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 (or possibly four) scheduled releases - 2022 Topps Heritage High Number, 2022 Panini Donruss Optic Baseball (covered in TWiBC last week), and 2022 Onyx Vintage Extended Series. In addition, 2022 Bowman Draft 1st Edition is listed on the Blowout Release Calendar for Wednesday, December 7th with zero information there or anywhere else. This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Update - 2022 Bowman Draft 1st Edition has been moved to “December TBD” on the Blowout Release Calendar, all but eliminating it from showing up this week.
***Update - 2022 Bowman Platinum and 2022 Bowman Chrome X were released on the Topps website on Wednesday, December 7th. Details below.
***Update - 582 Montgomery Club went live on Monday for renewals and Wednesday for new memberships - see the details in TWiBC last week.
***Update - 2022 Topps Japan Edition dropped on the Topps Japan website on Thursday, December 8th. Details below.
2022 Topps Heritage High Number
The second part of the yearly Topps Heritage release, 2022 Topps Heritage High Number is scheduled to release on Wednesday, December 7th.
There is one hobby configuration - a regular Hobby box. It will contain one autograph OR relic card with the odds heavily weighted towards the relic card. You can find boxes for about $85 online as of writing, with lines up with the price we saw direct from Topps last year. There are going to be the various retail formats like blaster boxes, retail packs, hangers, and possibly mega boxes. Target has already begun selling blaster boxes as of the middle of last week on their website and they are still available for purchase. ***Update - Topps is selling blaster boxes for $25, Hobby boxes for $80, and cases of Hobby boxes (12 boxes per case) for $912, a $48 or $4 per box discount for the bulk purchase.
The design is based off of the 1973 Topps Baseball design and is essentially identical to what we saw with 2022 Topps Heritage released back in March. Check out my This Week in Baseball Cards post from back then to see my positive thoughts on the design.
The checklist is comprised of rookies, vets, and ex-MLB’ers. The rookies here are typically the ones we see in the later releases that didn’t make it into the Heritage release in the spring. At the time of writing, the checklist is not yet available. However, it’s safe to assume we will see Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt, Jr., Spencer Torkelson, Jeremy Peña, CJ Abrams, Hunter Greene, etc. ***Update - as expected, we saw the above rookies along with Seiya, Strider, Steven Kwan, Juan Yepez, Alek Thomas, Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh on the Phillies (for his base card, auto is listed as the Angels), and Royce Lewis. In addition, Abrams is on the Nationals.
Given the strength of the checklist and my affinity for the design, this product is an easy win. However, it will likely be long odds to rip anything of value even if the hobby boxes should be relatively cheap. At the very least I’ll likely grab some retail boxes as I run across them.
2022 Onyx Vintage Extended Series
The prospect heavy release featuring all on-card autos, 2022 Onyx Vintage Extended Series is scheduled to release on Friday, December 9th.
There is a single configuration - a regular Hobby box. It is a familiar format from Onyx with two base cards and two on-card autos per box. Currently price points are around $50 per box, which is typically what we see for this product. There are no retail formats.
The design is a relatively well used type of setup for Onyx. A white border with an interior filigree, antique feeling inner border. Base cards as well as autos use the same design and there are no inserts. The real focus here is that you get on card autos of desirable players for a low price point even if there is no licensing.
The checklist has yet to be released as of writing, but the sell sheet includes current prospects, amateurs not yet signed by MLB teams, a few current players (Rafael Devers and Juan Soto), and an ex-MLB player in Rickey Henderson. The three amateurs teased are Dylan Crews, a 2023 MLB draft eligible player that could easily go number 1 overall and two 2023 International Free Agents that are highly ranked in Ethan Salas and Brandon Mayea. Ethan is the younger brother of the Marlins’ Jose Salas and is often discussed as the top prospect in the class while Mayea is regularly mentioned as a top 10 player in the class. For the prospects, we get a lot of big names like Jordan Lawlar, Brady House and some recent draftees that are getting some of their first autos since being drafted like Druw Jones and Jackson Holliday.
As is usual with Onyx baseball products, given the checklist, on card autos, and price point, I am a fan of the release. I’ll definitely look to grab a box, find a break or two, and/or pick up some singles.
2022 Bowman Platinum
Topps released 2022 Bowman Platinum on their website unannounced on Wednesday, December 7th.
There are all the various retail formats and no hobby formats. The configuration Topps is selling on its website is a Monster box which guarantees two autographed cards per box. Topps has priced Monster boxes at $80 per box with a limit of 20 per customer. Other retail formats are likely going to be blaster boxes, cello packs, and retail packs.
The design of Bowman Platinum is never tame, and this year follows suit. It falls in that same neighborhood of Bowman’s Best, Topps Finest, and Topps Cosmic Chrome. It also takes a lot of different approaches with base and autos looking quite different. There’s just a try hard but missing the mark of looking good element to Bowman Platinum every year that always misses the mark for me and it’s no different this year. Cards are paper stock with given the foil treatment.
The checklist has a 100 card base set with rookies and vets and a 100 card prospect set so you get a nice mix of both. The rookies are pretty much all there with J-Rod, Witt, Wander, Oneil Cruz, Tork, Abrams, Seiya, etc. The prospects include Marcelo Mayer, Jordan Lawlar, Benny Montgomery, Colton Cowser, Blaze Jordan, Cristian Hernandez, etc. A lot of filler in both checklists, but still some legitimate chase players.
