2023-24 Topps Chrome UEFA Champions League Breakdown
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Checklist – HERE
Print Run – ~7000 Hobby cases (~84,000 boxes) (Search On Ebay)
~2900 Jumbo Cases (~23,000 boxes)
~12024 Breaker’s Delight Boxes
~137,000 Blaster boxes
Rookie Breakdown – Check out the 2023-24 Topps Rookie Breakdown for an in depth break down of the rookies.
SoccerCardsHQ Review – 2023-24 Topps Chrome UEFA is supposed to be one of the highlights of soccer card year and to me it’s far from it. As I was spending all the time it takes to calculate prints runs, all I could think to myself is how overproduced it is for the current market and how much money is going to be wasted on this product at current prices of $300/hobby, $600/Jumbo, $30/Blaster and $500/Breaker’s Delight. The amount of colored base parallels is actually down a little bit from last year. The total value of the product if every box sold at release on Topps was about $34,000,000. If you do the same for this year at the prices I listed above about it’s about $15,000,000 more! It’s also worth noting that if you use the current box prices from last year the total value of all of them would be about $20,000,000 which shows how much waiting can save you. In case you haven’t look last year Lite boxes are under $40 (Search On Ebay) in auction which is over $100 less than what they sold at release on Topps.
Of course huge print runs on Topps Chrome UEFA is nothing new for Topps Chrome UEFA. Take a look at my breakdown of the Topps Chrome UEFA Print Runs Through The Years and you can see when the explosion really happened. If you want to know why 2017 Topps Chrome is so valuable or why Erling Haaland rookies are worth so much look at those print runs compared to what we have now. At the end of the day it’s all about supply and demand. The overproduction is just driven home for me each year I do this Chrome review.
There is a lot of demand on a single rookie right now. Of course that is Lamine Yamal (Search On Ebay). It seems that the presellers of 2023-24 Topps Chrome UEFA are trying to take advantage based on the prices right now. Of course a single player in a 200 card checklist shouldn’t make a huge difference, but of course the people pricing this hope you don’t realize that. The prices of these boxes are more than that of 2020-21 Topps Chrome UEFA which has a couple of good rookies of it’s own and the print run of 2020-21 is about 1/3 of 2023-24. The 2020-21 base checklist is also half of 2023-24 so the chances you could hit any single player is much better. There is also the fact that 2020-21 had Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo on the base checklist which certainly adds value.
Now of course those factors above aren’t the only thing that influences box value, but I thought it was interesting to think about. So many people tend to get caught looking forward at what’s new they forget to look back. History can tell us a lot and it’s certainly something I use when making card purchases. Topps did their standard “huge chase” in 2023-24 which is the Triple Auto of Messi, CR7 and Lewandowski. The dual and especially the triple auto checklists are very solid. Topps put out a social media post showing the triple auto Superfractors and they look great.
There are a few new case hits (or rarer) this year. Those are TIFO, Shadow Etch and White Noise to go along with Hobby Masters returning. These aren’t available in blasters and White Noise is not available in Jumbos. That lack of being in Jumbos really helps keep White Noise somewhat rare while there will be plenty of the others to go around. Unfortunately Topps hasn’t figured out to increase the case hit checklist so that the print runs of each are low enough to retain good value and get people excited. You can see the print runs below.
There are also base Hero and Legendary Variations. The Legendary variation is described as “Short Print” in the title despite having over 3x the print run of Hero which is not described as short print. There are two Cristiano Ronaldo The Grail cards in here with the print run of 50 each. There are also Hidden Gems (Search On Ebay) which look so much better with the color match background. So far I have seen Lamine Yamal, Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland. There is also the UCL Trophy which only comes as a Superfractor. Below are print runs for unnumbered inserts as base parallels.
The key to 2023-24 Topps Chrome UEFA will be Lamine Yamal because outside of him the difference between last year and this year is not big enough to justify the almost double box price. This Chrome release is also going to dump so many more premium Lamine cards on the market it’s hard to see the prices sustaining. While I am surely rooting for it, it’s going to take a lot of money for that to happen. That money needs to likely come from card collectors that aren’t soccer collectors and who are FOMOing in. Through this Lamine rocket up I have hoped that it was current soccer collectors that were selling to non soccer collectors who will then spend that newfound money on other soccer cards. If it was in fact soccer collectors only who cause the runup then there are going to be the big winner and losers but the net to the soccer hobby evens out. I can’t tell you how to hobby, but if you’re getting in on 2023-24 Topps Chrome UEFA at release the chances or doing well from a monetary value is low. If you are getting involved you are probably also more into the gambling side of the hobby than the collecting. Basically the difference in what last year’s break prices should currently be compared to what this year should mostly be made up by the Lamine spot. From what I have seen that is not the case so everyone buying non Lamine spots are making up the difference.
As for which box makeup to get involved in if you absolutely feel you have to I would probably say get blasters if the pricing I listed at the beginning of the review holds. I am by no means saying blasters are good value because none of it is at the current prices. The blaster prices just haven’t artificially inflated like the other boxes because the retail pricing was set before the Lamine train and big retailers aren’t screwing with pricing the way the card specific places are. The main difference in Jumbo and Breaker’s Delight is an extra auto or two depending on the box. If you just really love autos then go for it but don’t act surprised when you come up very empty.
UPDATE: The Topps release pricing has come out and it’s $200/Hobby, $480/Jumbo and $30/Blaster. This is what I was talking about when I said that presellers had artificially inflated the prices because of Lamine Yamal hype. I give Topps credit for not following suit. $200 for a hobby box is reasonable in these times based on what other products sell for. Most presellers and breakers got greedy in this case.
Case Hit print runs
Hobby Masters ~165 (Search On Ebay)
Shadow Etch ~800 (Search On Ebay)
White Noise ~95 (Search On Ebay)
TIFO ~450 (Search On Ebay)
UCL Trophy – 1 (Search On Ebay)
The Grail – 50 of each (2 different) (Search On Ebay)
The following numbers use the ~ because it’s a rough number. The odds don’t break out completely evenly.
Base Card Variations
Hero Variatons ~285 (Search On Ebay)
Legendary Variations ~950
Insert (unnumbered) print runs
Youthquake – 481
Golazo ~12,000
1998 Shooting Stars ~22,350
Gold Lava ~132
Orange Lava ~45
Black Lava ~22
Red Lava ~15
London Calling ~25000
Gold Lava ~132
Orange Lava ~45
Black Lava ~22
Red Lava ~15
Starball Debuts ~25,000
Gold Lava ~132
Orange Lava ~45
Black Lava ~22
Red Lava ~15
Wonderkids ~35,800
Gold Lava ~200
Orange Lava ~69
Black Lava ~34
Red Lava ~22
Base Unnumbered Parallels
Pulsar ~1200
Prism ~700
Aqua Prism – It’s on the checklist and odds sheet but does not actually have pack odds.
Pink Lava ~240
Aqua Lava ~60
Blue Lava ~48
Neon Green Lava ~40
Gold Lava ~34
If you have any questions reach out via social media @SoccerCardsHQ on Twitter, IG and FB. Want to read more about Erling Haaland Rookie Auto Cards?