This week, Topps drops the chromium version of the popular prospect-heavy Bowman Baseball, Panini introduces this year’s Rated Rookies and Rated Prospects checklist in 2021 Donruss Optic Baseball, and Pokémon releases the English edition of the V-UNION Special Collections. Read Up on these releases and more in the latest issue of The Rip.
2021 Bowman Chrome Baseball
2021 Bowman Chrome Baseball keeps the tradition of adding a chromium finish to the prospect-heavy Bowman Baseball set that was released earlier this season. The Base Chrome and Chrome Prospect checklist holds a total of 250 cards and includes ten color variation Refractor parallels for each card featured that vary in their print runs starting at 499 all the way down to the 1/1 SuperFractor. Of course, top prospects in the set include Austin Martin and Blaze Jordan.
2021 Bowman Chrome Baseball sees some small formatting changes from past years with a LITE box being added alongside the typical Hobby Box and HTA Jumbo Box. Inside of the Hobby Box, you will receive five cards per pack, and 12 packs per box, and find two autograph cards. The HTA Jumbo box offers a hits-only experience as each box contains only three cards, but all of them are autographs. The new LITE Hobby Box comes with five cards per pack, and ten packs per box including five Black & White Mini-Diamond Refractors, but it does not guarantee any autograph cards.
You can find 2021 Bowman Chrome Baseball Boxes starting on September 22nd at local and online trading card hobby shops.
2021 Topps Gold Label Baseball
2021 Topps Gold Label Baseball is back for its sixth straight year and again brings a high level of quality to its base cards, plus premium on-card autographs. The base set is divided up into three classes with each of the 100 players featured making an appearance in all three classes. Class 1 cards will be the most common to find, with Class 2 cards appearing once per pack, and Class 3 cards found in one out of every two packs in the set. The autograph and relic subsets include some of the top names in Major League Baseball including current stars Mike Trout, Ronald Acuna Jr, and Bryce Harper, and Hall of Famers such as Derek Jeter.
The 2021 Topps Gold Label Baseball Hobby Box holds five cards per pack, and seven packs per box. Inside of each hobby box you should hit one Framed Autograph card. You will be able to find 2021 Topps Gold Label Hobby Boxes starting on September 24th at local and online trading card hobby shops.
2021 Panini Donruss Optic Baseball
2021 Panini Donruss Optic Baseball brings an updated chromium look to the vintage-inspired Donruss card brand. Of course, Panini does not hold the MLB license so all cards will be void of MLB team logos and trademarks. The main set checklist is composed of 200 cards including 70 Rated Rookies, and 30 Diamond Kings cards. Of course, being a chromium Panini set, it promises a huge rainbow of limited print run color variation Prizm parallels. This year’s set also comes equipped with on-card autographs. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jo Adell Rookie cards will be included, as well as Jasson Dominguez Rated Prospect cards.
The 2021 Panini Donruss Optic Baseball Hobby Box holds four cards per pack, and 20 packs per box. You can look forward to finding at least two autographs, ten Prizm parallels, and 20 inserts. Panini will also be randomly making some hobby boxes “hot boxes” meaning they will come with five autographs instead of two, or 20 limited print run Prizm parallels instead of ten.
The 2021 Panini Donruss Optic Baseball Hobby Box is set to release on September 22nd through Panini’s website and at local and online trading card hobby shops. The set is expected to have retail products such as blaster boxes and mega boxes as well.
Pokémon V-UNION Special Collection
Pokémon V-UNION Special Collections are scheduled to make their debut in the English version of the Trading Card Game after first receiving a Japanese release back in August. Much like the Japanese edition, the English version of the V-UNION cards are each made up of four standalone Pokémon cards, that when combined offer special and more powerful attacks than each card feature individually. The three different V-UNION sets releasing at this time include Mewtwo, Greninja, and Zacian.
Each Pokémon V-UNION Special Set includes four foil promo cards that combine to create either Mewtwo V-UNION, Greninja V-UNION, or Zacian V-UNION, one oversized promo card that matches the V-UNION Pokémon included in the box, one Professor Burnet Support card, four Pokémon TCG booster packs, and a code card for the online Pokémon card game. The Pokémon V-UNION Special Set releases on August 24th wherever Pokémon cards are sold for a retail price of $30.
Magic: The Gathering Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
Magic: The Gathering Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is the first of two Innistrad-based sets that will release this year, with the second set entitled Innistrad: Crimson Vow due out in November. The storyline is driven by the concept that monsters from classic horror films have begun to threaten humanity and humans have turned to much darker forms of magic to help stave off the different beasts, especially the werewolves. The set consists of 277 regular cards including 100 commons, 83 uncommons, 64 rares, 20 mythic rares, and ten basic lands, and features premium versions of all cards that have been randomly inserted into all packs.
The packs for Magic: The Gathering Innistrad: Midnight Hunt originate in three main products: Draft booster Boxes, Set Booster Boxes, and Collector Booster Boxes. The MTG Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Draft Booster Box holds 36 Draft Booster packs that each contain 15 cards and are perfect for those looking for those who want to play draft games. The Set Booster Box comes with 30 packs that hold 12 cards each and is made for those looking to find the better cards in the set more easily and build the entire set. The Collector Booster Box comes with 12 packs of 15 cards each, this option is made for those looking to hunt for the rarest and most aesthetically pleasing foil and special treatment cards in the set. Magic: The Gathering Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is due out on September 24th with all Booster Boxes available at online and local trading card game hobby shops.
