The good news for baseball card collectors is that two of the season’s top rookies will have cards in 2018 Topps Series 2 when it arrives next week.
The bad news is both will be short prints.
Despite both players being called up from the minors after the start of the season, Topps was able to create cards for both Ronald Acuna and Gleyber Torres. However, there apparently wasn’t enough time to get them into the main production run. Instead, Topps has randomly inserted both cards in packs and made them “variations” for the card numbers they’ll share with other base cards.
In other words, most collectors who find card #698 will be getting St. Louis Cardinals rookie Ryan Sherriff, but Acuna will also be #698. Card # 699 will feature Cubs pitcher Drew Smyly with Torres sharing the number as the short-printed variation.
No such issue for Angels rookie Shohei Ohtani. The Japanese two-way star will appear as a pitcher in Series 2 as card #700.
Both Torres and Acuna will also have autographed cards in Series 2. On
e will be in the Rookie Autographs that are exclusive to packs sold at Target while the others will appear in the 1983-style subset.
Ohtani will have 12 different cards in Series 2 including autographs and inserts. Some will be exclusive to retail.
Topps says both Torres and Acuna will also be in the upcoming Factory Set that carries all cards from Series 1 and 2 but the photo on the front of their cards will be different from those found in Series 2 hobby and jumbo boxes.
Topps Series 2 is due out on Wednesday, June 13. You can see sets, boxes and cases available on eBay by clicking here.
2018 Topps Baseball Series 2 Checklist
