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 two scheduled releases - 2024 Topps Black & White Baseball and 2024 Topps Gilded Collection.
This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week. ***Updated for 2024 Topps Holiday Advent Calendar Boxes, 2024 Bowman’s Best Pre-Order, and 2024 Bowman Chrome Sapphire.
******Updated for 2024 Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Montgomery Club Pre-Order
2024 Topps Black & White Baseball
Back for year 3, the photographic-focused 2024 Topps Black & White Baseball is scheduled for release on Tuesday, November 19th.
There is one format - a regular Hobby box. New this year is that every box comes with one autograph. Last year, they fell one in three boxes. The amount of packs and cards have also changed as well. Last year we had three packs of ten cards each. This year we have nine packs with eight cards each, with two “hits” per pack. Hits according to Topps are defined as autos, image variation short prints, image variation super short prints, base parallels, and the golden hour insert. The first two years of the product had a box price of $49.99. With the guaranteed auto, a new box format, and a likely packed checklist, I’m going to assume we’ll see a significant jump in price point. I would assume it’s going to double at the very least, and would not be surprised to see it triple to $150+. More to come. ***Update - Topps is selling boxes for $164.99 and they sold out in just over an hour.
The design is essentially little changed from an overall theme perspective - a full bleed, stadium club-esque approach with a minimal logo, player name, and team logo on the front of the card. Autographs are stickers, diminishing some of the value. The Golden Hour insert as usual looks absolutely amazing.
The checklist is yet to be released. The marketing images include Jackson Merrill, Aaron Judge, Ichiro, Yordan Alvarez, Mookie Betts, Jackson Holliday, Elly De La Cruz, Paul Skenes, Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr., Ronald Acuña Jr., and Pedro Martinez.
I love this product - the 2023 version was my favorite product of the year in my 2023 Hobby Year in Review article. Part of that love was the price point - it was in my price range for personal box rips. I’m assuming that it will no longer be in that price range, which takes some of the exuberance out of the equation, but we shall see. If this product comes in at $100 or less, then I am again all on board - I just don’t think that’s what we’ll see.
2024 Topps Gilded Collection
The high-end golden-themed Chrome Flagship product is back for year 3 and is scheduled for release on Friday, November 24.
There is one format - a regular Hobby box. The format remains unchanged - each box comes with five cards with two of those being autographs. One autograph is either a gold-framed Hall of Famer autograph or a gold-framed Champions autograph (Kershaw with a World Series trophy is the tease we have of this card), and the other is a standard Gilded Chrome auto. The three other cards will be base/base parallels or inserts. Last year, boxes were $499.99, a year after boxes being $319.99. I couldn’t find pricing anywhere, but I expect to be at least equivalent to last year’s price, and likely a 10% - 20% increase. ***Update - per Topps social media, the price will be $579.99 per box and there will be an EQL raffle to determine the lucky purchasers of the product.
The design is based off of the base Chrome Flagship design, which hasn’t really grown on me. Doing it in a gold-based theme should make it look even better, or at least be that much more desirable among the general collecting public. The gilding on the borders is sort of a wavy line type of deal in the marketing shots. I’m still not sure if I’m a fan of that, but I doubt the public will care too much one way or another. A new insert, the Gold Storm, is a borderless card with rays of golden light along with golden raindrops. I’m sure there will be some references to a NSFW name instead of Gold Storm, but putting that immature thought to the side, I really like the look of this insert. Autos should all be on card.
The checklist is yet to be released, but it’s likely got everyone we’re chasing. The marketing material includes Paul Skenes (base) Elly De La Cruz (auto), Wyatt Langford (base), Shohei Ohtani (Gold Storm), Clayton Kershaw (Gold Framed Champions auto), and George Brett (Gold Framed Hall of Fame auto).
This product really grew on me after being somewhat dismissive of the inaugural edition on release. Now I’m definitely a fan, especially with a strong base design to work from. The biggest issue is the price. The demand is there, so I get it from Topps perspective. I just wish that we had a bit more base cards in the product so that singles prices weren’t over-inflated as base cards are numbered to 99. Maybe increase that to 250 or 499 or something like that. Regardless, this is a singles product for the vast majority of collectors, or a breaking product. Price points are going to be really hard to justify doing personal box rips.
2024 Topps Holiday - Advent Calendar Box
Topps announced on Social Media that they will be selling 2024 Topps Holiday Advent Calendar boxes on their website on Wednesday. Topps will be selling these boxes for $39.99. For all of the details, check last week’s This Week in Baseball Cards.
2024 Bowman’s Best Pre-Order
Topps announced on Social Media that they will be doing a pre-order of 2024 Bowman’s Best on Thursday. The format remains the same with four autos per Hobby box. The price will be $299.99 per Hobby box.
2024 Bowman Chrome Sapphire Edition
Topps announced on Social Media that they will be selling 2024 Bowman Chrome Sapphire on their website on Wednesday. Each box is guaranteed one auto and will be priced at $279.99. Last year these boxes did not guarantee an auto (something like one auto per 60-ish boxes) and the price was $199.99 for 582 Montgomery Club members and $219.99 for the general public. More info to come. ***Update - this went live as scheduled at $279.99 per box and sold out almost instantly.
2024 Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Edition
Unexpectedly, Topps dropped a pre-order for Topps 582 Montgomery Club members for 2024 Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Edition. With the popularity of 2024 Topps Chrome Update, the Sapphire Edition is likely to be a VERY hot product. It is a maximum of one box per member and the cost is $379.99. There is one auto per box with three parallels and a total of 32 autograph signers. All of the big name rookies have autographs here - the Jackson 3, Skenes, Langford, Imanaga, Yamamoto, Jasson, and Elly. The 2023 edition was $224.99 with similar guarantees. We shall see if the general public gets a pre-order or not. Details that the go live date may be December 10th, or perhaps that could be the general public pre-order (I’m betting that’s the tentative go-live date).