The hobby’s most limited–and priciest–baseball card product is back for another year. 2020 Topps Transcendent Baseball once again comes with dozens of autographs in each box and an invitation to a Topps party with a special big name guest. The product went live on Tuesday with several box breaks taking place online. A full checklist has now been released by Topps and is available below.
If you think you’ve heard this before and not that long ago, you’re sort of right. Considered the “flagship” version of the brand, Topps Transcendent is the latest in a line of the high-end brand being spread across 2020 including last spring’s Hall of Fame edition, Derek Jeter “Captain’s Collection” that’s due out this month and the first Bowman Transcendent issue.
2020 Topps Transcendent Baseball Details
2020 marks the fifth year for Transcendent. This year’s release is limited to 95 boxes, down five from last year’s total of 100 (the only year production has touched 100). Each box contains:
- 50-card base set (numbered to 95, of course)
- a 100-card Transcendent Club Members Reproductions set that focuses on baseball milestones (# to 95 as well)
- 50 different Transcendent Collection Autographs, with each numbered to 25 or less and a minimum of two 1/1 parallels among those 50
- A “Through the Years” Bryce Harper autograph card that’s 1/1
- An autographed patch or book card
- A cut signature card or oversized letter relic
- A 1/1 original sketch card
- A 1/1 1955 Topps-style autographed Superfractor
- VIP invitation to the party, which will be held at a much later date.
Cut Signature/Book Cards
These will be among the big hits with each fold-out card containing genuine bat relics featuring either the nameplate or the bat knob from these players:
• Mel Ott
• Pee Wee Reese
• Rogers Hornsby
• Gil Hodges
• Willie Mays
• Tris Speaker
• Hank Greenberg
• Thurman Munson
Oversized Cut Signature Cards
The checklist here goes beyond baseball to include some historic figures as well, with a checklist that Topps says will include:
• Abraham Lincoln
• Babe Ruth
• Christy Mathewson
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Honus Wagner
• Jimmie Foxx
• Orville Wright
• Lou Gehrig
• Orson Welles
• John Quincy Adams
• John F. Kennedy
• Jesse Owens
• Harry Houdini
• Charlie Chaplin
• Jackie Robinson
• Vince Lombardi
Autograph Cards
Transcendent Collection Autographs is where the autograph checklist starts with that stack of standard autos possibly containing Emerald parallels numbered to 15 or Purple numbered to 10. Each case will have a 1/1 Red and 1/1 Platinum parallel.
We haven’t seen a checklist from Topps as of yet but some box breaks have been posted on YouTube.
You can check out some of what’s been pulled so far and listed on eBay here. If you want a full box to yourself you can grab one for just over $29,000.
As you’d expect, many of the autographed cards are pretty amazing.
You can check out Transcendent cards from all years listed for sale here.