All posts by dpatera

2022 Topps 206 Wave 1 Hobby Box Break

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.

This box contained:

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2022 Panini Revolution WWE Hobby Box Break

As the second Panini WWE release arrives, we see the market from the first one dropping quite a bit. Even these first appeared for preorder at a greatly inflated price, only to drop very quickly. As the economy worsens, it seems obvious the card market is likely to follow.

On the surface, this seems like a fairly straight forward release. You have a 150 card base set, but this comes along with nine parallels related to the background images. Luckily, the back of the card lists the type of parallel to make it easier to identify each type. There are only a handful of inserts sets possible, but each of those also comes in five different parallel designs. There are possible also possible autographs, but unlike the Topps releases, these hobby boxes do not guarantee any hits.

A box advertises 8 packs, with 5 cards per pack.

This box contained:

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2022 Panini Prizm WWE Blaster Box Break

This is the premier release with Panini taking over the WWE property. The hobby release prices were much higher than similar Topps WWE products from recent months, sometimes even ten times as much. Is the product really worth it? Even this retail product was found at a much higher price than normal retail products.

It will be interesting to see how this product does over the long term. It seems pretty unlikely that collectors are building sets from $1k hobby boxes, but I guess anything is possible. This release features a 200 card base set, along with many parallels and inserts. This blaster box features six packs with four cards per pack, and no guaranteed hits.

This box contained:

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2022 Topps Heritage Hobby Box Break

Once again, Topps Heritage heralds in the pending baseball season, even if this year is different from normal. This release pays tribute to 1973 Topps with cards in that style, as well as buybacks and other homages to that year. The base set contains 400 cards, with an additional 100 SPs running 401-500, as well as various variant SPs within that base run.

While the prices on many releases have been skyrocketing, and Heritage is up, it still comes in at a mostly reasonable range. Part of the reason for this is likely that Heritage isn’t really a hit driven release, so it’s not as popular for group breakers. Each box does guarantee one relic or autograph, but the autographs are much rarer to receive. A box contains 24 packs, with 9 cards per pack.

This box contained:

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2021 Topps Finest WWE Master Hobby Box Break

The end is here. After many years of being the producer of trading cards for WWE, the license is changing over to Panini. There isn’t really a clear picture of the future, yet, but I doubt WWE is going to have a smaller footprint than it did with Topps.

Through the pandemic, many releases ended up delayed, and this one is no different. This was originally due out in late 2021, but ended up pushed into March 2022. Aside from having last year’s date, with the roster turmoil with WWE over the past two years, many wrestlers featured in the release are no longer with the company. All these end up giving the release an odd feel.

The release has a familiar format, with a 100 base card set, with an extended 22 card short print set after the initial 100. There are many parallel versions of these cards, as well. You can also find an assortment of insert sets, including sets highlighting the Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, and Undertaker’s career. The cards come packed in a format where a master box contains two mini-boxes. Each of these mini-boxes contains six packs, with five cards per pack. There is one autograph per mini-box.

This master box contained:

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