The 2020-21 NFL season officially ended nearly two months ago, but Panini is now releasing two historically popular products, Panini Select Football and Panini Contenders Optic Football, that will both include this past season’s rookie class. Meanwhile, 2021 Topps Tribute Baseball and 2021 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey both offer luxury card collectors several chances to find rare serial numbered cards, autographs, and relics. Check out these releases and what is coming in future weeks.
2020 Panini Select Football Hobby Box
Since being reintroduced to football card collectors in 2013, Panini Select has become an annual staple of the trading card release calendar. The 2020 Panini Select Football set offers the most colored parallels (variations of cards offered in different limited edition colors) for the Select line yet, as well as autograph and relic cards for NFL rookies, veterans, and legends. The base set checklist is comprised of 400 total cards divided into three tiers – Concourse, Premier Level, and Field Level, with the latter two subsets having short print runs, and therefore giving you more rare chase cards in the set.
Of course, the main appeal of the 2020 Panini Select Football set is the rookie cards. In this year’s Hobby Box, you will have the chance to find base cards, short prints, autographs, and memorabilia cards of the 2020 NFL Rookie Class, which features early standouts such as Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Chase Young, and Justin Jefferson. Each 2020 Panini Select Football Hobby Box includes five cards per pack and 12 packs per box and gives you two autographs, one memorabilia card, ten Silver parallels, five Prizm parallels, and six inserts on average.
The 2020 Panini Select Football Hobby Box releases April 9, 2021. Blaster Boxes will also be available for the first time ever for Panini Select Football.
2020 Panini Contenders Optic Football Hobby Box
2020 Panini Contenders Optic Football, uses the Contenders Football card design, but adds a reflective chrome finish to the cards. The set will look very similar to what it has looked like in past years as it will feature Season Ticket cards for NFL veterans, as well as several color parallels, inserts, and the main draw of the set, Rookie Ticket Autographs. However, new to the set this year is the Rookie Ticket subset, which is made up of unsigned rookie cards for the 2020 NFL Rookie Class. This means for the first time the set offers a more affordable version of rookie cards in the set.
The 2020 Panini Contenders Optic Hobby Box holds six cards per pack and one pack per box. You can look to find two autographs, one insert, one parallel, and two base cards per pack on average. Much like the aforementioned Panini Select, the 2020 Contenders Optic Hobby Box offers you the chance to find autograph rookie cards, and non-autograph rookie cards of players like Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Chase Young, Justin Jefferson, Jonathan Taylor, and more.
2020 Panini Contenders Optic Hobby Boxes are expected to release on April 9th through local and online trading card hobby shops.
2021 Topps Tribute Baseball Hobby Box
2021 Topps Tribute Baseball marks the second straight week that Topps is releasing a high-end baseball card product. The set focuses on autograph, relic, and autograph relic cards, but it also offers a handful of parallels for the base set and subsets as well. This year’s Topps Tribute autograph subsets feature Tribute Autographs, Engraved Greats Autographs, League Inauguration Autographs, Tribute to Topps Autographs, Tribute Tandem Books, and Iconic Perspectives Autographs. The relic cards will include Stamp of Approval, Dual Relics, and Triple Relics.
If you are a Boston Red Sox card collector then this set has something extra special for you with Green Monster Wall Graphs. These cards will include an actual piece of the “Green Monster” wall from Fenway park in each card.
Each 2021 Topps Tribute Baseball Hobby Box contains three cards per pack and six-packs per box. On average you will hit one autograph, relic, or autograph relic per pack, which means three total hits per box. The base set checklist is limited to 100 total cards. As has been the case in past years the set highlights current MLB veterans and former legends as they make up 90% of the cards. The remaining ten cards are top MLB rookies who debuted during the 2020 season.
2021 Topps Tribute Baseball Hobby Boxes are scheduled to release April 9th at local and online trading card hobby shops.
2020-21 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey Hobby Box
The 2020-21 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hockey Hobby Box brings the first premium hockey card release of the year. The base set will be made up of cards that only have 299 copies each for veterans and rookies alike, with a Pure Black parallel with only 99 copies as well. For the sixth straight year, the set will include part one of the highly sought-after Exquisite card subset, which features rookie and veteran cards with no more than 299 of each card in existence, as well as patch, and jersey cards. Exquisite cards will be included in the regular hobby pack found in each box rather than separated into their own pack this year. The 2020-21 Upper Deck Black Diamond set also includes the debut of Diamond Futures, Diamond Legends, and Diamond Stars inserts.
With a focus on high-end cards, the 2020-21 Upper Deck Black Diamond Hobby Box only carries one pack per box, holding a total of six cards. However, Upper Deck considers this a hits-only experience as every card is either an autograph, a relic, or a serial-numbered card. On average you will find five Upper Deck Black Diamond cards that may come in the form of the base set, inserts, or the various subsets in this year’s edition, plus one bonus Exquisite card. The full checklist for the set has not been announced yet.
The 2020-21 Upper Deck Black Diamonds Hockey Hobby Box will release on April 7th at trading card hobby shops.
