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. I feel like I am repeating myself, but we may also see the 2022 Topps Finest Flashbacks online drop from Topps this week as it was originally scheduled for two weeks ago. This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Update - 2022 Topps Finest Flashbacks is indeed going live for purchase on the Topps website this week with an initial sale for 582 Montgomery Club members only on Monday, August 22nd.
2022 Topps Clearly Authentic
2022 Topps Clearly Authentic is scheduled for release on Wednesday, August 24th.
There is one format - a regular Hobby box. It comes with a single encased autographed card on a clear acetate card stock. Pre-sale boxes are currently going for $85. Last year Topps sold these boxes for $74.95 direct from their website. I would guess we see an increase to at least $80 if not the $85 we see for pre-sale. ***Update - Topps is selling boxes direct from their website for $79.99
The design is mostly based around the 2022 Flagship base and insert designs. We already know what those look like, so I won’t add anything else on them. In addition we are getting a 1955 throwback and somewhat of an homage to High Tek with an insert call Topps Tek. It makes a ton of sense to have a Tek style insert as Tek was an acetate product as well and I’m glad to see it here.
Shohei Ohtani Topps Tek insert
The checklist is the standard formula of rookies, vets, and retired MLB players. For the rookies we are getting all the big chases with Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Oneil Cruz, Spencer Torkelson, and Wander Franco. In addition, we are getting a couple of other interesting names that we’ve not yet seen base Flagship rookie cards of in Alek Thomas and Heliot Ramos (inserts and/or online exclusives are the only rookie cards they have so far to my knowledge). There are plenty of names to highlight in the current and ex-player categories. A lot of the big name current players like Trout, Ohtani, Tatis, Acuña, Pete Alonso, Vladdy Jr., and Soto are there. For retired players, you get shots at Jeter, Ripken, Bo Jackson, and Griffey Jr.
When this product was ripping for $40 or less when I rejoined the hobby, it wasn’t a terrible proposition. However, at twice that cost, it has gotten to be a much higher risk, lower reward gamble. This is partially due to the fact that resale of Clearly Authentic tends to be underwhelming, especially the further you get out from a release. Other factors include the acetate stock not being a favorite for some collectors and the likelihood that a lot of the bigger names mentioned above are often short-printed while the less desirable names along the lines of Alejo Lopez, Jon Heasley, Otto Lopez, etc. will be hit much more frequently. I won’t be going out of my way for this and will only pick up cheaper singles in the aftermarket if I stumble across them.
2022 Topps Finest Flashbacks
2022 Topps Finest Flashbacks has gone live to Topps 582 Montgomery Club members on August 22nd for online purchase at $199 per box. This is the same price that we saw last year. At the moment the only additional details are that we will be getting one refractor per box. No guaranteed hits beyond the single refractor. ***Update - after multiple debacles with the Montgomery Club purchase cycle with orders being canceled erroneously and then re-purchase links also failing, it looks like Topps got it straightened out. The open sale to the public went live on Thursday, August 25th.
The design is a throwback to the 1995 Topps Finest design. as can be seen on the box artwork above for the Wander Franco base card. Not my favorite design by any stretch of the imagination, but this is a throwback design that will likely have traction with collectors from that time frame.
The checklist has been released as of Tuesday, August 23rd and we get all the hoped for rookies in the set. Wander Franco, Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., Spencer Torkelson, and Oneil Cruz all have base rookie cards as well as autographs. The other two that fall into the same bucket are Bryson Stott and CJ Abrams. All in all, a checklist that should make collectors happy.
This product has proven to be very strong in its first two years of existence and in year three, I expect the trend to continue. Given the price point on the sealed box from Topps with no true hits (a refractor is not a “hit”), I won’t even try and fight to get a box if/when it does go on sale to the general public. But I will probably try and pick up a few cards in the aftermarket or in a break or two if the price point isn’t outrageous.