This time of year usually offers a busy release schedule with mid-season baseball and early NFL products leading the way.
Immediately after the 4th of July came the arrival of red-hot Bowman Platinum, the trio of 2017 Topps Factory Sets with their various inserts, Panini Football and Excalibur basketball.
Courtesy of box breaker Maine Sports Cards, here’s a look at some of the products that have just been released and what’s coming over the next week.
Panini Gold Standard Football
Gold Standard is back in its usual gold bar-style box packing seven cards in the single-pack format. The Rookie Jersey Autographs (# to 199) come one per box. Patches paired with Gold or White ink are in the mix. Diamond Signatures have 1/1 dual auto variations.
Look for at least one Rookie Jersey Autograph numbered to 199 or less per box, including patch, tag and ink variations. Patches paired with gold ink, #’d/25 or less and tags paired with white ink, numbered 1/1.
Gold Standard is selling for around $150 per box. You can grab a box break slot for $12 here (buy one, get one free).
Topps Stadium Club Baseball
Stadium Club is all about the photos but auto and relic content is also part of this release.
There are two autographs per hobby box with gold (numbered to 50), black (numbered to 25), rainbow (numbered to 10), and 1/1 gold rainbow parallels to chase.
Specialty autographs include Beam Team, Co-Signers Autographs, Lone Star Signatures, Power Zone, and Scoreless Stream. Each of those include orange parallels numbered to only five and the 1/1 gold rainbow parallels.
Here’s a look at the secondary market and boxes.
2016-17 Panini Grand Reserve Basketball (7/19)
Grand Reserve offers three packs per box, each with eight cards. Among the 24 cards, you’ll get two autographs (including one Cornerstones Jersey auto with four relic swatches and an on-card auto), an additional auto or memorabilia card and three inserts.
This is designed to be a higher-end off-season hoops product more for the card quality and design than the number of hits. Some have compared the look to National Treasures.
Online, box prices are around $230.
2017 Panini Pantheon Football (7/19)
Pantheon arrives just ahead of NFL training camps. It’s making its debut as an NFL product after launching in baseball last year.
This is a hit-based product with one-pack boxes containing seven cards, six of which are autographs or relics and the other a base or base parallel. Those base cards will be metal–and numbered to 50 or less. In fact, every card in the entire product is numbered to less than 100.
Unlike quite a few current products, Pantheon focuses on past greats and current superstars rather than a high dose of rookies.
Boxes are running $325 and up.
2017 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball (7/19)
Ginter returns with the usual quirky mix of baseball, history, nature, personalities and other fun stuff.
It’s not a product for those who are only interested in hits but you’ll find three per box and they’ll consist of relics, autographs, book cards with autographs and relics, Rip Cards and Printing plates.
The base set includes 50 short prints and each box will offer a dozen along with minis and mini base parallels. There’s a ton of content in Ginter but it’s definitely for those who prefer a project.
Boxes are online at a little under $150.
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Topps has delayed the release dates for several products; some by just a couple of weeks, while others have been pushed back about a month. Here is the revised list:
2017 Topps Clearly Authentic Baseball: August 16
2017 Topps Definitive Collection Baseball: August 30
2017 Topps Heritage High Number Baseball: September 13
2017 Topps UFC Chrome: September 20
2017 Bowman High Tek Baseball: September 27
Launched earlier this year, Maine Sports Cards gave away 1,000 free break spots prior to launch. The company offers daily breaks of current and past products you can watch online. You can learn more about how to get involved in their box and case breaks here.