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 pre-sales - 2024 Topps Big League and 2024 Topps Tribute.
This post will be updated if more news, product information and/or product drops occur throughout the week.
2024 Topps Big League Pre-Sale
Topps, with very little warning, dropped 2024 Topps Big League pre-sales on Tuesday, March 5th.
Topps pre-sale price for regular Hobby boxes is $49.99. Last year Topps sold Hobby boxes for essentially the same price of $50 on release. There are no guaranteed hits - autos are expected to fall around one in three Hobby boxes.
The design isn’t very interesting, which Topps seems to figure out a way to do every year. I don’t hate the look - it’s a full border with a scrolling player/team info towards the bottom of the card with an upper curved diagonal cut to the photo background. The photo of the player extends into the border. The more important aspect to the design element is that each rarity level of the checklist will have different coloring with the base, not just in the parallels. Topps introduced this last year and it’s a nice added element to a less popular product. There are a variety of inserts with the rarest ones being Let’s Go, The Bigs, Gameday Drip, Hobby Influencers (ugh), and Social Media followbacks (redemptions where MLB players will follow you back on your social media account). Autographs are typically all stickers. Finally there are redemptions for a complete set of cracked ice parallels (assuming this is just the base set) limited to just 10.
The checklist is the second time we get to see the 2024 rookie class, highlighted by Elly De La Cruz, Jasson Dominguez, and Evan Carter. In addition, this will include the first official MLB rookie card of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, concurrently with 2024 Topps Tribute. Unlike Topps Tribute, though, Yamamoto will only have base cards in Big League - he does not show on the auto checklist.
Big League baseball has traditionally been considered more of a kids-focused product, but last year’s tiered rarity of base cards gave it some elements of potential value. Base Corbin Carroll rookie cards were in the Super Rare category (only Legendary Foils were rarer) for base cards and they currently sell for $20 - $30. Those are hard to hit, and they don’t even pay for the box, but it’s still provides value from a break perspective, which was almost non-existent in the past. Still, for personal rips, this is probably a pass given the lack of guaranteed hits unless you are looking for some fun more than looking for ROI.
2024 Topps Tribute
Another surprise pre-sale drop, 2024 Topps Tribute went to pre-sale on Wednesday, March 6th.
Topps pre-sale price for regular Hobby boxes is $499.99 with a customer limit of 2. They were also pre-selling cases of Hobby boxes (6 boxes per case) for $2,999.94 with a customer limit of 1. For 2023, they pre-sold boxes for $429.99 and $479.99 on release day. The pre-sold cases (I don’t have the prices unfortunately) and sold cases for $2,799.99 on release day. Each Hobby box comes with 6 cards, with a 3 guaranteed hits (a mix of relics and autos).
The design of Tribute is really not much to dig into. There tends to be a “tribute” theme throughout the autos and inserts - tributes to greatness past and present, to specific games/events through relics that may have authentication stickers, and a base checklist that focuses on veterans and ex-MLB players rather than the traditional rookie focused sets. Autos are almost always on card.
The checklist for the rookies include the early 2024 rookies we’ve seen so far along the likes of Junior Caminero, Evan Carter, Elly De La Cruz, Jasson Dominguez, Jordan Lawlar, and others. Unlike 2024 Topps Series 1 and Big League, Caminero, Lawlar, PCA and other insert-only rookies do have base rookies here. Additionally, we get the first official MLB rookie card of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, concurrent with 2024 Big League. Unlike Big League, Yamamoto DOES have autographs in Tribute. The other big name Asian league import, Jung Hoo Lee, gets his first official MLB rookie card. In this case, it is a base card only. Both Yamamoto and Lee base rookies are referred to as Short Prints by Topps.
While I really liked Tribute when I got back into the hobby, the price point has gotten to a point over the past 3 to 4 years where I just can’t do it outside of buying singles in the aftermarket. And with how few cards there are per box, it’s really tough to get into breaks and not get much if any value out of it without a significant amount of luck. The pre-sale sold out quickly, showing the demand and popularity are still there, but I think it’s no longer a product that a majority of the hobby can enjoy.