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 Allen & Ginter, and one announced online exclusive release - 2022 Topps Black & White Baseball. 2022 Panini Mosaic Baseball released last week, but the Quick Pitch configuration is scheduled to go live this week on Friday, November 18th - see last week’s post if you want to know more. 2022 Topps Cosmic Chrome is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, November 16th which I covered in TWiBC two weeks ago - see that post if you want to see more on it. This post will be updated once more details on 2022 Topps Black & White become available and if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Update - 2022 Topps Mini was released for sale to 582 Montgomery Club Members on Monday, November 14th.
2022 Topps Allen & Ginter
The most eclectic “baseball” release every year, 2022 Topps Allen & Ginter is scheduled to release on Wednesday, November 16th.
There is one hobby configuration - a regular Hobby box. You are guaranteed three hits per Hobby box, but these three hits can be autos OR relics, and last year I saw a lot of boxes that were three relics and no autos. Currently Hobby boxes are around $120 pre-sale. Last year Topps sold Hobby boxes for $150 direct from their website. They also sold blaster/value boxes for $20 each. In addition to the blaster boxes, there will likely be retail packs and possibly cello packs of Allen & Ginter on the retail front. ***Update - Topps has released Hobby boxes for $120, in line with pre-sales, and blaster boxes for $25.
The design is always focused on giving you that feel of the original Allen & Ginter cards from the late 1800’s and nothing really changes significantly from year to year. This year’s version does have this aged, fading look from left to right where the inner border is almost non-existent on the right side of the card, giving some bit of uniqueness to the 2022 design. The real topic of conversation that roughly fits in this topic of design and drives the eclectic nature of the product is all of the non-baseball inserts. Every year it’s a group of wildly different choices for the subjects of these inserts. This year we have insert sets focused on sandwiches, ducks, famous items people have attempted to steal throughout history, exotic fruits, and U.S. National Parks.
The checklist is not yet released but we can expect the standard grouping of rookies, vets, and ex-MLB players. What we don’t get to really see anywhere else that end up in Allen & Ginter checklists are the non-baseball subjects. Not only do we get people of varying degrees of fame, but we can also get “objects” like an egg or bitcoin. And some of the famous people are highly sought after, especially if they have autographs, from athletes in other sports like Michael Phelps to non-athletes like Anthony Bourdain. There are also typically some form of low print run relics that are highly sought after like DNA relics, fossils, presidential voting buttons, etc.
Every year there is some insert set that I really enjoy and often go and pick up. This year I think, at the very least, I will be looking to pick up the set of U.S. National Park cards. I also like to grab a few of the cheaper autos of the non-baseball subjects as I just find them fun, and isn’t that part of what a hobby should be about? However, I don’t really like buying Hobby boxes simply given the price points and lack of guaranteed autographs in the product. For me, it’s the singles in the aftermarket type of product, but it’s such a fun product that as long as you aren’t looking for an ROI, I definitely recommend trying it in one form or another.
2022 Topps Black & White Baseball
All we know at the time of this article is that Topps dropped a tweet about this product releasing on Wednesday, November 16th. Given the theme, it seems likely that the majority if not all of the cards will be in a black and white palette. We can also guess that there will be a fair representation of ex-MLB players in the checklist given the image shown. More info to be added as it becomes available.
***Update - Topps has released the product for sale on their website on Wednesday, November 16th and the details are as follows:
$50 per box
30 cards per box - 25 base cards typically plus 2 parallels numbered to 99 or less and 3 inserts. Autos (sticker) fall one in three boxes.
Design is full bleed photo-style cards in black and white with minimal information on the front - player name, topps logo, and rookie card badge when applicable. Depending on the parallel, color may be added in to the photo (background or player or both). It very much has a Stadium Club vibe from the photography/design standpoint.
Checklist is 100 players for the base with rookies, vets, and ex-MLB players. All the rookies you would want are included with J-Rod, Witt, Seiya, Wander, Tork, Oneil Cruz, etc. The auto checklist unfortunately doesn’t have the big rookies and rarely any rookies at all - Strider and Stott were the only ones I saw at first glance.
It’s a product I’m on the fence about given the price point (decent), sticker autos (meh), length of the auto checklist (ugh), lack of rookie autos (oof), stadium club feel (nice!), etc.
2022 Topps Mini BASEBALL
We got inkling of this online exclusive showing up last week as the checklist was posted to Topps’ checklist page on their website even though no information other than that was provided. On Monday, November 14th, Topps starting selling the only configuration of Topps Mini - 35 cards that will include two inserts and three parallels. There are autos but no guarantee to hit them and they will likely be very very hard to hit. The price point was $25 per box and it was a max of 2 boxes for the Montgomery Club members. ***Update - Topps Mini boxes went on sale to the general public on Tuesday, November 15th.
The design is the paper flagship design shrunk down, likely something in between a tobacco t-206 card and a regular card size. The only insert appears to be the 1987 Topps Baseball 35th anniversary throwback.
The base checklist is 990 cards like, composing each of the 330 cards from the three Flagship releases - Series 1, Series 2, and Update Series. The auto checklist is short and strong, with the rookies you want - J-Rod, Witt, Wander, and Tork. Just missing Oneil Cruz, but CJ Abrams, Hunter Greene, George Kirby, etc. are strong secondary options. The vets are also good with Juan Soto, Tatis Jr., Trout, Vladdy Jr., and Ohtani. Autos do appear to be stickers and not on card.
The checklist is so long and the autos are so hard to hit, it’s a tough pill to swallow, even at just $25 before shipping per box. On the other hand, with the strength of the rookies, it is very tempting. The bigger problem for me is the card size. Topps has done various forms of mini’s as standalone type products in the past and they just aren’t as desirable as their full-size counterparts. And I am not a fan of having mini’s in normal top-loaders because it looks strange. Let’s face it, I’m not buying top loaders that fit the mini’s better, if they even make them. Ultimately this product is a pass for me, but I completely see the reasons why people would buy into it.