It’s a convergence of the seasons as the calendar turns from March to April and the sports card releases arriving on the market will reflect a busy calendar.
Here’s a look at what to expect over the next ten days:
3/29
2022 Panini Contenders Football
Wednesday brings three new products starting with Contenders. The long running brand’s NFL issue is heavy on autographs, which usually makes it pretty popular. Hobby boxes carry 18 packs with six cards per pack.
Look for five autographs (including one on-card) along with 18 inserts and one parallel among the 108 cards per box.
Boxes are currently running between $450 and $500 on eBay.
There’s a First Off The Line version with exclusive cards, too.
2022-23 Panini Court Kings Basketball
Artsy Court Kings is back with a single pack and ten cards inside a box. A typical box will yield one auto, one memorabilia card, one rookie card, one parallel, two inserts and four base cards.
Rookie cards have four versions in successive orders of scarcity with IV being the toughest.
The best price for a box right now is sitting at around $250.
2021-22 Upper Deck SPx Hockey
Yes, this is a product that’s part of last year’s hockey card calendar that’s just now arriving. This higher end release offers four one card packs per box. Two will be autograph, memorabilia or autographed memorabilia cards.
Even the base cards are numbered to 299 or less. Look for Auto, Jersey, Patch Auto and Premium Patch Auto parallels with those.
Boxes can be had for $150.
3/31
2023 Topps Big League Baseball
Topps didn’t produce this lower cost product last year, but shelved Opening Day and brought Big League back for ’23–ironically arriving on…Opening Day of the ’23 season.
It’s a bit more complicated this time around but Big League is still budget friendly and a good chunk of the content is geared toward youngsters.
Each Hobby box will have 18 packs with eight cards in each and there are $25 blasters available, too. It’s not a hit chaser’s product so don’t buy it for that but autographs do exist in some boxes.
Also releasing on 3/31: 2022 Topps Transcendent Baseball, 2022 Panini National Treasures Racing
4/5
2022 Topps Stadium Club Chrome Baseball
Another ’22 product hitting the market in ’23, the Chrome version of Stadium Club offers a 14-pack box with each pack holding six cards. Topps says boxes will have one autographs. Over 50 select players with on-card autographs.
The base set puts a shiny touch on the 300 cards that were in the main Stadium Club set, and adds an additional 100 cards of new players, to create a 400-card checklist.
Hobby boxes are being pre-sold at $140 and blaster boxes are also available.
2022 Panini Limited Football
Limited offers three packs, each containing five cards. Two of the 15 will carry autographs with one memorabilia card, one base parallel and one 2004 Limited Tribute throwback card along for the ride.
Rookie Patch Autographs and their Jumbo size brothers will each be numbered to 299 or less.
There’s a First Off the Line version that’s already being sold online.
2022-23 Contenders Basketball
Contenders NBA comes right on the heels of the NFL product. The basketball edition is getting a bit of a makeover, with only 32 cards in a box but there will still be a pair of autos in a typical box.
Hobby boxes are running $450-$500 right now.
2022-23 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey
Series 2 follows the earlier release of Series 1, to complete the annual flagship product. That means as new set of Young Guns to chase.
Hobby boxes are $120-$130 online with blaster boxes at around $30.