While this release often seems to offer more of the same, this year Topps changed it up a little bit. Better? That remains to be seen, but it’s different. For one, they offer relics containing pieces of real musical instruments. Another change we see this year, is rather than the long standing size of the set, they’ve increased the 50 card SPs at the end, to a whopping 100 SPs, taking the complete set up to 400 total cards.
The box format is still the same as it has been for years, with 24 packs containing 8 cards each. A box includes three hits, consisting of autographs, relics, rip cards, printing plats, and more.
With the release of 2023 206, we see more changes brought about by Fanatics. Some of which are positive, but some may not be. After years of the same basic format, 206 goes through some changes this year. After a very brief pre-order window, this release went on sale with a July 6 release date. Rather than the hobby box containing a single ten card pack as in years past, this year, a hobby box contains four ten card packs, with a small discount for buying sets of five boxes at once.
Another major departure from years past, is there are fixed odds for autographs, indicating a fixed release size. Gone are the days of print on demand for this set. There isn’t as much lead time from orders to delivery, but that may end up meaning the cards are more difficult for everyone to obtain direct from Topps. I really don’t like the way releases barely have any lead time today. I suspect long term, that’s going to cause problems for collectors who are trying to budget their hobby, if they have no idea what may be coming when.
The Topps Heritage release, normally out early in the year, makes it debut in late May this year. This year, it features a set in the design of 1974 cards. We find the normal set of variations, but now something new, as well, taking after the Flagship release from earlier in the year. Every card in the release has a black & white version. I would hesitate to call this a parallel, as much as a variation, as the image itself is changing.
The set again features 400 base cards, with an additional 100 SP cards running from 401-500. A hobby box contains 24 packs with 9 cards per pack. A box also guarantees one autograph or relic. The autographs tends to be much more rare than the relics. Even at the price, this is more of a set collectors release, but many boxes are required for a base set, and good luck getting all the SPs in packs.
Wave 4 brings the conclusion of the 206 Star Wars run for 2022. This wave has a print run of 11097 packs. Once again, we see the same parallels, as well as short prints involving image variations and home worlds. New to this wave is the inclusion of a small insert set featuring Crests.
A box advertises ten cards, which includes two parallels.
Wave 3 arrives for the Topps 206 Star Wars release, but I can’t help feeling like it’s missing a bit of the charm of the baseball release. Rather than having different advertising backs, which would change between waves, these features a fixed set of different border colors, along with one alternative back design. Each wave also features ten alternate image short prints, along with ten variations showing the subject’s home world.
The wave had a print run of 13318 packs, which is down a little bit from wave 2 and just over half as much as wave 1. Each box contains ten cards, which is eight base along with two parallels.