I almost always avoid Bowman Platinum. Singles don’t resell well, designs are not my thing, and there is usually too much filler in the checklist. If anything, I buy some PC cards on the singles market and hold my nose and buy a blaster box if there is absolutely nothing left on the shelf. That’s not to say there are no fans of the product - it’s a low cost and retail opportunity to get access to rookies and prospects, so there’s definitely a place for the product, even if it’s not for me.
2022 Bowman Chrome X
Another unannounced release, Topps dropped 2022 Bowman Chrome X on their website on Wednesday, December 7th.
There is only a single format - a regular Hobby box. It comes with one encased card - typically a non-auto, but there are longer odds on hitting an auto card as they are all numbered to 5. Topps is selling boxes for $150 with no stated customer limits on the site. Topps also has a bulk option for a case (5 boxes) but does not provide any discount, selling it for $750.
The design is the Bowman Chrome base and auto design given the x-fractor treatment. Strangely the images that Topps has posted on their website for the product do not have the x-fractor treatment and are essentially images from the full 2022 Bowman Chrome release. Not much more to say than that - if you liked encased cards and you like the x-fractor parallels,
The checklist is based off of the full 2022 Bowman Chrome release. For the prospect section of the checklist, the base cards go from 100 players in the full 2022 Bowman Chrome release to 70 players in the Chrome X release. A quick scan didn’t show me any big names missing. For the prospect autos, it has been significantly shrunk down to 14 players, highlighted by Roderick Arias, Anthony Gutierrez, Yasser Mercedes, and Jonathan Mejia as inclusions. For the rookies, it is a smaller base card set than the full release, but it has all the biggest names in it like J-Rod, Witt, Wander, Oneil Cruz, Tork, Peña, Abrams, etc. For the autos, it is again shrunk down and the main name we lose from the full release is Wander.
This is a high risk, high reward product. There are plenty of fans out there, especially the prospect gamblers. It is not for the faint of heart as I regularly see losing boxes. I don’t own any of these cards because I don’t value it as highly as others do, and I don’t see myself buying boxes, getting into breaks, or even buying singles unless there is a steal of a deal on something.
2021 Leaf Perfect Game
On Thursday, December 8th, Leaf started selling 2021 Leaf Perfect Game on their website.
There is one configuration - a regular Hobby box. It comes with eight autographed cards according to Leaf. No mention of base cards and in years past there have been some and other times not - not a ton of reliable information at the moment. Leaf is selling singles boxes for $99.99 and cases of 10 boxes for no bulk discount at $999. According to Leaf, only 166 cases were produced.
The design is pretty similar to years past and looks to be a mix of paper and chrome cards. Being Leaf, it is likely all autographs will be sticker autos while in the past it has been more of a mixture of sticker and on-card.
The checklist is comprised of players that were at the 2021 Perfect Game All-American Classic. The chase guys are the highly drafted prep players from the 2022 MLB Draft like Druw Jones, Jackson Holliday, Elijah Green, Termarr Johnson, Cam Collier, Tucker Toman, Dylan Lesko, Justin Crawford, and others.
I like this product, especially the chrome (Metal) autos in the product. I will pick up singles in the aftermarket on the cheaper side as well as likely pick up a box but realize that the ROI is tough if you don’t hit any of the top 5 or so names in the product.
2022 Topps Japan Edition
On Thursday, December 8th, Topps released 2022 Topps Japan Edition on their Japanese website. Information is a bit scarcer on this release than typical releases, but the details are as follows.
There is one configuration - a regular Hobby box. There are no guaranteed hits in the Hobby box. Autos and relics are present in the product. The configuration of the Hobby box is likely the same in year two as it was in the debut year of 2021 with 24 packs per box. If so, autos should hit around one in three boxes (1:61 packs) and relics one in eight boxes (1:191 packs). It is currently selling for 18,480 Yen on the Topps Japan website, and google tells me that is roughly $135.
No card art is available, but it’s safe to assume the design is the same as the 2022 Topps Flagship products design with some sort of indication that it is the Japan edition. Last year they put the Japanese flag on the front of the card and I would guess we see the same this year. The parallels is where the design and the product shine in my opinion, and more specifically, the cherry blossom parallel. It really stands out and gives it that uniquely Japanese flavor. There will also be a 1987 Topps Cherry Tree variation that I would like to see - hopefully it’s not just a different coloring of the wood border, but more like the cherry blossom design elements being included. The other color parallels don’t have the impact, although the Jade Green was a nice shade of green last year.
The checklist is 220 base cards comprised of rookies and vets and is book-ended by Shohei Ohtani as card 1 and card 220, likely a pitcher version and a hitter version. The rookie chases are included - J-Rod, Witt, Wander, Oneil Cruz, Tork, Peña, Abrams, Hunter Greene, and Seiya Suzuki (who strangely didn’t get the “rookie” note in the Topps checklist). The only obvious missing one that I saw was Spencer Strider. For the autos, it has plenty of Shohei Ohtani, but no Seiya, which is disappointing for obvious reasons. Keep in mind autos are likely stickers as they were last year - and the design for the auto cards last year was very underwhelming.
I love this product for the Cherry Blossom parallels and if it was for sale at a reasonable price that shipped directly to the U.S., I would be interested in picking up a box. Unfortunately, unless something has changed recently, the Topps Japan products do not ship direct which adds secondary costs if you want to get it on this side of the globe. I did purchase a few PC cards of the Cherry Blossom parallel last year in the secondary market and likely will do the same again this year.