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: