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 is one release with 2023 Topps Stadium Club.
This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Updated for Topps 582 Montgomery Club new membership details.
2023 Topps Stadium Club
The photo-focused low end product that was delayed due to quality control issues is scheduled to release on Wednesday, January 24th.
There are 2 Hobby formats - a regular Hobby box and the new Hobby Compact configuration. The regular Hobby box guarantees two autos, one chrome card, and one triumvirate insert. The new Hobby Compact configuration is pretty much taking a regular Hobby box and cutting it in half. It guarantees one auto with either a chrome card OR a triumvirate insert, and it has half the amount of packs (8). From case perspective, both formats are 16 boxes per case. Topps pre-sold regular Hobby boxes back in September for $109.99 with a customer limit of two. Those pre-orders were cancelled due to the QC issues with a $35 Topps website credit given as a mea culpa. Currently Blowout is selling regular Hobby boxes for $134.95 and Hobby Compact boxes for $69.95. There will be at least blaster boxes for retail, and those boxes will contain an oversized “master photo” insert. ***Update - Topps went live on Wednesday as scheduled. Regular Hobby boxes were being sold for $139.99 with a customer limit of 6 - these boxes sold out within the day. Hobby Compact boxes are being sold for $79.99 with a customer limit of 6 and are still in stock three days later. Blaster/Value boxes are being sold for $24.99 with a customer limit of 10 and are still in stock three days later. Topps is also trying to entice buyers with a Compact box plus Blaster box package that gets you free shipping, but in reality anytime you are buying boxes from Topps and spending more than $100, you are eligible for free shipping. And the Compact + Blaster pricing is over $100 whether purchased separate or bundled.
The design is what we expect from Stadium Club - full bleed base photos with the players name and position and not much else beyond the product logo. It’s all about the photo and letting it shine. They’ve added a purple parallel to the base and base chrome to help extend the print run. However, we are only looking at four more players in the base auto list and while I’m not going to compare insert auto counts, I doubt that the extended print run is made up there. More than likely, it’s made up with an increase in the amount of base autos. Anyways, autos are on card with insert autos usually on card as well, but stickers are possible. Chrome autos are typically always stickers. The new inserts that have been shown so far aren’t anything interesting for me, and the ones that are returning from previous years fall into that same bucket - Beam Team, Instavision, Triumvirates, etc.
The checklist is what you’d expect from a product that was planned to release prior to the Flagship Update and Chrome Update products. The rookies are focused on the players from Series 1 and Series 2, which for 2023 are the ones the hobby is chasing. Gunnar, Adley, Corbing Carroll, Michael Harris II, Anthony Volpe, Jordan Walker, Francisco Álvarez, Kodai Senga, Masataka Yoshida, Triston Casas, etc. We won’t be getting a lot of the pitcher chases, missing out on Eury Pérez, Bobby Miller, Mason Miller, etc. There will also be a lot of current veterans and ex-MLB players in the checklist. We will also get a Super Short Print for card 300 (Rafael Devers is the base) with the “inventor” of the Rip card, Alan Narz (an LCS owner in Florida).
I love Stadium Club because we get great photography for a not outrageous price point. On card autos, great short prints, and all the rookie chases add to the allure. There’s not a great ROI for the product, so if you’re looking at this product as a money making opportunity, it’s probably not for you. But if you’re looking for a product that regularly shows either really cool action shots, stadium backdrops, and/or candid photos, then this is the premier product in that regard.
Topps 2024 582 Montgomery Club New Memberships
Topps announced on Monday, January 22nd that new memberships will go on sale on Tuesday, January 23rd now that the renewal purchase period has closed. New memberships maintain the same price as last year at $199.99. They will be available until they sell out (quantity available unknown). For all the details on this year’s membership, see last week’s This Week in Baseball Cards.