Like super high-end? Prefer a cheap rip? Like baseball? Prefer hockey? Think football is where it’s at? Missing hoops?
You’re covered.
After a relatively quiet couple of weeks, the market gains several wide ranging new sports card products as July unfolds.
Courtesy of Maine Sports Cards, here’s a look at some upcoming new releases:
2018 Topps Definitive (7/6/18)
This brand was born as a farewell to Topps football in 2016 but made its baseball debut last year. Definitive returns for 2018 with the usual array of autographs and auto relics. Each box will have eight cards including six autographs or autographed relic cards along with a pair of what Topps calls “Premium Relics.”
Each card will be numbered to 50 or less with all cards containing an on-card autograph. You can see what people are pulling and listing here.
Past and present players have signed on-card for Definitive, which also boosts a healthy checklist of cut autographs that are all 1/1. Box prices are currently around $1,075 (see here).
2018 Topps Big League Baseball (7/18)
On the opposite end of the spectrum from Definitive, is the new Big League brand from Topps. Marketed toward younger people, Big League will have one of the year’s largest base card sets that includes cards of several players who changed teams in the off-season featured with their new club.
There will be chase elements. Autographed cards will also in the mix, with an emphasis on rookies. Gleyber Torres, Ozzie Albies, Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna are among the players on the checklist.
Big League will have both hobby and retail versions, with hobby boxes running about $20 more and, presumably, including a better chance for autographs.
2018 Panini Gold Standard Football (7/11)
Gold Standard is a hit-oriented product with five of the seven cards in each box featuring an autograph or memorabilia piece. Each box should have a Rookie Jersey autographed card numbered to 99 or less. There are also double and triple relic versions.
New this year are Gold Scripts autographs numbered to 24 or less and signed with gold ink. There are Platinum versions numbered to 14 and 1/1 versions signed against a black background. Base rookie cards are numbered to 99 or less.
Autograph content is a mix of on-card and stickers.
Boxes are being offered online for around $160.
You can check out Maine Sports Card box break spots here.
2018 Topps Archives Signature Series (7/11)
A “retired” edition will be out in the fall, but this one is focused on active players. As with previous editions, each box has one autographed card of a prior release at a cost of around $50.
Each will carry a serial number and be encased with a gold foil-stamped Archives Signature logo. Typically a mix of stars and minor stars, it’s one break that doesn’t take long.
Archives Signatures is another product Maine will be breaking. Learn more here.
2017-18 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Hockey (7/18)
Originally scheduled for an earlier release, Ultimate Collection will indeed hit store shelves this month with three premium hits per four-card box (about $140) including a Rookie Autograph numbered to 399 or less. Upper Deck promises all autograph cards will be signed on-card.
Among the biggest hits are 1/1 Autographed Rookie Shields as well as Ultimate Legacy and Future Legacy Autographs with some numbered as low as three. There will also be redemption cards you can turn in for a Connor McDavid card that will be personally autographed to you.
2017-18 Panini Spectra Basketball (7/18)
Spectra dishes out eight cards per box with three autographs, three memorabilia cards, two parallels and one base card per box (around $280 online).
There’s a new parallel structure for Sprectra this year: Silver and White Sparkle Prizms will be essentially case hits. The rest of the parallels are Neon Blue(#’d/99), Red (#’d/75), Neon Green(#’d/49), Neon Pink(#’d/25), Gold(#’d/10), Neon Orange(#’d/5), and Nebula(#’d/1).
2018 Topps Allen & Ginter (7/18)
Back for a 13th season, Ginter is designed as a fun, summertime product that’s more than just standard baseball cards (this year’s ‘Folio of Fears’ should be interesting). You never quite know what each box will have and it helps to be open to some weird stuff.
Ginter has never been a hit-chaser’s product but they’re here and many will do well on the secondary market. In addition to base cards, inserts and parallels, each case will contain a mix of better pulls that include on-card autographs, relics, original 1888-89 Allen & Ginter card buybacks, book cards, cut signatures, and rip cards.
It’ll again be available in retail and blaster form but hobby boxes of 2018 Allen & Ginter are currently between $100 and $110 per box.
Other products being released include the Topps Retail and Hobby Factory sets (7/6); Leaf Valiant Football (7/13); Topps UFC Chrome (7/18); Donruss Optic Baseball (7/18) and Topps UFC Knockout (7/20).
Maine Sports Cards will be breaking some of these products in the coming weeks. The company offers daily breaks of current and past products you can participate in and 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.
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