Last year Topps sold them for $134.99 on their website. ***Update - Topps is selling boxes for $165 with a customer limit of 4 and cases for $2,508 with a customer limit of 1.
The design has gone from a heavily impressionist art inspired design in year 1 to a heavily circular and astronomical inspired design in year 2. My preference is more of the year 1 design, but I also enjoy the parts of the design that lean into the astronomy take. Of the sell sheet images, the Primordial Prodigies autos really hit that nail on the head for me. The constellations in the background and the hazy aurora like colors surrounding the player are very well done. Players who had Bowman cards for the first time in 2022 will also get a “1st Inception” logo in the product. While interesting, it really didn’t seem to drive much additional value with the 2021 product.
The checklist is not yet released, but the expectation is that it will be all prospects. It likely will include prospects that were in Bowman products through 2022 Bowman Chrome but none from 2022 Bowman Draft if it follows the same path as the 2021 product.
This product falls into what has become a mid-tier of Bowman products, very similar to Bowman Sterling, and to a certain degree, Bowman’s Best. It’s often difficult to make your money back in the singles market. Without that “1st Bowman” cachet, collectors often turn their noses up at spending heavily on singles. For me, it’s a product where you maybe join a couple of breaks and then buy cheap PC singles after the initial market fervor dies down.
Topps Industry Conference
A ton of news is pouring out from the annual Topps Industry Conference in Arizona touching on their plans across their entire suite of products and licenses.
From a baseball card perspective, there were a few different points of interest.
Products being dropped from the 2023 and 2024 product cycles (and who knows if they come back or not)
Topps Archives Snapshots
Topps Clearly Authentic
Topps Fire
Topps Gallery
Topps Gold Label
Topps Opening Day
Bowman Chrome X
Bowman Transcendent
Bowman Heritage
1st Edition (Image shown was Topps Series 1 1st Edition - the Bowman versions may or may not stick around)
Topps Gypsy Queen? Unconfirmed rumor that the steampunk carnival style product has also been shelved.
Bowman Draft (assuming 2023 Bowman Draft) - “Draft Picks That Never Were”
Highlighted by Tom Brady, drafted in 1995 by the Expos but never signed. Brady will be in this set with autos. Hopefully this is not a repeat of the 2014 Topps Five Star Baseball scenario where Brady had auto redemptions in the product which have yet to be fulfilled to this day. Presumably we will see other players in this set as well.
Topps Retro Fractors 1st Bowman
Players that never had a 1st Bowman card will get one in whatever product we see this in - probably Bowman Baseball or Bowman Chrome. The example teased was Babe Ruth.
Topps Series 1 Hidden Gems insert
Still no sign of them on social media or eBay, yet the Topps rep, when asked, responded that “they’re hidden” and “look for them. They are very short. When you find them, you will be very happy.”
There are plenty of more topics being covered, but these seemed like the most interesting to me. I’ll update this section if anything more interesting comes out.