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 there are three scheduled releases - 2023 Topps x Julio Rodriguez, 2022 Leaf Trinity Baseball, and 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter.
This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Updated for 2023 Topps Chrome Logofractor back in stock at the MLB Store in NYC and 2023 Topps Tier One pre-sale. Updated again for the 2023 Topps Stadium Club pre-sale.
2023 Topps x Julio Rodriguez - The Show Out Collection
Another player collaboration, 2023 Topps x JRod was actually available in person at the 2023 All-Star Game at the stadium in Seattle in mid-July and will now be going on sale for the general public on the Topps website on Tuesday, September 19th.
There are two configurations - a Collector’s box and a Standard box. The Collector’s box is a 10 pack box and guarantees 1 auto per box while the Standard box is a 3 pack box where it will contain either an auto OR a relic (most likely a relic). I was told that the Standard boxes were $50 at the All Star Game and did not hear that the Collector’s boxes were available there - this was from one source at the game, so take that for what it’s worth. This will be updated with the info once Topps drops the product. ***Update - Topps is selling 3-pack boxes for $49.99, Collector’s boxes for $149.99, and cases (10 boxes per case) for $1,499.99. Cases sold out in less than 10 minutes. 3-pack boxes sold out in less than an hour.
When it comes to the design, the base design isn’t worth much discussion. The base design is pretty blah, full border with standard player photos. The same base card looks to be used for autographed cards with the exception of JRod autographs, which have a nice design of a candid JRod photo plus an action shot. The JRod autos look to be on card while the non-JRod autos look to be stickers. I was unable to find what the relics look like. There are two inserts that have been shown in the sell sheet plus a third mentioned but not shown (JRod career highlights). The two shown are Fountain of Youth and the rarer Anime Art. I like both of those inserts and hopefully the Anime Art, coined as super rare, have a decent amount of staying power.
The checklist is not available, but you can peruse eBay for what is likely in there. I’ll add anything interesting here if/when the checklist becomes available. ***Update - the checklist was released when Topps dropped the product and the auto checklist is overall pretty good with under 40 signers and a couple of good rookies like Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson. It’s missing Adley, Jordan Walker, and Anthony Volpe - that would have made it a lot stronger given the $150 price point to guarantee yourself an auto. Some of the current vets and ex-MLB players are decent hits like Juan Soto, Derek Jeter, and Bo Jackson, but there are plenty of autos that will be let downs in the context of the price paid for sealed product.
The collaborations are often popular out of the gate but tend to fade off the radar of the Hobby as time moves on and newer releases take precedence. I doubt this release is any different unless Topps prices very low (unlikely) and produces a high number (unlikely) to make it available to most buyers. On the flip side of that equation, over-supply will also be a challenge to the viability of the product, so it’s a delicate balance that is difficult to achieve. Let’s see what the checklist and prices look like tomorrow. ***Update - About what I expected - not cheap enough, but not astronomical prices - the singles market, and to a lesser degree breaks, are going to be the best approach as usual.
2022 Leaf Trinity Baseball
The last product (I hope) in the 2022 baseball product cycle, 2022 Leaf Trinity Baseball is scheduled to release on Wednesday, September 20th although product began shipping last week and has already started showing up in collector’s hands and on the secondary markets.
There is only one format - a regular Hobby box. Each Hobby box comes with 6 autographed cards. I don’t see any currently in stock at the three major retailers, but from what I’ve heard, they were around $170 per Hobby box, which is roughly in line with last year. We’ll see what price Leaf drops them at, if they indeed do sell them direct.
The design is similar to more recent Trinity iterations. The Patch-Auto cards are the highlights as Leaf Trinity has some of the best patches in baseball card collecting. However, those patches are almost exclusively player-worn patches, and honestly I’m not even sure Leaf would even care to ensure that they were player worn (at least by the players on the cards). The non-patch-auto cards include dual autos, clear acetate cards, and a few other ho-hum designs. Honestly those cards are almost always underwhelming and don’t have a ton of hobby interest. It really is about the patch autos in this product in its current format and not much else. In the past, the inscription cards were great, but until those come back, nothing besides the patch-autos matter. The final thing of note is that these are all sticker autos, further putting downward pressure on the value of this product.
The checklist is primarily prospects, but they do include a selection of current and ex-MLB players. Highlighting the prospects are Elly De La Cruz, Jackson Holliday, Jackson Chourio, and Jordan Lawlar. However, as this is a 2022 product, technically players like Corbin Carroll, Gunnar Henderson, and Anthony Volpe fall into this bucket as well. From the current MLB players list, the highlights include Ronald Acuña Jr., Juan Soto, and Bobby Witt Jr. From the ex-MLB players, the main highlight is Ichiro. Leaf regularly puts out strong checklists and this is no different.
