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 hobby product release - 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary. This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Updated to include 2022 Topps X Lauren Taylor Wave 1
2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary
2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary is finally scheduled to release on Wednesday, June 29th, only about nine months after the originally intended release date.
There are two hobby configurations - a regular Hobby box and a Lite Hobby box. The regular Hobby box guarantees one autograph per box and is running around $200 pre-sale at the moment. The Lite Hobby box guarantees four exclusive base mini-diamond parallels but autos are not guaranteed. It looks like the autos in Lite boxes are going to be exclusive pink refractor parallels numbered to 15. I doubt we see a retail version of this product, but I guess never say never (I’m saying never ***editor’s note - Joe was kinda wrong). ***Update - Topps sold regular Hobby boxes for $154.99 AND they added a Mega Box configuration that guarantees four exclusive base prizm refractor parallels for $59.99 and is being sold exclusively at the moment through the Fanatics web site.
The design is a chrome version of the classic 1952 Topps Baseball product. It’s an iconic design as one of the most sought after cards in the hobby is the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card. A full border (I assume white or silver chrome but I have yet to see a base card) with the player’s name/team logo/facsimile signature in the bottom section of the card. Classic design, but truthfully not my favorite, but I am probably in the minority here. Don’t hate it, but it’s more about the historical nature of the design rather than the design itself.
The checklist is huge and given that they added in MLB legends into the checklist, they were able to make it even bigger than 2021 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition. Of the 700 card base checklist, they were able to get something like 130 rookie cards into it, which isn’t a terrible ratio. But the rookies from this class have generally not lived up to the high hopes we all had for them heading into 2021. Alec Bohm, Jo Adell, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Shane McClanahan, Tarik Skubal, Jake Cronenworth, Jazz Chisholm, Dylan Carslon, Ryan Mountcastle, Joey Bart, Tyler Stephenson, and Bobby Dalbec are some of the rookies that have some potential chase elements to them from the base set. However, a lot of those guys are currently in the hobby dog house with the exception of perhaps two or three of them. Jarred Kelenic and Andrew Vaughn do appear in the auto checklist, but do not have base cards. With 164 players in the auto checklist, there are going to be plenty of swing and misses. We did get autos of some of the more desirable current players like Soto, Trout, Vladdy Jr., and Acuña Jr. as well as some desirable ex-MLB players like Ichiro, Griffey Jr., and Nolan Ryan.
While I was initially excited when this product was first announced around a year ago, the checklist and lack of rookie class production has killed a lot of that enthusiasm. Add in a huge base and auto checklist and it is essentially a pass for me. I’ve made the mistake in the past of spending hundreds of dollars on boxes along these lines and pulling $5 autos. I would hate to rip this and hit a Jered Weaver, Brad Keller, Mark Canha, etc. auto. Maybe if the Lite Hobby boxes can be had for a bit cheaper, it’s worth a single box rip for fun knowing that an auto is highly unlikely. But in general this product is the proverbial day late and dollar short.
2022 Topps X Lauren Taylor Wave 1
Announced around the beginning of the year, Wave 1 of the Topps and Lauren Taylor finally went live on Tuesday, June 28th for one week or until sold out (which happened with everything but a few Bryce Harper autos through the end of the July 3rd).
There were two packed out formats - a single pack box consisting of 6 cards and a 5 pack box. The single pack box went for $20 while the 5 pack box went for $95 (essentially a $5 discount over purchasing 5 single pack boxes). There were also autos sold separately.
The design is classic Lauren Taylor that we’ve gotten very familiar with from her Project 70 cards. Beyond the large player image with various player and location specific images embedded within the large player image, the rest of the card design is relatively sparse. A full white border with an understated inner frame. There are Lava Foil and Rainbow Foil parallels as well. Overall I am a fan.
The checklist is short - all of 20 current and ex-MLB players along with an additional short printed Lauren Taylor base and even shorter printed auto that is apparently packed out (unlike the rest of the auto checklist). The rookies are Vidal Brujan, Oneil Cruz, and Julio Rodriguez. I kind of like that they didn’t lead off with Wander Franco as a headliner and instead chose Julio. The auto checklist is Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Oneil Cruz, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Julio Rodriguez. You can also pickup Artist Proof silver framed cards numbered to 20 with the possibility of hitting a 1/1 gold framed card. Prices of the Artist Proof were either $99 or $125 depending on the player.
I really liked Lauren Taylor and she was my second favorite artist from Project 70 after Chuck Styles. I’m a fan of what I’ve seen of the price and design and checklist. I’m a bit disappointed that almost all of the autos aren’t packed out (with the exception of a super short printed Lauren Taylor auto), but I get that would’ve shot the pack prices up a lot more. I’m even more disappointed that I was on vacation when the product dropped and that it sold out before I got home and could purchase some packs myself. Definitely will be looking to pick up some of these cards in the secondary market, especially for my PC with Buster Posey. One final note - I likely won’t cover future waves in depth outside of possibly small blurbs if anything of note pops up from them.