This release had been pushed back a little bit during the year and now comes out after it is announced the WWE trading card license will be moving to Panini in 2022. Couple that, with many recently released talents being featured in this release, and the set has a weird feel to it. It’s been a few years Topps released a Heritage set for wrestling, so this one moves forward to the 1990 baseball design. It also mixes in a few other releases, such as Allen & Ginter, as insert sets.
The base set features 100 cards, across SmackDown, Raw, NXT, and WWE “teams”, with a different color combination for each, as well as a number of limited parallels. There are a handful of insert sets, including Allen & Ginter, stickers, Superstars Speak, and more. A hobby box comes with 24 packs of 7 cards per pack, and advertises 2 autograph cards.
After a couple of months delay, Topps Heritage High Numbers finally hits the shelves in the final weeks of 2021. It extends the original release from the beginning of the year, and covers the base numbering 501-700, with an additional 25 SPs running to 725. Also available in this release in While there are insert sets included, it’s not really the focus of this set, is card 216, which was originally skipped in the first release, so a complete set would actually be 201 cards.
A box features 24 packs with 9 cards per pack, including one autograph or relic per box. Each box also includes a box topper, which could be new for Heritage, or an original 1972 Topps buy back card stamped for the 50th anniversary.
The print run for Wave 8 rebounds slightly from Wave 7’s series low, but still comes in at 8,752 packs. Maybe the fatigue is starting to set in with so many waves this year. It really does resemble its namesake, in being a monster of a set. Sweet Caporal returns to replace Tolstoi after one wave.
These boxes contain a single pack, containing ten cards, eight of which are base, while two others are parallels. Much to my surprise, it seems this hard and fast rule may not always be the case.
This box contained:
9 Base 1 Base Piedmont Back 1 Base Sweet Caporal Back
The Topps Update release brings an end to the Flagship’s yearly set. Normally, it provides players in new uniforms after mid season trades, as well as some All Star content. This year, while the release comes at the normal time of year, it seems the content cut-off was much earlier. For whatever reason, deadline trades are not included in the set. It makes for a weird scenario where some late season trades could potentially have their only cards with their new teams in next year’s releases, after they have moved on as free agents.
This release continues with the parallels found in series one and two. , but with a separate update series numbering scheme. Many inserts sets, such as the 1986 style cards are continues in this set, as well. A jumbo box contains ten packs with forty-six cards per pack. Each box also advertises 1 Autograph and 2 Relic Cards per box. It also includes three special silver packs, featuring 1986 Chrome and Tek inserts.
Wave 7 hits a new series low for print run, with 8,130 packs. I’m a bit surprised to see it dip so far, but maybe it’s related to the delays we’ve seen for delivery of some of the earlier waves. This time, Cycle is back replacing the Blank Back, and the first appearance of Tolsoi, in place of the Sweet Caporal for this set.
A box includes a single pack of ten cards, eight of which are base, along with two parallels.