This release sort of came out of nowhere. After a few years of successful 206 Baseball releases, Topps has expanded this branding to include Star Wars. At a time when the enthusiasm for 206 Baseball seems to be dropping, this wave of Star Wars sold 25,102 packs. That notable in part because the first wave of baseball this year saw roughly half that print run, but also contained twice as many cards in the wave (100 Baseball to 50 Star Wars). It will be interesting to see if that enthusiasm continues with a set that doesn’t seem to have a clear public plan, yet.
This release also sees a major departure from what the original T206 set was. In the original, the main parallels for the set are tobacco advertisements on the backs of the cards, with the fronts not changing. Topps replicated these parallels for Baseball, but has avoided them for Star Wars. Instead, we see the familiar “star field” parallels return once again. Perhaps Disney did not want their property associated with tobacco? There is one parallel with the back changed, to a plain Star Wars logo.
A box advertises ten cards, including two parallels. This box contained:
Wave 3 of 2022 Topps 206 hits with the League Championship Series wrapping up and the World Series about to start. This wave does away with the All Star Background parallels, and replaces Carolina Brights with Drum. There is also a small short print subset this time, featuring players from the Cubs and Reds in throw back uniforms for the Field of Dreams event. The print run for this wave is just barely down from wave two, with 8530 packs released.
The rest of the release is fairly basic. There are once again a few possible autographs, but these seem exceedingly rare. The wave features 100 base cards. Each box contains one pack featuring ten cards, including two parallels. Sometimes special cards show up as extra cards in the packs.
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.
With the NXT release, we see the first Panini release that didn’t initially sell for a vastly increased price. This one seems much more in line with the previous Topps releases, although it does not include chrome cards, so that may explain part of it. This release features many of the newer NXT talents, including some fairly recent name changes, as well. The base set also contains a subset highlighting Main Roster wrestlers who got their starts in NXT.
Compared to some of the other recent releases, this one contains a fairly modest number. A complete base set is 125 cards, while a box contains 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. There are also a few insert sets, along with an assortment of possible parallels. Each box also advertises one autograph and one memorabilia card.
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.