Pre-pandemic, I was a big fan of Leaf Trinity. Once the pandemic rolled around causing all of the supply chain and production issues, Trinity was negatively impacted in a way that has basically killed my interest in it. First, the price point, like everything, went up much more than I was interested in paying. Second, no more inscriptions and at least one if two or three less patch-autos per box. Third, all sticker autos and no more inscription cards. It’s not a product with a ton of ROI, and for anyone into the product pre-pandemic, it feels like it’s lost a lot of the non-monetary value. I’ll be passing on Leaf Trinity outside of perhaps a PC card or two in the aftermarket if I find a deal to good to pass up.
2023 Topps Allen & Ginter
The throwback product to the olden days of card collecting, 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter is scheduled for release on Friday, September 22nd.
There is only one hobby configuration - a regular Hobby box. Each Hobby box comes with three hits although the type of hit is not guaranteed - it can be any combination of an autograph, relic, booklet, buyback, rip card, or printing plate). Most commonly you’ll find three relics or two relics and an autograph judging by what we’ve seen in recent years. Each Hobby box will also come with a “boxloader” card, often an oversized card, with hard to hit autographed versions present as well. Last year Topps sold Hobby boxes for $120 and currently Blowout has them for $119.95. There will also be various retail formats like blaster boxes, cello packs, and loose retail packs. Last year Topps sold blaster boxes (a.k.a. value boxes) for $25 each. ***Update - Topps is selling regular Hobby boxes for $124.99 with a customer limit of 4 and Hobby Cases (12 boxes per case) for $1,399.99 with a customer limit of 2.
The checklist is always eclectic and only partially baseball focused. The main rookies you chased in Series 1/Series 2/Chrome are going to be here like Corbin Carroll, Michael Harris II, Triston Casas, Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Josh Jung, Francisco Álvarez, Jordan Walker, Anthony Volpe, Masataka Yoshida, and others. Strangely, Corbin Carroll, Adley, and Gunnar are all list in the checklist in the card 1 - 300 (normal base print run) as well as having cards in the base short print section (cards 301 - 400). The baseball stuff, though, is mostly second-fiddle to the variety, and often eclectic, nature of the rest of the checklist. You’ll find other major sports figures on the checklist, like Tennis superstar Rafa Nadal, Houston Texans rookie quarterback CJ Stroud and the number one overall pick in the most recent NBA draft by the Spurs in Victor Wembanyama. Plenty of actors, musicians, and celebrities will also appear like Kevin Hart, Robert DeNiro, Lil Baby, Bun B, and Tom Sandoval (my wife watches a lot of Vanderpump Rules, so Sandoval is a celebrity in this house). Finally you will have random themes inserts like ones focused on desserts, one focused on international foods, one focused on birds, one related to the word “Allen” (Allen wrench, Allentown Pennsylvania, etc.), and various other fun themes.
I like Allen & Ginter because of its oddball nature. I tend to buy a bit of retail when I run across it just because of that, and if I find a themed insert I really like, I may go out of my way to collect the full set of that insert. On the other hand, I often just avoid hobby boxes given the usual terrible odds to hit autos and will just buy the autos I want (and can afford) in the aftermarket. It’s not a release for everyone, but it sure does have it’s niche in the hobby.
Logofractor Update
Frustratingly and strangely not being sold on the Topps website to the general public, 2023 Topps Chrome Logofractor Edition is back in stock at the MLB Store in New York City direct from the store’s twitter account.
I am still holding out hope that this will be sold to the general public rather than being an MLB Store in NYC exclusive given the product’s popularity, and perhaps this restock is an indication that we will see it posted on the Topps website Wednesday or Thursday this week.
2023 Topps Tier One Pre-Sale
Originally scheduled for August 22nd, 2023 Topps Tier One pre-sale was pulled/delayed with no date given if/when it would be happening. Topps, out of the blue, posted the pre-sale on Tuesday, September 19th. Hobby boxes are being pre-spold for $199.99 with a customer limit of 2 and Cases of Hobby boxes (12 boxes in each case) for $2,399.99 with a customer limit of 2. An estimated release date is October 18th. Tier One is another one of the mid-tier products that is hits only with two autos and a relic per box (no base cards). It often gets a lot of initial interest and then fades away quickly as other products get released. More on this product when it is released.
2023 Topps Stadium Club Pre-Sale
On Thursday, September 21st, 2023 Topps Stadium Club went on pre-sale on the Topps website. Only Hobby boxes were posted at $109.99 with a customer limit of 2 and an estimated release date of October 18th. Last year Topps sold these boxes for $99.99. A fan favorite, each box comes with 2 autographs with a ton of solid names to chase, but the autograph list is long, making the odds of hitting the good names a tall order. However, this is more about the photography than it is about the traditional autograph chase. If you know, you know. More on this when the product is released.