The final month of the calendar year will bring a steady supply of new releases to the market, with basketball, football and baseball products on the docket ahead of the holidays.
Courtesy of Maine Sports Cards, here’s a quick overview of what to look for.
2017 Bowman Draft Baseball (12/6)
Topps is offering collectors two kinds of boxes of Bowman Draft Baseball this year — a regular jumbo box, and a super jumbo box. The regular jumbo has12 packs, with 32 cards per pack for a total of 384 cards. On the average, each pack will contain 23 base cards, seven chrome base and two chrome base refractor parallels. Topps is promising three autographs per box. They’re available online for around $125-$135.
The super jumbo box will have five packs per box, with 120 cards per pack. The jumbo pack breakdown: 78 base cards, 33 chrome base, eight chrome base refractor parallels and one autograph card. A super jumbo box will yield a staggering 600 cards. Topps is promising five autographs per super box. They’re available online for around $215.
2017 Panini Preferred Football (12/6)
For those who eschew base cards, Preferred is…well…preferred. Each one pack box has five cards, including four autographs and one memorabilia book card.
At least one Silhouette or Rookie Silhouette autograph is guaranteed per hobby box. They have oversized jersey patches combined with an autograph.
Preferred should be popular with breakers. It’s currently priced at $180-$200 per box online. You can sample it through Maine Sports Cards which plans several box breaks this week.
2017 Elite Extra Edition Baseball (12/6)
About one in every three cards of Elite Extra will be autographed and while you might not be familiar with all of the names yet, some of them will be in the majors within a couple of years.
The 2017 draft picks have signed on-card and there are members of the various US National teams in here, too.
Obviously, Panini’s lack of an MLB license means there are some limitations but at under $100 per box, Extra Edition has carved its niche in the off-season parade of products and shouldn’t disappoint with the ink.
2017-18 Panini Court Kings Basketball (12/6)
Rookie autographs signed on-card is one of the major draws for Court Kings, which also offers one memorabilia card, at least one insert and two rookie cards in what’s usually a colorful product.
The 5×7 box toppers that have random autographs from stars past and present are also part of the draw.
Boxes contain just the one pack of ten cards at a price of around $75.
2017-18 Panini Totally Certified Basketball (12/13)
There are eight packs per box with five cards per pack. Each should have one auto and one memorabilia card. Again, there’s a focus on hard-signed rookie cards. Dual autographed cards will be among the larger hits. Find autographs from veterans and legends in the Choice Signatures and Signed, Sealed, and Delivered sets.
Boxes are available online for a little under $100.
2017 Topps Transcendent Baseball (12/15)
Topps kept the lid on this one until just a few weeks ago, but Transcendent is back for a second year of cardboard gluttony. Limited to just 87 boxes made, Transcendent is the priciest baseball card product ever made at upwards of $25,000. For that, you’ll get (among other things) 50 autographed cards (many 1/1) and a meet-and-greet (hotel paid for) with Hank Aaron in Atlanta early next year.
It’s a product for those who have more than just a little disposable income or are willing to roll the dice with the big boys in hopes of a big score (or several).
Maine Sports Cards 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 and even sell your cards through their website by clicking here.