One of the hobby’s lowest cost and longest running sports card products will be back for another year. 2019 Topps Opening Day baseball, a kid-oriented product that’s been embraced by enough adults over the years to keep it in the early season stable of releases, is set to arrive on March 13.
Opening Day will stick with the 36-pack hobby box concept but just as with 2019 Topps Series 1, collectors will find fewer cards in those boxes. There will be 252 cards in each box, compared to 324 last year as Topps is cutting the number of cards per pack from nine to seven. The retail cost should once again land at around $35 per box. There are no guarantees of autograph or memorabilia cards in a box but there will be some randomly distributed in the product.
Base Set
The 2019 base set will have 200 cards with a checklist focused on rookies, young players and some of the most popular veterans. There will be three serial-numbered parallels of each base card: Opening Day, numbered to 2019; another Opening Day-branded 1/1 parallel and 1/1 Printing Plates.
There will also be base card image variations for 30 different players.
Inserts
Once again, each pack will contain one insert card and there are seven insert sets to collect in all:
150 Years of Fun – A new insert set, this one is described by Topps as “candid shots of players enjoying the game from across the history of professional baseball.”
Sock It To Me! – Imagery featuring players wearing high socks (also new this year).
Rally Time! – Another new insert featuring players celebrating, performing team signs/handshakes, wearing rally caps, and other “rallytime” superstitions. 
Opening Day – Cards that are created using photographs from last season’s openers.
Mascots – Highlighting some of the creatures that entertain fans at big league ballparks.
Team Traditions & Celebrations – Topps says this one is “celebrating iconic and unique events.” The soon-to-be opened National Bobblehead Museum in Milwaukee gets a card in this one.
Dugout Peeks – Photographs of players hanging out in the dugout.
Autographs and Relics
While autographs aren’t a big selling point, 2019 Topps Opening Day will have a checklist of 20 players whose signatures will be found in the product. There will also be base card image variation autographs and for the youngsters, cards signed by mascots.
Diamond Relics and Diamond Autograph Relics will showcase a player and dirt from his home stadium. Autograph versions are in the mix. Opening Day relics will feature pieces of game-worn memorabilia while Mascot relic cards and auto relics are also part of Opening Day.
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