There are obstacles a’plenty but at least for now there’s some optimism that we might actually see some regular season competition in at least two major sports by the end of July. Regardless of what happens, the appetite for trading card products has remained strong since the hiatus began in March.
At least for now, card companies are back to meeting most release date schedules. Several new boxes are slated to arrive between now and mid-July. Here’s a look at some of them.
7/1/20
2019-20 Spectra Basketball: The hoops card market is still hot and Spectra should have plenty of customers. A hobby box will contain four packs this year, with four cards in each. Boxes will typically include four autograph cards and four parallels.
7/8/20
2020 Panini Absolute Baseball: Panini continues its MLBPA-licensed baseball product line with Absolute, which will put two packs of ten cards in each box. Among the 20 cards will be four autographs, two memorabilia cards, four inserts and two numbered parallels. Look for Rookie Baseball Material Signatures with autographs from all the top 2020 rookies on baseball leather.
Boxes are on eBay for around $200.
2020 Topps Archives Signature Series (Retired Player Edition): Back for another year, this one offers a single, on-card autograph from a former star. There are some iconic living Hall of Famers but also some guys who aren’t quite as famous.
All cards are hand-signed, serially numbered, gold-foil stamped, and enclosed in a Topps Authenticated casing. Topps has added dual autograph cards this year. Boxes are available for around $70.
7/10
2020 Panini Chronicles Draft Picks Football: This one was in our last new release roundup but got pushed back a couple of weeks. Making its debut as a Draft product, Chronicles includes a mix of 21 different Panini brand names rolled into one. There are eight cards per pack and six packs per hobby box. Each box should contain three autographs, one relic card and two parallels. Hobby boxes are around $250.
There’s also a retail edition with one autograph and four parallels among the highlights.
7/15
2019-20 Panini Obsidian Basketball: Back for its second year as an NBA issue, a hobby box of 2019-20 Panini Obsidian will contain a single pack of seven cards, which is two more than last year, but at a higher price point. Look for two autographs per hobby box and two parallels or inserts, on average. Each pack also will contain three base cards.
Box prices on eBay are hovering around $500 right now.
7/15
2020 Panini Luminance Football: Luminance returns for a third year with boxes containing four packs with ten cards per pack.
Each box (around $250) promises three autographs and while there will be sticker autographs, Panini is promising “a deeper on-card rookie autograph checklist than ever before.”
2019-20 Upper Deck Stature Hockey: New this year, Stature boxes will carry eight premium cards, including at least one (but maybe two) autographs.
It’ll have a 200-card base set, 100 of which will be rookies. Each base set will have multiple design variants and parallels, highlighted by the Purple Patch Auto and 1-of-1 Black Auto parallels.
Among the other fully licensed products due out are three soccer issues (Topps UEFA Champions League on 7/1; Topps Chrome Bundesliga on 7/15 and Topps Bundesliga Museum, also due out on the 15th).
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