Wave 5 comes quickly on the heels of wave 4. During the early stages of the pandemic, Topps started following behind on the print on demand products such as this. Regular releases were halted completely, but these continued, with slower shipping. They’ve pledged to catch up in the next month or so, so we’ll see how that goes.

Production has dipped just a little bit from wave 4, down to 2865 packs. That previous wave was not error prone in the same way the previous releases had been. Will the quality control continue in wave 5? No. Three cards in this wave are misnumbered. Mike Moustakas is numbered 270 rather than 470, Trevor Williams is 371 rather than 471, and Rick Porcello is 375 rather than 475. All of these numbers are occupied by cards released in other waves, but as there is a single print run, these won’t be corrected.

Once again we see the standard format with a 100 card base set with three possible parallels, red, black, and gold. There are also possible inserts with a few autographs and a retired veteran Ted Williams. Each pack advertises 10 cards, with no guaranteed hits. Any parallels or inserts are additional cards in the pack.

This pack contained:

This is the fourth wave of the release this year, and we’re seeing the lowest print run this year at 2935 packs. It’s still coming out during the uncertainty of the pandemic, as well as a lack of baseball being played, yet. Summer camps are just starting, so hopefully baseball will be returning soon.

The good news is it seems like many of the production problems have cleared up. There don’t seem to be as many obvious issues as there have been in previous waves. The checklist features some stars like Justin Verlander and Francisco Lindor, but it doesn’t have as many anticipated rookies, which may explain the lower print run.

The format is the same, with additional packed in red, black, and gold parallels. There are also a possible retired veteran and a few autographs scattered throughout the release. A pack advertises ten cards. Any parallel or hit is an additional card.

This pack contained:

The print run is down significantly from wave 1, with only 3289 packs this time. With headliners like Anthony Rizzo, Albert Pujols, and Gavin Lux, this wave actually stands out for other reasons.

This release is filled with, let’s call them irregularities. This pack contained two that stood out, and there are others where the player named does not match the player pictured or the team labeled. This pack contained one player with the wrong team logo, and another card mis-numbered as part of wave one. That’s not all, though. Last year, as well as wave one this year, featured a different numbering scheme for all the parallels, including different letters for each type. Those are all gone for parallels in wave two.

This pack contained: