Category Archives: Baseball

2022, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Hobby Pack, Topps 206

2022 Topps 206 Wave 2 Hobby Box Break

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The second wave of the 206 release follows with a similar format to wave one, with 100 cards. The print run is down a bit from the first wave to 8,532 packs. This wave also introduces a bit of a departure from the normal format relating to the T206s. A new back is included which is identified as All Star Background, featuring a small image of Hollywood on the back.

This wave also contains the chance at a couple of image variations, one of which is from a previous wave, as well as a few autographs. A box still advertises ten cards, including two parallels, but it seems some parallels are being treated as extra cards in these.

This box contained:

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2022, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps 206

2022 Topps 206 Wave 1 Hobby Box Break

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The 2022 release of 206 looks very much the same as the previous two years. They changed up the available backs a little bit for wave 1, but many of the old favorites are still present. At first glance, it seems to have a fairly healthy print run of 11,243 packs, but the release has changed this year. Last year, each wave had 50 base cards, but this year has doubled that number up to 100. It will be interesting to see if that’s the new normal, or if people just hadn’t noticed.

This series includes some rarer advertising backs, as well as card where the front appears to be a wood grain, but has the standard backs. There are also a few unannounced image variations which were not included on the checklist. There are some big names, both past and present on this checklist, but one of the headliners is probably a hobby darling from early in the year, in Wander Franco. He may not be as highly sought after currently, but this is still another rookie card for him. A box is advertised as one pack containing ten card, two of which are guaranteed to be parallels.

This box contained:

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2022, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Box, Topps Heritage

2022 Topps Heritage Hobby Box Break

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Once again, Topps Heritage heralds in the pending baseball season, even if this year is different from normal. This release pays tribute to 1973 Topps with cards in that style, as well as buybacks and other homages to that year. The base set contains 400 cards, with an additional 100 SPs running 401-500, as well as various variant SPs within that base run.

While the prices on many releases have been skyrocketing, and Heritage is up, it still comes in at a mostly reasonable range. Part of the reason for this is likely that Heritage isn’t really a hit driven release, so it’s not as popular for group breakers. Each box does guarantee one relic or autograph, but the autographs are much rarer to receive. A box contains 24 packs, with 9 cards per pack.

This box contained:

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2022, Baseball, Box Break, Jumbo Hobby Box, Topps

2022 Topps Series 1 Jumbo Hobby Box Break

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The Topps Flagship release for 2022 series 1 comes at an interesting time in the hobby. A lot of uncertainty is circling around the recent announcement that Fanatics will be purchasing Topps. They seem to have big plans, but exactly what those are remain to be seen at this point. Either way, this release was planned well before the announcement, so we haven’t started to see the effects just yet.

Along with the Fanatics purchase, Major League Baseball is also faced with a labor lockout, postponing spring training, and possibly the start of the regular season. So, while series 1 normally ushers in the beginning of a new baseball season, it comes under a dark cloud this year.

The release itself is a standard format. The base set contains 330 cards, and provides a normal assortment of parallels. By looking at the odds to receive some of the numbered parallels, it becomes clear that the print run is way up from previous years. Demand seems to be through the roof, but is it from collectors? Or speculators? Only time will really tell.

A jumbo box contains ten packs with 46 cards per pack, including one autograph and two relic cards. Also included in each box are two silver packs containing 1987 Topps Chrome mojo refractors, as well as one oversided 1987 Future Stars card.

This box contained:

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2021, Baseball, Box Break, Hobby Pack, Topps 206

2021 Topps 206 Wave 10 Hobby Pack Break

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The Topps 206 set comes to an end with Wave 10, finally arriving in the first week of 2022. With a print run of 10374 packs, it comes in a little bit lower than Wave 9. This time, Uzit backs replace Cycle for this wave. There are also ten short prints of superstars not otherwise featured in this wave.

A box features one pack, containing ten cards. Those ten cards include eight base, and two parallels.

This box contained:

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