Mid-season baseball, late season basketball and hockey and really early season football join soccer and even an Olympics product on the sports card release calendar for the first half of July.
Here’s a roundup of some of the boxes you’ll see at your local hobby shop or online.
7/2
2020-21 Panini Noir Basketball
Noir arrives just as the NBA season heads for the finish line, but it’s not the last 2020-’21 hoops release we’ll see. It’s the first in a run of high-end brands that are unleashed in the summer. Noir is a one pack per box product with ten cards–seven of which are hits.
Boxes are online now for around $1,500 and there’s a First Off the Line version as well that has some exclusive content.
7/7
2021 Topps Diamond Icons Baseball
Speaking of high-end products….
Icons boxes have seven standard autographs, two autographed relic cards and one unsigned relic. All cards are hard signed and will carry low serial numbers. Boxes are running in the neighborhood of $2,500. The checklist is now inside our earlier preview.
2021 Topps Museum
Yes, Topps has two releases ready to launch on July 7. Museum (checklist newly added) isn’t nearly as pricey but still offers plenty of autographed content.
Each box (around $390 online) has 20 cards in all, with at least one autograph and auto relic card per box and a couple of other hits as well.
7/8
2019-20 Upper Deck Extended Hockey
It’s been a long, crazy season so why not one more flagship product? Upper Deck Extended is sort of mirroring Topps Baseball with this third, “update” series that’s a mix of newcomers and some stuff culled from other Upper Deck Hockey brands.
Each box will have 24 packs with eight cards per pack. The additional base cards will put the whole thing at 700 cards over three series and there are six new Young Guns in each box, bringing that checklist to 125 players.
Hobby boxes are online for around $80-90 and there will be blaster boxes, too.
7/9
2021 Panini Luminance Football
Back for a fourth year as a pre-season football issue, Luminance offers another chance to snare some very early rookie cards, although players will be pictured in their college attire. The full-bleed action photos are where this one hangs its hat and some of the images are quite good.
Boxes have four packs of ten cards each. Each box holds three autographs, one memorabilia card, five parallels, four inserts and 12 rookie cards, on average. Prices for hobby boxes are all over the board.
7/14
2021 Topps Archives Signature Series Retired Player Edition
The follow up to the Active Player Edition that kicked off Topps’ 2021 product schedule, the Retired Edition features cards signed by stars from the past. Each box simply has one card from a previous Topps issue, now autographed, stamped and housed inside a plastic case. There are dual versions as well. All are signed on-card.
Boxes are available on pre-order for around $65.
2020-21 Upper Deck Ice Hockey
Ice returns with its acetate stock, carrying 12 packs per box and six cards per pack. Fire & Ice autograph cards are back featuring top stars and rookies.
Each box contains three base set parallels, three Ice Rink Favorites and/or Lethal Lines cards, two Ice Premiers, two autographs and/or memorabilia cards and one Sub Zero card.
Expect boxes to run about $200.
Also set for release: 2021 Panini Chronicles Draft Picks (7/2); Topps Finest UEFA Champions League Soccer (7/2); 2021 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team and Hopefuls (7/14); 2021 Topps Baseball Factory Sets (7/14).
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