After about a two month delay due to the world wide pandemic, Topps brings us the second series of The Rise of Skywalker. There is quite the backup of releases right now, and it seems Topps is pushing to clear that backlog quickly. Unfortunately, that has led to some quality issues.
There have been reports of poor collation and missing hits. We didn’t see that here, but it seems to be a common complaint right now. We did see pack sizes vary between 18 cards and 3 in some cases in non-hit packs. Given the quality issues for recent releases like Topps Total, these seem entirely plausible.
This series features a 100 card base set, with a number of parallels, as well as inserts also coming in parallel versions. The box contains 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. A box advertises two hits per box, including one guaranteed autograph.
This entry level product returns for another year, after a bit of a delay due to the global pandemic. It’s the same basic card set, but this time the complete base set has been reduced to 300 cards. The configuration of the box has also changed a bit. Instead of the standard 24 packs per box from years past, this year we see 18 packs of 10 cards. The price seems to have dropped a similar amount, so all is not lost.
There are possible hits in this product, but that’s not really what drives it. A hobby box does not contain any hits, but it does come with a few parallels and insert cards. Overall, it’s a fun little set to collect that won’t set you back nearly as much as most of the other regular releases.
Wave 2 of Topps Total was a bit of a mess, so even with a few errors, this one is an improvement. Two players have a number different from the checklist, resulting in two numbers doubling up. The parallels are continuing without the letters used in wave 1.
With a print run of 3702, this wave sees a bit more than the previous wave, but still well below the first wave. This wave includes stars such as Clayton Kershaw and Paul Goldschmidt, while featuring Bo Bichette as top rookie. Again, the release has a base set, with red, black, and gold possible parallels. There are also a limited number of autographs as well as a retired legend as available inserts. Each pack is advertised to have ten cards. Any inserts or parallels are an additional card in the pack.
