Cigarette cards are back and you won’t need to light up a smoke to own them. 2021 Topps T206 arrived on Tuesday, with the company launching the first of ten series it will release throughout the course of the season.
The cards are art style renderings of current major and minor league players, in the style of the 1909-1911 American Tobacco Company issue. It’s the second year Topps has created a T206 style set and marketed it as an online, on-demand exclusive product.
Each pack of 2021 Topps T206 contains ten cards and is priced at $14.99, but you can order 20 packs for 260 to save a couple of bucks on each. Each pack contains eight base cards and two parallels. Autographs are also possible. Each wave, available for three weeks, will have a checklist of 50 base cards for a total of 500 cards by the time the program ends this fall. Mike Trout is card #1 in the set.
Some packs might contain actual century-old T206 cards but (unfortunately if you’re a purist), they’re stamping them with a special Topps logo.
The autograph checklist for the first wave of cards to be released includes just five players: Freddie Freeman, Edgar Martinez, Jim Palmer, CC Sabathia and Carlos Delgado.
The backs of the cards will mimic the original with cigarette brand advertising.
In addition to the common Piedmont backs that will be found in every pack, the list of possible backs also includes:
• Sweet Caporal (1:3 packs)
• T206 base back omits the black plate (1:15 packs and exclusive to Wave 1)
• Sovereign (1:6 packs)• Carolina Brights (1:18 packs)
• Old Mill (1:30 packs)
• Cycle (limited to 25)
• Lenox – Brown (limited to 10)
• Ty Cobb (foil stamped # to 1)
The first wave, or series, will be available through May 18 via this page on Topps’ website.
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