It’s been a year of adjustments for sports trading card makers. With temporary shutdowns of printing plants and various other pandemic-related delays, calendars have been adjusted. Baseball’s “regular” season still has no date but at least for now, the baseball card products continue to arrive. 2020 Topps Update is still on the docket but Topps appears to have made a few adjustments to the checklist of a product that usually includes cards from the current season’s All-Star Game. In short, look for more prospects to make an appearance.
2020 Topps Update Baseball Configuration
Hobby boxes of Update will contain 24 packs with 14 cards per pack. Each box will have one autograph or relic card along with one Silver Pack. There will be 12 boxes per case.
Jumbo boxes will have 10 packs of 46 cards with one guaranteed autograph and two relic cards along with two promo packs. Each case will hold six boxes.
Blaster boxes and various types of packs will presumably be sold as usual.
Base Set
Topps is sticking with a 300-card base set. There will, as usual, be plenty of parallels including:
• Gold Parallel: #’d to 2020
• Rainbow Foil Parallel: 1:10 packs
• Gold Foil Parallel: 1:2 packs (Jumbo only)
• Vintage Stock Parallel: #’d to 99
• Independence Day Parallel: #’d to 76
• Black Parallel: #’d to 69 Hobby/Hobby Jumbo Only
• Mother’s Day Hot Pink Parallel: #’d to 50
• Father’s Day Powder Blue Parallel: #’d to 50
• Memorial Day Camo Parallel: #’d to 25
• Clear Parallel (100 select subjects): #’d to 10 (hobby only)
• Platinum Parallel: #’d 1 of 1
• Printing Plates: #’d 1 of 1 (4 per card)
Topps is also promising randomly inserted base card short prints and super short prints.
Prospect Inserts
New this year, this is a 30-card insert set highlighting the number one ranked prospect from each MLB team.
Parallels will include:
– Blue
– Black: #’d to 299
– Gold: #’d to 50
– Red: #’d to 10
– Platinum: #’d 1 of 1
– Autograph: #’d to 25 or less
Other Inserts
Featured in Series 1 and 2, Decades Best returns in update with more cards focused on great players from the past, featuring top-10 lists of Best Teams, Best Hitters, Best Pitchers, and Award Winners. Autographed versions will be available, too, all numbered to 25 or less.
New in Update, 20 Years of The Captain is part of Topps’ new deal with Hall of Famer Derek Jeter. The cards will highlight his 20-year playing career. There will be 1/1 autographs to look for as well.
A Numbers Game is also new. It focuses on players who have hard their jersey numbers retired. Autograph versions will be numbered to 25 or less.
Update will continue the 1985 Topps Baseball insert line with new images of retired greats, rookies, and modern-day stars.
They’ll be found in one out of every four packs. Parallels for all of the above insert sets will include:
– Blue
– Black: #’d to 299
– Gold: #’d to 50
– Red: #’d to 10
– Platinum: #’d 1 of 1
Sketch Cards return, featuring hand-drawn pieces of art on trading cards. Each card will be numbered 1 of 1.
2020 Topps Baseball Boxloader Patches will be patch versions of up to 50 of what Topps calls “the most collectible cards in the 2020 Topps baseball flagship set.”
Commemorative Relics
More Jeter comes in the form of 20 Years of The Captain Commemorative Patch Cards which feature a Hall of Fame patch. Final Season Patch Cards will focus on Jeter and his 2014 teammates. Exclusive to Hobby and Hobby Jumbo boxes, these will have Black (# to 50); Gold (# to 25); Red (# to 10) and 1/1 Platinum versions. Jeter autographed versions will also be produced for both sets.
Autograph Relics
Topps Reverence Autographed Patch Cards will feature on-card autographs paired with a piece of game-uniforms. They’ll be numbered to 10, 5 (Red) or 1 (Platinum). Major League Material Autograph Cards will also feature game-used pieces with Red (# to 25 or less) and 1/1 Platinum parallels possible.
Topps will draw upon All-Star warm-up jerseys from previous seasons for its All-Star Stitches Autograph cards. Dual versions are part of the checklist with all numbered to 25, 10 (Red) or 1 (Gold). There will be Jumbo Patch versions also, numbered to 10 or 1 (Gold).
Autograph Cards
The primary autograph card will be “Baseball Stars Autographs” featuring current stars, former greats and rookies. Parallels include:
– Black: #’d to 199
– Gold: #’d to 50
– Red: #’d to 25
– Platinum: #’d 1 of 1
Dual Autograph versions featuring two players will be rare–numbered to 5 or less.
1985 Topps Baseball Autograph Cards will carry on-card signatures of current and former players with these parallels:
– Black: #’d to 199
– Gold: #’d to 50
– Red: #’d to 25 (Hobby exclusive)
– Platinum: #’d 1 of 1 (Hobby and Hobby Jumbo exclusive).
Cut Signatures will feature vintage signatures of past greats. All will be 1/1.
Relic Cards
Major League Material cards will utilize game-used gear pieces. Parallel versions include:
– Black: #’d to 199
– Gold: #’d to 50
– Red: #’d to 25
– Platinum: #’d 1 of 1 (Hobby and Hobby Jumbo exclusive)
All-Star Stitches, the non-auto version of the auto relic cards above will have three parallels:
– Silver: #’d to 50
– Red: #’d to 25
– Gold: #’d 1 of 1
Jumbo versions will be numbered to 5 or 1. Dual and Triple versions will be numbered to 25.
Own The Name Relics will showcase jersey nameplate letters with each a 1/1. They’ll be exclusive to Hobby and Jumbo boxes.
The release date for 2020 Topps Update Baseball is October 14.
Topps Project 2020 How to Buy
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