2022 Topps Tribute baseball headlines the major releases this week along with Crown Royale basketball.
Tribute looks to continue baseball’s hot start to the year for Topps. 2022 releases are all well above cost with Topps 1 Jumbo leading the way at over 208%. The recently released Bowman is also performing exceptionally well.
2021 and previous years of baseball sealed products also continue to appreciate on the secondary market, a strong indicator that the overall baseball card market remains very healthy.
Football:
The football card market is the best performing of all sportcards, even without the release of the much delayed juggernaut known as Prizm (currently scheduled for release on 6/3/22). All 2021 releases are at least double their cost and more than half are triple or greater. The top performing 2021 football releases, include: Absolute (+784%), Panini One (+500%), Black (+413%), Immaculate (+407%).
2022 Bowman University is an exciting return for Topps to football and has been received fairly well. The secondary market is far above direct cost to stores, but below the release price from Topps online. Presently Bowman University secondary market $145 and holding steady.
Basketball:
2021/22 is another great year for NBA card sales and market performance. Virtually all releases are far above cost. Top secondary market performers are Contenders Draft (+344%), Origins (+331%), Donruss (+171%), Revolution (+165%). Prizm will most likely blow these away when it’s released on 6/22/22.
There was initial enthusiasm for Topps Chrome’s return to basketball with Overtime Elite. Initial secondary market pricing was approximately $200 per box, but now it is trading at around $100 per box. Present pricing is still well above dealer cost but far below what it was sold for on Topps.com. This product is primarily dependent upon 2023 Draft Class, so time will tell, but for now it is off to a soft start.
Pokemon:
Momentum continues to be big for Pokemon. Vintage and Modern Pokemon sealed product and singles selling very well in stores and online. Even vintage Topps Pokemon product have become top performers. For example. my store just sold a box of 2000 Topps Chrome Series 1 & 2 for $24K. A couple of years ago it would have been a small fraction of that. Hard to find sealed Pokemon products continue to be in very high demand.
Sports, Non-Sports and Gaming cards remain very hot. This is true of new releases and vintage. Non-sports continues to become more and more mainstream, which likely offers our industry some of the best growth opportunities. While it is exciting to see just how hot trading cards remain, it is concerning to see many brands that just a few years ago were mainstream and affordable to the general public at $100-200 per box, but are now releasing at several hundred dollars or more a box. 2022 Prizm WWE may be the best example, on release day it was commonly selling for near $1000. And when 2021 Prizm NFL releases, boxes will be over $1000. I think these very high price points are not affordable to the large customer base of just a few years ago, that may come with repercussions to our industry’s growth. There certainly is a place in our industry for boxes that can trade for over a thousand dollars, but I think our industry may be better served if the most popular mainstream items are released in the $100-300 range, rather than $500-1,000 on release day