This week, Topps leads the way with 2021 Topps Chrome Baseball that takes the top names from the flagship Series 1 and Series 2 sets released earlier in the year and adds a chromium finish. Panini releases a handful of annual sets including the high-end Prizm-esque 2021 Spectra Basketball, and the periodic table inspired 2021 Elements Football. Pokémon closes out the week by introducing the brand new powerful V-UNION cards to the Japanese version of the TCG. Read about all of these trading card releases and more in the latest issue of The Rip.
2021 Topps Chrome Baseball
2021 Topps Chrome Baseball makes its annual return as it puts a chromium spin on the Topps Flagship design used for 2021 Series 1 and Series 2 earlier this year. The base set checklist is made up of 200 top veterans and rookies and includes 20 different color-variation Refractor parallels for every card. Outside of the base set, autographs and relic cards will also be a highlight in subsets like Topps Chrome Baseball Rookie Autographs, 1986 Topps Baseball Autographs, and Captain’s Cloth Chrome Relics, the latter of which is made up of an assortment of Derek Jeter cards that feature pieces of Jeter game-used memorabilia sewn into them.
2021 Topps Chrome Baseball will release in two different Hobby Box formats, standard, and Jumbo. The standard 2021 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby Box comes with four cards per pack, and 24 packs per box, and you can expect to find two autographs in each of these boxes. The other configuration is the 2021 Topps Chrome Baseball HTA Jumbo Box, which comes with 13 cards per pack, and 12 packs per box. On average, five of the cards in the HTA Jumbo Box will be autographs. This set will also offer retail boxes such as blasters and mega boxes that you will be able to find at Target and Walmart.
2021 Topps Chrome Baseball Hobby Boxes and HTA Jumbo Boxes are set to release on August 20th at local and online trading card hobby shops. Retail boxes, such as blasters, have already started showing up on shelves as well.
2020-21 Panini Spectra Basketball
2020-21 Panini Spectra Basketball takes the concept of the Prizm set to the next level by adding in a wide variety of Jersey and Patch memorabilia cards. Of course, this year’s Spectra set will also have a plethora of autograph cards and color-variation parallels to round out the set. The base set checklist is made up of 175 cards including rookie cards for LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, and the rest of the 2020 NBA Draft Class. Outside of the base set some of the main draws include the valuable Color Blast inserts, Rookie Jersey Autograph cards, Rookie Dual Patch Autographs, and more.
Being a high-end set, the 2020-21 Panini Spectra Basketball Hobby Box focuses on quality over quantity. Inside each box, you will find four cards per pack, and four packs per box with each pack containing one autograph, and one low print run color variation parallel. 2020-21 Panini Spectra Basketball Hobby Boxes will release on August 20th at local and online trading card hobby shops.
2021 Panini Elements Football
2021 Panini Elements Football once again pays tribute to the periodic table of elements with its card designs that are printed on metal stock. The main draw to the set will be the top rookies from the 2021 NFL Draft including the likes of Trevor Lawrence, DeVonta Smith, Trey Lance, and more. The set will once again feature on-card autographs in subsets such as Steel Signatures, Heavy Metal, and Rookie Neon Signs. Relic cards will also be included with some of the options being Proton Patch Autographs and the Supercharged subset.
The 2021 Panini Elements Football Hobby Box comes with five cards per pack and only one pack per box. Upon ripping the box open you will find two autographs with at least one of the autographs being hard-signed on the card and one relic card. 2021 Panini Elements Football releases on August 18th at local and online trading card hobby shops.
2021 Panini Immaculate Baseball
2021 Panini Immaculate Baseball is one of the most expensive annual baseball sets Panini offers. Seeing as Panini does not hold the MLB license, the cards have all MLB trademarks, such as team logos, removed from them. Much like National Treasures sets, Immaculate offers premium autograph and relic cards with the most exciting subsets being the Rookie Patch Autographs and the Prospect Patch Autographs. This year’s set includes rookie cards for Alec Bohm, Cristian Pache, Jo Adell, Casey Mize, Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Nick Madrigal, while mega prospect Austin Martin headlines the minor leaguers included in the set. Relic cards for MLB Hall of Famers are also available and feature players such as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Roberto Clemente.
The 2021 Panini Immaculate Baseball Hobby Box comes in a hits-only format offering six cards in each box, four of which will be autographs and the other two relics. 2021 Panini Immaculate Baseball Hobby Boxes are officially releasing on August 20th at local and online trading card hobby shops with presales currently listed around $350-$400 per box.
Pokémon V-UNION Special Card Sets
The Pokémon V-UNION Special Card Sets introduce a brand new type of V card to the long-running TCG. Each new V-UNION card set is made up of four regular Pokémon cards that, when combined together, give you a wider array of attacks and abilities that are exponentially more powerful than what each card offers on its own. The three Pokémon V-UNION sets releasing are Greninja, Zacian, and the always loved Mewtwo.
Each Pokémon V-UNION Special Card Set comes with all four V-UNION cards for either Mewtwo, Greninja, or Zacian, plus a Professor Burnett V-UNION support card, three Blue Sky Stream booster packs, and three Skyscraping Perfection booster packs. The Pokémon V-UNION Special Card Sets will officially drop on August 20th at the online Japanese Pokémon Center website as well as the in-person Pokémon Centers located in Japan for a retail price of $15 each. In order to buy these Japanese Pokémon Collections at retail, you had to win an online raffle, winners received announcements around August 10th.
